Do your own standard - I felt it was only fair to submit my own

[J Oliphant]

After several recent critiques of other's submissions, I felt it was only fair to submit my own.

I am hopeful this article seems simple yet straitforward. I will be quick to point out one thing-- I think the article does not quite have enough details.

I have been quick to critique and I hope others will take the same advantage.
Jay

[Craig H.]

Oliphant:

Nice work! I would argue, though, that ISO 9001 does force us to design many parts of the QMS within the framework of the standard. We even had an interesting thread a while ago started by a new quality person who complained that the standard was not prescriptive enough (imagine).

You do hint at this in the last few paragraphs. I would be tempted to include reference to the tendancy of some organizations to stop at just what will get them a certification. Using a little creativity, with or without the standard, is the key, IMO, to reaping the real benefits of a QMS, benefits which are much greater than those arising from the ability to trumpet "we are certified!!!"

Anyhow, I agree that some "fleshing out" is in order, but it is one heck of a good start.

Craig H.

[Govind]

Jay,
Good work for a first attempt.

I liked your paragraph on :
"Eliminate fear, lack of communication and quotas and replace with leadership and employee involvement
Your employees can either work for you or against you. An atmosphere of fear cannot lead to excellence; nor can distrust and suspicion. It’s the employees that work with the basic processes that are you best asset. They are the ones whom see most clearly what goes wrong and what could be done better. Win them over by investing in them; give them training, and incentives for good ideas. Bring them on the teams that furfill improvement projects and allow them to spell out their ideas. Remember quotas and numerical targets can hold back performance or create discouragement, as in almost all cases it’s the process that limits the quality or quantity of your product. Personnel should be fostered and allowed to gravitate to area where they perform best."

It would have given you more weightage, if you had quoted Dr.Deming. The above paragraph align with Dr.Deming's Principle: 6,8 and 11.

*** DEAD LINK REMOVED ***

There are many staunch Dr.Deming's followers in this forum. They may have more information to add to my comments.

Driving out fear is a very important principle from Dr.Deming. This is also key for knowledge management. In today's world, we see people within the organization who withhold information and make the organization depend on them. People move between positions, don't record or document key findings of processes, just to keep the importance alive and many more...

All these are going back to Dr.Deming's principle, Drive out Fear.

Regards,
Govind.

[Charmed]

Dear Oliphant:

Short and sweet!

You have provided a nice summary of the "best" of various quality teachings. Let me highlight some important points though.

Need to connect to upper management, and that means simplifying the technical and emphasizing how well it fits the company culture.

Need a standard that is important to your business and company. ISO merely requires a minimum of good habits to ensure good product comes out.

Just because you haven’t discovered some basic fundamental law of quality doesn’t mean you should stoop to mindless copying. You can win in the marketplace by being the best You that you can be.
Charmed