- Customer Satisfaction and Value
- Data Quality
- Environmental Manag. and Sustainability
- Global Quality
- ISO 9000
- Leadership
- Lean
- Metrics
- Metrology
- Problem Solving
- Process Management
- Product Development and Recall
- Project Management
- Quality Assurance
- Quality Function Deployment
- Quality Management
- Quality Tools
- Six Sigma
- Statistical Process Control (SPC)
- Statistics
- Teams
- Total Quality Management
- Information Management
- Change Management
- Continuous Improvement
Attitude Shift
In a used-car dealership group based in Richmond, VA, a lean culture change took place that started with a redesign of its process for reconditioning used cars and ended with numerous benefits, some of which it didn't expect....
Driven to Succeed
Strategic planning is an important element in quality management, as evidenced by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria. A strategic plan is the aim of an organization that helps to reduce variation related to possible strategic outcomes....
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....
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....
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....
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....
3.4 per Million: Putting It All Together
For companies that have been asking themselves how to achieve even more improvement, the answer lies in developing a comprehensive process management system that integrates three critical components....
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?)...
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....
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,...
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...
Our Place-Kicker Is Out of Control
In most business, reducing variation is essential. The same is true for football and other sports. In a parable about place kicking, the author explains how statistical process control and basic quality improvement tools can be used to better understand...
Craft a Meaningful Quality Policy
One way to align a quality management system policy with its objectives is to use the Ishikawa cause and effect (CE) method. These five steps will help management effectively structure a meaningful and integrated quality policy....
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...
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...
Offense and Defense
To improve its quality, an enterprise must fight two battles. It must prevent new problems, such as wear and tear on equipment, increasingly stringent customer requirements, new product introductions and employee turnover, from affecting its processes....
SPC: From Chaos to Wiping the Floor
Physicist Walter Shewhart, in tackling the problem of process control, began with the definition of control and went on to distinguish chance causes from assignable causes of variation. He believed that assignable causes could be found and eliminated....
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...
Penn State's Commitment to Quality Improvement
Penn State University's commitment to continuous quality improvement (CQI) began in 1991 when former executive vice president and provost John Brighton and former president Joab Thomas created a university council on continuous quality improvement...
A Road Map to Six Sigma Quality
At the very least, the champion must have the authority to reject 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 25 Road Map Implementation Steps FIGURE 1 1. Appoint a Champion 2. Select a cross functional team 3. Develop quantifiable goals 4....
Expect the Unexpected
Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I O C T O B E R 2 0 0 1 I 49 Expect the Unexpected Enterprise information system at water resource department improves process, quality and customer service by Bruce Kissinger and S. Thomas Foster Jr. E N T E R P R I S E R E...
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...
Column: Emerging Sectors: The Evolution of a Quality Culture
Pilot program leads to a major award for Kelly Services' Houston Region
Based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria for performance excellence, the Kelly Quality Management System (KQMS) serves as Kelly's blueprint for strategically building and enhancing its quality practices. KQMS is comprised of seven...
Supercharging Your Pareto Analysis
While many companies train employees in quality and encourage the use of quality tools, they must also work to minimize the risk that such tools will be used inappropriately. Pareto analysis represents one of the basic tools of quality. Pareto charts...
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,...
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....
Total Quality Management in Higher Education
A continuous quality improvement (CQI) team in the Admissions Office at Lamar University is using the plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle for improving its services. Total quality management (TQM) initiatives had been needed at Lamar, because of declining...
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...
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...
Insights into Organizational Self-Assessments
Baldrige Award-based self-evaluations of management systems and organizational performance include: full-length and short written narratives; the Likert scale survey; and the behaviorally anchored survey. A full-length narrative has a maximum of 50...
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...
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...
Does Higher Education Practice What It Teaches?
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Quality Pioneers in Education Provide Immeasurable Value to Students
Expenses that need to be budgeted for to support a Koalaty Kid school include: � Two years of Koalaty Kid training, which includes basic and train- the- trainer training � Travel expenses for Koalaty Kid instructors � Substitute- teacher costs � Suppleme...
How to Teach Others to Apply Statistical Thinking
An interactive session on statistical thinking involved realistic scenarios worked on by teams of conference attendees and a panel of experts. Unlike statistical methods, statistical thinking is a learning and action philosophy. It is based on...
TQM Within FORTUNE 500 Corporations
96.7% Yes 3.3% No ( n = 92) 10. If such quality teams exist, are they put together by: 17.0% Management 4.6% Employees with an interest in the area or problem 78.4% Both ( n = 88) 11. When quality teams are formed to address issues of concern within the ...
Charting New Territory
Health care applications of flowcharts, cause-and-effect (fishbone) diagrams, and control charts were developed by a team of nurses and a surgeon in an outpatient surgery facility. Flowcharts identified the movement of patients through the facility,...
A Case for Koalaty Kid
Quality tools and self-directed learning have fostered improvements at the Madison Street School of Basics Plus in Ocala, FL. Under the Koalaty Kid program, staff of this kindergarten through fifth grade school have received training and other support...
Quality and Its Environment in 2010
Four scenarios of the year 2010 have been developed by the American Society for Quality Control Futures Team. First, the global reality scenario is one of worldwide wealth and technological revolution. The information society of 2010 is surrounded by...
Sharing the Wealth: TQM Spreads from Business to Education
The 14 points of W. Edwards Deming have applications for total quality education (TQE) in the West Babylon, NY, School District. This student-focused TQE initiative relies on the commitment of the superintendent and board of education as well as the...
How to Prevent Teams from Failing
Successful teamwork relies on the individual responsibilities of each team member and onthe group dynamics of the team itself. The team leader facilitates success by judicious use of leadership styles found in The Leader's Window, as team development...
Pennsylvania Builds Tomorrow's Work Force
School-business partnerships have brought quality improvement to the Lehigh Valley. The eighteen partnerships use an enhanced version of the Koalaty Kid program. Cross-functional project teams and project-by-project improvement have built on the...
How to Construct a Basic Quality Manual
by William R. Hamilton W Figure 1. Flowchart for Constructing a Basic Quality Manual Review quality manuals Construct a draft Edit and modify Document why not Make quality manual a controlled document Print copies for distribution Present a construction ...
Finding and Implementing Best Practices in Higher Education
Benchmarking of course content is a method for improving the quality of higher education. A survey of 26 business school administrators suggests that the practice is rare. Educators feel that a multitude of variables makes it difficult if not...
