- Auditing
- Customer Satisfaction and Value
- Data Quality
- Engineering
- Environmental Manag. and Sustainability
- Global Quality
- Human Resources
- Innovation
- Inspection
- ISO 14000
- ISO 9000
- Leadership
- Lean
- Metrics
- Metrology
- Problem Solving
- Process Capability
- Process Management
- Product Development and Recall
- Project Management
- Quality Assurance
- Quality Control
- Quality Management
- Quality Tools
- Safety
- Six Sigma
- Small Business
- Social Responsibility
- Standards
- Statistical Process Control (SPC)
- Statistics
- Supplier Quality
- Teams
- Theory of Constraints
- Total Quality Management
- TL 9000
- ISO 22000
- Career Development
- Certification/Registration (management system Standards)
- Risk Management
- Software and Technology (for statistics, measurement, analysis)
- Information Management
- Customer Requirements
- Economic Case for Quality
Standards Outlook: Trust, but Verify
Grouping product, service and process audits together is somewhat natural, because a process audit may include a product or service audit. I’ve dubbed the combination a verification audit....
Career Corner: Where Have All the CQOs Gone?
Two weeks ago, I got a call from an acquaintance who said he’d have to find a new job during the next six months or so. He is the chief quality officer (CQO) of a major company. He’s getting a great severance package, but it was still unexpected...
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....
A Simple Plan
For more than 100 years, U.S. manufacturers have advanced equipment and manufacturing technologies to constantly monitor progress and drive process improvement....
Standards Outlook: Down With Silos
Businesses today have multiple management systems, including financial, quality and environmental. Unfortunately, these management systems usually do not talk to one another....
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....
Online Figure 1 Ramu
Outsourcing BoK Expected cognition Perceived weight CMQ/ OE CQE CQA CSQE ( New) CRE CSSBB CSSGB CCT CBA CHA CQT CQPA CQIA CQI Project management 10 Project charter Create Create Apply Project estimation and tracking Analyze Apply Apply Apply Understand C...
Strength in Numbers
Finding resources to pursue quality improvement and organizational excellence is the greatest challenge confronting most organizations today, including universities and professional organizations....
K'NEX Success
As a result of the recent lead scare, companies many have grown to trust—Fisher-Price, Mattel, J.C. Penney—found themselves on recall lists instead of in kids’ hands during the holidays. Some companies, however, were able to skirt the issue....
Strong Foundation, Solid Future
In the wake of the scandals five years ago that shook consumer confidence in business leaders and the economy, I co-wrote an article about the resurgence of social responsibility on the corporate landscape and increased public awareness on the topic....
Efficiency Gets a New Identity
This article demonstrates the impact RFID will have on existing supply chain processes and the improvements RFID implementation will bring by comparing the benefits of RFID with those of barcode for various supply chain entities. The increases in data cap...
Career Corner: The New Job Security
Security is an international issue that crosses borders. In today's asymmetric war on terrorism, everyone and everything are possible targets....
Living Inside China's Quality Revolution
Quality processes in China today continue to be influenced by remnants of ancient policies and practices. When Huawei Technologies, one of China’s largest telecommunications manufacturers, recently declared its intention to become the Toyota of the...
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...
10 Quality Basics
In an overview designed to give quality newcomers a glimpse of the knowledge they need to succeed, ten regular Quality Progress contributors write on 10 basic quality topics that are fundamentals essential to surviving in a quality role. Topics covered...
Standards Outlook: Coming Changes in Aerospace Standards
All parts of the aerospace industry--commercial, business, military and space--currently seem to be doing fairly well. You could say the industry has a lot of momentum....
Challenges in RFID Enabled Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management is the fastest growing application of radio frequency identification devices (RFID), but few organizations are equipped to deal with the accompanying flood of information. Most definitions of RFID emphasize the technological...
Lean Inspection Through Supplier Partnership
Incoming inspection is a nonvalue-added activity that does not improve a product, but only identifies products that do not meet standards. One way to reduce incoming inspection is to move from traditional sample inspection to a system in which the...
Linking the Supply Chain to TQM
In today's environment of global outsourcing, supplier quality management must transform itself from simply measuring supplier compliance to gathering knowledge, managing risk, and executing project management. Total quality management (TQM) ensures...
Standards Outlook: Supply Chain Management Remains Aerospace Challenge
The aerospace industry is in the process of shedding new light on the customer-supplier relationship, especially in the never ending quest to deliver defect free, safe and reliable product....
Reflections on the Future of Quality
Over the years, the intent of quality systems has evolved from enhancing customer satisfaction by meeting their needs to improving overall organizational performance and capabilities. But quality management systems have always lagged behind evolving...
Good News - If You're Ready
Futuring is a structured look ahead aimed at enhancing anticipatory skills. ASQ's most recent futures study, conducted in 2005, identified six key forces of change: globalization, innovation, outsourcing, consumer sophistication, value creation, and...
Salary Survey – 2005
Full Survey
45 Section 6. Salary by Number of Work Hours Online Section 7. Salary by Nonexempt vs. Exempt Status Online Section 8. Salary by Number of Years' Quality Experience and Highest Level of Education Online Section 9. Salary by Number of Years in Current Pos...
Prepare Students For Technical Careers
In a global comparison, U.S. high school students are not competitive in mathematics, and relatively few pursue engineering or other technical disciplines when they enter college. A survey conducted by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers showed gaps...
Seven Steps To Measure Supplier Performance
Most organizations use some type of supplier performance measure, yet few are satisfied with their supplier assessment capabilities and results. Quality professionals are under increasing pressure to avoid supplier problems and retain high performers....
Use Simple Models for Incoming Defects
The best quality system cannot prevent or detect all defects before delivery, so customers generally set a quality target they want a supplier to achieve. The standard should be high, but achievable. For example, the customer might expect the supplier...
What Do Online Customers Value?
Burgeoning e-commerce sales point to the pivotal role of the Internet as an effective marketing tool. An online survey was used to determine which website design features have the strongest consumer appeal. One section of the survey gathered background...
Quality Management's Role in Global Sourcing
Globalization and the evolution of quality management systems from a focus on controlling product conformity to a much broader focus on overall enterprise capability have resulted in the need to redefine the role of quality management in dealing with...
A Statistician Looks at Inventory Management
A major problem facing companies today is how to promptly deliver products to customers without tying up too much capital in the form of inventory buffers. The incorporation of statistical models into supply chain management tactics helps in sizing and...
The Importance of Building Social Capital
Maintaining the integrity of the supply chain is critical in times of economic instability. An investment in social capital among organizations within the supply chain is mutually beneficial. The affinity group provides a strategy for developing...
The Metamorphosis of the Quality Professional
Over the next decade, quality professionals can expect to see their roles increasingly absorbed into project management and other areas. To survive in this environment, quality professionals will have to acquire new competencies....
Quality From Scratch: A Model for Small Business
Whether a company is large or small, quality programs are vital to assure customer, stakeholder, and employee satisfaction. Many small businesses, however, may find limited resources and conflicting priorities make the quest for organizational...
The Image and Reality of Excellence
Medical device manufacturer Medrad Inc. was the only company in the manufacturing sector to receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for 2003. The company has been involved with Baldrige since the award’s inception fifteen years ago....
Three C’s + Q = Success
When Bill Thomas left the corporate world to start his own company manufacturing khaki pants patterned after the original World War II U.S. Army issue pants, he found it difficult to find suppliers for the materials required to make the product...
Good Supplier Management Aids New Products Launch
Unisys Corporation, once a vertically integrated company that designed and manufactured most of what was needed to support its products, has changed its focus to providing cost effective solutions to its customers. Since this change requires reliance on...
Your Gateway to Quality Knowledge
For the past decade, the Quality Information Center (QIC) at ASQ’s Milwaukee headquarters has collected and compiled material from quality professionals in academics, manufacturing and service to create a definitive quality body of knowledge....
Learning From Columbia
In the year since the space shuttle Columbia accident that took the lives of its seven crew members a number of reports say NASA’s management and culture should share the blame. Findings from the accident have significance in all operations...
From Conflict to Collaboration
The relationship between a customer and supplier helps determine a product or service’s quality. The stronger the relationship, the more value it can offer....
The Message Is Clear
Information and Analysis Data and information are gathered, integrated and categorized into two types of measures: perfor- MALCOLM BALDRIGE NATIONAL QUALITY AWARD Global marketing and sales group Sector management Reviews Customer and market analysis Com...
Column: Back to Basics: To Find the Root Cause, That's Why
Quality professionals often use tree diagrams to solve problems or implement solutions. Another tool, the why-why diagram, uses a similar approach to determine the root cause of a problem.1 A why-why diagram says, "Slow down. Before we find a solution,...
Managing Supplier Relationships
Effective supply chain management (SCM) can provide companies the competitive edge by adding stability and predictability to their supply stream. Manufacturers can identify vendors that provide high quality service and developing close,...
My Supplier’s Capability Is What?
One fine day at Skyko Industries, Brett, the commodity manager, approached Gail, the manufacturing manager, about a cost savings opportunity....
Rx for Excellence
SSM Health Care (SSMHC), the first healthcare winner of the Malcolm Baldrige Award, has been showing the world that a focus on continuous improvement can help the ailing healthcare sector. SSMHC operates as a private, not-for-profit system that owns,...
Better Supply Chains with Baldrige
Demand for customized products with shorter life cycles requires companies to develop supply chain management concepts to help them maintain competitive advantages. The traditional competitive model that favored mass production has give way to a model...
5S for Suppliers
Lean supply implies that the supply chain is appropriate for lean production. The 5S program, derived from the Japanese words for sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain, provides a proven model for organizing and maintaining a production...
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....
The Little Hot Dog Stand That Could
Pal's Sudden Service isn't a large, sophisticated corporation, but that didn't stop the Tennessee-based restaurant chain from winning the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA). Pal's two executives believe there is a process for everything...
Should You Transition to ISO 9001:2000?
With the deadline little more than a year away, indications are that fewer than 20 percent of organizations whose business and quality objectives include compliance to the ISO 9000 standards have made the transition. Six ISO 9000 experts present their...
Delivering Quality, Safety and Security in Aviation
Aviation is one of the most regulated industries in the world. Procedures are standardized for use of airspace, aircraft manufacture, and pilot certification. Regulations are multinational, and yet aviation is an industry in which free enterprise and...
Column: World View: Samsung Uses Quality To Grow
Korean giant draws on just about everything in the toolbox to reach its goals
The Samsung Quality Award was established in 1993 to recognize business divisions by using criteria developed from the Baldrige Award, ISO 9000 quality management standards and the company's own business operation standards. Nearly 70% of Samsung's qualit...
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...
Peter F. Drucker: Delivering Value to Customers
Before Peter F. Drucker published his seminal book defining management as a formal discipline, there was no coherent body of knowledge addressing management issues. Drucker rejects the commonly held belief that the purpose of business is to make a...
Column: Career Corner: Supply Chain Management: A New Opportunity
In a recent survey of more than 200 companies, Deloitte Consulting found that while 91% of manufacturers rank SCM as either critical or very important to their company's success, only 2% rank their supply chains as world class. This...
Curriculum Assessment - A Systems Approach
Curriculum assessment (CA) is receiving a lot of attention as more educational institutions focus on the quality of their academic programs. Institutions that don't have formalized plans for integrating CA activities into their cultures, however, will...
Sustainability: Enlarging Quality's Mission
The past twenty years have seen major changes in the way business is conducted. Quality has taken on an entirely new meaning in the 21st century. In a global economy customer satisfaction, while still a critical business goal, must share the stage with...
What Should Be Changed?
Tools from two change management systems are compared to show which give managers the best results when implementing changes. The theory of constraints (TOC) features a set of five tools to examine the entire system for continuous improvement. One of...
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...
Quality in the Classroom
Institutions of higher learning have only recently begun to address the issue of how to offer quality products and services. The present turbulent economy coupled with the accreditation requirement for relatively low individual faculty course loads...
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....
Concurrent Engineering - A Powerful Enabler of Supply Chain Management
As part of the purchase material risk assessment, identify components and Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I J U N E 2 0 0 1 I 49 The Supply Chain and Concurrent Engineering Relationship FIGURE 2 Product planning � Definition of product � TMP, PMP, SOR feed...
Column goes monthly with new contributors
This month six advise on a typical career dilemma
I have a bachelor's degree plus ASQ's quality auditor and quality engineer certifications. He earned a master's degree in statistics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and holds the following ASQ certifications: quality engineer, reliability engineer, qu...
Exploiting the World's Most Recognized Standard
Exploiting the Benefit of the World's Most Recognized and Best Practiced Standard1 are provided throughout this article to demonstrate how effective these colors can be to simplify, increase the effectiveness of and harmonize systems and reports in the f...
Finding the quality work you want on the Web.
In our last column, we discussed the three basic types of job sites--company sites, general job databases and job auction sites. Post your resume, respond to some ads and go through the job search process. Online job searching is not like traditional job ...
Finding your next job online.
Web plays a big role when firms look for workers
Thousands of employers, including federal agencies, companies and small businesses, post job openings in these sites. The job auction sites go even further. They can use the site search engine, intelligent agents or do database cross checks to find you ou...
The Branding of Six Sigma
Brand yourself the same way
So, back to Six Sigma branding: The wannabe quality gurus took their lead from the leading marketing books. To build Six Sigma brand equity, they did what marking experts advise. Wannabe gurus write Six Sigma books to create awareness and buzz....
Semiconductor Assembly Council Promotes Use of Quality Tools
The member companies of the Semiconductor Assembly Council represent manufacturers, assembly and test subcontractors, and end user companies. SAC was established to certify subcontractor quality and process control systems. The member firms represent...
Who can help you figure out your career path?
The answer might be a career coach or your ASQ section
What are your career or job opportunities in quality? This career path may very well be outside of quality or may integrate other elements such as information technology or project management in the pursuit of quality. GREG HUTCHINS is a principal with Qu...
Six Sigma, E-Commerce Pose New Challenges
Companies feel a need to become more flexible and ready to respond to rapid changes due to the growth of e-commerce. Corporate systems for responding to such changes have the same role as that of the central nervous system in the human body. The...
Risk management
Is it the future of quality management?
Improving the bottom line is done through containing costs, managing people assets, minimizing costs and, most important, managing risks, and risk management is where I think quality is heading. Top executives, by nature, are risk sensitive but not risk t...
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...
Back to the Future
The ASQ Foresight 2020 project has generated scenarios on the future of quality and the role of the quality professional. Facilitated by the Institute for Alternative Futures, the project is a successor to ASQ's first futures study, which had 2010 as...
New Quality for the 21st Century
The worldwide marketplace demands a redefinition of quality in the relentless pursuit of improvement. The 1990s have provided six drivers of this new vitality for quality: fundamental changes in how people think about and act on the need for quality;...
Measurements and the Knowledge Revolution
Real-time delivery of valued knowledge provides strong support for enterprise operations. In the knowledge revolution, organizations can improve knowledge delivery with the right measurement and information systems. Successful organizations must use...
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,...
Is the World Ready for Knowledge Management?
promises, companies must: 1. Understand the impact that technology makes in their corporate culture and in work flow 2. Create an information flow and work flow system based on human style that acts as a support ( or infrastructure) to technology 3. Trai...
Lessons Learned from Alexander the Great
Logistics planning, knowledge of the competition, innovation, and a single point of control were elements of success for Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) They also should be key characteristics of modern organizations. Alexander incorporated...
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...
