Many times, in the world of quality, there are resources available that are unknown to many of our colleagues. One of these resources is the standard ISO 10012: 2003, “Measurement management—Requirements for measurement processes and measuring equipment.”

The ASQ World Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, brought people from around the world together to talk about quality and change. The sessions discussed Quality 4.0, digital disruption, and continuous improvement.

Lean and agile are well recognized in the manufacturing sector and in the quality community. Like many quality methodologies, lean and agile work in tandem and separately, depending on an organization’s needs. Where do these methodologies meet and diverge, what are their driving principles, and how you can add them to your toolbox (or convince others to do so)?

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. 

I am in my tenth year as a part-time instructor at Western Michigan University, currently working with junior- and senior-level engineering students. I instruct the hands-on metrology lab of Dr. Pavel Ikonomov’s metrology class. We have about 15 weeks for this three-credit hour class to introduce metrology, focusing on precision measurement. We have about 45 students taking three hours of lecture and three hours of lab each week.

ASQ has rebranded itself so it is now known simply by its acronym rather than as the American Society for Quality. The reason for this is simple: ASQ is a global entity. Headquartered in Milwaukee, WI, ASQ also operates regional centers in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East/Africa. 

The quality profession has existed for nearly three-quarters of a century. In 1946, quality professionals rallied together to create the American Society for Quality Control. Throughout the association’s 72 years, the profession has evolved as roles and responsibilities have changed and expanded. 

They are two distinct phrases with two different meanings. But does your organization treat them that way?

Certainly, quality professionals play an important role in their organization’s pursuit of improvement and customer satisfaction. However, managers must ‘walk the talk’ in pursuit of customer satisfaction.

I recently had a discussion with a business leader about quality management systems (QMS), their purpose, and importance to the core business infrastructure. Inevitably these types of discussions leads to whether a QMS is a “bureaucracy.”