The warmth of spring brings flower and green lawns, and it also brings awards and recognition to the quality profession. Recognition abounds; both Quality Magazine and ASQ have dedicated significant time and resources promoting, validating and now honoring individuals who have made a significant impact to the quality community.

The problem would go away only to return every few months. The manufacturing mystery continued for about seven months, with each failure costing $26 in raw material alone.

In my younger years, whenever I heard “It is better to give than to receive,” I thought it related to birthday and Christmas presents. Now—because with age comes wisdom—I understand that giving has a much broader meaning. 

If you’ve ever suffered through a difficult lesson, you were likely not in Gary Griffith’s class. Griffith teaches geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T), quality audits, measuring and gaging, and other quality-related subjects, and though the technical aspects could make for a dry learning experience, his students say Griffith makes it fun.

Although he seems like the consummate quality professional, James Bossert ended up in the quality profession by chance. Today he’s spent more than 35 years in industries from automotive to cell phones to healthcare and consulting. His career has brought him around the country, and around the world. He’s worked in Texas, Michigan, Arizona, North Carolina and New York. Along the way, he’s written two books and edited four. 

Several months ago I wrote about the Cynefin Model and the benefits of keeping things simple to the decision-making process. And a large part of decision making has to do with choice, or more accurately, the number of choices we have. Enter the “psychology of choice.”

If you have a problem, you want to have Katherine Cox around. The senior quality assurance director of medical device startup Procyrion is known for her calm problem solving manner, collaborative attitude and straightforward approach to quality.

Workers whose bosses pay for quality training, ASQ certifications are most satisfied with salary.

Rising stars making a difference in their companies, communities.

In order to help us better understand supply and demand, economists have placed the things we buy into different categories. One such category is a positional good, described by Dr. Sheldon Cooper as “an economic concept in which an object is only valued by the possessor because it’s not possessed by others.”