Ask a quality engineer how they were introduced to metrology or inspection, and they’ll often answer that it wasn’t during their coursework, but in the field. It reflects the manufacturing world’s problem with visibility and messaging, and an important insight into why the term “skills gap” has been a buzzword for several years.

It did not happen quickly but advocates of Six Sigma and lean methodologies have worked together to achieve a partnership of both approaches.

In 1984, I joined the wafer quality group at Motorola Semiconductors Sector in Austin, TX. My first quality act was to join the American Society for Quality. 

To be Lean, in process improvement speak, is to maximize customer value by eliminating waste. This means that an organization can create more value for customers with fewer resources if they can understand customer value and focus key processes to continually improve.

Many quality professionals, including statisticians, have remained mired in their rapidly diminishing consultative roles of teaching statistical tools, analyzing data, designing experiments and performing internal consulting duties while having few leadership responsibilities and limited accountability.

I have spent numerous years working in and with all aspects of quality. During my earliest time in industry solving problems was more of a singular focus, but over the years the focus has become more of a team effort.

Attendees to learn how to do more with less, sustain results, and implement lean and Six Sigma.

Successful companies depend on high quality. Without it, all other elements of a business fall away. Each year, we recognize companies that place a high priority on quality and provide examples of how they achieve these results. The Quality Leadership 100 offers a closer look at companies making quality a priority.

I had a discussion recently with someone who, for three decades, had been performing a statistical function at a large manufacturing company. He couldn’t understand why, in spite of excellent job performance reviews, his company had furloughed him indefinitely.

Picture a plant that requires inspectors, a team of rework staff, and a large area devoted to parts that need rework.