- Cost of Quality
- Customer Satisfaction and Value
- Data Quality
- Design of Experiments
- Engineering
- Global Quality
- Human Resources
- Innovation
- ISO 9000
- Laboratory
- Leadership
- Lean
- Metrics
- Metrology
- Problem Solving
- Process Capability
- Process Management
- Product Development and Recall
- Project Management
- Quality Assurance
- Quality Control
- Quality Management
- Quality Tools
- Sampling
- Six Sigma
- Small Business
- Software Quality
- Standards
- Statistical Process Control (SPC)
- Statistics
- Supplier Quality
- Teams
- Best Practices
- Total Quality Management
- Compliance
- Career Development
- Software and Technology (for statistics, measurement, analysis)
- Information Management
- Food Safety
- Economic Case for Quality
- Continuous Improvement
It Doesn't Add Up
Bewildered economists offer many theories as to what ultimately led to today’s financial woes. Analysts attempt to untangle how so many factors and variables—banks, mortgages and government oversight—contributed to the mess....
Back to Basics: Sample Wise
Selecting the correct sample size is often the most difficult aspect of any project. Rules of thumb are important because they promote discussion that facilitates the selection of a more optimum sample size....
A Lean Six Sigma Breakthrough
The relationship between lean and Six Sigma may appear to be simple, but in practice it may be more challenging because there are so many ways to piece the two together....
Statistics Roundtable: Grab the Brass Ring
Remember going to the amusement park and riding the carousel or merry-go-round? During the ride, there was sometimes a brass ring you could grab from a dispenser.It took some dexterity to snatch the ring from the dispenser as the carousel rotated....
Online Figures Jing
QP 2 Pure bonding / online Figure 5 Part one Part one Part two Part two Left distance Right distance Step one Step two Heat DMAIC Mind- set / online Figure 4 30- 50 10- 15 4- 8 KPIVs 8- 10 KPIVs Critical KPIVs 3- 6 Key leverage KPIVs Inputs variables Mea...
Standards Outlook: Dynamic Duo
Lean and Six Sigma are two methods aimed at improving the quality of an organization’s operations and its financial results. Both concentrate on customer satisfaction and improved business performance....
One Good Idea: A Tasty Comparison
The objective in this article is to test the hypothesis that the actual distribution matches the hypothesized distribution provided by Mars. The underlying distribution, called the multinomial distribution, is an extension of the binomial distribution. Be...
A DMAIC Makeover
Define, measure, Analyze, improve and control (DMAIC) is the common roadmap for Six Sigma projects. But there are potential weaknesses in this roadmap that could be addressed with a simple, proven adjustment to DMAIC....
Newer Better Faster
The Small Business Administration has indicated that the majority of innovations are consistent with the continuous improvement commonly used in the define, measure, analyze, improve and control (DMAIC) Six Sigma method....
Expert Answers: March 2008
Outlook on outsourcing ... When does Six Sigma suffice?...
Quality in the First Person: From Pizza to Quality
I was hired as a quality technician at TexTek Plastics, and the quality manager, who had vast experience in quality applications, was impressed with my diverse education and experiences. One of the absolutes I have learned in my journey is that the compan...
Statistics Roundtable: Back to the Future
Now more than ever, we need to use the kind of critical thinking and deeper process knowledge that predates the explosion of technology and software. By identifying and applying key aspects of the data mining process and then using them in novel...
Achieve Compliance Through CI
Using Six Sigma tools for continuous improvement (CI) is a proven method for meeting or exceeding FDA requirements for medical devices. Optical Integrity Inc., a manufacturer of medical devices, used the Six Sigma define, measure, analyze, improve...
Statistics Roundtable: When Should You Consider a Split-Plot Design?
Split-plot designs are an important, practical class of designs. When strategically chosen, split-plot designs can boost the amount of information a practitioner can extract from a designed experiment....
3.4 per Million: Use DMAIC to Make Improvement Part of the Way We Work
Faster, better, cheaper. That’s what organizations across almost all major industries must now do to remain competitive....
Back to Basics: Plan Experiments to Prevent Problems
An experimenter's ability to minimize mistakes often comes with experience. Unfortunately, this experience often results from past problems, surprises or confusion....
Retrospective Analysis of a Designed Experiment
Design of experiment (DOE) techniques have been successfully used by India’s Department of Defense Production to optimize the process parameters for a plastic injection-molded part used in the manufacture of tank deterrents. The goal was to get...
Nanotechnology: A Big Little Frontier for Quality
Nanotechnology is a field of applied science that deals with arranging particles...
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...
The Quality Diet: Building a Healthy Business
Quality is not always an easy sell. As a result, the challenges facing a quality professional trying to help a company are a lot like those facing a dietitian trying to help a client succeed with a diet. Quality professionals could even be called...
Statistics Roundtable: Design of Experiments: A Single Experiment or Sequential Learning
Sequential experimentation lends itself to more efficient and precise answers....
ISO 9001: Could It Be Better?
Many well-intentioned people are using ISO 9001 to control and improve quality, but much of the standard should be disregarded. ISO 9001's unnecessary costs affect companies, their employees and customers, as well as society in general which depends...
You Can Go Home Again
Jamie Houghton's love for Corning brought him out of retirement and back to the company when it was fighting for survival, due to the decline of the telecommunications industry and decreased demand for Corning's fiber optics. When Houghton returned to...
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...
3.4 Per Million: The Hard Part: Holding Improvement Gains
You've overcome the obstacles to launch your latest improvement initiative: scarce resources, time pressure, unforeseen glitches at every turn. Now comes the hard part--sustaining the gains....
New Frontiers in the Design of Experiments
Statistically designed experiments enable businesses to reduce time to market while achieving quality product performance that is critical to survival and success. R.A. Fisher first introduced them in the early 20th century to evaluate the results of...
Beyond PDCA - A New Process Management
The ISO 9001 quality management standard calls for the use of the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) model for managing processes. The author questions why check is included in the cycle when the goal is to reduce the need for verification activities. Current...
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,...
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....
Statistics Roundtable: If You're Not Keeping Score, It's Just Practice
Despite the fundamental importance of measurement and measurement systems, statisticians and quality professionals engaged in process improvement and quality studies frequently find numerous gaps, including:...
Standards & Registrars Directory
TS TR TL RS QS MD 9KS 14K 9K CR CE AU AS TR CS SPC QS 9KS 14K 9K CS VD6 TS TR TL SPC QS MD 9KS 14K 9K CS CE AU AS TS TR SPC 9KS 14K 9K CS AU AS TS QS MD 9KS 14K 9K CSD AU AS 9KS 9K CR AU VD6 TS TR SPC QS MD 9KS 14K 9K CS VD6 TS RS QS 9KS 14K 9K CSD CS AS...
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...
Statistics Roundtable: What and When To Randomize
One of the most highly stressed principles of statistical design of experiments is the need for proper randomization. Unfortunately, it is sometimes misunderstood and misapplied....
One Good Idea: A Sweet Way To Learn DoE
To learn the basic concepts of analysis of variance (ANOVA) and blocking design in entry level design of experiments (DoE) courses, all the students need is a 1.74-oz bag of peanut M&M's....
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....
Big Improvements for Small Parts
National Semiconductor Corporation is a process-driven manufacturer looking for additional ways to cut costs. Having experienced dissatisfaction with an earlier continuous improvement program, it became clear that reducing costs while maintaining...
When Worlds Collide: Lean and Six Sigma
Facing unprecedented pressure to improve performance across the board, organizations cannot afford to forego the benefits of either Six Sigma or lean....
Uncertainty
The thing about uncertainty is you just never know. Almost 30 years ago, the local chapter of the Institute of Food Technologists invited me, a statistician of all people, to speak at its annual guest night dinner....
Design of Experiments for Dummies
Design of experiments (DOE) is not as widely applied in industry as it should be because it appears complex and confusing to newcomers. In reality, most test performed are one-factor two-level experiments that show how a system, product, or process will...
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...
How To Analyze a Split-Plot Experiment
Quality improvement projects frequently require experimentation on a process. In many real experimental situations, a restriction is placed on the randomization of runs that affects the statistical analysis. A split-plot experimental method involving...
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...
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...
Your Gateway to Quality Knowledge
For the past decade, the Quality Information Center (QIC) at ASQ’s Milwaukee headquarters has collected and compiled material from quality professionals in academics, manufacturing and service to create a definitive quality body of knowledge....
The Quality of Learning
Quality in education can be difficult to measure because the educational process differs from manufacturing in certain intrinsic ways. The University of the Pacific’s school of dentistry uses a competency-based approach to education that assumes...
Column: DOE and Six Sigma
Design of experiments (DOE) is a powerful tool for improving processes as part of a Six Sigma program....
Flip the Clip
In all the discussion and debate about what Six Sigma means, one thing remains clear: Six Sigma is a broad subject. It is daunting for us trainers to try and produce experts called Black Belts (BBs)....
Match the Change Vehicle and Method to the Job
Processes are at the core of continuous improvement, and improvement happens when a process is changed in one way or another....
Eight Essential Tools
The broad use of Six Sigma since its introduction in the 1980s has taught us much about how to make the best use of Six Sigma tools. Now we need to take a look back and reflect on what we’ve learned...
Best Practices in Process Management
Process improvement tools have been used to evaluate business processes ranging from employee satisfaction to customer help desk support....
Improve Molded Part Quality
The injection molding process, while simple in concept, is complex in execution. Typical injection molding machines have many adjustable parameters that affect the quality of finished plastic parts....
Augmented Ruggedness Testing to Prevent Failures
Ruggedness testing, a form of design of experiments (DOE), can prevent failures in the processing and use of products by challenging the process, product, or method, then revealing how inputs change as variables fluctuate over ranges encountered during...
Column: Standards Outlook: ISO 9000 and More
DVDs have become a very popular form of home entertainment. Movies released on DVD often feature bonus material and deleted scenes. Wouldn't it be nice if readers of print material could have this option from time to time!...
Column: Statistics Roundtable: Process modeling: find the critical few
Finding the critical few X's allows you to better control and optimize a process
With the widespread use of Six Sigma has come a renewed interest in developing statistical models and using regression analysis. Now is a good time to rethink your strategies for developing models. In particular, I believe it is...
Column: World View: European Statistics Network Grows Rapidly
Aims to increase understanding, idea exchange, networking and professional development
ENBIS now has more than 500 members from 25 countries across the entire European continent plus nine non-European countries, including nine members from the United States, seven from Israel and one from Canada. Most members are...
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....
Strive to Win the Game
Many companies successfully certified in quality standards are having difficulty getting the most from their new product development (NPD) process. Automotive companies, in particular, are struggling to improve their bottom-line results. College sports...
The Status Quo's Failure in Problem Solving
The Status Quo's Failure In Problem Solving The best thing top management can do is design a problem solving process for all types of problems by Paul Palady and Nikki Olyai Q U A L I T Y A N D T O P M A N A G E M E N T 34 I A U G U S T 2 0 0 2 I W W W ....
Organize Your Quality Tool Belt
Quality professionals adopt and adapt techniques from other fields to satisfy the need to apply their skills to a wide variety of processes and situations. To someone new to the profession, this array of tools may seem overwhelming, but upon closer...
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...
Column: World View: Samsung Uses Quality To Grow
Korean giant draws on just about everything in the toolbox to reach its goals
The Samsung Quality Award was established in 1993 to recognize business divisions by using criteria developed from the Baldrige Award, ISO 9000 quality management standards and the company's own business operation standards. Nearly 70% of Samsung's qualit...
ASQ's Black Belt Certification - A Personal Experience
Together with the growing interest in and use of Six Sigma techniques comes the need to assess the qualifications of those seeking quality leadership roles in organizations. The ASQ certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB) exam is a practical and cost...
The Essential Six Sigma
The disciplined quality improvement features of Six Sigma methodology offers companies nearly all of the elements of Total Quality Management (TQM), and it is much easier to incorporate into a business system. In addition, Six Sigma utilizes technical...
Design for Six Sigma: 15 Lessons Learned
Despite its growing popularity, Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is a difficult transition for most companies. Six Sigma professionals from a number of major corporations share their experiences switching from a deterministic to a probabilistic design...
Column: Frontiers of Quality: Statistical Tools for Six Sigma
What to emphasize and de-emphasize in training
These tools and closely related concepts, such as the design of experiments, are key elements of Six Sigma training and comprise up to half of the standard curriculum. The goal of standard Six Sigma statistical training is to give Green Belts and Black Be...
How Do You Know the Change Worked?
you will find ( as we elsewhere mention) many of the experiments published by authors, or related to you by the person you converse with, false and unsuccessful ( besides this, I say), and you will meet with several observations and experiments which, th...
Learning From Mistakes
Through 42 I Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I J U N E 2 0 0 1 L E A R N I N G F R O M M I S TA K E S Current State Value Stream Map FIGURE 1 Yearly forecast Monthly orders Turn 01 I = 37,516 107 days I = 1,270 3.6 days I = 1,612 4.6 days I = 841 2.4 days ...
Column: Frontiers of Quality: Bottom-Line Success With Six Sigma
Define key process output variables and their effects on the cost of poor quality
Companies with profitable Six Sigma strategies are successful because they maintain effective infrastructures for selecting, supporting and executing projects. This article focuses on defining the project key process output variables (KPOVs): given to...
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...
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...
A New Way to Teach University Introductory Statistics Courses
At many organizations, statistical control processes like control charts and design of experiments are common and effective analytical tools for continuous quality improvement. Introductory statistics courses in university statistics departments would...
You don't have to be awful to be a statistician, but it helps.
Using experimental design to perfect products and processes
One strategy might be to examine combinations of ingredients in a two- level factorial design as seen in Table 1. A statistical thinking practitioner, however, would look at the entire process and wonder if a screening design of the various ingredients, ...
Integrating ISO 9001:2000 and the Baldrige Criteria
No single quality system, criterion, or philosophy will provide the solution to an organization's quality problems. A sound quality program can be implemented by an organization using ISO 9001:2000, the Baldrige Award and its criteria, and total...
Planning for Design of Experiments: A Case Study
Preparing before experimentation saves time, money and frustration
We decided to strengthen several processes by implementing design of experiments (DOE)--a quality tool the company hadn't used before. The team had planned to begin with the company's wave soldering process and intended to experiment with particular facto...
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....
Assessing the Quality Status of Research Organizations
Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I A P R I L 2 0 0 0 I 51 Assessing the Quality Status Of Research Organizations How to measure, control and improve performance through R& D by Al Endres R E S E A R C H A N D D E V E L O P M E N T ITHOUT THE ESTABLISHMENT O...
Quality for the Long Haul at Gerber
For the Gerber Products Co., quality has been a major part of the company's history of trust, commitment, and goodness. Even as early as the original efforts of Daniel and Dorothy Gerber in the 1920s, attention was paid to manufacturing processes and...
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...
A Road Map for Quality Beyond Control
This final installment in the "Quality in the 21st Century" helps quality professionals deal with seven problems noted earlier. First, to avoid imposing the one best way, hierarchies and control systems like the ISO 9000 series should give way to...
Cowboy Quality
Mikel J. Harry is the acknowledged leader in the theory and application of Six Sigma. Although Six Sigma is related to the concepts of variation and standard deviation, it goes beyond these ideas. While allowing for some uncontrollable fluctuation...
Total Quality Requires Serious Training
Simultaneous training of line workers and their direct supervisors is a key to successful implementation of total quality (TQ). A three-module training system is suggested. Module A covers a variety of topics that must be well integrated: an...
Implementing the Six Sigma Solution
Six sigma initiatives rely on quantitative, root-cause analyses and the comparison of customer requirements to business performance. Any business can use this method to solve its process problems. To do so, it must have good information about its...
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...
Reliability Improvement Issues and Tools
Weibull distributions can also represent products with either a decreasing hazard rate ( less than 1) or increasing hazard rate ( greater than 1). When equals 1 the Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I M A Y 1 9 9 9 I 135 Selling Reliability to Upper Manageme...
Using DOE to Determine AA Battery Life
Battery factors of cost, connector design type, and temperature were tested for differences in time to discharge and voltage drop. The study examined randomly selected, off-the-shelf AA batteries typically used by remote-control model car racers. The...
Quality Today: Recognizing the Critical SHIFT
Five inevitable trends in quality exist today and will continue to develop. First, quality goes softer, in that organizations must attend to the emotional, psychological, and social needs of their employees. Only then can teamwork, cross-functional...
The Emancipation of Quality: Building Bridges and Closing Gaps
The recent name change of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) is indicative of the future of the quality profession. Quality goes beyond quality control in manufacturing. It extends to all organizations and to all work. Quality is not only for...
Distance Learning in a Cyber Classroom
Quality Progress/ July 1998 43 HEN I FIRST CONSIDERED CONDUCTing A quality technology course on the Iowa Communications Network ( ICN), I assumed I would be joined by a couple of camera operators, a sound person, and maybe someone from makeup. Excellent...
Six Sigma and the Future of the Quality Profession
A lean quality organization that performs supporting roles is a trend in the quality profession. It already has appeared in businesses like General Electric and the now defunct Scott Paper Company. The supporting roles are management of the quality...
Benchmarking Your Plant Against TQM Best-Practices Plants: Part 2 of 4
The Rosemount Plant of the Emerson Electric Company is the second of four world-class operations described in a series of articles on quality practices. Rosemount has combined flexible manufacturing with total quality management (TQM) techniques and...
What Higher Education Should Be Teaching About Quality - But Is Not
A survey of colleges and universities revealed inadequate correlation between quality-related topics taught in schools and topics identified as important by winners of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The teaching of quality is vital in...
Benchmarking Your Plant Against TQM Best-Practices Plants: Part 1 of 4
technically trained but management oriented 7. Clear quality responsibilities for managers of all areas 8. Champions named to lead quality processes 9. Do a good job benchmarking competition Engineering- based practices 10. Practice concurrent engineerin...
Product Assurance Structure and Management
The main components of product assurance are: cost-of-quality management; just-in-time training; product assurance planning; and quality and reliability tool application. Product assurance applies simultaneously to hardware and software aspects of...
The Process Audit: Often Ignored but Never Insignificant
Assessment of a specific process within the quality system is the role of the process audit, which is also known as a mini, partial, or phased audit. Usually an internal audit, the process audit operates under an internal quality standard...
The Criteria: A Looking Glass to Americans' Understanding of Quality
Process Management is Category 6 in the 1997 criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA). As the sixth of seven installments on the Baldrige criteria, this article notes that the MBNQA is driven by values for which the criteria are...
Teaching Taguchi's Approach to Parameter Design
Uncontrollable factors Factor Level 1 Level 2 Launch height ( E) Standing on ground Standing on chair Launch angle ( F) Horizontal to ground 45 � above horizontal Ground surface ( G) Concrete Finished wood Table 3. L9 Orthogonal Array for Controllable Fa...
Another Look at "A Graphical Exploration of SPC"
The authors of "A Graphical Exploration of SPC" (May and June 1996 issues of Quality Progress) comment on readers' letters about their two-part article. Among the responses by Hoyer and Ellis are the following. Their examples using the normal...
What Should Higher Education Be Teaching About Quality?
These results correspond closely with the three generally accepted core values of TQM: � Customer focus � Continuous process improvement � Teamwork and participation That is, respondents generally agree that college graduates should: � Have an understand...
Small Companies Learn How to Design in Quality
The Design of Experiments (DOX) program at the University of New Hampshire is a partnership between industry and academia. Since 1992 DOX has helped 29 teams from small companies use designed experiments to improve their processes and products. Every...
What Went Wrong in U. S. Business's Attempt to Rescue Its Competitiveness?
Appropriate application of TQM (total quality management) and realistic expectations of its effects can prevent implementation failures. Definitions of TQM from the U. S. General Accounting Office and Department of Defense emphasize: employee...
