About Us | Quality Digest

Quality Digest

Ph.: (530) 893–4095

Your information resource for a changing quality industry

For 39 years Quality Digest has been bringing information to quality professionals.

Quality Digest (sometimes abbreviated as QD) is an online news and information source owned by QCI International that covers an array of quality management topics, including standards, compliance, metrology, Six Sigma, problem solving, employee participation, customer service, and lean. Originally a monthly print magazine, it ceased printing in 2009 in favor of online platforms.

QCI International was founded in 1980 by Donald Dewar, one of the pioneers of the early quality movement in the United States. Dewar promoted quality circles to U.S. businesses. As part of that effort, he published Quality Circle Digest, which later became Quality Digest.

Today, Quality Digest delivers feature articles and news on the quality industry via our e-newsletter Quality Digest and on our website www.qualitydigest.com. Our website receives more than 1 million page views annually, where users can find editorial content, live broadcasts, videos, and on-demand webinars presented by industry experts. The website also contains all editorial content from print editions Quality Digest magazine from August 1995 to June 2009.

Offices are located in Chico, California.

History

During the late 1970s Don Dewar, an engineer with Lockheed, traveled to Japan. He started Quality Circles Institute to teach U.S. businesses about quality circles, an employee problem-solving methodology that was helping Japanese industry compete. An adjunct of that was Quality Circle Digest, a monthly subscription publication. The first issue was published in 1981.

Publication timeline

1981 First issue published under the title Quality Circle Digest. The magazine was funded only by subscriptions to avoid the need for advertisers.

1983 Quality Circle Digest added to the Library of Congress’ permanent collection
1987 Quality Circle Digest drops “Circle” from its name to become Quality Digest. This reflected the evolution of quality circles and the interest in quality management. The quality movement began to encompass much more than just employee participation, as “companywide quality control” and “total quality management” initiatives were already established.
1989 Quality Digest circulation increases by 60 percent to more than 70,000
1991 First issue of the annual Quality Digest Sourcebook, a buyer’s guide
1992 Quality Digest increases the page size of the magazine from digest size (5 in. x 8 in.) to journal size (8 in. x 11 in.)
1993 First annual salary survey of executives and managers
1995 Online version of Quality Digest is launched.
1999 First survey on “Rating the Registrars” provokes reaction within the industry.
2002 E-newsletters are published focusing on niche areas within the quality industry
2006 25th anniversary issue is published.
2008 Quality Digest News Desk launched, a recorded weekly news show covering industry topics. Discontinued same year.
2008 TechnorazziLive is launched, a live sponsored video program of industry best practices.
2009 Final print issue of Quality Digest magazine before converting to a 100-percent digital platform
2009 Quality Digest Daily e-newsletter is launched.
2011 QualityDigestLive is launched, a live, 30-minute weekly online broadcast.
2011 Enhanced Webinar is launched.
2012 TechCorner begins, a regular part of QualityDigestLive for demonstrations of quality-related hardware and software.

Organization

Quality Digest is among the related holdings of Millennium360, a media organization that includes Quality Digest, Kaizen Online, and TechnorazziLive.

Content

Quality Digest focuses on topics related to manufacturing and management quality control.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, as interest in manufacturing quality grew alongside international competition, Quality Digest covered an array of topics connected to some aspect of quality. Articles ranged from technical topics such as statistical process control and global manufacturing to psychological and sociological topics that examine human behavior, corporate culture, and employee motivation.

The industries covered started with manufacturing and migrated into the service industries, healthcare, food safety, and government.

Products

• TechnorazziLIVE, a live video production that focuses on industry best practices, product launches, and case studies. Broadcasts typically are from a client’s location, a trade show, or at the Quality Digest studio.
• QualityDigestLive, a broadcast covering the industry stories, with authors and guests video-conferenced into the broadcast.
• Tech Corner

Media partnerships

In 2005 the Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS), a professional organization dedicated to furthering the interests of professionals in the science of coordinate measurement, partnered with Quality Digest to provide media support for the CMS’ annual conference, publish its semiannual journal, and promote the coordinate metrology profession.

Millennium 360 Inc.

Quality Digest is part of the family of Millennium 360 Inc. Together we provide:

• Live streaming video content, produced by our TechnorazziLIVE division. We produce live video broadcasts about tools and best practices that our audience needs, enabling them to write in during the broadcast and interact with experts. QualityDigestLive, our weekly web TV show, presents who and what is making the news in the world of quality.

• Diverse content for a diverse readership. Our fully digital presence and technical mastery gives us the tools to serve the many niche audiences who fall under the quality umbrella. We offer information of high interest to each niche audience within our readership.

• Training curriculum for you, your team, and your enterprise. Millennium 360's digital learning company provides a portal into training materials that directly parallel our editorial content.

Millennium 360 is a media company for a new era, and Quality Digest is illuminating the path for quality professionals.