- Cost of Quality
- Customer Satisfaction and Value
- Data Quality
- Engineering
- Human Resources
- Innovation
- ISO 14000
- ISO 9000
- Leadership
- Lean
- Metrology
- Problem Solving
- Process Management
- Product Development and Recall
- Project Management
- Quality Assurance
- Quality Control
- Quality Management
- Quality Tools
- Safety
- Six Sigma
- Standards
- Statistical Process Control (SPC)
- Statistics
- Teams
- Total Quality Management
- Compliance
- Customer Experience Management
- Economic Case for Quality
- Certification
- Continuous Improvement
Managing Expectations
One condition is vital for initiating, implementing and sustaining a viable quality initiative: management support. Surprisingly, very few articles and books on quality even mention this need, let alone what to do if support isn’t there....
Starting Line
So, you’ve volunteered (or, as one of my coworkers says, you’ve been “volun-told”) to lead your company through the implementation of ISO 9001. Now what do you do?...
Career Corner: A Win-Win Situation
The ASQ Fellows Mentoring Program is a no-cost opportunity to sharpen your knowledge and skills and focus your management, consulting and career coaching experience on helping a person wants and appreciates guidance....
Salary Survey 2008: Part 1, Section 4: Salary by ASQ and RABQSA International Certification
When it comes to ASQ certification, one is good, but more is better....
Standards Outlook: Conducting a Document Review
Some industry sectors require documentation that has word-for-word traceability between the MS documentation and audit criteria. For internal audits, document reviews can be part of a routine audit of an area, rather than a separate document review. Docum...
Salary Survey 2008: The Complete Report
51 Section 6 Salary by Number of Work Hours Online Section 7 Salary by Nonexempt vs. Exempt Status Online Section 8 Salary by Number of Years in Current Position Online Section 9 Salary by Number of Years in Current Position and in the Quality Field Onli...
Career Corner: Something Worth Catching
CAGS stands for capability + adaptability + growthability + sustainability. It’s a formula for success in any field....
Quality in the First Person: The Main Event
Before attending graduate school, I only knew the generic meaning of the word quality. That changed during my second semester, in spring 2003, when I took a quality and productivity methods course....
Quality in the First Person: Traffic Jam
This audit led me in a direction that I would never have dreamed of—and left me with a spectacular story to tell....
Quality in the First Person: All Roads Lead to Quality
At 17, most high school students are trying to decide what they want to do with their lives. At graduation, I never would have thought that in 10 years I would work in quality assurance....
Standards Outlook: Off to a Good Start
Clause 6.2.6 of the U.S. supplement for the International Organization for Standardization's (ISO) auditing standard provides guidelines for establishing initial contact with the auditee....
Career Corner: Do You Deserve a Raise?
Do your homework: Know what metrics your boss is measured by, the financial status of your company, the factors in the external environment that are impacting the company, your personal worth to the company (past, present and future) and how your personal...
Back to Basics: An Appreciation for Documentation
Isn’t completing the task more important than completing the paperwork? Why do organizations spend valuable time and resources generating and maintaining paperwork systems?...
Quality in the First Person: Value of Certification
In 1986, I began my career as an engineer in the research and development function of a large global chemical company. Eight years later, my family relocated, and I took a job with a plastic products company as a senior process development engineer....
Good Vibrations
Modern quality management principles define quality as customer satisfaction with product and service. SCGC has a web page where guitar owners can have questions about their guitars answered by Hoover or Roberts. With employee empowerment accompanying goo...
Standards Outlook: Too Much Talk, Not Enough Auditing
I was attending a local community volunteers meeting when I was approached by a member. He knew I was involved in the standards community, so he told me his company just received its ISO 9001 management system certification....
Salary Survey-Regular Employee and Self-Employed Consultants Results
45 Section 6 Salary by Number of Work Hours Online Section 7 Salary by Nonexempt vs. Exempt Status Online Section 8 Salary by Number of Years of Quality Experience and Highest Level of Education Online Section 9 Salary by Number of Years in Current Posit...
Part I Section 4 Salary by ASQ and RABQSA Certification (Regular Employees)
Certified quality engineer 23.9 Certified quality auditor 23.3 Certified manager of quality/ organizational excellence 12.3 Certified quality technician 7.7 6.9 Certified Six Sigma Black Belt 3.9 Certified quality inspector 3.5 Certified quality improvem...
Part 2 Section 3 Hourly and Daily Rates
PART 2. SELF- EMPLOYED CONSULTANT RESULTS Section 3. Hourly and Daily Rates Percentage of respondents 0% 50% 60% 40% 30% 20% 10% 58.5 56.5 26.7 30.4 6.9 4.3 7.9 8.7 Hour Day Other time period Other criteria Billing increment U. S. self- employed consulta...
Part 2 Section 1 Base Earnings by Quality Experience, Education, ASQ Certification and Six Sigma Training (Self-Employed Consultant Results)
In all, 20 part- time U. S. consultants reported no base earnings for the period between June 2006 and June PART 2. SELF- EMPLOYED CONSULTANT RESULTS Section 1. Base Earnings by Quality Experience, Education, ASQ Certification and Six Sigma Training FIGU...
Career Corner: Use Business Cards Effectively
I'm shocked at the number of people who don't carry a business card. Even more amazing are those who don't even have cards....
Back to Basics: Have You Adequately Defined Your Situation?
The is/is not matrix is a simple yet powerful tool that enables a planner or investigator to more clearly define the problem, decision or situation being addressed. The matrix can be extremely useful in problem definition and root cause analysis, but...
Quality in the First Person: Continual Innovation and Reinvention
There is often a pattern to one's work life, a pattern that might not have been immediately evident or intended. Call it an inclination that ultimately morphs into a strategic plan....
10 Quality Basics
In an overview designed to give quality newcomers a glimpse of the knowledge they need to succeed, ten regular Quality Progress contributors write on 10 basic quality topics that are fundamentals essential to surviving in a quality role. Topics covered...
Standards Outlook: Preparing and Structuring an Audit Report
Preparing a quality management system (QMS) or environmental management system (EMS) audit report can be a hurried, punch list--a list of minor things to be completed at the end of a project....
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...
Financial Control and Quality
The case for quality should be easy to make, but it is not always obvious to top management who must be aware of and control the corporation’s finances in order to comply with federal regulations. There are two aspects to measuring financial control -...
Quality in the First Person: Always On: 24/7 Quality
"Mommy, why is the lot code smeared on the bottom of this bottle?" asked my 7-year-old son, Gabriel....
Completed Staff Work Revisited
The principle of completed staff work gives your bosses what they need to do their jobs....
Using Statistics To Improve Satisfaction
Choosing which attributes to improve from customer survey data maximizes the use of resources and increases the chances of positive returns on your efforts. The Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance by ranks helps focus attention on what needs...
Know and Follow ISO 19011's Auditing Principles
The auditing principles of ISO 19011 call for ethical conduct, fair presentation, professional care, independence, and an evidence based approach. The ethical conduct principle is realized throughout the standard because it is the cornerstone of...
Salary Survey – 2006
Full Survey
44 Section 6. Salary by Number of Work Hours Online Section 7. Salary by Nonexempt vs. Exempt Status Online Section 8. Salary by Number of Years' Quality Experience and Highest Level of Education Online Section 9. Salary by Number of Years in Current Pos...
Salary Survey – 2006
Regular Employee - Section 4. Salary by ASQ and RABQSA Certification
70,278 69,878 71,960 82,944 75,000 Number of ASQ certifications ( percentage of respondents) One ( 70.7%) Two ( 19.9%) Three ( 5.6%) Four ( 3.4%) Five or more ( 0.4%) $ 0 $ 20,000 $ 40,000 $ 60,000 $ 80,000 Average salary ( Canadian dollars) $ 100,000 FI...
Salary Survey – 2006
Self-Employed Consultant - Section 1. Base Earnings by Quality Experience, Education, ASQ Certification and Six Sigma Training
org PART 2. SELF- EMPLOYED CONSULTANT RESULTS Section 1 Base Earnings by Quality Experience, Education, ASQ Certification and Six Sigma Training TABLE B Standard Minimum Maximum deviation Count Mean Median Part- time Number of years' experience in the qu...
Standards Outlook: Generating Audit Findings and Conclusions
The ability to identify audit findings, communicate them and determine the audit conclusions is one of the skills that adds the most value to a management system audit....
Quality in the First Person: Living by the Values
My first exposure to quality was when I was 27. I was working in R&D at Polaroid Corp. While I liked working at Polaroid, I was unhappy with my job, so I started looking for other openings in the company and found a quality control engineer position....
Back to Basics: A Fish(bone) Tale
You have been asked to perform a root cause analysis to determine where a process is breaking down. Not sure where to begin? Use a fishbone diagram to help you and your team identify and discuss all potential causes of an effect....
Career Corner: Maximize the Use of Your Abilities
In the December 2005 edition of Quality Progress, former editor Debbie Phillips-Donaldson asked, “Does your organization make full use of your abilities?” If the answer is yes, good for you and your organization....
Climbing the Career Ladder: It's Up to You
With as much information on the subject of career development as there is available today, the real challenge is recognizing that you, not your employer, are responsible for your own career development, and then finding a structure to guide your plans....
Building Quality at Veridian Homes
Veridian Homes in Madison, Wisconsin uses several quality methods to improve productivity while reducing impact on the environment. To achieve its goal of promoting and coordinating quality throughout the company, the company employed the National...
Quality in the First Person: SPC: Not Just for Geeks
I fell into quality the old fashioned way: I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. At the time, computers were becoming important tools, and I was one of the few people in the plant who knew how - or even wanted - to operate one....
Digesting Complicated Processes
Businesses today face the challenge of balancing innovation with the need to maintain control of processes. The introduction to ISO 9001 contains a process model called the process approach that is based on the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle and can be...
Standards Outlook: Process Auditing and Techniques
Process audits are highly focused, but their effective techniques are not always understood. Because there is no sanctioned process audit standard, anyone can claim to be doing process audits....
Core Roles in a Strategic Quality System
When establishing and maintaining a strategically viable quality system, senior management defines the roles played by groups, departments, or functions within the organization using risk/benefit analysis to determine the best fit in terms of logistics,...
Selling Quality Ideas to Management
Many great ideas fall by the wayside because management does not accept them. This may be because the idea must compete with other priorities or the owner doesn't do enough to sell the idea to management. Three effective ways to enhance an idea are to...
Career Corner: How To Become an Internal Consultant
This article is not about how to become an external consultant - it is about enriching your quality job by assuming a role of internal consultant....
Improve Your Audit Interviews
The interview process is vital to the success of an audit, therefore, auditors must be able to use various techniques to gather needed information without appearing threatening to the auditee. The interview should be relaxed and comfortable, allowing...
Your Customers Are Talking, But Are You Listening?
Few companies have a process to listen to their customers and act on the information. Without a method to measure how satisfied customers are, the door is left open to the competition. The listen, collect, analyze, learn, improve (LCALI) process can...
Salary Survey – 2005
Full Survey
45 Section 6. Salary by Number of Work Hours Online Section 7. Salary by Nonexempt vs. Exempt Status Online Section 8. Salary by Number of Years' Quality Experience and Highest Level of Education Online Section 9. Salary by Number of Years in Current Pos...
Salary Survey – 2005
Self-consultant - Section 1. Base Earnings
74,087 138,949 16,437 131,947 Average base earnings $ 150,000 Self- employed consultant only Part- time consultant Full- time consultant Self- employed consultant and part- time or full- time employee at another organization $ 30,000 $ 0 $ 90,000 $ 60,00...
Help Has Arrived
Change or pay a price for remaining the same. This saying applies to life in general and the auditing profession in particular....
So You Want To Write?
Do you ever think you have something important to say or know how something could be done better and want others to hear you? Your colleagues, friends and relatives tend to tune you out....
The Future of Quality in Indianapolis
ASQ's Indianapolis Section 903 has typically focused on projects that could be completed within the year but, conscious of the effects of short-range planning, the section decided to develop a five-year strategic plan to increase responsiveness to the...
Lessons Learned
"Lessons learned” is just one name for the penultimate step that takes place before closing a process improvement or new development project. Other names include:...
Work Learning In
Today, I’m at my desk getting things done. I’m working. Tomorrow, I’m going to an off-site workshop. I’ll be learning.” Work today, learn tomorrow, and never the two shall meet, right?...
Curse of the Super-fish-al
Root cause analysis teaches us to ask, "Why?" five times, and from this I developed these five ways not to use a fishbone....
Where's the Money?
Proving system and process auditing is a value added service has been a topic of considerable interest recently....
Mini-Scule
Forty-three people from diverse industries, with a wide range of credentials and work experiences, were hired to form an internal consulting unit within a large organization. From the outset it was obvious the individuals' egos would be problematic....
Lean Thinking for Knowledge Work
Productivity in the service sector trails manufacturing by a wide margin. Since the early 1990s, the Toyota Production System (TPS) has been heralded as the standard for manufacturing environments, but early attempts to apply it to nonproduction work...
Lean Glossary
A glossary defines terms commonly associated with lean...
Return on Investment
Return on investment (ROI) is a powerful tool to add to your repertoire of skills. It will help you sell quality improvement initiatives and enable you to demonstrate the benefits from such improvements....
Relocation Blues
Assume you've been downsized or are about to be. What word evokes a flood of emotion? Relocation....
Corrective vs. Preventive Action
Quality professionals frequently express confusion about the difference between corrective and preventive action. Corrective action deals with a nonconformity that has occurred, and preventive action addresses the potential for a nonconformity to occur....
Sarbanes-Oxley and ISO 9000
Critics say ISO 9000 doesn't measure up to robust quality programs such as Baldrige Award criteria, lean and Six Sigma, and they complain about the law's excessive documentation requirements. Yet by providing records and internal controls, the...
A Deming Inspired Management Code of Ethics
In today's business environment, executive management's narrow focus on productivity can produce ethical, moral and legal consequences. While there are codes to prohibit discrimination based on race or gender, they fail to address conduct that is legal....
Salary Survey – 2004
Regular Employee - Section 5. Salary by Six Sigma Training
org FIGURE B FIGURE A 70,437 77,295 103,706 93,858 96,391 66,287 Highest level of Six Sigma training completed ( percentage of respondents) Green Belt ( 11.7%) Black Belt ( 10.7%) Master Black Belt ( 2.6%) Champion ( 1.4%) Executive ( 1.1%) None ( 72.4%)...
Salary Survey – 2004
Regular Employee - Section 4. Salary by ASQ Certification
R E G U L A R E M P L O Y E E R E S U LT S Section 4 Salary by ASQ Certification 39,849 52,186 43,389 49,176 56,567 44,880 Job title and location Technicians in the United States Technicians in Canada ( Canadian dollars) $ 0 $ 20,000 $ 40,000 $ 60,000 Av...
Salary Survey – 2004
Full Survey
( For industrial classifications and all tables related QUALITY PROGRESS I DECEMBER 2004 I 25 $ $$$$ $$$$ $$ $$$ $$$ U. S. Salary Changes by Industry 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Average Average Average Average Average Average salary Difference* salary ...
Salary Survey – 2004
Self-consultant - Section 1. Base Earnings
TABLE A Standard Minimum Maximum deviation Count Mean Median Part- time Number of years' experience in the quality field Less than 1 year $ 0 $ 18,000 $ 6,591 9 $ 8,678 $ 10,000 1 to 3 years 0 189,000 68,127 9 36,678 1,200 3.1 to 6 years 0 40,000 13,062 ...
How To Handle References
Should references be provided when making your initial contact with a prospective employer? In almost all situations the answer is, no....
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...
The Metamorphosis of the Quality Professional
Over the next decade, quality professionals can expect to see their roles increasingly absorbed into project management and other areas. To survive in this environment, quality professionals will have to acquire new competencies....
Certification Exam Tips, Trips and Traps
An ASQ certification can be a significant career enhancement, but the decision to sit for the exam requires careful preparation. Questions and answers are presented reflecting the author's experience in taking ASQ certification exams. Planning and...
Root Cause Analysis for Beginners
Root cause analysis (RCA) is a tool to help identify what, how, and why an event occurred so that steps can be taken to prevent future occurrences. Additionally, RCA may be used to target opportunities for systemwide improvement. Root causes are...
As Easy As 10001, 2, 3
A key element in maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction is having in place systems and processes for effective complaint management. Now the International Organization for Standardization is developing three new customer satisfaction standards...
Twelve Ways to Add Value to Audits
Much has been said and done in the last couple of years related to organizational improvement and value added auditing....
What's in it for me?
If you?re reading Quality Progress, you are most likely a member of ASQ. If you attend your local section?s meetings, you no doubt constantly hear about the need for volunteers to help with the section?s activities....
Column: Career Corner: What's In It for Me?
If you're reading Quality Progress, you are most likely a member of ASQ. If you attend your local section's meetings, you no doubt constantly hear about the need for volunteers to help with the section's activities....
Overcoming Resistance to Change
Organizational changes fail not for technical reasons, but because of people’s inherent resistance to change. Because the price of failure is so high, change should not be attempted until readiness to accept change is measured. Two methods to gauge...
Salary Survey – 2003
Full Survey
6. QUALITY PROGRESS I DECEMBER 2003 I 31 Average salary 1999 Average salary 2000 Average salary 2001 Average salary 2002 Average salary 2003 Average salary Change from previous year Change from previous year Change from previous year Change from previous...
Salary Survey – 2003
Regular Employee - Section 4. Salary by ASQ Certification
Black Belt No ASQ certification $ 73,298 $ 68,500 ASQ certified Six Sigma Black Belt 70,936 -$ 2,362 96,000 +$ 27,500 Manager No ASQ certification $ 68,206 $ 70,198 Certified quality manager 77,702 +$ 9,496 72,083 +$ 1,885 Quality engineer No ASQ certifi...
Salary Survey – 2003
Self-employed Consultant - Section 1. Base Earnings
1 $ 10,000 $ 10,000 1 to 3 years 250 50,000 $ 21,374 8 17,748 6,500 3.1 to 6 years 2,500 240,000 81,059 8 61,500 35,000 6.1 to 10 years 2,400 200,000 56,524 19 49,995 30,000 10.1 to 20 years 100 250,000 71,934 53 70,248 50,000 More than 20 years 750 300,...
How to Implement and Audit the Process Approach
If you organize your management system according to how business processes work instead of by departments or elements of a standard, you are using the system-process management approach. The ISO standards community has provided several guidance documents ...
Column: Back to Basics: Collecting Data for Root Cause Analysis
Collecting Data for Root Cause Analysis by James J. Rooney and Lee N. Vanden Heuvel actual evidence derived from data gathering activities is the basis for all valid conclusions and recommendations from a root cause analysis. Management can analyze the ...
Ethics, Auditing and Enron
Were quality auditors to blame for the Enron scandal? No. Do quality auditors face ethical dilemmas such as those faced by the Enron and Arthur Andersen employees? must decide whether or not to...
Management System Integration: Can It Be Done?
In October 1996, the International Organization for Standardization, known as ISO, issued the final version of ISO 14001, an international standard for environmental management systems (EMS)....
Column: Career Corner: Jacks and Jills of Many Skills
A significant conclusion I've come to after reading reams of newsprint about downsizing, layoffs, plant closings and the like is that people who have developed multiple skill sets have a unique advantage. These folks are either asked to remain with the...
Better Public Schools With ISO 9000:2000
Formal standards for learning in public schools are being implemented in the majority of states. The ISO 9000:2000 quality management standards provide a useful structure that can be successfully adapted for the education sector. The National...
Column: One Good Idea: Process Identification
If your organization has had a difficult time describing its quality management system (QMS) because it believes the system must be process mapped to satisfy the ISO 9001 requirements, then listen up....
Column: Standards Outlook: Use ISO 9004 To Improve Performance
ISO 9004:2000 is a valuable tool for improving an organization's effectiveness, efficiency and the quality of its products and services. It is a standalone document that should be used for improving organization performance....
Column: Career Corner: Sell Your Contribution To the Bottom Line
Don't be too polite to blow your own horn. Telling people what you have accomplished is good for them as well as for...
Roadblocks to Quality
The automotive industry has developed state-of-the-art quality processes and procedures, yet many managers and engineers still do not understand or apply the concepts of variation reduction or trend analysis. This results in the poor quality that...
Column: Emerging Sectors: ISO 9000 for Small Service Companies
Should a small service company pursue ISO 9000 certification? If your customers aren't well informed about the benefits of hiring a certified company, why invest the time and money to achieve the goal?...
Salary Survey – 2002
Salaries and Diversity
Now, we not only hear or read about product quality and quality control in manufacturing, but we also hear and read about quality of services, quality of relationships, quality of ideas and thought processes, and of course, quality of life. To open our ho...
Salary Survey – 2002
Regular Employee - Section 6. Salary by ASQ and RAB Certification
This last result isn't surprising given these two certifications are recent additions to ASQ's list of certifications. The two most popular RAB certifications are quality management systems (QMS) lead auditor (7.9%) and QMS internal auditor (4.9%). The tw...
2002 Annual Salary Survey
The American Society for Quality 2002 Annual Salary Survey is presented in two parts. Part one reports salaries of regular employees by job title; by number of years experience in the quality field; by division size, organization size, and location of...
Column: Career Corner: Fired? Tired? Mired?
Your professional development is your responsibility. You have to seek the right environment and then proactively make professional development happen. The Mutual Investment in Individual Development model has been successfully used for more than 30...
How to Achieve Operational Excellence
Quality improvement systems can contribute to operational improvements, but they cannot eliminate operational costs arising from deviations and nonconformances caused by human error. In order to grow in today's competitive business environment,...
College and University Programs in Quality
A list is provided of more than 100 colleges and universities offering courses, programs, and degrees in quality related fields. The list is both alphabetical and geographical and indicates the type of institution and certificates or degrees offered....
Column: Standards Outlook: Ask the right awareness questions
ISO 9001:2000 says employees understand quality and customer requirements
The new ISO 9001:2000 quality management system (QMS) standard has opened up several new lines of questioning (interviewing) that will help organizations connect all employees to quality and customers. Prior versions of the ISO 9000 series standards...
