- Customer Satisfaction and Value
- Data Quality
- Engineering
- ISO 9000
- Leadership
- Lean
- Metrics
- Problem Solving
- Process Capability
- Process Management
- Project Management
- Quality Control
- Quality Function Deployment
- Quality Management
- Quality Tools
- Six Sigma
- Statistics
- Supplier Quality
- Teams
- Total Quality Management
- Risk Management
Contacts That Count
A team dedicated to improving member contact rates at Healthways Inc. pulled just about everything from its lean Six Sigma toolbox while working on a project and was recognized in ASQ’s International Team Excellence Award competition....
Expert Answers: August 2008
Flushing out flatness ... Corrective vs. preventive actions....
QFD's Evolution in Japan and the West
Although the theory of quality originated in the United States, early industrial applications predominantly took place in Japan. Yoji Akao conceived quality function deployment (QFD), a concept that is a vital management tool for new product...
One Good Idea: Under One Roof
Quality function deployment (QFD) is a great tool for designing a business based on the voice of the customer. Many quality tools are multifaceted....
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...
Shifting Quality Into High Gear
Park Place Lexus (PPL), located in the Dallas metropolitan area, is the first automobile dealership to win the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Determined not to be just another car dealership, PPL leaders looked outside the industry to...
One Size Does Not Fit All
It has been said that academia has lagged behind practice in the development of quality management methods and philosophies, yet academia has done a good job of propagating these concepts. Now academic research has developed two new concepts that will...
The House That Fraud Built
The downfall of several seemingly strong companies has recently occurred after the discovery of extensive and long-running management fraud. While the fraud may not have been readily apparent, certain key indicators act as early warning signs that can...
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...
How Useful Is QFD?
The author describes his experience mentoring high school students participating in the FIRST Robotics Competition, a multinational event that teams professionals and students to solve engineering problems. After a successful performance in the 2003...
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...
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...
Optimization Impossible?
A basic element in the implementation of a quality function deployment (QFD) project is combining customers' preferences to create an optimum product design. George A. Hazelrigg has questioned the validity of this approach, however, illustrating that...
Applying QFD to Internal Service System Design
Listening to the voice of the internal customer leads to the meeting of customer needs. A QFD (quality function deployment) project at the RRC (Research Resources Center) of the Tennessee Technological University College of Business Administration...
Make Customer Service Analyses a Little Easier With the PGCV Index
The index of potential gain in customer value (PGCV) is an enhancement of importance/performance (IP) analysis. It is especially useful in the public sector. As in other IP methods, data for PGCV are customer ratings of the importance and performance...
Becoming Partners with Internal Customers
Continuous surveys of local telephone company (telco) supply-order managers give GTE Supply the data it needs for quality improvements. Telco managers are internal customers at almost 200 warehouse locations, and the surveys have become the best way...
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...
Five Ways to Improve the Contracting Process
Quality function deployment (QFD), teaming, integrated planning, change management, and customer-focused metrics can solve many contracting problems. QFD assures that requirements specifications are clear and have input from customer and contractor....
ISO 9000 Preparation: The First Crucial Steps
When selecting the appropriate standard, consider the following factors: � Design process complexity � Design maturity � Production process complexity � Product or service characteristics � Product or service safety � Economics � Customer requirements Mo...
Avoid a Flop: Use QFD with Questionnaires
Matching a data collection tool to the problem under investigation is key to making good decisions. Quality function deployment (QFD) methods can do this for questionnaires. Phase 1 of the QFD method is to define the problem in measurable terms and...
Using QFD Becomes an Educational Experience for Students and Faculty
Correlating customer requirements with system design elements leads to quality improvement. A key tool in this process is quality function deployment (QFD). At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Mechanical Engineering Department used QFD to...
