- Auditing
- Cost of Quality
- Customer Satisfaction and Value
- Data Quality
- Design of Experiments
- Engineering
- Environmental Manag. and Sustainability
- Global Quality
- Human Resources
- ISO 14000
- ISO 9000
- Leadership
- Lean
- Metrology
- Problem Solving
- Process Management
- Product Development and Recall
- Project Management
- Quality Assurance
- Quality Control
- Quality Function Deployment
- Quality Management
- Quality Tools
- Safety
- Sampling
- Six Sigma
- Small Business
- Social Responsibility
- Software Quality
- Standards
- Statistical Process Control (SPC)
- Statistics
- Supplier Quality
- Teams
- Best Practices
- Total Quality Management
- Compliance
- Certification/Registration (management system Standards)
- Information Management
- Customer Requirements
- Economic Case for Quality
- Continuous Improvement
Ask, and Ye Shall Receive
Journalists are experts in managing conversational flow and encouraging people to open up and provide vital information. Their techniques can serve auditors well as they navigate the frustrating quagmire of audit and assessment interviews....
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....
New Frontiers
Self-declared or interview-based surveys are a prime research tool in many application areas, such as risk management, customer satisfaction tracking and social science research....
In a Perfect World
During an interview with QP, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill speaks about the U.S. healthcare system, the signs of economic calamity everyone ignored, and the U.S. government's resistance to the quality way of thinking....
Expert Answers: April 2009
Auditing your new company ... ISO 9001 coverage ... Dealing with wishy-washy management....
Off the Ground
None of the 4,000 fasteners that were hand drilled into the fuselage of any C-17 cargo plane was misaligned or had gone missing. For years, Boeing has been building these top-notch planes. It just wanted to build them better....
Practice What You Teach
Many education institutions do not have a foundation conducive to sustainability efforts. For many, change will be cumbersome. Opportunities exist, however, and persistence will be an ally....
Cause and Effect
Cause and effect tree analysis—also known as fault tree analysis—begins with a known event, referred to as the top event, and describes possible combinations of events and conditions that can lead to this event....
Expert Answers: January 2009
Indirect measures of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction can include the number of referrals and recommendations made by customers, market share, sales, repeat sales and customer retention. Some companies can make use of customer satisfaction data p...
No Longer Waiting for Answers
The emergency department at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, NC is often stretched beyond capacity. Patient volume in the 43-bed ED has jumped 34% in the past four years, and more than 86,000 people are expected to seek care there this year....
Smooth Approach
Traditional internal audits fulfill a need for companies with fresh ISO 9001 implementations. But for organizations with mature systems, an innovative approach called an appreciative internal quality audit can take them beyond compliance to excellence....
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...
10 Auditing Rules
All auditors receive training in the basics of planning, conducting and reporting audits. Unfortunately, this is the only training many ever receive....
Career Corner: Turn Trauma to Triumph
The stress of job loss affects each person differently, both physically and emotionally. The site pulls in jobs from other job boards such as Monster, CareerBuilder, Yahoo Hot Jobs, USA Jobs, and local or regional newspapers, depending on the ZIP code ent...
Better Safe Than Sorry
Last year’s record number of product recalls, especially recalls of children’s toys, drew worldwide attention to product safety and defective products. The recall stories topped newscasts and made headlines in newspapers coast to coast....
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....
Mind Your Meetings
Managers and executives spend an inordinate amount of time in the estimated 11 million meetings held in the United States every day....
A Gold Medal Solution
By using quality tools, a team from Boeing came up with solutions that eliminated the unsafe conditions that occurred during installation of the details in aircrafts' tailcones....
Expert Answers: March 2008
Outlook on outsourcing ... When does Six Sigma suffice?...
A Less Costly Billing Process
Applying lean Six Sigma techniques can identify root causes, streamline the billing process and reduce errors. After describing the concepts of lean and Six Sigma, this article illustrates how companies can apply lean Six Sigma techniques to identify root...
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....
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...
One Good Idea: Process Optimization for Service Organizations Isn't Rocket Science
The following is intended for service industry people who are mostly clueless about quality improvement. (You manufacturing people can skip the page because you already get this, right?)...
Deployment: Start Off on the Right Foot
Deploying lean Six Sigma can produce fantastic results that are worth all the hard work of deployment. Managing change, securing leadership commitment, managing talent, and getting the right accountability will make the difference between a...
Career Corner: Behavioral Interviewing--Find Your Star
One of the newer trends in interviewing job candidates is to use behavioral interviewing techniques. When I was first exposed to behavioral interviewing, I was unsure and skeptical....
Reaching Out to CEOs
Interested in promoting quality as an agent of profit and prosperity, ASQ asked the Pittsburgh section to participate in a pilot run of the Economic Case for Quality by surveying local business leaders to determine how they perceived the impact of...
Hospital Reduces Medication Errors Using DMAIC and QFD
The medication error rate at Illinois' Alton Memorial Hospital was low when compared to national statistics, but the hospital knew cost savings would be significant if this statistic was lowered even further. A multidisciplinary team sought the help of...
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...
Getting Credit for Service
Experian Marketing Services (EMS) considers quality management a critical part of its commitment to its clients. Last year EMS looked to ISO 9001 certification as a way to extend its established project management program. EMS identified more than 100...
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...
Quality in the First Person: The Right Place at the Right Time
When I was working on my master's degree at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in the late 1940s, it was an exciting time to be associated with quality control....
Lean Lessons: Value Stream Mapping--an Introduction
Value stream mapping (VSM) can be an extremely powerful tool, combining material processing steps with information flow as well as other important related data. VSM is arguably one of the most powerful lean tools for an organization......
60 Years and Still Going Strong
This year the American Society for Quality marks its 60th anniversary with a special website devoted to its celebration. Thirteen surviving founders shared their insight into how the quality profession and ASQ have changed over the years. Responses to...
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...
Career Corner: Competence and Confidence Count
A core career value is a combination of competence and confidence: realistic and objective confidence you have the skills to achieve in the world of work and believing those skills are a positive contribution....
Link Satisfaction To Market Share and Profitability
Organizations seeking to link customer satisfaction data to profitability can choose from a variety of business outcome measures. However, the level of customer interaction varies among industries, making it difficult to link customer satisfaction to...
Manage Complaints To Enhance Loyalty
Every customer complaint represents a chance to correct a flawed process, educate a customer, and strengthen loyalty. But unless management can quantify the return on investment of complaint handling, they won't see the link between complaint handling...
Corral Your Organization's Knowledge
One useful method of determining organizational performance is to assess how well it manages critical knowledge. Definitions of knowledge management may vary, but they generally fit into one of four categories: Information technology, organizational...
Improve Schools With Empowerment Based Models
Most school administrators have been slow to adopt the quality practices mandated by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Only three school districts have received the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award since the sector's entry. Top-down approaches for...
Genentech Error Proofs Its Batch Records
Like other firms subject to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation, Genentech must provide complete and accurate documentation of processes. In September 2003 an error-proofing project was launched by the good manufacturing practices core team at...
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....
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...
Senior Citizens Get It Done
Stop now! Enter this column only if you meet admission requirements. Those who fail to meet the standard of being a confirmed senior citizen need not apply. Discrimination against young people is in progress....
What's Wrong With Six Sigma?
Many organizations experience disappointment with the results of their Six Sigma deployment efforts. This is because they may be applying Six Sigma on too grand a scale, when, in fact, its tools may be used separately or combined with other techniques....
Try Some Introspection
Don't just look for a job that fits what you have always been doing - especially if you are frustrated in your search for a job in the same field or particular geographic area....
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....
Stoplight Charts (With SPC Inside)
Many balanced scorecards use stoplight charts to track defects. Colors for the chart are set by comparing current results with target thresholds. Software that automates the process results in an operation that is quick and efficient, but which may be...
Next generation ISO 14001.
ISO 14001, the international standard on environmental management system (EMS) requirements, has been undergoing review and revision for five years....
Next Generation ISO 14001
ISO 14001, the international standard on environmental management system (EMS) requirements, has been undergoing review and revision for five years....
The Image and Reality of Excellence
Medical device manufacturer Medrad Inc. was the only company in the manufacturing sector to receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for 2003. The company has been involved with Baldrige since the award’s inception fifteen years ago....
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 Where and Y: A 1-2-3 Model for Project Success
A Six Sigma project may take longer to establish if key players fail to provide Green and Black belts with appropriate definitions of problems and goals for improvement projects. While the purpose of a Six Sigma improvement project should be focused on...
A Software Company’s TL 9000 Success Story
When Ulticom, a small software product company, set out to establish a quality management system it considered a number of international standards before pursuing registration to TL 9000, the telecommunications quality management standard based on ISO...
Put Some SAAS in Your Career
Have you ever wondered why friends, associates or co-workers get ahead faster or move on to other positions? Have you ever assessed your own career?...
Move From Product to Customer Centric
Can a 50-year-old manufacturer of industrial products become a customer centric organization? How can a traditionally product centric company learn to listen systematically to its customers?...
Turn Your Customers Into Interns
You may have been here before: You just signed a contract to have a house built. You’re excited at the prospect and can’t wait to move in. Obviously, with the contract just signed, your move in date is far off....
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 ...
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...
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...
Gain a Competitive Edge By Preventing Recalls
Product recalls are a serious problem for consumer products companies. Each year, thousands of products representing hundreds of millions of product units are recalled in the United States for safety reasons....
ASQ's World Partners
One of ASQ's objectives is to become a global advocate for excellence and a provider of information and learning opportunities about quality. Having decided to take a more active role in collaborating with existing national quality associations, ASQ is...
From Good to Great
In his book "Good to Great," Jim Collins noted that good is the enemy of great. Central College in Pella, Iowa is a "good" college that faces the challenge of how to become a great institution. Central found its agent for change in David Roe, whose...
Create a Lean, Mean Machine
"Lean" has been defined as a systematic approach to identifying and eliminating waste through continuous improvement. Lean focuses on value added flow of resources from the customer’s point of view. To compete in today’s economy a company must...
A Global Approach to ISO 9000
The implementation of quality management standards across multiple sites within an organization presents unique challenges. Johnson Controls' Government Systems and Services (GSS) changed its ISO 9000 approach and turned it into a model system for its...
Column: Frontiers of Quality: Design for Six Sigma
You need more than standard Six Sigma approaches to optimize your product or service development
Many organizations believe design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is a design process when really it is not. DFSS is an enhancement to an existing new product development (NPD) process that provides more...
Mine Customer Experiences
Customer feedback is a valuable source of information that provides organizations with a sound basis for making product improvements. An affinity diagram permits organization of vast amounts of quantitative data to identify patterns or groupings to...
ISO 9001:2000 and Customer Satisfaction
One of the most important changes in ISO 9001:2000 is the inclusion of customer satisfaction data as an indicator of the value of processes adopted by an organization. Three of the most significant improvements are provisions that: Require registrants...
Column: Career Corner: How To Work With Recruiters
(pages 85 and 87)
[abstract from article]
As quality professionals assume more personal responsibility for developing their careers, asking how recruiters can help is a natural question. Bill, Dave and Paul, three recruiters who place quality...
Don't Measure Customer Satisfaction
Evaluation criteria for major quality awards and certificates require businesses to gather customer satisfaction feedback, yet few managers find much use for this information. Many fail to see a correlation between customer satisfaction scores and the...
It Might Not Be Your Product
Quality assurance managers respond to customer complaints with the assumption that the problem is product or service failure. Often, however, the cause isn't the fault of the product itself but is due to incorrect use or unreasonable expectation by the...
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...
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...
Column: Emerging Sectors: Linking Strategic and Quality Plans
Baldrige assessment helps a Connecticut hospital overcome barriers to success, meet challenges and play on its strengths
The results were impressive when Hartford Hospital in Connecticut used a Baldrige assessment to guide it through improvement efforts. In the mid-1990s, the 845-bed urban teaching institution was going through major change and challenge. A new...
10 Steps to a Baldrige Award Application
Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I A U G U S T 2 0 0 1 I 49 10 Steps To a Baldrige Award Application Even if you don't win, the feedback is invaluable; and even if you don't apply, the self- assessment will do wonders for your organization by C. W. Russ Rus...
A Quick, Accurate Way to Determine Customer Needs
Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I J U L Y 2 0 0 1 I 85 The Project Process and Phases FIGURE 2 Workshop 1 Keep open, no assumptions Phase one Discovery Phase two Validation of findings Strategy development Recommendations for action Workshop 2 Workshop 4 W...
Column: Standards Outlook: Auditing ISO 9001:2000.
Challenges arise because some of the requirements aren't specific or traceable
Because many of its clauses are nonprescriptive--they don't contain specific or traceable requirements--some quality professionals are expressing concern about the auditability of ISO 9001:2000, the new quality management standard. Without...
Quality Approach Supports Engineering Education Reform
Currently in its ninth year of operation, SUCCEED has made substantial progress in producing this systemic reform on its member cam- Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I J U L Y 2 0 0 1 I 75 Quality Approach Supports Engineering Education Reform This 10- step...
Lessons Learned
Despite the difficulty of transferring technology and methodology from one culture to another, a team from Raytheon has successfully conducted Six Sigma based tactical transformation workshops for Raytheon Business units, their customers, and suppliers...
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 ...
The Tip of the Iceberg
I have seen too many organizations reduce costs by eliminating essential product or service fea- 30 I Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I M A Y 2 0 0 1 T H E T I P O F T H E I C E B E R G Six Sigma and the Bottom Line FIGURE 1 Good price Market share Fast cy...
Column: Career Corner: So You Want To Go Solo?
Consulting is not for those desiring routine and low risk. For those with the knowledge, daring, persistence and willingness to listen, however, the rewards more than make up for the surprises....
Resolving The Process Paradox: A strategy for launching meaningful process improvement
The strategy is comprised of four phases ( see Figure 1). Phase 1, data collection, collects the information and data needed for 52 I 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 R E S O LV I N G T H E P R O C E S S PA R A D O X Process Portfolio Ma...
Business Process Orientation: Do You Have It?
The current business environment, characterized by global competition, demanding customers, and e-commerce, requires the best organizations to become faster, more flexible, and customer-focused. Process orientation and process reengineering are concepts...
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...
Hustle, That's All
The Earle M. Jorgensen Company has always focused on service quality. The company, which distributes steel and aluminum bar, tube, and plate products in the U.S. and Canada, has found its commitment to service quality to be both a blessing and a...
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...
Customer Satisfaction at a Software Support Call Center
Using a methodology developed by Gary Klein, a company that provides technical support to software publishing firms increased customer satisfaction rates at its call center by 43 percent in a one-month period. Klein's method seeks to determine how...
Managing Customer Value
In order to manage organizations toward value, a definition of customer value is needed. No clear framework for thinking about customer value or for constructing a definition has yet been developed, however. A useful way to conceptualize customer...
Using Calibration in an Office Environment
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics applies industry's concept of calibration to the production of cognitive activities rather than tangible products in an office environment. Data collected by the BLS must satisfy various criteria for...
Baldrige and the Human Equation In Health Care Mergers
This preliminary research was used to create a draft survey that was presented to an employee opinion survey team, which was responsible for the entire survey process. The ECI uses the results of multiple questions about employee loyalty to the organizati...
Research: The Key to Quality Policies and Procedures
A structured research plan for analyzing a business process is the key to writing quality policies and procedures. Comprehensive and accurate policies and procedures are essential for meeting documentation requirements of standards like the ISO 9000...
Unusual Data and Other Information
Job opportunities vary widely from industry to industry, but everyone feels pretty good. If you've been with a company for more than five years, change your perceptions and expectations of this new job market. About 63% of employers say the job candidate ...
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...
Transforming Government for Its Customers
Innovative public management, not just technology, is key at state and local level
Innovation is much more difficult in government than in the private sector, as the Ford Foundations Awards Program for Innovations in State and Local Government has found. Technology alone will not transform government; rather, it is an integral component...
Quality in Banking Starts with Four Assessments
Assessments help banks learn how to improve customer and employee satisfaction, internal quality, company culture, and operating cost systems. One large assessment area covers the four components of the cost of poor quality. Internal failure costs...
Improving Customer Satisfaction through Mass Customization
The voice of the customer is needed for development of customized products. Mass customization combines the mass production of traditional manufacturing with large-scale output of one-of-a-kind products. Customer involvement in mass customization can...
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 ...
ISO 9000 Revisions Are Key to Knowledge Age Excellence
36 I Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I J U L Y 1 9 9 9 I S O 9 0 0 0 R E V I S I O N S A R E K E Y T O K N O W L E D G E A G E E X C E L L E N C E Steps to Gain Added Value From ISO 9000 Because many companies would flunk ISO 9000 basics, let alone know ho...
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...
Reading and Writing and Quality
Linking business and classroom success in a Michigan
Initially, teachers shouldn't assume students know what quality means. But where do teachers begin if they want to introduce the idea of quality to students? By being actively involved in the search for quality, students become keenly aware of the importa...
