- Cost of Quality
- Customer Satisfaction and Value
- Data Quality
- Engineering
- Environmental Manag. and Sustainability
- Global Quality
- Human Resources
- Innovation
- Inspection
- ISO 9000
- Leadership
- Lean
- Metrics
- Metrology
- Problem Solving
- Process Capability
- 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
- Software Quality
- Standards
- Statistical Process Control (SPC)
- Statistics
- Supplier Quality
- Teams
- Total Quality Management
- ISO/TS 16949
- Risk Management
- Information Management
- Customer Requirements
- Food Safety
- Economic Case for Quality
- Continuous Improvement
Expert Answers: November 2009
The TOPS way of getting to the root cause ... Repair vs. rework...
3.4 per Million: Digging the Holistic Approach
Few will argue we live in a dynamic world where change is accelerating. What often goes unnoticed is that along with this rapid change, there is the opportunity and the need to improve....
Moving Right Along
Art is knowledge kept in the artist’s mind. Science is knowledge that is documented. The goal of any lean organization is to transfer art to science: tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge. Applying lean to aid in the process of control is vital....
Career Corner: Out of Quality, Out of Business
Being lean used to be associated with poverty and starvation. Today, being lean refers to profitability and fitness, especially in business. Cutting corporate fat, or non-essentials, has become as important for organizational health as slimming down is...
Expert Answers: July 2009
Setting up a corrective action document ... Dock-to-stock for medical devices ... Questions about confidence intervals....
Back to Basics: Table Talk
There are many ways to determine how successful a process or project is. These methods normally involve detailed metrics and may include cycle-time reduction, number of process steps and customer satisfaction. However, the more improvement projects there...
All Ears
Imagine you are presenting the analysis and findings of a critical operational issue or proposed improvement project to senior management. You feel confident because you’ve thoroughly measured and analyzed the data....
Expert Answers: June 2009
Auditing management systems ... ISO 9001 trouble ... Crunching the numbers for product specifications....
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....
Pyramid Power
The next evolutionary step for Six Sigma could be a method called 6TOC (pronounced “six-tock”) that combines principles of lean Six Sigma with the theory of constraints....
Statistics Roundtable: In a Certain Way
Whenever we estimate a population parameter from a sample, in addition to providing a point estimate, we should also include an interval to characterize the associated uncertainty....
Human Touch
“No job is so important, nor service so urgent, that we cannot take the time to perform our work safely.” Those familiar with the old Bell System will remember this safety creed. It helped guide many decisions in potentially dangerous situations....
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....
Building From the Basics
Quality control is about models, methods, measuring and managing. It’s about uncovering a problem and finding the solution. It’s about using the right techniques at the right time to make things better....
Statistics Roundtable: Make Data Matter
Is data analysis an art or a science? Arguments exist for both sides, and many people simply come down in the middle: it’s both....
One Good Idea: Get Specific
Quality control or quality assurance personnel will typically be responsible for determining whether a lot of product conforms to specifications. Answering a few key questions is the first step toward the elimination of nonvalue-added product testing....
Drill Deep for Strategic Alignment
Internal auditors must understand an organization’s strategy and how each process fits into that strategy. Internal auditing for strategic alignment and execution requires that the auditor understand the organization’s desired strategy and how each proces...
Measure for Measure: Matter of Life and Death
In too many cases, lack of traceability is a daily occurrence. I'm not talking about the traceability of a batch or lot of product. I’m referring to the traceability of test instruments....
In the Know
More and more organizations are choosing outsourcing as a necessary means of remaining competitive in the global economy. Quality professionals must consider building a body of knowledge completely dedicated to the subject of quality in outsourcing....
Expert Answers: January 2008
Soft dollars and the bottom line ... Process maps: Where do you end?...
Quality in the First Person: Quality Principles and Alzheimer's
The author, a volunteer advocate with the Alzheimer's Association, shares how quality tools, such as failure mode effects analysis, can be used when caring for someone suffering from Alzheimer's disease....
DFX and DFSS: How QFD Integrates Them
The differences in concept and application between design for excellence (DFX) and design for Six Sigma (DFSS) are discussed, and it is shown how they can be effectively integrated by using quality function deployment. Quality must be built into a...
Using FMEA to Assess Outsourcing Risk
Although outsourcing is a growing trend among U.S. businesses, there are risks involved and not everyone benefits from such arrangements. The advantages of outsourcing must be weighed against risks and go beyond cost savings. Without a systematic...
The Innovation Process and Quality Tools
Cost control and product quality are only capable of sustaining competitive advantage. It takes product or service innovation to create competitive advantage in a global marketplace. Innovation consists of a series of steps like any other business or...
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...
Statistics Roundtable: Superiority, Equivalence and Non-inferiority
Most statistical tests are performed to show whether two measurements, processes, products or treatments are significantly different from each other and whether we can reject the null hypothesis....
Apply Six Sigma To Sales and Marketing
A common misconception regarding Six Sigma is that it applies only to manufacturing processes and that its fact-based problem solving methodology doesn't transfer to business processes such as marketing and sales. These people believe that a...
Annual Quality Awards
The Annual Quality Awards Listing is a guide to automotive, government, international, national, and state quality related awards. The list is organized by type, the award's name and sponsor, criteria, contact information, and notes. To be included in...
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...
The Histogram for Complex Parts
In the aerospace industry, production and procurement usually consists of infrequent lots of complex parts with relatively small lot sizes. Data are often insufficient to implement standard process assessment techniques. In these situations, a percent...
Simple Tools for Complex Systems
Complex problems don't always require complex solutions. Pareto analysis and process mapping are examples of simple tools that can reduce the defects of a complex manufacturing process. A high-tech manufacturer of electromechanical devices put these...
Feigenbaum's Enduring Influence
Armand V. Feigenbaum was one of the first engineers to recognize financial performance as an indicator of poor quality. Together with W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran, he established the intellectual framework for quality as a discipline worthy of...
Service + Quality: A Formula for Growth
Have you assessed your career goals and skills in relation to the job market lately?...
Lean Glossary
A glossary defines terms commonly associated with lean...
The Journey Never Ends
After more than five years of industrial experience, I decided to turn around my career and re-enter the academic world, perhaps trying to have a better understanding of process variation....
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...
TS 16949 – Where Did It Come From?
TS 16949 is an international fundamental quality management system specification for the automotive industry based on ISO 9000. It was developed at the request of automotive suppliers from the Big Three automakers' quality system assessment manuals,...
The Need To Use Standard Terminology
As most readers know, Phil Stein, the originator of this column, died unexpectedly on June 24, 2004. Phil was a good friend and mentor to me as I assumed an active leadership role in the Measurement Quality Division (MQD)....
Simple Tools Improve Complicated Processes
The combined use of simple lean/Six Sigma tools has enabled Wausau Window and Wall Systems in Wisconsin to benefit customers and shareholders by trimming costs and improving cycle times. The method uses fact based analytical tools and methodologies that...
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...
Annual Quality Awards Listing
The annual Quality Awards guide to automotive, government, international, national, and state quality awards lists the type of award, award name and sponsor, criteria, contact information, and notes. To be listed, awards must be quality related, must...
Stoner: Built on a Strong Foundation
Stoner Inc., a manufacturer of cleaning, lubrication, and coating products, was the 2003 winner of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the small business category. The company is run with only two operational levels: the leadership team that...
Selecting Design for Six Sigma Projects
Every organization maintains and constantly changes its portfolio of existing and future development projects. Portfolio management is about allocating resources within the organization to minimize risk and meet strategic goals....
Effective White-Collar Teams: The New Quality Imperative
In nonmanufacturing environments, quality has not had the impact that it has had in production environments because the input, process, output equation is less visible and more difficult to measure. In today’s competitive environment,...
Column: Standards Outlook: Characteristic Management
Executives sometimes wonder why their organizations still have quality problems, despite their best efforts to eliminate them. There are many possible causes and you've probably heard of some of them, such as lack of resources and lack of leadership or...
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...
Column: Statistics Roundtable: Making a Decision Under Uncertain Circumstances
Many quality engineers have never taken a formal course in how to make decisions under uncertainty. Instruction on how to perform statistical tests of hypotheses, such as t or chi-square tests, provides a form of decision making under uncertainty;...
Column: Standards Outlook: Ensure Medical Device Safety
A safe medical device is one that does not injure a patient, user or caregiver. Processes and procedures that ensure the manufacture of safe and effective products should be inherent in a medical device manufacturer's quality system....
Column: One Good Idea: The Importance of Improved Design
How product design affects significant factors in manufacturing
When a company learned that they were losing money manufacturing the most expensive winch in their catalog, they contacted a local professor of design for...
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...
Effective Strategic Planning
Many business leaders have difficulty translating their strategic planning strategies into business results. One reason is that carefully devised strategies are often poorly deployed and implemented. To successfully launch a business strategy, an...
Big Results With Less
Recent world events have put pressure on companies involved in security-related technologies and systems to rapidly increase their production. Garrett Metal Detectors was able to respond to a 300 percent increase in orders for its handheld and...
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....
Process Mapping's Next Step
The sophisticated technology of process simulation is explained from a nontechnical viewpoint. Simulation technology enables the accurate analysis of complex business processes. The key benefit is that all the analysis and testing take place in a...
Strategic Planning for Business Excellence
The quality revolution of the 1990s highlighted the importance of strategic planning to the success of quality management initiatives. Yet many companies and manufacturing facilities fail in the transition from an operational to a strategic way of...
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...
Column: Measure for Measure: Choose Your Words Carefully
We need to be more precise when talking about specifications and tolerances
We need to use more precise language when we talk about specifications and tolerances. The results are often important or even crucial, yet the words we use are approximate and sometimes just incorrect.
More frequent...
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...
9 Reasons to Switch to a Single Supplier System
Airtel Mobile Phone Services in Chandigarh, India manufactures electronic assemblies for automotive customers with stringent quality requirements. To improve quality, the firm switched from a multiple supplier system (MSS) to a single supplier system...
On Today's Menu: Quality
Despite concerted efforts by the food industry to comply with federal food safety regulations, the number of food safety incidents has been steadily increasing. Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is a quality management system that...
Uncertainty and destructive testing.
Measurement uncertainty can be determined, even in destructive testing
The fundamental principle of measurements, one I've discussed many times in this column, is that measurement uncertainty can be determined in most situations. If the process of measurement does not affect the item being measured, repeated measurements of ...
Column: Measure for Measure: Measuring for Keeps
Measurement uncertainty can be determined, even in destructive testing...
My process is too variable--now what do I do?
How to produce and use a successful multi-vari study
How to produce and use a successful multi- vari study by Ronald D. Snee Process Schematic FIGURE 1 The process Process outputs Controlled variables Customer Process inputs Uncontrolled noise variables Manufacturing Process Variables TABLE 1 Process input...
Column: Statistics Roundtable: My Process Is Too Variable--Now What Do I Do?
How to produce and use a successful multi- vari study by Ronald D. Snee Process Schematic FIGURE 1 The process Process outputs Controlled variables Customer Process inputs Uncontrolled noise variables Manufacturing Process Variables TABLE 1 Process input...
The process approach to QMS in ISO 9001 and ISO 9004.
Revisions make the two standards more straightforward and applicable to all organizations
The process approach is therefore one of the strongest approaches for integrating management system standards because each process must be managed and improved simultaneously for all process performance measures. Once process improvement opportunities are...
Column: Standards Outlook: The Process Approach to QMS In ISO 9001 and ISO 9004
This article is adapted from chapter two of the new Quality Press ASQ ISO 9000 Handbook edited by Charles A. Cianfrani, Joseph J. Tsiakals and John E. "Jack" West..] One of the most important aspects of the year 2000 revisions of ISO 9001 and ISO 9004...
Why Quality Gets an 'F'
No doubt those defenders of ISO 9001 and QS- 9000 who were forced to come to terms with the fact that the defective Firestone ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires were manufactured at ISO- 9001 and QS- 9000 certified facilities will not want to be reminde...
7 Steps to Improved Safety for Medical Devices
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 37 Sample HACCP Control Chart Incorporating Injection Molding Verification Procedures TABLE 2 1 Raw material receiving Foreign material in resin Effective supplier audit Audit pass Audit by trai...
Widgetcraft for One Small Paint Company
One tool we found useful during these meetings was an accountability sheet, where we kept track of our progress in relationship to our 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 73 Marcus Paint Co. Quality Policy Marcus Paint Co. is comm...
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...
Frontiers of Quality: Can It Be This Easy?
You can alter drawing practices to achieve Six Sigma, but only if you understand all the implications
In a fictitious scenario, the author weighs the virtues of altering drawing specifications against making breakthrough improvements when attempting to achieve a capability index of 2.0...
How To Evaluate the Internal Customer-Supplier Relationship
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 63 How To Evaluate the Internal Customer- Supplier Relationship Moving away from a command structure toward the use of quality principles by Peter Bialowas and Edith Tabaszewska S U P P L Y C H A I N M A ...
Teaching the Role of SPC in Industrial Statistics
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 89 Teaching the Role of SPC In Industrial Statistics Base the future of a process on statistical investigations of the past by Ralph L. Liberatore S T A T I S T I C S ISCUSSIONS CONCERNING STATIStical pro...
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...
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...
Measure for Six Sigma Success
Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 1 I 35 Measure for Six Sigma Success Combining measurement science with Six Sigma builds organization wisdom, big business advantages by Thomas A. Pearson M E A S U R E M E N T , I N S P E C T I O N A...
Using Corrective Action to Make Matters Worse (By Not Considering Variation)
One of the most important elements of a quality assurance program is the corrective action process. The success of the corrective action process depends on the commitment of management, but even in organizations where management is totally committed,...
Quality Awards Listing
The list includes national, international, state and regional quality awards and award programs and industry-specific quality awards programs. The listed awards are related to the practice of quality, do not limit eligibility to members of the...
Quality tools for metrology.
Many quality professionals need and use measurements every day in their work--from business measurements in quality management to dimensional and electrical measurements in manufacturing, research or design. Measurement assurance is a system of processes,...
Planning Data Configuration for Statistical Analysis
A greater availability of electronically collected data has allowed problems to be solved on the basis of data rather than intuition. The combination of quality initiatives with computerized data analysis packages means increased utilization of...
Continuous Process Improvement When It Counts Most
Managers are challenged to address the radical changes that have occurred in the manufacturing industry in the past two decades. Managers often use continuous process improvement and computer simulations to help them reduce waste, improve quality,...
Different Roads to Auto Quality: The Experts Speak Out
Product quality has become increasingly important in the automotive industry, but the definition of the term and the best ways to achieve product quality remain subjects of debate. Quality has been defined in a number of ways in the rapidly changing...
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...
A context for ISO 9001 and ISO 9004.
The Big Picture
* ISO 9001 quality management systems (including ISO 9002 and ISO 9003), which focus on process management. ISO 9000 in the listing of criticisms refers collectively to the requirement standards ISO 9001:1994, ISO 9002:1994 and ISO 9003:1994. ISO 9001 thr...
Column: Standards Outlook: The Big Picture: A Context for ISO 9001 and ISO 9004
[Abstract from article]
This is part four of a series of articles on the year 2000 revision of the ISO 9000 series. The first three articles explained changes in requirements, format, presentation, and terminology and in the processes and approaches...
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...
Comparing the Importance of Variation And Mean of a Distribution
An industrial case study
Capability studies indicate benefits of both methods Capability studies typically assume the data is normally distributed, but the measurement device was only 90 I Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I O C T O B E R 1 9 9 9 Comparing the Importance of Variatio...
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...
Complacency - the Enemy of Quality
Continuous improvement is necessary even for the best of organizations. Interviews by ASQ and Quality Progress demonstrate how three successful companies do not give into complacency. Manpower Inc. is the leader in the staffing services industry. To...
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...
Quality Management and Continuous Improvement at Campbell
Campbell's approach to HACCP Campbell began voluntarily implementing HACCP in its facilities in 1988 ( HACCP is now required for all United States Department of Agriculture ( USDA) and some Food and Drug Administration products). By staying ahead of the...
An Ounce of Prevention
Causes and effects are important targets of corrective and preventive action initiatives. Logical thinking is necessary for effectively moving from present effects or symptoms to past causes (in corrective action) and for removing the causes of...
Texas Nameplate Company: All You Need Is Trust
Improvements in nonconformance rates and cycle times at Texas Nameplate Company (TNC) rely on good measurements and an easy to understand gain-sharing plan. In 1992, TNC's total nonconformances as a percentage of billing was between 15% and 18%, the...
The Box-Jenkins Bounded Manual Adjustment Chart
A Graphical Tool Designed for Use on the Production Floor
The Box-Jenkins manual adjustment chart is a graphical methodology to be employed on the production floor....
At the Crossroads of Computing and Quality
Information technology has and will continue to influence quality management. The early days of quality management, in the 1930s to early 1960s, focused on statistical process control. During that time, the computer eventually became one of several...
Six Sigma: A Breakthrough Strategy for Profitability
Statistical tools and interventions can lead to major cost reductions and quality improvements. The six sigma strategy is a key to such breakthrough improvements. It involves measuring the capability of processes to produce services or products that...
Preventive Action vs. Corrective Action: The Horse, the Barn Door, and the Apple
Preventive action is more valuable than corrective action. The best approaches to preventive action are ongoing, systematic, deliberate, proactive, analytical, investigative, and predictive. A story about missed opportunities for prevention tells of...
The Stops and Starts of Total Quality Management
The journey to total quality management (TQM) at Techneglas started with a desire to develop an integrated approach to statistical process control (SPC). A steering committee and consultant soon expanded the SPC plan into a TQM implementation project...
Continuous Process Improvement the Quick Step Way
Eliminating waste and reducing the time between order receipt and payment receipt characterize the Quick Step method of continuous process improvement. Quick Step principles include: implementation of simple, small projects via quick and creative...
Advanced Quality Planning: A Guide for Any Organization
Implementation of advanced product quality planning (APQP) has long-term business advantages for any organization, while supporting the QS-9000 activities of firms in the automotive industry. This planning process, including a control plan (CP)...
