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Maybe it’s a chili cook-off. Maybe it’s recognition. Or maybe just respect. Whatever it is, top companies know how to treat employees well—and get results. When I spoke with this year’s top Quality Leadership companies, several themes emerged. The annual Quality Leadership ranking showcase companies leading the way despite manufacturing challenges.

Why do we remember the past, and not the future? It’s an interesting question in that it is thought provoking.

I have been an ASQ member since 1990 and have served continuously as an ASQ member leader (aka volunteer) for 30-plus years. One of the many benefits of volunteering is the opportunity to observe, up close, how ASQ goes about practicing what it preaches.

For many successful men and women in all walks of life, the key to success was that they were motivated more, at least in the beginning, by what was needed, or by what they felt they had to do, than thought of financial gain.

In the fall of 2021, COVID-19 was a top concern for more than half of respondents in our September 2021 survey. Today that number is down to 17%, according to our Annual Quality Spending Survey, which surveyed subscribers in September 2022.

Multidimensionality has a specific definition, but like many other words, the definition shifts, or is tweaked, depending on the subject being spoken of and its context.

Quality is not a single field, but in fact the integration of knowledge from many fields of science, technology and management. This can be seen by looking at some of the quality gurus and their more well-known contributions.

Recently I had a discussion with a quality manager concerning the focus of quality and what skills are important to success. It centered on the degree of focus which should be placed on the quality tools versus people and teams.

According to experts, the benefits of today’s quality standards are not well known. Take ISO 9001, ISO 14000, and ISO 17021. These standards reinforce quality in any management system, says Steven Wilson, ASQE chair elect.

Here are six trends that the most efficient labs are adopting in order to achieve a competitive edge.