Management

Celebrate Quality

QUALITY TOOLS HAVE MADE AN APPEARANCE ON TV AND IN THE MOVIES.

Happy World Quality Month, readers.

Since 2010, ASQ has been pleased to host the World Quality Month website, offering organizations around the world an opportunity to celebrate successes and share results for others to learn from. World Quality Month is also about understanding the impact quality has on the world, during business hours, in the community, and at home.

Celebrating World Quality Month in Your Organization

While there are many organizations that plan their World Quality Month celebrations weeks—if not months—in advance of the event date, your organization can plan a successful event in a short amount of time. You can also celebrate without planning a specific event. ASQ has developed an event planning handbook based on events that have taken place over the past World Quality Months. Here are a few examples:

Print and hang World Quality Month posters around your building. Posters are available on the World Quality Month website.

Add World Quality Month as a skill on LinkedIn and ask connections to endorse you.

Share the World Quality Month toolkit (also on the website) via email with co-workers. Encourage them to use the materials and link to worldqualitymonth.org.

Encourage your colleagues to participate in the online polls on worldqualitymonth.org and compare your responses to those of other professionals around the world.

Include a note about World Quality Month and the work of the quality department in your organization’s newsletter and on your intranet site.

Arrange for the quality department to host an open house in which staff speak about the importance of quality and showcase their projects. Consider serving light refreshments such as coffee, water, soda, or cookies.

Host a “lunch and learn” event about quality or World Quality Month at your organization. Ask the quality director or VP to speak about the role of quality and its importance in the organization. Consider serving light refreshments or dessert at the event.

ASQ TV is taking a novel approach this year by adapting a Quality Progress article about quality in pop culture. In television shows, songs, and movies, quality professionals, tools, and methods have been introduced to mainstream audiences—often for comic effect.

For instance, in the “Death Has a Shadow” episode of the animated comedy “Family Guy” (http://tinyurl.com/family-guy-shadow), Peter Griffin takes on quality control and safety tasks at the Happy-Go-Lucky Toy Factory. After a late night of drinking, he falls asleep at work the next day, allowing extremely dangerous toys to be boxed and released. The company receives bad press for this. Peter is fired, but eventually gets his job back.

In the 2011 movie “Moneyball,” quality as a method isn’t directly stated, but it stresses the importance of statistical analysis. The movie is based on the Michael Lewis best-selling book by the same name (W.W. Norton and Co., 2003) and features Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A’s. Beane felt relying on traditional baseball statistics and the hunches of scouts missed player and team improvement opportunities.

“It’s about getting things down to one number,” says Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), one of Beane’s assistants. “Using the stats the way we read them, we’ll find value in players that no one else can see.” (http://tinyurl.com/moneyball-stats-scene)

These are two recent examples, but quality in pop culture goes back at least 30 years. During the 1980s, Hanes ran a series of TV commercials for Hanes boys T-shirts and underwear. The TV spots featured Inspector 12, a gruff quality control type who does everything in her power to ensure the products meet her high quality standards. In fact, each pair of underwear must pass 11 quality tests, the commercial notes, while “she pokes … she stretches … and that’s just the beginning” before they ever get Inspector 12’s quality stamp of approval.

These are just three examples of quality being mentioned onscreen. ASQ ensures that you have the ability to spread the word at your organization (see sidebar) with resources available electronically. Be sure to visit worldqualitymonth.org to download everything you need. You will also want to check out the interviews to learn from quality leaders around the world.

ASQ hopes you celebrate World Quality Month with your colleagues and share with your organization and the quality community the great work you have accomplished. World Quality Month is also a great opportunity to learn what other organizations are doing.