Smart manufacturing, like many other industry “smart” initiatives, harnesses a plethora of integrated people, process, and technological elements to drive successful value creating outcomes.
The American Society for Quality, ASQ, will be hosting “Quality—Then and Now, it’s joint inspection division and greater Houston section conference Sept. 29-30 at Sheraton Houston-Brookhollow Hotel in Houston, TX.
In 2020, seeking to engage and contribute as a new member of the ASQ Board of Directors, I volunteered to participate in a diversity, equity, and inclusion task force.
ASQ empowers individuals of the world to achieve excellence through quality. It is composed of passionate people who use their tools, ideas and expertise to make our world better.
In a technically focused organization like the American Society for Quality (ASQ), participating as a woman can be daunting at the start. While the demographics of the organization have shifted over time, many more technical roles have been seen as being “for men.”
The scope of inspection is so vast that no one wanted to exclude a topic, but we also did not want a standard so detailed that it was not user friendly.
The journey to create a standard is very interesting and requires attention to detail. Before a standard can be created one must develop the need and benefits for its development.
A standard is a document established by consensus and approved by a recognized bodythat provides – for common and repeated use – rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context.
It’s difficult to find a business or industry that isn’t driven by software applications. From phones and laptops to manufacturing systems to validated applications for regulated industries, software drives many of our business processes.
When talking about processes and innovation it’s easy to confuse ‘process innovation’ and ‘innovation process.’ Both are important elements of a thriving organization, and it’s important to understand the differences and utilize each of them effectively.