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.

We’ve all heard the term “practice makes perfect.” It’s something instilled in us from a young age, from the repetition of the alphabet to the memorization of the multiplication table.

It is still surprising how many people, from engineers to managers to quality professionals to technicians, possess limited understanding of product and process (manufacturing) limits.

While process improvement initiatives, including SPC and its use of control charts, sometimes get the greatest attention in manufacturing environments, the backbone of a quality improvement effort is often the quiet, unnoticed measurement devices that represent an organization’s commitment to consistency and accuracy.

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.

When faced with most problems dealing with processes, products, or service, quality professionals typically implement two types of remedial actions which were handed down to us by experts like Dr. Joseph M. Juran, Dr. Frank Gryna, et al. “Control of nonconforming product” and “root cause analysis with corrective action” are two separate and essential processes.

With 2017 upon us, “Speaking of Quality” will take a look back to a few of quality’s anniversaries. Three particular anniversary years stand out as monumental for the advancement of quality methodology and in unifying the community.

Paul W. Critchley saw the power of lean as a plant manager at a growing medical device company. As the orders increased, every day the two-person shipping department struggled to make deadlines, getting in at 6:30 a.m. and rushing all day in order to make the UPS truck deadline at 5 p.m.

The recent implementation of the new quality management system requirements has generated concerns about many issues including documents and standards.