About
Members
Members are quality and reliability professionals concerned with all types and levels of electrical and electronic products. All grades of products are covered, from consumer and commercial grades to the highest quality/reliability grades used for communications, biomedical, nuclear, and aerospace applications.
Mission
The Electronics and Communications Division will be recognized as the authority on quality aspects of electronics and communications and will provide a visionsary body of knowledge related to these subject areas. We will:
- Provide a source of expertise on electronics and communications
- Promote the use of quality management principles in electronics and communications
- Sponsor sessions at ASQ conferences and support the operation of the RAMS conference
- Provide liaison to the QuEST forum to promote quality in communications systems
Activities and Services
- Co-sponsors the Annual RELIABILITY and MAINTAINABILITY Symposium with Reliability Division and eight other societies
- Sponsors sessions at national, regional, and local ASQ conferences, including the Annual Quality Congress
- Provides liaison to other professional societies and ASQ divisions
- Publishes a quarterly newsletter, CONTINUITY
- Participates on the Electronic Components Certification Board
- Provides liaison to standards-writing organizations and reviews and comments on drafts standards for ASQ
Publications
(Distributed only to Electronics and Communications Division Members)
- CONTINUITY, the E&CD Quarterly newsletter
- Copies of the quarterly IEEE Transactions on Reliability (and Journal of the ASQ — Electronics and Communications Division) are available upon request by contacting the ECD Transactions Chair
- Copies of the Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium Proceedings are available upon request by contacting the Proceeding Chair
Technical Committees
Communications Systems Management
Goals
- Provide value to ASQ ECD Membership
- Solicit industry experts
- Invite articles for ECD newsletter “Continuity”
- Solicit and submit papers to ASQ conferences and publications
- Build out ECD Body of Knowledge (BoK)
- Encourage member discussion on related issues on the ASQ discussion boards
- Educate the Quality Community at Sections, Divisions and Conferences
- Reaching out to Industry
The Communications Committee interacts with the telecommunications industry through participation in the QuEST Forum conferences and local ASQ sections. Members of the committee contributed to the creation of the QuEST Forum and the development of the Telecommunications quality management standard TL 9000.
Committee Chairman is John Walz, johnwalz@ameritech.net
RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) Committee
Goals:
- Invite articles on RoHS for our newsletters.
- Encourage member discussion on RoHS-related issues on the ASQ discussion boards
- Educate the Quality Community on RoHS at future conferences
- Solicit and submit papers on RoHS to ASQ conferences
The committee is looking for members interested in joining the conversation and looking at quality’s role in the management of issues related to RoHS compliance.
WHAT IS RoHS?
RoHS is the reduction of hazardous substances. Legislation is pending, or has been enacted around the world to document and/or reduce the amount of hazardous substances used in manufacturing. What substances are regulated? The primary 6 that are associated with the RoHS designation include: Cadmium, Hexavalent Chromium, Lead, Mercury, Polybrominated Biphenyls (PBB) and Polybrominated Diphenylethers (PBDE). Legislation varies around the world. EU RoHS, China RoHS and Japan Green are just some examples of released standards, along with state specific legislation in California in the U.S. Many companies have turned to their quality function to manage their RoHS compliance needs. This includes working with documentation of design requirements, ensuring due diligence is met, and evaluation of the reliability of the new systems. RoHS legislation will ultimately affect any company in the electronics and communications industries.
Committee Chairperson is Haiyu Qi, haiyu_QI@Dell.com is co-chairman.
Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Committee
Goals:
- Invite articles on SOX for our newsletters.
- Encourage member discussion on SOX-related issues on the SOX and other ASQ discussion boards
- Educate the Quality Community on SOX at future conferences
- Solicit and submit papers on SOX to ASQ conferences
- Encourage publication of SOX-related articles in Quality Progress, Quality Digest and other publications
- Develop workshops and conferences on SOX
The SOX committee studies how elements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Law can be supported by the effective management and auditing of quality (QMS) and environmental (EMS) systems. We look at how linked management systems can address the unique needs of finance, accounting, operations, quality, IT, legal and audit.
The committee is responsible for leading the SOX Community. See the Community web page at http://www4.asq.org/blogs/sarbanes-oxley/. Look there for posting of articles, announcements of workshops, the SOX blog and other pertinent information. John Walz manages the blog.
The SOX Committee has presented webinars, workshops at various ASQ conferences and numerous presentations at conferences and local section chapter meetings. Recently the Committee provided comments to the SEC on the proposed new standards and the management guidance. Two papers were published in 2007:
“Where SOX and your QMS Converge,” by Sandford Liebesman. Quality Digest, September 2007, 51-55.
“ASQ Team Says QMS and EMS Standards Support SOX,” by Sandford Liebesman, Quality Progress, October 2007, 34-39
We welcome ECD member participation in the Committee activities. Contact the Chairman, Sandy Liebesman, sandfordl@msn.com.
Nano Technology Committee:
Goals:
- Invite articles on Nano Technology for our newsletters.
- Encourage member discussion on Nano-related issues on ASQ discussion boards
- Educate the Quality Community on Nano at future conferences
- Solicit and submit papers on Nano to ASQ conferences
- Encourage publication of Nano-related articles in Quality Progress, Quality Digest and other publications
- Develop workshops and conferences on Nano
What is NANO-Technology?
Nano Technology is the application of Nanoscience which involves working with matter on an ultra-small scale of the size of One Nanometer. Some explanations:
- One Nanometer is one-millionth of a millimeter
- A single human hair is around 80,000 nanometers in width
- Nano Technology is the engineering of functional systems at the atomic/molecular scale by changing the nature of Atoms
- Nano Technology refers to the projected ability to construct items from the bottom up, using techniques and tools to make complete, high performance products.
- Examples of Nano Technology Processes:
- CNT (Carbon Nano Tubes)
- RTD (Resonance Tunneling Devices)
- QCA (Quantum Cellular Automata)
- Nanowires
- Nanofilms
- Industries and Products that use Nano Technology:
- Electronics
- Communications
- Textiles
- Medicine, Healthcare, Bioscience
- Construction
- Automobiles
- Almost any industry you can imagine (in a Tangible World!)
The Committee Chair has taken an initiative to author the first Quality in Nano Technology Body of Knowledge.
Sanjiv Rai, Founding Chair, s.r@ieee.org
ECD Electronics Committee
Goals:
- Invite articles on electronics for the ECD newsletter Continuity.
- Encourage member discussion on electronics-related issues on the ASQ discussion boards
- Educate the Quality Community on the current electronics issues at future conferences
- Solicit and submit papers on electronics to ASQ conferences
- Add electronics to the ECD Body of Knowledge (BoK)
- Encourage publication of electronics-related articles in Quality Progress, Quality Digest and other publications
- Reaching out to Industry
The Electronics Committee covers a wide range of markets including data networking, supply chain management, industrial automation, audio and video systems, security and surveillance, aerospace and many other specialty electronics markets. The products include test equipment, copper and fiber optic cables, connectors, cable management products, power equipment, RFID products and a whole variety of microelectronics equipment.
Manufacturing of electronic equipment has a long history dating back to the early 20th century. Quality and reliability have played leading roles in advancing the development of tools to manage the manufacturing and distribution of electronic equipment. One example is the manufacture of components which reduce failures in the field from harsh environments. Another is automated data collection using barcodes and RFID products.
Electronics and Communications Division History
The Electronics and Communications Division was founded in 1955.
The history of our division is an ongoing effort and, as more information is obtained, it will be posted here. If you have any historical information you would like to share, please e-mail David Fernald at chair@asqecd.org.
Past Chairs:
07-08 David Fernald
06-07 David Fernald
06-05 Dawn Onalfo
05-04 Dawn Onalfo
03-04 Woody Rabon
02-03 Woody Rabon
01-02 Ray Klotz
00-01 Ray Klotz
99-00 Neil Pederson
98-99 Neil Pederson
97-98 Lowell Tomlinson
96-97 Lowell Tomlinson
95-96 Woody Rabon
94-95 Woody Rabon
93-94 William Trappen
92-93 William Trappen
91-92 Robert Gusciora
90-91 Robert Gusciora
89-90 Myron Wilson
88-89 Lawrence Johmann
