- Customer Satisfaction and Value
- Environmental Manag. and Sustainability
- Global Quality
- Human Resources
- Innovation
- ISO 14000
- ISO 9000
- Metrics
- Metrology
- Problem Solving
- Process Management
- Product Development and Recall
- Quality Control
- Quality Management
- Quality Tools
- Safety
- Sampling
- Six Sigma
- Small Business
- Software Quality
- Standards
- Statistical Process Control (SPC)
- Statistics
- Supplier Quality
- AS9000
- TL 9000
- ISO/TS 16949
- Certification/Registration (management system Standards)
- Risk Management
- Customer Requirements
- Continuous Improvement
Standards Outlook: Major Upgrades
The new fourth edition of the Chrysler, Ford and General Motors (GM) Potential Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) Reference Manual, which was released last year, is a significant upgrade from the third edition published in 2001....
FMEA Minus the Pain
Failure mode effects analysis has stood the test of time as a powerful risk assessment tool for products, processes and systems....
Standards Outlook: Automakers Shift Manual Into Another Gear
The Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) published the second edition of the Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) and Control Plan Reference Manual this summer....
Quality in the First Person: Rocky Start
The early part of my life was filled with mistakes, one after the other. When I was 15, my family moved to a new town, and I was in a new school. By 16, I quit school. By 17, I was married, and at 18, I was divorced with a baby....
Standards Outlook: Hazardous to Your Health
One hospital chain in my area has a snappy ad saying your selection of a hospital could be the most important choice you will ever make. This might be true—going into the hospital these days can be hazardous to your health....
Standards Outlook: Auto Industry Drives to Improve Healthcare
The U.S. auto industry has been challenged by its need to compete in a global marketplace while burdened by healthcare expenses for workers and retirees....
Turbocharge Your Preventive Action System
A layered process audit (LPA) is an ongoing chain of simple verification checks to make sure a defined process is followed correctly. This powerful management tool can improve safety, quality and cost savings by amplifying problem solving systems and...
Quality Glossary
Five years after it published its first glossary of quality terms, ASQ has revised that glossary with updated definitions and new entries, many from the lean glossary published in 2005. This reference of terms, acronyms, and prominent figures in the...
Standards Outlook: Six Lessons Learned From QS-9000
The sun sets on QS-9000, the U.S. automotive standard.
My version of the old joke goes: "When’s your birthday?" "Dec. 15." "What year?" "Every year, so far."...
Standards Outlook: Developing the Voluntary Healthcare Standard
The new Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) voluntary standard for healthcare delivery is in its second review, with an anticipated launch no later than early 2008. AIAG also is pursuing partners for the publication from the healthcare sector....
Use SPC for Everyday Work Processes
Despite the advantages of statistical process control (SPC), many organizational implementation efforts have not been successful or self-sustaining. This has nothing to do with the methodology, but is a case of using the right toolbox but the wrong...
Measure for Measure: Appraiser Variation in Gage R&R Measurement
In part one of this column, I said if our data analysis is inaccurate, it does not represent the true quality characteristics of the part or product being measured, even if we're using quality improvement tools correctly....
Measure for Measure: Improved Gage R&R Measurement Studies
Many manufacturers are using tools like statistical process control (SPC) and design of experiments (DoE) to monitor and improve product quality and process productivity. However, if the data collected are not accurate and precise, they do not...
3.4 per Million: Measurement System Analysis For Attribute Measuring Processes
To rephrase an old management proverb, "What gets measured can be improved." Six Sigma practitioners quickly come to appreciate the critical role of good measurement systems in initiating and sustaining process improvement. A good measurement system...
State Program Offers Hand To Small Business
In the years since ISO 9000 became the international standard for quality management, small businesses have struggled to keep up with the competition, despite limited resources. In 1999, the New Mexico Economic Development Department created New Mexico...
Are You Making Decisions in a Fog?
Just as water makes up two thirds of the world's surface, measurement constitutes an enormous part of the scientific method and scientific problem solving....
What Organizations Can Learn From Hurricane Katrina
In the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina, many outsiders became aware the City of New Orleans had a comprehensive emergency management plan (CEMP) with an annex specific to hurricane preparedness....
FMEA--Something Old, Something New
Managing risk is not optional for organizations. Clause 0.1 of ISO 9004 mentions risk management in the same breath with cost and benefit considerations as being important to an organization, its customers and interested parties....
TS 16949 – Where Did It Come From?
TS 16949 is an international fundamental quality management system specification for the automotive industry based on ISO 9000. It was developed at the request of automotive suppliers from the Big Three automakers' quality system assessment manuals,...
Healthcare Agreement Revision Nears Release
The first revision of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) International Workshop Agreement (IWA 1) should be released this month if all goes according to plan....
Quality in the First Person
Five authors provide personal accounts of their quality experiences. In A Hunger for Quality, Robert Nix tells how a temporary job organizing files for a quality control manager turned into a permanent career in quality management. Certified Quality...
Measurement Capability
Measurements are made all the time: in processes, to see how well work is progressing and in commerce. Most of the time, we trust these measurements are adequate for the task....
Column: Standards Outlook: Characteristic Management
Executives sometimes wonder why their organizations still have quality problems, despite their best efforts to eliminate them. There are many possible causes and you've probably heard of some of them, such as lack of resources and lack of leadership or...
ISO/TS 16949 the Clear Choice for Automotive Suppliers
Automotive suppliers may find it necessary to register their quality systems to different specifications and requirements in order to gain access to world markets or to solidify their positions in regional markets. Several major U.S. car manufacturers...
Reduce Human Error
Human error is most often determined to be the cause of events leading to death or serious injury at healthcare facilities. When the responsible person is coached, disciplined, or perhaps even fired, managers and team leaders feel fairly confident...
Column: Standards Outlook: Purchaser and Supplier Quality
Going beyond ISO 9001, QS-9000 and TS 16949
For quality to happen, quality control from the supplier's perspective is necessary. But evidence indicates suppliers do not always pursue the actions needed for quality improvement. Quality practitioners...
Quality Glossary
A handy reference is provided of quality terms, acronyms, and key people in the history of quality. Information is derived from a variety of sources and compiled by the editorial staff of the American Society for...
Markets Push Expansion of RAB Programs
The substantial changes in the 2000 revision of the ISO 9000 standards have triggered corresponding changes in industry-specific ISO 9000 standards, including those for environmental management systems. To meet this challenge, the Registration...
Simplify Your Quality System
It is usual in the automotive industry for companies to coordinate their quality management standards to the QS-9000 manual, the automotive sector derivative of the ISO 9000 series. The organization of ISO 9000:2000 is different, however, and...
Column: Emerging Sectors: Why an association became ISO 9001 certified.
AIAG sees the standard as the best way to continually design, build and deliver 'good stuff' for its customers
Becoming registered to the ISO 9001 standard was viewed not only as a means to improve the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG)'s business processes and quality of work, but also as the way to ensure its products and services conform to customers'...
Column: Standards Outlook: From Deming to ISO 9000:2000
Lip service isn't enough; management must understand and carry out its obligations to achieve sustainability and growth
For quality programs to be successful, management must take an active role in their implementation. Plenty of guidelines are available in the work of quality leaders such as W. Edwards Deming and in more recently developed standards and programs such...
10 Requirements for Effective Process Control: A Case Study
To see the variation pattern more clearly, she conducted a blanket study of 10 wafers Performance summary Performance summary units Target 30.00 um USL 37.00 um LSL 23.00 um Tolerance 14.00 um Process . 3.2 um Process gage capability: s2 gage error/ s2pr...
Industrywide Shakeout
Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 1 I 61 Industrywide Shakeout Big Three automakers tighten demands on suppliers, auditors and registrars by Bradley A. Pritts Jr. Suppliers with excellent performance histories have even found themselve...
Quality health care--a path forward.
ASQ Division, AIAG and accreditation bodies develop guidance document based on ISO 9004
This document is the result of intensified efforts this year by the ASQ Health Care Division, more than 2,000 health care practitioners and the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG), including GM, Ford, DaimlerChrysler and the United Auto Workers, with ...
Linking Six Sigma with QS-9000
Six Sigma is changing the way the automotive industry approaches quality improvement. Ford Motor Company is the first automaker to use Six Sigma to focus on customer satisfaction, and several other automotive suppliers plan to use the approach as well....
Why QS-9000 was developed and what's in its future.
Auto suppliers were troubled by multiple specifications and standards
Chrysler, Ford and GM elected to use the ISO 9001 standard as the base requirements for the automotive sector document called QS-9000. Suppliers with numerous automotive customers requiring third-party certification to their own requirements document can ...
Management System Standards Poised for Momentum Boost
Growth in the standards industry is driven by: the ISO 9000 revision; proliferation of sector specific standards; the importance of environmental management; and the future of health and safety management standards. ISO 9000:2000 will be completed...
21 Voices for the 21st Century
The interplay of quality, e-quality, and equality in the comments of 21 individuals provide a preview of the future of quality in the new century. The editors of Quality Progress, with input from many sources, have selected 21 original thinkers...
Old Tools - New Uses: Equipment FMEA
A preventive maintenance program can benefit from the modification of process FMEA (failure mode effects analysis) into maintenance FMEA. Before implementing the FMEA itself, it is necessary to: assemble an FMEA team well represented and led by...
Explosion of New Products Creates Challenges
New product development in the Innovation Age needs new quality tools and techniques to meet customer expectations and fast-paced change. Rapid innovation is evident in the explosive growth of patent applications, led by companies like Eastman Kodak,...
Continuous Improvement Through the QS-9000 Road Map
Sections II and III contain sector- specific and customer- specific requirements, respectively, that the task force wanted to communicate to the suppliers, but could not fit neatly into the ISO 9001 format of Section I. Section II requires: � Compliance ...
