In the August 2013 “Speaking of Quality” column, flowcharts, process mapping and turtle diagrams were examined, explained and compared.

In this month’s column I’ll discuss ethics and its relationship to quality.

Not surprisingly, the definition of simplification is pretty simple—to make less complex or complicated; to make easier; or to reduce to fundamental parts.

Although the holiday rush is over, this month is still the height of shopping season for quality professionals.

The quality profession has existed for nearly three-quarters of a century. In 1946, quality professionals rallied together to create the American Society for Quality Control.

In their haste to improve bottom-line performance, companies often forget to integrate two important planning activities—strategic and quality planning.

The “double-edged sword” is a phrase from 15th century English that began as an idiom for someone using an argument that could both help and hurt their position.

A cost-benefit analysis is a decision-making tool. It is a process of adding up the benefits of doing something or buying something and subtracting the costs to help us decide whether that purchase or action is worthwhile.

When agencies of the federal government procure supplies, federal laws and regulations require that they use a competitive process.

We’re already more than a decade into this new century, and companies are still waiting for the “next big thing” to surface.