All Features
Matthew E. May
‘If I had the key members of your executive suite all in the same room, would they all be able to articulate the essence of your business strategy clearly and consistently?” I asked the executive vice president of strategy.
“Probably not,” she replied. “But I do know we need a new one, because…
Donald J. Wheeler
One of the common tools of quality assurance is acceptance sampling. Acceptance sampling uses the observed properties of a sample drawn from a lot or batch to make a decision about whether to accept or reject that lot or batch. While the textbooks are full of complex descriptions of various…
NIST
Airline passengers have already said bon voyage to the controversial backscatter X-ray security scanners, pulled from U.S. airports in 2013 over concerns about privacy and potential radiation risks. But the devices may be reintroduced in the future, in part because they produce superior images of…
Joel Smith
In part 1, part 2, and part 3, we shared our blind wine-tasting experiment, the survey results, and the experimental results, respectively. To wrap things up, we’re going to see if the survey results tied to the experimental results in any meaningful way.
First, we look at whether self-identified…
Quality Digest
What makes a successful business thrive? That’s what eight out of 10 new entrepreneurs would like to know because their businesses fail within the first 18 months, according to Bloomberg.
Adam Witty has managed to turn plenty of heads in the business community as founder and CEO of Advantage…
Knowledge at Wharton
In this opinion piece, David Lawrence, founder and chief collaborative officer of RANE Corp., points out that, “...a vigilant institutional effort is now needed… to audit whether online processes can be ‘gamed’ to falsify the records of course completion and test results.” Otherwise, corporations…
Annette Franz
In your company is “customer focus” just a poster on the wall, or is it a way of doing business?
How many times have you walked into an establishment and been bombarded by posters or signs about customer satisfaction, listening to customers, and great customer service? Do you wonder if those…
Joel Smith
In part 1 of “Blind Wine,” we introduced our blind wine-tasting experimental setup, which included some survey questions asked ahead of time of each participant. In part 2 we looked at the results of that survey. Here we’ll examine how well the survey results align with the experimental results.…
Bruce Hamilton
I was speaking with a friend about a recent downsizing at his church. After nine years, a popular priest had been reassigned to another parish. In an apparent effort to cut costs, a new priest would now split his time between two parishes in neighboring towns.
When I expressed some regret about…
Gurdeep Mahal
ISO standards help make the world a safer and more efficient place and help tackle a myriad of societal issues. They also touch almost everything we do. The sparked interest in the new ISO 9001:2015 revision is significant, given that the draft has notable changes vs. the current 2008 version. The…
Charles M. Reigeluth
Despite billions of dollars spent on educational reform since the government report, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform was published in 1983, more than half of the United State’s high school seniors are not proficient in reading, and 75 percent struggle with math, according…
Joel Smith
In part 1, we introduced our blind wine-tasting experimental setup, which included some survey questions asked ahead of time of each participant.
The four questions asked were: 1. On a scale of one to 10, how would you rate your knowledge of wine? 2. How much would you typically spend on a bottle…
Alan Nicol
I would never want to believe that a business, operated by intelligent and moral people, could sacrifice quality, and even ethics, to produce a product and complete a sale. Yet recently, I witnessed a business that was so desperate to make a few deadlines, it bypassed due diligence to get a…
Mike Micklewright
Editor’s note: This article, as well as part one from last week, discusses topics covered at greater length in a new streaming-video training series, “Enhancing and Sustaining Lean Improvements While Adding Spark to the Quality Management System” by the author and 360 Performance Circle.
In part…
Brenda Percy
This is the fourth installment in our six-part series on how automating common business processes with a quality management system (QMS) can benefit your organization. Here we’ll focus on the training management process and why automating it with a QMS results in effective employees—and makes…
Davis Balestracci
I was teaching a class and asked participants to create a control chart of an indicator that was important to them. A lab supervisor presented me with a chart on the number of procedures her department performed and told me that it wasn’t very useful.
She wanted to use the chart for staffing…
Joel Smith
Already relaxed on his first day in Napa, Brutus and his wife, Suzy, decide to visit their favorite winery just before lunch to taste its new Cabernet Sauvignon. The owner recognizes them as they walk in the door and seats them on the patio overlooking the vineyard. Two glasses appear, and as the…
Mike Micklewright
Editor’s note: This article, as well as part two coming next week, discusses topics covered at greater length in a new streaming-video training series, “Enhancing and Sustaining Lean Improvements While Adding Spark to the Quality Management System” by the author and 360 Performance Circle, a…
Mary McAtee
I started out my day with a quick chat with a colleague about a client project she is working on. It concerns calibration, and I could hear the tone of a righteous lecturer creeping into my voice.
After a very long career in quality, I realize there are certain subjects that really get my blood…
Matthew Barsalou
Bruce Hamilton recently wrote about his former colleague Manny S., whom he referred to as a “Lesser God.” The article reminded me of my former colleague Jose P., who trained me in my first quality job after college. By that time I had read W. Edwards Deming and Philip Crosby and had learned some…
Chuck Reaves
“For every person who will say yes, there are 20 who will say no. For a positive response, you must find the 21st person.”—The Theory of 21
The CEO of an electronics company had an idea. He was a solid businessperson but was not as well-versed in electronics as some of his engineers. He came up…
Howard Sklamberg
Since July 9, 2012, when President Obama signed the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (FDASIA), a group of colleagues and I have had an urgent mission: implement Title VII of the statute. This section gave the FDA new authority to better protect the global drug supply chain,…
Christine Schaefer
In the Baldrige Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence, category three, concerning customer focus, asks how your organization engages its patients and other customers for long-term marketplace success. The related self-assessment questions cover how your organization listens to the voice…
Paul Naysmith
Recently I walked headlong into a conversation on quality costs, or the cost of poor quality (COPQ), or the cost of quality, or some other term I’ve forgotten from that discussion. I realized that this area is very well-developed in the world of quality, but perhaps not fully understood by…
Alexandre Alain
Editor's note: Quality Digest will be hosting a webinar with EtQ on this subject on July 29th, 11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern. Click here to register.
I went for a bike ride early one morning, one of those dawn rides when no one is typically around. My biggest issue was visibility. I was heading…
