Guest Editorial Column

What's Next?

May the future be bright.

As graduation season continues without any graduations—or rather, abbreviated ones online along with a cap and gown photo on your front porch—it reminds me of Anne Patchett’s graduation speech turned book, “What Now?”

“Even if you have it all together you can’t know where you’re going to end up,” Patchett writes. “There are too many forces, as deep and invisible as tides, that keep us bouncing into places where we never thought we’d wind up. Sometimes the best we can hope for is to be graceful and brave in the face of all of the changes that will surely come.”

Though we can never really know the future, it seems especially uncertain now. If you need something to look forward to, I’ve heard that very short-term or long-term things may help. Are you looking forward to cooking something new this weekend (or even your next grocery store trip)? Speaking of trips, perhaps you’ve always wanted to visit the Grand Canyon or the Taj Mahal. Time to plan that 2025 vacation?

In the meantime, for many of us it’s time to work from home. This can be an adjustment if you’re not already used to it, or a seamless continuation of a years-long habit. For others, the pandemic still means going in to work, as everything changes around you.

For many of Quality’s readers, it seems that your work has continued despite the pandemic. According to our fourth Manufacturing Industry Survey, conducted by Clear Seas Research, 88% of respondents work at an organization deemed essential.

However you’ve been coping these last few months, we here at Quality Magazine are providing manufacturing-specific coronavirus coverage. We’ve been surveying readers about what they’re doing during this time—and we’d love to hear from you directly as well. To share your COVID-19 manufacturing experiences, please email me at [email protected].

No matter what kind of quality issue you’re facing, we want to help. And this month we’re introducing a new way to do so. Long-time readers will recognize Dr. Sophronia Ward from her previous Brainteasers column. She’s back in the pages of Quality with our new Ask the Experts column. If you have a question about quality, please let us know.