- Auditing
- Cost of Quality
- Criteria for Performance Excellence
- Customer Satisfaction and Value
- Data Quality
- Engineering
- Global Quality
- Human Resources
- Baldrige National Quality Program
- ISO 14000
- ISO 9000
- Leadership
- Lean
- Metrics
- Metrology
- Process Management
- Product Development and Recall
- Project Management
- Quality Assurance
- Quality Control
- Quality Function Deployment
- Quality Management
- Quality Tools
- Six Sigma
- Small Business
- Social Responsibility
- Standards
- Statistical Process Control (SPC)
- Statistics
- Supplier Quality
- Teams
- Best Practices
- Total Quality Management
- ISO/TS 16949
- Compliance
- Certification/Registration (management system Standards)
- Information Management
- Customer Requirements
- Food Safety
- Economic Case for Quality
Standards Outlook: The Right Approach
The process approach is at the heart of a quality management system (QMS) defined by ISO 9001. And, as everyone knows, it’s necessary to have the old ticker checked out from time to time....
Progress Report
Six Sigma has been a hot topic discussed and implemented globally in the business world, nonprofit organizations and even governments. There is comparatively less research, however, into how to assess the maturity of Six Sigma implementation....
Narrow Healthcare's Quality Chasm
Today's healthcare leaders face the need to effectively manage not only the clinical but also the business side of their operations. This includes demonstrating cost reductions, overall organizational improvement and long-term sustainability....
Take a Bite Out of Inefficiency
Providing consistent and effective service or product requires a consistent and effective framework for implementing, maintaining and improving tactical and strategic operations. Dentistry is no different....
Standards Outlook: What's Really Important
By the end of this year, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is expected to issue a new version of ISO 9001....
Futures Study
Forces of Change From All ASQ Futures Studies Table 1 1996 1999 2002 2005 2008 Changing values Partnering Quality must deliver bottom- line results Globalization Globalization Globalization Learning systems Management systems will increasingly absorb the...
Standards Outlook: Down With Silos
Businesses today have multiple management systems, including financial, quality and environmental. Unfortunately, these management systems usually do not talk to one another....
The Road to Improvement
Registration of public organizations to the ISO 9001 quality management standard can be difficult because of their complex operations and extensive documentation....
Map Quest
Raytheon Six Sigma is a proprietary six-step process that Raytheon Co., a defense and aerospace systems supplier, has embedded into its culture. It was developed by an internal team that was guided by the company’s top leadership....
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....
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...
ASQ Certification Board Puts Quality Tools to Work
Recognizing the importance of customer satisfaction in strategic planning, the ASQ certification board recently used quality tools to develop customer requirements. To begin the process, a SIPOC (suppliers, inputs, outputs, and customers) diagram was...
Merging Quality Cultures in Contract Manufacturing
When EPIC Technologies acquired the Siemens Electronic Manufacturing Center operations in Johnson City, Tennessee, it became necessary to merge its quality culture with those of its new subsidiary while continuing to keep its original customers happy....
Linking the Supply Chain to TQM
In today's environment of global outsourcing, supplier quality management must transform itself from simply measuring supplier compliance to gathering knowledge, managing risk, and executing project management. Total quality management (TQM) ensures...
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...
One Good Idea: Improve Product Development Using IPD
As with many processes at IBM, product development can be summarized with the three-letter abbreviation IPD--Integrated Product Design. Simply put, IPD is a systematic process for product development....
Standards Outlook: Increase ISO 9001's Value
ISO 9001 describes a basic, effective quality management system (QMS). Compliance to it is the starting point toward achieving excellence in an organization. Additions to an ISO 9001 compliant QMS can act as the first steps toward excellence....
Making It Look Over Easy
Sunny Fresh Foods was the first food company to win the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1999. The manufacturer of egg based products won the award again in 2005, this time applying in the manufacturing category, having outgrown the small...
Standards Outlook: QMSs and EMSs Support Financial Management Systems
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was adopted in 2002 in response to scandals, such as the ones at Enron and WorldCom, and other misuse of corporate resources. In 2003, Paul Palmes and I started an effort to integrate...
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...
Quality in the First Person: You Can Call It Fred
My business partner and I were speakers at an ASQ Six Sigma conference when I ran into a colleague we had met the year before. She asked if I remembered our discussion from the previous year regarding the pushback many quality professionals get...
Six Sigma Delivers On-Time Service
Six Sigma success isn't limited to manufacturing organizations alone. ServiceMaster's American Residential Services (ARS) Service Express improved customer satisfaction by a unique application of Six Sigma techniques. After an initial learning period,...
Seven Steps To Measure Supplier Performance
Most organizations use some type of supplier performance measure, yet few are satisfied with their supplier assessment capabilities and results. Quality professionals are under increasing pressure to avoid supplier problems and retain high performers....
A Recipe For Excellence
The roots of the Bama Companies' 2004 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award go back to a Texas kitchen in 1927. Today the third-generation family owned business makes frozen baked goods for fast food and casual dining restaurants using the same...
Volunteer Trains Black Belts in Romania
A retired quality management consultant relates his experiences as a volunteer trainer of Black Belts in Romania, Europe's poorest country. Under the sponsorship of NCH Advisors, a management company that administers investments made in Romania by...
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...
Better Processes = Better E-Commerce
Successful e-commerce (EC) requires customer and supplier interaction to be seamlessly integrated with existing business processes. Quality professionals must keep this in mind when redesigning business processes, particularly in the service industry....
Are Your Hearing Voices?
For a company to succeed in today's marketplace, it must listen to the voice of the customer (VOC) so it can provide the products and services that inspire an enthusiastic customer response. One effective way to collect VOC input is through a customer...
A Midstream Career Change
I began my life in the real world with a new engineering degree, a new job with a major aircraft manufacturer and a new baby. My first brush with the quality industry was after two years as an intern for the Boeing Co....
Unsung Heroes of Quality
Not many dedicated quality professionals attain the media-bestowed title of guru. Quality Progress readers respond to a call for examples of outstanding, but frequently overlooked, quality leaders. The eleven persons described represent diverse fields...
Can the Gurus' Concepts Cure Healthcare?
Representatives of the movement for quality in healthcare present the views of four quality gurus as they apply to managing cost and improving the quality of healthcare. Don M. Nielsen says Philip Crosby's emphasis on prevention and zero defects has led...
Quality From Scratch: A Model for Small Business
Whether a company is large or small, quality programs are vital to assure customer, stakeholder, and employee satisfaction. Many small businesses, however, may find limited resources and conflicting priorities make the quest for organizational...
Quality in the Fast Lane
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has developed a streamlined approach to assessing its field offices using Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria as a guide. In the past, field office assessments used either self-assessment or outside...
The Legacy of Ishikawa
Kaoru Ishikawa was a prime mover of quality in Japan who believed in quality through leadership. His six quality concepts form the basis for a holistic approach that is the unique Japanese approach to quality improvement. Ishikawa’s focus on...
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...
Quality's Six Life Cycle Stages
A tool referred to as “quality life cycle” provides a strategic mechanism to chart and sustain quality while proactively countering shortcomings of its implementation, such as stagnation and limited application, which can ultimately result in failure....
Column: Standards Outlook: Auditing a Process Based System
Since the clause-by-clause approach to auditing for ISO 9000 no longer works, auditors will need to understand subjective and objective issues, and to determine whether the processes of the Quality Management System are...
ISO 9000 Makes Integrated Systems User Friendly
Organizations need management systems that are based on processes or activities that help personnel understand what is essential to achieving continual improvement on a consistent basis....
Lean and Six Sigma – Synergy Made in Heaven
The combination of Six Sigma and lean enterprise work can enhance the production experience. Workers have the empowerment and skill to recognize a problem and, if it cannot be resolved, shut down the line to eliminate the root cause. Six Sigma and lean...
Print Perfect
Branch-Smith Inc., a fourth-generation printing company, had its origins in the unlikely success of a boy born without arms in 1868. The company as it exists today takes inspiration from founder Aaron Smith, who taught himself to type with his toes,...
An Integrated Approach System
What’s the best quality system? How would you answer this question? How would your colleagues?...
Baldrige: It’s Easy, Free and It Works
While many people consider the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria to be difficult, a harder task is learning how to manage opportunities for improvements instead of managing known strengths. While Baldrige may not have the answers, it...
Systems Thinking – An Uncommon Answer
Some of the common problems to be found in many business failures include too much focus on short-term gains, too much focus on quarterly profit statements, and a prevalence of long-term losses. One possible solution to these problems is systems...
Complexity Theory Simplifies Choices
Many business management and improvement methodologies provide finite structures for achieving success. Examples include the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award; the ISO 9001 standard; W. Edward Deming, who provided 14 points; and Six Sigma....
Quality Management Multiple Choice: What’s the best quality system?
Monitoring and recording the extent of transition experienced within a designated area assure Procedure ( general) Priority Reviewed Completed Record control Document control Internal audits Management review Corrective action Preventive action Monitorin...
QOS – A Simple Method for Big or Small
Although there are many quality initiatives in the marketplace, many of them involve a degree of hype. Ford Motor Company’s quality operating system (QOS) is recommended as one offering the most value for the money. A QOS assessment looks at...
Eastman Chemical's Success Story
There is also internal buy- in, which has led to enhanced internal relations, particularly between Eastman Chemical Co. 0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000 J F M A M J J A S O N D 1997 J F M A M J J A S O N D 1998 J F M A M J J A S O N ...
Better Supply Chains with Baldrige
Demand for customized products with shorter life cycles requires companies to develop supply chain management concepts to help them maintain competitive advantages. The traditional competitive model that favored mass production has give way to a model...
The Shift to Customer Focus
Understanding what complaints really mean is an important aspect of leadership
Quality requires complaints not merely be tolerated but be actively encouraged--embraced for their value in getting at the roots of problems in production and service. 1 He contrasts the language of complaint with the language of commitment. Who better to...
Column: Standards Outlook: Is There Time?
Meeting the ISO 9001:2000 transition deadline will be a challenge for some organizations...
A Quality Manual For the Transition and Beyond
However, QUALITY PROGRESS I MARCH 2003 I 29 Number Process title, ISO 9001: 2000 1994 1 Audit process Yes 2 Balanced scorecard No 3 Corrective and preventive action process Yes 4 Communication process No 5 Contract review process Yes 6 Customer property ...
Column: Frontiers of Quality: Gathering Customer Feedback
Most people have heard the cliché, "If you are going to talk the talk, you need to walk the walk." As such, the Six Sigma community has claimed a linkage with customer values, but are we really aligned?...
Toe the Line: No More WorldComs
Revelation of mismanagement at WorldCom, Enron, Adelphia and other companies have led to an unprecedented erosion of confidence in corporate America....
A Thing of the Past?
The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), the most widely adopted framework for an interdisciplinary approach to total quality management and organizational performance, has evolved from the original model in 1988 to the 1992 model and the...
The Little Hot Dog Stand That Could
Pal's Sudden Service isn't a large, sophisticated corporation, but that didn't stop the Tennessee-based restaurant chain from winning the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA). Pal's two executives believe there is a process for everything...
Should You Transition to ISO 9001:2000?
With the deadline little more than a year away, indications are that fewer than 20 percent of organizations whose business and quality objectives include compliance to the ISO 9000 standards have made the transition. Six ISO 9000 experts present their...
Annual Quality Awards Listing
Quality Progress' Quality Awards Listing is a guide to automotive, government, international, national, regional, and state quality related awards and awards programs. Awards listed must be quality related, eligibility cannot be limited to members...
Check Out This Baldrige Winner
In 1993 Clarke American, a manufacturer of bank checks, faced a major business crisis due to industry consolidations and competition from direct mail suppliers. It was a defining moment for Clarke's new president and CEO, and a catalyst for the...
Customers: A Love/Hate Relationship?
Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I J U L Y 2 0 0 2 I 37 12 Ways To Determine What Customers Want Insofar as is feasible for you and tolerable for the customer: 1 Probe for the reasons specific parameters and product or service characteristics are important ...
Column: Standards Outlook: Add Value to ISO 9001:2000 Audits
The standard's revision provides the opportunity to help organizations improve the way they do business
Quality auditors have been criticized for not adding value to what they do for clients. The ISO 9001:2000 revision provides an opportunity to change...
Column: Career Corner: Supply Chain Management: A New Opportunity
In a recent survey of more than 200 companies, Deloitte Consulting found that while 91% of manufacturers rank SCM as either critical or very important to their company's success, only 2% rank their supply chains as world class. This...
Destination: ISO 9001
When in 1999 Nebraska manufacturer Nucor Corporation announced that it would require each of its Vulcraft divisions to achieve ISO 9001 certification, the Norfolk Division had two paths from which to choose. They decided that rather than wait until the...
Curriculum Assessment - A Systems Approach
Curriculum assessment (CA) is receiving a lot of attention as more educational institutions focus on the quality of their academic programs. Institutions that don't have formalized plans for integrating CA activities into their cultures, however, will...
Balance Your Balanced Scorecard
O R G B A L A N C E Y O U R B A L A N C E D S C O R E C A R D What We Fear About Measures FIGURE 2 � May be used as weapons � May waste time � Are irrelevant � Are too difficult to create � Do not lead to improvement Good Measures Are FIGURE 3 � Aligned ...
Column: Career Corner: Link Employee Surveys and Quality
Because employee surveys often miss important information, here are five suggestions for making them more effective and less burdensome:
- Research who is conducting surveys, when and why.
- Track back to strategy.
- Clearly define what you...
Column: World View: Quality Movement Continues Growth in Brazil
Future expansion expected in small organizations and nonindustrial sector
Since the 1980s, Brazil has gone through profound social, economic and political change. To meet product and service quality demands and to compete globally, both private and public sector Brazilian companies had to make quality a top priority. ISO 9000...
Johnson Space Center Reaches for the Stars
ISO 9001 certification leads shift from problem correction to prevention and information sharing
In the late 1990s, the Johnson Space Center (JSC) and NASA's other centers began experiencing flattened and decreasing funding from Congress without an equivalent decline in workload. To ensure JSC's QMS had been thoroughly tested, the center initiated a ...
Column: Emerging Sectors: Johnson Space Center Reaches for the Stars
.]In the late 1990s, the Johnson Space Center (JSC) and NASA's other centers began experiencing flattened and decreasing funding from Congress without an equivalent decline in workload. Management recognized a shift in emphasis from correction to...
Become a Baldrige Examiner
Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 1 I 49 Become a Baldrige Examiner The benefits for you, your organization and the quality community are worth the long hours and hard work by Steve Hoisington M A L C O L M B A L D R I G E N A T I O N...
Champions of Quality: The New Breed
Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 1 I 35 Champions of Quality: The New Breed Today's leaders are communicators, mentors and advocates for improvement and the bottom line by Debbie Phillips- Donaldson, editor L E A D E R S H I P N HIS ...
What Do Customers Value?
Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 1 I 45 Market Perceived Performance Profile FIGURE 5 Performance attributes Importance weights (%) Accessibility Product availability Order accuracy Ontime delivery Delivery condition Billing accuracy...
Journey to the Baldrige
Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 1 I 51 Journey to the Baldrige For winners of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the coveted honor is just one step in their ongoing quest for performance excellence by Debbie Phillips- Do...
Quality Makes a Splash
Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 1 I 43 Quality Makes a Splash How using quality as a business strategy helped one company win the Baldrige Award by Lloyd P. Provost and Roger B. Quayle OR THE FIRST TIME, a water company has won th...
Annual Quality Awards Listing
Annual Quality Awards Listing compiled by Corinne N. Johnson, Editorial Assistant he annual Quality Awards Listing is Quality Progress' resource guide to automotive, government, international, national, regional and state quality related awards and award...
Making Managers More Effective Agents of Change
Successful implementation of valuable solutions relies not only on management's expertise, but also on the cooperation of other stakeholders who interact within the organizational system. Effective application of the Baldrige criteria as a framework to...
How Well Does Your Reward System Support TQM?
Linking employee performance to the organization's strategic objectives by Richard S. Allen and Ralph H. Kilmann T O T A L Q U A L I T Y M A N A G E M E N T 52 I Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I A P R I L 2 0 0 1 ECENTLY, QUITE A BIT OF STATISTIcal eviden...
Excellence in Our Communities
If the model is to succeed, it must be simple and based on 1. Forming 2. Growing 4. Maturing 3. Consolidating 5. Terminating Voluntary Sector Excellence Model FIGURE 1 Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I A P R I L 2 0 0 1 I 59 Excellence In Our Communities H...
The Problems with Managing by Objectives and Results
Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I M A R C H 2 0 0 1 I 39 The Problems With Managing By Objectives and Results What your employees may not be telling you by Joseph F. Castellano and Harper A. Roehm Q U A L I T Y M A N A G E M E N T HILE MOST PEOPLE WOULD ag...
Implementing Quality Programs in the Not-for-Profit Sector
I M P L E M E N T I N G Q U A L I T Y I N T H E N O T- F O R - P R O F I T S E C T O R 78 I 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 Improved quality of life in northwest Indiana Long- term resolution of community problems 1. Legislative cha...
Market Research for Quality in Small Business
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 31 Market Research for Quality In Small Business Methods can be reduced in scope and complexity by William L. Rhey and Frank M. Gryna S M A L L B U S I N E S S MALL BUSINESSES CAN NOT AFFORD the lux...
Fit and Flow of Quality
68 I 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 F I T A N D F L O W O F Q U A L I T Y Contain defects 10 Control plan High RPN* FMEA*** Preventing Low process capability QAD** robustness test Traveler Reaction plan Product verification Process...
Quality Professionals Around the World Share Similar Concerns, Experiences
The International Chapter of ASQ has grown from about 25 members in 1956 to more than 5,000 members in about 90 countries by 2000. Quality professionals worldwide want to hold on to a core set of principles, and similar challenges face the quality...
Implementation Can Benefit from Quality Experience
Knowledge management is beginning to be recognized as a quality tool that will change the standards of competition. Knowledge management decreases waste and rework by focusing on shared solutions, ideas, and best practices. The concept of knowledge...
Checklists - A Perfect Tool to Tune Up Your Quality Manual
It is common in writing quality manuals that some requirements of some standards are forgotten and fail to be addressed. While the creation of a quality manual appears to be a simple matter of documenting a firm's commitment to a particular standard,...
A Comparative Analysis of National and Regional Quality Awards
Organizations are using quality award programs in their pursuit of total quality management. Industries realize that quality awards offer models and tools for implementing quality strategy, benchmarking best practices, performing self-assessment, and...
President's Quality Program Honors Government Organizations
The President's Quality Award Program recognizes federal organizations for their accomplishments in continuous improvement via quality management principles and practices. The award was created in 1989 and is administered by the Office of Personnel...
Leveraging a quality system to establish an EMS.
Similarities are many; differences are few
Despite overwhelming similarities between ISO 14001, Environmental Management Systems--Specification With Guidance for Use and ISO 9001 based quality systems, the vast majority of quality assurance managers are as unfamiliar with ISO 14001 today as when i...
Obstacles to Implementing Quality
Organizational performance improves when quality management systems are implemented appropriately. Inconsistencies in the records of companies using Total Quality Management have given rise to debate about the usefulness of TQM programs, however....
Quality Management Principles and the ISO 9000:2000 Revisions
* With the development of a basic quality management system, the organization moves to integrate the processes for creating the product or service with those processes that verify that the product or service meets customer needs. * With the development of...
A Breeze or a Breakthrough? Conforming to ISO 9000:2000
Important changes in ISO/DIS (Draft International Standard) 9001:2000, when compared with ISO 9001:1994 include the following. The DIS has adopted a process approach to the quality management system, and it has transformed the familiar twenty elements...
Column: Standards Outlook: Quality Management Principles
[Abstract from Article]
Last month we discussed the first four of eight fundamental quality principles identified by ISO Technical Committee (TC) 176 as the basis for the ISO 9000:2000 revisions. This month we continue with principles five through...
TQM's Human Resource Component
A survey of manufacturing firms in Georgia examined human resource (HR) factors and outcomes of implementing total quality management (TQM). Of about 350 firms receiving the survey, 91 produced usable results, 35 of these being from firms using TQM....
On Leaders and Leadership
Systemic leadership is based on core values and competencies as well as on more tangible elements of business excellence. Systemic leadership requires that everyone be responsible for leadership. However, the models embedded in international quality...
Quality in Nonprofits: No Longer Uncharted Territory
Anixter Center is a nonprofit human-service organization that has experienced the 11 challenges faced by nonprofits. As a large rehabilitation agency serving people with disabilities through more than fifty programs, Anixter Center received a...
Why Should Statisticians Pay Attention to Six Sigma?
An Examiniation for Their Role in Six Sigma Methodology
At first, one might conclude that the six sigma methodology is nothing new. It uses statistical methods that have already been proven. It focuses on quality improvement and defect reduction and utilizes project-by-project improvement...
Why Should Statisticians Pay Attention to Six Sigma?
An examination for their role in the six sigma methodology
12. Hoerl and Snee, " Redesigning the Introductory Statistics Course" ( see reference 3). 13. Mikel J. Harry, The Vision of Six Sigma: A Roadmap for Breakthrough ( Phoenix: Sigma Publishing Co., 1994). 14. Mikel J. Harry, This Vision of Six Sigma: Tools ...
Measuring Performance after Meeting Award Criteria
A survey and financial analysis of winners, applicants, and non-applicants of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) and state quality awards investigated the impact of the award criteria on company performance. This study built on a 1991...
QS-9000 Customer Satisfaction Monitoring Isn't Working
Why customer satisfaction monitoring won't work Problems that small and midsize suppliers have monitoring customer satisfaction occur in four areas: � Transaction distance from the customer and the end product � The relationship with important customers ...
Cyberquality: Teams Expand into Cyberspace
Virtual teams use electronic methods to bring together members from a variety of geographic and organizational locations. These teams are gaining popularity because of developments in groupware, global competition, and working at home. Organizational...
Internal Auditing: The Big Lies
Dysfunctional audit programs are beset by unconsciously held, inaccurate axioms. These are the lies that prevent internal audits from gathering useful information that managers need. The lies have left auditors with a reputation for nitpicking,...
