The Quality Industry Voices

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At ASQ’s 2025 World Conference on Quality and Improvement (WCQI) I had the opportunity to speak from the ‘big stage’ about community.

Beginning with this issue, Quality welcomes the launch of the ASQ Fellows Forum—a monthly column written by members of the American Society for Quality’s Fellow community.

Where SPC and heavy business focused analytics tools may be best fit in the enterprise software layer, Quality Management Systems (QMS) now have a lasting home in the MES/SCADA Layer.

During a career in which I devoted a large portion to developing and implementing improvement programs, one thing became crystal clear. Improvement programs with a focus on sustained improvement were more valuable than speed of implementation.

When I was a college senior, I devoted much of my free time to searching for a job. Up until that point, I had believed that one goes to school, earns a degree, and then simply gets a job. 

In North America, the manufacturing industry has historically played a significant role in economic development and technological advancement. 

There will be more information about potential upcoming changes to the ISO Management System Standards (MSS). One topic of note is that of Continual Improvement (CI).

The purpose of this article is to show how a Quality practitioner can effectively enhance their Lean Six Sigma improvement efforts using available technology. Following the established framework of Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control, technology can enhance the coverage, predictability, and effectiveness of these in ways that exceed the limitations of manual work.

During my management career at a Fortune 50 company, we were taught to treat quality and safety as top priority. They were considered essential and everything else was secondary. 

Choosing the right tools and techniques is essential in manufacturing and quality control. This principle applies to language as well; our word choices influence responses. This was clear during a conversation at the ASQ Measurement Division event in Michigan this September.