Expert Answers: September 2012
Sustaining excellence ... Blood bank error...
Career Corner: Light Your Fire
It takes the right team members to create an enabled, empowered, motivated, cross functional, self-directed team capable of selecting the most important tasks, and then efficiently and effectively solving the most critical problems....
Making the Connection
Connectivity can refer to the predecessor-successor relationship existing between two or more tools for continuous improvement. The output from one tool, such as a Pareto analysis, can become the input to another, such as cause and effect analysis....
Under Scrutiny
For years, quality practitioners have been taught to find root causes of problems by using a set of tools based on the theory of cause and effect. Many users of these techniques, however, find that some problems keep happening....
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....
Keep on Truckin’
In July 2005, a transportation representative at Bayer MaterialScience identified a potential problem with the way the company chose its shipping carriers. Bayer, a global manufacturer of polymers used as raw materials for products such as compact...
FMEA Minus the Pain
Failure mode effects analysis has stood the test of time as a powerful risk assessment tool for products, processes and systems....
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...
Agency Files Away Inefficiency, Saves Taxpayers a Bundle
Caseworkers for the SunCoast Region of the Florida Department of Children and Families won a silver medal in the 2007 International Team Excellence Competition by redesigning its paper based document filing and retrieval system and bringing it into...
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...
Genentech Error Proofs Its Batch Records
Like other firms subject to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation, Genentech must provide complete and accurate documentation of processes. In September 2003 an error-proofing project was launched by the good manufacturing practices core team at...
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...
Scope Projects in 10 Steps
The manufacturing sector has long recognized that effective change must be managed in small increments without losing sight of the big picture. Professional services, however, present other factors that require a different approach to mitigating risks....
Best Practices in Process Management
Process improvement tools have been used to evaluate business processes ranging from employee satisfaction to customer help desk support....
Can Quality Concepts and Tools Fix the U.S. Election Process?
Five months after the presidential election the true impact of election process errors and the importance of continuous improvement to the process is still becoming apparent. While media attention focused on Florida, the problem is far more widespread....
Getting the Most From an Over-the-Hill Body
Total quality management (TQM) tools and principles have maximized the author's training for the ten-event decathlon. Challenges have included the author's age of 40 when he began a five-year training regimen as well as the conflicting nature of the...
After the Quality Audit: Closing the Loop on the Audit Process
The Audit Function Improvement Process leads to corrective and preventive action based on improved relations among auditees, auditors, management, and other stakeholders. A good audit allows stakeholders to identify and correct or prevent problems that...
