Start Your Quality Journey with ASQ
Start your quality journey with ASQ! We’re here to help you learn how to use both established and emerging quality principles and methods to improve your workplace and advance your career.
ASQ was born in the days when "quality control" usually meant ensuring that manufactured products were free of defects. Manufacturing is still an important part of what we do, but we've also evolved into much more. Virtually any process can benefit from the quality tools and techniques you'll find here.
This quick overview takes you from the formation of craft guilds in the 13th century to the latest 21st-century quality tools and concepts.
Quality First Steps
Start your quality journey on the right foot.
We offer a variety of resources for students and professionals, from books and publications, training and certifications, conferences and events, and more. ASQ can help you learn about quality: how to use time-tested principles and methods to improve the work you do, whatever it may be.
Quality Progress, ASQ’s flagship publication, is read by more people than any other magazine on quality. It features monthly in-depth articles describing the application of innovative methods, and topics include knowledge management, process improvement, and organizational behavior.
- Visit QP online
- Subscribe to QP
- Search QP archives
- Subscribe to QP newsletters, QP Live and QP Connection
Used by quality professionals in all fields, the "First Seven" or the "Old Seven" are often recommended as the first quality tools to learn about. ASQ also offers a variety of downloadable tools and templates to help you in the workplace.
ASQ offers an extensive collection of case studies, which provide real-world examples of people using quality to improve their work in many different fields and businesses. With ASQ's case studies, you'll learn how organizations around the world are using quality tools and approaches to improve processes, increase ROIL, and advance customer satisfaction. Search more than 1,800 examples from organizations of all sizes. Below is a sampling to get you started.
- Complementary Alliance (Lean & Six Sigma Review) This case study details a Six Sigma changeover downtime reduction project using 5S and single-minute exchange of die to reduce average changeover downtime at a polymer extrusion facility.
- Using DMAIC To Improve Nursing Shift-Change Assignments (PDF) In this case study involving an anonymous hospital, nursing department leaders sought to improve efficiency of their staff’s shift change assignments. Upon value stream mapping the process, team members identified the shift nursing report took 43 minutes on average to complete. Using DMAIC and other quality tools, team members improved the process’ sigma level from 0.7 to 3.3.
- Aligning, Improving Key Measures Net Texas Healthcare Organization Baldrige Honor (PDF) When St. David’s HealthCare first adopted the Baldrige criteria, leaders viewed it as an improvement framework to shape a culture of quality and performance excellence. Once immersed in the framework, leaders used it as a tool to help align and improve the work of the organization and key performance measures. The organization’s emergency departments served as a prime example of improving key metrics, as wait times were significantly shortened to meet competitive challenges. In 2014, St. David’s HealthCare earned the nation’s top honor for performance excellence, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
- Behind The Customer Experience (Lean & Six Sigma Review) This article explains how to quantify the revenue and word-of-mouth (WOM) implications of lean Six Sigma projects across the entire customer experience (CX). Three steps are required to effectively quantify the payoff of an enhanced CX: create a broader, unified voice of the customer that covers the entire CX; make a compelling business case for action using revenue and WOM impacts; and obtain buy-in from the CFO and chief marketing officer.
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The Quality Toolbox, Second Edition By Nancy R. Tague This is a comprehensive reference to a variety of methods and techniques: those most commonly used for quality improvement, many less commonly used, and some created by the author and not available elsewhere. The reader will find the widely used seven basic quality control tools as well as the newer management and planning tools for generating and organizing ideas, evaluating ideas, analyzing processes, determining root causes, planning, and basic data-handling and statistics. |
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The ASQ Quality Improvement Pocket Guide By Grace L. Duffy This pocket guide is designed to be a quick, on-the-job reference for anyone interested in making their workplace more effective and efficient. It will provide a solid initial overview of what "quality" is and how it could impact you and your organization. The tools of quality described herein are universal. Since organizational and process improvement is increasingly integrated into all areas of an organization, everyone must understand the basic principles of process control and process improvement. This succinct and concentrated guide can help. |
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Root Cause Analysis, Second Edition By Duke Okes This best-seller can help anyone whose role is to try to find specific causes for failures. It provides detailed steps for solving problems, focusing more heavily on the analytical process involved in finding the actual causes of problems. It does this using figures, diagrams, and tools useful for helping to make our thinking visible. This increases our ability to see what is truly significant and to better identify errors in our thinking. |
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The ASQ Certified Quality Improvement Associate Handbook, Fourth Edition By Grace L. Duffy and Sandra L. Furterer The ASQ Certified Quality Improvement Associate (CQIA) certification introduces the basics of quality to organizations and individuals who are new to quality. This edition features ample material that stretches beyond the content of the CQIA Body of Knowledge, making it useful for any quality practitioner—not just those preparing for the ASQ CQIA examination. In this book, you’ll find a thorough overview of quality tools and history presented in an accessible manner and easily understood by non-engineers. |
Quality 101: Available online, this is a self-paced, basic-level training program designed to introduce you to quality concepts and tools.
Certified Quality Improvement Associate (CQIA): Show the world – and your employers – that you’ve mastered the basics of quality and can carry your share of the load in quality-improvement projects in your workplace by taking the Certified Quality Improvement Associate, or CQIA, exam.
Basic Quality Concepts
A History of Quality
An overview of how the concepts and processes of quality have evolved from the craft guilds of medieval Europe to the workplaces of today.
Continuous Improvement
How to take your products, services and processes to the next level through an ongoing cycle of activities that capitalize on improvement opportunities.
Cost of Quality
Quality doesn't cost money. It's poor-quality products and services that pile up extra costs for your organization. Here's how to get started eliminating these expensive shortcomings.
Customer Satisfaction
Tips and resources for helping you identify your customers and what it will take to satisfy them.
Glossary
A handy guide to the unique terminology of quality.
Problem Solving
Using four basic steps to implement solutions by accurately defining problems and identifying alternatives.
Process View of Work
Analyze how work gets done so that you can increase efficiency, effectiveness, and adaptability.
Quality Assurance and Quality Control
What's the difference? In the world of quality, these terms have very different meanings.
Root Cause Analysis
Use a wide range of approaches, tools, and techniques to uncover causes of problems.
Supplier Quality
The quality of what goes into a product or service determines the quality of what comes out. Here's how to keep costs low and quality high.
Variation
Variation represents the difference between an ideal and an actual situation.
Become a Member
ASQ is the world’s leading authority on quality, and the hub for the worldwide community of quality-focused professionals. As a member, you can access exclusive content, including magazines and journals, get discounts on books, trainings, and certifications, and become more involved with ASQ’s communities, forums, and divisions.
There are many ways to engage with quality and ASQ’s people and resources.
- Forums/Divisions – ASQ has 25 member groups that focus on specific interests or professions. Each of them offers events, resources and networking opportunities for others who share their passion.
- Communities – Ask questions, see what quality pros are saying about the latest issues and ideas, and connect directly with people who have the information you need.
- Conferences and Events – Network in person with other quality professionals.
- Careers in Quality – Tools for finding jobs in quality and seeking out the best quality professionals for your company’s needs.
If you have questions about anything related to your quality journal, visit our online Customer Service area or call us as 800-248-1946 in North America (7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Standard Time Monday-Friday). In Mexico, call 001-877-442-8726. All other locations, call +1-414-272-8575.