Quality in Cyberspace

by Dirk Dusharme

Welcome to the age of the World Wide Web, arguably the fastest-growing technological gee-whizzery since the digital calculator. Until recently, only a handful of people knew what it meant. Now, the technology that originated in 1990 as an internal communications project at the European Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN) in Geneva is almost a household term.

In June 1993, there were only an estimated 130 Web sites in the world, according to Matthew Gray of net.Genesis Corp. One year later, Gray's World Wide Web Wanderer (a software application that searches out Web sites) counted more than 2,700 sites. At the beginning of this year, the number was 90,000 sites, an astounding 700-fold increase.

What's the appeal? Well, for starters, to a generation of humans accustomed to gorging themselves on thousands of video and audio images per day, the mere thought of terabytes of free information, on any subject, in the form of text, video and audio is a breathtaking thought. The Web enables professionals in any field to share information on their industry with other professionals-more than half of the world's Web sites are commercial sites.

What is it?
According to CERN, the World Wide Web is officially described as a "wide area hypermedia information retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents." For you and me, the Web means that we can use our personal computers or work stations to retrieve text, pictures, video or sound from Web sites using a graphical user interface.

The key to the technology is the "hyperlink." If you use Windows or a Mac-intosh computer, you are already familiar with the concept: Click on a picture or highlighted word, and your computer's software retrieves the associated document, image or program.

The World Wide Web operates in exactly the same manner, except on a global scale. Using your computer, a piece of software called a "Web browser" and a modem connected to the Internet, you can connect to a Web site anywhere in the world. Text and graphics appear on the screen in much the same way a document would in your word processor. In addition, sites may (and generally do) include hyperlinks. Click on these links with your mouse and you find yourself connected to another "page" within that site or to a completely different Web site in another part of the world. Any site can, if the link is there, allow the user to jump to any other site. In reality, Web sites do not generally include links to thousands of other sites. Because sites tend to be topic-oriented-TQM, benchmarking, the works of Shakespeare, vegetarian menus, bungee jumping, etc.-the links usually connect you to other sites with similar topics.

It is this ability to link to other sites that makes the Web so valuable. Find one site that contains a topic that interests you, e.g., quality in government, and you can begin skipping from site to site feeding on billions of bytes of data.

Caught up in the Web
Following topic threads is both the joy and curse of Web surfing. As you scan and click on links, you can easily click your way through dozens of sites in a short period of time. Hours pass, and suddenly you realize that the site which had the most information on your topic appeared about 37 links ago-and you haven't the slightest idea of that site's address. Fortunately, Web browsers such as Mosaic or NetScape allow you to "bookmark" sites or, at the very least, backtrack your path.

One easy way to cut down on the amount of Web skimming is to use one of the many search engines such as Yahoo, WebCrawler or Lycos, which help you locate only those sites that pertain to your topic. Each engine works in a slightly different way and may give different results. It doesn't matter a whole lot which search engine you use. Because sites tend to be interconnected by links, starting your search in any engine will eventually lead you to the same material.

In general, searching involves inputting one or more words that describe your topic. The engine then finds all sites that contain those words in their description or on their home page. The more specific you make your request, the better. For instance, telling WebCrawler to find all sites related to "quality" turns up nearly 30,000 hits. Typing in "total quality management" yields nearly 1,500. "Total quality management government" gives you 550.

This guide aims to help you get started finding information related to quality topics in Web sites. You will, of course, need access to the Internet, which you can get via a commercial on-line service such as America Online, CompuServe or Prodigy; through your company's computer network (provided it's connected to the Internet); or going to an Internet service provider (look in your telephone directory under "Internet" or "Computers").

The following list of 12 sites is only a fraction of what is out there. However, we have tried to pick a variety of sites that provide plenty of links to other sites related to quality as well as represent the types of source information available on specific topics. The beauty of the Web is that starting with the sites we have chosen, you have immediate access to several hundred other quality sites.

Happy surfing!


Agility Forum
Topic: Agile manufacturing
http://absu.amef.lehigh.edu/
E-mail: info@absu.amef.lehigh.edu

Visit here if you are interested in gathering data on the agile manufacturing concept. The Agility Forum was organized in late 1991 as the Agile Manufacturing Enterprise Forum by the creators of the agile manufacturing vision. Its mission, say the creators, is to "leverage the resources of industry, government and academia, working together, to accelerate the implementation of agile production capabilities by U.S. companies."

Topics include: An Introduction to Agility, Agile Enterprise Projects, Calendar of Events, Conferences & Outreach, Education & Training, Enterprise Development Groups, Federally Funded Projects, Other Agile Resources, Products, Publications, What's New? and Worldwide Agility.

Useful stuff includes video clips from the forum's agility video series that introduce the agile concept and the strategic objectives of agility. Order the agility starter kit-books, videos and reports. There are also plenty of books, videos and publications that cover the agile concept.


American National Standards
Institute Online
Topic: National standards
http://www.ansi.org/

This is a great site if you are interested in standards. ANSI Online provides information about standards and conformity assessment. This includes information about ANSI's standards and conformity assessment activities, as well as links to other standards and conformity assessment sites. This site also contains links to standards bodies in other countries.

An electronic edition of ANSI's catalog contains a comprehensive listing of more than 11,000 approved American National Standards available for purchase from ANSI.

If you are heavy into standards, you may find it worthwhile to check out ANSI's searchable Standards Information Databases (a paid service-$125 per quarter for nonmembers). Using SID through this Web site, ANSI makes available up-to-date, relevant information on standards activities around the world.

SID includes:
· American National Standards Database
· Accredited Standards Developer Database
· Database of U.S. Participation in ISO Activities
· CEN and CENELEC Database


American Society for
Quality Control
Topic: ASQC-related topics
http://www.asqc.org/

This is a very good site. It is also a very large site, but despite its size, it's quite easy to use. But then you wouldn't expect less from the ASQC-the leading not-for-profit quality-improvement organization in the United States.

This site includes information on membership services, publications, programs and services, society alliances, education and quality-related resources. Although most of the information at this site relates to the ASQC, it also contains quite a bit of source information, including information on ISO 9000 and ISO 14000.

Strangely, for such a complete site, it only provides short abstracts of the ASQC's publication Quality Progress. It would have been nice to see at least the feature articles from each month's issue.
You will also find links and information on ASQC alliances (programs financed, sponsored or supported by ASQC), such as:

· American Customer Satisfaction Index
· Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
· Koalaty Kid
· Registrar Accreditation Board

Other topics include:
· List of books published by ASQC Quality Press
· Education
· Certification
· Conferences and exhibits
· Professional development courses
· Educational opportunities


Best Manufacturing Practices
Topic: Best manufacturing practices
http://www.bmpcoe.org/
E-mail: helpdesk@bmpcoe.org

If you're interested in benchmarking and best practices, then this is the site for you. The site is a joint effort of the Office of Naval Research's Best Manufacturing Practices Program, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland at College Park Engineering Research Center.

Its mission is to identify and promote exemplary manufacturing practices and disseminate this information to U.S. manufacturers. To accomplish this goal, independent teams of government experts survey organizations that are ready to share information about their own best processes. Much of that information is reflected at this site.

Best Manufacturing Practices really makes use of the Web's hypermedia capability by providing text, graphics, photographs, video and audio clips and PDF files. The types of information you will find include: Know-How Handbooks Online, the Navy Manufacturing Technology Program, access to the BMP FTP server, links to other technology transfer sites, and information on trade shows and upcoming events.

Perhaps the most useful part of this site is its ability to search for best-practices information using a key word search. For instance, type in the words "gears and quality," and you have access to every participating company's best-practices documentation related to that subject.


FEDNet
Topics: Best practices, employee
motivation
http://www.saic.com:80/fed/
E-mail: dlucarelli@fed.org

This is an excellent site. Once connected, select the resource library and get enough full-text articles on employee motivation, best practices and employee ownership to keep you reading for months. FEDNet contains best-practices profiles of 50 of the best companies in the United States, taken from the Office of the American Workplace, U.S. Department of Labor and Best Practices Clearinghouse.

Other resources include: a newsletter, calendar, frequently asked questions and an Entrepreneur's Guide to Equity Compensation.

According to The Foundation for Enterprise Development, their mission is to "foster the development of highly productive, competitive enterprises based on the premise that sharing company ownership and meaningful involvement with employees is a fair-and-effective means of motivating the work force and achieving many business objectives."


Gil Friend and Associates
Topics: ISO 14000, environmental
management
http://www.igc.apc.org/eco-ops/
E-mail: gfriend@eco-ops.com

Sometimes commercial sites-what we loosely define as sites established to attract business to a for-profit business-offer more than just a sales pitch.

This is one such site. It's a one-stop shopping site for what seems like every link associated with environmental management, waste, the EPA and everything "green." Many links are associated with ISO 14000.

Besides a couple of hundred links, this site contains a lot of source material: definitions, descriptions, lists of books on environmental quality, book reviews and the full text of Friend's biweekly column on business and the environment. Friend has also included a list of more than 20 publications related to clean technology and environmental management.

Also at this site:

n Rating your company's environmental quality and efficiency.
n Internship opportunities for grad students in EcoAuditing and environmental information systems.


The International Organization
for Standardization
Topic: ISO standards
http://www.iso.ch/welcome.html
E-mail: webmaster@isocs.iso.ch

This site is your starting point for gathering information on any ISO standard. An easy-to-use search engine allows you to search ISO's database of standards by ISO number or by key words in the title or text. The site also provides pricing and ordering information for copies of standards.

Also available is information on the 212 ISO technical committees that handle everything from screw threads to in vitro diagnostic test equipment. Technical committee information includes a description of the committee, its calendar, the names of the secretariat and chairman, and a list of all ISO standards and drafts that fall under the responsibility for that TC's secretariat.

From this site, you may also subscribe to the ISO 9000 News Service, an international journal published six times a year in separate English and French editions. ISO 9000 News is a regular source of information on developments in the field of quality.

Other useful information:

· Links to other standards bodies around the world
· Stages of the development of international standards
· ISO/IEC Directives
· ISO's structure
· ISO meeting calendar
· ISO members worldwide
· ISO 9000 News Service
· What's new at ISO?


NIST Quality Program
Topic: Malcolm Baldrige National
Quality Award
http://www.nist.gov/quality_program/
E-mail: cap@micf.nist.gov

Here is everything you always wanted to know about the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Program straight from the source. There are no links at this site, but for people interested in the Baldrige, this is the place to come. The topic list says it all:

· Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award 1996 Fact Sheet
· Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and ISO 9000 Registration
· 1995 Baldrige Award Criteria
· Education Pilot Criteria
· Health Care Pilot Criteria
· Succeeding with Baldrige
· Pilots Information
· Education Pilot Update
· Health Care Pilot Update
· 1996 Examiner Brochure
· Quality Award Winners 1988­p;1994
· The Quest for Excellence VIII
· Conference Report: "The Quest for Excellence VII"
· Excerpts from the report, "Building on Baldrige: American Quality for the 21st Century"
· Press Releases
· 1996 Award Criteria Publication (in PDF format)


QFD Institute
Topic: Quality function deployment
http://www.nauticom.net/www/qfdi/
E-mail: qfdi@qfdi.org

Quality function deployment is a system of discovering customer requirements and translating them into the language of the producer. This site is indicative of the type of topic-specific information you can find on the Net. It also reflects a common form of Web site, one where much information is available for free and much is for sale.

For instance, samples of papers from the 1995 Symposium on Quality Function Deployment are available for free in PDF format. However, full copies of transactions of the 1989 through 1996 symposiums must be ordered.

Other useful information at this site includes QFD case studies, a calendar of events related to QFD, and a list of QFDI Forums and Master Classes.

There are also several links to institutions that maintain bibliographies related to QFD and quality. One link takes you to the Nova Scotia Research Foundation Corp. library, which contains a huge listing of quality-related books organized by topic.

A useful feature of this site is that it plugs you into several commercial search engines with the keyword "quality function deployment" already preset as the search term.


Quality Auditor
Topic: Auditing
http://www.lookup.com/Homepages/56694/qa-home.htm
E-mail: rj143@earthlink.net

This page is destined to become a resource for quality auditors. It's a small site but probably worth visiting if you are a quality auditor or need information on quality auditing. It is primarily set up for people who assess or audit quality systems against such standards as ISO 9000, QS-9000, MIL-Q or the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. It would also be of interest to ISO 9000 registrars and consultants who specialize in ISO 9000 compliance.

This site includes: links and good information about ASQC's Quality Auditor Division, information on quality auditor/assessor registration, and the University of Georgia's Good Laboratory Practices.

Useful links include:

· International Organization for Standardization
· American National Standards Institute
· American Society for Testing and Materials
· National Fire Protection Association
· National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
· Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
· USDOL OSHA OCIS home page

The Quality Network
Topic: Quality and consulting
http://www.quality.co.uk/quality/home.htm
E-mail: help@quality.co.uk

This site, located in the United Kingdom, is the largest European quality site we have found. In addition to the usual quality information, of particular interest to companies seeking outside help for quality issues is the site's many links to quality consultants. It is the only site we have found that provides such a large list of consultants.

It is also rich in ISO 9000 material, including pages for ISO 9000 advice, consultants, auditing advice, lists of auditors, a directory of ISO 9000 registrars, ISO 9000 resources on the Internet and examples of quality system documentation.

Environmental management topics include EMS advice, the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme, British Standard 7750, a directory of environmental registrars, a directory of EMAS and BS 7750-registered companies, environmental consultants and training, environmental auditing advice, environmental auditors, EMS resources on the Internet, a directory of accredited EMAS verification organizations and a comparison of ISO 14000, EMAS and BS 7750 requirements.


Quality Resources Online
Topic: Quality
http://quality.org/qc/
E-mail: help@quality.org

This site provides one of the largest and most varied collection of quality resources, including links and resource material, that we have ever seen. It includes nearly 100 links, listed alphabetically by topic, from agile manufacturing to value engineering. This isn't a glitzy site; no cool graphics or pictures. But it is well-laid-out and easy to use. An excellent place to start your exploration of quality on the Web.

Aside from the links, Quality Resources Online contains plenty of source material, including definitions of various quality terms, book excerpts, information on state quality award programs, employment opportunities-provided by personnel placement agencies-and much more. The site also contains very complete information on the American Society for Quality Control, including information on regional, international and division sites; bylaws; body-of-knowledge texts on certifications and more.

For those who are just getting on the Internet, this site also provides some interesting links under the following headings:

· Other Internet Information Resources
· Links to Some Internet Service Providers' Home Pages
· Other U.S. Federal Links
· Political Parties and Connections on the Net
· States, Regions and Other Countries' Home Pages
· Some WWW Exploration Starting Points

Other sites of interest:

Air Force Quality Institute
Topic: Air Force quality programs
http://www.au.af.mil/au/afqi/afqihome.html

Continuous Quality
Improvement Server
Topics: Continuous improvement,
W. Edwards Deming
http://deming.eng.clemson.edu/

The Dilbert Zone
Topic: Dilbert comic strip (spoofs corporate quality efforts)
http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/

ISO 14000 Info Center
Topic: ISO 14000
http://www.iso14000.com/

Online Quality Resource List
Topic: A list of quality Web sites and listservs
http://pages.prodigy.com/J/O/N/john/onlineqlist.html

StatLib
Topic: Downloadable statistical software algorithms
http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/


© 1996 Paton Press. All rights reserved. Excerpted with permission from Quality Resources on the Internet by Dirk Dusharme. To order a copy of the book, call (916) 529-4125 or fax (916) 529-4110.