ASQ Section 1206 Newsletter

September 2003 Newsletter
Past Newsletters

Message from the Chair . . .

As I had stated in our July newsletter, welcome to a new year. We are looking forward to many different things planned for this coming year. At this point, I'm sure many of you have heard about our Fall Conference which will be on Setup Reduction. On November 05, 2003 Dennis Arter will be doing a 1 day session on Internal Auditing and will also be our guest speaker that evening at the section monthly dinner meeting.

Your Section 1206 Board has been listening to your requests for more mini-sessions and much more. I know you will have the majority of your requests taken care of throughout this 2003-2004 calendar year. See you at the September meeting.

Thank you for always supporting Section 1206,

Jim Young
Chair

Tours

Would you like to help the section by sponsoring a tour at your place of business? We are always looking for new locations. Please contact Jim Young at (920) 743-8575 for more details.

The successful people are the ones who can think up stuff for the rest of the world to keep busy at.

Don Marquis

Fall Conference

The fall conference will be held October 28 and 29 at Liberty Hall in Appleton. Two one-day sessions will be offered; one on Setup Reduction and one on Evolutionary Optimization. Each session has a class limit of 25.

Tuesday, October 28 – Setup Reduction
This program will teach participants methods to shorten setup times of existing operations. It provides a detailed approach to identifying, brainstorming and improving the setup times. Emphasis centers on process variability reduction and either reducing or eliminating non value-added activities. Characteristics of a typical setup process will be discussed. Improvement opportunities will be identified by the application of process mapping.

Upon completion of the class, participants will be able to:

Setup an improvement target
Analyze each element of the process
Brainstorm for new ideas
Prioritize implementation
Develop a new setup procedure
Assign tasks for team members

Wednesday, October 29 - Evolutionary Optimization
Following traditional approaches, after an experiment is completed and a process or design has been optimized, it is no longer considered the problem to be solved. However, In many cases the optimum solution does not stay optimum; equipment changes as it ages, the composition of components change over time, or many other factors make small changes that affect the output (response).

Evolutionary optimization (EVOP) can address the constant small changes in a process while maintaining an optimum level. EVOP is a methodology for improving and optimizing a process while production is under way, generated from a simple experimental design.

The facilitators will give practical techniques for preparing, conducting and analyzing experiments and will use real, in class experiments to illustrate applications. You will be able to apply the course material before you return to work.

Fall Conference Registration

Email Brenda Georgenson at to register. Please include your membership number. Mail your check, made out to ASQ for $200/person (for both days) or $150/person (for one day only) by October 15 to:

Brenda Georgenson
Brillion Iron Works, Inc.
200 Park Ave.
Brillion, WI 54110

Space will be limited - so please register early

Process-Bases Auditing: A one-day seminar offered November 5

This seminar is designed for managers and professionals who are already familiar with basic quality auditing concepts, such as described in Dennis Arter's Quality Audits for Improved Performance. The instruction is applicable to any quality management system (ISO 9001, FDA, automotive, etc). Those faced with assessing the process approach of ISO 9001:2000 will find the seminar to be especially valuable. Small group breakout sessions allow participants to develop plans specific to their organization's needs. All aspects of the audit (planning, performing, reporting, and correcting) are covered.

Presentation Outline

Introductions
Lecture: Product, process, and system relationships
Workshop: Flowchart the business, using your own firm or prepared scenarios
Lecture: Process models (simple four-box, six universal affecters, and turtle diagram)
Workshop: Do the turtle on a process defined in 3 above
Lecture: Audit preparation and the importance of data
Workshop: Prepare checklist questions from the completed turtle diagram
Lunch break
Lecture: Audit report and the need to address system findings
Workshop: Write a finding from make-believe field observations
Lecture: Remedial and corrective actions
Workshop: Complete a corrective action response on another table's finding
Summary and conclusions

Dennis Arter, CQA, is known as "The Audit Guy." He instructs large and small firms in the basics of quality auditing for improved organizational performance. Approximately 7,000 people, from all business sectors, have attended his classes. Dennis is a Fellow in the American Society for Quality and recently completed a term on the society's Board of Directors. He is active on several ASQ boards and committees. Mr. Arter's books on auditing and ISO 9001 have been best sellers for the ASQ Quality Press. He has contributed several articles for Quality Progress magazine and professional conferences. Dennis is co-chair for the 2004 quality conference in Shanghai.

See next month's newsletter for more details and registration info.

Certification News - Upcoming Changes to the Certified Quality Auditor (CQA) Exam

This is to announce the change to the CQA Body of Knowledge (BOK) that will become effective with the administration of the June 5, 2004 exam.

Approximately 15-20% (25-30 questions) of the test will be devoted to case studies. Each case study will include a brief scenario outlining critical details about an audit situation. In addition, each case study will be supported by related audit documents. Although the questions related to these cases will use the same 4-choice answer format as the rest of the test, the use of scenario details and sample documents will allow the candidates to apply their critical thinking skills in evaluating realistic situations and accompanying documents, communiqués, etc.

Additional time will be needed to process all elements of the case studies, and, therefore, the length of examination time will be increased from 4 hours to 5 hours.

New content under the 2004 CQA BOK:

Team membership, leadership and facilitation techniques (3F)

Process verification and validation (3H)

Change control (4B1)

Risk management (4B2)

Interrelationships between business processes (4B3)

Common elements of various types of audits, e.g., quality, safety, environmental, financial (4B5)

Emerging roles of the auditor (4B7)

Cost of quality categories (5G)

For the new BOK and a comparison of the old vs. new BOK please go to the ASQ Web site.

Upcoming Training & Exam Dates

Quality Auditor Certification (CQA)

Exam Date	Application Deadline
December 6, 2003	October 3, 2003
June 5, 2004	April 2, 2004
December 4, 2004	October 1, 2004

Ask Woody

Do non-precision tools have to be calibrated? What are some of the best practices for measuring customer satisfaction? What is FMEA? How long can you keep an uncontrolled document for reference? Why does ISO 9001 use 'continual' improvement vs 'continuous' improvement? Who is Malcolm Baldrige?

Got a quality question or a problem at work you can’t solve? How about asking an expert? You can take advantage of the “Ask Woody” column -- a place to ask questions, share concerns or anything else on your mind.

Email Woody Santy at .

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