- Cost of Quality
- Customer Satisfaction and Value
- Environmental Manag. and Sustainability
- Human Resources
- Innovation
- ISO 14000
- Leadership
- Lean
- Metrics
- Problem Solving
- Process Management
- Quality Control
- Quality Tools
- Six Sigma
- Social Responsibility
- Statistical Process Control (SPC)
- Supplier Quality
- Teams
- Theory of Constraints
- Total Quality Management
- Information Management
- Customer Requirements
- Economic Case for Quality
- Change Management
- Continuous Improvement
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....
Online Sidebar Creasy
The evolution to 6TOC includes its predecessors, Six Sigma, lean manufacturing, lean Six Sigma and the theory of constraints...
Change That Sticks
Process improvement is gaining more attention as organizations face budget cuts, competition from developing markets overseas and a challenging economy....
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....
It All Ties Together
At a time when gas costs have skyrocketed and companies across the board are doing their bit to be greener, a team of individuals from CSX Corp. came together to develop a solution to combat the large amount of fuel wasted while locomotives sat idling....
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...
ASQ Certification Board Puts Quality Tools to Work
Recognizing the importance of customer satisfaction in strategic planning, the ASQ certification board recently used quality tools to develop customer requirements. To begin the process, a SIPOC (suppliers, inputs, outputs, and customers) diagram was...
The Power of Process Orientation
Hidden barriers to the success of continuous improvement programs exist in most companies and often transcend tactics applied to produce cultural change. These cultural conditions are not always obvious, but their symptoms include organizational silos...
Quality in the First Person: From Software Programmer to Quality Pro: The Road Less Traveled
Like many quality professionals, I did not intend to become one. I started out with the selfish goal of looking for improvements that would benefit me....
Career Corner: How To Become an Internal Consultant
This article is not about how to become an external consultant - it is about enriching your quality job by assuming a role of internal consultant....
The Dark Side of Process Measurement
The analysis of measurement data allows process operators to detect and control unwanted variation and enables process breakthroughs. However, without careful introduction, process measurement can cause widespread damage in an organization. Human nature...
The Human Side of Change Leadership
Even carefully planned efforts to introduce change can be short lived if the human element is neglected or left to chance. When planning a change it is important to identify potential resistance to the changes and then design motivation into the...
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....
Translate Know-What Into Know-How
Organizational change is a much more difficult challenge than we've been led to believe....
Column: Emerging Sectors: Cost Reduction 101
Despite advances in e-mail technology, mass mailings remain an integral communication tool for large organizations, especially colleges and...
AQP Awards Promote Business Results
QUALITY PROGRESS I JUNE 2003 I 31 AQP Awards Promote Business Results by Glenn Bodinson and Raymond Bunch he Association for Quality and Participation ( AQP), now an ASQ affiliate organization, launched its National Team Excellence Award competition in 1...
Do Teams and Six Sigma Go Together?
Team involvement is an integral part of any successful Six Sigma implementation. Research shows that Six Sigma rates high in providing an organization with improvements in productivity, cost of quality, work flow, and cycle time reduction. Survey...
Column: Back to Basics: Process Improvement
Even minor changes can make an impact
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After her first attempt to lead a process-improvement team failed to yield workable strategies, the author used an example from her...
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...
Capturing Financial Benefits From Six Sigma
As the team moves from the define to the control stage of the DMAIC methodology, the accounting and finance SME plays an influential role, as shown in Table 1. 40 I Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I M A Y 2 0 0 1 C A P T U R I N G F I N A N C I A L B E N E...
How to Stay Flexible and Elude Fads
Business process management is a comprehensive approach that goes beyond any single improvement technique. Benefits of its team orientation in the flat organization include process improvement and competitive advantage. The most essential processes...
The Value-Added Ratio
The value-added ratio (VAR) can measure improvement in all processes in all organizations. For a given process, VAR equals the time devoted to process steps of interest to the customer divided by the total process cycle time. The typical VAR is less...
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...
The TQEM-ISO 14001 Connection
Environmental thinking should be integrated into all company functions. A tool for total quality environmental management (TQEM) is the ISO 14001 standard. Some organizations have gone beyond the ISO 14001 baseline, but initial steps in any TQEM...
The Five Drivers of Total Quality
Service to customers, employees, and the business itself is the mission of the Menasha Corporation. A hierarchy of five drivers of quality implements this mission. People quality is the driver with the most influence. This requires selecting the...
