- Design of Experiments
- Environmental Manag. and Sustainability
- ISO 9000
- Leadership
- Problem Solving
- Process Management
- Product Development and Recall
- Quality Management
- Quality Tools
- Six Sigma
- Small Business
- Standards
- Statistical Process Control (SPC)
- Statistics
- Teams
- Compliance
- Risk Management
- Continuous Improvement
Standards Outlook: Risk and Quality Management
The media has made all of us aware of the global financial crisis caused by the assumption of risk by banks and speculators in stocks and commodities....
Achieve Compliance Through CI
Using Six Sigma tools for continuous improvement (CI) is a proven method for meeting or exceeding FDA requirements for medical devices. Optical Integrity Inc., a manufacturer of medical devices, used the Six Sigma define, measure, analyze, improve...
Retrospective Analysis of a Designed Experiment
Design of experiment (DOE) techniques have been successfully used by India’s Department of Defense Production to optimize the process parameters for a plastic injection-molded part used in the manufacture of tank deterrents. The goal was to get...
New Frontiers in the Design of Experiments
Statistically designed experiments enable businesses to reduce time to market while achieving quality product performance that is critical to survival and success. R.A. Fisher first introduced them in the early 20th century to evaluate the results of...
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...
The Status Quo's Failure in Problem Solving
The Status Quo's Failure In Problem Solving The best thing top management can do is design a problem solving process for all types of problems by Paul Palady and Nikki Olyai Q U A L I T Y A N D T O P M A N A G E M E N T 34 I A U G U S T 2 0 0 2 I W W W ....
Column: Frontiers of Quality: Something's Missing
An education in statistical methods will make employees more valuable to Six Sigma corporations
Education "implies development of the mind" while training "stresses instruction and drill with a specific end in view." The most effective further development of a Six Sigma program will necessarily involve well-informed...
ASQ's Black Belt Certification - A Personal Experience
Together with the growing interest in and use of Six Sigma techniques comes the need to assess the qualifications of those seeking quality leadership roles in organizations. The ASQ certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB) exam is a practical and cost...
Putting Taguchi Methods to Work
During the 1980s, the Big Three automakers and their suppliers found that Taguchi methods were useful for improving product and process design performance in the manufacturing environment. In spite of the success of Taguchi methods for the automotive...
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...
A Blueprint for Document Control
As a vital component of a quality system, controlled documentation provides benefits such as: currency and availability of information; preservation of knowledge; management of revisions and obsolete documents; and authoritative approval. Typical...
The Quality Twilight Zone
Six Sigma provides tools for crossing the chasm between customer and provider satisfaction
In Figure 4, we see a hypothetical example of one company's performance gap for each factorial combination in relation to the Six Sigma goal and entitlement sigma targets. After all, a Six Sigma part is of little value in a four sigma system, unless for s...
Reliability Improvement Issues and Tools
Weibull distributions can also represent products with either a decreasing hazard rate ( less than 1) or increasing hazard rate ( greater than 1). When equals 1 the Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I M A Y 1 9 9 9 I 135 Selling Reliability to Upper Manageme...
Using DOE to Determine AA Battery Life
Battery factors of cost, connector design type, and temperature were tested for differences in time to discharge and voltage drop. The study examined randomly selected, off-the-shelf AA batteries typically used by remote-control model car racers. The...
Do the Right Things Right
A robust and adaptive ISO 9000 quality system fosters efficiency and effectiveness. A proactive strategy will lead to elimination of nonconformities and development of a solid infrastructure. The DISTRO company has done this by adhering to the...
The Criteria: A Looking Glass to Americans' Understanding of Quality
Process Management is Category 6 in the 1997 criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA). As the sixth of seven installments on the Baldrige criteria, this article notes that the MBNQA is driven by values for which the criteria are...
The Criteria: A Looking Glass to Americans' Understanding of Quality
Then, you have to create an environment Figure 1. New Category Order and Names 1997 Categories/ Items Point Values 1 Leadership 110 1.1 Leadership System 80 1.2 Company Responsibility and Citizenship 30 2 Strategic Planning 80 2.1 Strategy Development Pr...
Small Companies Learn How to Design in Quality
The Design of Experiments (DOX) program at the University of New Hampshire is a partnership between industry and academia. Since 1992 DOX has helped 29 teams from small companies use designed experiments to improve their processes and products. Every...
The Role of Statistical Thinking in Management
Managers, as well as statisticians, can employ process thinking, an understanding of variation, and data analysis. This mindset of statistical thinking has four requirements. First, managers must know why statistical knowledge is important. For...
