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Quality progress magazine - issue July 2014TRANSCRIPT
www.qualityprogress.com | July 2014
The Global Voice of QualityTM
Putting Best Practices to WorkQU
ALITY PRO
GRESS | JU
LY 2014 TH
E CA
REER ISSUE
VOLU
ME 47/N
UM
BER 7
Blog Heaven:
Reasons to Read and Write
p. 16
Plus:
PQUALITY PROGRESS
NetworkCONNECTIONS
Cultivate career prospects with these simple tips p. 24
A new approach to process capability analysis p. 28
Gage R&R expanded p. 34
Check out a few of the NEW books from ASQ Quality Press!
The Certified Pharmaceutical GMP Professional HandbookThe purpose of this handbook is to highlight and partially annotate what the founders of the Certified Pharmaceutical Good Manufacturing Practices Professional (CPGP) examination believed to be the main topics comprising worldwide pharmaceutical good manufacturing practices (GMPs).
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Continuous Permanent ImprovementThe purpose of this book is not to expound any new theory or tools, but to share experiences in implementing existing methods with a bias toward business results. In fact, one of the important lessons we have learned is that most existing models or methods, if adhered to in the right spirit, will give results.
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The Certified HACCP Auditor Handbook, Third EditionThis handbook is intended to serve as a baseline of hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) knowledge for quality auditors and assists the certification candidate preparing for the ASQ Certified HACCP Auditor (CHA) examination.
Item: H1449
The Biomedical Quality Auditor Handbook, Second EditionIn addition to being a peerless reference for ASQ’s Biomedical Auditor certification (CBA), this book is a valuable reference for biomedical professionals who want to execute better audits for medical devices and gain basic knowledge of biomedical technical areas and regulatory requirements.
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WHY DID YOU JOIN?
FEATURES
• Google+ Hangout Follow a link to watch a live Google+ Hangout with some of the bloggers featured in “Blog Boom,” pp. 16-23. The bloggers will discuss the value of social media to quality professionals and how to get involved. The live event takes place at 12 p.m. CST on July 23. You also can watch a recording of the discussion later.
• Innovation Insight Three sidebars with more career advice from Peter Merrill, author of this month’s Innovation Imperative column, “Making Choices,” pp. 39-40.
• SIPOC Supplement A suppliers, inputs, process, outputs and customers diagram to illustrate progress on the AS9100 revision, the topic of this month’s Standards Outlook column, “Revision Runway,” pp. 50-52.
• Free Template See an example of an individual development plan—a quality tool used to improve skills and performance—that accompanies this month’s One Good Idea column, “Steer Your Career,” p. 64.
www.qualityprogress.comONLY @
SOCIAL MEDIABlog BoomThe backstory on blogging from five quality professionals who use the popular medium to learn, create, connect and share.
by Jimena Calfa, Mark Graban, John Hunter, Jennifer J. Stepniowski and Dan Zrymiak
CAREERSMaking ConnectionsAdvice on building a network of professional connections—including ways to perfect your LinkedIn profile—to get the career you want. by Marshall Brown
PROCESS CAPABILITYFirst Things FirstBefore spending precious time and resources establishing process control, determine whether the process can meet customer requirements in the first place.
by C. Steven Arendall, Andrew A. Tiger and Kevin W. Westbrook
METROLOGYNecessary MeasuresUnderstand the difference between standard and expanded gage repeatability and reproducibility studies and how the latter helps clarify measurement system variation.
by Louis Johnson and Maureen Deaner
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ContentsPutting Best Practices to Work | July 2014 | www.qualityprogress.com
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QP • www.qualityprogress.com4
LogOn• Supplier or customer?
Expert Answers• Building an effective QMS.• Understanding medians.
Keeping Current • Concerns with the VA healthcare system.• Report to president touts Baldrige.
Mr. Pareto Head
QP Toolbox
QP Reviews
DEPARTMENTS
Up FrontSocial cues.
Innovation ImperativeRecognizing good career opportunities.
Statistics Roundtable Caution when categorizing quantitative variables.
Measure for Measure Understanding test accuracy and uncertainty ratios.
Quality in the First Person Back to the beginning.
Career CornerWhat career centers can do for you.
Standards OutlookUpdating AS9100 standards.
One Good IdeaThe benefits of individual development plans.
Mail Quality Progress/ASQ600 N. Plankinton Ave.Milwaukee, WI 53203Telephone Fax 800-248-1946 414-272-1734414-272-8575
Email Follow protocol of first initial and full last name followed by @asq.org (for example, [email protected]).
Article Submissions Quality Progress is a peer-reviewed publica-tion with 85% of its feature articles written by quality professionals. For information about submitting an article, call Valerie Ellifson at 800-248-1946 x7373, or email [email protected].
Author GuidelinesTo learn more about the manuscript review process, helpful hints before submitting a manuscript and QP’s 2014 editorial planner, click on “Author Guidelines” at www. qualityprogress.com under “Tools and Resources.“
Photocopying Authorization Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use or the internal or personal use of specific clients is granted by Quality Progress provided the fee of $1 per copy is paid to ASQ or the Copyright Clear-ance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. Copying for other purposes requires the express permission of Quality Progress. For permission, write Quality Progress, PO Box 3005, Milwaukee, WI 53201-3005, call 414-272-8575 x7406, fax 414-272-1734 or email [email protected].
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Membership and Subscriptions For more than 60 years, ASQ has been the worldwide provider of information and learning opportunities related to quality. In addition, ASQ membership offers information, networking, certification and educational opportunities to help quality professionals obtain practical solutions to the many problems they face each day. Subscriptions to Quality Progress are one of the many benefits of ASQ membership. To join, call 800-248-1946 or see information and an application on p. 2.
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COLUMNS
QUALITY PROGRESS
Quality Progress (ISSN 0033-524X) is published monthly by the American Society for Quality, 600 N. Plankinton Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53203. Editorial and advertising offices: 414-272-8575. Periodicals postage paid at Milwaukee, WI, and at additional mailing offices. Institutional subscriptions are held in the name of a company, corporation, government agency or library. Requests for back issues must be prepaid and are based on availability: ASQ members $17 per copy; nonmembers $25 per copy. Canadian GST #128717618, Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40030175. Canada Post: Return undeliverables to 2835 Kew Drive, Windsor, ON N8T 3B7. Prices are subject to change without prior notification. © 2014 by ASQ. No claim for missing issues will be accepted after three months following the month of publication of the issue for domestic addresses and six months for Canadian and international addresses.Postmaster: Please send address changes to the American Society for Quality, PO Box 3005, Milwaukee, WI 53201-3005. Printed in USA.
ASQ’s Vision: By making quality a global priority, an organizational imperative and a personal ethic, the American Society for Quality becomes the community for everyone who seeks quality technology, concepts or tools to improve themselves and their world.
- EYE ON IMPROVEMENTAn IT organization strives to build a self-sustaining business excellence culture.
- QUALITY-DRIVEN CULTURES Report on what organizations view as the vital components to a true culture of quality.
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NEXT MONTH
SPECIAL SECTION ASQ’S CONTINUING EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DIRECTORY p. 54
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UPFRONT
Social CuesBe true, be you; get it right in social media
IT USED TO BE that you only had one reputation to uphold. Social media has turned
that concept on its ear. Now, it’s prudent to be conscious of your reputation on the inter-
net, because the medium and its contents can be that much more far-reaching. To some,
this age of increased visibility and the availability of what some consider to be private or
at least protected information is alarming.
Yet, the wide net the digital age casts can be a beautiful thing, particularly when it
comes to growing personal and professional networks, opening up career prospects and
getting your name in front of the right people—job recruiters or hiring managers, for
instance.
Often, people join or are a part of a professional association to help further their
careers. Whether it’s seeking certification or training, or accessing knowledge resources,
career advancement is a perennial interest area for readers. This month’s issue is
dedicated to that pursuit.
In “Making Connections,” p. 24, author Marshall Brown has pulled together a handy
list to help you improve your networking skills and land the job you want. He discusses
how to maximize opportunities at live events and in the virtual world. He also has a help-
ful sidebar on making the most of your LinkedIn profile.
“Blog Boom,” p. 16, showcases this popular medium and introduces you to some ac-
tive and engaging bloggers in the quality community. Whether you just want some fresh
reading material, or you’re interested in the possibility of blogging yourself, you’ll find
these bloggers’ tales enlightening.
When is the last time you Googled yourself? Go ahead, give it a try! What sites come
up? What do they say about you and who you are? Are you shown in the best light? If not,
what can you do to enhance your image? We hope this issue helps you take that first step
toward being a better you.
And remember to find and follow QP on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter! QP
Seiche Sanders
Editor
EXECUTIVE EDITOR ANDASSOCIATE PUBLISHERSeiche Sanders
ASSOCIATE EDITORMark Edmund
ASSISTANT EDITORAmanda Hankel
MANUSCRIPT COORDINATORValerie Ellifson
CONTRIBUTING EDITORMegan Schmidt
COPY EDITORSusan E. Daniels
ART DIRECTORMary Uttech
GRAPHIC DESIGNERSandy Wyss
PRODUCTION Cathy Milquet
ADVERTISING PRODUCTIONBarbara Mitrovic
DIGITAL PRODUCTION SPECIALISTSJulie SchweitzerJulie Wagner
MEDIA SALESNaylor LLCLou BrandowKrys D’AntonioNorbert Musial
MEDIA SALES ADMINISTRATORKathy Thomas
MARKETING ADMINISTRATORMatt Meinholz
EDITORIAL OFFICESPhone: 414-272-8575Fax: 414-272-1734
ADVERTISING OFFICESPhone: 866-277-5666
ASQ ADMINISTRATIONCEO Bill Troy
Managing DirectorsAjoy BoseJulie GabelmannBrian J. LeHouillierMichelle MasonLaurel Nelson-Rowe
To promote discussion of issues in the field of quality and ensure coverage of all responsible points of view, Quality Progress publishes articles representing conflicting and minor-ity views. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily of ASQ or Quality Progress. Use of the ASQ logo in advertisements does not necessarily constitute endorsement of that particular product or service by ASQ.
QUALITY PROGRESS
QP
July 2014 • QP 5
Don’t forget to watch the new episode
QP • www.qualityprogress.com6
LOGONCustomized QMSIn response to “Solid Base” (June 2014, pp.
28-33): The sort of customized, in-depth
assessment described by the author is
performed by many of our customers. In
many industries, this practice lays to rest
the “promise” that registration to one or
more of the internationally recognized
quality management system (QMS) stan-
dards by qualified certifying bodies would
replace the need for a customized QMS for
separate customers: It’s registration and
customization.
Phil Scott
Downers Grove, IL
FMEA refresherI just became a member of ASQ, and I
wanted to say that the June 2014 edition
of QP magazine is fantastic. Most impor-
tantly, the article about failure mode and
effects analysis (FMEA) (“3.4 Per Million:
Conducting FMEAs for Results,” pp. 42-45)
was a great refresher. What I appreciated
the most was the author’s use of an actual
example to highlight his points.
Gregory P. Simmons
Nashville, TN
More to addAfter reading the Expert Answers response
“Defining the Customer” (March 2014, pp.
8-9), I just had to add to the expert’s reply.
Briefly, the problem is that a customer oc-
casionally sends raw materials to be used
in a machining operation and, at times, the
material is received nonconforming. The
question asked is, “Should these custom-
ers who provide raw material be classi-
fied as customers or suppliers, and be
logged into the supplier base and receive
Seen&Heard
StayConnectedFind the latest news, quips and targeted content from QP staff.
Executive Editor & Associate Publisher Seiche Sanders: @ASQ_Seiche
Associate Editor Mark Edmund: @ASQ_Mark
Assistant Editor Amanda Hankel: @ASQ_Amanda
Contributing Editor Megan Schmidt: @ASQ_Megan
www.facebook.com/groups/43461176682
www.linkedin.com/groups/quality-progress-magazine-asq-1878386
reports based on their quality?” The expert
answers: “The bottom line, the customer is
still the customer if it supplies the materi-
als to be serviced or machined.”
I completely agree with the expert’s
answer, but would add that perhaps the
underlying cause of this problem lies in
the lack of quality assurance requirements
being included in the contract. An agree-
ment beforehand should have included
what to do with customer-supplied materi-
als that are received nonconforming by
the organization. ISO 9001:2008, Clause
7.2—Customer-related processes closely
applies here. It is up to the organization to
determine requirements not stated by the
customer.
ISO 9001:2008, Clause 8.3—Control of
nonconforming product also applies. When
the received raw materials did not meet
requirements, they should not have been
used by the organization unless autho-
rized by the customer.
A similar problem occurs when the
customer dictates to an organization
which supplier they are to buy materials
or components from. This differs from
the above in that the organization issues
the purchase order to the supplier. It
should be agreed on up front and in
the contract who is responsible for the
quality management of the supplier—
the customer or the organization. The
agreement should include what actions
the organization should take if the supplier
delivers nonconforming materials or
components and who is to absorb the cost
for the non-quality issues.
James D. Werner
Raritan, NJ
Tune In
The latest ASQ TV episode focused on data management. View the episode to get an overview on data management, from hot topics such as big data to using data to improve quality. Also, watch for a new episode
discussing quality and athletics, available July 15.
Visit http:// videos.asq.org to access the full video library.
July 2014 • QP 7
QPQUALITY PROGRESS
PAST CHAIRJohn C. Timmerman, Gallup Inc.
CHAIRStephen K. Hacker, Transformation Systems International LLC
CHAIR-ELECTCecilia Kimberlin, Kimberlin LLC (retired – Abbott)
TREASURERChava Scher, RAFAEL – Advanced Defense Systems
(retired)
DIRECTORSHeather L. Crawford, Apollo EndosurgeryRaymond R. Crawford, Parsons BrinckerhoffHa C. Dao, Emerson Climate Technologies Inc.Julia K. Gabaldón, Quality New MexicoGary N. Gehring, Saskatchewan Ministry of
Government RelationsDavid B. Levy, Tekni-Plex Flexibles Division Sylvester (Bud) M. Newton Jr., AlcoaDaniella A. Picciotti, BechtelSteven J. Schuelka, SJS ConsultingKush K. Shah, General MotorsJames B. Shore, Nipro HealthcareDaniel E. Sniezek, Lockheed Martin (retired)Joal Teitelbaum, Joal Teitelbaum Escritório de
EngenhariaAlejandra Vicenttin, Vicenttin Organizational Excellence & KaizenG. Geoffrey Vining, Virginia Tech, Department of
StatisticsBharat Wakhlu, Tata Services Ltd., Division of Tata Sons
QP EDITORIAL REVIEW BOARDRandy Brull, chair
Administrative Committee Brady Boggs, Randy Brull, Jane Campanizzi, Larry Haugh, Jim Jaquess, Gary MacLean,R. Dan Reid, Richard Stump
Technical reviewersAndy Barnett, Matthew Barsalou, David Bonyuet, Da-vid Burger, Bernie Carpenter, L.N. Prabhu Chandrasek-aran, Ken Cogan, Linda Cubalchini-Travis, Ahmad Elshennawy, Mark Gavoor, Kunita Gear, Daniel Gold, T. Gourishankar, Roberto Guzman, Ellen Hardy, Lynne Hare, Ray Klotz, Tom Kubiak, William LaFollette, Pradip Mehta, Larry Picciano, Gene Placzkowski, Tony Polito, Peter Pylipow, Imran Ahmad Rana, John Richards, James Rooney, Brian Scullin, Amitava Sengupta, Mohit Sharma, A.V. Srinivas, Joe Tunner, Manu Vora, Keith Wagoner, Jack Westfall, Doron Zilbershtein
QUICK POLL RESULTS Each month at www.qualityprogress.com, visitors can take an informal survey. Here are the numbers from last month’s Quick Poll:
Which aspect of supply chain optimization would most benefit your organization? • Identifying and partnering with the right suppliers. 36.6% • Managing processes effectively. 28.1% • Eliminating waste within the chain. 19.7% • Auditing suppliers accurately. 15.4% Visit www.qualityprogress.com for the latest question:
What is your favorite social media network?• Facebook.• LinkedIn.• Twitter.• Instagram.• Other.
QP
QualityNewsTODAYRecent headlines from ASQ’s global news service(All URLs case sensitive)
Auto Industry Gets Serious About Lighter MaterialsAutomakers have been experimenting for decades with ”lightweighting,” as the practice is
known, but the effort is gaining urgency with the adoption of tougher gas mileage standards.
(http://bit.ly/lightermaterials)
CDC: Two 'Sproutbreaks' Sicken More Than 70 More than 70 people in the United States and Canada have been sickened in two so-called
”sproutbreaks” involving foods made from either sprouted chia seeds or clover, federal
investigators say. (http://bit.ly/sproutbreakssicken70)
• Hang out with ASQ bloggers Watch a live Google+ Hangout with some of the bloggers featured in “Blog Boom” (pp.
16-23) as they discuss the value of social media and how to get involved. The event takes place at 12 p.m. CST on July 23. You can also watch a recording of the discussion later.
• More career moves Peter Merrill offers more career advice in three sidebars that add to this month’s
Innovation Imperative column, ”Making Decisions” (pp. 39-40).
• Illustrated progress A suppliers, inputs, process, outputs and customers diagram shows the progress made on the AS9100 revision, the topic of this month’s Standards Outlook column, ”Revision Runway” (pp. 50-52).
• Improvement plan example See an example of a quality tool used to improve skills and performance, as described in
this month’s One Good Idea column, ”Steer Your Career,” p. 64.
www.qualityprogress.com
ONLINE EXTRAS@
WANT THE LATEST QUALITY-RELATED NEWS AND ANALYSIS? The QNT Weekly enewsletter, available exclusively to ASQ members, delivers it every Friday.
Subscribe now at http://email.asq.org/subscribe/qntwk.
QP • www.qualityprogress.com8
Build an effective QMSQ: What’s an effective approach for estab-
lishing, maintaining and optimizing an ef-
fective quality management system (QMS)?
David Stuckey
Fort Worth, TX
A: The most effective approach is based
on demonstrated need for a QMS and sup-
ported by the senior management of an or-
ganization, meaning the CEO and his or her
direct reports. When everyone in an orga-
nization understands the need to address
quality, there will be buy-in from everyone
for a QMS. Consider two examples:
1. Many years ago, there was a prevail-
ing perception in the customer base of a
large retailer that the retailer sold seconds
merchandise (products in which a mistake
was made in making the item), even though
that was not the case. To address and
change this, the CEO of this organization
created a quality assurance (QA) division
with the director of QA reporting directly to
the CEO. The fact that the director of QA at-
tended weekly staff meetings with the CEO,
along with other direct reports to the CEO,
sent a powerful message throughout the
retailer as well as the supplier community
that quality of merchandise was extremely
important to top management.
The organization also effectively used
product inspection based on statisti-
cal sampling at suppliers’ facilities and
retailers’ warehouses; it conducted pre-
purchase and post-award product testing
to ensure the products met requirements;
it passed on information from customer
complaints to the suppliers for their con-
sideration and actions; and it helped buyers
(purchasing officers/agents) establish
performance specifications. Using these
strategies, the retailer became known for
first-class quality across all merchandise
categories within two to three years, and
its quality system came to be known as
one of the best in the retail industry.
2. In another example, a children’s wear
manufacturer had an established QMS,
but the director of QA was not getting the
necessary resources. Over a few months,
he had his staff collect data on scrap, re-
jects and rework, and put cost figures to all
these data. He managed to get 10 minutes
of time in the executive vice president’s
(EVP) staff meeting and presented on how
much money the organization could save
with a bit more resource devoted to quality
management. This opened the EVP’s eyes
to potential savings, and the director of QA
got what he needed. From then on, every
staff meeting with the EVP opened with a
presentation on quality.
In both of these examples, quality
management was strongly supported by
senior management. In the first case, quality
management was driven by customers. In
the second case, it was driven by the bot-
tom line.
Pradip Mehta
Mehta Consulting LLC
Coppell, TX
Understanding mediansQ: How robust is “median” as a statistic?
Govind Ramu
San Jose, CA
A: To be clear, the median is the center
value of a set of observations taken from a
broader population. As such, it is the 50th
percentile. If a set of observations in rank
order contains an uneven number of them,
it is the observation in the middle; if the set
contains an even number of observations, it
is the mean of the two numbers closest to
the middle.
How robust is it?
A statistic is robust if it is resistant to
change even when some observations
change. The mean of a data set, for ex-
ample, will change if any observation in the
data set changes. This is not so for the me-
dian. Individual observations may wander
within limits and the median won’t budge.
That property is partially responsible for the
median’s appeal. But just how robust is it?
You would have to define a specific quanti-
tative measure of robustness to say.
When is the median appropriate?
In theory, if your data set fails the test of
normality, and you can’t find a transforma-
tion to normality or another suitable distri-
EXPERTANSWE RS
When everyone in an organization understands the need to address quality, there will be buy-in from everyone for a quality management system.
July 2014 • QP 9
bution that fits, you can always default to
a distribution-free test for comparing two
or more treatments. Distribution-free tests
often rely on the median as a measure of
central tendency. Developers of distribu-
tion-free tests are careful to examine rela-
tive efficiency, measured as the ratio of the
variance of the distribution-free statistic
to the variance of the appropriate statistic
under normality (or some other assumed
distribution).
The relative efficiency of a distribution-
free test statistic computed on data that
are actually normally distributed is often
low. This is one factor that prevents you
from abandoning all normal theory statis-
tics in favor of distribution-free tests. If the
data are normal, using median instead of
the mean is often inefficient.
It is important to understand that often,
large data sets, even some from an under-
lying normal distribution, will fail a formal
test of normality simply because the test
criteria are very strict. In most practical
applications, a straight line on a normal
probability plot is sufficient evidence of
normality or near-normality. Opinions will
differ, but many applied statisticians will
stick to normality unless there is clear
evidence against it.
In many situations, there may be value
in seeking the cause of non-normality. Data
may actually come from multiple sources
with different means, causing the appear-
ance of non-normality in the aggregate data
set. A distribution-free test in this environ-
ment may be technically correct, but it may
miss the point of getting to the root causes
of variation.
Still, when the data set is decidedly not
normal and all other avenues have been
traveled, the distribution-free test based on
medians is appropriate.
How can you prevent the misuse of
medians to sway perception?
You can’t. If someone’s paycheck depends
on their ability to produce a summary that
best supports their argument, little can be
done to dissuade them from the practice.
However, given the opportunity, you may be
able to educate an errant user of medians
by showing plots of the data, including a
normal probability plot, to point out that the
data can be summarized more efficiently.
Bear in mind, however, that if the distribu-
tion is normal, the median and mean will
be very close, so there may be little harm
done by showing the median in place of
the mean. When data analysts use medi-
ans, they should provide some justification
explaining why that choice was made.
Are there measures of dispersion for
the median that should be published
along with them (for example, inter-
quartile range)?
An interquartile range may be appropriate,
but a statistic showing something closer
to the full range of the data might do a
better job of persuading the reader of vast
uncertainty, assuming it exists. A graphi-
cal display, such as a box plot, is useful for
showing the variability of the data that are
summarized by the median.
There is a formula for the variance, σ2,
of the median from any population, but it
assumes a known distribution:
σ2 = {1/(4n[f(m)]2)}
in which n is the number of observations,
f is the density function of the population,
and m is its median. In situations in which
the distribution function may be assumed—
for example, microbiological counts are
often approximately lognormal—there may
be value in showing the variance or the
standard deviation of the median, simply to
point out the uncertainty associated with
the median.
Lynne B. Hare
Statistical consultant
Plymouth, MA
EXPERTANSWE RS
GET YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWEREDAt some point, everyone runs into a problem they can’t solve alone. Let QP help. Submit your question at www.qualityprogress.com, or send it to [email protected], and our subject matter experts will help you find a solution.
QUALITY COUNCIL OF INDIANA
Our Primers contain study material for the current ASQ bodies of knowledge plus sample questions and answers. The Primers may be taken into the exam. The completeness of our materials makes them themostwidelyusedtextsforCertificationTraining.
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CD-ROMSQCI offers user-friendly interactive software to assist students preparing for ASQ examinations. Each CD contains 1000 total questions. Examinationsaretimedandsummarizedgraphically.Ahelpfileprovidesexplanations and references. The CDs run on Windows XP and newer.
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Juran’s Quality Handbook Implementing Six Sigma The Quality Technician’s Handbookby Juran & De FeoThe essential quality reference for most ASQ exams
by Forrest W. Breyfogle, IIIA great CSSBB reference
by Gary K. GriffithGreat for CQT and CQI exams.
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by Tracy OmdahlMore than 2500 definitions. Great for any ASQ certification.
by Tracy OmdahlContains 2800 definitions. Helpful for Reliability and Quality Engineers.
by Bensley & WortmanPresents a thorough treatment of the ISO implementation and documentation process. There are generic manuals on the CD.
by Edenborough Details the selection, organization, and writing of quality documents. The disk contains procedures and work instructions.
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QP • www.qualityprogress.com12
GOVERNMENT
Culture, Cover-ups Plague VA Health SystemAppointment delays, inaccurate reporting and varied quality of care found
KEEPINGCURRE NTLast fall, Thomas Breen, a 71-year-old U.S.
Navy veteran noticed blood in his urine.
With a history of bladder cancer, Breen
called his Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital
in Phoenix for a follow-up appointment.
He had to wait months to get in. In the
meantime, his family took him to a private
hospital where he was diagnosed with
bladder cancer. As Breen’s daughter-in-law
told the Los Angeles Times, when the VA
called in early December to schedule an
appointment, she informed the scheduler
it was too late—Breen had died on Nov. 30.1
At another VA health facility, just a few
weeks into his new job as a scheduling clerk
at a VA clinic in Austin, TX, Brian Turner was
instructed to “cook the books.”
“They said, ‘You gotta zero out the
date. The wait time has to be zeroed
out,’” Turner told the Washington Post.2
“Zeroing out” was a workaround
for the VA’s accountability system,
which was monitored by supervi-
sors in Washington, D.C., to ensure
patients weren’t waiting too long for
appointments. When a patient would
ask for an appointment on a specific
day, Turner would search for the next
available time—which was usually
several days later. When the patient agreed
to the later date, Turner would type that the
patient requested the later day. Suddenly, a
wait time that may have been much longer
was reported as zero days.3
Occurrences like these are why an
investigation was launched into allega-
tions that VA healthcare facilities were
manipulating patient waiting lists to hide
long delays in access to care. The Phoenix
VA healthcare system is at the center of
the scandal—managers there are being
accused of falsifying records to make it
appear patients were being seen within
the VA’s standard for a timely appointment,
which is about 14 days. In actuality, patients
in Phoenix waited an average of 115 days
for an appointment, and secret waiting lists
were kept to hide the true wait times.4
A nearly month-long internal audit com-
pleted in early June shows these problems
are systemic across the wider VA health-
care network. The audit of 731 VA facilities
and nearly 4,000 employees found nearly
60,000 veterans were waiting for appoint-
ments at VA health facilities, and 70% of VA
facilities have used alternative scheduling
methods so wait times appear shorter.
More than 10% of scheduling staff reported
they were instructed to alter patient ap-
pointment scheduling.5
Backtracking on progressThe VA Health Administration (VHA) is the
largest integrated healthcare network in
the United States with 1,700 hospitals, clin-
ics, counseling centers and nursing homes
throughout the country.6
In the past, the VA healthcare system
has been viewed as a leader in medical
advances, especially when it comes to
gathering and releasing performance data.
In 2011, it began publishing hospital medi-
cal complication and surgical death rates
based on a national surgery quality im-
provement program. An internal database
called Strategic Analytics for Improvement
and Learning (SAIL) tracks procedure out-
comes and ranks VA hospitals on various
safety measures for benchmarking.7
The VA healthcare system’s patient
satisfaction scores are high—a 2013 survey
by VA found 93% of patients said they had a
good experience when they received care.
A 2005 comparison of VA patient medical
records with a national sample found bet-
ter quality of care at the VA, especially for
depression, diabetes, high cholesterol and
hypertension.8
So, how did access to care be-
come a problem?
Part of the cause has been at-
tributed to a shortage of doctors—
particularly primary care physicians—
coupled with an increased demand
for VA healthcare. The American
Federation of Government Employees
reports some VA doctors carry work-
loads of more than 2,000 patients.
The goal set in the VHA handbook is
1,200.9
Preliminary audit results sent to Presi-
dent Barack Obama pointed to an “overarch-
ing environment and culture which allowed
this state of practice to take root.”10
Consider the accountability reporting
system that was supposed to make officials
in Washington, D.C., aware of problems in
the field through data. Instead, a culture
of manipulating data to hide deficiencies
developed, and employees risked backlash
for pointing out patient care issues.11
Even when officials learned this was hap-
pening, as they did in 2005, and attempted
July 2014 • QP 13
KEEPINGCURRE NTNAME: Bryan T. Blunt.
RESIDENCE: Eloy, AZ.
EDUCATION: MBA from Western International Univer-
sity in Tempe, AZ.
INTRODUCTION TO QUALITY: While Blunt considered
product quality to be a top priority
throughout his working career,
the light really came on regarding
process quality when he was a
manufacturing engineer at Al-
liedSignal.
PREVIOUS JOBS: Director of
quality for Textron Systems Inc.,
director of quality for Lycoming Engines and director of
supply chain quality for Cessna Aircraft Co.
CURRENT JOB: President, Quality Works Consulting LLC.
ASQ ACTIVITIES: Past section chair of two ASQ sec-
tions and immediate past nominating chair of ASQ
Phoenix Section.
ACTIVITIES/ACHIEVEMENTS: One of the earliest Black
Belts certified at AlliedSignal, where the first large-scale
deployment of Six Sigma took place after its initial
development. Received Textron Six Sigma’s presti-
gious “Top Gun” award. Currently a doctoral student in
organizational leadership at Grand Canyon University in
Phoenix. Involved in several areas of church ministry.
PUBLISHED WORKS: Author of Turnaround: The Quality
Path to Saving the Business (QW Press LLC, 2011).
RECENT HONORS: Blunt was part of the 2013 class of
ASQ fellows.
PERSONAL: Married, three sons and eight grandchildren.
FAVORITE WAYS TO RELAX: Reading, playing the
guitar and spending time with his wife and their pet
labradoodle.
QUALITY QUOTE: “There are no great businesses that
are not excellent in terms of quality.”
QWho’s Who into address the issue, honest reporting wasn’t enforced.
“Because of the fact that the gaming [manipulating the system] is so
prevalent, as soon as something is put out, it is torn apart to look to see
what the workaround is,” said William Schoenhard, who was working as
the deputy undersecretary for health for operations and management in
2005. “There’s no feedback loop.”12
Furthermore, while the criticism and investigation of the VA healthcare
system has revolved around patient wait times for appointments, SAIL data
show there is another serious problem within the VA healthcare system—
widely varying patient care results among VA facilities and what experts
call “a slippage of quality” at some facilities.13
Next stepsOn May 30, Eric Shinseki, the Department of VA secretary, resigned.
Shinseki said he was unaware of the access to care and reporting issues
engulfed in the system. Following the results of the internal audit, an exter-
nal, independent audit of scheduling practices will take place.14
As the VA healthcare system looks to fix its systemic issues related to
access to and quality of care, refining its performance-metric reporting
system will be key.
According to William E. Duncan, who supervised the publication of
medical outcomes until 2012, “The goal was not for hospitals to be aver-
age performers. The goal was to be in the top 10%. Our patients have little
recourse, and they rely on our staff to tell them the truth. We can’t forget
that medical quality is not just access to care.”15
—Compiled by Amanda Hankel, assistant ediitor
REFERENCES1. David Zucchino, Cindy Carcamo and Alan Zarembo, “Growing Evidence Points to Systemic Troubles in
VA Healthcare System,” Los Angeles Times, May 18, 2014, www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-va-delays-20140518-story.html#page=1.
2. David A. Fahrenthold, “How the VA Developed Its Culture of Coverups,” Washington Post, May 30, 2014, www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/05/30/how-the-va-developed-its-culture-of-coverups.
3. Ibid.4. Sandhya Somashekhar, “Some of the Internal Problems That Led to VA Health System Scandal,” Wash-
ington Post, May 30, 2014, www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/some-of-the-internal-problems-that-led-to-va-health-system-scandal/2014/05/30/399095b4-e81e-11e3-8f90-73e071f3d637_story.html.
5. Ben Kesling, “Nearly 60,000 Veterans Face Delays Receiving Health Care—VA Audit,” Wall Street Jour-nal, June 9, 2014, http://online.wsj.com/articles/over-100-000-veterans-face-delays-receiving-health-careva-audit-1402339138.
6. Somashekhar, “Some of the Internal Problems That Led to VA Health System Scandal,” see reference 4.7. Thomas M. Burton and Damian Paletta, “Veterans Affairs Hospitals Vary Widely in Patient Care,” Wall
Street Journal, June 3, 2014, http://online.wsj.com/articles/veterans-affairs-hospitals-vary-widely-in-patient-care-1401753437.
8. Somashekhar, “Some of the Internal Problems That Led to VA Health System Scandal,” see reference 4.9. Ibid.10. Michael D. Shear and Richard A Oppel Jr., “V.A. Chief Resigns in Face of Furor on Delayed Care,” New
York Times, May 30, 2014, www.nytimes.com/2014/05/31/us/politics/eric-shinseki-resigns-as-veterans-affairs-head.html.
11. Zucchino, “Growing Evidence Points to Systemic Troubles in VA Healthcare System,” see reference 1.12. Fahrenthold, “How the VA Developed Its Culture of Coverups,” see reference 2.13. Burton, “Veterans Affairs Hospitals Vary Widely in Patient Care,” see reference 7.14. Kesling, “Nearly 60,000 Veterans Face Delays Receiving Health Care—VA Audit,” see reference 5.15. Burton, “Veterans Affairs Hospitals Vary Widely in Patient Care,” see reference 7.
QP • www.qualityprogress.com14
KEEPINGCURRENTSTANDARDS
ISO 9001 DRAFT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC COMMENTISO 9001—Quality management systems—Requirements, the most widely
used International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard, has been
made available as a draft international standard (DIS), a key milestone in its
revision process.
As all ISO standards, ISO 9001 is reviewed every five years and is now be-
ing revised to ensure it is relevant and updated. At the DIS stage, all inter-
ested parties can submit feedback that will be considered before the final
draft is published by the end of 2015. In addition, the draft version now can
be purchased, giving organizations the opportunity to get a taste of the new
standard before the final publication date.
Comments will be accepted until July 15. For more details, visit http://asq.
org/standards-draft-iso-9001-2015.html. Only U.S. stakeholders can provide
public comments. Other stakeholders can purchase the standard or contact
their National Standardization Bodies to learn how they can contribute.
SHORTRUNSTHE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE on Quality 2014—Tokyo will be
held Oct. 19-22. The conference takes place every three years and is
sponsored by ASQ, the European Organization for Quality and the Union of
Japanese Scientists and Engineers. Visit ww.juse.or.jp/e/conventions/202.
THE SOCIETY OF Automotive Engineers (SAE) Foundation received a
$75,000 grant from the Chrysler Foundation to continue providing science,
technology, engineering and math education programming to K-8 stu-
dents. An SAE program called “A World in Motion” gives younger students
opportunities to learn about math and science concepts. For more details,
visit www.sae.org/news.
Mr. Pareto Head BY MIKE CROSSEN
A recent report sent to President Barack Obama
called out the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality
Award as an opportunity “for raising awareness
of performance excellence” in the U.S. healthcare
system.
In the 66-page report released in late May, the
President’s Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology (PCAST) offered seven recommendations
to Obama, “all of which support and reinforce each
other as components of a strategy to improve the
quality of delivery of healthcare and the health of
Americans through systems engineering,” the report
said.
The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was
specifically mentioned in the sixth recommendation:
“Establish awards, challenges and prizes to
promote the use of systems methods and tools in
healthcare.”
The report continued: “Health and Human
Services and the Department of Commerce should
build on the Baldrige award to recognize healthcare
providers successfully applying system engineering
approaches.”
The report, titled “Better Healthcare and Lower
Costs: Accelerating Improvement Through Systems
Engineering,” can be accessed at http://tinyurl.com/
pk23tq9.
BALDRIGE AWARD
BALDRIGE SINGLED OUT IN REPORT TO PRESIDENT OBAMA ON HEALTHCARE
July 2014 • QP 15
KEEPINGCURRENT
United Arab Emirates’ Dubai Aluminium and Argentina’s Tgestiona were
awarded gold-level status at ASQ’s International Team Excellence Awards
after showcasing how they increased quality and financial savings at their
respective organizations.
ASQ announced the gold-level winners—along with silver and bronze—at
its recent World Conference on Quality and Improvement, which was at-
tended by nearly 2,800 people. In the awards’ 29th year, 39 teams from 14
countries competed.
Dubai Aluminium’s stub repair reduction team used lean Six Sigma and the
define, measure, analyze, improve and control method to slash repair costs by re-
ducing product damage from 6% to 3%, resulting in $1.3 million in annual savings.
Tgestiona’s matter of time team used Six Sigma to address the process
for handling customer access to the company’s systems, which affects more
than 20,000 users of 256 systems. The results included reducing the error
rate from 10% to 0.05%, and reducing processing time from 26 days to
fewer than three days.
For more information about the award recipients and the team
excellence award process, visit http://asq.org/wcqi/team-award.
ASQ TEAM EXCELLENCE AWARDS
TWO TEAMS REACH GOLD STATUS AT ASQ COMPETITION
ASQNEWSASQ RECEIVES AWARD ASQ achieved
the excellence level of achievement
from Wisconsin Forward Award Inc.,
the state award’s top recognition. The
award is modeled on the Malcolm
Baldrige National Quality Award frame-
work, process and criteria. ASQ will join
other Wisconsin-based organizations
receiving the award at ceremonies in
December. For more information about
the award, visit www.wisquality.org/
wfa/wfa.
SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT ASQ’s
Healthcare Division awarded its annual
$2,000 Nightingale Scholarship to Ellen
Martin, a doctoral student in the school
of nursing at the University of Texas-
Austin. Martin was recognized for
demonstrating an outstanding commit-
ment to pursuing quality improvement
in the healthcare field. For more infor-
mation about Martin and the award,
visit www.asq.org/media-room/press-
releases/2014/20140512-nightingale-
scholarship-winner.html.
NEW CASE STUDY ASQ’s Knowledge
Center released a new case study
about India-based Max Life Insurance
and how it improved customer reten-
tion through Six Sigma and quality
tools. The improvement project nearly
tripled Max Life’s customer reten-
tion rate and generated more than
$8.6 million in revenue. Read more at
http://asq.org/knowledge-center/case-
studies-max-life-improves-customer-
retention.html.
LSS TRAINING OFFERED Redesigned
lean Six Sigma Green Belt and Black
Belt courses are being offered by ASQ.
The courses will teach participants to
use lean and Six Sigma tools to improve
workflow and reduce inefficiency. The
peer-reviewed courses, created and
taught by Master Black Belt industry
experts, include instructor-led class-
room training and one-on-one coach-
ing. For more information or to register,
visit www.asq.org/sixsigma-elite.
NEW ISO/IEC TRAINING ANAB un-
veiled new training on ISO/IEC 17021,
Conformity assessment—Requirements
for bodies providing auditing and certi-
fication of management systems. The
training will provide an understanding
of the requirements of ISO/IEC 17021
and its relationship with other certifica-
tion scheme standards and Internation-
al Accreditation Forum documents. The
course also includes information about
potential developments related to the
revision of ISO/IEC 17021, scheduled for
release in late 2014. For more informa-
tion, visit www.anab.org/resources/
anab-training.
MEMBERS OF United Arab Emirates’ Dubai Aluminium stub repair reduction team celebrate their gold-level accomplishment at ASQ’s International Team Excellence Awards.
BLOG
Blogging keeps growing, remaining a relevant way to share, learn
and network
Blogging keeps growing, remaining a relevant way to share, learn
and network
July 2014 • QP 17
SOCIAL MEDIA
BACK IN THE late 1990s—well before 140-character
Tweets, Facebook posts and LinkedIn discussions—there was
the blog.
Register at any number of blogging sites and you could
set up your own personal or professional website to report
and record information, showcase your talent and expertise,
share opinions and theory, and relay across the world any-
thing from photos to links to video—all in one place.
But are blogs still relevant? Have they been surpassed by
other social networking sites?
Google’s Blogger site has more than 46 million unique
visitors each month. About 6.7 million people write on
blogging sites, and 12 million blog via social networks.1
More organizations are getting in on the act, too. The use of
corporate blogs has shot up to 34% in the last two years—a
nearly 50% increase.2
Clearly, a lot of people still use blogs to push out infor-
mation, messaging and opinion, and even more continue to
consume the words and join in the dialogue.
What keeps millions writing blogs and reading them?
We posed this question to a few members of ASQ’s Influen-
tial Voices blogging group and asked them to describe their
blogging experiences. We also asked the bloggers about the
difference blogging makes in their professional lives. How did
their own careers shift because they dared to venture into
the blogosphere?
Perhaps their words and ideas will inspire you to log on,
speak up and join the online opportunities within what
remains a popular medium for learning, creating, sharing and
networking.
REFERENCES1. Douglas Karr, “The Blogconomy Blogging Statistics (Infographic),” Social Media Today, Aug. 26, 2013, http://
socialmediatoday.com/douglaskarr/1696221/infographic-blogconomy-blogging-statistics. 2. Nora Ganim Barnes, Ava M. Lescault and Stephanie Wright, “2013 Fortune 500 Are Bullish on Social Media,” Charlton
College of Business Center for Marketing Research, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, www.umassd.edu/cmr/socialmediaresearch/2013fortune500.
Blogging keeps growing, remaining a relevant way to share, learn
and network
Blogging keeps growing, remaining a relevant way to share, learn
and network
QP • www.qualityprogress.com18
QP: Why do people write blogs? Daniel Zrymiak (DZ): People have a particular message or impression they wish to
communicate. Through blogging, they can establish and entrench a connection with their
audience or community. Blogs provide additional flexibility to incorporate visuals and audio,
and embed hyperlinks to extend the breadth and depth of the article’s scope. People should
write to initiate an interactive connection with readers on an interesting subject or idea.
Mark Graban (MG): I started my blog in 2005 because I was frequently emailing articles
about lean to colleagues. I realized I could post them on a blog, and people could pull
information instead of having it pushed to them via email. I also realized I could reach a
broader audience and use the blog as a way to meet new people in the lean world.
John Hunter (JH): People blog to share their ideas. A blog can be a creative outlet on
a work topic or another topic. I blog about management and also about investing, travel,
engineering, technology and other topics that interest me.
QP: Why is blogging right for you? DZ: In my personal situation, I must frequently travel or change plans on short notice.
This has the unfortunate effect of forcing cancellations of previous commitments. For ex-
ample, it is regrettable to have submitted an abstract to present at a conference, have it
accepted by a review committee, be scheduled to present, and then need to inform those
same supportive team members that I have to decline the opportunity to present and en-
gage their conference audience. In contrast, blogging works because it provides me with
the maximum level of flexibility and the ability to customize my message.
MG: I love blogging, and I’ve kept at it nearly every weekday for the last nine years. As
with any sort of writing, I think you have to do it because you want to write and because you
enjoy it. Too many blogs flame out after just a few weeks or months. Maybe the bloggers
who gave it up were motivated to start because they felt like they “had to blog.” Writing
must be a passion—whether it’s a blog or a book—and it’s not right for everybody. Some
folks like to write occasionally, and submitting occasional magazine or journal articles might
be a better fit. Some people can podcast or create videos.
JH: I have been blogging for 10 years, which is more than enough time to convince me
it is right for me. Blogging fits my personality—I like short delivery cycles. I don’t like the
idea of working on a project that takes a year to reach the audience or customers. With
blogging, I can have an idea, and in an hour I can share that with people across the globe.
Blogging is similar to agile software development in this way: minimize work-in-progress
and deliver working software—or in blogging, text—to users as quickly as possible. Then
iterate and extend.
To a much larger extent than most bloggers, I also take advantage of hypertext—linking
to other related online content. This is also a wonderful thing. Again, it fits my personality.
I wrote a book called Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability (http://curious-
cat-media.com/management-matters), and it had to be an e-book because I’m constantly
linking to other parts of the book and resources online.
While writing the book, I thought about how constrained I would feel writing an “old
style” book with no hypertext capability. I think I would have quit before I finished.
QP: Why do you blog? DZ: I am not a commercial blogger. I am not promoting a practice, nor am I a center of
influence to recommend products and services. Primarily, I blog to use this communication
HOME ABOUT HELP CONTACT US BLOG
The Benefits of BloggingTuesday, July 1, 2014, 12:01 am 5 comments
Search
RELATED ARTICLES
• “Real Time, Interactive and Dynamic,” p. 20.
• “Build Credibility and Reputation,” p. 22.
• “More Active Networking,” p. 23.
Google+ HangoutFollow a link to watch a live Google+
Hangout with some of the bloggers
featured in “Blog Boom.” The blog-
gers will discuss the value of social
media to quality professionals and
how to get involved. The live event
takes place at 12 p.m. CST on July 23.
You also can watch a recording of the
discussion later.
July 2014 • QP 19
channel to present viewpoints and opinions on the pertinent quality issues of the day. For
this reason, I enjoy participating within the ASQ Influential Voices framework to realize and
expand the synergistic benefits of collaborative communication.
MG: As I said in this video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfUJLSRgDt0 (case sensitive),
I blog to learn, and I really mean that. Sure, sometimes I like to get on a soapbox and share
my own views, but my goal is to learn. Having a blog means I keep up on reading new ma-
terial that’s out there in the lean world—in the news and otherwise. Writing is a great way
to practice articulating views and a way to practice teaching—skills and experience that
translate into my consulting work and speaking. I love it when we have good discussion
in blog comments, especially when people disagree because that leads me to sometimes
changing my own views—to learn.
JH: One of the nice things is how easy it is to blog. I managed several websites for years
before I started blogging (which is quite rare). Dealing with a typical website is much more
work than blogging. With a blog, you can have the idea and be up and running with your
new blog post in 10 minutes, using something like www.wordpress.com. How easy it is to
blog is one factor.
Another thing I like is being able to refer back to my thoughts on a topic. This is not
something I have ever heard someone else mention as a reason for blogging, but one of
the ways I use blogs is as a resource I can go back and use later.
I also blog as a way to build a personal brand. When people are introducing me to a
colleague, I am often introduced to people as the author of that “Curious Cat” blog and
website. I have never been introduced as the author of my book.
QP: What are your goals in blogging? DZ: I aspire to introduce topics and subjects that interest me personally and add value
to the profession and to subjects that I believe should be more actively promoted by the
profession. Based on my experience, the most impactful decisions are made when financial
and governance considerations are incorporated into the decision process. My inclination
is to justify the involvement of quality people within these financial and governance activi-
ties, thus transcending the traditional role of inspection and compliance.
JH: When I originally started providing content online (even before blogs), one of my big
goals was to help people improve management. There are many good management ideas
and practices that are decades old and yet ignored. I thought—and still do think—a big part
of the problem is people haven’t seen good management ideas.
With blogging, I continue to attempt to help people apply proven management practices.
Building a personal reputation and learning are other reasons I continue.
I think a big problem is that people find bad management advice (even on good man-
agement concepts), use it, get frustrated and don’t believe better management practices
really work. So they experience lousy implementation of good ideas and decide the ideas
are bad.
For example, lean thinking has great value, but the way it is done in many places leaves
people with the impression that lean is bad management. Or they read about or get trained
on lean or W. Edwards Deming, but the way the information is presented doesn’t provide a
convincing case for the value of the management advice.
By helping people find better advice, I can help improve the success rate of adopting
practices such as customer focus, respect for people, managing with an understanding of
• Jimena Calfa Author of “Let’s
Talk About Quality” and “Opportunities for Improvement” blogs.
• Mark Graban Author of “Lean Blog.”
• John Hunter Author of “Curious
Cat Management” and “W. Edwards Deming Institute“ blogs.
• Jennifer J. Stepniowski Author of “Quality
Time” blog.
• Daniel Zrymiak Author of
“AQualitEvolution” blog.
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The Benefits of BloggingTuesday, July 1, 2014, 12:01 am 5 comments
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The Bloggers
QP • www.qualityprogress.com20
variation, continual process improvement and mistake-proofing. I make a
big effort to promote good content in addition to writing my own ideas that
I hope will help people improve their practice of management.
QP: Has blogging helped advance your career and opened doors? DZ: I was accepted into the portfolio of Influential Voices after I had es-
tablished myself as a conference speaker, author and an ASQ fellow. The
more appropriate characterization would be that blogging refined my ap-
proach and allowed me to target my interests and communicate more pre-
cisely. In general, writing has been beneficial. One of my articles published in
a local ASQ newsletter, for example, directly led to a series of postsecondary
instruction assignments for the next 11 years. When viewing blogging as
one of several modes or channels of communication, I can readily testify
that writing has helped advance my career and open doors.
MG: For me, blogging directly opened a door with the publisher of my
first book, Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety and Employee
Engagement (Productivity Press, 2011). Becoming known as a blogger led to
that introduction, and having a blog demonstrated my willingness and abil-
ity—for what it is—to write.
JH: Probably. Even before blogging, my efforts online helped me get a job
at the Office of Secretary of Defense, Quality Management Office. I am not
sure you can point to blogging—or most things—as the definitive reason
something happens, but I think you definitely can increase your network via
blogging. Doing so increases your opportunities.
I believe blogging can be especially useful for consultants. Blogging al-
lows you to provide evidence that you have something to say worth lis-
tening to. It helps others, too, but consultants often need to make many
more sales (new clients and people attending seminars) compared to an
employee who usually gets new jobs much less frequently.
QP: What are the benefits of blogging? DZ: At first, I was inclined to view blogging as a way to propagate and dis-
tribute content. When used creatively, however, it can be an outlet for play-
ful jocularity. As a result, I enjoy injecting a few articles that some respective
journals and publications would decline to publish due to subversive or con-
troversial messages. If you can project expertise and a distinct personality
through an array of blog entries, you can give people a flavor of what you
are about in a way that does not come across in an article or presentation.
MG: Blogging (and podcasting) has been a great networking and career
opportunity for me. I didn’t realize that or have grand plans when I started.
I was just trying to share helpful information and ideas. Being able to inter-
view guests for a blog post or a podcast has been a great excuse to meet
and get to know many interesting people in the lean world. This helped me
build a relationship with Jim Womack, founder of the Lean Enterprise Insti-
tute, among others, and that helped create opportunities for the work I did
later with that organization.
The benefits of blogging are indirect. It’s not directly a business or a mon-
Real Time, Interactive and Dynamicby Daniel Zrymiak
Writing for publication is something I’ve done since I was
a university student more than 20 years ago. Where able, I
have used various channels of communication to pres-
ent studies, opinions, perspectives or general insights to
interested readers. Prior to the popularization of internet
blogging, I worked with editors and publishers for more
than two decades to submit, revise and deliver articles. In
most cases, these would be either a synthesis or exposition
of concepts I found personally interesting and wanted to
share with my peers.
ASQ is supportive of those who write and want to
have their work published in peer-reviewed magazines,
forums or journals. This activity is incentivized with recer-
tification credits for ASQ certification, award applications
and overall recognitions. As an organization, ASQ has
long recognized the value of encouraging members to
continually raise the level of discussion and advance the
quality issues of the day. (I recently found out that ASQ
will credit participants of the Influential Voices program
with recertification units characteristic of society com-
mittee work).
In our internet age, those who provide and receive
communication cannot be satisfied solely with passive
reading. Twenty-first century publication requires real-time,
interactive and dynamic modes of expression. By reducing
or removing the layers between concept and distribu-
tion, internet communications fulfill these expectations.
There are multiple formats to communicate, ranging from
individual emails or text messages to internet discussion
forums to a controlled portfolio of internet blog collections.
Having used many of these formats, I find internet
blogging provides the best control over the theme and
consistency of articles, and actually permits the author
to serialize articles to create progressive continuity. This
can help to refine a particular audience, and if certain
controls are activated, manage the discussions and
responses surrounding the content.
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The Benefits of BloggingTuesday, July 1, 2014, 12:01 am 5 comments
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July 2014 • QP 21
eymaker, but again, being known from my blog has led to paid speaking and consulting
opportunities. Blogging is often part of a strategy I just learned about called “inbound mar-
keting.” It’s a strategy to have people find you because you’re creating compelling content
instead of doing push marketing, such as traditional advertising or sending out a ton of
flyers.
JH: One of the benefits I didn’t appreciate before I started was how blogging helps build
your knowledge and understanding—in the same way teaching helps you learn the topic
you are discussing in a deeper way.
I find myself more thoughtful and engaged with ideas because I think about how I can
build on those ideas in a blog post. When I start writing, I sometimes realize I don’t actually
understand the idea or topic as well as it seemed I did. So I must think about it more to be
able to understand it well enough to write about it.
QP: What tips or advice would you offer?DZ: Blogging is not a substitute for personal interaction, but it should come as close
as possible to providing a dynamic and interactive experience. Try to include a nugget of
wisdom or applicability that would create enough interest to be quoted and shared. Follow
the examples of authors such as Michael Lewis or Malcolm Gladwell, who dive into the
most common items to find the depth and breadth of interesting facts. Especially consider
Gladwell’s essay on ketchup and mustard at http://gladwell.com/the-ketchup-conundrum.
I don’t think blogging is for everyone, nor do I believe blogging is the full extent of what a
professional should do. I view blogging as one of several opportunities to engage and inter-
act with your fellow professionals and communities on the subject of your choice. It should
not be seen as something you must do, but rather as an opportunity that you get to have
through the advancement of technology and communications.
MG: It’s easy to get started with a blog on free hosting platforms such as www.blogger.com
and www.wordpress.com. Even if you use a free service, it’s important to get your own URL,
such as www.MyCoolBlogAboutLean.com (case sensitive) instead of a default URL, such as
myblogname.blogspot.com. When you have your own URL, you create your own brand, and
you can move your blog more easily to another platform or to paid hosting solutions.
JH: Do it. Write about a topic you are passionate about. If that topic mirrors your career,
that is great. You can gain benefits to your career, but if not, I would suggest writing about
something you care about and are interested in.
Commenting on other blogs, too, is a good way to engage with others thinking about the
same topics you are. It also might help you get into the habit of writing on the topic you will
blog about. Even though comments will likely be shorter than blog posts, it might be a useful
way to get started. It also can help you come up with ideas on what topics to write about.
The most common reason for the failure of blogs is that bloggers just give up. Many blogs
that are started don’t get updated after a few months. To give yourself a chance to make
blogging worthwhile for you, it’s important to write about something you enjoy. Then write
blog posts continuously for at least six months.
I don’t think is too important whether “continuously” means two or three posts a week or
once a month, although I think it should be at least once a month. The more frequent, how-
ever, the better the chances of success. After you get into the habit, I don’t think frequency
matters much at all, but to get started, I think a higher frequency of posting is useful.
Influential VoicesASQ’s Influential Voices group is a
collection of personal blogs produced
by 25 quality professionals and online
influencers who regularly comment
and share information on a host of
quality-related topics and ideas. The
bloggers come from all around the
world, including Australia, China, Ec-
uador, India, Malaysia and the United
States, and represent a wide range
of industries. Visit http://asq.org/
voice-of-quality to see the complete
roster of bloggers, short descriptions
of their backgrounds and links to the
respective blogs. To read ASQ’s blog,
visit http://asq.org/blog.
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The Benefits of BloggingTuesday, July 1, 2014, 12:01 am 5 comments
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HOME Comment Older postsRead more >
QP • www.qualityprogress.com22
After passing the ASQ certified quality process analyst exam in 2010, I thought it would be a great idea to have all the
notes and research I’d prepared for the exam online in a single place so it could be accessible anywhere and anytime I
needed it. I found out that a blog was a great tool. It was easy to set up and allowed me to do it in a free and fast way.
What I never imagined was that by sharing my posts on a few social networks, I could reach readers around the
world who started exchanging their knowledge, experiences and opinions with me.
After blogging for four years, I can tell you the benefits of writing are endless. Here are just a few real facts from my
experience:
• It allows you to reach people interested in the same field around the world. Today, I have about 7,000 worldwide
visits per month.
• Without too much effort, you can create what I call your own online quality network of professionals that gives you
visibility online. With more than 1,500 followers on Twitter and 360 connections on LinkedIn, it helps me share my
experiences and thoughts with an ever-increasing audience.
• By establishing an interesting interaction with your readers, it’s a win-win situation. I try to help my readers wherev-
er I can, answering their questions and sharing my thoughts. At the same time, they help me with their comments,
feedback and testimonials for my own professional development.
• It will open doors for you that you never thought you could open. In 2012, ASQ invited me to be part of its Influential
Voices group, where I contribute to a monthly discussion of key quality issues.
• It brings you satisfaction at all kinds of levels. One section of my blog called “XX vs. YY” focuses on resolving ques-
tions that I had about the differences between two concepts. For example—quality assurance vs. quality control. After
researching to find the answers and sharing them on my blog, I got incredible satisfaction knowing that people with
the same questions found my posts useful to understanding such differences and use them as references for training
in different organizations and prestigious universities in the United States, Italy and Argentina.
• It enhances your online presence, building your credibility and reputation by showing who you are, what your area
of expertise is, and how you think and act as a professional.
• With your commitment to writing frequently, blogging will help you keep yourself updated on all of the latest news
on your field of expertise.
Some people ask me: “I would like to start a blog, but I don’t know exactly what to write about. Do you have any
tips?” As I always say, the only rule to starting a blog is to write about your passion. Everybody has one: cooking,
fishing, yoga, construction, family, quality, engineering—you name it. It is that passion that you must let flow and be
captured in your blog posts. Everything else will come easily.
Regarding tips, I like to share with the readers my blogging commandments I wrote many years ago, which are still
true and useful. I used BLOGGING as a mnemonic to make things easier to remember:
• Be yourself, discover what your passion is and let it flow on your blog.
• Lean your blog. Keep it simple, fresh, professional and without waste.
• Overcome any bad and negative comments or critics. Think of them as great opportunities for improvement.
• Get focused on one specific audience.
• Grow a quality community.
• Interact with your readers.
• Network: Let the world know about you and your blog. You never know what doors that will open for you.
• Get moving and keep improving.
Cuban writer José Martí said: “Everyone to be complete has to plant a tree, have a child and write a book.”
With respect to Martí’s words, in this technological age we could replace the last part of the quote with “…and
write a blog.”
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Build Credibility and ReputationThursday, July 3, 2014, 9:46 pm 3 comments
by Jimena Calfa
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July 2014 • QP 23
Blogging is a win-win endeavor. It establishes you as an active participant in the field you’re
working in, allows you to develop and manage your personal brand, gives you an opportunity to
stay updated about the things you love, and it lets you practice writing. And, I love being connected
to people who share my passion.
For me, blogging was a natural extension of journaling from a personal perspective and writing
about how my career developed. I’ve always maintained notebooks of thoughts and stories, and
even started out as an undergradate student writing copy for people to listen to while they were
on hold. There’s a message or story always worth sharing.
I can remember my first website, which was registered in 2000. My husband and I wanted to
digitally store photos and post updates about our lives to share with family and friends around the
world. That site still follows our lives to this day, although my attention to content development has
shifted to more professional efforts over the years. In 2010, I put up ijenn.me as a way to establish
a personal brand, but more to have a voice about matters I was personally passionate.
Not long after ijenn.me went up, I pitched value creation through content to my employer and
am still fortunate to manage that component of our business. Currently, I manage three blogs, a
few Facebook and LinkedIn pages, and more. It’s fun, and it’s a sure way to never stop learning.
As an adjunct instructor, my students consistently ask what they can add to their résumés to
make them look more established. My best answer here is blogging, in addition to more active
networking and association participation. Employers will Google you, so managing what they find
can determine whether you get a call back.
Anyone can blog. I recently developed and conducted a workshop on managing online presence.
As a lover of all things quality, of course I used the plan-do-check-act cycle to explain how success
can be achieved here. In a nutshell:
Plan: I’ve noted that people often underestimate the time required to actively manage a blog or
other social media efforts. I always suggest planning a reasonable amount of time you can dedicate
per day or week, even if it’s only a few minutes. Being inactive can sometimes be worse than
not being there at all. It can be difficult to establish an exercise routine, but the benefits drive us
forward. I think of blogging as exercise for the brain, and it’s also professional development.
Do: Following a schedule can be challenging, but most things worthwhile require some level
of effort. Writer’s block is a terrible thing, and I’m sure I’ve dreamed of blinking cursors at least
once or twice, but, I can usually find ideas in current events or by reading other blogs or discussion
boards. I just try to express myself and stand by my guiding principle to always be professional and
respectful of others’ opinions.
Check: I will absolutely admit that I Google myself, and I encourage others to do the same.
I’m even crazy enough to recommend setting a quarterly calendar reminder. Even if you’re not
looking for a job, you must know what’s showing up on the first page of search results—if anything
shows up at all. I’ll admit, too, that I have a search engine optimization edge with the last name
“Stepniowski.” I also make it a point to look over profiles and privacy settings regularly to keep
things fresh and be more proactive with managing everything.
Act: If I’m looking for inspiration or just have a few extra minutes, I’ll look over my older content.
It never fails that I notice something that could have been written better, or note information that I
later discovered would be a great addition to the piece. It’s a continuous learning and improvement
process, just like anything else.
Writing evolves as we evolve as individuals. Blogging is an amazing opportunity to watch this
happen. I smile sometimes when I think about what my kids or grandchildren will say one day
when they come across my stuff: “That crazy quality lady …” QP
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More Active NetworkingTuesday, July 15, 2014, 3:30 pm 6 comments
by Jennifer J. Stepniowski
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Biographies JIMENA CALFA is a quality software engineer from Argentina. She holds a bachelor’s degree in information systems engineering from National Technological University, Cordoba – Argentina. She is a senior ASQ member and an ASQ-certified software quality engineer and quality process analyst. She blogs at “Let’s Talk About Quality” at http://onquality.blogspot.com and “Opportunities for Improvement” at onofi.blogspot.com.
MARK GRABAN is an author, consultant, speaker and entrepreneur in the field of lean healthcare and is vice president of innova-tion and improvement services at KaiNexus in San Antonio, TX. He earned master’s degrees in mechanical engineering and busi-ness administration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. He blogs at www.leanblog.org.
JOHN HUNTER has worked to improve management and software development at the Quality Management Office of the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the White House Military Office. He is the author of Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability, the “Curious Cat Management Improvement” blog at http://management.curiouscatblog.net, and the “W. Edwards Deming Institute“ blog at http://blog.deming.org.
JENNIFER J. STEPNIOWSKI is communica-tions director at Pro QC International and an adjunct professor of marketing and management at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, FL. She holds an MBA from the University of South Florida and is an ASQ-certified manager of quality and organizational excellence. Stepniowski is an ASQ senior member and education chair for Section 1508. She blogs at “Quality Time” at http://ijenn.me.
DANIEL ZRYMIAK is a mobilization lead at Accenture in Vancouver, British Columbia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce with honors in marketing from the Univer-sity of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. Zrymiak is an ASQ fellow and an ASQ-certified quality auditor, hazard analysis and critical control points auditor, biomedical auditor, engineer, manager, Six Sigma Black Belt and software quality engineer. He is also a QMI Canada-certified environmental management systems lead auditor and quality systems lead auditor. Zrymiak is an ASQ Quality Press author and reviewer, member leader and active with the Quality Management Division’s finance and governance technical committee. He blogs at “AQualitEvolution” at http://qualitevolution.blogspot.ca.
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MAKINGCONNECTIONS
Tips for networking your way to the career you want
by Marshall Brown
BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS, GETTING involved, letting
other people know about what you have to offer and creating a successful net-
work is critical to your professional development. Whether you are in the midst
of a job search or not, take the time now to develop your network.
Networking isn’t easy for a lot people. Keep in mind that you should do
what is right and comfortable for you. To overcome the fears or reservations
associated with the process, here are some suggestions that can be useful in
helping you build your network:
Be authentic. Don’t be concerned about what others might think. Being
yourself is sometimes difficult, but you owe it to yourself to try. Be real—don’t
try to be someone you’re not. Let people see and get to know the real you.
Know what you have to offer. Begin conversations with people and tell
them what you have to offer. Be bold and fearless. Speak intelligently and have
interesting things to say about topics such as you, your profession or current
events.
Have a 30-second elevator speech ready. This is a quick marketing re-
sponse for the frequently asked question: “What do you do for a living?” Quality
professionals often overlook the importance of adequately answering this ques-
tion. Your response should clearly describe what you can do for an employer
and the career opportunities you seek. Remember,
you are in a selling position—and you are the prod-
uct. Why should an employer hire you? What do you
offer that others don’t? As a leader, what successes
have you had?
Avoid closed-ended questions. Try to get the
other person to talk, and truly listen to what he or she
is saying. Instead of asking, “Do you know anyone
who … ?” ask, “Whom do you know that … ?” This
will allow for discussion and problem solving instead
of a one-word response that halts conversation.
CAREERS
In 50 Words Or Less • Whether you’re search-
ing for a job or not, building a network of professional connections is important for career development.
• Leveraging tips to make the networking process go smoother can help you make valuable pro-fessional connections at conferences and events.
• Perfect your LinkedIn profile to help expand your network even fur-ther.
MAKINGCONNECTIONS
July 2014 • QP 25
QP • www.qualityprogress.com26
Use active listening skills. When the other person is
talking, do not be considering your response in your head.
Instead, just listen. Look into the speaker’s eyes and give
verbal and nonverbal clues that you are listening and under-
standing.
Don’t go alone. How about inviting someone you know
to go along with you to a networking event? This way, at
least you will know one person, and you won’t be alone.
Make a plan to each meet two or three new people. Turn it
into a game: “You meet two, and I will meet two. We’ll intro-
duce each other’s two, so we’ll each know four.” Throughout
the event, check in with each other. Support each other, and
reward yourselves for going to an event and meeting new
people.
Start small. If you are uncomfortable with large events,
try starting with some smaller networking opportunities.
This may mean getting involved with an association or group
and serving on a council or committee, which tend to have
smaller, more intimate meetings. Get to know some people
that way so when you go to the larger events, you already
know people.
Don’t come across as pushy. People sense desperation
and neediness. It doesn’t work, and it doesn’t engage people.
Don’t be overly aggressive, follow people around and talk in-
cessantly about what you have to offer. And definitely, don’t
just walk around passing out your business cards. Network-
ing is not about how many cards you can hand out. It’s about
developing relationships.
Contribute something. Great networkers don’t just go
to events (small or large) to promote themselves. They also
go to contribute something to the people they meet. Be sure
to know what you can contribute and listen to what others
need. Just like you, others might be going to an event to
meet additional contacts. Perhaps you have a great contact
you can share. Maybe you know of a person who can help
someone solve a problem.
Share your information. Consider how you might help
others you meet. The old adage, “What goes around, comes
around” is true. You may not get immediate help, but oth-
ers will remember that you helped and will speak highly of
you. Your reputation will grow and others will seek you out
to help make connections and get information. Without a
doubt, you’ll be top of mind when someone discovers your
perfect job.
Conference connectionsNetworking at conferences can be a particular challenge, es-
pecially if you are a first-time attendee or a new member of
the organization. For some individuals, attending a confer-
ence is the only connection they make during the year with
their association. Or perhaps you haven’t developed your
networking skills yet. Between the education sessions, the
exhibit floor expo and all the other events, it can be over-
whelming and tiresome. But even for an extrovert (who typi-
You’re likely already familiar with LinkedIn,
a networking website for professionals. It
is mainly used for professional networking,
rather than as a fun, social site, like Face-
book. LinkedIn has more than 200 million reg-
istered users with two new users per second
in more than 200 countries and territories.
Many people use LinkedIn for job search
purposes, but it has several other benefits.
It allows you to build your
personal brand, enhance
your Google presence and
increase your ability to find,
communicate and connect
with the right contacts. It
also can act as your portfolio—a valuable ad-
dendum to your résumé.
Executives from all Fortune 500 compa-
nies are on LinkedIn. According to a June
2011 report, 59% of professionals who are
active on social networking sites say that
LinkedIn is their platform of choice.1
Knowing this, there’s no question LinkedIn
can help you to leverage the power of your
network by connecting you to the people
you want to know and the people those
people know. So, while LinkedIn is great for
job search, it should be part of your ongoing
professional development. If you’ve only used
it for job search, or if you’ve never used the
site before, it can be difficult to navigate the
myriad available options. Here are nine tips
for creating a LinkedIn profile that gets the
attention you want:
1. Post a picture of yourself—not an image
of something else. Remember, these
pictures are small, so ensure the photo
mainly captures your face. Think “head-
shot,” not “me on a mountain.”
2. Your professional headline should reflect
your experience and potential, not your
current job title. For example, “orga-
nizational expert,” not “administrative
assistant.”
3. In the summary section, tell your story
using the challenge, action and results
(CAR) formula. Write five or six brief stories
about a challenge you faced, the action
you took and the resulting outcome. Pro-
vide engaging information to make people
more interested in you. Write your profile
in the first person and keep it professional.
This is not the place for jargon and clichés.
Show your unique value as a potential
employee, expert and as a person others
in the field should know. Remember, you
get 2,000 characters—use them all.
ADD SPARKLE TO YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE
July 2014 • QP 27
cally fits into a large event easier than an introvert), network-
ing is a necessary skill for your professional development. Tips
to keep in mind when attending conferences include:
Be active. Be an active participant in seminar discussions.
Be willing to initiate, facilitate or report on behalf of your small
discussion groups.
Continue the discussion. At the end of seminars that in-
terested you, ask the group if anyone would like to continue
the discussion during a break or over dinner. Meet with any-
one who indicates interest, and have a professional discussion
on the topic. Remember to be willing to share what you know
while also respecting others’ expertise and opinions. Find out
as much as you can about the professional interests and exper-
tise of the people you meet without coming across as pushy.
Exchange business cards. Be sure to exchange business
cards with people you meet. Print stickers for the back of the
business cards you take to the conference that say, for ex-
ample, “We met at ASQ’s conference in _____.” The person to
whom you hand your card might not think to do the same, and
it will remind him or her how you met. Or, write the topic you
discussed on the business card before handing it over. Again,
this will jog the person’s memory.
Reconnect post conference. On the business cards you
collect, make notes about any new acquaintance’s interests
and expertise. Email contacts the week after the conference to
say how much you enjoyed the discussion—but don’t ask for
business or a job. Follow up with another email several weeks
or months later with a question that interests you on a topic in
which he or she has expertise. Remember to include a reminder
about how you met. See if this develops into a conversation. For
anyone with whom you exchange emails, follow up on discus-
sions that pertain to your long term or short-term goals.
Remember the exhibitors. Introduce yourself to selected
exhibitors and express your interests to them. Leave a busi-
ness card so they can help connect you with others with simi-
lar interests.
Never eat alone. As much as you may want to recharge,
meals are the best opportunities to make connections.
Have fun. The most important part of networking is to
have a good time. Look at it as a great way to meet new people,
engage in conversations and to show passion about the person
you are and what you have to offer. Set a goal.
Challenge yourself. Yes, it might be uncomfortable. You
might not have answers to all the “what ifs” before going into
a room. But by stepping through the door, you will learn more
about yourself and what you have to offer. What a wonderful
gift that can be. QP
CAREERS
MARSHALL BROWN is an executive leadership coach, and founder and CEO of Marshall Brown and Associates in Wash-ington, D.C. Brown has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.
4. In the experience section, don’t just post
your résumé, but flesh it out with detail.
This is a place to reinforce your brand and
value proposition. Tell why an employer
should be interested in you. Tell stories.
What benefits do you offer? Again, turn
to the CAR formula as a framework. This
is also the best place for search engine
optimization, so use common keywords
in your job titles to ensure people find
you. LinkedIn lists you higher in the search
results if keywords show up multiple times
in this section.
5. Ask for recommendations. Recommenda-
tions can provide excellent content to cre-
ate a powerful summary statement. Hint:
If you give, you are more likely to receive.
6. Don’t forget the skills section. You can
list up to 50 skills here. Dig deep and list
everything you know that is relevant to
your professional life. What computer
programs do you know, especially ones
the average person wouldn’t know? Are
you a good writer or editor? Are you good
with numbers, even though you’re not an
accountant? Put that in.
7. List your Twitter handle to help engage
readers further. Remember to post rel-
evant information in the interests section,
and complete the honors and awards
portion.
8. Have you ever looked at the LinkedIn
groups directory? This allows you to find
communities of professionals who share
a common experience, passion, interest,
affiliation or goal. Find a group that’s right
for you and network.
9. Last, but not least, edit your profile URL
into a vanity URL so you can put it on a
résumé or a business card, such as www.
linkedin.com/in/marshallbrown.
What does it take to have a fabulous
LinkedIn profile? Make your profile robust us-
ing the CAR formula, showcase your achieve-
ments and add recommendations. When
you’re done creating, check back often and
read your emails to add and accept contacts,
update your profile regularly and participate
in conversations among members of your
network. Follow these tips and people will
not only know of you, but they’ll also know
who you are. —M.B.
REFERENCE1. Performatics, “New Social Media Study: Nearly 60% Say
LinkedIn is Most Important Social Network Account,” June 7, 2011, www.performics.com/new-social-media-study-nearly-60-percent-say-linkedin-is-most-important-social-network-account.
Evaluate the potential of a process before establishing
process control
July 2014 • QP 29
PROCESS CAPABILITY
QUALITY MANAGEMENT literature has devoted consid-
erable effort over the years to the task of understanding and measuring
process capability.1, 2 Process capability is defined as the best distribution
a process can produce given its present design at a given point in time.3
Currently, the accepted process capability analysis entails two stages:
• Establishing process control.
• Comparing process performance to customer requirements by
calculating a process capability index.4
Figure 1 (p. 30) shows process capability analysis and improvement
can be performed only on a process in statistical control. Applying pro-
cess capability to processes that are not in statistical control can result in
unreliable estimates of process capability.5
We agree process capability is unreliable
when measured from an out-of-control (OOC)
process; however, we believe even OOC pro-
cesses must consider customer requirements.
Neglecting customer requirements until systems
are in a state of statistical control can be time
consuming and expensive.
Although it goes against the conventional
wisdom that the determination of process control
and process capability should be done sequen-
tially, the concurrent assessment of control and
capability is a practical and useful process assess-
ment tool.
In 50 Words Or Less • Traditionally, process
capability analysis involves establishing process con-trol and then comparing process performance to customer requirements.
• A new approach proposes that before quality prac-titioners spend consider-able time and resources to establish process control, they should determine whether the process has the potential to meet cus-tomer requirements in the first place.
by C. Steven Arendall, Andrew A. Tiger and Kevin W. Westbrook
QP • www.qualityprogress.com30
Consequently, we propose an additional way of
looking at process capability analysis based on evalu-
ating the potential of the process. For a process not in
statistical control, Figure 2 shows an additional check
based on potential.
This check is based on a practical question: If the
process was in control, would it be capable of meet-
ing customer expectations? If not, the system should
be redesigned without exerting the additional effort to
establishing control. Some processes—regardless of
being in statistical control—will never meet customer
expectations.
To illustrate, consider the (in)famous New York
Mets and New York Yankees manager, Casey Sten-
gel, and his discussion with reporters concerning two
young baseball players on his team:
“See that fellow over there? He’s 20 years old. In 10
years, he has a chance to be a star. Now, that fellow
over there, he’s 20 years old, too. In 10 years, he has a
chance to be 30.”6
Failure to identify processes that will never meet
customer expectations—even when in statistical con-
trol—adds unnecessary time and effort.
Measuring potentialMeasuring a process’s potential requires performing
a what-if analysis. Consider a process not in control.
Before actually detecting and eliminating assignable
causes, which take time and effort, we propose the
following what-if question: What if assignable causes
were found and removed? If so, OOC points could be
eliminated, and potential process statistics—specifi-
cally, the process standard deviation and process aver-
age—could be estimated.
For statistical validity and to provide an adequate
representation of the process over time, experts rec-
ommend at least 25 subgroups be used in formulating
initial control limits.7 Therefore, we advise taking 50
samples, or subgroups, to begin. After the initial con-
trol limits are calculated and OOC samples are iden-
tified, the iterative task of removing OOC points and
recalculating the limits ensues.
Hopefully, the end result will leave at least half of
the points in statistical control. If not, this process ar-
guably is so inconsistent that establishing estimates
of process variability is unreliable. Or, it could be the
sampling method used does not accurately reflect
the chance variation that exists in the process. Both
of these potential causes should be examined before
Current relationship between process control and process capability / FIGURE 1
Detect and attemptto eliminate
assignable causes.
Measure processcontrol.
Incontrol?
Process capabilityanalysis.
Yes
No
Incontrol?
Haspotential?
Detect and attemptto eliminate
assignable causes.
Measure processcontrol.
Processcapability.
Measureprocess
potential.
Systemredesign.
No
No
Yes
Yes
Proposed relationship between process control and process capability / FIGURE 2
July 2014 • QP 31
proceeding with estimating process standard deviation
and process average.
For this article, the potential process standard
deviation is defined as σ’. Similarly, we define the po-
tential process average as X=’. The capability index, or
Cpk
—initially developed with Ford Motor Co.—has
undergone several permutations over time. In general,
the most commonly accepted formula for Cpk
is the
difference between the process average (X=
) and the
specifications, divided by three times the estimated
process standard deviation.8 Using σ’, the potential
process capability index (Cpk
’) can be calculated as
follows:
Potential process capability
ratio, Cpk
’ = MIN .
If Cpk
’ is acceptable (that is, the minimum value is
at least greater than one), the process has potential,
and the act of detecting and eliminating assignable
cause should continue. If not, however, the process
will never meet customer expectations even if in con-
trol; therefore, the system should be fundamentally
redesigned.
Directing quality improvement strategiesThis article offers a change in the two-stage process
improvement strategy of establishing process control,
followed by determining process capability. The re-
vised process, as shown in Figure 2, offers an evalua-
tion of the potential of the process prior to establishing
process control.
Now, we will expand on this new quality improve-
ment process by suggesting that at any time, four sce-
narios exist based on process control and potential
process capability (see Table 1). Depending on the
specific zonal quadrant a process falls within, different
quality management actions are appropriate.
If a process is running in statistical control and is
capable of meeting specifications, for instance, it is
classified as a zone-one process, in which case a cost-
effective approach might be to reduce inspection au-
dit because there are no quality management actions
necessary.
We realize that as part of a focus on continuous im-
provement, redesigning the system or retooling would
likely reduce process variability in any of the cases,
but we have assumed meeting the specifications is an
acceptable definition of process quality levels.9
If a process is a zone-two process, however, statis-
tical process control (SPC) and lot-by-lot acceptance
sampling will improve quality. For a zone-three pro-
cess, SPC and lot-by-lot acceptance sampling will not
improve process output because the process output
is already consistent (that is, in statistical control). In
the case of a zone-three process, specifications should
PROCESS CAPABILITY
Is the process potentially capable of meeting
specifications?
Is the process in statistical control?
Yes No
Yes Zone 1 Zone 2
No Zone 3 Zone 4
Four process control and potential process capability scenarios / TABLE 1
Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Zone 4
100% inspection X X X
Lot-by-lot acceptance sampling X X
Statistical process control X X
System redesign X X
Specification review X X
Reduced inspection audit X
Quality improvement actions and where they apply / TABLE 2
{USL –X=’ X
=’– LSL}
3σ’ , 3σ’
”See that fellow over there? He’s 20 years old. In 10 years, he has a chance to be a star. Now, that fellow over there, he’s 20 years old, too. In 10 years, he has a chance to be 30.”
QP • www.qualityprogress.com32
be reviewed to see whether they are appropriate or the
system must be redesigned or retooled. For a zone-four
process, any quality improvement actions will be help-
ful. Table 2 (p. 31) summarizes quality improvement ac-
tions based on zones.
Technique exampleThis evaluative and prescriptive technique could be
used for vendor analysis or to examine in-house pro-
cesses. In fact, the development of this concept came
from work with a major U.S. food manufacturer look-
ing for a way to classify its suppliers’ process perfor-
mance and output and, more importantly, to direct
these suppliers to the appropriate corrective action
when necessary.
The company invited its top 25 suppliers to partici-
pate in a vendor assessment and assistance program.
Process data were collected from these suppliers.
Based on the degree of statistical control and their po-
tential capability of meeting the current specifications,
the vendors were placed into one of the four quad-
rants. Those that did not fall in the zone-one quadrant
met with the food manufacturer to discuss where they
were and how they could improve quality.
More than a handful of these vendors were catego-
rized as zone two. None of these zone-two operations
had SPC systems in place, but several were planning
to buy new equipment to address their quality prob-
lems. Of course, they were encouraged to invest in
SPC training and implementation instead. In all but
one case, these zone-two vendors moved to zone one
by using SPC.
Conversely, it was interesting that at least two of
the vendors that were in the zone-three quadrant had
planned to spend money for extensive SPC training.
Instead, they were convinced to first invest in new
process technology, which resulted—in both cases—in
their being able to meet the specifications consistently
and save a lot on material that had previously been
returned, only to be scrapped. In another zone-three
case, a discussion with the manufacturer resulted in a
loosening of unnecessarily tight specifications, which
moved it to the zone-one classification without it
spending a penny.
Challenges and future researchFrom working with organizations, we are aware these
process potential assessments are already being done
by quality management practitioners, but believe this
practice should be explored further.
One of the most obvious challenges is based on the
assumption that OOC points can be eliminated. This
is not a trivial assumption and requires quality man-
agement to make a decision based on an uncertain
future. Fortunately, creative problem-solving tech-
niques—such as Pareto charts and cause-and-effect
diagrams10—exist to address this issue.
This evaluative and prescriptive technique could
be used for vendor analysis as well as to examine in-
house processes. It offers a way to examine whether
processes are doing as well as they are capable of do-
ing. The assessment can guide users to appropriate
corrective actions and continuous improvement. QP
REFERENCES1. Daniela Marzagao, “Cp, Cpk, Pp and Ppk: Know How and When to Use Them,”
iSixSigma, Feb. 26, 2010, http://isixsigma/tools-templates/capability- indices-process-capability.
2. Thomas Pyzdek, The Six Sigma Handbook, revised and expanded edition, McGraw-Hill, 2003.
3. K. Lai Chan, Smiley W. Cheng and Frederick A. Spiring, “A New Measure of Process Capability: Cpm,” Journal of Quality Technology, Vol. 20, July 1988, pp. 162-175.
4. William J. Stevenson, Operations Management, 11th edition, McGraw-Hill, 2012.
5. Pyzdek, The Six Sigma Handbook, revised and expanded edition, see refer-ence 2.
6. Ira Berkow and Jim Kaplan, The Gospel According to Casey, St. Martin’s Press, 1992, p. 23.
7. Eugene L. Grant and Richard S. Leavenworth, Statistical Quality Control, sixth edition, McGraw-Hill, 1988, pp. 122-125.
8. Marzagao, “Cp, Cpk, Pp and Ppk: Know How and When to Use Them,” see reference 1.
9. Philip B. Crosby, Quality is Free, McGraw-Hill, 1979.10. Pyzdek, The Six Sigma Handbook, revised and expanded edition, see
reference 2.
C. STEVEN ARENDALL is a professor of management and MBA program director at Union University in Germantown, TN. He holds a doctorate in manage-ment from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
KEVIN W. WESTBROOK is a professor of marketing at Union University. He holds a doctorate in marketing from the University of Memphis in Tennessee.
ANDREW A. TIGER is a professor of management at Union University. He holds a doctorate in industrial engineering from the University of Houston.
PROCESS CAPABILITY
WHETHER YOU’RE STARTING a new job or discussing a raise, every negotiation starts with current salary rates. In other words, what are people earning? Help us figure that out by completing the 2014 QP Salary Salary online today. In December—just about the time for year-end reviews—we’ll publish the most current salary data for quality professionals. Visit www.asq.org/2014-qp-salarysurvey and follow the link to the survey, which is open the entire month of July. Remember, the survey is completely anonymous. No one will ever know how much you make. But it will let you know what others—on your level with sim-ilar backgrounds and qualifications in your particular area of expertise—are making. And the more people who take the survey, the more accurate the results will be. After you’re done with the questionnaire, you can enter to win one of five $50 Amazon cards as a thank you for completing the survey and contributing to the report.
QP SALARY SURVEY
20
14
Take the QP Salary Survey
Necessary
In 50 Words Or Less • Learn the difference
between standard and expanded gage repeat-ability and reproduc-ibility (R&R) studies and how expanded gage R&R helps clarify measurement system variation.
• A case study shows the capability of a mea-surement system and the main sources of variation at a manufac-turing facility serving wind and solar power industries.
Expanded gage R&R to detect and control measurement system variation
by Louis Johnson and Maureen Deaner
MEASUREMENT SYSTEM analysis (MSA)
is a key component of continuous efforts to establish,
improve and maintain system quality. MSA helps you iden-
tify problems with a measurement system and determine
measurement system capability to provide the data needed
to be successful. But can a standard gage repeatability and
reproducibility (R&R)
study appropriately
| | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | || | | | || | | | ||Measures | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | || | | | || | | | ||
Necessary
July 2014 • QP 35
METROLOGY
| | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | | || | | || | | | || | | | ||
assess your measurement system?
Common gage R&R studies assess the effects of
two factors—operator and part—on variation in a
measurement system. For some systems, however, the
effects of operator and part are not enough to provide
a complete understanding of the measurement. Adding
a third variable to the standard study, commonly the
gage, is often required.
When three or more factors are involved in the
analysis, the study is known as an expanded gage R&R.
The third factor is key to understanding the system in
the following two scenarios:
1. A manufacturer of gas chromatography columns
uses a bank of 28 chromatographs (gages) to test
each column in final inspection to ensure perfor-
mance is to specifications.1 Faced with an unaccept-
ably high reject rate, the quality manager conducts
an expanded gage R&R study that includes the
chromatograph, operator and part. The calculated
percent tolerance—the portion of the specification
range that is taken up by measurement variabil-
ity—is 47%, which clearly reveals the problem. After
improving the calibration procedure to calibrate the
chromatographs to one standard, rejects are re-
duced by 60%.
2. A machine shop produces stainless steel resistance
coils for the medical device industry. Customers require
verification of the capability of the machine shop’s di-
mensional measurement systems. The coils are flexible
and require skill to measure them without compressing
them. Also, measurement technicians in the machine
shop use dozens of gages, so a standard gage R&R
would not demonstrate capability. The shop conducted
an expanded gage R&R, which included operator, part
and gage. The total gage R&R percent study variation—
the ratio of the measurement variability to variation in
the overall study—was much less than 10%, which met
customer requirements and the manufacturer’s quality
standard.
In these two examples and hundreds more like them,
an expanded gage R&R is necessary to properly assess the
measurement system.
Standard and expanded gage R&RThere are four main differences between a standard and
expanded gage R&R study:
1. The expanded study allows factors such as gage, lab or
location to be evaluated in addition to operator and part.
2. The interactions of the additional factors with operator
and part are evaluated.
3. Missing data points are accommodated in the analysis
for an expanded study, but not for a standard study.
4. Because the sampling plan for the expanded study
quickly grows beyond a reasonable size, reducing the
sample size of at least one variable is typically required.
For example, reducing the number of parts from 10 to
five is a common approach.
Sample size reduction for an expanded gage R&R
study also reduces another important consideration—the
cost of the study.
Reducing the sample sizeA standard sampling plan of three operators measuring
10 parts twice results in 60 measurements and 30 repli-
cates that are used to estimate instrument repeatability.2
The repeatability estimate is a key result of a gage R&R.
Duplicating this standard plan three times (once for each
of three gages) results in 180 measurements and 90 rep-
licates. This is usually considered an unacceptably high
number of measurements. Also, a reliable estimate of re-
peatability typically requires only about 35 replicates.3 A
key part of planning your expanded gage R&R study is
deciding how to modify the sampling plan to a more man-
ageable size. There are several ways to reduce the sam-
pling plan and still provide enough data to estimate the
variance components of interest:
• If a key goal of the study is to compare two operators or
gages, the gage or operator is considered a fixed effect.
Many measurement systems use only a few operators
or gages. If so, this approach is appropriate, and using
only two gages or operators will reduce the total num-
ber of measurements to 120.
• The standard sampling plan measures 10 parts repre-
sentative of normal process variation to properly calcu-
late the number of distinct categories and the percent
study variation, which are important estimates of the
capability of the measurement system. Two other mea-
sures of the capability of the measurement system—
percent tolerance and percent process variation—do
not require this estimate of the normal process varia-
tion. If one or both of these capability measures are
the main goal of the study, the number of parts can be
reduced to five or fewer. This would greatly reduce the
total measurements required while still retaining key
results from the study.
• The number of times a replicate measurement is taken
QP • www.qualityprogress.com36
Data collection plan for the study / FIGURE 1
• 10 sensors are randomly selected to represent the typical process.• 2 operators represent a random sample of all possible operators.• 6 gages represent a random sample of all possible gages.• Each operator will measure each sensor with each gage twice.• Response-directional current (milliampere) measuring wind direction.
Sensor 1
Operator 1
Operator 2
Gage 1
Gage 2
Gage 3
Measure 2
Measure 1
Gage 4
Gage 5
Gage 6
July 2014 • QP 37
on a particular gage, operator or part combination can
be reduced by as much as 50%, and the study will still
collect enough replicate measurements for a precise
estimate of repeatability. For example, measuring
twice for only 45 of the 90 gage, operator or part com-
binations will reduce the total number of measure-
ments from 180 to 135 while still providing 45 repli-
cates to estimate repeatability.
Expanded gage R&R case study Renewable NRG Systems in Hinesburg, VT, has manufac-
tured products that help customers measure and better
understand the renewable energy resources that serve
the wind and solar energy industries since 1982. Its cus-
tomers range from turbine manufacturers to electric
utilities and renewable energy researchers.
Renewable NRG Systems built six gages to monitor
its turbine control products to tight process specifica-
tions. The goal of their study was to determine the capa-
bility of the measurement system and the major sources
of measurement variation. Names of variables and data
units have been changed for proprietary reasons, but the
analysis and conclusions remain the same as in the origi-
nal study.
The data collection plan for the expanded gage R&R re-
quired that two operators measure 10 sensors on each of
the six gages. They completed these measurements twice,
for a total of 240 measurements. The response was direc-
tional current used to identify wind direction. In many
studies, the 240 measurements might exceed the budget,
but the electronic measurements were economical and
fast enough that the data collection plan was acceptable,
especially given the importance of the study. A schematic
of the data collection plan is shown in Figure 1.
Data analysis and results In a standard gage R&R analysis, the variation due to the
following factors is estimated:
• Part.
• Operator.
• Operator x part interaction.
• Repeatability.
In the expanded study analysis, the variation due to
the following additional factors is also estimated:
• Gage.
• Gage x part interaction.
• Gage x operator interaction.
Both studies rely on a random effects analysis of
variance (ANOVA) approach to estimate the variance
components as shown in the Automotive Industry Ac-
tion Group Measurement Systems Analysis Reference
Manual.4 Step-by-step instructions for analyzing an ex-
panded gage R&R study are detailed in L.A. Johnson’s
white paper, “How to Design, Analyze and Interpret the
Results of an Expanded Gage R&R Study.”5
The ANOVA output for the directional current study
is shown in Table 1. The F-tests for the statistical signifi-
cance of each of the effects (except repeatability) indi-
cate sensor, gage and the operator x gage interaction are
each statistically significant. The statistical significance
of the sensors indicates the parts used in this study are
different from one another, but this is not physically im-
portant because sensors are not a part of the measure-
ment system variation that is of interest in this study.
As with most gage R&R studies, the relative size of the
variance components is important for indicating which
sources have the greatest contribution to overall mea-
surement variation. The variance components calculated
from the ANOVA, and shown in Table 2 on p. 38, indi-
cate the inherent repeatability of the instrument and the
gage-to-gage variation accounted for 2.23% and 5.86% of
the overall variation, respectively. These are the largest
contributors to the measurement variation and should
be addressed with the highest priority. Also, while the
operator x gage interaction is statistically significant, its
variance component is not large enough to be of concern
from a practical perspective.
Table 2 indicates two ways to improve the precision
of the measurement system:
1. Variability from one gage to another, shown in Fig-
ure 2 on p. 38, is the greatest source of measurement
METROLOGY
Source DF Adj SS Adj MS F-statistic P-value
Sensor 9 6.169921 0.685547 927.65 0.000
Operator 1 0.009792 0.009792 3.67 0.121
Gage 5 0.381223 0.076245 25.54 0.001
Sensor x operator 9 0.005085 0.000565 0.80 0.615
Sensor x gage 45 0.039546 0.000879 1.25 0.161
Operator x gage 5 0.014055 0.002811 3.99 0.002
Repeatability 165 0.116283 0.000705
Total 239 6.735905
ANOVA = analysis of variance Adj SS = adjusted sum of squares
DF = degrees of freedom Adj MS = adjusted mean square
ANOVA table with all terms / TABLE 1
variation. Calibrating all six gages to a single standard
and operating them in the same environment, with the
same procedure, will help keep the six gages consis-
tent.
2. Improving the consistency of each gage, the way the
measurement is read, electronics, fixturing the part
and other factors will improve their repeatability and
therefore the measurement precision.
Measurement system capabilityThe percent tolerance ratio6 (the proportion of the cus-
tomer’s specification range that is taken up by the mea-
surement system variability) is calculated as:
6 * (variance of the measurement system)1/2 x 100
(upper specification – lower specification).
In this study, the range of the upper and lower specifi-
cation was 2 milliampere, and the resulting percent toler-
ance was 6 x (0.0027380)1/2 x 100 / 2 = 15.7%. This is well
below 30%, the typical upper limit for percent tolerance.
The measurement system, therefore, is capable of deter-
mining whether parts are within the specifications for
the supplier and the customer.
The expanded gage R&R study provided a compre-
hensive assessment of the measurement system for the
directional current measurement. While the percent
tolerance of 15.7% indicates the measurement system
is capable, the precision of the measurement can be im-
proved by minimizing gage-to-gage differences and varia-
tion within gages.
A standard gage R&R cannot adequately assess the
capability of many measurements when other vari-
ables also have an important role in the measurement
system. When a standard study is not enough, an ex-
panded gage R&R is the right tool to comprehensively
characterize your measurement system and determine
its capability. QP
REFERENCES1. L.A. Johnson and S.P. Bailey, “Implementing an Expanded Gage R&R Study,”
proceedings from the ASQ World Conference on Quality and Improvement, May 2013, Anaheim, CA.
2. Measurement Systems Analysis Reference Manual, third edition, Automotive Industry Action Group, 2003.
3. Y. Zuo, “Effect of Sample Size on Variance Component Estimates in Gage R&R Studies,” Minitab white paper.
4. Measurement Systems Analysis Reference Manual, see reference 2.5. L.A. Johnson, “How to Design, Analyze and Interpret the Results of an Ex-
panded Gage R&R Study,” Minitab white paper. 6. D.C. Montgomery, R.K. Burdick and C.M. Borror, “A Review of Methods for
Measurement Systems Capability Analysis,” Journal of Quality Technology, Vol. 35, No. 4, 2003, pp. 342-354.
METROLOGY
QP • www.qualityprogress.com38
Source Variance component
Percent contribution (of variance component)
Total gage R&R 0.0027380 8.76
Repeatability 0.0007005 2.23
Reproducibility 0.0020405 6.53
Operator 0.0000582 0.19
Gage 0.0018313 5.86
Sensor x operator 0.000000 0.00
Sensor x gage 0.0000453 0.14
Operator x gage 0.0001057 0.34
Part-to-part 0.0285278 91.24
Sensor 0.0285278 91.24
Total variation 0.0312658 100.00
R&R = repeatability and reproducibility
Variance components and percent contribution / TABLE 2
Directional current by gage / FIGURE 2
5.2
5.1
5.0
4.9
4.8
4.7
4.6
4.5
4.4
Gage 1 Gage 2 Gage 3 Gage 4 Gage 5 Gage 6
4.76 4.77
4.86
4.86
4.80 4.82
MAUREEN DEANER is a quality engineer at Renewable NRG Systems in Hinesburg, VT. An ASQ member, she holds a master’s degree in ceramic science from Pennsylvania State University in State College.
LOUIS JOHNSON is a trainer and consultant at Minitab Inc. in State College, PA. He holds a master’s degree in statis-tics from Pennsylvania State University in State College. A senior member of ASQ, Johnson is an ASQ-certified Six Sigma Black Belt.
July 2014 • QP 39
INNOVATION IMPERATIVE BY PETER MERRILL
Making ChoicesA lifetime of decisions leads to a career in innovation
WHEN YOU think about how to steer
your career, it’s important not to steer too
hard. Life presents many opportunities,
and if you are trying to force your way
through, you will miss the opportunities
that come your way. I have a fortune
cookie message that says, “The secret of
a good opportunity is recognizing it.”
The second principle I live by is to
seek a job in which you will be happy,
not one that merely pays big money.
Too often, a big salary is the payoff for a
miserable work environment created by
an organization with high staff turnover.
The illusion is that big pay enables you
to purchase happiness outside of work
while enduring misery at work.
Finally, choose a job in which you will
learn, not one in which you are necessar-
ily an expert. Look for unsteady ground
and take risks. There is an old saying that
you can gain 20 years of experience or
one year of experience 20 times.
In this column, I’m going to take you
through some of my practical career expe-
riences and share the lessons I’ve learned
along the way. See a useful, condensed
list of lessons on this article’s webpage
at www.qualityprogress.com. To this day,
I still question some of the decisions I
made, but I firmly believe that every deci-
sion is a right decision if you gain experi-
ence. You should never stop learning.
Tough decisionsMy first lesson: Try jobs that frighten you.
This comes from my experience in high
school working a summer job at a cloth-
ing store. I learned how to sell in this job,
and it provided me indirect experience
I applied throughout my career. You can
read more about this in the online side-
bar, “Overcoming Fear.”
After high school, I earned my degree
in chemical engineering. I must admit,
I didn’t enjoy much of it. But chemical
engineering is the perfect training for
quality management, and 20 years later,
I found all that pain of flowcharting, pro-
cess analysis and process control would
equip me ideally
for quality manage-
ment. Next lesson:
What you learn at
one stage in your
career will equip
you to do some-
thing else later.
I left the univer-
sity and joined the
R&D department of
a major corpora-
tion. I chose this
because I liked the
people I met there,
and they are still
friends to this day.
The organization said employees going into
R&D could expect to move into a complete-
ly different area after two or three years. I
saw this as an opportunity to do something
other than chemical engineering.
At the same time I got this job offer,
my university offered me the opportunity
to earn a doctorate. I said no—and it was
one of the toughest decisions I have ever
made. I still wonder whether I made the
right choice, but the three years I had
at the organization took me to South
Africa, the United States and Scandinavia.
Arguably, I learned far more working in
industry than I would have learned in
academic research.
While I didn’t pursue the doctor-
ate, I did earn an MBA. I did this while
I was working and, while it is tough, I
recommend it to everyone. Your college
qualification is probably narrow in scope,
so you must broaden your scope. A man-
agement degree will help you do this, but
you must pick the right one. Find an MBA
program that has a human or behavioral
science focus, not accounting. If you
are in the quality profession, you must
balance your process focus with a people
focus to succeed in your career.
Wrong turns, more decisionsThe corporation I joined for my first job
was a chemical and textile organization,
and initially, I worked on synthetic fiber
R&D. The head of my department noted
how my management degree helped me
manage tough projects and enlisted me
to help run a newly acquired textile busi-
ness in northern England. Aside from my
experience working in the clothing store
in high school, I knew nothing about
textiles. Furthermore, my boss, who had
become managing director of the organiza-
tion, said the place was a mess.
I moved to the new job and I did the
only thing I knew how as a chemical engi-
neer—I process mapped the new business.
This was well before process mapping was
common. Lesson: Skills you’ve acquired in
the past will remarkably come into play at
some time in the future as new opportuni-
ties arise. You just have to recognize them.
While this was happening, I was learning
leadership outside of work as the captain
of my rugby team. I learned that if you plan
and organize for the people on your team,
they will respect you as a leader.
My next experience is one most of you
probably have had at one time or anoth-
er—I took a wrong turn. I moved to a busi-
ness on the textile side of the organization,
which appeared to provide new learning
opportunities. It was a textile merchanting
business that had been recently pur-
chased, and it gave me a chance to use my
production planning ability (which I was
good at) and to develop my sales skills
(which were not good).
The problem was this job involved
working with the wrong people. The gen-
eral manager operated largely alone. He
surrounded himself with employees who
didn’t question his management style, and
he saw me as a threat.
The up side was working in the fasci-
nating industry of fashion. I traveled to
London’s West End. I met fashion designers
and worked with fabric and color. But I was
unhappy. I wanted to run a business, but
the road was blocked. So I was faced with
another tough decision—I left the organiza-
tion I had been with since graduating and in
which I had many friends in other divisions.
This was one of my hardest decisions.
I am loyal, but there comes a time when
you must leave. A speaker at ASQ’s World
Conference on Quality and Improvement
once said, “People don’t leave jobs. They
leave relationships.” Lesson: If the people
you work with are not your type, get out.
Moving onSo the chemical engineer became a
fashion designer. After all, design follows
the same process whether it is a chemical
plant or women’s fashion. All the portents
were bad, but I pursued it anyway. You can
read more about my experience running
my own business in the online sidebar,
“Entrepreneurship.”
I eventually let go of my business,
and I rejoined the organization I had first
worked for at a lowly position. Remem-
ber: Do that job well and keep looking for
opportunities. I moved back up through
the ranks and was eventually given the
job of product development and manag-
ing sales for a leading U.K. brand. It was
exciting and fulfilling, and all my previous
experience—especially that of running my
own business—came into play. Lesson:
The broader your experience, the more
opportunities will come your way.
But it was difficult to see a career path
forward. Then I got lucky. As Thomas Jef-
ferson once said, “The harder you work,
the luckier you get.” The chairperson
offered me the job of chief executive. I
knew that the life expectancy of the job
was probably only two or three years, but
I took it anyway. Lesson: Don’t be afraid to
take a risk, but manage the risk. After two
years, I started planning my next step.
My big learning opportunity in this posi-
tion was in recruitment. You will be re-
spected for the people you recruit to your
team. Take time to do this right. Select five
or six candidates, use a structured inter-
view with scoring and see everyone on the
same day. This pays huge dividends. On
one occasion, I did not follow that process
and regretted it later.
I spent my third year as a chief
executive looking for my next move, and
a job posting caught my eye. I decided to
join Phil Crosby in Florida and had five
of the most amazing years working with
wonderful people and learning so much.
Lesson: Find good mentors. That is when
you learn the most. Crosby became a good
friend and I still have many friends from
that experience.
When Crosby retired, he sold the busi-
ness and the new owners had an entirely
different culture. I learned the importance of
culture, which is so easy to take for granted
when you have worked in a happy but work-
focused environment. Within three years,
80 to 90% of the original employees left the
organization—myself included.
I started my own training and consult-
ing practice using the skills I had learned
while working for Crosby. I had learned
speaking and facilitation skills and contin-
ued to develop these in the field of quality
management. Many think consulting is an
easy and high-paying life. The majority of
consulting practices fail after two years.
If you are moving into consulting, know
that you must constantly change as the
industry changes.
Into innovationBetween 2000 and 2003, I had to figure out
my next step. As you get later into your
career, you find that the things you did
earlier guide you quite naturally into your
next step. At the same time, you must still
invest time developing new knowledge. In
my own case, my love of teamwork and
quality management experience drew me
quite naturally into innovation. However,
my earlier work in R&D, and my experi-
ences in entrepreneurship, sales and
leadership gave me the ability to sell the
concept of innovation to business leaders.
It took a lot of listening to my peers for
me to see the path forward. The door was
open, the path was clear, but the secret to
finding a good opportunity was recogniz-
ing it. QP
QP • www.qualityprogress.com40
PETER MERRILL is president of Quest Management Systems, an innovation consultancy based in Burlington, On-tario. Merrill is the author of several ASQ Quality Press books, including Do It Right the Second Time, second edi-tion (2009), and Innovation Generation (2008). He is a member of ASQ and
chair of the ASQ Innovation Interest Group.
INNOVATION IMPERATIVE
July 2014 • QP 41
WHEN PLANNING AN analysis, the type
and quality of data will have the biggest
impact on the robustness and validity of
the results. The type of data gathered dur-
ing an experiment, survey or sampling will
determine the type of analyses performed
and often the confidence in those results.
After data collection is done, there are
still methods to improve your data for
analysis. These include normalization,
inferring and imputing missing values and
data, and variable reduction techniques
such as principal components analysis. A
method that seems to simplify the data,
however, may actually harm your results:
categorizing quantitative variables.
Types of dataThe most common types of data encoun-
tered and used are quantitative, ordinal
and categorical, as shown in Table 1.
Often, data sets will have a mix of all the
types of variables. For example, a survey
may include questions about gender, zip
code, age, salary, degrees of agreement
with statements and highest level of
education achieved. In this survey, you can
classify the variables as:
Quantitative: Age and salary are quan-
titative because they each have defined
order and magnitude of differences. These
variables can be added, subtracted, multi-
plied and divided.
Ordinal: Degrees of agreement
with statements often are presented as
multiple-choice responses or Likert scales:
strongly agree, agree, no opinion, disagree
and strongly disagree. Highest educational
degree also is a ranked variable. For both
of these variables, there is a defined order
between the possible answers, but there
is no defined arithmetic magnitude of dif-
ference.
Categorical: Gender and zip code are
categorical variables because there is no
defined magnitude or value in the data, and
basic arithmetic does not hold between
the categories. New York City’s 10037 and
Chicago’s 60088 cannot be combined to
create New Orleans’ 70125 zip code, nor
does New Orleans’ higher zip code imply it
is greater than New York City or Chicago.
The most common type of categoriza-
tion is creating two groups, or a binary
split, in a variable at its median. The argu-
ment for using this is it simplifies the
analysis and interpretation because it
compares the low and high groups of a
measurement. But unless there is a known
underlying reason for creating any discrete
groupings, there is no reason to split the
data at any point.
Statistically, information is always
lost by grouping a continuous variable,
and the power to detect a difference is
always reduced. Creating a binary split at
the median reduces power by the same
amount as would discarding one-third of
the data.1,2 Also, by creating groups, the
overall variability in the original variable is
lost. Categories may be found to be differ-
ent when, in fact, they are not statistically
significant when the variability is under-
stood. Finally, using fabricated categories,
especially binary splits, may mask true
nonlinear distributions as a simplified
linear relationship leading to false conclu-
sions about the data relationships.
During a statistical analysis, the specific
type of analysis applied depends on the
type of data and its distribution. For
continuous variables, they are generally
assumed to be or converted to a normal-
ized data set. However, after a continuous
variable is categorized, this assumption
may no longer be true and changes what
tests may be appropriate. For the mea-
sured outcome variable, converting a con-
tinuous variable to a binary split changes
the analysis from a linear regression to a
logistic regression. For a dependent vari-
able, converting to a binary split may be
better analyzed with t-tests rather than a
regression.
STATISTICS ROUNDTABLE BY JULIA E. SEAMAN AND I. ELAINE ALLEN
Don’t Be DiscreteCaution when categorizing quantitative variables during data analysis
Variable Definition Examples
Quantitative (often referred to as “continuous”)
A variable that has measurements that vary in magnitude from trial to trial, which means some order or ranking can be applied to the levels. Can be continuous or discrete.
Age, weight, abundance, number of units produced, percentages and rates.
Ordinal (also referred to as “ranks”)
A variable that has measurements that can assume only order or rank of possible values, not any degree of difference.
Pain scale, survey multiple-choice response scales and income categories.
Categorical A variable that has measurements that vary in kind or name, but not in degree or rank. This implies that one level of a categorical variable cannot be considered to be greater than or better than another level.
Gender, brands, zip codes, colors and binary outputs.
Major types of data / TABLE 1
STATISTICS ROUNDTABLE
QP • www.qualityprogress.com42
For exampleSuppose you’re treating patients with a
debilitating disease and charting their
increase in symptoms over time. Figure
1 shows the original data with blue
dots indicating males and green dots
indicating females. The chart shows
variability within and between genders
with a roughly linear fit to each gender.
Figures 2 and 3 categorize the baseline
symptoms into four groups and two
groups, respectively.
The fitted lines for each gender
show marked changes as the data are
categorized and dichotomized, includ-
ing the variable for gender changing
from significant to nonsignificant as
the data are categorized. There are
different conclusions for gender and
symptoms—depending on which model
is used—that can affect real-world
outcomes. Because there is no inherent
reason to group the symptoms score,
however, the true model is considered
the continuous analysis. See Table 2.
When to categorize dataThere are several situations in which
the categorization of continuous data
is appropriate. If there are privacy or
anonymity concerns about the continu-
ous data in which a unique individual
might be identified given the original
data, you may need to create categories
for age or level of education to preserve
an individual’s privacy.
Another appropriate instance for
categorization is when the continuous
variable may have only a few values and
should be regarded as ordinal rather
than continuous. Finally, if your variable
is not linear and the nonlinearity creates
strata in your data set, you may want
to use categories to separate the data
into linear segments for modeling rather
than as one continuous model.
Categorization considerationsAs a general rule, collect variables as
continuous, and preserve variables as
they were collected. Preserving the
variables as continuous will increase
the statistical power and provide more
validity to the analyses. Categorization,
and especially creating binary splits
in the data, can reduce the inherent
variability of the measurements and
create higher significance values than
Plot of two symptom scores by gender showing a linear relation / FIGURE 1
Categorization of two symptom scores by gender into four groups / FIGURE 2
Symptoms z-score baseline
3.002.001.00.00-1.00-2.00-3.00
GenderMaleFemale
Sym
pto
ms
z-sc
ore
fin
al
-3.00
-2.00
-1.00
.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
Baseline symptoms
GenderMaleFemale
Sym
pto
ms
z-sc
ore
fin
al
-3.00
-2.00
-1.00
.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
Linear regression lines for continuous and categorized data / TABLE 2
Continuous model:
BStd. error p-value
(Constant) -0.381 0.155 0.015
Symptoms 0.757 0.041 0.000
Gender 0.216 0.104 0.039
R2 = 0.656
Four category model:
BStd. error p-value
(Constant) -0.503 0.089 0.000
groupedHtz 1.047 0.028 0.000
Gender -0.001 0.059 0.991
R2 = 0.888
Binary split model:
BStd. error p-value
(Constant) -0.915 0.163 0.000
dichotbaseline 1.887 0.103 0.000
Gender -0.005 0.104 0.959
R2 = 0.650Std. error = standard error
are in the original data (as the symptom
variable in the example became more
significant) and may lead to false positive
relationships.
Conversely, categorization also can
hide true relationships (as the gender
variable became nonsignificant upon
categorization). While categorization may
seem to clean the data, the analytical
costs are not worth the apparent gains;
therefore, never categorize continuous
data. QP
REFERENCES1. Robert C. MacCallum, Shaobo Zhang, Kristopher J.
Preacher and Derek D. Rucker, “On the Practice of Dichotomization of Quantitative Variables,” Psychological Methods, 2002, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 19-40.
2. Jacob Cohen, “The Cost of Dichotomization,” Applied Psychological Measurement, 1983, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 249-253.
BIBLIOGRAPHYChen, Henian, Patricia Cohen and Sophie Chen, “Biased
Odds Ratios From Dichotomization of Age,” Statistics in Medicine, 2007, Vol. 26, No. 18, pp. 3,487-3,497.
Irwin, Julie R., and Gary H. McClelland, “Negative Con-sequences of Dichotomizing Continuous Predictor Variables,” Journal of Marketing Research, August 2003, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 366-371.
Lazic, Stanley E., “Why We Should Use Simpler Models if the Data Allow This: Relevance for ANOVA Designs in Experi-mental Biology,” BMC Physiology, 2008, Vol. 8, No. 16.
Maxwell, Scott E., and Harold D. Delaney, “Bivariate Median Splits and Spurious Statistical Significance,” Quantitative Methods in Psychology, 1993, Vol. 113, No. 1, pp. 181-190.
Naggara, O., J. Raymond, F. Guilbert, D. Roy, A. Weill and Douglas G. Altman, “Analysis By Categorizing or Dichoto-mizing Continuous Variables Is Inadvisable: An Example From the Natural History of Unruptured Aneurysms,”
American Journal of Neuroradiology, 2011, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 437-440.
Owen, Steven V., and Robin D. Froman, “Why Carve Up Your Continuous Data?” Research in Nursing and Health, 2005, Vol. 28, No. 6, pp. 496-503.
Royston, Patricia, Douglas G. Altman and Willi Sauerbrei, “Dichotomizing Continuous Predictors in Multiple Regres-sion: A Bad Idea,” Statistics in Medicine, 2006, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 127-141.
Streiner, David L., “Breaking Up is Hard to Do: The Heart-break of Dichotomizing Continuous Data,” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 2002, Vol. 47, pp. 262-266.
Taylor, Jeremy M., and Menggang Yu, “Bias and Efficiency Loss Due to Categorizing an Explanatory Variable,” Journal of Multivariate Analysis, 2002, Vol. 83, pp. 248-263.
van Walraven, Carl, and Robert G. Hart, “Leave ‘Em Alone—Why Continuous Variables Should Be Analyzed as Such,” Neuroepidemiology, 2008, Vol. 30, pp. 38-139.
I. ELAINE ALLEN is professor of biostatistics at the University of California-San Francisco and emeritus professor of statistics at Babson College. She is also director of the Babson Survey Research Group. She earned a doctorate in statistics from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Allen
is a member of ASQ.
July 2014 • QP 43
Categorization of two symptomscores by gender / FIGURE 3
Baseline symptoms
Many symptomsFew symptoms
GenderMaleFemale
Sym
pto
ms
z-sc
ore
fin
al
-3.00
-2.00
-1.00
.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
JULIA E. SEAMAN is a doctoral student in pharmacogenomics at the University of California-San Francisco, and a statistical consultant for the Babson Survey Research Group at Babson College in Wellesley, MA. She earned a bachelor’s degree in chem-istry and mathematics from Pomona
College in Claremont, CA.
WorkPlace Training/Measurement Technology Network Wayzata MN, Boca Raton FL, USA 1-612-308-2202 www.wptraining.com [email protected]
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support the application of measurement standards. All of the following courses come with CEU’s and complete testing and documentation in the form of a
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QP • www.qualityprogress.com44
MEASURE FOR MEASURE BY CHRISTOPHER L. GRACHANEN
Calculating UncertaintyUnderstanding test accuracy and uncertainty ratios
IN METROLOGICAL circles, there are
many different statistics and figures
of merit used to gauge the quality of
measurement data. Of course, the well-
accepted statistics of standard deviation
and variance are routinely used to
determine the variability of measurement
data as well as to assign distributions to
data to define the likelihood that these data
fall within an expected interval or span.
In other words, they show that prob-
ability measurement data fall within a
range of symmetrical or asymmetrical
values, which are normally given in terms
of percentages. These statistics are used
to gain insight into measurement data.
This insight is derived from an ensemble
of influencing factors, including:
• Drift between measurement values.
• Instrumentation threshold-triggering
inconsistencies.
• Measurement setup inconsistencies.
• Ambient environmental changes be-
tween measurements.
• Operator control inconsistencies be-
tween measurements.
• Operator reading interpretation incon-
sistencies between measurements.
• Instrumentation resolution rounding
inconsistencies.
• Calibration correction errors.
• Instrumentation ranging errors.
• Operating voltage and load fluctuations.
These and other influences may
contribute to measurement data uncertainty,
and limit the data’s usefulness.
It is important that measurement
data’s applicability to determine real-life
performance of a device being tested and
calibrated be qualified. The following
example will help to clarify what I mean
by qualifying measurement data.
Real-life conditionsSuppose you are tasked with determin-
ing the performance of an environmental
chamber set to 20° Celsius. You take 10
measurements in a pristine laboratory-
controlled environment and determine the
mean temperature is 20.6° Celsius with a
standard deviation of 0.05 degrees estimat-
ed at a two-sigma student’s T-distribution
at nine degrees of freedom.
This, at first glance, would seem to be
a reasonable representation of the in-site
performance you would expect from the
environmental chamber. However, if per-
formance of the environmental chamber is
influenced by line voltage disturbances so
much that small percent changes (typi-
cal of unfiltered, in-site AC line voltage)
produce temperature offsets in the range
of a couple of tenths of degrees Celsius,
the aforementioned measurement data
would not be truly representative of the
chamber’s performance under real-life
operating conditions.
In this example, measurement data
should be qualified by noting the range
of line voltage values at the time of the
measurements, or by taking measurements
while intentionally adjusting line voltage
amplitudes to values that are representative
of the disturbances the chamber will typi-
cally experience during in-site operation.
Comparing meritOnce measurement data are qualified for a
particular device, metrology practitioners
will often compute two figures of merit
based on the accuracy of the unit under test
(UUT) relative to the accuracy or uncertainty
of the measurement ensemble (ME), such as
the instrumentation and accessories used to
derive the measurement data.
The first figure of merit is known as
test accuracy ratio (TAR). TAR is the ratio
of the accuracy tolerance of the UUT to
the accuracy tolerance of the ME used
to measure the UUT. TAR is computed as
follows:
TAR = UUT tolerance / ME tolerance.
TAR provides a ballpark estimate as to
the possible amount of error influence that
can be attributable to the ME when mea-
suring a UUT. It is assumed that the larger
a TAR, the less error may be attributable
to the ME and measurement data are as-
sumed more representative of the actual
performance of the UUT. Industry practice
is to strive for at least a 4:1 TAR whenever
possible.
The second figure of merit that metrol-
ogy practitioners often compute is known
as test uncertainty ratio (TUR). The classic
definition of TUR is the ratio of the accu-
racy tolerance of UUT to the uncertainty of
the ME used to measure the UUT. Classic
TUR is computed using this equation:
Classic TUR = UUT tolerance / ME
uncertainty.
ANSI/NCSL Z540.3-2006—Require-
ments for the calibration of measuring
and test equipment,1 provides the follow-
ing more descriptive and explicit defini-
tion of TUR helping to improve uniformity
in its usage:
Z540.3 TUR = UUT tolerance span / 2 *
ME uncertainty.
This definition defines TUR as the ratio
of the span of the accuracy tolerance of
UUT to twice the 95% expanded uncer-
tainty associated with the ME.2
So simply stated, what is the difference
between TURs and TARs? TURs take
into account ME error contributors
(uncertainties) which may not be included
July 2014 • QP 45
in a ME accuracy tolerance. As with
TARs, a larger TUR implies measurement
data are probably more representative of
the actual performance of a UUT when
compared to smaller TURs. It must be
duly noted that ME tolerance and ME
expanded uncertainty are not the same
(computing expanded uncertainty is a
subject that extends beyond the scope of
this article).
From this discussion, you can ascertain
that TAR and TUR provides metrology
practitioners a ready means for estimat-
ing the possible magnitude of ME error
influences on measurement data. So why
compute TAR and TURs? The answer
has to do with measurement risk and the
liabilities associated with decisions based
on measurement data. To reduce measure-
ment risk, metrology practitioners strive
to minimize ME error influences on mea-
surement data ideally to the point of being
insignificant. This helps equip decision
makers with the best possible informa-
tion—measurement data upon which to
base their decisions. QP
REFERENCE AND NOTE1. American National Standards Institute and National
Conference of Standards Laboratories, ANSI/NCSL Z540.3-2006—Requirements for the calibration of measuring and test equipment.
2. Test uncertainty ratios are often reported in calibration reports for each measurement parameter evaluated or is assumed not to dip below a specific ratio (normally 4:1 unless otherwise noted).
It is important that measurement data’s applicability to determine real-life performance of a device be qualified.
CHRISTOPHER L. GRACHANEN is a master engineer and operations manager at Hewlett-Packard Co. in Houston. He earned an MBA from Regis University in Denver. Grachanen is a co-author of The Metrology Handbook (ASQ Quality Press, 2012), an ASQ fellow, an ASQ-certified
calibration technician and the treasurer of the Measurement Quality Division.
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QP • www.qualityprogress.com46
Return to RootsTaking quality on a round-trip journey
MANUFACTURING IS in my blood. I
often accompanied my Dad on “take your
child to work” days1 when he worked
for Westinghouse in Utah and for Eckert
Enterprises in Arizona. Those experiences
helped me learn about the manufacturing
industry and why it is the heart of America.
In my dad’s free time, he and I worked
on fun projects together, such as partici-
pating in the pinewood derby—a racing
event for Cub Scouts in the Boy Scouts of
America. The precision-cut derby car that
my Dad and I built was the fastest car on
the tracks, indeed. I never lost a race as a
Cub Scout.
After I graduated from high school, my
father left Eckert Enterprises and founded
his own machine shop, Glover Precision
in Mesa, AZ. I helped him clean the ma-
chines and the shop after the various jobs
we handled. I enjoyed working with my
father as he worked to fulfill his American
dream—providing for his family and doing
meaningful work that he loved. Around
that time, I began contemplating my goals
and what I wanted out of life. I decided to
experience what else was out there in the
world. I left the machine shop and entered
volunteer service. I taught Spanish, Eng-
lish and addiction recovery, and helped
people overcome declining lifestyles.
Lessons in leadership After my volunteer term ended, I stayed
in the education sector and went to work
for a university in an administration role.
I quickly was promoted to a leadership
post and helped train others. Managers
focused on efficiency and the cultivation
of dedicated staff. We strived to help staff
members be autonomous and take on
leadership themselves while also assisting
them with reducing waste in their work-
flows. My experience there, however, led
me to question whether people really want
to be autonomous and whether leaders re-
ally want employees to innovate new and
more efficient ways to do things.
Senior leaders encouraged the work-
force to embrace new ideas and practices.
But when an innovation was introduced
by staff, senior leaders would say stifling
things such as “don’t fix what isn’t bro-
ken.” A quote from Henry Ford summariz-
es this situation best: “Any customer can
have a car painted any color that he wants
so long as it is black.”2
I found myself doing the same thing
to my own staff members—telling them
to innovate and be leaders, as long as it
was according to my style and not theirs.
I found that innovation and leadership
will thrive only under the right conditions.
These conditions must be set by executive
leadership and be allowed to trickle down
to frontline staff.
Breaking the status quo is difficult.
What executive leadership needed to
understand was that it isn’t about fixing
what isn’t broken. It’s about taking what
is good and making it the best. Business
cannot be expected to thrive by just get-
ting by year to year. Industries change
constantly, and businesses must look at
how they are keeping their competitive
advantage.
After learning this, I saw that I was in
a rut with the university. I often found
myself heading to the shop after work to
see what I could help out with. I started
spending vacation days at the shop doing a
variety of things. It was then that I realized
that the manufacturing industry was where
I belong. I needed to return to the family
business and take what I had learned and
apply it to Glover Precision. My experience
in training and policy prepared me for the
next step in my career.
Because quality is in every industry
and is what makes or breaks a business,
QUALITY IN THE FIRST PERSON BY MIKE GLOVER
July 2014 • QP 47
MIKE GLOVER is a quality assurance manager at Glover Precision Inc. in Mesa, AZ. A member of ASQ, Glover is a student at Brigham Young University in Rexburg, ID, working on a bachelor’s degree in small business management and entrepreneurship. He holds AS9100C:2009 and ISO
9001:2008 internal auditor certifications from Gladhill Associ-ates International in Glendale, AZ.
I began as the quality manager and took
courses to catch up with practices and
trends in the industry. Gaining buy-in from
executive leadership to execute projects
was much easier because the size of the
shop was significantly smaller than the
university, which employs thousands of
people. Getting buy-in from staff and the
executive leaders at Glover Precision
takes much preparation, but ultimately, it
enhances how we do business.
I find myself happier than I have ever
been. I find great satisfaction in improv-
ing how people and businesses work with
greater efficiency and the best results. The
decision to come to Glover Precision was
an easy one, and it’s one I am most proud
of because I strongly believe in American
manufacturing and providing the best
products made in America.
My experiences taught me that every-
thing has to do with quality. Whether it is
in leading people or processes, quality is at
its core. When everyone has the urgency of
quality instilled within them, they strive for
their best and continue to improve them-
selves and their processes daily. Quality
professionals must impart this in everyone
they work with.
Organizations, no matter the indus-
try, must keep a close watch on qual-
ity management and acknowledge that
everything they do can be improved. While
something may not be broken, it does not
mean it is not breaking. Successful leaders
know that preventive measures are better
investments than being reactive to broken
processes. QP
REFERENCE AND NOTE1. “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day” is a nonprofit
educational program in the United States and Canada that involves parents taking their children to work for one day to promote career exploration. It occurs on the fourth Thursday of April every year.
2. Henry Ford and Samuel Crowther, My Life and Work, Garden City Publishing Company Inc., 1922.
While something may not be broken, it does not mean it is not breaking.
ASQ certi� cation is a formal recognition by ASQ that an individual has demonstrated a pro� ciency within, and a comprehension of, a speci� ed body of knowledge. No matter where your career takes you, ASQ certi� cations are internationally accepted and recognized. Register today for one of our certi� cation exams being held in October!
Upcoming exam date: October 4, 2014
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The Global Voice of QualityTMCERTIFICATION MEMBERSHIP PUBLICATIONSTRAINING CONFERENCES
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QP • www.qualityprogress.com48
CAREER CORNER BY JOSEPH D. CONKLIN
Opening DoorsCareer centers unlock opportunities for displaced workers
IN OCTOBER 2013, I was one of many
U.S. federal employees who took an
unpaid vacation popularly known as the
government shutdown. The furlough no-
tice arrived during my honeymoon, mak-
ing both events even more memorable.
In the blink of an eye, I was facing the
same prospects confronted by many of
my colleagues in the quality field in the
aftermath of the Great Recession: job
loss and the looming necessity of a new
career path. At the time the furlough hit,
it was not clear how long it would last.
I stopped by Prince George’s One-Stop
Career Center in Laurel, MD, during the
second week of the shutdown to look
into training and retraining programs for
displaced workers.
I scheduled an assessment interview
with Jo Welker, a counselor at the center
and team member of the group adminis-
tering the training and retraining pro-
grams authorized under the Workforce
Investment Act (WIA). The WIA is one
of the many state versions of job and
training programs enacted under various
federal laws during the early 1960s.
Thankfully, the shutdown ended just
before my appointment. In the glow of
being recalled back to work with back
pay, I decided to still meet with Welker
to learn more about the many good and
helpful things I sensed happening at the
center. With so many professionals in
and out of the quality field and struggling
with unemployment, career centers are
forces of hope during a time when reas-
surance and encouragement are most
needed. The center gave me permission to
speak to Welker about the center’s efforts
to help applicants build and improve their
work lives.
Joseph Conklin (JC): What is your
role at Prince George’s One-Stop Career
Center?
Jo Welker (JW): I am one of several
career consultants. We work for the same
Department of Labor program found in
all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Our main role is to prepare individuals to
return to the workforce. Although those
completely out of work are understand-
ably the focus of news coverage these
days, my role also includes helping people
with part-time jobs transition to full-time
employment.
JC: What services do you offer under
the WIA?
JW: We provide informal and formal
tests and assessments. We work with
applicants to create career development
plans. We supply local labor market infor-
mation and referrals to other services for
resume writing, job search strategies and
effective use of social media for network-
ing. We help applicants develop training
plans when the goal is new or enhanced
job skills. We also provide funding for ap-
plicants to undergo training programs.
JC: How do applicants qualify for
services?
JW: They must provide proof of their
identity, U.S. citizenship and residence
in the service area covered by our office.
Then, we discuss their current situation
and needs in depth. With respect to train-
ing or retraining programs, we look at an
July 2014 • QP 49
applicant’s education, experience and
major job interests before funding a par-
ticular program to ensure it’s a good fit.
JC: What happens when displaced
workers apply for retraining?
JW: We encourage those applicants
to train for jobs that are in demand
in the local labor market. We assess
the proposed training to ensure it will
provide the right skills for the job the
applicant seeks. Before retraining begins,
we require applicants to research the
local marketplace. Many visit organiza-
tions where they would like to work and
collect feedback on how well a particular
program or certificate would qualify them
for a job there.
JC: What attitudes and habits help ap-
plicants succeed in training programs?
JW: Applicants must demonstrate the
same attitudes and habits in training as
they would on the job: a positive mental
attitude, punctuality, follow-through on
assignments and regular attendance.
Training programs require applicants
to pass the final exam and successfully
complete the course.
JC: What services exist for helping ap-
plicants handle the stress of job loss?
JW: We offer an internal workshop
called “Professionals Rethinking Employ-
ment Pathways.” The workshop is run by
a facilitator, and attendees complete an
individualized plan of study, counseling
and positive actions for handling their
particular situation. Some applicants
come to us with complex emotional
issues that are significant barriers to em-
ployment. We work with the Department
of Rehabilitation Services to connect
applicants to special programs they need
to overcome barriers.
JC: What recent success stories come
to mind?
JW: Success is when an applicant
is hired. It is a time to celebrate when
we can close a file. Success stories are
posted on our bulletin board for all to
see. Some recent jobs landed by our
applicants are Java engineer, computer
network engineer, licensed truck driver,
computer lab instructor, senior IT ana-
lyst, bank teller and elementary school
teacher.
JC: What can employed workers do to
prepare for potential job loss?
JW: I can only reiterate some tried-
and-true advice: build skills, look for proj-
ects that will challenge and develop you,
complete your education, and keep up
with trends in your field and in the local
market. In Maryland, the federal govern-
ment is a major player in the economy.
Local workers might do well in their job
search to see which organizations are
winning new and large contracts and
target them accordingly.
JC: How do you collaborate with
your colleagues to help applicants suc-
ceed?
JW: There are several career
consultants in the office. We talk
across desks, in the halls and
in monthly meetings. We share
what works and what doesn’t. We
discuss which jobs are hot and
which ones are not. We brain-
storm ideas for new workshops.
In the era of social media, labor market
news ages quickly. We don’t let more than
a few days go by without finding out the
latest.
JC: What special issues apply to retir-
ees returning to work or starting a new
career?
JW: Retirees must focus on what they
want to be instead of what they were in
their old jobs. They must translate their
old job titles into appropriate skills and
connect them with organizations’ needs
during job interviews. While a new indus-
try or job is a worthy goal, retirees should
check their skills and determine their fit.
They should be prepared for competition.
My own sense is that over time, orga-
nizations will recognize more clearly the
contributions older workers can provide.
That should make it easier for future
retirees to open their next chapter.
JC: What is the next chapter in your
own career story?
JW: I plan to continue as a career con-
sultant, but I will be shifting my focus to
helping organizations develop and retain
staff. The same assessment and collabora-
tion I have applied to individuals will now
center on change at the department, office
or organization level. ASQ’s website has a
lot to offer in this area, and I am sure that
I will refer to those resources in my new
job working with organizations. QP
Retirees must focus on what they want to be instead of what they were in their old jobs.
JOSEPH D. CONKLIN is a mathematical statistician in Washington, D.C., and a senior member of ASQ. He earned a master’s degree in statistics from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Conklin is also an ASQ-certified quality manager, quality engineer, quality auditor, reliability engineer and Six Sigma
Black Belt.
THINKING ABOUT A CAREER CHANGE?Go to www.asq.org/careers, where job seekers can post résumés, get career advice and explore career development opportunities, and employers can post jobs and search résumés.
QP • www.qualityprogress.com50
STANDARDS OUTLOOK BY L.L. “BUDDY” CRESSIONNIE
Revision RunwaySIPOC implemented in process for updating AS9100 standards
REVISION ACTIVITIES on AS9100—
Quality management systems—Require-
ments for aviation, space and defense
organizations continue. AS9100 is the
flagship aviation, space and defense
(ASD) quality management system (QMS)
standard and the foundation standard of
the International Aerospace Quality Group
(IAQG). Publication of a revised standard
is planned for 2016, shortly after the ISO
9001 revision is released.
Some ASD industry organizations may
wonder why the standard should be updated
when the transition to AS9100C:2009 was
just completed. They also might wonder
why it takes so long to revise a standard.
The first question is easy to answer.
AS9100 is based on ISO 9001, so the revision
timing is affected by the activity of the Inter-
national Organization for Standardization
(ISO) Technical Committee (TC) 176. ISO/
TC 176 plans to publish a revised ISO 9001
in 2015. That is why the next revision of the
AS9100 series is planned and scheduled for
publication in early 2016.
The publication date depends on when
ISO 9001 is published so that it can be
integrated and coordinated with other
IAQG standards. To keep IAQG standards
current, IAQG also is required to review
standards at least every five years.
The answer to the second question—
why it takes so long to revise a standard—
requires some explanation: Users will
appreciate that IAQG uses a process-based
approach to a standard revision. The
process is demonstrated by a suppliers,
inputs, process, outputs and customers
(SIPOC) diagram in Online Figure 1,
found on this article’s webpage at www.
qualityprogress.com.
SuppliersAS9100 provides QMS requirements ap-
plicable to the ASD industry. The revision
activity will consider the new and emerg-
ing international requirements, as well as
stakeholder input for changes.
Suppliers include IAQG’s external and
internal stakeholders. External stakehold-
ers are certification bodies,
aerospace auditors, certified
organizations, airline and
aviation operators, distribu-
tors and deliverable software
organizations.
Internal stakeholder
groups mirror the IAQG
organizational structure. This
includes:
• Relationship growth teams
that coordinate with key
stakeholder groups to
ensure the continued rec-
ognition of the standard
by ASD authorities, includ-
ing the Federal Aviation
Administration, NASA, the U.S. Depart-
ment of Defense and trade associations
in the United States.
• Improvement strategy teams include
requirements for establishing, develop-
ing and maintaining IAQG standards.
The product and supply chain improve-
ment team develops how-to guidance to
improve the supply chain;1 the people
capability team establishes the ASD
body of knowledge and human factors;
and the performance improvement team
develops measures to assess industry
performance and improvement.
• Other-party management teams that
manage and oversee the AS9100 series
ASD QMS certification program.
When AS9100 is revised, it isn’t just rep-
resentative of the IAQG writing team pro-
ducing the standard; it is the work of the
entire ASD community coming together
with a shared vision and goal to create the
foundation for the AS9100 series.
InputsThe inputs to the AS9100 series develop-
ment process include:
• Stakeholder input received through
external stakeholders’ survey feedback
and comments templates completed by
internal stakeholders. Stakeholders are
engaged throughout the development
process and often participate on writ-
ing teams as the voice of the customer.
• The IAQG future vision for improving
on-time and on-quality performance of
the ASD industry, which ensures that
the key strategies of the IAQG leader-
ship are incorporated into the stan-
dards development process.
• ISO 9001, which is a key input because
the AS9100 is based on it. The IAQG
July 2014 • QP 51
AS9100 team is closely engaged with
ISO/TC 176 on the newly proposed
high-level structure and common man-
agement system requirements in ISO
9001:2015 (see Table 1, p. 52). IAQG
was recently granted liaison status with
the ISO/TC working group revising ISO
9001 to ensure the ASD industry needs
are represented.
• Risk assessment options that have
been assessed for moving forward.
The current approach is for AS9100 to
stay aligned with ISO 9001 and ASD
additional requirements.
ProcessThe three-phase development process for
the AS9100 revision began in 2012. I cov-
ered the revision process in my last column,
“Road to Revision,”2 but I will also briefly ad-
dress it here.
The project was approved in October
2012. Approval was based on incorporat-
ing changes made to the ISO 9001 require-
ments embedded within AS9100, while
also considering stakeholder needs iden-
tified since the last revision and clarifica-
tions issued by IAQG.
Designing and developing the standard
is the first and most rigorous phase. This
includes:
Integrating the project schedule
and plan. IAQG’s goal for this revision is
to release all related AS9100-series stan-
dards simultaneously with deployment
support materials and training.
This has never been done before, and
it is quite a challenge for an international
quality organization comprised of volun-
teer resources. An integrated schedule
and project plan, therefore, is critical to
ensure standards development alignment
occurs to incorporate lessons learned
from the 2009 revision.
Design specification. The design
specification provides the logic for review-
ing proposed changes. As shown in Figure
1, stakeholders from several organizations
submitted 559 comments, which were
evaluated by the IAQG 9100 revision team.
For changes and additions to be
considered, according to the design
specification, they cannot be contractual
QMS requirements; they cannot contain
product-specific requirements; they must
enhance clarity of requirements or ad-
dress stakeholder needs; they must be
auditable, and define what not how; and
they must offer a benefit that outweighs
the impact of implementation.
Master comments review. All stake-
holder comments are collected, organized,
reviewed and placed on the master com-
ments review template used by the IAQG
9100 team. The team examines whether
rewording a portion of the standard would
ensure improved understanding by orga-
nizations implementing the standard and
auditors assessing it. A proposed change
or addition must meet all the requirements
of the design specification and receive
consensus approval by the entire IAQG
AS9100 team.
The review and disposition process
for comments occurs in a tiered process,
whereby each sector (such as the Ameri-
cas Aerospace Quality Group, European
Aerospace Quality Group or Asia-Pacific
Aerospace Quality Group) first reaches a
consolidated position for their sector, after
which a final disposition of each comment
is reached at the international team level.
Each sector, in establishing its position,
involves any interested party of the respec-
tive sector companies, thus achieving a
true consensus position on each comment.
Priority focus teams. These groups
are established when stakeholder com-
ments require further concept develop-
ment. The teams develop proposals for a
change and present it to the IAQG AS9100
team for discussion and acceptance. All
accepted proposals were added to the
master comment review template. For the
AS9100 revision, priority focus teams and
their proposals included:
• Product and flight safety—evaluate
enhancement.
• Human factors—consider inclusion.
• Risk—balance ISO 9001 additions.
• Preventive action—assess ISO 9001
approach.
• Counterfeit parts—consider inclusion.
• Configuration management—consider
enhancement.
• Product realization planning—consider
link to AS9102, the First Article Inspec-
tion (FAI) standard, and Advanced
Product Quality Planning/Production
Parts Approval Process (APQP/PPAP).
Trade organizationsWeb survey—OASIS suppliers/others
AAQG Space ForumIAQG Space Forum
International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG) product and supply chain improvement strategy team
Maintenance/repair organizations
LinkedIn 9100 Hints and Tips Group
European Aerospace Quality Group
Civil Aviation Authority
Asia-Pacific Aerospace Quality Group
Americas Aerospace Quality Group (AAQG)
67, 19%
96, 28%
31, 9%
1, 0.5%
2, 1%
21, 6%
78, 23%
12, 3
%
14, 4
%6, 2%
17, 5%
559 comments received(responses, percentage)
AS9100 revision comments / FIGURE 1
OASIS = online aerospace supplier information system
QP • www.qualityprogress.com52
STANDARDS OUTLOOK • Post-delivery support—consider
content from AS9110, which covers
maintenance organization links.
• Sub-tier management—consider en-
hancement.
Coordination draft. A writing draft
will be developed this summer. The draft
will incorporate stakeholder feedback
regarding the ISO 9001:2015 draft interna-
tional standard (DIS). The DIS will be re-
viewed by the writing team and provided
to the IAQG AS9100 team for comments.
After it’s accepted by the team, the
standard will be sent to sector stakehold-
ers for an informal coordination draft
review. Comments will be reviewed and
reconciled for the formal sector review in
phase two.
Phase two involves a formal review
that is conducted across the three IAQG
sectors—the Americas, Europe and
Asia-Pacific via review ballots. The team
will analyze comments submitted, and if
content is changed, subsequent review
ballots will be submitted to the sectors
until the standard is approved.
In phase three, after a ballot is ap-
proved, the standard will be published
within each sector, with translations per-
formed for the various language versions.
OutputsThe AS9100 series outputs include:
• AS9100 series standards, which in-
clude AS9100—Quality management
systems—Requirements for aviation,
space and defense organizations;
AS9110—Quality maintenance
systems—Aerospace—Requirements
for maintenance organizations;
AS9120—Quality management
systems—Aerospace—Requirements
for stockist distributors; AS9115—
Quality management systems—Re-
quirements for aviation, space and
defense organizations—Deliverable
software; and ARP9137—Guidance
for the application of AQAP 2110
within a 9100 QMS.
• Deployment support materials, includ-
ing communications, presentations,
frequently asked questions, articles,
auditor guidance materials and clarifica-
tions.3
• Training, which will be developed in
close coordination with ISO/TC 176 for
certified organizations and auditors.
CustomersThe customers of AS9100 are the entire
ASD industry, including the various
publishing sectors of the Americas, Asia-
Pacific and Europe.
Revising AS9100 takes time because it
requires aligning a worldwide audience
and building multiple consensus-based
international standards with plenty of
behind-the-scenes coordination.
Using a SIPOC diagram demon-
strates how all the elements are coor-
dinated into the process to reach a suc-
cessful end result. This extra effort and
time to involve stakeholders will help
IAQG produce a standard that is what
the users want and need to improve
their QMSs, thus raising the bar for the
ASD industry as a whole. QP
REFERENCES 1. International Aerospace Quality Group, Supply Chain
Management Handbook, www.iaqg.org/scmh.2. L.L. “Buddy” Cressionnie, “Road to Revision,” Quality
Progress, July 2013, pp. 47-49.3. International Aerospace Quality Group, www.iaqg.org.
NOTE A presentation of the topics discussed in this article is available on the IAQG website, www.iaqg.org.
L.L. “BUDDY” CRESSIONNIE is the Americas requirement lead and the Americas lead for the IAQG AS9100 team, as well as a voting member of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to ISO/TC 176. In these roles, he represents the Lockheed Martin Corp., where he works in the aeronautics
business area overseeing quality and mission success processes. Cressionnie is an ASQ senior member with quality manager and quality auditor certifications. He also is an RABQSA-certified aerospace experienced auditor and International Register of Certified Auditors lead auditor for ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. Cressionnie has an MBA from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth and a bachelor’s degree in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Florida in Gainesville.
New ISO 9001 clause structure / TABLE 1
1. Scope
2. Normative references
3. Terms and definitions
Pla
n
4. Context of the organization• Organization and its context• Needs and expectations• Quality management system
(QMS) scope• QMS and processes
5. Leadership• Leadership and commitment• Policy• Roles, responsibility and
authority
6. Planning• Actions to address risks and
opportunities• Objectives and plans to
achieve them• Planning of changes
7. Support• Resources• Competence• Awareness• Communication• Documented information
Do
8. Operation• Operational planning and
control• Determination of
requirements• Design and development• Control of externally provided
products and services• Production and service
provision• Release of products and
services• Nonconforming process
outputs, products and services
Ch
eck
9. Performance evaluation• Monitoring, measurement,
analysis and evaluation• Internal audit• Management review
Act
10. Improvement• Nonconformity and
corrective action• Continual improvement
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ASU Engineering connects professionals to a leading university with world-renowned faculty who design and deliver a broad array of programs featuring innovative instruction, in-depth industry experience and hands-on application.CERTIFICATION • CONTINUING EDUCATION • CONTINUOUS QUALITY IMPROVEMENT • DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS • ENGINEERING • ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT • LEAN • MANAGEMENT • ONLINE LEARNING • PROJECT MANAGEMENT • SIX SIGMA • STATISTICAL QUALITY CONTROL • STATISTICS • SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
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BMGI is a global consulting firm providing people-driven solutions to your most pressing business problems—through strategy, innovation, operational excellence and change management.CERTIFICATION • CONTINUING EDUCATION • CONTINUOUS QUALITY IMPROVEMENT • DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS • LEAN • MANAGEMENT • ONLINE LEARNING • OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT • PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT • PROJECT MANAGEMENT • PUBLIC TRAINING • SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING • SIX SIGMA • STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL • STATISTICAL QUALITY CONTROL • STATISTICS • SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT • TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
ASQ’s Continuing Education and Professional Development Directory
56 QP • www.qualityprogress.com
Special Advertising Section
Kent State University204 Schwartz CenterKent, OH 44242Phone: 330-672-8698www.kent.edu/leansixsigma
Kent State University provides lean and Six Sigma training and process improvement consulting services to meet your continuous improvement objectives. Explore the options at www.kent.edu/leansixsigma.CERTIFICATION • CONTINUING EDUCATION • CONTINUOUS QUALITY IMPROVEMENT • DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS • LEAN • MANAGEMENT • PROJECT MANAGEMENT • PUBLIC TRAINING • SIX SIGMA • STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL • STATISTICAL QUALITY CONTROL • STATISTICS • SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT • TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Key Performance/Florida Atlantic University1004 Brooks LaneDelray Beach, FL 33483Phone: 951-775-9150www.keyperformance.com and www.fausixsigma.com
By combining the resources of a top-quality university with the knowledge and experience of Key Performance, we set the stage for an outstanding learning experience.CERTIFICATION • CONTINUING EDUCATION • ONLINE LEARNING • PROJECT MANAGEMENT • PUBLIC TRAINING • SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING • SIX SIGMA
VERSE Solutions399 Conklin Street, Suite 208 Farmingdale, NY 11735 Phone: 423-388-3777 www.versesolutions.com
VERSE is a dedicated cloud-based quality management system that provides the dynamic performance of an on-premises solution without the long-term commitment.AUDITING • ISO 9000 • QUALITY ASSURANCE • TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
ASQ’s Continuing Education and Professional Development Directory
57July 2014 • QP
Vise jaw systemThe CARVEsmart quick-change vise jaw
system is designed for production and
tool-room applications, replacing the
method of attaching vise jaws to a vise us-
ing face mounted cap screws. The system
employs three—from the top—channeled
clamping elements and a dovetailed jaw
design to couple the master jaw and soft
or hard jaws. This makes the CARVEsmart
system ideal for shops that run repeating
and tight tolerance work.
The CARVEsmart dovetailed jaw
provides a larger machinable workholding
zone that permits holding parts deeper
and more securely into the jaws of the
vise providing less jaw lift and more se-
cure clamping.
Front or side-loading of the soft jaws
is simple using a T-handled hex wrench
to loosen three channeled clamping
elements accessed from the top of each
master jaw.
• Email: [email protected].
• Visit: www.carvesmart.com.
TransducerThe Precision Controls Division of Marsh
Bellofram Corp. has announced its Type
3110 single-loop electro-pneumatic analog
circuit-card servo pres-
sure transducer. The Type
3110 is designed to pro-
vide economical air pres-
sure monitoring within
original equipment manu-
facturer applications.
Two unique manifold
block configurations are
available. One features
front ports to facilitate
direct panel mounting
or seamless insertion
into a DIN-rail adapter tray.
The second option, featuring bottom
ports, is typically specified for multi-unit
pressure manifold systems.
An onboard pressure transducer within
the manifold block permits ±0.5% full-scale
accuracy. Custom multi-unit manifolds are
also available. Typical applications include
damper control, gas chromatography, pro-
cess control and medical equipment.
• Call: 800-309-6150.
• Visit: www.marshbellofram.com.
Video measuring microscopeMahr Federal has introduced a video mea-
suring microscope with image processing
capability, designed for measuring and
dimensioning geometric
elements.
The MarVision MM
320 incorporates an inte-
grated camera with zoom
lens and a 23 in. touch-
screen PC with keyboard
and mouse. Automatic
edge detection allows
low-contrast features to
be measured.
Coarse and fine height adjustment
knobs are mounted on both sides for
precise focusing. Illumination is provided
by a quadrant LED ring top light with four
individually controlled segments, and table
mounted telecentric LED transmitted light
for more focused measurement of rota-
tionally symmetric parts.
The automated video edge detection and
multi-touch functions make the MarVsion
MM 320 especially suitable for a wide
range of punched and flexible parts, plastic
components and electronic circuit boards.
• Call: 800-343-2050.
• Visit: www.mahr.com.
QP • www.qualityprogress.com58
QPTOOLBOX
•
••
July 2014 • QP 59
Laser scanner
Steinbichler Optotechnik GmbH has
released the Steinbichler T-scan CS hand-
guided laser scanner that can be mounted
on a robot. The laser offers surface
cooperativeness and scanning that can be
recorded in-line.
Metrolog X4 i-Robot is suited for ap-
plications requiring flexibility, productivity
and measurement precision. Applications
ideal for this technology are for inspection
on production lines in the automotive in-
dustry, the aeronautics and space industry
and their suppliers.
• Call: 49-8035-8704-769.
• Visit: www.steinbichler.com.
Water level loggerOnset announced the HOBO U20L series,
which are data loggers for continuous wa-
ter level and temperature measurements
in streams, lakes, saltwater estuaries and
other underwater environments.
It is available in 13, 30 and 100 ft. depth
models and can be used in a range of en-
vironmental monitoring applications, from
ecology studies to hurricane
storm surge monitoring.
To analyze and plot water
level data, Onset offers HOBO-
ware, a graphing and analysis
software package. HOBOware
provides a graphical user inter-
face and features a barometric
compensation assistant, which
enables easy pressure-to-level
conversion. The software also
features a bulk export tool for
users to export data files to
text format for use in spread-
sheets.
• Call: 800-564-4377.
• Visit: www.onsetcomp.com.
Microscopic measurementProtoRhino’s FlexRHINO Dyna-
Mat is a device that will help
engineers and researchers better under-
stand the processes leading to material
weakening and failure.
Material failure begins at the micro-
scopic level, with
events measured in
microseconds. When
a certain threshold is
reached, this accumu-
lated damage can lead
to sudden cracking and
breakage. DynaMat
helps engineers ob-
serve this process. The
microscopic damage
that occurs prior to
total failure can occur
at relatively ordinary
loads and stress condi-
tions. DynaMat captures damage occurring
in these circumstances.
DynaMat is an optical-only technol-
ogy, ideal for extreme conditions such as
high temperatures and pressures or harsh
chemical environments. DynaMat is suit-
able for a range of testing schemes, includ-
ing fatigue testing, tensile strength and
bending measurements, and creep testing.
• Email: [email protected].
• Visit: www.protorhino.com.
GOT A QUALITY PRODUCT?Send your product description and photo to [email protected].
•
•
QP • www.qualityprogress.com
Why Doers Do: Managing Human Performance to Optimize the Return on Your People InvestmentDavid E. Wile, CreateSpace Independent
Publishing Platform, 2013, 478 pp., $26.95
(book).
This book is a
fictional story about
managing group
activities. It offers
opportunities for
reader involvement
in thinking about
management. It is
well-organized with
a detailed table of
contents, but it lacks an index. It is not a
tool to use to find information, but rather
a story about "doers doing." The nine
chapters explore the nine elements of the
externality-tangibility (E-T) model.
The book opens with the story about
the character Luke. Luke manages an IT
department, and he is the parent of three
teenagers. The themes of the story explore
his life, human performance problems and
situations in which he would like to help
people do better at their jobs. Part of it is
tied to his involvement with an ice hockey
team. The chapters show how Luke
becomes involved with situations in which
his employees, his teammates or his teens
are somehow struggling with lower-than-
expected performance. Luke discovers
solutions using the E-T model and eventu-
ally succeeds.
Though quality as a technical and
management process is not a primary
theme, elements of successes, continued
improvement, confirming results and com-
municating expectations are key elements.
Wile uses storytelling to inspire readers to
think about human performance and suc-
cesses with quality results implied.
This book is not recommended as a
reference resource in the field of quality.
For persons interested in personal and
professional improvements in complex,
people-based organizations, however, it
is thought-provoking. Writers in the field
of quality may be interested in the book
as a model to be used as methods and
resources specific to the broader idea of
quality as process and result fields are
explored.
Jerry Brong
Ellensburg, WA
Transforming IT Culture: How to Use Social Intelligence, Human Factors and Collaboration to Create an IT Department That OutperformsFrank Wander, John Wiley & Sons, 2013,
224 pp., $50 (book).
This book provides a
comprehensive over-
view of transform-
ing IT organizations
with an emphasis on
realizing the value of
the HR department.
Wander laments
that IT organizations
intensely focus on
processes, technology and analytics, but
not on their professionals.
In today's IT world, employees must
collaborate to create value. The author
contends that social intelligence, trust and
unselfishness are indispensable tools of
management that will enable leaders to
energize HR.
The book begins by discussing a blind
spot in today’s organizational manage-
ment—not placing a high value on
embracing workers and their potential.
Further chapters discuss pertinent and
important matters, such as the opportu-
nity cost of ignoring the human potential,
social cohesion and conceptual unity.
Transformation in organizations happens
by putting it all together.
This book uses simple and easy-to-
understand language and diagrams from
start to finish, making it useful to manag-
ers and HR professionals at all levels. It is
a must-read for those in IT organizations. It
is an invaluable guide to building a better
IT department from the inside out.
Anuradha Rangarajan
Harvard, IL
Four-Cornered Leadership: A Framework for Making DecisionsJohn Roland Schultz, Productivity Press,
2013, 277 pp., $59.95.
This book on leader-
ship is based on W.
Edwards Deming’s
teachings. While most
books directed toward
Deming’s principles
focus on the tech-
niques for supporting
and improving quality,
this one focuses on guiding leaders to
achieve organizational goals using those
same tools.
Schultz describes a set of leadership
competencies based on four elements of
the system of profound knowledge: ap-
preciation for the system; understanding
variation and data-based decisions; un-
QPREVIEWS
60
derstanding individual and organizational
learning; and understanding individual and
organizational psychology. The ability to
move within these four corners is what
makes a good leader. To aid in under-
standing and polishing those abilities,
numerous topics are reviewed with re-
spect to how they fit within the processes
necessary for effective leadership using
this model.
I particularly enjoyed the discussions
on the distinction between leadership and
management and overlaying the plan-do-
check-act cycle with the learning cycle to
generate a standard four-quadrant situa-
tion matrix. For those interested in how
they fare in this model, a questionnaire for
assessing leadership capability is included.
According to the author, “Leadership is
about governance and making things hap-
pen—repeatedly.” If you follow leadership,
management and quality trends, or ever
wondered how quality could work on the
management side of the business, you will
benefit from this book.
Marc A. Feldman
Houston
Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers: The People Skills You Need to Achieve Outstanding ResultsAnthony Mersino, Amacom, 2013, 285 pp.,
$19.95 (second edition, book).
Mersino takes emotional intelligence and
exploits it in many ways, all within the
context of projects and project manage-
ment. Exploring emotional intelligence,
what it means—knowing how to use it
and improve on it—is challenging.
To describe and address the topic,
Mersino divides the book into four major
parts, 10 chapters, six appendixes and an
index. The parts describe his approach:
build a framework, provide structure, fill in
the details, and include tools and diag-
nostics that can be used by individuals
and project managers. He first provides
an introduction to emotional intelligence
and slowly changes
focus by showing that
project management
begins with self-man-
agement.
As a manager, your
project is entirely built
around stakeholder
relationships, and
that’s the subject of part three. Mersino's
experience is best showcased where he
talks about using emotional intelligence to
lead project teams.
The two most impressive parts of the
book are in the later pages. First, Mersino
describes four resonant leadership styles.
These are the ways that a leader builds
through personal and team synergies. As
with other parts of the book, he com-
pares and contrasts the leadership styles
in a handy table.
The area that benefits readers most is
Mersino’s uses of models and diagrams
to show relationships and how emotional
intelligent and self-awareness are at the
core of excellent project management.
This is a highly beneficial and easy-to-
read book that will benefit many people.
Frank Pokrop
San Diego
RECENT RELEASESEffective Implementation Of an ISO 5001 Energy Management System Marvin T. Howell, ASQ Quality Press, 2014,
192 pp., $48 member, $80 list (book).
Outcomes Performance Structure: Three Keys to Organizational Excellence Michael E. Gallery and Stephen C. Carey,
ASQ Quality Press, 2014, 112 pp., $20
member, $34 list (book).
61
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Steer Your CareerEmployee work plans feed into organizational success
DEVELOPING QUALITY LEADERS is
critical to the success of every organiza-
tion. High-performing quality leaders do
not materialize overnight. They develop
over time with proper training and support.
An individual development plan (IDP)
focuses on developing a quality talent pool
by allowing each individual to create a
systematic strategy to improve skills and
overall performance. IDPs help cultivate
talent and enable individuals to advance
more quickly to meet the critical needs of
the organization while fulfilling their per-
sonal skills development and career goals.
An IDP is a tailored plan created by
employees in collaboration with their im-
mediate managers to establish clear goals,
deadlines and measurable action items. It
is important for managers to engage in the
process and provide resources. Manag-
ers undertake a quality control function
during performance appraisals and ensure
that employees at all levels have the
knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) to
perform their roles.
IDPs can range from informal state-
ments shared with supervisors to struc-
tured documentation that is submitted as
part of a larger performance management
system. Organizations that employ per-
formance management tactics are more
likely to outperform competitors on finan-
cial measures and nonfinancial measures.
There are three major elements in a
structured IDP:
1. Development goals.
2. Timelines to accomplish each devel-
opment goal.
3. Activities necessary for development.
Online Figure 1 illustrates a structured
IDP. Start the process by thinking about
what you do well and what you should
improve to enhance performance. Identify
strengths, interests and opportunities for
improvement. Form a concise list of KSA
improvements related primarily to your job
requirements and career goals. Set goals
that are specific, measurable, achievable,
relevant and timely. Commit to a few spe-
cific goals. Managers should provide clari-
fying feedback to ensure that your goals
align with those of the organization and
that nothing stands in the way of success.
Employees and managers should
establish a timeline to accomplish each
goal. Goals can be added to an IDP and
appraised at any time, but it is beneficial
to set firm deadlines. Use major achieve-
ments and activity milestones as key
measures of success.
After defining IDP goals and dead-
lines, describe the activities necessary
to achieve the goals. Action items might
include job rotation, stretch assignments,
travel, training, mentoring, supplier
contact, customer interaction and perfor-
mance reviews. Individuals are motivated
by and benefit from diverse development
experiences that provide challenging op-
portunities to practice new skills.
A team development plan is a subtle
variation of the IDP that teams can use to
identify improvement opportunities in the
collective skill set needed to meet project
requirements.
Paths toward success The IDP is a quality tool that creates direc-
tion and ongoing dialogue with future qual-
ity leaders. They help identify improve-
ment needs and align them with internal
talent needs and future opportunities in
the organization. This allows managers to
gauge and support paths toward success
for the organization and its employees.
As employees fulfill strategically
planned tasks, challenging new assign-
ments and education experiences, the
person gains KSAs that lead to higher per-
formance, increased career satisfaction
and rapid advancement. As managers use
IDPs, the organization enhances its overall
performance while forming a deeper
talent pool to meet the quality leadership
needs of tomorrow. QP
BIBLIOGRAPHYCascio, W. F., “Global Performance Management Systems,”
from The Handbook of Research in International Human Resources Management, Edward Elgar Ltd., 2006, pp. 176–198.
Caplan, Janice, The Value of Talent: Promoting Talent Man-agement Across the Organization, Kogan Page, 2010.
Developing Employees: Expert Solutions to Everyday Chal-lenges, Harvard Business School Press, 2009.
Fenwick, Tara, “Professional Growth Plans: Possibilities and Limitations of an Organizationwide Employee Develop-ment Strategy,” HR Development Quarterly, 2003, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 59-77.
Hamori, Monika, Jie Cao and Burak Koyuncu, “Why Top Young Managers Are in a Nonstop Job Hunt,” Harvard Business Review, July-August 2012.
“IDP Individual Development Planning Guide to Getting Started,” Yale University, 2013, www.yale.edu/hronline/idp.
Jackson Jr., D.W. and N.J. Sirianni, “Building the Bottom Line by Developing the Frontline: Career Development for Service Employees,” Business Horizons, 2009, Vol. 52, No. 3, pp. 279-287.
Latham, G.P., “The Motivational Benefits of Goal Setting,” Academy of Management Executive, 2004, Vol. 18, pp. 126-129.
Lipman, Victor, “Why Employee Development Is Important, Neglected and Can Cost You Talent,” Forbes, Jan. 29, 2013, www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/01/29/why-development-planning-is-important-neglected-and-can-cost-you-young-talent.
Mattone, John and Luis Xavier, Talent Leadership: A Proven Method for Identifying and Developing High-Potential Employees, American Management Association, 2012.
SEAN P. GOFFNETT is an assistant professor of marketing and logistics at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant. Goffnett received his doctor-ate in quality management from East-ern Michigan University in Ypsilanti and holds master’s degrees in HR and labor relations from Michigan State
University in East Lansing, and a master’s in engineering management from Western Michigan University in Kalama-zoo. He is a senior member of ASQ, an ASQ-certified quality process analyst and holds a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt from Villanova University in Pennsylvania.
ONE GOOD IDEA BY SEAN P. GOFFNETT
What’s Online in the ASQ Knowledge Center?
Access this month’s featured content and more Web exclusives in the ASQ Knowledge Center at asq.org/knowledge-center/featured.html.
CASE STUDYIndia-based Life Insurer Improves Customer Retention Through Six Sigma, Quality Tools
Using Six Sigma and quality tools, a Max Life Insurance Company improvement team reclaimed deeply lapsed policyholders and generated more than $8.6 million in revenue.
BENCHMARKING Key Manufacturing Benchmarks at a Glance
A collection of documents highlights manufacturing process benchmarks for organizations in aerospace, consumer products/packaged goods, electronics, industrial products, and petroleum/chemical industries.
WEBCASTISO 9001:2008 in Police Organizations
David Amari shares how to apply the most widely used standard on quality management systems in the world to police and law enforcement organizations, from implementation to success stories.
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