- Cost of Quality
- Customer Satisfaction and Value
- Data Quality
- Design of Experiments
- Engineering
- Environmental Manag. and Sustainability
- Global Quality
- Human Resources
- Innovation
- ISO 14000
- ISO 9000
- Leadership
- Lean
- Metrics
- Problem Solving
- Process Capability
- Process Management
- Product Development and Recall
- Quality Control
- Quality Management
- Quality Tools
- Six Sigma
- Standards
- Statistical Process Control (SPC)
- Teams
- Total Quality Management
- Information Management
- Food Safety
- Economic Case for Quality
- Change Management
- Continuous Improvement
Critical Stage
Has Six Sigma been a good thing? While this is a straightforward question, there isn’t a simple answer....
Change That Sticks
Process improvement is gaining more attention as organizations face budget cuts, competition from developing markets overseas and a challenging economy....
The Quality Professional as Organizational Gardener
Many quality professionals understand that the answers to these questions require the ability to envision their organizations as living entities, existing within their understanding of systems theory. We work with organizations and people, not on organiza...
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...
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...
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...
After Six Sigma - What's Next?
A systematic scientific approach is fundamental to dealing with problems of variability that cause costly defects and quality problems. This idea has remained the foundation of numerous incarnations of quality management and is the basis of the current...
Minimize Your Waste Line
Many companies see the enthusiasm surrounding new quality initiatives wane once the immediate benefits decrease and realities of day-to-day operational procedures override long term goals. While no plan can provide instant, lasting improvement, the...
Quality Challenges in Global Companies
Quality management system implementation in multinational corporations is often hindered by factors related to cultural differences among its affiliates. A survey indicates major factors affecting QMS implementation include cultural limitations,...
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,...
What Do CEOs Think About Quality
Quality professionals can count on the support of the American Society for Quality when justifying the cost of quality to upper management. ASQ has conducted a survey of top executives in manufacturing, service, healthcare, and education to determine...
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Methods
Using statistical methods in quality management systems (QMSs) has been discussed ever since the advent of total quality management (TQM) and ISO 9000 certification. Yet statistics remain an often neglected component of quality management systems....
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....
A Quality Way To Lose Weight
I have seen the light! Quality tools can be a way to improve personal lives....
Quality's Six Life Cycle Stages
A tool referred to as “quality life cycle” provides a strategic mechanism to chart and sustain quality while proactively countering shortcomings of its implementation, such as stagnation and limited application, which can ultimately result in failure....
ISO 9000 Makes Integrated Systems User Friendly
Organizations need management systems that are based on processes or activities that help personnel understand what is essential to achieving continual improvement on a consistent basis....
Lean and Six Sigma – Synergy Made in Heaven
The combination of Six Sigma and lean enterprise work can enhance the production experience. Workers have the empowerment and skill to recognize a problem and, if it cannot be resolved, shut down the line to eliminate the root cause. Six Sigma and lean...
An Integrated Approach System
What’s the best quality system? How would you answer this question? How would your colleagues?...
Baldrige: It’s Easy, Free and It Works
While many people consider the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria to be difficult, a harder task is learning how to manage opportunities for improvements instead of managing known strengths. While Baldrige may not have the answers, it...
Systems Thinking – An Uncommon Answer
Some of the common problems to be found in many business failures include too much focus on short-term gains, too much focus on quarterly profit statements, and a prevalence of long-term losses. One possible solution to these problems is systems...
Complexity Theory Simplifies Choices
Many business management and improvement methodologies provide finite structures for achieving success. Examples include the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award; the ISO 9001 standard; W. Edward Deming, who provided 14 points; and Six Sigma....
Quality Management Multiple Choice: What’s the best quality system?
Monitoring and recording the extent of transition experienced within a designated area assure Procedure ( general) Priority Reviewed Completed Record control Document control Internal audits Management review Corrective action Preventive action Monitorin...
QOS – A Simple Method for Big or Small
Although there are many quality initiatives in the marketplace, many of them involve a degree of hype. Ford Motor Company’s quality operating system (QOS) is recommended as one offering the most value for the money. A QOS assessment looks at...
Hungary's Journey To Business Excellence
Hungary has emerged as a major European success story, its economy thriving despite the recent worldwide recession. Four Hungarian companies illustrate how quality has led to business success. Using total quality management techniques tailored to fit...
The Changing Role of Quality Professionals
In the spring of 2002 a survey ASQ Fellow Members was conducted asking opinions and comments on the changing role of the quality professional. A brief compilation of survey results is presented, along with some predictions of expected directions...
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...
Measuring Quality In the Department of Defense
Events of Sept. 11th reinforce the finance and accounting division's transition to a customer focused, strategy based organization
In July 2000, Tom Bloom, our director, saw the need for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) to move to a customer focused, strategy based organization, structuring our efforts along business and product lines. We can compare the quality of a...
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...
Column: Emerging Sectors: Measuring Quality In the Department of Defense
The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) is the accounting arm of the DoD. The deputy secretary of defense directed the consolidation of the finance and accounting operations of the various military departments and...
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...
Journey to the Baldrige
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 51 Journey to the Baldrige For winners of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the coveted honor is just one step in their ongoing quest for performance excellence by Debbie Phillips- Do...
Column: Measure for Measure: By Their Measures Shall Ye Know Them
Measurement results can cause undesired behaviors
When people are measured, they tend to operate in a way that optimizes the measurement result, even though to do so may be counterproductive or even silly. When this happens, the measurement system is distorted and doesn't drive the...
Quality Professionals Around the World Share Similar Concerns, Experiences
The International Chapter of ASQ has grown from about 25 members in 1956 to more than 5,000 members in about 90 countries by 2000. Quality professionals worldwide want to hold on to a core set of principles, and similar challenges face the quality...
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....
A Success Story From Australia
Small printer's ISO 9000 effort wins converts to its self-adhesive label technology
In 1996, only six months after of implementation of the quality system, the company achieved ISO 9000 certification. Some organizations misunderstand the purpose and scope of the ISO 9000 standards and develop a documentation system that's based on the 20...
Too Many Types of Quality Problems
Categorizing problem types can help practitioners in the quality field to focus their attention on relevant past experiences and problem solving techniques. This approach requires the definition of appropriate problem categories and communicating them...
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...
It's All About Improving Performance
Teams should be aware of their problem solving and decision making methods. This meta-problem solving and meta-decision making information can improve team performance of its four basic activities: define the problem; collect data to verify root...
How a Team Can Grow
Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I J U N E 1 9 9 9 I 53 How a Team Can Grow Goal is to become self- directed by D. Keith Denton EAM MANAGEMENT IS A BIG DEAL, WITH EVERY ORGANIZATION seeming to be implementing some form of it. Assembly workers, for instance...
Don't Count TQM Out
A study of about 600 award winning firms examined the relationship between financial performance and the implementation of total quality management (TQM). TQM has been criticized lately as ineffective, a perception based on short-term thinking,...
Are Your Surveys Only Suitable for Wrapping Fish?
Most surveys are ineffective because they ask the wrong questions; target the wrong people; are given at the wrong time; or do not provide the information needed for improvement. Ineffective surveys ask about factors that the organization assumes are...
The Ups and Downs of Customer-Driven Quality
Strategic quality planning (SQP) is a requirement for improvement via customer-driven quality. Also called strategic planning in Baldrige Award criteria, SQP supports the proactive, anticipatory nature of planned customer-driven quality. Another type...
Benchmarking Your Plant Against TQM Best-practice Plants: Part 3 of 4
The Tennant Co. plant is the third of four world-class operations described in a series of articles on quality practices. The total quality management structure at Tennant includes a quality manager, a senior vice president of industrial markets, and...
Achieving Performance Excellence
Ten core values support the criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. They are vital for optimization of performance in any organization. First, customer-driven quality requires that employees listen to and act on the demands of...
Implementing Quality One Class at a Time
From the Deming philosophy, the following principles were derived as the basis for improving the Manufacturing Processes course: 1. Consumer satisfaction ( students as evaluators of the course) 2. Employee involvement ( students as participants in the co...
Quality 1 On 1: A New Game Plan
Quality Forum XII was an opportunity to discuss the role of people, both customers and employees. Deborah L. Hopen, ASQC chairman of the board noted the importance of links between organizations and their customers. Understanding quality from the...
The Realistic Model of Higher Education
The primary customers of higher education are employers, while students are products. Accepting this model is a step toward implementation of total quality management in higher education. The model is appropriate for many technical, undergraduate...
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...
Self-Directed Work Teams: A Guide to Implementation
Highly trained members, more resources and cross-functional skills, greater decision-making power, and improved information access can raise the level of teamwork. Self-directed work teams (SDWTs) have these characteristics. Implementations of SDWTs...
Don't Throw Scientific Management Out with the Bathwater
The history of Taylorism is intertwined with the development of total quality management (TQM). Frederick W. Taylor's scientific management sought to reduce waste and increase productivity in the early 1900s. His seminal work was translated into...
Teams in the Age of Systems
The notion of customer- in, which is adapted from the ideas Figure 2. The Paradigm Shift in Management Philosophy Hierarchical approach to management Origin: The Prussian army; first used in business in the railroad industry in 1840 Focus on management Q...
Small Groups Bring Big Results
Employee participation in quality circles and the leadership of executives as team facilitators enabled an oil refinery to implement total quality management (TQM) at the shop-floor level. This is a labor-intensive, continuous-cycle process industry,...
A Not-So-Secret Recipe for Successful TQM
Companies that successfully implement TQM (total quality management) share ten characteristics. These characteristics are often seen in Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winners, though the Baldrige Award is no guarantee of continued success....
Quality Management Practices Worldwide: Convergence or Divergence?
This study compared U.S. and Pacific Rim electronics-industry managers' attitudes toward quality. A 33-item questionnaire was distributed to 285 individuals, most of whom were middle managers. The 68.8% response rate included 96 responses from 17...
The Gentle Art of Chartering a Team
The facilitator should: � Chair the meeting � Share and discuss the written problem statement authorized by the council � Explain the role that the facilitator will play during the life of the team � Enumerate the next few steps in the chartering process...
Quality and Business Practices: Essential Ingredients for Success
Integrating quality improvement into daily operations is the philosophy of Merix Corporation. The firm won the 1994 Oregon Quality Governor's Award and received a 1994 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) site visit. Elements of its...
15 Years and Still Going . . .
At National Semiconductor, the total quality effort is in its third stage. The first stage started about 15 years ago. Programs introduced during this stage included: quality circles, total preventive maintenance, statistical process control, design...
What Went Wrong in U. S. Business's Attempt to Rescue Its Competitiveness?
Appropriate application of TQM (total quality management) and realistic expectations of its effects can prevent implementation failures. Definitions of TQM from the U. S. General Accounting Office and Department of Defense emphasize: employee...
Which Comes First: The Chicken or the Egg?
Simultaneous employee-motivation and system-problem programs have been successful in some industries in India. They allow employees to be trained in quality methods before a company solves all its system problems. In one case study, a motivational...
Financial Kaizen: Lowering Hurdles to Long-Term Investments
1 Start $ 110,000 $ 110,000 1 100,000 $ 20,000 0.091 2 84,000 27,000 0.110 3 64,000 22,000 0.024 4 53,000 26,000 0.234 5 40,000 20,000 0.132 6 33,000 18,000 0.275 7 24,000 13,000 0.121 8 19,000 12,000 0.292 9 13,000 8,000 0.105 10 Salvage value 9,000 5,0...
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...
What Makes American Teams Tick?
Rather than discussing what constituted a team or what types of teams exist, the partic- Figure 1. Latent Structures and Short Stories for the Theme of " Working Alone" Discussion theme Free association Latent structures Choice Myself Me Job Exposure Com...
