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In 1966, a freshman at a college in Maine attended a speech given by Floyd McKissick, newly appointed head of the Congress of Racial Equality, better known as CORE. In the packed auditorium there were no more than a half-dozen African-Americans that came to hear the “radical” new leader whose…
After so many decades of quality assessment, process-improvement initiation, statistical analysis, and general discussion, one would think the question, “What is quality?” has been answered and closed. One would be wrong.
When defining quality...
There is certainly no shortage of material and…
Organizations today operate at speeds faster than ever before, and small to midsized businesses (SMEs) are no exception. Software solutions for quality management systems (QMS) are all too often overlooked by owners and managers of SMEs due to preconceptions about cost and ROI.
The fact is,…
This past November, three winners of the 2013 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality awards were announced, one in education and two in healthcare. Quality Digest Daily is fortunate that one of the winners, Sutter Davis Hospital (SDH) is practically in our back yard. This gave us an opportunity to meet…
I had the opportunity to speak with a great group of students from the New Jersey Governor’s School of Engineering and Technology—a summer program for high-achieving high school students. Students in the program complete a set of challenging courses while working in small groups on real-world…
“Business and human endeavors are systems... we tend to focus on snapshots of isolated parts of the system, and wonder why our deepest problems never get solved.”—Peter Senge
Senge had it right. I have never, ever seen a systemic issue truly resolved with an isolated, tactical solution. Every year…
It was Mark Twain who said, “Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.” This has become my favorite saying, both with regards to customer experience and to life in general.
I’ve used this quote recently with my kids, and it's an important code to live by. It speaks to honesty,…
The results are in for the annual Best Places to Work in the Federal Government. The overall survey results are not surprising based on history, the current environment, and where many organizations—both government and business—have been challenged during recent years in the area of workforce…
Editor’s note: Here’s part one.
Sound quality management systems touch every level of your organization, from conception to post-market monitoring. Not surprisingly, manufacturing operations management (MOM) systems benefit from quality management system (QMS) integration. In an ideal scenario,…
Let’s start with what most everyone agrees on: The Unique Device Identification (UDI) program is a swell idea. It gets a little trickier after that.
In extensive comments, the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed), Boston Scientific, and Merck, among more than a dozen other…
Leadership is inherently about communication. Your ability to communicate well with your team, your boss, your co-workers, and anyone else around you can make or break your career as a leader.
Given the importance we place on communications, it always helps to have a few tools and techniques that…
A few months ago, my family received a personal reminder of the importance of quality in the skilled-nursing profession. It was delivered as my elderly father was transitioning from a hospital to a nursing home.
With the advancement of his dementia and a few other vexing conditions, my father’s…
In all likelihood, your company has already encountered difficulties harmonizing quality management systems (QMS) with product life cycle management (PLM) systems. Synergies between engineering, manufacturing, supply chain management, and service will not materialize on their own—even in a closed-…
Editor’s note: Read part one here.
Both management system consultants and auditors face a dilemma when they analyze, at least technically, companies’ organizational charts. It’s not only in small or medium-size companies that managers wear more than one hat, making it difficult for auditors to…
Twenty-five years ago, I learned a wonderfully simple model summarizing the four stages of a change process, whether personal or organizational.
• Awareness • Breakthrough in knowledge • Choosing a breakthrough in thinking • Demonstrating a consistent breakthrough in behavior
Here’s the point:…
Some of the shortest descriptions in the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) CFR 21 Part 820—“Quality System Regulation” are found in Section 820.30 and Section 820.40, totaling about a page of information about design and document controls. However short, these two sections outline some of the…
Experience teaches us that most quality problems can be preempted, or at least prevented from recurring, if you make it a habit to ask seven simple questions: what, where, who, how much, when, why, and how.
What: Ask what are you trying to achieve, or what is the desired outcome (of your business…
Ours was a great idea. As residents and business owners in the Caribbean, we had identified a niche market and determined to fill it. We formed a business partnership for a small manufacturing company. For a short time it went OK. Then we processed our first large order and delivered the product…
Among the hardships faced today by many workers are families and communities linked to a declining number of good jobs, dwindling incomes, and the soaring cost of living. Many families are existing in a state of almost constant financial stress. Way too many parents are spending way too many…
When it comes to quality management, there is a set of tools often used for managing common business processes, regardless of industry. Chances are you’re already familiar with how processes such as document control, audits, and corrective action work. The issue facing many companies isn’t how to…
When we think about gauge calibration management, we usually think of the actual calibration process: sending the gauge to the calibration lab, comparing it to a traceable measurement standard, making changes to the gauge to bring it into the calibration range, entering the calibration results…
(3D Engineering Solutions: Cincinnati) -- 3D Engineering Solutions has partnered with Nikon Metrology to create a first in North America—the first combination of advanced metrology-grade industrial CT scanning capabilities, joined with all the engineering services needed to maximize those…
Senior leaders often ask, “How will my investment in a criteria/award program impact my company’s bottom line?” This is a polite way of phrasing what they’re really thinking, which is, “What’s in it for my organization?”
For senior leaders in the home-building industry who have invested in the…
Every part every interval (EPEI) is my favorite lean metric for high mix/low volume (HMLV) value streams, and it’s probably the least known. It’s especially helpful when changeovers are a significant portion of capacity, as frequently is the case with machine-oriented operations.
I want to share…
I should have kept a running tally, but I didn’t. During 40 years of training and consulting, I’ve worked with a great number of leaders and managers at all levels, from team leaders up to corporate heads. I usually began by asking what should be a simple question: What is your vision for this…
