BASIC QUALITY

Quality Basics

earning is not compulsory ... neither is survival.

In this nugget of wisdom from his book Out of the Crisis, W. Edwards Deming reminds us that every day we should be making efforts to expand

knowledge and develop expertise in our work and in our lives. That learning truly begins when we have a solid understanding of the basics. In the spirit of Demings belief in continuous improvement, we called on several Quality Progress contributors to write on 10 basic quality topicsthe fundamentals essential to surviving in a quality role. We asked our hand-picked contributors to write on one particular subject in about 500 words: a lofty challenge for authors known for their thorough and exhaustive knowledge and writings on these topics. This collection of overviews is not meant to be comprehensive. Any one of our contributors to this package could have written a book on the subjectand some actually have. Rather, this overview is designed to give quality newcomers a taste of the knowledge they need to survive and succeed. Perhaps it will also inspire more seasoned quality professionals to brush up on some of the essentials they havent thought about in a while. If a subject leaves you wanting more, reach for the resources and information. More than likely theyre just a few clicks awayon a corner of ASQs website devoted to books (www.asq.org/quality-press/index.html) or publications (www.asq.org/pub), including past issues of Quality Progress. And always remember what Deming encourages: Seek knowledge, challenge yourself and keep learningevery day.

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Principles and Methods

A truly integrated quality system is based on three principles: customer focus, process improvement and total involvement: 1. Customer focus encompasses both the external and internal customers needs. 2. Process improvement is the lifeblood of an organization wishing to sustain growth. 3. Total involvement is the vehicle through which the organization completes the daily activities that accomplish the first two principles. Currently, practicing quality professionals deal with interrelated sets of requirements that form quality management systems (QMSs). The two most frequently used QMS models are the Baldrige National Quality Program criteria and the eight quality management principles that are the basis of the ISO 9000 family of QMS standards. These models provide insight into the component parts of a QMS and define quality as it is practiced today. The Baldrige criteria, shown in Figure 1, are: 1. Leadership. 2. Strategic planning. 3. Customer and market focus. 4. Information and analysis. 5. HR focus. 6. Process management. 7. Business results. The eight management system standards of the ISO 9000 2000 family of standards are: 1. Customer orientation: Organizations must focus on understanding their customers needs and requirements, then try to anticipate and exceed the customers expectations. 2. Leadership: Organizations need strong leaders to establish common goals and direction. Effective leaders establish open environments in which all employees can participate in meeting their organizations goals. 3. Involvement: People are the most important part of any organization. Managers must ensure that employees at all levels of the organization can fully participate and use all their skills to make the organization successful. 4. Process management: The most successful organizations understand they must manage all activities as processes.

Measurement
Measurement is the process of determining a quantitative value of something. You can measure something intangible, such as customer satisfaction, or something tangible, such as a truck tires air pressure, a chemical solutions conductivity or the thickness of the paper this article is printed on. These are examples of the two broad types of measurements made in business quality management systems (QMSs): process oriented and physical. Process oriented measurements appear throughout a quality or business management system. Some measures in sections 2.3 and 2.4 of ISO 9000,1 and conditions of their use fall under most of ISO 9001 section 8.2.2 Many process oriented measurement tools and methods are part of the fundamental elements of quality management, including: statistical process control, process and control charts, process capability, quality of service, some types of benchmarking, the check step of the plan-do-check-act cycle, financial measures, customer satisfaction surveys, product returns and warranty costs. Physical measurements are those in which inspection, measuring and test equipment (IM&TE) is used to measure physical parameters. IM&TE is the province of
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metrology, the science of measurement. For all of recorded history, an essential component of successful trade is a system of measurement, which includes agreement among people about the meaning of the units of measurement. The Convention of the Metre treaty of 1875 made what is now the International System of Units (SI) the agreed-upon standard for all international trade.3 Physical measurements are the subject of sections 7.5, 7.6 and 8.2.4 of ISO 9001. There are several important considerations for physical measurements. To be meaningful, physical measurements must be traceable to the SI. Traceability requires calibrated IM&TE. Calibration verifies the ability of the IM&TE to make the required measurements when used correctly and documents the measurement uncertainty relative to the SI value. Calibration is part of risk management. An effective calibration program will not eliminate all risk, but it will reduce the risk to a known and manageable level. Physical measurements should be managed to ensure the correct measurements are being made and that the IM&TE used are capable of making the measurement

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5. System management: In addition to the management of individual processes, successful organizations understand that their many individual processes are interrelated and must be managed within an overall system. 6. Continual improvement: Continual improvement is the key to long-term success and high performance. Successful managers recognize that processes must be reviewed and improved continually to ensure their organization stays competitive. 7. Fact based decisions: Organizations that base their decisions on factual data are more likely to make the correct decision. 8. Close supplier relationships: Organizations that partner and work closely with their suppliers ensure that both the organization and the supplier are better able to succeed. There is no one right way to integrate quality principles into a working environment. W. Edwards Deming espoused the data approach. He recommended we start with statistical analysis of operations and draw conclusions from the data by using his plan-do-study-act cycle. Joseph Juran chose the opposite approach: beginning with the corporate vision, then drilling down through

FIGURE 1

Principles of an Integrated Quality System

Integrated quality system

Objective

Principles

Customer focus

Process improvement

Total involvement

Elements

Leadership Strategic planning Information and analysis Process management

Customer and market focus HR focus Business results

strategic, tactical and operational levels using the Juran Trilogy: quality planning, quality control and quality improvement. Either approach to integrating the quality principles is effective. Senior leadership should choose the approach that most closely aligns with its organizational and customer requirements. Grace L. Duffy

accurately. ISO 10012:2003 gives guidance for managing a measurement system.4 Organizations that calibrate IM&TE can be accredited to the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025: 2005.5 Accreditation verifies that the calibration laboratory has a QMS based on ISO 9001 and also verifies the lab is competent to make the calibration related measurements listed on its scope of accreditation document. Competency is assessed through an accreditation audit and by the results of the labs mandatory participation in regular proficiency tests. Accreditation bodies that meet the requirements of ISO/IEC 17011:2004 perform the audits.6 The accreditation bodies are assessed when they apply for membership in an international cooperating laboratory accreditation system such as the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation or Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation. Why is that important? If your calibration suppliers accreditation body is not a member of an international cooperation, then you will have a much harder time getting your products accepted in other countriesand in some cases by your own country or statewhich will

cost you time and money if you want to expand your markets. A large (but not complete) list of international cooperations and worldwide accreditation bodies is available at www.fasor.com/iso25. Correctly applied measurement, wherever and however it occurs, is an essential element of a successful business QMS.
REFERENCES AND NOTE

1. ANSI/ISO/ASQ Q9000-2000 Quality management systems Fundamentals and vocabulary. 2. ANSI/ISO/ASQ Q9001:2000 Quality management systems Requirements. 3. International Vocabulary of Basic and General Terms in Metrology, ISO, 1993. Commonly called the VIM. 4. ISO 10012:2003 Measurement management systems Requirements for measurement processes and measuring equipment. 5. ISO/IEC 17025:2005 General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. 6. ISO/IEC 17011:2004 Conformity assessmentGeneral requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodiies.

Graeme C. Payne

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Tools
Tools are organizational or analytical techniques that assist in understanding a problem. Quality tools are applied to solving problems to improve quality in service organizations and manufacturing plants. There are basic quality tools that have been popular for several decades and new tools, too, that have come to the forefront in the last 15 to 20 years. Basic quality tools are primarily numerically oriented. Table 1 includes eight basic quality tools and their purposes. Table 2 lists some of the new quality tools, which are capable of completely analyzing and understanding a problem. The new quality tools are primarily non-numeric. The eight basic tools can be used in sequence to solve a problem. The problem first needs to be understood; flow charts, check sheets and histograms are useful for acquiring and displaying basic data. If multiple sources of variation in the process need to be investigated, then stratification is useful. For example, a part might be produced from a sequence of milling operations on different machines. The quality practitioner might need to investigate if any one machine is producing more variation in a dimension than another machine. Examining the variation of the parts is not sufficient. Control charts are needed to determine whether the process is in statistical control. Before making adjustments to a process, the quality practitioner must know whether the process is in control. A control chart will reveal various hints about the problem (for example, trends in the data or correlation of outof-control conditions with external factors). If there is the potential of interrelated factors, then a scatter plot can be used to test for correlations between sets of variables to

TABLE 1

Basic Quality Tools

Purpose Visualizes a process Collects and analyzes data using a structured, prepared form Analyzes frequency of occurrence of items Separates data gathered from a variety of sources to discern patterns Studies how a process changes over time Finds correlations among variables Prioritizes bar charts to determine the order in which to attack problems Brainstorms about root causes of problems

Tool Flow chart Check sheet Histogram Stratification Control chart using a graph Scatter plot Pareto diagram Ishikawa diagram (aka fishbone, cause and effect diagram)

Statistics
A fundamental concept of statistics probably predates Platos Republic and his allegory of the cave, which describes people as being separated from the real world and perceiving only vague shadows of its reality. St. Paul said it more succinctly: We see through a glass, darkly. But the more modern, easy-to-understand American colloquialism is: All numbers have some fuzz around them! Walter Shewhart, one of qualitys greatest pioneers and a man to whom many of us owe a good part of our careers, recognized this principle and concluded that every observation we take from a process of any kind has both a deterministic and a random component. Our job, in making decisions on the basis of data, is to distinguish between the two components. Symbolically, Y = f(x) + , in which Y is what you get, f(x) is the total effect of all controls exerted on the process, intentionally or unintentionally, and is random variation. Shewhart recognized that if we sample a process repeatedlyas he did with the first published control chart in 1924to learn, for example, its percentage defective, the number we get will change from sample to sample, even though the process doesnt change. This phenomenon is the handiwork of the random vari-

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TABLE 2

New Quality Tools

Purpose Organizes a large number of ideas into natural relationships Determines cause-and-effect relationships Breaks down broad categories into finer levels of detail Organizes knowledge in a matrix format to show the relationship among groups of information Analyzes matrices (often replaced in this list by the similar prioritization matrix) Identifies what might go wrong in a plan under development Shows the required order of tasks in a project or process

Tool Affinity diagram Relations diagram Tree diagram Matrix diagram

Matrix data analysis method Process decision program chart Arrow diagram

find when the highest correlation occurs. Once a problem has been characterized using these tools, the next step is to look for solutions. An Ishikawa (fishbone) diagram works well for teams seeking the root causes of a problem. Once the root causes are identified, they can be put into a Pareto diagram to make a decision

about which root cause should be examined first. There are numerous sequential processes for using the new quality tools. An affinity diagram is good if the quality practitioner does not know what the problem is. The remaining new tools can be systematically applied to move from an idea of the problem to a complete plan to solve the problem. First, a relations diagram can be used to discern whether there are any interacting subproblems. This tool is useful because merely identifying the problem is usually not sufficient. The practitioner must also know of any causally related problems. Next, a tree diagram can be used to break down the goal into a set of specific activities, which can be prioritized using the matrix method. Once the priorities of activities are known, an arrow diagram can be created to analyze the timing of the process and identify any potential bottlenecks. Using either basic or new quality tools is highly dependent on the problem to be solved. However, the examples here should prove helpful when dealing with many common problems.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Tague, Nancy R., The Quality Toolbox, second edition, ASQ Quality Press, 2005.

James J. Rooney

Our job, in making decisions on the basis means in light of the variation. ation component of the model above. of data, is to Confidence intervals estimate Further, you can reduce this random distinguish between parameters in the shadows of variation (or uncertainty) by increasuncertainty. ing the sample size. Naturally, a reduca deterministic and Regression analysis finds a line tion of the uncertainty gives greater a random component. or curve going through ordered clarity to the deterministic component, pairs of data with a built-in reality f(x), of the model. Greater sample sizes help check based on random variation. us cut through the random variation to detect The analysis of variance sorts real effects and more effects or, as Shewhart called them, assignable interactions from noise. causes of variation. Without this fundamental concept, statistical decision This principle is fundamental to all statistical decision making would be impossible. making. Done properly: The t-test examines the difference between two Lynne B. Hare

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Standards
Many of us are familiar only with management system standards (MSSs), such as ISO 90011 or ISO 14001.2 But thousands of national, regional and international standards are commonly used around the world. Their basic purpose is to facilitate trade. According to ISO/IEC Guide 2: 2004, a standard is a document, established by consensus and approved by a recognized body, that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results3 In other words, standards may establish the size, shape or other characteristics of a product (for example, the base dimensions of light bulbs or the requirements for the composition of gasoline). Standards can also specify guidance or requirements for processes used to make or deliver products and for measuring results (such as measurement of octane in gasoline). Other standards might give guidance on methods of analysis and treatment of data related to production or sampling of products. While most standards are product related, MSSs are quite different. They provide requirements or guidance for the management system an organization uses to attain particular types of results. For example, ISO 9001 provides requirements for a management system for an organization that needs to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide product that meets customer and applicable regulatory requirements, and aims to enhance customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for continual improvement of the system and the assurance of conformity to customer and applicable regulatory requirements.4 ISO 9001 also requires organizations to determine and review customer requirements. Product related standards are often key inputs to this process. A suppliers conformity to ISO 9001 should provide customers some degree of confidence that the supplier can consistently provide product that meets customer and regulatory requirements. In addition, an organization can obtain recognition of conformity by having a third-party certification body

Vision and Strategy

Vision and strategy are relatively new additions to vision. In practice, sharing an organizational vision is the quality toolbox. Modern strategy principles date invaluable in focusing a large, complex organization. back to the work of Kenneth Andrews in 1971.1 Before There have been several schools of thought related to Andrews, many organizations were committed to strategy since Andrews work in 1971; none have been long-range planning. Today, most strategists agree the long lived, and none are completely responsive to orgaworld is changing too fast for long-range nizations needs in a rapidly changing world. plans to remain relevant. The most notable approaches include the You might recognize Andrews work Boston Consulting Groups2 market Having strategy as the SWOT matrix: strengths, weakshare enlightenment, Michael nesses, opportunities and threats. Porters3 five forces, and the allows everyone in an The principal notion of this first resource-based view of D.J. Collis organization to benefit generation of strategy is optimizaand C.A. Montgomery.4 tionknowing your strengths and Scenario planning is at the interfrom understanding the capitalizing on them. section of strategic planning and This tension can be compared organizations intent. It the reality of uncertain times, where to the stretching of a rubber band: an organization considers several sets the organizations The farther you stretch the band, the future worlds in preparation of its more energy youve created for strategy. Anticipation is clearly advancompass. relieving the strain by moving the end tageous in times of change; those who points togetherin the direction of the anticipate can respond with more certainty
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Certification or registration of management systems can provide confidence in the does not guarantee that products (registrar) conduct assessments meet applicable product related and issue a certificate of registramanagement system but standards. Product certification tion for its quality management does not guarantee that has a different conformity assesssystem. ment process, under which accredSuch certification bodies are products meet applicable ited laboratories test products to often accredited by accreditation product related ensure they meet applicable stanbodies to provide additional confidards. dence in their independence and consisstandards. tency. This conformity assessment scheme is REFERENCES managed under International Organization for 1. ANSI/ISO/ASQ Q9001-2000, Quality Manage-ment Systems Standardization standards. Requirements, ASQ Quality Press, 2000. Many organizations that use ISO 9001 do not seek cer2. ANSI/ISO/ASQ 14001-2004, Environ-mental Management tification. In some cases, they use the standard as a mechSystemsSpecifications With Guidance for Use, ASQ Quality Press, anism to achieve conformity to regulatory requirements. 2004. Others simply find it a convenient model from which to 3. ISO/IEC Guide 2:2004, Standardiz-ation and Related Activities develop and maintain a disciplined management system. General Vocabulary, International Organization for Standardization, Because ISO 9001 is process based, many find it fits 2004. well with other quality related activities such as Six 4. ANSI/ISO/ASQ Q9001, see reference 1. Sigma and lean. Certification or registration of management systems John E. Jack West can provide confidence in the management system but

and speed than others can. Two constant forces at work in the evolution of strategy are from simple to complex and from mechanistic to organic. While there is still a place for traditional methods of determining strategy, most organizations are moving toward making strategyand discussions about the futureongoing, open-ended dialogues. Traditional strategy appears as a pyramid (vision, objectives, strategies and tactics) and ignores the reality that objectives, strategies and tactics interact. This ignores the complexity of interaction. Complexity is better handled in a systems view of strategy. Modern approaches to strategy use systems models to more effectively consider the complexities of the world and strategy. Older approaches to strategy are time basedfor instance, on an annual cycle. New approaches are event based. When the world changes, strategy changes. An organization can pick from a continuum of strategic approaches to find one that fits its needs, resources

and environment. In all cases, the dialogue leading to strategic decisions represents the investment in reaching clarity and focus in the organization. Having strategy allows everyone in an organization to benefit from understanding the organizations intent. It sets the organizations compass. While vision represents the end state, strategy represents the starting point and the context in which all other planning begins.
REFERENCES

1. Kenneth Andrews, The Concept of Corporate Strategy, The McGraw-Hill School Education Group, 1971. 2. Boston Consulting Group, www.bcg.com. 3. Michael Porter, Competitive Strategy, new edition, Free Press, 2004. 4. D.J. Collis and C.A. Montgomery, Competing on Resources: Strategy in the 1990s, Harvard Business Review, July-August, 1995, pp. 118-128.

Paul E. Borawski
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BASIC QUALITY

Process Improvement And Process

Among other things, the ISO 9001 standard requires an organization to apply a process approach to three types of actions: management, product/service realization and support. The standard says an organization should identify and manage all the processes necessary for achieving its objectives and define how these processes are interrelated. Further, there should be a process owner appointed who has a defined responsibility and authority to implement, maintain and improve the processes and their interactions. The fundamentals of managing processes are: Identifying the primary processes of the organization. Naming the owner(s) of each process. Mapping the flow of each process. Specifying the metrics used to control and measure the outputs and effectiveness of each process. Determining the impact of each process and its interaction with each other process. Assessing the effect each process has on the organizations desired outcomes. Having and implementing a plan for improving processes in which strategic improvement is worthwhile. Process mapping, a refined flowcharting method, is most often used to identify the primary processes, the flow within these processes and the interactions among them. The metrics used to control and measure process performance (variation and capability) are derived from a supply, input, process, output and customer diagram and analyzed using statistical process control. Day-today output metrics are compared with targets, and longer-term analysis is done using trending techniques. Documentation of all processes, including those used for measurement and analysis, should include: process objectives, procedures and work instructions, quality plans, measurement and audit results, improvements initiated, and results and lessons learned from improvement initiatives. Quality is monitored using an in-process and outgoing finished product or service inspection method. Customer satisfaction is measured with statistics derived from product or service failures and other indicators, such as surveys. Internal auditing techniquesincluding auditing the quality management system, products and services, and suppliersfurnish data for both management of the

Economic Case for Quality

The key is to know how to capture the three cateIf someone offered to sell you a gasoline additive that gories of quality related costs: would improve your cars fuel economy and perfor1. Prevention activities are those intended to ensure mance, would you buy it? that processes work without fail through actions Your decision would likely depend on the additives such as failure mode and effects analycost, relative gains in economy and performance, sis, training and preventive mainand other potential issues such as the impact tenance. on engine lifethe total economic value 2. Appraisal activities are those of the product. used to see how well The same is true of quality activities, Being able to measure and processes such as product whether its risk management, such as and process approvals are implementing a formal quality mancommunicate the economics actually working via agement system, or a business of quality is a activities such as inspecimprovement initiative based on Six tion and testing. Sigma or excellence criteria such as foundational skill for quality 3. Failure costs are those related Baldrige. In other words, whether the professionals. to failures that do occur and activities make business sense depends are further classified as internal on the related costs, economic benefits (failure identified before it that would accrue and benefits resulting reached the customer) or external from alternative uses of the resources.

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Management
processes. Outcomes might processes as well as indications of improveinclude customer satisfacFor an organization to be ments needed. tion and retention, profSeveral techniques and tools are availeffective, the silos prevalent itability, environmental able for improving processes, including: and societal actions, and in past times must be The plan-do-check-act cycle (to ethical and legal responguide planning and implementing supplanted with the process sibilities. A favorable improvement). effect not only sustains approach, value stream and Problem solving techniques, an organization but also including prioritization and root lean thinking, and a supply fuels its growth, prosperity cause analysis (to identify problem and contribution to society. chain management areas). An organization is, in itself, Project management techniques. mentality. a processa system of interact Waste reduction methods, including cycle ing processes, each with several time reduction, process flow analysis, eliminasub-processes. Management is responsition of nonvalue added steps and preventing errors. ble for how these processes function, react and produce Six Sigma methods for design, process, and product desired outcomes. For an organization to be effective, the and service improvement. silos prevalent in past times must be supplanted with the Process reengineering, which reinvents a process to process approach, value stream and lean thinking, and a take advantage of emerging technologies, worksupply chain management mentality. force skills, better materials or new approaches. Russ Westcott The effect these efforts have on the organizations overall outcomes is key to managing and improving

(detected after reaching the customer). The time and expense of reprocessing failed products or services and investigating failures could fall into either failure category, depending on when the event occurs. Warranty costs are decidedly external failures. Organizations can measure the economics of quality in different ways. Some measure total cost of quality, including all three categories, while others measure only the cost of poor quality, focusing on failure costs. To assist in measuring quality costs, the International Organization for Standardization has issued ISO 10014: 2006, Quality ManagementGuidelines for Realizing Financial and Economic Benefits. Financial measures of quality activities can be used as strategic objectives, guiding organizations toward both profitability and greater customer satisfaction. Process owners can also use economics of quality measures at a more tactical level to evaluate day-to-day activities and improvement projects.

ISO 9004:2000, Quality Management Systems Guidelines for Performance Improvement mentions economics of quality as a means for measuring and monitoring processes, for analyzing process data and as part of management review. Quality professionals sometimes perceive resistance to quality activities by managers. While the idealism that drives many to the quality profession and their detailed knowledge of quality tools are laudable, they must understand that they work in a capitalist economy. Senior management is tasked with maximizing the economic value of the resources under its control. Senior management must achieve an acceptable return on investment, and quality professionals must be able to demonstrate that allocation of resources to quality activities that can support this. Being able to measure and communicate the economics of quality is therefore a foundational skill for quality professionals. Duke Okes

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BASIC QUALITY

Teamwork and Empowerment

Top executive teams, project teams, cross-functional teams, product-market teams. They come in several varieties, but they all have one thing in common: Teams are constructed entities designed to get a job done. Empowerment is key. A team that is empowered has the authority, information and skills to make decisions that ratchet up performance and drive results. Also, how well a team functions depends largely on how well it is structured (its architecture), how well team members behave toward one another (their interpersonal relationships) and the quality of team leadership. Think of a team leader as an architect. If the architects blueprint, or construction plan, for the team includes five key elements, then the team is poised for high performance. First, the team must be guided by a clear strategy. Strategy directs decision making and gives team members a sense of purpose. Otherwise, whats the advantage of being empowered? Second, operational goals that flow from the strategy must be clear. At the day-to-day tactical level, a team without clear, specific operational goals can easily become a house divided, with each member empowered to follow only his or her own pet initiatives. Third, roles and responsibilities must be clear and agreed upon. Otherwise, empowerment is apt to devolve into passing the buck, blame fixing and silo behavior. Fourth, business relationships must be transparent and honest. Effective empowerment assumes team members can confront issuesand one another openly. No amount of empowerment will cure a culture that avoids conflict and buries disagreements. Fifth, protocols for decision making must be put in place. Empowerment often gets derailed because there

Leadership
Leadership is the process by which an individual Relating to quality management, the Baldrige influences a group to move toward the attainment of a Criteria for Performance Excellence states, Your leadsuperordinate goal. Superordinate goals benefit groups ers should ensure the creation of strategies, systems instead of simply individuals.1 and methods for achieving performance excellence, Leading involves a power sharing relationship between stimulating innovation, building knowledge and two or more individuals in which the power is distributed capabilities, and ensuring organizational sustainabilunevenly. For example, a leader will have monetary and ity.2 As we can see, when a leader exercises leaderorganizational authority that can be applied toward ship, he or she will be involved in planning, achieving goals. Therefore, leaders must effectively and controlling, communicating, teaching, advising and fairly use power. delegating. This power can take different forms: According to W. Edwards Deming, The Expertise power: You have speaim of leadership should be to improve cial knowledge. the performance of man and machine, Part of effective Reward power: You can to improve quality, to increase outleadership is to discover bestow gifts for the right put, and simultaneously to bring behavior. pride of workmanship to people.3 your own leadership Coercive power: You can This is a positivist view of leaderuse force to get what you ship that involves more than traits that you can develop want. assigning blame and removing to lead the quality Referent power: You are people who are viewed as problem charismatic and persuasive. employees. In his 14 points for improvement efforts in Legitimate power: You have management, Deming showed what your organization. positional authority that principles direct effective quality manallows you to make decisions. agement leaders.
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A team that is empowered has the authority, information and skills to make decisions Assigning accountability. is no upfront agreement on Each decision requires a whether decisions will be made: that ratchet up performance point personsomeone Unilaterally: by one person responsible for achieving cloand drive results. with no input from others. sure within the subteam. Consultatively: by one person Selecting a decision making mode after soliciting input from the fewest for each decision. Then, setting a number who will add value. deadline for the subteam to keep it on By consensus: everyone has input and must track and ensure that members of the larger team agree to live with the outcome of majority rule. know their deadline for giving input. In addition to getting the team to agree on how deciOnce the decision is made and announced to the full sions will be made, team leaders must establish a deciteam, its on to implementation. sion making process that includes: While the leader might be the architect of the high-per Identifying the decisions the team must make. The forming, empowered team, success depends equally on old laundry list on a flip chart works well. the team members willingness and ability to step up and Identifying decision subteams. For each decision perform at a new level for greater results. identified, assemble a subteam that becomes a steerHoward M. Guttman ing committee responsible for making the decision.

J.M Juran proposed his trilogy diagram for leading quality:4 Quality planning: Learning about customers and finding ways to satisfy them. Quality control: Comparing product performance to product goals and eliminating the gaps between them. Quality improvement: Establishing teams and providing them resources to make improvements in a planned way. In doing this, Juran provided a method for leading improvement in an organization. On the other hand, Armand V. Feigenbaum showed that individuals on the shop floor could provide leadership of their own.5 Feigenbaums approach was reflected in the way Japanese firms approached quality improvement. More recently, Six Sigma Champions have provided leadership in selecting, qualifying and rationing projects to Black Belts.6 Service quality management might be different in some fundamental ways from product quality management. One research study of service firms found that effective leaders tended to display three traits:7 1. Service vision: You have a vision of how to provide great service.

2. High standards: You communicate these standards for others to emulate. 3. In-the-field leadership style: You get out in the field and make things happen. In general, effective leaders can fall into two categories: those who direct the work of others to achieve an end and those who help others discover and achieve their potential. Part of effective leadership is to discover your own leadership traits that you can develop to lead the quality improvement efforts in your organization.
REFERENCES

1. S. Thomas Foster Jr., Managing Quality: Integrating the Supply Chain, Prentice Hall, 2007. 2. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria for Performance Excellence, ASQ Quality Press, 2007. 3. W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis, MIT CAES, 1986. 4. Joseph Juran, Juran on Leadership for Quality, Free Press, 1989. 5. Armand V. Feigenbaum, Total Quality Control, McGraw-Hill, 1983. 6. Greg Brue, Six Sigma for Managers, McGraw-Hill, 2002. 7. V.A. Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman and L.L. Berry, Delivering Service Quality, Free Press, 1990.

S. Thomas Foster Jr.

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about the authors

PAUL E. BORAWSKI is executive

(in alphabetical order)

DUKE OKES is a knowledge architect and ASQ fel-

director and chief strategic officer of ASQ. He joined ASQ in 1986 as director of programs and technical services and was appointed to executive director in 1988.
Borawski GRACE L. DUFFY is vice president of

low. He is currently a consultant, focusing on helping organizations improve root cause analyses. Okes holds a masters degree in education from Tusculum College, Greeneville, TN. He is an ASQ fellow and a certified quality auditor, quality engineer, quality manager and quality technician.
Okes

Duffy

ASQ and president of Management and Performance Systems, Tavares, FL. She earned a masters degree in management and information systems from Georgia State University. A fellow of ASQ, Duffy is certified as a quality manager, quality auditor and quality improvement associate.

GRAEME C. PAYNE is president of GK Systems, a

consulting firm near Atlanta, GA, specializing in measurement science. He is the 2006-2007 chair of the ASQ Measurement Quality Division. Payne is a senior member of ASQ, certified quality technician, calibration technician and quality engineer.
Payne JAMES J. ROONEY is a senior risk and reliability

S. TOM FOSTER JR. is a professor of quality and supply chain management at Brigham Young University. He is a member of ASQ and has served twice as a Baldrige examiner.

Foster

HOWARD M. GUTTMAN is princi-

pal of Guttman Development Strategies, a management consulting firm in Ledgewood, NJ. He earned a masters degree in organizational development from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

engineer with ABS Consulting, Public Sector Division, in Knoxville, TN. He earned a masters degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Tennessee. Rooney is a fellow of ASQ and holds the following ASQ certifications: biomedical auditor, hazard analysis and critical control points auditor, manager of quality/organizational excellence, quality auditor, quality engineer, quality improvement associate, quality process analyst, quality technician, reliability engineer and Six Sigma Green Belt.

Rooney

JOHN E. JACK WEST is a management consultant

Guttman

LYNNE B. HARE is director of

applied statistics at Kraft Foods Research and Development in East Hanover, NJ. He received a doctorate in statistics from Rutgers University. Hare is a past chairman of ASQs Statistics Division and a fellow of both ASQ and the American Statistical Assn.
Hare

and business adviser. He served on the board of examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award from 1990 to 1993 and is past chair of the U.S. technical advisory group to ISO technical committee 176 and lead delegate to the committee responsible for the ISO 9000 family of quality management standards. He is an ASQ fellow.

West

RUSS WESTCOTT is president of R.T. Westcott and

Associates, Old Saybrook, CT. He is an ASQ fellow and a certified quality auditor and manager of quality/organizational excellence.
Westcott

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I JUNE 2007 I www.asq.org

Building a basic quality Library

by Joe Conklin

key skill for any quality professional is knowing where to find the answers to questions. A wellstocked quality library saves considerable time and trouble. How does the conscientious quality professional begin building such a well-stocked library, particularly if his or her employer does not have one? Of the hundreds of quality-related books I have seen or heard of, I have devised my own personal set of the vital few that can form the core of a good working library. The titles are organized around the categories in the body of knowledge for the certified quality engineer exam. They cover the basics well, are written with not only the expert in mind, and have shortened many of my searches for quality-related answers. They might be considered the top 10 titles for the quality beginner.

Management and Leadership

Armand V. Feigenbaum, Total Quality Control, third edition, McGraw-Hill, 1991. National Institutes of Standards and Technology, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality 2007 Award : Criteria for Performance Excellence (Business), ASQ Quality Press, 2007.

Quantitative Methods and Tools

Eugene L. Grant and Richard S. Leavenworth, Statistical Quality Control, seventh edition, McGraw-Hill, 1996. J. M. Juran and A. Blanton Godfrey, Jurans Quality Control Handbook, fifth edition, McGraw-Hill, 1999. The references under the sections management and leadership, the quality system, and continuous improvement are particularly helpful for building a broad understanding of quality concepts and practices. After all, the questions will keep coming, and finding the answers is part of the funand sweatof the quality business.
JOSEPH D. CONKLIN is a mathematical statistician at the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. He earned a masters degree in statistics from Virginia Tech and is a senior member of ASQ. Conklin is also an ASQ certified quality manager, quality engineer, quality auditor and reliability engineer.

The Quality System

Charles A. Mills, The Quality Audit: A Management Evaluation Tool, McGraw-Hill, 1989.

Product and Process Design

Patrick D. T. OConnor, Practical Reliability Engineering, fourth edition, John Wiley, 2001.

Product and Process Control

ANSI/ASQ Z1.4-2003: Sampling Procedures and Tables for Inspection by Attributes, ASQ Quality Press, 2003. Donald J. Wheeler and Richard W. Lyday, Evaluating the Measurement Process, second edition, Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1990.

Continuous Improvement
Michael Brassard and Diane Ritter, The Memory Jogger II, A Pocket Guide of Management and Planning Tools for Continuous Improvement and Effective Planning, Goal/QPC, 1994. Shigeru Mizuno, ed., Management for Quality Improvement: The Seven New QC Tools, Productivity Press, 1988.

QUALITY PROGRESS

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