I was watching an NFL Football game when I first heard it. The commentator—interestingly enough, the rules commentator, a new fixture in football broadcasts, in place to help the audience better understand the how’s and why’s of the way a game is being officiated—referred to the situation as a “50 guys in the bar standard.”

Upon a little research, I came to understand that this phrase started out as the “100 drunks in a bar” standard. It is attributed to commentators like Mike Florio and is a hyperbolic statement on officiating in sporting events, particularly high-profile ones garnering a lot of interest from fans, particularly those watching from their local bar with bar food and a few libations.

It goes like this: let’s say, for instance, there is a question as to whether the result of a play is a catch or an incompletion, this “standard” suggests it is a catch if 100 people in a bar agree that it is.

Some argue it is a response to the over-complicated application of rules, proliferation of officials on the field and even more in front of a myriad of monitors hooked up to what seems like a hundred cameras, all attempting to catch the game from different angles, their expertise and determinations called upon to determine the correct call of a play by running and rerunning, in slow-motion, back and forth, the video that captured the play.

This activity often results in a long break in the action of the game and often leaves at least half of fans irritated, regardless of the ultimate “call” of the play, and “highlights the ambiguity of NFL rules and suggests that a simple, common-sense judgment might be more effective than complex official reviews.”

I admit, it did get me thinking about quality and our use of technology and standards to guide and monitor our manufacturing operations, much like the NFL does to ensure the quality of its product—an engaging and watchable football game. Some might argue that quality and manufacturing standards can seem as futile as running the film back and forth in slow motion to determine whether it was a catch or an incompletion (Don’t even get me started on determining whether a player was out of bounds or not), but the quality industry has an advantage—plenty of full-throated advocacy of the standards and principles that get the job done and result in the highest quality manufacturing.

From APQP to DMAIC to Kaizen and customer-centric quality, this month’s Quality has plenty of this kind of advocacy. So check out, “Automated APQP,” “Measure, Analyze and Control Using Technology,” “Mastering Kaizen: Small Steps to Organizational Success,” “Putting the Customer Front and Center: The Rise of Customer-Centric Quality,” and everything else Quality has to offer this month.

Enjoy and thanks for reading!