- Customer Satisfaction and Value
- Data Quality
- Design of Experiments
- Global Quality
- ISO 9000
- Leadership
- Lean
- Metrics
- Metrology
- Problem Solving
- Process Management
- Product Development and Recall
- Project Management
- Quality Control
- Quality Management
- Quality Tools
- Sampling
- Six Sigma
- Small Business
- Standards
- Statistical Process Control (SPC)
- Statistics
- Supplier Quality
- Teams
- Theory of Constraints
- Total Quality Management
- ISO/TS 16949
- Certification/Registration (management system Standards)
- Information Management
- Customer Experience Management
- Customer Requirements
- Continuous Improvement
Statistics Roundtable: Going on Feel
Customers consider consistent quality to be one of the most important product and service attributes. Often, it’s the most important....
Statistics Roundtable: Gage R&R Reminders
Major characteristic specification limits of a popular brand were 3% and 4%. Product with lower than 3% lacked consumer appeal, and product with greater than 4% had reduced shelf life....
Refresh and Revitalize
Textron would be the first to admit it was stuck in a rut. In particular, two of its business units, Avco Lycoming and E-Z-GO, were trapped in 1950s management styles. Both units had limited new product development and a less-than-engaged workforce....
3.4 per Million: Insight or Folly?
In lean Six Sigma, much training effort is spent on conveying the importance of having a measurement system so that consistent and correct decisions are made relative to assessing part quality and process attributes....
Standards Outlook: Major Upgrades
The new fourth edition of the Chrysler, Ford and General Motors (GM) Potential Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) Reference Manual, which was released last year, is a significant upgrade from the third edition published in 2001....
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....
Building From the Basics-Online Figures
com 3 Fishbone diagram example / ONLINE FIGURE 4 Measurement Lab error Improper calibration Calculation In lab Supplier Supplier Calibration Not followed Dirty bottles Iron tools At reactor E583 E470 At sample point In lab AKW- 2 DBT Water Analyst Solven...
A DMAIC Makeover
Define, measure, Analyze, improve and control (DMAIC) is the common roadmap for Six Sigma projects. But there are potential weaknesses in this roadmap that could be addressed with a simple, proven adjustment to DMAIC....
Standards Outlook: Automakers Shift Manual Into Another Gear
The Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) published the second edition of the Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) and Control Plan Reference Manual this summer....
Good Vibrations
Modern quality management principles define quality as customer satisfaction with product and service. SCGC has a web page where guitar owners can have questions about their guitars answered by Hoover or Roberts. With employee empowerment accompanying goo...
Standards Outlook: Six Lessons Learned From QS-9000
The sun sets on QS-9000, the U.S. automotive standard.
My version of the old joke goes: "When’s your birthday?" "Dec. 15." "What year?" "Every year, so far."...
Use SPC for Everyday Work Processes
Despite the advantages of statistical process control (SPC), many organizational implementation efforts have not been successful or self-sustaining. This has nothing to do with the methodology, but is a case of using the right toolbox but the wrong...
Measure for Measure: Appraiser Variation in Gage R&R Measurement
In part one of this column, I said if our data analysis is inaccurate, it does not represent the true quality characteristics of the part or product being measured, even if we're using quality improvement tools correctly....
Measure for Measure: Improved Gage R&R Measurement Studies
Many manufacturers are using tools like statistical process control (SPC) and design of experiments (DoE) to monitor and improve product quality and process productivity. However, if the data collected are not accurate and precise, they do not...
3.4 per Million: Measurement System Analysis For Attribute Measuring Processes
To rephrase an old management proverb, "What gets measured can be improved." Six Sigma practitioners quickly come to appreciate the critical role of good measurement systems in initiating and sustaining process improvement. A good measurement system...
Are You Making Decisions in a Fog?
Just as water makes up two thirds of the world's surface, measurement constitutes an enormous part of the scientific method and scientific problem solving....
A Quality Library for a Desert Island
A key skill for any quality professional is knowing where to find the answers to questions. After more than 20 years in the quality business, I find my workday is a healthy mixture of old and new questions....
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...
Design of Experiments for Dummies
Design of experiments (DOE) is not as widely applied in industry as it should be because it appears complex and confusing to newcomers. In reality, most test performed are one-factor two-level experiments that show how a system, product, or process will...
TS 16949 – Where Did It Come From?
TS 16949 is an international fundamental quality management system specification for the automotive industry based on ISO 9000. It was developed at the request of automotive suppliers from the Big Three automakers' quality system assessment manuals,...
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....
Who Attends ASQ Section Meetings and Events?
When the Jacksonville, Florida ASQ section was threatened with deactivation due to inactivity, dedicated volunteers used telephone surveys to determine what members wanted. Survey results made clear the necessity to set strategic objectives for planning...
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....
Measurement Capability
Measurements are made all the time: in processes, to see how well work is progressing and in commerce. Most of the time, we trust these measurements are adequate for the task....
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...
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...
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....
How To Compare Six Sigma, Lean and the Theory of Constraints
Many process improvement methodologies appear to conflict with each other, making it difficult to decide which best fits an organization's needs and culture. Three improvement methodologies - Six Sigma, Lean thinking, and Theory of constraints - are...
Expect the Unexpected
The Idaho State Department of Water Resources (IDWR), whose mission is to provide oversight for the management of water within the state of Idaho, recently converted its Cobol based ADABAS database system to an structured query language (SQL) server...
Widgetcraft for One Small Paint Company
Marcus Paint Co., a small company specializing in the manufacture of custom formulated coatings for metal products in original equipment manufacturing, implemented QS-9000 to satisfy customer requirements. Despite initial misgivings, senior management...
10 Requirements for Effective Process Control: A Case Study
Failure to control the manufacturing process results in product recalls, product loss or rework, and a decrease in customer confidence. Because the management of READ-RITE Corporation, a manufacturer of magnetic heads for computer disk drive, considered...
Linking Six Sigma with QS-9000
Six Sigma is changing the way the automotive industry approaches quality improvement. Ford Motor Company is the first automaker to use Six Sigma to focus on customer satisfaction, and several other automotive suppliers plan to use the approach as well....
Avoiding Calibration Overkill
Ratio requirements need to be re-examined
Early in the 20th century, establishment of laboratories devoted to measurement science, such as the U.S. National Bureau of Standards, now the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), focused formal attention on measurements as a subject wo...
The Emancipation of Quality: Building Bridges and Closing Gaps
The recent name change of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) is indicative of the future of the quality profession. Quality goes beyond quality control in manufacturing. It extends to all organizations and to all work. Quality is not only for...
Six Sigma and the Future of the Quality Profession
A lean quality organization that performs supporting roles is a trend in the quality profession. It already has appeared in businesses like General Electric and the now defunct Scott Paper Company. The supporting roles are management of the quality...
Advanced Quality Planning: A Guide for Any Organization
Implementation of advanced product quality planning (APQP) has long-term business advantages for any organization, while supporting the QS-9000 activities of firms in the automotive industry. This planning process, including a control plan (CP)...
The New Pragmatism: Going Beyond Shewhart and Deming
The pragmatism of Walter A. Shewhart and W. Edwards Deming is contrasted with that of Richard Rorty. Shewhart and Deming were influenced by the work of C. I. Lewis, who based his conceptual pragmatism on ideas of Charles S. Peirce, William James, and...
Scientific Method: The Generation of Knowledge and Quality
Deductive-inductive problem solving and democratization of the scientific method are key to the future of the quality profession. Knowledge generation must be efficient and less fractionated, while making the most of human learning powers. Therefore,...
Continuous Improvement Through the QS-9000 Road Map
The automotive industry has harmonized supplier standards. QS-9000 has international applications for the Big Three (Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors) and other subscribers. Released in 1994 and revised in 1995, the QS-9000 framework includes the 20...
Teams in the Age of Systems
Customer focus and systems thinking affect the implementation of teamwork. Without attention to these factors, teams can proliferate and become disconnected. A customer-in mentality means that customers drive the formation, activity, and evaluation of...
Renewing American Civilization, Pillar Five: Quality as Defined by Deming
Empowerment is a key to societal quality. W. Edwards Deming has encouraged this by codifying the decency, hard work, integrity, and sincerity found in America. Other communicators who have increased the awareness of quality include Philip B. Crosby,...
Putting Fear to Flight
Performance management is the application of behavior principles to the needs of individual organizational cultures. At the Wongpaitoon Footwear Company (WFC) in Bangkok, Thailand, performance management has excised fear and helped employees improve...
The IRS and TVA Are Leading the Way
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) have been successful in reinventing government. This initiative, also known as the National Performance Review, is driven by political pressure, citizen concern, and the large...
The Importance of Following GD&T Specifications
Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) enhances communication between product engineers and manufacturing engineers. The GD&T symbols or specifications that appear on a design decrease the likelihood of harmful variations during product...
