- Cost of Quality
- Criteria for Performance Excellence
- Customer Satisfaction and Value
- Data Quality
- Engineering
- Global Quality
- Human Resources
- ISO 14000
- ISO 9000
- Leadership
- Lean
- Metrics
- Problem Solving
- Basic Quality
- 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
- Total Quality Management
- AS9000
- ISO/TS 16949
- Compliance
- Certification/Registration (management system Standards)
- Risk Management
- Customer Experience Management
- Customer Requirements
- Food Safety
- Economic Case for Quality
Avoiding an Avalanche
Organizations that make products with rigorous quality requirements face numerous challenges associated with meeting objectives—ranging from complying with standards to operating in highly-regulated and frequently audited environments....
Standards Outlook: Confidence Game
For the second time in my 55 years on this Earth, we are seeing a crisis of confidence. This stems from many factors, including the devastating recession of 2008 to 2009 and the slow and painful global economic recovery we are witnessing....
The Right Ingredients
In Out of the Crisis, W. Edwards Deming writes, “Everyone doing his best is not the answer. It is first necessary that people know what to do.” To ensure people know exactly what to do, all activities within the organization should be system oriented....
Get Them in the Game
The key to developing a high-performance, quality-oriented workforce is maintaining a high level of employee engagement....
Shift Into High Gear
When customers of tgestiona began expressing dissatisfaction about the its inefficient service and delivery processes, it began a transport optimization project that earned gold-level status in the 2012 ASQ International Team Excellence Award process....
Hearing Aids
Today, hundreds of organizations regularly conduct surveys and focus groups, solicit comments and complaints, scour social media and gather data from other sources....
Expert Answers: June 2012
Continuous vs. discrete data ... Get IT under control ... You must measure ......
Fail-Safe FMEA
The appropriate use of quality risk management can help organizations comply with regulatory requirements, such as good manufacturing practices or good laboratory practices....
Surf's Up
In essence, a disconnect within the Telefónica Group was throwing off and disconnecting its customers from the internet....
Standards Outlook: Hand in Hand
Beginning July 1, all aviation, space and defense (AS&D) quality management system (QMS) certification body audits were required to be conducted according to a newly released AS&D QMS standard....
Put JIB on the Job
An organization implemented a proven training program that improved quality and efficiency plantwide during the recession, positioning it to perform at higher levels when demand increased after the economy recovered....
Expert Answers: April 2011
Size matters when remedying poor quality ... Examining process capability indexes....
Trial and No Error
For years, the Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program Clinical Research Pharmacy Coordinating Center has been working its way toward earning a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. In 1996, the center first started looking at the Baldrige...
Perspectives: Warning! Warning!
There are five warning signs that are indicators of a change in corporate attitudes toward quality. Some of these can occur naturally over time as corporations become enamored with their progress....
Brace for Impact
There are two main problems with internal audits, but both have a solution that has produced good results in real-world situations. It’s called an “audit for impact.”...
Get Your Ducks in a Row
The ISO 9001 quality management system has been around since 1987, and it is generally acknowledged that the system produces some fairly significant benefits, including improved profitability, higher sales and better employee morale....
Back to Basics: Rapid Response
Customer complaints are part of any business, and a company’s responsiveness to complaints is crucial in maintaining a mutually beneficial business relationship. These days, there is a misconception in the business world about the true meaning...
Top This
Besting your competitors means outdoing them when it comes to quality, safety, service, productivity and financials. The question is how to stay on top after you’ve planted your flag at the apex of your industry....
Online Tables Fedotowsky
Corporate main office BSC structure / ONLINE TabLE 1 Corporate BSC perspectives Strategic objective Action plans Measures Financials Lagging KPI KPI = monthly operating costs and reported profits . bSC = balanced scorecard KPI = key performance indicato...
Where to Start
Companies are viewing the Toyota situation as a cautionary tale rife with lessons that can benefit all organizations. To help drive those lessons home, QP recruited five quality experts, each of whom broke down one aspect of the fallout....
Customer Focus Sparks Invention
To reduce customer complaints and remain profitable, Littelfuse’s facility in the Philippines designed a voice of the customer (VOC) project. The executive team or project champion and project sponsor help the team set goals and expectations, and provide ...
Back to Basics: Get to the Root of It
We’ve all been there before—an elusive field failure sparks customer complaints and warranty claims and threatens to curtail future orders. Ambiguous, conflicting field reports of failure modes and products affected pour in....
High Priority
ASQ DEFINES voice of the customer (VOC) as “the expressed requirements and expectations of customers relative to products or services, as documented and disseminated to the providing organization’s members.”...
Back to Basics: Customer Delight
We all know the basics of customer satisfaction: on-time delivery, quality performance, customer complaint resolution and parts per million (PPM). Now that you have obtained the pinnacle 100% on-time delivery, zero PPM and no customer complaints, what’s...
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....
Expert Answers: October 2009
Creating quality awareness ... Best test for data comparison....
All Ears
Imagine you are presenting the analysis and findings of a critical operational issue or proposed improvement project to senior management. You feel confident because you’ve thoroughly measured and analyzed the data....
Expert Answers: July 2009
Setting up a corrective action document ... Dock-to-stock for medical devices ... Questions about confidence intervals....
Prepared for Battle
Organizations need to remember that while the impact of a recession may be significant from a psychological perspective, the application of sound quality management principles has a much more significant effect on an organization’s success....
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....
Out of Sight ... Out of Mind
The purpose in sharing this story is to publicize a growing gap in quality-system coverage caused by outsourcing and to share some of the challenges of fixing it. The story is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent....
Building From the Basics
Quality control is about models, methods, measuring and managing. It’s about uncovering a problem and finding the solution. It’s about using the right techniques at the right time to make things better....
Back to Basics: Clearing SPC Hurdles
Statistical process control (SPC) has provided significant cost savings for companies that are fortunate enough to implement it fully. However, implementation challenges can overcome the best of intentions....
Drill Deep for Strategic Alignment
Internal auditors must understand an organization’s strategy and how each process fits into that strategy. Internal auditing for strategic alignment and execution requires that the auditor understand the organization’s desired strategy and how each proces...
Expert Answers: September 2008
Information management systems ... The benefits of binomial probability plotting....
The Road to Improvement
Registration of public organizations to the ISO 9001 quality management standard can be difficult because of their complex operations and extensive documentation....
Raising the Bar
Now more than ever, companies must measure and manage their quality costs to compete at a high level in today’s global marketplace....
Standards Outlook: ISO 9001 and Advantage in the Marketplace
You have completed the ISO 9001 certification audit process and received an accredited certificate of registration from the registrar. Your organization has joined the nearly one million others around the world to achieve this distinction....
A Less Costly Billing Process
Applying lean Six Sigma techniques can identify root causes, streamline the billing process and reduce errors. After describing the concepts of lean and Six Sigma, this article illustrates how companies can apply lean Six Sigma techniques to identify root...
Shifting Quality Into High Gear
Park Place Lexus (PPL), located in the Dallas metropolitan area, is the first automobile dealership to win the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Determined not to be just another car dealership, PPL leaders looked outside the industry to...
Standards Outlook: Increase ISO 9001's Value
ISO 9001 describes a basic, effective quality management system (QMS). Compliance to it is the starting point toward achieving excellence in an organization. Additions to an ISO 9001 compliant QMS can act as the first steps toward excellence....
Making It Look Over Easy
Sunny Fresh Foods was the first food company to win the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1999. The manufacturer of egg based products won the award again in 2005, this time applying in the manufacturing category, having outgrown the small...
Statistics Roundtable: If You're Not Keeping Score, It's Just Practice
Despite the fundamental importance of measurement and measurement systems, statisticians and quality professionals engaged in process improvement and quality studies frequently find numerous gaps, including:...
Standards & Registrars Directory
TS TR TL RS QS MD 9KS 14K 9K CR CE AU AS TR CS SPC QS 9KS 14K 9K CS VD6 TS TR TL SPC QS MD 9KS 14K 9K CS CE AU AS TS TR SPC 9KS 14K 9K CS AU AS TS QS MD 9KS 14K 9K CSD AU AS 9KS 9K CR AU VD6 TS TR SPC QS MD 9KS 14K 9K CS VD6 TS RS QS 9KS 14K 9K CSD CS AS...
Your Customers Are Talking, But Are You Listening?
Few companies have a process to listen to their customers and act on the information. Without a method to measure how satisfied customers are, the door is left open to the competition. The listen, collect, analyze, learn, improve (LCALI) process can...
Manage Complaints To Enhance Loyalty
Every customer complaint represents a chance to correct a flawed process, educate a customer, and strengthen loyalty. But unless management can quantify the return on investment of complaint handling, they won't see the link between complaint handling...
Six Ways To Benefit From Customer Complaints
Customer service is one of the few areas where service organizations can achieve an advantage in a competitive marketplace. Six ideas are presented to help organizations improve business performance through the handling of customer complaints....
Next Level Leadership
Soon after the Texas Nameplate Co. (TNC) won its first Baldrige Award in 1998, president and CEO Dale Crownover was already discussing how to improve TNC in a Baldrige way so the company could reapply for the award as soon as it was eligible. Now, not...
Improve Profits With Standards
The goal of CEOs and business managers is to make products that please customers and produce a profit. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) provides a roadmap for profit gains through its standards and technical reports. Used in...
Curse of the Super-fish-al
Root cause analysis teaches us to ask, "Why?" five times, and from this I developed these five ways not to use a fishbone....
Unintended Consequences
The process approach embodied in ISO 9001 emphasizes the actual activities of an organization that would result in providing a product or service that continuously meets the customer's needs....
FMEA--Something Old, Something New
Managing risk is not optional for organizations. Clause 0.1 of ISO 9004 mentions risk management in the same breath with cost and benefit considerations as being important to an organization, its customers and interested parties....
Quality Problems and Their Real Costs
When considering the cost of poor quality, it is important to consider the hidden cost of managerial transactions. If management is distracted from its normal responsibilities, these activities require additional resources. Quality problems respond only...
The Future of Quality: Customer Value
This article is from the book The Power of Management Capital, available through Quality Press, item number P1026. Copyright restrictions do not allow its individual sale or its placement on My ASQ....
Stoplight Charts (With SPC Inside)
Many balanced scorecards use stoplight charts to track defects. Colors for the chart are set by comparing current results with target thresholds. Software that automates the process results in an operation that is quick and efficient, but which may be...
As Easy As 10001, 2, 3
A key element in maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction is having in place systems and processes for effective complaint management. Now the International Organization for Standardization is developing three new customer satisfaction standards...
Tips for Automotive Auditors
ISO 9000 has taken more than its fair share of criticism, largely due to the variation in international third-party conformity assessment....
The Where and Y: A 1-2-3 Model for Project Success
A Six Sigma project may take longer to establish if key players fail to provide Green and Black belts with appropriate definitions of problems and goals for improvement projects. While the purpose of a Six Sigma improvement project should be focused on...
Move From Product to Customer Centric
Can a 50-year-old manufacturer of industrial products become a customer centric organization? How can a traditionally product centric company learn to listen systematically to its customers?...
Management System Integration: Can It Be Done?
In October 1996, the International Organization for Standardization, known as ISO, issued the final version of ISO 14001, an international standard for environmental management systems (EMS)....
The Seven Deadly Sins of Quality Management
Root cause analysis is the structured investigation of basic causal factors leading to quality failure. When the root cause resides in the fundamental values of an organization, eradication can be extremely challenging. Problems ascribed to...
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,...
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...
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....
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...
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...
Print Perfect
Branch-Smith Inc., a fourth-generation printing company, had its origins in the unlikely success of a boy born without arms in 1868. The company as it exists today takes inspiration from founder Aaron Smith, who taught himself to type with his toes,...
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...
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...
Eastman Chemical's Success Story
The costs associated with customer complaints can be significant. These costs manifest themselves in a number of ways: lost business, investigative costs, time spent responding to complaints, and claims or credits paid. The Eastman Chemical Co. realized...
Column: Standards Outlook: Use ISO 9004 To Improve Performance
ISO 9004:2000 is a valuable tool for improving an organization's effectiveness, efficiency and the quality of its products and services. It is a standalone document that should be used for improving organization performance....
13 Steps to Certification in Less Than a Year
Ultratech Stepper (UTS), a manufacturer of photolithography equipment, became both ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14000 certified in less than a year at a cost under $200,000, using only two employees to manage the effort part-time. UTS's quality steering...
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...
Your Resume: Not Just a Job Hunting Tool
Your resume need not remain buried in your computer between job changes. By applying the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle, your resume can provide greater control over your current career and better prepare for future growth. PDCA requires regular...
Use Symbols Instead of Words
Symbols and visual cues are widely used today to present information in a simple, straightforward manner. They are more effective than words because they are more quickly interpreted and can overcome language barriers. However, we tend to overlook these...
ISO/TS 16949 the Clear Choice for Automotive Suppliers
Automotive suppliers may find it necessary to register their quality systems to different specifications and requirements in order to gain access to world markets or to solidify their positions in regional markets. Several major U.S. car manufacturers...
Quality and Economics: Five Key Issues
Insufficient attention has been paid to the importance of quality as a factor in determining the state of the economy, yet improvements in product quality can be a catalyst in the betterment of national economies and the lives of people. Five economic...
Column: Standards Outlook: Ask the right awareness questions
ISO 9001:2000 says employees understand quality and customer requirements
The new ISO 9001:2000 quality management system (QMS) standard has opened up several new lines of questioning (interviewing) that will help organizations connect all employees to quality and customers. Prior versions of the ISO 9000 series standards...
Column: Standards Outlook: Purchaser and Supplier Quality
Going beyond ISO 9001, QS-9000 and TS 16949
For quality to happen, quality control from the supplier's perspective is necessary. But evidence indicates suppliers do not always pursue the actions needed for quality improvement. Quality practitioners...
Mine Customer Experiences
Customer feedback is a valuable source of information that provides organizations with a sound basis for making product improvements. An affinity diagram permits organization of vast amounts of quantitative data to identify patterns or groupings to...
Organize Your Quality Tool Belt
Quality professionals adopt and adapt techniques from other fields to satisfy the need to apply their skills to a wide variety of processes and situations. To someone new to the profession, this array of tools may seem overwhelming, but upon closer...
Column: Emerging Sectors: Quality in Air Terminal Ground Handling
Dubai company is first airport operator to gain ISO 9001:2000 certification
When Dnata's airport operations became the world's first ground handling agency to achieve ISO 9001:2000 certification, the total commitment of the management, quality planning department and tireless efforts of staff made the...
ISO 9001:2000 and Customer Satisfaction
One of the most important changes in ISO 9001:2000 is the inclusion of customer satisfaction data as an indicator of the value of processes adopted by an organization. Three of the most significant improvements are provisions that: Require registrants...
It Might Not Be Your Product
Quality assurance managers respond to customer complaints with the assumption that the problem is product or service failure. Often, however, the cause isn't the fault of the product itself but is due to incorrect use or unreasonable expectation by the...
Balance Your Balanced Scorecard
The intended purpose of a balanced scorecard is to provide a framework linking strategy with operational performance measures. In reality, it is an integrated report focusing on various areas of performance the organization values most. Like most change...
A Message for Everyone
Here's how to get everyone in your organization to see why quality is part of his or her job. Regardless of what industry an organization serves, there is one common element - the customer. Everyone in the organization, from hourly employee to senior...
Demystifying ISO 9001:2000 (Part 2)
Three sections of the new ISO 9001:2000 standard, not examined in Part I of this article, are reviewed. Section 6.1 covers provision of resources, section 6.3, infrastructure, and section 6.4, work environment. Section 6.1 requires an organization to...
Demystifying ISO 9001:2000
Because section 6 of the new ISO 9001:2000 standard extends resource management coverage to new areas such as competence and infrastructure, the section is a challenge for many organizations. The section also adds requirements related to resources for...
Separate the Vital Few from the Trivial Many
A Pareto diagram can help you decide which improvement efforts to make first
A Pareto diagram is a bar graph, and each bar represents a category. This Pareto principle was developed by Joseph Juran, based on the work of Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923). Common measures include the number of occurrences in each categor...
Journey to the Baldrige
The year's Baldrige winners are profiled. They include Operations Management International Inc. (OMI), Spicer Driveshaft (SD) (an operating unit of Dana Corp.), Karlee Co. Inc., and Los Alamos National Bank (LANB)....
10 Steps to a Baldrige Award Application
Organizations participating in quality award programs based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) criteria are discovering that writing a Baldrige application is a valuable self-assessment benchmark process and a relatively inexpensive...
How a Good Quality Management System Can Limit Lawsuits
In this age of ever increasing litigation, it is essential that manufacturers learn the key elements of product liability prevention and incorporate such efforts into the company's quality systems and procedures. When a manufacturer goes to trial in a...
The Tip of the Iceberg
When asked to identify where operating costs can be cut, many executives would remove functions that provide quality and services to meet customer needs. This misunderstanding stems from the misconception that improving quality through initiatives such...
The Problems with Managing by Objectives and Results
Management by objectives (MBO) and management by results (MBR) represent the major approaches used by managers to align system objectives with employees' goals and behaviors. The practice continues despite warnings from quality experts that MBO often...
Market Research for Quality in Small Business
If they want to survive, small businesses must focus on satisfying customers by providing the products and services of the best quality. Market research allows companies to determine what customers want. There are several benefits for quality to be...
A case study demonstrates the value of ISO 9000 derivatives.
Case study shows different needs exist when safety is at stake
Consequently, BIG Parts missed all the customer flowdown supplier control issues and production inspection requirements such as sampling plans and gage verifications prior to production. While there were procedures and processes in place to trace critical...
Moving Organizational Mountains
Alfred W.K. Chan, managing director of Hong Kong and China Gas Co., Ltd., also known as Towngas, realized the company's culture and strategy had to change in order to meet the needs of its customers. Chan took the role of a field associate so he could...
Understanding the Hierarchy of Process Control
Managers often want to implement process control, but may be confused about what constitutes a state of process control, how they want their manufacturing systems to operate, and what the current state of the operating system may be. The current...
