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The American economy is underpinned by networks. Road networks carry traffic and freight; the internet and telecommunications networks carry our voices and digital information; the electricity grid is a network carrying energy; financial networks transfer money from bank accounts to merchants. They’re vast, often global systems—but a local disruption can really block them up.

The importance of quality management cannot be overstated. It enables companies to increase efficiency, lower risks, achieve compliance, and build better and safer products. Yet many quality management teams struggle to communicate the value of their operations to other departments and executive leadership.

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Joe Gibbs Racing, a family business founded by former three-time Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs, is one of today’s most successful racing teams. In its 25-year history, it has earned four NASCAR Cup Series championships, five NASCAR XFINITY Series championships, and a total of more than 270 wins across NASCAR’s top two national racing series.

All of us draw conclusions based on what we see happening around us. Often what we’re observing is a sample from some larger population of events, and we draw inferences based on the sample without even realizing it. If the sample we observe is not a representative one, our resulting judgments can be seriously flawed, potentially at considerable personal cost.

Certifications often drive the implementation of a system approach, based on ISO standards. The primary implementation demand is for ISO 9001. Certifications do have initial costs and then recurring costs for surveillance and recertification visits. This is a responsive approach to business requirements, invariably driven by a forthcoming contract that mandates the system approach. Prudent businesses appreciate the risk of not having a process-based system.

Oh, the places you’ll go! Our latest episode of QDL from this past Fri., May 5, 2017, truly spanned the wide world of quality. Here’s a recap of the topics and locations we visited together:

“Why Japan’s Rail Workers Can’t Stop Pointing at Things”

It’s not your imagination: If you find yourself riding a train in Japan, you’ll certainly notice folks pointing a lot. Dirk explains what it all means.

Whenever the term “nonconformance report” (NCR) comes into project home offices or construction and fabrication sites, it is often seen as a negative, and personnel are typically reluctant to accept it as a positive and powerful tool to improve. Perhaps, the “non” in nonconformance is the reason for this. This article explains why NCRs should be seen as friends rather than a foes, and how they can be used to improve a company’s projects, products, and services as well as its overall performance.

So often business owners make decisions based on intuition, luck, or the Magic 8-Ball. As a small or midsized manufacturer, there are so many factors that can affect your company’s profitability, both inside and outside of your control. How do you make proactive decisions for the betterment of your company when you don’t know what’s going to change, or which parts of your company need to adjust to meet current demands?