The Elsmar Cove Forum - Blogs

Frontline Documentary - 'The Retirement Gamble'

Marc — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 04:51:45 GMT

Frontline Documentary - 'The Retirement Gamble'

Some food for thought...

Advertising on Elsmar

Marc — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:25:56 GMT

As some of you may have noticed...

Because of low traffic since Google has been changing so significantly over the last 8 to 12 months, I have cancelled all direct advertising on Elsmar.com at this time. I am doing this with all advertisers. There is no balance due and they will receive no further invoices as their ads are considered cancelled.

I have delayed (and now cancelled) invoicing all direct advertisers because I have been watching and feel as traffic has been declining it is the fair and moral thing to do.

"Social Media" such as LinkedIn, Google+ and even Facebook are now becoming the defacto Google search results leaders, as well as big sites such as About.com, WikiHow, Ehow, and similar sites.

As you know, I do not solicit advertising, and I am not a company. It is just me keeping Elsmar.com online. I want to do what I believe to be the moral thing considering the circumstances.

Should an advertiser decide they want to advertise on Elsmar.com in the forum again, please contact me after June 2013. If Elsmar has significantly improved traffic at that time I will consider direct advertisements again.

Marc

Think inside the box

Javier Black Belt — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 19:48:57 GMT

No, it is not a typo. A couple of days ago as I was preparing breakfast in my Nutri Bullet I suddenly realized how simple the equipment was and how similar to a regular blender it was.
While I have not performed a thorough comparison among similar extraction devices, it is obvious that the designers of the Nutri Bullet obtained the same results as compared to other systems with a machine that is smaller, very simple to operate, easy to clean and probably cheaper. Then I remembered that several years ago I had read about a structured method of creativity named: ASIT (Advanced Structured Inventive Thinking). This method that was born in Russia and further developed in Israel and it is based on the ��Closed World� principle which states that when faced with a problem, it is prohibited to introduce any new kinds of components in the solution process�.
Designers of the Nutri Bullet utilized the Closed World principle; they found the solution to a problem (extraction), within the existing system (blender). All they did was to provide the machine with a one-speed-high- torque electric motor and instead of a one blade assembly, they provided the machine with one set of blades for milling and one set of blades for cutting and blending�.They thought inside the box and found a good solution.
For further information on the ASIT method, refer to �Invention Highway/Creative Thinking� by BCI Software.

AS Registers

FMS-Steve — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 19:17:09 GMT

We are looking for a new register for our AS system. Can I get some feed backs which registers would you all like, and why.

Automotive sector in North America

shamhaider — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 12:15:44 GMT

Just wondering how will be next two years for automotive sectors in North america..
Please share if you have any information on
1) New investments/Projects/launches
2) Job opportunities
3)any other news ..good or bad

Success - well, a good tasting chunk of it....

pearsonow — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 09:52:32 GMT

Well, just before Christmas shutdown we achieved the LIA CoP Certification mentioned in my last Blog post. This is an excellant step. This is the first external recognition of my efforts and those of the Quality Forum members in pushing towards measurable, defined and sensible quality systems.

BUT (there is always a but isn't there) this seems to have been seen as end in and of itself, so the ISO process has slowed down....

Still, a significant milestone for me and the team.

Auditor's Dilemma

Dr. L. Ramakrishnan — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 04:25:10 GMT

Even since I started "auditing" outside my company this aspect has been bothering me; in fact I got a non-conformance, during a witness audit, for suggesting to an auditee to look at a Government site for information on legislation. I am referring to the "sin" of being a "consultant" during audits.

I have been auditing and assessing for more than twenty five years. I enjoyed "suggesting", "advising", "guiding" my colleagues in our company during the audits which resulted in improvements. I thought that was a good contribution to the organization from a resource person. No one complained.

The whole concept changed once the nature of audit changed to second or third party audit; I have been told that I could not be a consultant during the audit. Even small suggestions and advise are supposed to be taboos.

Given the type of organizatons and auditees I come across, I believe that it is my duty to provide them information for improvement; that is one of the value additions of an audit. As far as I am clear in my mind that I don't have any commercial interest in the suggestion/advise, why should I stop adding value to the organization that I assess/audit ?

Here are a few typical examples of questions asked to me during an assessment/audit:

a) Where do I get this information ?
b) Which University provides this course ?
c) What should I do to meet the requirement ?
d) Can you suggest a good book on the subject ?
e) What is the procedure to become a member of ......... (a professional body)?
f) Please suggest a better method to carry out................(some activity)
etc.

I believe, in a country like India, where knowledge sharing is an important element of development, I cannot duck under the auditing norms and deny the opportunity to improve.

At the end of the day, I have a satisfaction of conducting an objective audit, where the relationship between the auditor and auditee was one of trust, respect and satisfaction. The client does not complain; he needs more such interactions.

I, therefore, believe that classifying "consulting" during audit as a "Strict No" should be revisited and reviewed; the element of "conflict of interest" should be dealt with in the "Code of Conduct" for an auditor; as far as there is no clash of interest, (s)he should be allowed to share knowledge during audits/assessments.

Good things coming back to you ...

somashekar — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 05:16:31 GMT

Dec 27th 2012:
The whole of day was with no power supply due to some maintenance works in our locality, and by evening the electric supply was restored. All was fine for a while and my system was put on. The power was on for a while and then to our shock the distribution transformer close by blew up its link cutting of power supply again. Sensing trouble, all my electric installations were put off, and system closed. I have an APC BackUPS 500 connected and I shut down my PC and was just about to shut down the UPS, when the power was restored again, this time instantly blowing up the transformer link again and same time, I had my UPS blasted, spark flying out, and smoke emitting out. I quickly disconnected the plug from the wall socket and isolated the UPS. It was beeping right through until I called the service engineer and he suggested to slide out the battery door and disconnect the battery.I did that in dark with my light from the cell phone coming handy. No external damage was seen in the UPS, but I was certain it has gone kaput....
We had no power throughout the night. I heard several people in our condominium had lost bulbs, other equipments like Voltage stabilizers and other installations. Normal power supply was restored only by next day morning.

Year 1994 - 2000:
I was with a magnetics company, VIL-B in Bangalore, which was set up to make electromagnetic components for home appliances and entertainment electronic equipments, working from the startup stage till two units were established and operating. The second unit was made exclusively to develop and supply electromagnetic components to APC. I was involved right through the project in development, UL insulation system approval, Surveillance audits, Customer approval, productionization, Infrastructure for special processes and automated testing, QMS certification, Operator training, methods and tools and a running unit was then managed by an other manager. I came out of VIL-B in the year 2000, after which more products were added to APC supply range. That unit VIL-B eventually closed down around 2006, due to various management decisions.

Dec 28th 2012:
The APC service engineer visited and opened the unit to find the PCB burnt beyond repair and the components burnt / blasted and scattered. No damage to the plastics and the transformer insulation, and the lead wires from transformer show no signs of burning. Yes, it was the same transformer made by VIL-B in the year 2004, and my APC BackUPS 500 purchased in 2004 was trouble free since then until the Dec 27th 2012 incident.

Dec 29th 2012:
I purchased a new APC BackUPS 700, as my first model APC BackUPS 500 was obsolete and the damage was assessed to be beyond reasonable and timely repair. The damaged unit was collected back by the company engineer, but I kept back the power transformer as my souvenir that reflected back on the hard work and dedication of my team who made the APC business possible and took it to greater heights becoming one of the leading quality magnetic component supplier to APC (Now Schneider Electric) till VIL-B closed down. I shared this to all my ex colleagues of VIL-B with pride and where ever they are, I am sure they are doing excellent quality work.

Have any of you here had the experience of getting back the result of your good work at your door and surprising you after years gone by ~~~

Here are some pics of that Power transformer and it is looking as good as new. Just that carbon deposit on the insulation after the blow-up.

Attached Thumbnails

Monitoring and measuring

immaya08 — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 06:22:33 GMT

inept as it may sound, but need profound answers to better appreciate this one: which should be done first monitor or measure (measure or monitor)?

:bonk:

Adventures in APQP

Jim Wynne — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 14:23:39 GMT

I'm a quality manager in a very busy (thank goodness) metal stamping and fabrication job shop. In the past few weeks I've been dealing with a situation with a customer--a major North American vehicle OEM--that perfectly illustrates the problems with American manufacturing in general.

It begins with me doing "due diligence" in contract review--going over a drawing for a new job to make sure everything is understood and we have everything we need to be successful in producing the product.

In reviewing the drawing, I see two things that need to be cleared up:

There is reference to a customer document that I don't have.
There is a nonsensical GD&T callout that can't be resolved.

We have been told that the customer SQE is the primary point of contact for these things, so I call him and ask for help. For those who might not be familiar with these sorts of things, customer SQEs are never allowed to answer a ringing telephone. That's what voicemail is for. I leave a message briefly explaining the issues and asking him to call me back ASAP. After three followup calls over the course of three days, he finally calls me back and tells me that for #1 I need to talk to the buyer, and for #2 I need to talk to the design engineer, and he gives me contact information.

So much for the concept of Single Point of Contact.

I call the buyer about #1, and he says he'll send me the document. Excellent.

Now I have to deal with the design engineer, a task I'm not looking forward to. I spent nine years working in a vehicle OEM's design and development center, and I came to understand that beyond the education requirements, there are two basic prerequisites for becoming a successful and prosperous design engineer:

You must be fundamentally incompetent in the process of transforming an abstract concept into cohesive, understandable specifications. "Design intent" is a secret that must never be divulged.
You must never ever, ever admit that you are wrong about anything, despite abundant, irrefutable evidence to the contrary.

I call the DE and explain the problem with the GD&T and ask for help. The acutal problem, it turned out, was not the dimensioning scheme but my own wayward and misguided perception of it. It made perfect sense to him. Understanding early on that I might as well have been discussing the issue with my cat, I asked him if he would send me the "correct" interpretation by email so I would have it for reference when the time came to do the layout. He graciously agreed to do so, and no doubt felt that he was doing a benificent service for poor benighted QA guy.

This customer has an online APQP tracking application, and customers are supposed to input information as the project develops. For example, we are supposed to acknowledge having all of the engineering information we need and that specifications are understood. Of course, the entries are timebound, and the system automatically sends dunning robo-email messages when something falls behind.

After a week or so of not having the document called out on the print, and not having the design engineer's explanation of his GD&T delusions, I received a phone call from the SQE urging me to update the APQP tracker. I politely deferred, citing the lack of important information. He said he would get back to me. He didn't.

Today, about two weeks after this all began, I'm in the same position I was at the beginning, only now I have our marketing project manager (the guy in charge of this customer's account) asking me why I'm behind in updating the APQP tracking. "Just close those things out," he tells me, "and we'll worry about getting the information later."

This ugly and sordid chain of events is, I'm afraid, absolutely typical. We're urged by our customers, on the one hand, to invoke a conscientious APQP process. At the same time we're stymied and stonewalled by the people who should be providing the information needed for both sides to be successful. "You must be sure that you have everything you need," they say, "but good luck getting it from us."

ISO 19011 - Remote Auditing

supermac — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 22:34:49 GMT

I would like to make folks aware of the possibility of remote auditing. Using Information Communication Technology (ICT) to facilitate particularly internal audits. In the 2011 edition of ISO 19011 you will find that the slavish 'on-site' paradigm has been diluted to almost homeopathic proportions. Today we use ICT in all aspects of personal and business life - why not in auditing?

If anyone is intersted I'll post some more.

Supplier Audits

pearsonow — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 10:24:03 GMT

Why is it that we use audits as a big stick?

I agree we sometimes need to check on how our suppliers apply the procedures that they tell us they do and an Audit is a very useful way to do this, but why when a supplier has a bad run do we threaten (or do purchasers anyway) audits like they are a big stick?

Now we have an audit schedule - this means everyone is audited at the right time and appropriately to there status and the risk factor with buying from them. If a supplier starts to fail at our goods in stage then speaking to them and 8D requests may help more than a day of disruption because we feel the need to spend the day out of the office.

If a supplier continues to get things wrong then maybe a downgrading letter will get there attention, and if it doesn't then ultimately the process they use needs some serious attention. If they have failed to give it this atttention - with all support from us, then they lose the business. Then (or prefereably before then) you approve an alternative supplier, and keep a check on them through the normal means.

But using audits as a stick to beat people with - that just wastes time better spent solving the problems. Using audits as a normal part of monitoring and control, thats plain common sense.

:2cents:

Progress, or just more work to do....

pearsonow — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 13:22:42 GMT

So we had a significant meeting at the end of last week.

A number of things where discussed, including our ongoing progress towards ISO9001:2008 Compliance and certification, and our LIA CoP Certification.

A number of new projects where handed out, and will be followed up on this week, with the business moving up from its short term tactical mode 'fire-fighting' to a more strategic aspect of 'fire-prevention.'

I hope it is a sign of progress, but fear it just means we will end up doing more work for some departments to continue not changing.....

Time Will Tell.....

Quality Month - November 2012

SATHYABALARAMAN — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 10:40:37 GMT

November month is celbrated as quality month.

Celebration ideas:

1) Quality champion
2) Measurement / instrument skill test
3) Nil rejection product line
4) Kaizens on solving quality issues
5) Slogans on Quality

Motivating employees on quality throughout this month.

�Anti-Business� Obama Is Best President For Corporate Profits Since 1900

Marc — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 00:30:13 GMT

The financial website Motley Fool noted today �Anti-Business� Obama Is Best President For Corporate Profits Since 1900.

From the article:

Quote:

Even if corporate profits under Obama are compared to the 2008 peak � in order to erase the effect of the financial crisis � �average annual corporate profit growth under President Obama is 6.8%,� or nearly three times as large as it was under President Reagan. Both Presidents Bush actually oversaw corporate profit declines during their terms. Meanwhile, real GDP growth per capita is far higher under Obama than it was under either Bush administration.

CAMP LIFE!

Ashley — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 05:32:11 GMT

I've been MIA on here recently due to working a lot this summer. I work as an athletic trainer/first aider/ and camp administrator for Varsity Spirit Corp. It's the largest cheerleading and dance company in the world. I worked 14 camps this summer, which is quite a bit for what my job entails. I've been doing this job during the summer since 2008, except last summer when I tore my ACL. I am definitely blessed to have this job. I meet at least one new person every camp so I get to make new friends all the time, which is awesome because this company has a great network. I have friends all over the country! Each camp lasts 4 days, but admin staff (myself) and the instructional staff (whether dance or cheer) are there the day before camp to meet with host site contacts and prepare for camp to begin the following day. If you asked me how much I liked cheerleading before I got this job I probably would have told you I hated it. I couldn't stand cheerleaders. Now, it amazes me. The people in this company, we're all a family. We work hard at camp, 12 hour days, and as admin staff and medical help, we're on call at night as well. We try to get as much sleep as possible, which some nights, depending on how the campers are behaving, can be as much as 7 hours (that entails skipping breakfast), but I've gotten as little as 2 hours of sleep a few times. Many of us average about 5-5 1/2 hours a night. I took this week to get back to my "normal" life. Camp life is so scheduled that I have to adjust to not as much scheduling, which isn't that hard because I've also been catching up on my sleep (except for tonight obviously.) Anyways, I figured I would post a much less debatable topic for this post.

Ashley

Manufacturing License

lisawxf80 — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 11:18:06 GMT

Dear All,

Is anyone here familiar with mfg license in SFDA?

We are build a set of medical product, the set combines 4 units. Non serile product. for diagnosis purpose.

All units will imported from head courter and re-assemble in China.

To get the mfg license, do we have to qualify each unit inside the sets?

FYI, all units are from diff product group. And the qualification of each units are complicated. The assembly process is easy to be qualified.

How to stop this abuse.....

NikkiQSM — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 18:24:59 GMT

I suppose I feel the need to post this to get it off my chest and so that I can get an understanding from others what they would do or say. My GM the owner of the company can be very harsh. He wants things done a certain way,�.his way. He wants us to make our own decisions in sticky situations, and involve him less. But again, it is a gamble because how do you do the correct thing (what he would do) without bugging him? Getting to the point now... After almost 8 years working for the man, he has made me cry my eyes on dozens and dozens of occasions. He has yelled, and screamed profanity in my face - He has made degrading comments to me - He has scolded me in front of my workers and even customers before... Recently, (the day before yesterday), I made a mistake. I provided information to a customer that pretty much stated a product we made for them was no good. When I arrived into work yesterday morning, I noticed an email from my GM stating he wanted to see me in the morning to talk about the email I sent to the customer. I knew I was going to be yelled at... I waited all day for the scolding to happen. Around 2pm, I was asked into his office with our Quality Control Manager. The door was left open - (door open to the Sales hallway - where 4 different customer reps sit with their doors open) - The first thing he says, "Do you know that I wanted to strangle you when I read that email you sent?" I basically admitted fault at that point because making excuses makes it worse. Technically though, I am not even suppose to talk to customers - customer service is suppose to - but for some reason he asked me to talk to the customer about a situation. I explained at that point that I hated talking to customers, because I always mess it up - He called that an excuse. His next comment, "I was sitting here looking at that email asking myself, 'Does this girl have a brain?' ". Later on, a co-worker in sales, sends me a message on a social network. She explains how all the customer service reps heard the whole thing and cant believe I sat there taking it. Why do I take it? I do not have a college degree and even with one, I would never find a job that pays this well. After taking this for years now - How can I approach the owner of this company and ask that he stops this... Any ideas?

CE Marking - Forklift Trucks

mrkjmg — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 08:12:37 GMT

CE marking of Forklift Truck-
Why there is no EN standard (Harmonised standard) for FORKLIFT Trucks?

Can something be done on these ?

Dr. L. Ramakrishnan — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 12:50:20 GMT

I had been on a tour of Europe in the first of half of June 2012. I thought I should share some of my concerns/views arising out of this tour with others in this forum.

1. Beware of Pickpockets: Throughout the tour I was under stress thinking about pickpockets; I was personally affected by a petty thief in Amsterdam way back in 1997. More stories of pickpockets/thieves in London, Paris (my friend was robbed), Rome (my colleague lost his passport and money), Brussels, Amsterdam (my brother in-law lost his laptop; my colleague lost her bag containing money and passport), Florence, Venice and Milan had its effect on me. I was prepared for the worst after studying their modus operandi through Youtube footages. In spite of all precautions one of my tour members was stripped of his money (500 Euro) and passports of his entire family at Brussels. I know the "hell" he had gone through. In spite of police present in all the crowded places, such pick pocketing/thieving occurs regularly. Can't authorities in these countries do something about this menace?
2. In Madam Thussad's in London - the exhibition rooms are poorly lit; the floor is dark and one will not know (because of the crowd) that there are steps between the exhibit and the floor of the exhibition hall. I had seen many people stumbling and falling because of these steps, while trying to go near the exhibits. Because of the crowd one is not able to see the floor while moving towards the exhibits. Can something be done on this?
3. Hotels: Hotels have carpets covering the floor including steps. One cannot easily see that a step is there in front if the step height is low; the carpet gives a feeling of a plane/continuous surface and the result is tumbling and falling. At least these steps can be indicated by coloured strips.
4. Most of the hotels believe that their guests are the most intelligent people in the world who would understand how various gadgets work in the room; my experience is that by the time I come to know as to which switch is for which lamp it is time to check-out. There is no standardization of plumbing - is the left knob for hot or the right ? Should I pull the knob or push the knob for allowing water to flow ? How do I get the shower on; how do I adjust the temperature. Standardization will work for guests with average intelligence like me.

The comments about the hotels apply to all over the world.

You may have many more such observations to share.

Because I Didn't Go To College - I'm a Moron...

NikkiQSM — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:43:11 GMT

No... I really do not believe that title, but unfortunately, it is the feeling I get from my boss...

I started in Production here almost years ago... Worked my way up to the lab, and eventually became the Quality Control Manager.

I am now the Quality System Manager, focusing purely on our Quality Management System, ISO, and all of that good stuff.

I attended college a few times, but eventually I could no longer afford to continue to do it. I have 3 wonderful boys, and I could not sacrifice my time with them.

Every year when I get evaluated, my boss tells me, he wants me to get a degree. Over and over... I understand why he wants me to have one, it will look better for his business.

But he doesnt explain it that way. No, he doesnt call me a moron, but the constant need for me to get a degree is irritating.

I do a good job at what I do. Especcially for someone who never studied this type of business. I guess I just wish I was appreciated a bit more.:(

Communication Gaps... Grrrrr.....

NikkiQSM — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 14:37:17 GMT

:mad:

It truely annoys the heck out of me when I am excluded from issues / changes that directly affect my job.

Maybe it is because we are a small company ~40 employees. Maybe it is because our General Manager is gone constantly because he is out on sales trips all the time, and once he returns he is bombarded with questions, and depends on everyone else to communicate the answers with everyone else.

We had a quality issue not long ago which was related to our R&D Process. A formulation was used, without approval, and was produced. Come to find out the formulation was wrong anyways. Now I have 50# of material I am going to have to throw away.

I follow up with R&D this afternoon, looking for suggestions / ideas to improve our R&D process.

I get a response, "Oh, we already changed all of that... now we....yadda yadda yadda"...

Oh by all means, don't inform the girl who is responsible for updating the procedures. Lord knows I would have lost my mind if I was informed of the new process during an audit...

Grrrrrr.....

Communication Gaps just drive me bananas...:argue:

Whither Corporate Social Responsibility

Dr. L. Ramakrishnan — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 04:26:43 GMT

I have been thinking of writing on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for quite sometime. The subject now has many dimensions: philanthropy, strategic philanthropy, Sustainability, triple bottom-line, responsible business, ethics in business, governance, bribery and corruption, labour issues, discrimination and so on. To me CSR (Sustainability) is nothing but the management of issues arising out of the interaction between the organization and stakeholders for the long term (and sometimes short term) benefit of the organization. Ideally I would expect the modern business to improve its profitability while discharging its responsibilities to its stakeholders (e.g. on issues like environmental performance, improving livelihood of people around, improving working conditions, reducing discrimination etc.). Looking around (at least in India) I find that only an insignificant number of businesses bother about this so called strategic issue. I could see that even among those who project themselves as "responsible" the sincerity of approach is missing. It appears that the CEOs have not moved an inch from their archaic view (e.g. Milton Friedman) of "business of business is to maximize shareholder value". It appears that they have not learnt lessons from the past and the present on the consequences of neglecting other stakeholder "interphase" issues (e.g. Bhopal, Enron, Worldcom, Satyam, Siemen, Apple, BP, Exxon, Walmart, Nikie, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Vedanta, Posco, HP, Mittal, recently the 2G/telecommunication companies scam and just today Tatra). There appears to be a tendency to fit in "CSR" issues in the "business as usual" model; if it cannot be fitted in, the trend appears to be to manipulate the issue or to give a different colour to the issue (e.g. most of the times environmental issues are reduced to energy issues - Carbon footprint, GHG emissions etc., leaving the rest out of the discussion). Moving out of the "business as usual" is the CSR imperative.

It appears that CSR has been reduced to a public relations exercise for the big corporations; and for the smaller organizations it is yet to dawn on them that these are issues of importance if they want to grow and sustain. It appears that business and the CEO give a damn to such issues that may erode profit or reduce his bonus. Quarterly results appear to be more important than long term growth and results.

Long live CSR !

Language and Communication

somashekar — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:26:32 GMT

I have a doctor friend who is a Homoeopath, and a good guy at that. He manages two clinics at different times in a day. I got to meet him one evening and he was rather free and relaxed which was unusual to me. His clinic usually had people waiting. As I was talking with him at length, I inquired why his clinic is rather thin these days. This is what he had to tell me ~~~

A few months back he appointed a young girl to take calls and manage the front desk and she was expected to open the clinic at a specific time and keep things ready. He had the usual habit of not giving prior appointment and people got to see him on the first come first serve basis. Yet he had his clinic phone number put up on the board, and his prescriptions also had the clinic number for the patient or visitors need.

It is very common for people here to call the clinic and find out the doctor availability before visiting and the new appointed girl was informed about it. He had also clearly said that he does not give appointment and hence there are no prior appointments for visiting. So all is well and the girl started.

This girl was a native language speaker and her English was rather not good or what we refer as broken English. As days went by new and repeat patients call started to come in and typically the questions are :
1. Is the doctor there ?
2. Can we get an appointment ?
mostly asked in English though quite a few of them speak the local language called kannada.
So her answers began like ~~~
1. Is the doctor there ?
YES / NO (depends upon he being IN or OUT)
2. Can we get an appointment ?
NO APPOINTMENT
Can we get an appointment tomorrow ?
NO APPOINTMENT
and on and on and on .......
New patients not finding appointment did not come in and repeat patients got a feeling that the doctor is too busy, and looked at other means.
Months rolled by and the clinic began to get thin and thin and the doctor had no clue, until a repeat patient called one evening....
1. Is the doctor there ?
YES
2. Can we get an appointment ?
NO APPOINTMENT
3. What do you mean no appointment ? he had asked me to come today ?
OK THEN COME
and he came and checked with the doctor as to why this girl answers with a NO APPOINTMENT when ever he has called......

It was here and after 6 months did he realize the extent of damage caused by the girl without even she realizing it, all in the need of her to respond to callers in English, even when people have talked the native language over phone and she knowing the same.
He is still recovering, while he has sacked her and made sure that the next one who sits understands clearly and communicates clearly in the local language or English.

Trayvon Martin.

Ashley — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:51:28 GMT

Hello all!

This is my first post of this blog & I will be updating whenever I get the chance. It's going to be a bit of a random blog, pretty much my thoughts at the time & whatever happens to be going on in my life.

I guess for my first post, I'm gonna start on a topic that growing up in the 90's & 2000's I will never really completely understand.

This is mostly prompted by the murder of a young black man.

On Feb. 26th, in a gated community, Trayvon Martin, who was UNARMED, and 17 years old, was shot to death. Martin was shot by a "neighborhood watch captain," George Zimmerman, who was not arrested after the shooting. Martin was walking back to his fathers house after purchasing candy & an iced tea at a local convenience store. Zimmerman was patrolling the neighborhood in his car and called 911 and reported "a real suspicious guy." He also added "this guy looks like he's up to no good, or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about."

Zimmerman continued to follow Martin around even after the dispatcher said he did not need to. Martin reportedly wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, jeans, and white sneakers, carrying nothing but a bag of skittles & iced tea, was shot to death because he "looked suspicious."

Many people, including myself, believe that Martin was targeted because of the color of his skin. I truly believe that if Trayvon Martin was white, and George Zimmerman was black, Zimmerman would have been arrested and not just questioned. As of my knowledge, Zimmerman has still NOT been arrested; even with the witnesses & the tape from the 911 call.

I believe that Trayvon Martin deserves justice.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20...rney-announces

http://globalgrind.com/news/michael-...hotos-pictures

Ashley

Release date for 60601-2-24

meddevsd — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:16:42 GMT

Does anybody know the expected release date for the particular standard 60601-2-24 (infusion pumps)? I heard it is possible it could be released in couple of months....

What is problem solving?

ccochran — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 20:05:00 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AEIBEyjGBs&

This is an excerpt from my Effective Problem Solving e-learning course. This segment is entitled "What is problem solving?" and it provides a basic overview of problem solving, including the nature of causes, the fallacy of a single root cause, and the need to match corrective actions to the most significant causes.

The Power of Power

Chennaiite — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 04:18:27 GMT

That was the first time since I started my 9-year old career, I realized what it takes to be Powerless. It was the second day of the three days of ISO/TS audit. In the morning hours, before the Auditors stepped in, a communication mail popped up in the inbox. It was an information of a change in Auditor team as one of them who was supposed to visit was replaced by another.

What really stopped me for a moment was the name of the new Auditor. Yes, it looked quite familiar to me and with little bit of rewind, I was spot on. It was the same Gentleman who used to answer my queries however stupid and silly they are, just because he represented an Organization that had a Business relationship as a Supplier with the one I represented. I was then a Customer responsible for upgrading the Quality System of this Supplier Organization where my Auditor once belonged to. Somewhere I also remembered a personal mail from the Gentleman informing me of joining a Certification body. More than a Customer-Supplier, we did share a friendly relationship, so was the case with all the Suppliers I managed (Boast intended).

As I remained frozen with thoughts of those days, with a light jerk from a colleague I came into reality to the second day of our Audit. I was curious to meet my Auditor-turned-Supplier and was awaiting the first tea break without wanting to disturb the most Powerful person inside our campus on that particular day.

To my pleasant surprise, he hugged me and even introduced me to my other colleagues as his own mentor who taught so much about Quality, thanks to his humility. Our colleagues around wanted me to co-ordinate Audit for the rest of his session, probably wanting to take undue advantage, if any, of our familiarity. Of course, the Auditor was very friendly towards me and never portrayed an ego of a normal Auditor. With others, he was Auditor as usual. For the time period I was inside the room as a coordinator, I really felt the role reversal and change of Power. I realized what it takes to be Powerful and what it takes to be powerless.

I told myself, hey be an Auditor, or a Customer at Supplier end, or own a Business, lot of Power go with these.

Are you a Ramanujan?

Dr. L. Ramakrishnan — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 05:58:00 GMT

I am not a mathematician. Reading a book on Ramanujan, the great mathematician of the 20th Century, even I have been motivated to brush up my algebra. Whether you are a mathematician or not the book: "The man who knew infinity: A life of the Genius Ramanujan" by Robert Kanigel (first published in 1991) will perhaps interest you for its simple explanations on various mathematical principles. I was thrilled (being a non-mathematician) with this simple algebraic puzzle which proves 2 = 1 that the author describes to demonstrate how "Proof" is important for any theorem. .:

Let
a = b
multiply both sides by a
a2=ab
add (a2-2ab) to both the sides
a2 + (a2-2ab) = ab +(a2-2ab)
simplify
2a2 � 2 ab = a2 � ab
rearrange
2 (a2 � ab) = 1 (a2 � ab)
2 (a2 � ab)/ (a2 � ab) = 1
2 = 1

Obviously 2 is NOT equal to 1. Where is the catch ?

To me it is interesting because many times we stumble upon impossibles and wonder how we arrived at such impossibles. If only we have a thorough understanding of the subject matter we will not; our ignorance probably puts us at a disadvantage when we come across such absurd results.

If we are all Ramanujans probably most of us will find out the fallacy in the argument or in our decision making process. As lower mortals many continue to believe the possibility of the impossible.

External Audit re-defined

Chennaiite — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 06:10:24 GMT

External Audit is a hide-and-seek type conversation between two professionals whose Organization have a unique Business relation between them in which case, unusually the Customer is screwed, nailed or sometimes even brutally hammered.:lol:

Without wanting to disturb the currently active thread that discusses an attempt to re-define audit, I wanted to express my creativity:D

FMEA for Business Process

Chennaiite — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 03:56:11 GMT

Such is the appetite towards FMEA (AIAG type) in our Organization :sarcasm: that one guy desperately wanted to conduct FMEA for a Business Process. I failed in my attempt to convince him of adapting a much simpler brainstorming session to identify risk and actionable items.

The objective of the process is Knowledge sharing among design groups through a portal where the designers can upload their knowledge material/design standards for other designers to use (we have some 1000 designers under the roof). The risk involved in the process ranges from losing confidentiality to wrong knowledge transfer, etc. Finally, we ended up doing FMEA with customised rating criteria and prioritized the actions.

It (FMEA) really is an activity worth doing, provided the objective is understood.

Anna Hazare for the NOBEL Prize

Dr. L. Ramakrishnan — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 04:31:10 GMT

I was toying with the idea of writing this blog for a few days now. This subject, although India related, may be of interest to people all over the world. After a lot of internal debate within me I thought I should write a SHORT blog on the subject.

In this world where we see violence everywhere, a "silent" non-violent revolution had taken place in India. When people came to the street in Egypt and Libya, there have been violent clashes between the people and those in authority. For the last about 15 days India had been witnessing a 74 year old man, Anna Hazare, and his team fighting the mighty Indian Government to table a bill on Corruption (Jan Lokpal Bill) in the Parliament (by the way, India ranks 87th with a score of 3.3 in the Transparency International's corruption Index 2010). After exhausting all the regular avenues like petitioning, representing, discussing with the Government on the subject finally Anna Hazare went on "Fasting unto Death" (even though he called it Fasting to press for his demands) to press the Government to Act. He got un-precedented support from all over India from the young and the old, the rich and the poor and from people from all professions, cutting across all the religious barriers. As the days passed the crowds started swelling and the Government, which acted stupid and in bad faith in the beginning, realized that it had to act. Only those who had dealt with Government Departments in India will know the lethargy of and corruption in the Government and its departments. By the 11th day of the fast, the Government moved and moved a resolution in both the houses of the parliament to address the issues raised by Anna Hazare. The old man, who was cheerful in spite of the fasting for over 11 days finally ended his fast on the 12 th day (28 August 2011) after the assurance from the Government to consider the Jan Lokpal Bill (along with other versions available to it) to formulate a strong Anti-Corruption Law in India. This movement shows that still we are able to sort out issues in non-violent ways in democracies where people's representatives at time behave as though they are immune to people's needs. It also shows that democracies survive by listening to the people's will in spite of lethargy and bad governance.

In this world full of violence Anna Hazare has shown that Mahatma Gandhi's principle of Ahimsa (non-violence) still works to voice people's concerns; he has shown that we can achieve our objectives collectively without violence. In my opinion he deserves the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE this year.

Women in Employment - the Indian Situation

Dr. L. Ramakrishnan — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 05:36:28 GMT

Certain issues in the society affect me so much that I get upset. I am upset that I am unable to help improve the situation. One such issue is the employment of women in business, especially in India (probably the situation is almost similar elsewhere too). One of the discussion threads in the main Forum triggered off my present discomfort. I though I should share with you a part of the Conference Paper that I presented last year at the Women's Christian College, Chennai, to highlight the issue of employment of women in India. Here is the relevant extract:

Employment of Women & Other Diversity issues

The information on employment of women in the Indian Business Organizations does not show that the �equal opportunity employer� policy has been effectively implemented across various sectors of Industry.

The ICT companies report a healthy representation of women among their employees (Infosys: 33.4 %; TCS: 30 %; Wipro: 25.6 %); even in these companies the representation of women at the Board Level or Senior Management level is abysmally low (0-5 %). The % of women employees goes down as they move up the management ladder. For example, WIPRO Technologies reports that for the year 2007-2008, 32 % of Associates, 10.75 % of Middle level Managers, 9.34 % of Senior Managers, 4.04 % of Top level Managers were women. In WIPRO Infotech, the corresponding numbers are:13.34 %, 6.03 %, 3.12 %, 0.0 %

Technology Companies appear to employ more women; for example Dr. Reddy�s Laboratories reports that 1/3 of all new recruitments are women (2008-2009). Similarly Jubilant Organosys reports that significant proportion of executives in different businesses of the company is women (varies from 8.0 % to 59.0 % in different businesses).

The percentage of women among the employees in most of the traditional sector companies is much below 10 %; Table 2 provides information on the women employees as a percentage of the total employees in some of the Indian companies.

Company Women employees (%)
Sterlite Industries 12.91 %
SIDBI 10.51 %
Reliance Industries Ltd. 09.00 %
Larsen & Toubro Ltd. 06.00 %
Tata Motors 02.81 %
MSPL 02.22 %
Jain Irrigation 02.08 %
ACC 01.88 %
Grasim Cement 01.50 %

Table 2. Women employees as % of total employees

Most of the women are employed in the lower echelons of management and staff. Women�s representation at the Board and senior management Level in these companies is zero or negligible.

Table 3 provides information on the percentage of women at different levels of the organization from a few sample companies.

Sterlite Grasim ACC
Contractor / Worker 1.85 % 0.4 % 1.1 %
Executive 12.37 % 2.14 %
Middle Management 14.95 % 2.35 % 4.25%
Senior Management 1.61 % 0.89 % 2.15%
Top Management 0.0 % 0.0 % 1.5 %

Table 3: Percentage of Women among employees at different levels in some traditional sector industries (2007-2008)

It appears that women progress up to the Middle Management without much hurdle and most of them stagnate there (this is also true for male employees).

The ICT companies appear to be following the policy of equal opportunity employers; the traditional sector industries (e.g. Larsen & Toubro, Tata Motors, Jubilant etc.) also claim that there is no discrimination in basic pays of male and female employees. But these claims have not been backed by data as required by the GRI guidelines. Only ACC has provided data on the average salaries of male and female employees at different levels in the organization (Table 4)
Average Male Salary per Year (Rs.) Average Female Salary per year (Rs.)
Entrance Level 3,43,535 3,43,666
Middle Level 6,51,039 6,19,637
Top/Senior Level 26,36,031 13,98,594

Table 4: Variations in salaries of male and female employees

Almost all the other sampled companies claim that there is no difference in the salaries of male and female employees, without providing any verified data. This issue, therefore, requires further probing.

Despite the low level of employment of women in Indian companies, no company has an explicitly stated target for increasing their proportion in their employment and at the top management level. In the researchers� opinion, �inclusive growth� cannot be achieved without giving proper representation of women at different levels in the business organization.
There appears to be no special effort, except in the case of ITC Hotels, to facilitate the employment of diverse groups in the society. ITC Hotels reports employment of 134 people with disability through a formal company programme (2008-2009).

Jain irrigation reports employment of 8.5 % of minority community; it is not clear from its Sustainability Report if this has been achieved in a planned manner. 36.7 % of SIDBI employees are from the disadvantaged sections of the Society; there are 15 people with disabilities in employment in SIDBI.

Unless companies take conscious policy decisions and set targets for employment of diverse disadvantaged groups, it will be left to PSUs to fight a lonely battle in this area.[/I]

I believe that the situation, especially with respect to top management, is the same throughout the world. The average % of women at the Board Level is likely to be less than 5 %. I am not sure if such a situation is sustainable !

The "Downside" of Employee Engagement

hogheavenfarm — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:25:38 GMT

RE: Quality Progress Article �Reason to Smile�, January 2011 , Author Tom Becker

Summary - Employee engagement through challenges , � career development� , in the workplace can make a company more productive through increased retention rates, improved morale, and a sense of �ownership� and value.

This was a great article on one of my favorite topics ,but I felt some things were left out

Caveat, by Tim Behr , HMW CQM/OE

Being a Quality Manager, I have had the opportunity to work closely with Human Resources on this very idea in a few former companies. The thing QM�s learn very early, is that employee engagement is a critical factor in the success of the company, and more directly, in the success of the quality structure of the company.
While the concept makes infinite sense to the quality professional and the human resources people, management tends to balk when the plans are put into action.

Training is always an area that gets the focus, as it is easily discerned and communicated through management.
Lack of training, or poor training programs are probably the biggest single quality issue in a majority of small to mid size companies.
Larger companies generally have the resources available to perform training in a more effective way.
Smaller companies tend to budget the training resources very tightly.
In a smaller company, sending workers off site for seminars and hands on workshops invariably means personnel shortages on the production floor, or in lower to middle management. This could also mean poorer quality and lower production as key people are temporarily replaced with workers unfamiliar with the job at hand.
In-house training has many of the same pitfalls, and may have even worse consequences, depending upon whether the trainer is brought in from off-site, or the company utilizes in-house �experts� to conduct the training, depriving the company of the best qualified people along with those to be trained.

So, how does one present such a plan?

The upside is fairly obvious, better retention rates, multi-skilled employees, and improved morale. Sounds like it cannot lose, right?
All too often, we as quality people see only a limited scope of the bigger picture.
The powers that be usually see a different landscape.
A bit of SWOT analysis will show that even in a rosy picture like this, there are hidden dangers to the company as a whole.
Let�s look closer.
Better retention means less turnover, which means your existing employees become better at their jobs, and are cross trained and given more responsibility. They build up a larger reservoir of knowledge which also assists the company.

On the minus side, this works. Less turnover means less work for HR, less budget for all that advertising, medical checks, drug screens, and processing.
In two previous companies, HR went to part time. In a third, they were combined with finance. Still good for the company, bad for HR.
But wait, there�s more.
Now the much better educated and skilled employees require more compensation. If it is not forthcoming, those employees will now market those newly acquired skills to someone else, leading to a loss of skill and acquired knowledge. Bad for the company, better for HR, they can start all over again.

And more.
There is an expense, as discussed previously associated with this training. Loss of product quality, loss of skilled employee time while being trained, and possible loss of key skilled employee time as they assist in training.
So the company has paid to train, suffered production time and quality loss, and in the end, loses the now highly trained employee to the competition.
With operating budgets on a shoestring , it is a tough sell for quality or human resources people to get past this immediate reaction from management .

It can be done , but it requires a more detailed plan which must include continued retention as well as covering potential reductions in quality and production.

Having covered the �Strengths� and �Threats� with the SWOT analysis, there are two areas left to fill in, �Opportunity� and �Weaknesses�.
These are where we must concentrate, for they hold the key to success or failure.

The opportunities are obvious. Increased company knowledge , a staff of experts, soaring morale, little to no turnover.
A company like that has a great shot a success , even if they only made concrete life preservers!

The weakness is also obvious, but rarely addressed.
This �career building� needs to be carefully planned.
Using �experts� to train others involves some risk. Risk to quality level, risk to production volume, risk to personnel due to injury while training, etc. Managing that risk is critical.
How do you prevent highly skilled people from leaving?
This must be addressed also, however you do it, it must be creative. There is no magic system to follow. Every company is different.
The point is, this is the most critical part of the plan, and without addressing it thoroughly, is why these initiatives often fail.

ISO-9001 Certification - Exploitation of tiny organizations

Dr. L. Ramakrishnan — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 08:07:26 GMT

In the last two months I have come across at least two ISO-9001 certified organizations that make me upset over the unethical practices of the so called consultants and certification agencies.

In both the cases, the organizations have "gone for" the ISO-9001 certification as they had to fulfill certain requirements to be recognized for carrying out work for the Government. They are tiny organizations, mostly driven by the owner-technocrat with a few (< 5) permanent employees. While the owner-technocrat is good in his subject area, his/her knowledge of Quality Management System is almost nil. Hence he depends on an external "expert" to guide him to fulfill the requirement to get the specific work from the Government.

In the first case, the organization has got ISO-9001 certificate from an accredited agency. The manual though contained references to stocking of pumps, pipes, starters etc., which were not relevant to the consultancy organization; obviously it was a poor "cut and paste" job. The tiny organization, including the owner, does not know anything about ISO-9001 or its requirement. Their only relationship with ISO-9001 is the QMS Manual. The Owner does not know the salient features of his QMS Policy. None of the employees has had any training in ISO 9001 or none had any communication on the policy and procedures. The organization did not carry out any QMS internal audit and has not been subjected any certification audit. But it has a "valid" ISO-9001 certification by an accredited certification agency.

In the second case, the story is almost similar. The sequence of events is slightly different. First the organization was issued the ISO-9001 certification by the Certification Agency; then the certification agency provided the client with a manual without any second/third/fourth tier documents. The tiny organization is under the impression that they had got the certification and that they got it because they have a manual (which incidentally was prepared by Certification agency). The organization was certain that they fulfilled the requirements of the Government Department for work in the specific subject area. They had already paid the required fee to the consultant as soon as the consultant had given them the "Certificate".

I am afraid, I will come across many more such tiny organizations in the near future; I am sure for every one such organization that I had come across we will have 100s of similar organizations which I had no opportunity to visit and assess.

I see an exploitation of those who have little/no knowledge of ISO-9001 (or QMS) by the so called consultants and certification agencies.

How do we address this issue and save the tiny organizations from these exploiters ?

Gentlemen Terrorists!

Dr. L. Ramakrishnan — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:57:50 GMT

"The captain has switched on the "fasten your seat belt" sign; please switch off all the electronic equipments; please switch off your mobile phones" - this is an usual announcement whenever a flight takes off or lands.

Often I see people still using their mobile phones, in spite of repeated requests over the PA, when the plane has started moving. I have also seen that air-hostesses requesting the passenger to switch off ...but the gentleman passenger does not bother about the request. He often goes on speaking on the phone until the request is repeated many times. He switches his phone off with a lot of anger in his face - he is doing a favour to the air crew !. Often, sitting next to him I shiver in fear; if using the phone during "take off and touch-down" is a safety issue, what happens if this gentleman uses the phone during these phases. Am I going to be a victim of an air-crash because of his stupidity ?

How do we handle these terrorists in the garb of gentlemen ?

Funny true story...but don't look for a moral in it or anything... Part 2

bobdoering — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:02:13 GMT

But wait...there's more!

So, this morning I am driving into work. The speedometer has gone back to napping at 0 mph. About have way to work, I look down and I see the speedometer at 60 mph. Now, I was going faster than that (per my GPS) and it was on 60 mph but not really responding to any speed change. I figured: "Oh, well." A little later I look down, and it is pegged at 120 mph. Now, had that been true, I would have thought I'd be passing somebody.

But....that is not the scary part.

A few blocks from work, I look down again and.....it was at the correct speed and it was responding correctly to speed changes.:eek:

I dunno....

Attached Thumbnails

My 'Lean' experience

hogheavenfarm — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 13:49:56 GMT

A recent occurrence at my job prompted this musing, and it took me awhile to get my thoughts down, but here is what happened.
Our company has been suffering, like so many others during these past few years, trying to maintain production and staying operational. We have been through a few staff reduction periods, some hire-backs now and then, but largely remaining static. Then our Purchasing guy left, hence the sudden and forced application of �Lean�. Now everyone, in every department, is �responsible� for ordering their own items, as we will not be replacing our purchaser, (running lean).
Needless to say, only two weeks in, everything is a disaster. Items are arriving that we cannot identify , (who ordered pizza?),:notme: there is no paperwork for receiving to know what to expect, etc.
It was this application of �Lean� that started me on this thought path, and here is what I found.

It seems to be a common understanding among CEO�s that �Lean� means �doing more with less�. By �doing more�, they understand it to mean �producing the same amount� and picking up some cost savings through reduced unit costs.
�Less� generally means less fixed costs, which almost always means �less people�.
Let me be clear however, in my experience with several companies, increased profit was never the driving motive, instead they were trying to offset rising variable costs, (fuel, electricity, etc) with a reduced fixed cost (personnel). If a little extra profit came from it, so much the better.
Most were driven by a need to remain viable, not to generate more profit.

Lean, and all improvement concepts in general, utilize a basic law of thermodynamics. Things go from an organized state to a disorganized state without the application of an external energy. :read:
To begin a Lean Journey in a disorganized factory requires the application of energy, and energy in CEO-speak means �money�.
Unfortunately , Lean has been sold as a cheap, or free, concept to the management community. If it hasn�t been packaged that way, then management has an interpretation problem. It�s either one or the other.

Some CEO�s are confused by the combination �Lean/ Six Sigma�. Six Sigma has done a much better job in advertising, and most of top management is aware that it will cost them some money. They accept that, since a Six Sigma project is quite targeted, has anticipated expenses already worked up, and a fairly good idea of the cost savings which have been analyzed by �real� financial people in the organization. In addition, the improvements made are generally targeted towards increased production through new equipment, layout, etc. This is easily cost justified in a Six Sigma project.
Lean tends to be applied more globally across the company. As such, anticipated expenses are harder to estimate, (What? Applying Lean will cost me money?):mad:, and projected savings are even harder to quantify. This is why top management tends to view Lean as a personnel reduction tool, at least they can quantify that.
The fact is Lean and Six Sigma both will have costs to implement, one is not the opposite of the other.

I have heard many terms for this misapplication of Lean.
Fake-Lean
Pretend-Lean
Lean Lite
I propose �AntiLean�, which is usually the end result. As I have seen Lean applied, the target was to reduce manpower requirements not by becoming more efficient, but by spreading the work of one or more eliminated positions among the remainder of the company. This has generally resulted in a worsening company culture, where the employees are the targets, leading to serious morale problems. What is worse, these eliminated employees are frequently involved in implementing the very scheme that will cost them their jobs.
Lean looks bad at the floor level. Since the factory floor receives very little training in Lean concepts, what they see is what they get.

Until the realities of Lean are adequately advertised and understood, we all need to be ambassadors of the truth. Nothing is �free�. Not even quality (sorry Crosby), because producing quality requires an input of energy. Without that energy there is disorganization and chaos. We in the quality profession know firsthand that is it frequently our own energy that keeps the quality at the current level, and how well we communicate that energy to others makes a very big difference.

:cool:
Disclaimer: I have worked for several companies over that past 12 years, mostly small to mid-size, all privately owned, (read 5-150 employees, and to 40m). I know this can make a big difference in company culture and the way they operate. My views and thoughts here only reflect my dealings with these companies, not everyone in general. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this, to see the �variation� among companies and types.

Funny true story...but don't look for a moral in it or anything...

bobdoering — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 23:59:25 GMT

All right, so I run into this problem with my car, right? The speedometer stops working. So, I'm thinking its the vehicle speed sensor. What the heck, it's only $20 , and some jabroni on the internet said one bolt, goodbye. He didn't even need to jack it up. So, I get this thing, jack the car up the to moon, crawl under it and start in on the job. I get the nut out - which should be a good sign - usually I torque their heads right off. Then I try to get the bugger out. No chance. the plastic part busts right off, the metal part is stuck in there. You got this so far? So, I get a guy I know to tow it to his house and busts his marbles trying to get the sensor replaced. He gets that done, messes with all kinds of wires, still can't find out what's on the speedometer's mind.

So, I get fed up driving while guessing my speed, and I go to Wal-Mart and get a Garmin GPS on sale. Not a bad deal. Cheapest one I could find. I go outside, pry it out of its box (luckily I had my Swiss Army knife), plug it in, let it find its satellites, and start driving. It does pretty good - it has a screen with just a speedometer and compass and stuff on it. So, right them I'm pretty happy I got something working...when I noticed....of all things....the real car speedometer starts working...all on its own.

What the heck? :rolleyes:

Lean QMS

psyched1 — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:32:32 GMT

I am into my sixth implementation of an ISO based Quality System with a very small company (50 employees). Every employee has their own job responsibilities so additional requirements must be value added to create buy in. The system must remove any waste at all and meet the requirements.

I have reduced the Quality Manual to 7 pages but now I am looking at reducing procedures from 20 to 9. see attached Audit Matrix.xls Realizing there are a lot of Pros and Cons on this I would like to get others opnions.

Additionally I would like to know how others have incorporated lean concepts into their QMS.

Thanks

Advanced MSA of Continuous Data - Part 1: Within Part Variation

Miner — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 22:00:43 GMT

This is the eleventh in a series of articles on MSA, and the first in advanced MSA topics. The focus of this article will be on how to handle within product variation (WIV).

WIV is significant variation in the form of a product. Significant means that it detectable by your measurement device. Examples of variation in form include shaft diameter variation due to lobes, or a taper/barrel/hourglass shape; thickness variation due to parallelism and more.

WIV can have a significant impact on the acceptability of a measurement system. While technically part of the product not the measurement system, it definitely impacts the measurement system. It cannot be isolated using the standard AIAG Gage R&R study, but requires a special approach. The AIAG MSA manual touches on this and presents a Range method for calculating the WIV effect. I show an ANOVA approach that allows an evaluation of all of the interactions with WIV.

When I first decided to start this blog, I planned to demonstrate it using Minitab's General Linear Model (GLM). Fortunately, the new Minitab 16 made this easier with the Expanded Gage R&R Study feature. Note: Everything I show here can be duplicated with earlier versions of Minitab using GLM. The graphs must be created using the Graph commands and some creativity, and the metrics will have to be calculated by storing results and manually performing the calculations.

You can follow along by opening the attached PDF file.

First, determine whether WIV is a potential issue. You may know this already from process knowledge, or suspect it from high Repeatability variation or an Operator*Part interaction.
Create a Gage Study worksheet. Either copy the format used in the attachment, or use Minitab to create a full factorial design for 3 factors.
Identify specific locations on the product to be measured by all operators. These can be selected at random or by design. If selected by design, this must be entered as a Fixed factor into Minitab.
Perform study
Analyze following the attached file. I recommend starting with all factors and 2-way interactions in the model. Review the p-values and remove all 2-way interactions with p-values greater than 0.05. If all interactions involving the Operator are removed, then look at the p-value for the Operator. If the Operator p-value is greater than 0.05, remove it also.
Interpret the Session Window the same as a standard MSA for %SV, %Tol, etc.
Interpret Graph1 the same as a standard MSA.
Create Graph2 and interpret similar to Graph1. You will see two new graphs, the Measurement by WIV graph and the Part * WIV graph. The Measurement by WIV graph shows differences in the location measured on the part, and the interaction shows whether this location to location difference varies by part.

Now that you understand the impact of WIV on your measurement system, what do you do with that knowledge? It depends.

If the WIV varies randomly on the product (i.e., it is unpredictable), you cannot prevent it from affecting your measurement system. You can recognize it as part of your total variance equation (acknowledgements to bobdoering), but it will always affect your measurements.

If the WIV is predictable by location, you can take this into account and improve your R&R results by specifying measurement locations in your work instructions.

Last advice: Although it is possible to remove the effects of WIV from your R&R results, SPC and capability results, it will still have an impact on function. For example, a shaft with lobes may not fit a bearing correctly, so beware.

Attached Files: 1. Scan for viruses before using, 2. Please report any 'bad' files by Reporting this post, 3. Use at your Own Risk.

How to Perform WIV MSA.pdf (855.9 KB, 440 views)

Purchasing Procedure - Review appreciated

pharmarton — Mon, 09 May 2011 08:44:45 GMT

The company for the last 5 years, is manufacturing only prototypes, and the numbers of suppliers was huge, in order to narrow the the number of controls and measurements for the suppliers, the company made this classification. But we don't have any formal process or instruction to prove this selection.

They use the definition;
Key Supplier: Those supplier with high volume of production or expensive parts Included Customer Specified Supplier.

Do you think that we have to identify in better manner the classification of such suppliers?
Thank you for your feedback.

Going back to the industry

arios — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 14:06:02 GMT

In two more weeks God willing I will be leaving my consulting business and part time 3rd party Auditing work, since I accepted a position in QA with a local company.

The consulting work was challenging, and very nice but it was implying too much travel and my family felt they needed more of my time.

I will miss my clients but will no longer miss my family as when I was on the road. They are my priority.

Affirmations - the theory in practice

hogheavenfarm — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 01:22:27 GMT

Sorry I had to link this out, but I cannot place the illustrations in a blog here, and I couldn't do it all that well in this blog either, but I linked to the photo gallery (in the blog) for those interested.

I mentioned this briefly in a previous blog on 'Taking the ASQ Certification Tests', so I felt a more detailed explanation should be forthcoming.

http://hogheavenfarm.webs.com/apps/blog/

:popcorn:

My winding Career path - QP article

hogheavenfarm — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:55:49 GMT

Perspectives:Quality in the First Person
QP

Quality in the First Person
2011

Quality Progress / 2011 March

QUALITY IN THE FIRST PERSON
A Winding Career Path
An entrepreneur works his way into quality

by Tim Behr

Career paths can sometimes change quite unexpectedly. Some people take great care in steering their career development, only to learn that factors beyond their control can have a greater influence on life.

I graduated high school and went directly into the workforce at 18. My first job lasted almost 12 years, so it must have been a good fit for me. At that job, I worked for a surveying firm, where I had hands-on learning opportunities. I understood concepts, but my math skills had always been weak.

Growing up, my parents always stressed entrepreneurship with their children�we sold eggs, fishing worms, old bottles and anything we could find at various flea markets and antique shops throughout our childhood years. This drive to have an independent business was hard-wired into us.
Independence day

After 12 years at the surveying firm, my independent streak took over, and I left a good, stable job at the civil engineering firm to strike it rich on my own. I purchased two tow trucks and opened a towing business.

At first, things progressed well. Not long after, however, the recession of the early 1990s arrived, and the revenue from the towing operations dried up. On top of the recession, the state imposed much tougher rules on the towing industry, which drove smaller operators out of business.

So, I sold the trucks and went to work for a condominium complex as a maintenance manager (anything to pay the bills). Here, my future career began to develop, although I didn�t see it coming at the time.

One of my dreaded duties at the complex was running the water supply. This required a complicated chlorination system in three wells with a huge storage tank. Every day, chlorine levels needed to be checked, pumps cleaned, records kept, wells switched and pressure maintained. It was a dirty, smelly job, made worse when I learned the condominium actually paid an outside person to perform this job (who clearly wasn�t doing it).

At this time, I learned the value of a certification. Six months later, I became a certified water systems operator and proudly submitted my quote for performing this job. Unfortunately, it was three times higher than the current operator.

I learned a lesson that still holds true: Those who don�t understand what�s involved in producing a quality product or service undervalue it. I worked at the condominiums for four years, obtaining two certifications in water supply and distribution, and an armed guard license. By now, I believed in casting a wide net.
Having a ball

At this time in my life, I was the proud father of a 15-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter, and I was anxious to pass on my childhood experience of entrepreneurship to them. My son enjoyed playing paintball, and we talked of opening a paintball store. I knew of a small storefront available, and we were in business one credit card bill later.

The year was 1997, and paintball was all the rage, allowing us to move to a bigger facility a year later. Here, another twist of fate intervened�a paintball company asked me to evaluate some of their products that were experiencing some quality issues. I did a full evaluation and published the findings on the internet.

A few years later, in 1999, paintball was fading fast. My son had his driver�s license now and was working elsewhere. I closed the store in early 2000 and offered myself to any company I could find.

I was in luck�the quality control inspector at a nearby extrusion plant had just left for another job, and someone was needed in a hurry. My engineering background made me the best qualified candidate, so there I was�a quality control inspector overnight.

There, I burned, melted, twisted and dented windows, doors, fence posts and everything else we produced. I was introduced to statistical process control, which my boss patiently taught me. Some of the math I had difficulty with in school started to make sense.

Though I held a quality title, I still didn�t see quality as a career. But, at about that time, I discovered Juran�s Quality Handbook on a dusty shelf during my last year at the plant. That book changed the course of my life. I learned there was so much more involved than just inspecting parts.
Next steps

Quality was a personal commitment to excellence, and it was something I felt strongly about. Production started to slow and the plant was sold twice while I was there. By now, I knew the warning signs of a fading business, so, for the first time, I started looking for a job in the quality field.

I was hired a short time later to work in the quality department of a modular home-manufacturing facility. While learning the ropes there, I thought it important that I identify myself with quality. I joined ASQ and officially became a member of a recognized quality organization.

Shortly after, I learned about the organization�s various certifications, and a whole new world opened up. I was amazed at the variety and depth the quality universe encompassed. There were so many opportunities!
Certification crazy

I resolved to become certified in as many disciplines as I could. While I was at the modular home manufacturer, I obtained four ASQ certifications in three years: certified quality technician, quality improvement associate, quality inspector and Six Sigma Green Belt.

Then the economy intervened once again, and the housing market began its decline. There were more warning signs, so I was back to job searching. This time, however, I was prepared. I was still employed, so I floated my r�sum� and waited for a bite. Several months later, a machine shop with railroad industry products approached me, and, after some deliberation, I once again opted for a new direction.

Only in the quality field can you employ such diverse backgrounds as extrusion, processing, construction, building codes and manufacturing. I have been in this particular industry more than two years now. Along the way, I picked up another three ASQ certifications: certified quality process analyst, manager of quality/organizational excellence and calibration technician. My goal is to obtain another two or three certifications.
Still going

After 10 years of working directly in quality, I still find it amazing to see the number of positions and areas of expertise available. The diversity is exhilarating, the challenges are frequent, and the opportunities are vast.

Each piece of new technology introduces fresh prospects. We now have quality specialists in every niche, and as new regulations and standards appear, more new positions become available. It is certainly a growing field that offers something for anyone who is willing to jump in.

Someday, I might consider becoming a consultant. Then, my lifelong ambition of independent entrepreneurship will meet up with my career once again.

Tim Behr is a quality assurance manager in regulatory compliance at Hudson Machine Works Inc. in Brewster, NY. He is an ASQ member and a certified calibration technician, quality process analyst, manager of quality/organizational excellence, mechanical inspector, quality manager, quality technician and quality improvement associate.