The Original "Introductions" Thread started in 2001 and split off October 2009

[Rob Nix]

Welcome to the Cove Kelly and Donna. We hope to be hearing more from you.

Donna, difficulty in "obtaining upper management support" and tackling improvement projects "single-handedly" is a constant in this industry - you're not alone. Also, I worked at a company that built transmission test stands, and vibration analysis (which I have some training in) was part of the Quality department. Your expertise in vibration may come in handy here at the Cove. If you regularly check in here perhaps you can help some of us with our questions.

 

[lonewulf]

I have really gotten a lot out of this forum and all of you who participate. I was curious, though, who all of you are and what you do. How about letting us know a little bit about you and your background?
1. Name
2. Job Title or explanation of what you do
3. Industry you're in or have been in
4. Company you work for and location
5. Length of time in quality function
6. Something personal that sets you apart
7. Your pet peeve in quality
8. If you could change the world of quality, what would you do?
------------------
See you down life's highway!

Eric
[This message has been edited by Greenraisin (edited 18 April 2001).]

1. Balasubramanian (Indian)
2. Quality Management - Management Rep.
3. Automobiles - Engineering Services
4. Hindustan Motors Limited, Chennai, India
5. Just born - 1 year young
6. I am at the start of everything - the spark
7. Not that much familiar with quality function yet
8. Make all in my team to be quality guys.

In many old Indian organizations like the one where I am, quality management system is more effective as a perfect "political management system" than actually being process oriented. But being in a smaller and younger division, I am trying to set that apart.

But the words "responsibility" and "authority" hurts organization culture badly. ISO can think of replacing these with better ones!

 

[Wes Bucey]

Welcome to the Cove!
Perhaps you'll pick up some tips on changing the political scheme to a Quality scheme.

But the words "responsibility" and "authority" hurts organization culture badly. ISO can think of replacing these with better ones!

As an American President once said:
"The buck stops here!"
Ultimately someone has to take responsibility and authority or no one can effect change for the better.

Perhaps this little humor bit might put things into perspective:

Organization Unity of Purpose
This is a story about four people named

• Everybody,
• Somebody,
• Anybody, and
• Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done!

Paragraph 6.2.2 (d) of ISO 9000:2000 requires
"[The organization shall] . . . ensure . . . personnel are aware of the relevance and importance of their activities and how they contribute to the achievement of the quality objectives" to prevent this from ever happening again.

 

[Jim Wynne]

Ultimately someone has to take responsibility and authority or no one can effect change for the better.

Yes! It's called "leadership." The problem isn't "responsibility and authority"; the problem is assignment of responsibility without also granting authority.

 

[auditguy]

Introduce Myself

I may already be familiar to many of you, as I’ve been around for a while. (This is another way of saying that I’m an old guy.) Back when the Jennijohn List was running out of UW-Stout, I was a semi-frequent poster and promoted it to my colleagues. My messages tend to be fewer, longer and more thought-out than what you may see from others. No right or wrong. Just different styles.

For the past two years, I have been trying to get the ASQ to use the Wiki tool to develop the Quality Body of Knowledge for the world. Just as Wikipedia.org is becoming the second-most common research tool (behind Google), I have a vision that ASQ can become the ultimate source for all things quality. I’ve run into many cultural barriers along the way and almost gave up, until I had a meeting with Pablo Baez on staff in Milwaukee. Pablo shares my passion and may be able to get the fuddy-duddies turned around.

 

[JimCubb - 2005]

This will be quick as I just registered so as to not be a lurker as I have been for the past few days.

I will answer the questions later if they are still applicable. Suffice it for now to say that I was forced to do a root cause analysis where I work and have absolutely no background or training in Quality Management. This is one of the hits I got on Google and while the site was not immediately helpful (I should have done the Google search weeks ago), it is by far the most interesting. I particularly like the Forums as I been an active member of several forums in the past, none of them work-related.

 

[Greg B]

This will be quick as I just registered so as to not be a lurker as I have been for the past few days.

I will answer the questions later if they are still applicable. Suffice it for now to say that I was forced to do a root cause analysis where I work and have absolutely no background or training in Quality Management. This is one of the hits I got on Google and while the site was not immediately helpful (I should have done the Google search weeks ago), it is by far the most interesting. I particularly like the Forums as I been an active member of several forums in the past, none of them work-related.

Welcome to the Cove Jim,
You are more than welcome to participate in the forums. I look forward to your replies to the standard questions. I am actually moving out of Quality myself and into full time logistics but I will still stay in the cove. They are a great bunch of people (especially the moderators ) and come from a wide range of backgrounds and employment. Ask a question and someone will have or find the answer.

 

[Marc]

I may already be familiar to many of you, as I’ve been around for a while.

I want to welcome Dennis to the Cove. I have followed Dennis for quite a few years including back in the days when the JenneJohn Listserve was active and (my opinion) a great and important resource. I copied may subjects from there (until there was a revolt by some who did not want their posts reprinted here) as a way of spreading the knowledge. An example can be found here: ISO 10011 Dead - 19011 Is Released - A summary of differences . As some of you may know, the reason for this forum was (and is) to provide a searchable database, where the old JenneJohn Listserve was basically e-mails. Inclusion of many posts from the listserve here was intended to provide some discussion and to provide a database which was also searchable so that people could more easily find opinions and information.

For years I had a link to Dennis' web site in the main forum pages, but it's gone now I think. If I remember correctly, it ceased to be updated, but I don't remember the details.

The Cove and the forums here have been around for quite a while now - It will be 10 years next January (2006). I hope Dennis will stop by and contribute to the discussions here in a positive way.

 

[JimCubb - 2005]

Thank you for the welcome.

The company where I work has hired a large number of Quality Engineers in the last month. (Is there a relevant collective noun?) I have been sort-of drawn into their circle.

As I wrote above, I have no training in Quality and know of Deming best as a statistician and composer of sacred music. I have no opinion of his work in any area except the last. There he ranks with Billings.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Welcome to all the new folks!

It is important to note we welcome old, experienced Quality wonks and newbies alike. Consider the Cove sort of a Group Mind a la Andrew Carnegie. The combined knowledge of the group is greater than the sum of the parts.

Dennis: We'll expect some heavy lifting on your part.
Jim: I'd like to hear more about your foray into "root cause analysis." Start a thread in one of the Forums to tell us more about it. We have lots of experts here; maybe one or more may have some insight into making your next foray easier and more efficient.