Best Of

It's hard to work at PQ Systems and not be influenced by the teachings of Dr. Deming.  His thoughts on quality in leadership and management are weaved tightly into our company's culture and - I believe - directly impact most of our decisions regarding the system in which we operate.  Over the next few weeks, I'll be introducing each of Deming's 14 Points for Management along with an example or two of how I've caught myself implementing them into my everyday life.  I would encourage you to share your experiences by commenting as well!

Point #1
Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and to stay in business, and to provide jobs.

My Reflection
Continuous improvement is a good place to begin this journey.  Commit your focus towards long-term success and try to resist being funneled into short-term solutions to bigger issues.  Perhaps my favorite explanation of this point is the following, "Don't just do the same things better - find better things to do."  Challenge yourself to think about (and prepare for) the problems of tomorrow rather than being fully consumed by the problems of today.

Here's a fun personal example for you.  Surviving parenthood (so far) with a two-year-old, I've stumbled across a few companies who effectively solved tomorrow's problems.  If you've had kids, you understand the car seat and highchair crumb trails left behind by your hungry, but clumsy toddler.  Solving today's problem would be focusing on techniques for cleaning up the mess. For example, car seat vacuums and spill-resistant fabric would do a great job at that.  Improving constantly and solving tomorrow's problems introduced me to the Gyro Bowl.  If you haven't seen it before, Google it!  It's a children's snack bowl suspended on three axes so that, regardless of the way the bowl is held, the contents remain upright and in the bowl.  The point for me is that I didn't even realize the effort I put into constantly cleaning until I learned of the "guaranteed no spill" bowl.  Parenting gadgets = continuously improving the quality of life!

What about you?  How has Deming's 1st Point presented itself in your professional or personal life?
 

This is a slippery slope.

Gage - is usually used as a proper name

Gauge - is a tool used to measure

Definition of gauge 1 a : a measurement (as of linear dimension) according to some standard or system: such as

How do I conduct a Gage R&R study correctly? If I do 3 trials, use 3 appraisers, and 10 parts. Do I want the parts to vary or not? I thought about using gauge blocks rather than parts because I know that they are accurate and what the measurement is. If I have 10 parts do I have my appraisers measure the same 1 dimension on all 10 or measure 10 different dimensions on each part?

"My Fault"

Quality professionals out there...

Describe your job in two words. Can you do it?

I recently attended an SPC seminar put on by Dr. Wheeler, and one of his personal experiences involved using SPC to monitor a process that infrequently had "spills" of varying amounts.  From his book Understanding SPC, "When events become rare, the counts will be inherently insensitive to changes in the process". So rather than attempting to chart something based on a count of your rare events, you may find more success by charting the amount of time, or number of conforming products that pass between defects. These can be done with a t-chart, or g-chart respectively.

Thanks, Matt, On what to chart, if I was the employee, I would ask management for their guidance or offer suggestions based on the training I was provided to include identifying the theory as to the "why."  If management wants a chart showing zero, then keep providing the chart.  I would hope someone in management could answer the question regarding the economics and priorities. 

I recently had a conversation with a customer who was collecting defect data each shift and charting it as a percent. The “problem” was that for this chart, she had ten consecutive days with zero defects. The thirty samples (10 days x 3 shifts/day), shows a flat line and no control limits. Since there is no variability in the data, the standard deviation is 0, therefore control limits can’t be calculated. She further explained that they are “required” to chart this data. What would you recommend she do in this case?

I can think of a few options such as:

1.       Ignore the ‘requirement’ to chart this since charting this does not add value.

2.       Change the time period how defects are counted. For example instead of each shift, count them each day.

3.       Show the control chart with no control limits and all of the data at 0.

4.       Do something else.

 Please share your suggestions.