- Customer Satisfaction and Value
- Design of Experiments
- Engineering
- Environmental Manag. and Sustainability
- Human Resources
- Baldrige National Quality Program
- ISO 14000
- ISO 9000
- Leadership
- Lean
- Metrics
- Metrology
- Problem Solving
- Basic Quality
- Process Management
- Quality Assurance
- Quality Management
- Quality Tools
- Safety
- Six Sigma
- Standards
- Statistical Process Control (SPC)
- Statistics
- Supplier Quality
- Teams
- Career Development
- Continuous Improvement
Career Corner: A Step at a Time
Based on a quick perusal of the business press headlines and the top 10 best seller lists of business books, I have concluded two things are absolutely essential for the move from employee to consultant....
3.4 per Million: It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint
Six Sigma practitioners like their successes swift, large and final. Nature and circumstance, however, are rarely that kind. Normally, success is secured one step at a time....
Career Corner: How to Get Hired
As an employee, I have tons of insight on what the job hunt looks like from the seeker’s point of view. But I’ve often wondered what the process is like for the person on the other side of the hiring desk....
Keeping Current Online Table
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award: National Institute of Standards and Technology ( NIST) in partnership with ASQ Award criteria are built on seven core values: leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information analysis, human ...
Career Corner: A Ready Résumé
Using performance review notes is the best way to keep your résumé ready. Any notes you prepare before a performance review are fodder for updating the current job section of your résumé. After 10 minutes of cutting, pasting and editing, the part of Kostu...
3.4 per Million: Test Drives and Data Splits
Prediction models are one of a Six Sigma practitioner’s best friends for improving processes. The more complicated and persistent the quality problem, the more useful prediction models can be....
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...
Career Corner: Get Around the Box
Thinking outside the box can be crucial to business success. But career success sometimes depends on getting around the box - and here I'm referring to the boxes on the organization chart....
3.4 per Million: Assessing the Effectiveness of Controls Under Uncertainty
Sequential sampling and logistic regression techniques offer useful strategies....
Career Corner: Teachers and Bosses I Have Known
Done right, working toward an MBA can be an intellectually stimulating experience. For most people who aspire to be managers, it at least helps them figure out what else they have to learn....
Measure for Measure: Four Steps to Ensure Measurement Data Quality
Part one of this column, published in July, posed four questions you should ask to ensure your measurements are providing data that are good enough for the given application....
Career Corner: Making Performance Reviews Work for You
With rare exception in the course of my work life, I have been fortunate to have reasonable and fair supervisors. One thing they tended to agree on was that performance reviews should be a two-way communication process....
Steady Does It For DynMcDermott
DynMcDermott Petroleum Operations (DM) holds the maintenance and operations contract for the Department of Energy's strategic petroleum reserve. High DOE expectations prompted DM's Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award journey ten years ago when DM...
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...
A Quality Library for a Desert Island
A key skill for any quality professional is knowing where to find the answers to questions. After more than 20 years in the quality business, I find my workday is a healthy mixture of old and new questions....
Lead To Succeed
It seems at times that the quality profession is not as valued as it once was. The solution is to offer a unique service the corporation and its managers are willing to pay for. To sell yourself and your product, people must notice that you are...
How To Handle Rough Spots On Your Resume
When I first met Mike, I could tell he was in the right job. He had been a recruiter for more than 35 years. His enthusiastic, friendly but straightforward approach was perfect for introducing potential employees to potential employers....
When Your Process Has Runs, Trends and Cycles
As a Six Sigma practitioner, you sometimes work with processes that have memory, in which the value observed at some earlier time partly influences or determines the current value....
Training : It's Not Always the Answer
Employers need employees who perform well, and while training is one way to achieve this goal, it isn't the only way. A training needs analysis assesses current performance and defines desired performance, with the gap between the two states...
The Importance of Building Social Capital
Maintaining the integrity of the supply chain is critical in times of economic instability. An investment in social capital among organizations within the supply chain is mutually beneficial. The affinity group provides a strategy for developing...
Computer Careers for Quality Professionals
Quality practitioners are continuing to increase their presence in sectors other than manufacturing....
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...
Resume Prose From the Pros?
One sure thing I know about being in the same place for five years is how easily a resume gets out of date....
Column: DOE and Six Sigma
Design of experiments (DOE) is a powerful tool for improving processes as part of a Six Sigma program....
The Right Place At the Right Time
My first exposure to quality came as a U.S. Navy submarine officer. As it holds a nuclear reactor and submerges under a lot of seawater pressure, a submarine has many quality issues....
Column: Career Corner: The Personal 360
I remember the time I volunteered for a 360-degree performance review. That's a formal dialogue in which you get feedback about your job style and effectiveness from peers, subordinates and supervisors. "Normal performance reviews are scary enough," you...
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....
Column: Standards Outlook: The White House Manages Green
Discussion of environmental management systems (EMS) implementation typically evokes corporate initiatives, such as the worldwide effort among many in the automotive industry to achieve ISO 14001 certification....
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...
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...
Column: Emerging Sectors: Cleaning Up With SPC
Statistical process control is playing a role in a huge environmental project at a nuclear weapon production site
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford Nuclear Site played a pivotal role in the nation's defense beginning in the 1940s when it was created as part of the Manhattan Project. The current environmental clean-up...
Aftermath of Battle
The removal of unexploded ordnance (UXO) is a critical problem deserving of quality assurance. UXO causes some 20,000 civilian casualties annually, while UXO sites in the United States are found on over 11 millions acres. However, there is no one...
Four More Years of Reinventing Government
The results have been impressive: 240,000 fewer federal jobs as of January 1996, 2,000 obsolete field offices closed or being closed, nearly 200 programs and agencies eliminated, and $ 118 billion in savings from enacted reforms, to name just a few. And...
