Before you leap forward into another eventful year, let's look back.
The holiday season is over. You made it! You can take a breath. You are ready for the hustle and bustle of 2020. There will be new projects, challenges, and successes. You will attack them all with your quality toolkit. But, before you leap forward into what will undoubtedly be an eventful year (aren’t they all?), let’s look back. In a January issue, it’s quite likely you would find a reminiscence of 2019. However, let’s go back nearly 100 years to recount events that shaped quality thought and the trajectory of the profession. These crucial events involve teaching devices proudly displayed at the ASQ offices in Milwaukee. (see photos)
In 1924, Walter Shewhart was a manager for Bell Laboratories. On May 16 he sent an internal memo to his colleagues explaining a new tool he’d been working on. The tool was developed to distinguish between common and special causes of variation. The tool was called the control chart. In order to properly explain his control charts, he needed a device he could use to pull random samples and chart them. To manage the exercise, he took a regular kitchen bowl and filled it with metallic chips. The experiment simulated conditions engineers would see on the floor and could be charted to display common and special cause variation. This device became known as the Shewhart Bowl. (see photo)