- Cost of Quality
- Customer Satisfaction and Value
- Environmental Manag. and Sustainability
- Global Quality
- Human Resources
- Baldrige National Quality Program
- ISO 14000
- ISO 9000
- Leadership
- Lean
- Problem Solving
- Basic Quality
- Process Management
- Quality Control
- Quality Management
- Quality Tools
- Safety
- Sampling
- Six Sigma
- Social Responsibility
- Software Quality
- Standards
- Statistical Process Control (SPC)
- Statistics
- Teams
- Best Practices
- Total Quality Management
- ISO 22000
- Awards
- Continuous Improvement
Quality Around the Clock
It’s in your DNA. It’s how your mind works. It’s what you do. It’s who you are. When you work in quality, you see things differently. You approach problems and scenarios in certain ways. It happens after you’ve signed off....
Law and Order
The laws created and enforced by government are among the most important works of humankind. They address the most significant societal problems and have a direct impact on human rights, living standards and the quality of life of every person....
Perspectives: Theory of Evolution
Thumbing through W. Edward Deming’s timeless classic Out of the Crisis, it’s striking to see how the current economic crisis can be attributed to the factors he pointed out so many years ago as roadblocks to quality and productivity....
Shining on the World Stage
With nearly 30 billion people turning their eyes to South Africa during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the South African Quality Institute (SAQI) took steps to help ensure those eyes would see the best South Africa had to offer....
Tip of the Iceberg
HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS KNOW it’s not enough to treat a patients’ conditions and send them on their way. Often, the patient’s condition and symptoms are simply the tip of the iceberg. Many other factors—including human behaviors and societal conditions...
Statistics Roundtable: Imputation Explanation
The United States recently completed its 23rd federal census of population. The first census was mandated by the U.S. Constitution and carried out under Thomas Jefferson in 1790....
Career Corner: Right, Wrong, Good, Bad or Indifferent?
Although the new guidance standard for social responsibility (SR), ISO 26000, will be a completely voluntary guidance standard—not a certification standard1—how best to implement and sustain the organizational behaviors it will prescribe deserves...
Breaking From the Pack
Russ Ackoff's life story is instructive for quality professionals as they trace the development of systems thinking during its 60-year migration....
Quality 3.0
Two quality leaders weigh in on the current direction of quality management, sustainable quality improvements and their visions of what “Quality 3.0” will bring....
Managing Expectations
One condition is vital for initiating, implementing and sustaining a viable quality initiative: management support. Surprisingly, very few articles and books on quality even mention this need, let alone what to do if support isn’t there....
Quality in the First Person: Quality Isn't a 9-to-5 Job
As a quality professional, I often think about how quality is embedded in people’s everyday lives. Looking back at my own life, I was shocked to learn how long and how much of an impact quality has had on me—especially outside of work....
Back in Circulation
As the applications for lean expand, organizations must realize lean’s usefulness goes beyond environmental efforts. But first, we must look at the history of lean and to understand how its future fully complements social responsibility....
Practice What You Teach
Many education institutions do not have a foundation conducive to sustainability efforts. For many, change will be cumbersome. Opportunities exist, however, and persistence will be an ally....
Contacts That Count
A team dedicated to improving member contact rates at Healthways Inc. pulled just about everything from its lean Six Sigma toolbox while working on a project and was recognized in ASQ’s International Team Excellence Award competition....
Total Quality, Total Commitment
An innovative approach to quality helped A.V. Feigenbaum create the concept of total quality management. Indeed, Feigenbaum’s quality contributions have been praised by U.S. business leaders and quality professionals around the globe. Armand V. Feigenbaum...
What's Up?
Study participants outlined the forces, four scenarios in which they might play out, and the implications to quality, organizations and the profession. Study participants were asked to envision the implications of the key forces and scenarios for quality ...
Online Sidebars Sanders
Increasing movement from quality of product to quality of management and the organization. The systems approaches the quality profession has evolved through ISO 9000 and other management system standards will be valued by organizations looking to bring qu...
Futures Study
Forces of Change From All ASQ Futures Studies Table 1 1996 1999 2002 2005 2008 Changing values Partnering Quality must deliver bottom- line results Globalization Globalization Globalization Learning systems Management systems will increasingly absorb the...
From the President: Quality and the Three Conversations
For generations of authors, that intimidating D-word—deadline—makes even the bravest among us cringe. So when QP’s editor reminded me at a recent board meeting that the due date of this column, my first as ASQ president, was quickly approaching...
Small Business, Big Feat
Efforts to continuously improve employee and customer satisfaction, and business practices led PRO-TEC to a Baldrige award. The company has incorporated many best management practices, including lean manufacturing and continuous improvement, and relied on...
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....
Quality in the First Person: Quality Principles and Alzheimer's
The author, a volunteer advocate with the Alzheimer's Association, shares how quality tools, such as failure mode effects analysis, can be used when caring for someone suffering from Alzheimer's disease....
Exercise a Process Improvement Approach for Your Own Personal Wellness
The human body can be viewed as a system of processes in which the output of one process is an input to another. One quality practitioner applied the concepts of systems thinking, process thinking and process management to improve his own health,...
Quality Goes to College
Higher education is seeing increased interest in quality management methods in response to the federal government's recommendation that they embrace the culture of continuous innovation and quality improvement. An overview is given of the types of...
Career Corner: Has Information About Quality Become a Liability?
While having lunch with a good friend not long ago, I gained unique insight into a very real concern for those of us in the quality profession and the organizations we work with....
Quality in the First Person: Living by the Values
My first exposure to quality was when I was 27. I was working in R&D at Polaroid Corp. While I liked working at Polaroid, I was unhappy with my job, so I started looking for other openings in the company and found a quality control engineer position....
Career Corner: Worldwide Demographic Crossroad Nears
In the hopeful days following the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, a colleague of mine, who is an expert in community development and school design, was invited to tour a Moscow library dedicated to books about the future....
Quality in the First Person: Practicing Quality in Kabul
When I was deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in April 2005, I knew it would have an incredible impact on my life and family. I would be gone for a year, and my whole purpose would be uniquely different....
The Cause and Effect Of My Quality Journey
My first encounter with quality occurred when I was a teenager and read in the newspaper that a human error resulted in a patient's death at a hospital. That incident created a shift in my life....
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...
The Road to Quality
In my earlier days of football games, keg parties, sleeping through classes and a seemingly endless pursuit of something that interested me, I stumbled, tripped over and basically fell into the food science program at my university....
Watergate's Deep Throat – A Systems Thinker
The White House insider dubbed Deep Throat used systems thinking to link the events leading to the Watergate scandal. System thinkers transcend the tunnel vision of most thinkers to encompass the linear and tangible aspects of the big picture. History...
Two Hospitals Prescribe Performance Excellence
Florida's Baptist Hospital Inc. (BHI) and Saint Luke's Hospital (SLH) in Kansas City, Missouri were recipients of the 2003 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the healthcare category. In addition to its new mission to provide world-class patient...
The Legacy of Ishikawa
Kaoru Ishikawa was a prime mover of quality in Japan who believed in quality through leadership. His six quality concepts form the basis for a holistic approach that is the unique Japanese approach to quality improvement. Ishikawa’s focus on...
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate scandals such as those involving Enron and WorldCom may finally be awakening corporate America to its social responsibilities. Such scandals are creating concern about business ethics and governance....
ASQ's World Partners
One of ASQ's objectives is to become a global advocate for excellence and a provider of information and learning opportunities about quality. Having decided to take a more active role in collaborating with existing national quality associations, ASQ is...
Column: Career Corner: Quitting, Even In Tough Times
Quitting is tough. But controlling your career is your responsibility, and quitting a job can be a tactic that allows you to take control. Even in these uncertain economic times, the quality field offers job opportunities....
Salary Survey – 2002
Salaries and Diversity
Now, we not only hear or read about product quality and quality control in manufacturing, but we also hear and read about quality of services, quality of relationships, quality of ideas and thought processes, and of course, quality of life. To open our ho...
Coming Soon: The Future
Issues presented at the third futures study conducted by the American Society for Quality are highlighted. Conducted to energize strategic planning efforts, the study was guided by representatives from the Alternative Futures Institute and drew...
Annual Quality Awards Listing
Quality Progress' Quality Awards Listing is a guide to automotive, government, international, national, regional, and state quality related awards and awards programs. Awards listed must be quality related, eligibility cannot be limited to members...
Quality From the Inside Out
Organizations know that improving quality of life (QOL) on the job relates to organizational success. Current literature, lacking any information on group behavior, fails to identify the two key factors of self-challenge and relationship building as...
Column: World View: Quality Movement Continues Growth in Brazil
Future expansion expected in small organizations and nonindustrial sector
Since the 1980s, Brazil has gone through profound social, economic and political change. To meet product and service quality demands and to compete globally, both private and public sector Brazilian companies had to make quality a top priority. ISO 9000...
Column: Career Corner: Rules Change, Careers Change
Be ready to ask for help and take risks...
Members Talk About Terrorist Attacks
Many respondents to an ASQ survey asking members how the events of September 11 affected them and their organizations used the opportunity to express previously unacknowledged sentiments or fears. Others were less emotional, focusing instead on what the...
Annual Quality Awards Listing
The annual resource guide is provided for automotive, government, international, national, regional, and state quality related awards and award programs. Awards are organized by type, the award's name and sponsor, criteria, contact information, and...
What Is Quality?
The demand for quality has been part of human nature for a long time, but the quantification of quality and establishment of formal quality standards are a 20th century phenomenon. The global marketplace has created consumers who think they know quality...
Column: Standards Outlook: From Deming to ISO 9000:2000
Lip service isn't enough; management must understand and carry out its obligations to achieve sustainability and growth
For quality programs to be successful, management must take an active role in their implementation. Plenty of guidelines are available in the work of quality leaders such as W. Edwards Deming and in more recently developed standards and programs such...
Implementing Quality Programs in the Not-for-Profit Sector
The success of quality programs at non-profit organizations often depends on intermediary organizations. These organizations may act as catalysts and include elements of encouragement, support, cajoling, and mandate. United Way organizations are in a...
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...
Continuous Improvement at an Agency For the Developmentally Disabled
Program is consumer focused, measurement oriented and team based
Today, our quality program, specifically the measurement element, has been identified as one of the two best consumer focused programs in the state system. These totals can then be summarized by category, survey, staff, consumer, program, agency and so fo...
A New Way to Teach University Introductory Statistics Courses
At many organizations, statistical control processes like control charts and design of experiments are common and effective analytical tools for continuous quality improvement. Introductory statistics courses in university statistics departments would...
Roll Quality Roll
The University of Alabama is using the Baldrige Award criteria to measure its continuous improvement. As part of its effort, the university is raising its expectations of strategic quality plans to provide guidelines for improvements within colleges,...
Quality Awards Listing
The list includes national, international, state and regional quality awards and award programs and industry-specific quality awards programs. The listed awards are related to the practice of quality, do not limit eligibility to members of the...
Column: Emerging Sectors: A Transformation To Quality Government
[Abstract from article]
The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), introduced into law in 1993, requires federal departments and independent agencies to improve the quality of their operations through the development of 5-year strategic plans...
A Transformation To Quality Government
Spend a few hours a year applying 10 steps to a national issue or problem
Given this bipartisan commitment to continuous improvement, GPRA provides the foundation for a unique quality transformation that will be unprecedented in the history of the United States. First, the president and Congress must apply the framework of GPRA...
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...
Quality in Nonprofits: No Longer Uncharted Territory
Anixter Center is a nonprofit human-service organization that has experienced the 11 challenges faced by nonprofits. As a large rehabilitation agency serving people with disabilities through more than fifty programs, Anixter Center received a...
An Alternative View of Education Quality
Students aren't the customers of instruction
In the ongoing dialogue as to who is the customer of education, popular candidates include students, parents, employers, and society. It follows that competition among colleges and universities for students implies a need to assure the quality of those se...
Applying Quality Concepts to Community Issues
Communication and process are keys to overcoming political barriers in community improvement efforts. In Tacoma and Pierce County, WA, the ideas of W. Edwards Deming are coming to life in a partnership between Tacoma and the Deming Institute. The...
Applying Continuous Improvement to Community Health
A collaborative model of community improvement sponsored by the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has successfully handled projects on motor vehicle injury prevention. The model also is applicable to...
Quality in the Age of the Networked Society
At Forum '97, the 13th year of this national quality improvement symposium, participants and speakers examined the future of information technology. A basic conclusion was that change pervades the workplace, and new rules and new techniques like...
Changing Concepts and Management of Quality Worldwide
In the global marketplace, total quality systems and processes have affected many companies over the decades, while current trends are changing how quality is viewed and managed. Quality is a common, internationalized concept in today's business...
Improving the Quality of Family Life
Quality principles and tools have helped the parents and children in this family. Even though families differ from business organizations in how individuals become members and in the nature of leadership, many quality concepts are applicable to both...
Building in Quality
The renovation of a farmhouse was the target of quality improvement concepts and techniques. The family aligned the renovation plans with its vision and mission statements. They brainstormed and weighted criteria for the renovation processes. For...
Helping Those Who Help Others
Charitable nonprofit organizations (NPOs) can take advantage of total quality management (TQM), but there are challenges to overcome. A quality team from ASQ's Manitoba Section surveyed executives of 50 Canadian charitable NPOs. None of the 34...
What a Wonderful World It Could Be
A community quality council (CQC) brings the principles of total quality management (TQM) into daily community life. It is a forum through which all elements of the community can use TQM principles to maintain leadership, create a vision, establish a...
Communities as Systems
Community improvement requires systems thinking. W. Edwards Deming urged leaders of Japan and the former Soviet Union to think of their countries as systems. Americans also should think of their communities as systems. For example, a systemic...
Mitsubishi Seeks to Create a Model U.S. Workplace
Change in the work environment at the Normal, IL site of Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America Inc. (MMMA) is being structured by 34 recommendations from former U.S. Labor Secretary Lynn Martin and her task force. The Martin analysis grew out of...
More Voices Speak Out on the Future of the Quality Profession
Readers have reacted to the Quality Progress July 1996 special issue on the future of quality. Direct responses from about 24 readers to questions raised in the issue suggest that quality activities will become more integrated within organizations,...
A Nation Reconstructed
Rebuilding America's cities requires a quality system supported by quality champions and cross-functional teams. It will take a root cause analysis that acknowledges the American people and the U.S. Constitution as vital elements in the rebuilding....
Law Firm Pioneers Explore New Territory
Attorneys who participate in total quality management (TQM) initiatives can improve customer satisfaction as well as their own work environment. Three law firms have done especially well in managing the cultural changes of TQM, in an industry that can...
Quality and Its Environment in 2010
Four scenarios of the year 2010 have been developed by the American Society for Quality Control Futures Team. First, the global reality scenario is one of worldwide wealth and technological revolution. The information society of 2010 is surrounded by...
Trends and Key Forces Shaping the Future of Quality
The American Society for Quality Control Futures Team and Alternative Futures Associates identified nine key forces for the 1995-2010 era. Globilization may lead to demands for multicultural quality training and assistance for countries like China and...
When Murphy Speaks--Listen
When he reported the loss at the airline's lost baggage claim, the clerk said, " Ohyes, you were on that flight where you have to change planes in St. Louis. People are always losing luggage on that connection because the time between planes is. Such se...
