what do you know about Poka Yoke ?

Thrashing out mistakes in manufacturing engineering was developed by the Japanese as a tool of mistake proofing that helps reduce waste in areas such as time, energy and resources. The idea stresses on producing zero defects as a part of a quality tool kit to prevent human errors. Although Poka Yoke is applied differently in different situations, the common thread that binds them all is its simplicity; it uses small tools at the point of the anticipated mistake generation itself. Empowerment of Employees As A Tool of Poka Yoke Development The beautiful part of mistake-proofing is the empowerment of employees to identify, suggest ways out and execute the plan to iron out the cause of the mistake at its point of origination. In fact, anybody from a manager to a line employee can be allowed to complete mistake proofing planning. It applies to every other area, including commercial transactions, in the same way. How Can Activities Be Mistake-Proofed? Mistake proofing is simply managed by presence of mind. Sometimes it so happens that an employee notices a mistake in the way things are done in his section or line. Generally, exposure to multiple aspects such as work content and execution procedures let the employee think about ways of rectifying the mistake. One who has noticed the mistake will come up with suggestions for eliminating the mistakes by rather simple methods. Empowered environments nurture enthusiasm in employees, which ultimately results in success. Lets take different simple examples. Colgate Palmolive was losing its market share to a rival toothpaste producer and the people in their marketing department could hardly help reverse the trend, despite their best efforts. This was until an employee in the packing department suggested a rather simplistic idea that ultimately has shown results. The employee suggested enlarging of the tubes opening, which increased the amount of paste issued each time the consumers wanted to brush. Where does mistake proofing figure into the equation in this instance? The mistake was not in the manufacturing, packing or quality of the product but in the way it was marketed. The marketing was centered around an emphasis on quality and not on the quantity the consumers should use, which was irrelevant in the absence of severe competition. Mistake elimination need not have complex solutions that consume lot of time and resources. Simple solutions can sometimes be arrived at by those who work on the shop floor. Let us look into another example which significantly explains Poka Yoke. Take a small mistake in the assembling of pens, such as a forgotten spring for operating the writing tip by a button located on top of the pen. The assembly worker would not have forgotten if he was given all of the components in sets rather than each part like springs, refills etc separately. The Simplicity Of Poka Yoke Quite evidently, Poka Yoke is pretty simple. It does not involve spending huge sums of money, time and complex procedures. It employs making the best use of empowered human minds. If it is used on a continuous basis with the goal of eliminating many smaller mistakes, the results can be wonderful.
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6 Benefits of Using Statistical Process Control (SPC)

Statistical process control is a method that uses statistical approach to achieve the monitoring and controlling of manufacturing processes, particularly. This will ensure the processes under monitor are able to achieve their full potential and produce the highest rate of conforming products. Real-time statistical process control means instance or near instantaneous data acquisition from measuring equipment or tools to give input to the statistical process control system software. The data can be immediately plotted onto the control charts and tested toward the control limits that are set for the charts. Real time statistical process control software system will provide immediate data update from the shop floor. It gives the operation crews the alert of "out of control" incidence when the upper or lower control limit for the control chart has been violated. The alert can also be triggered by various kind of rules such as trending towards out of control situation, so that immediate action can be taken from the operation crews before it is too late. When statistical process control system is implemented properly, there are tremendous benefits that can be achieved. In this article, 6 benefits are highlighted and these benefits are very crucial to improve the competitiveness and profitability of an organization. The 6 benefits of implementing real time statistical process control software are: The company can achieve a very fast return on investment from the software. Usually this can be achieved in less than a year depending on the processes and the results can be justified by data. Real time statistical process control system is highly acceptable by customers owing to the reliability of data and faster feedback. This is definitely going to improve the customer satisfaction. It will help the operation team to respond to the problem quickly during situations of "out of control", thus it will reduce waste, scrap and rework in the manufacturing processes. It will eliminate human error in the data entry step, as compared to the conventional method that the data is entered by operators. This system will improve the product and process quality tremendously by closely monitoring the performance of the process. Real time statistical process control software enables audit-ability across the processes. This will enables the company to cost effectively meet ISO, TS, FDA and USDA requirements. A real time statistical process control system will have a reporting tool to summarize the data and present it according to the user's requirements. The reports can be used by the process engineer to identify the root cause of process deviation. Proper actions can be taken by the process owner for a short-term and also long-term remedies. Other than this, the data also can be used to calculate the process capability. Once the process is stable and under control, the process capability can be measured to understand how good is the capability of the machine and other process. Continuous process improvement can be carried out by the process department to strive for higher process capability rating. Real-time statistical process control system can help to prevent problems and save the companies millions of dollars that otherwise would have been paid for lost in scrap, rework, warranty, litigation, and market share decline.
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why we use Pareto Analysis?

The more you analyze business performance and company position in various external environments the more information you get. This information is used in strategic planning and decision-making. As known, it is really impossible to succeed in business without making plans for the future and without getting yourself ready to face difficulties and challenges. The company may face problems that arise in the internal environment. On top of that there are challenges that show up in external environment, and these challenges do not depend on the company. Thus the only thing a business owner can do is to adapt to such changes. Through various analysis types business owners obtain information on what should be done to improve current performance or to achieve adopted future plans. It should be noted that a great variety of analysis types have been developed by business experts. Some of them deal only with internal environments, while others focus on external markets. However most of analysis types deal with both. These are well known PEST analysis, SWOT analysis, ANOVA and others. Some analysis types come from mathematics and statistics. Pareto is one of them. Pareto analysis is known as statistical method that is widely used in decision making. This method claims that a limited number of tasks and variables influence overall performance. Pareto analysis is also called 80/20 rule which means that by performing 20% of work it is possible to get 80% of benefits. Pareto is used in various business management models for example in quality improvement and performance evaluation. This is to say that 80% of problems are actually caused by 20% of mistakes. The name for Pareto analysis was suggested by business guru Joseph M. Juran who offered to use Italian economist's name Vilfredo Pareto. It was observed that 80% of income in Italy was going to 20% of citizens. Studies were performed in other countries as well and results were pretty much the same. Pareto analysis is used in various business models, as already said above. Some of the rules include •20% of company products and services cause 80% of customer complaints •20% of causes resulting 80% of schedule delays •80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your products and services •80% of company revenues are generated by 20% of sales staff Sure thing this list is not complete. Quality control has so many issues, as well as systems of budgeting and cost control where Pareto is particularly helpful. Continuous improvement is a key principle in quality control and Pareto helps obtain very valuable information in this sense. Besides, Six Sigma and quality control systems use special Pareto diagrams that are very important tools. Pareto analysis is successfully used in combination with other performance evaluation, quality control and strategic management tools. Balanced Scorecard is not an exception here as it uses performance evaluation principle for strategic planning purposes. Pareto model is perfect for improvement of co performance, locating problematic areas and focusing on most profitable products and customers.
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Benefits of Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance is a sort of practice that started during Middle Age when Guilds assured their clients with certain standards of quality while delivering different types of services. Guild was an association that consisted of merchants and artisans. This association controlled the practice of their craft with a dedicated territory. This concept of maintaining certain standards of quality was taken well by the people and soon more and more organizations started adopting this amazing concept. Important Components of Quality Assurance In order to know more about QA, it would be really great if you gain knowledge about the different components of the QA. Here are all those important components explained in detail. Failure Testing The first and the foremost important point is Failure Testing. This is a process that involves checking the product or process until it fails. Another name given to failure testing is called as stress testing. The data that is collected during testing is utilized for the improvement of the product or service. During the Quality Assurance process, failure testing is implemented and as a result the final product that is being delivered becomes more polished, refined and of high quality. Statistical Control With the help of statistical control process, you can collect data during different stages of production or service delivery. This will help you to keep a strong check on the quality of the product. If anything goes wrong during any stage then you can easily improve and deliver high quality product. The same goes true for IT industry where this process plays an important role. Total Quality Management Total Quality Management also called as TQM involves keeping a strong check on the participating constituents. You cannot guarantee a product's quality unless and until all the input and surrounding parameters are of desired quality. For example, if you are manufacturing a metal component then you need to ensure that the raw material that is being used is of high quality and proper dimension. You also need to make sure that the surrounding conditions such as environment, safety and working conditions are also superior. QA Role in Different Fields After reading all of the above mentioned points, you can pretty well judge that QA plays an important role in the growth of an organization and this concept must be implemented seriously in order to get desired results. There are different industries where QA is playing a very important role. Software Industry Quality Assurance in software industry is applied during monitoring of software engineering and project execution process. As a result the final output that is delivered is error free and software can be used for long term without any major changes. This process not only saves time but also money for the software development company. Medical field There are numerous hospitals and medical agencies which apply Quality Assurance concept and always ensure a certain standard while using medical equipments such as CROs, X-Ray machines and much more. Final Conclusion The concept of Quality Assurance is being practiced since ages and the main benefit of QA is that it helps in achieving high quality results. With the passage of time, there has been a regular change and refined effort done. All this have lead to significant improvement in the process. There are three major components of the QA process and those are failure testing, statistical control and total quality management. All these components when combined can help you to get high quality results. Different fields and industries have deployed this process such as software industry and medical institutions.
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How to know your organization is successful in implementing TQM?"

Implementing TQM is an initiative many organizations wanted to embark on. Assuming that you are a leader of this organization, a common question you probably asked would be: "How do I know whether my organization is successful in implementing TQM?" TQM implementation has been in my mind for a long time and I wondered how to measure the success of TQM implementation in an organization. If we take an organizations who are winners of the Baldrige Award, then my question is whether taking an assessment based on Baldrige Criteria an appropriate measure to Gage the success of TQM in an organization. There is no doubt that measuring TQM implementation is success rate is of interest with all if not most leaders. Otherwise, how would you as a leader know the effort put into implementing TQM is really worthwhile, more so when a lot of resources such a money, manpower etc are deployed to support the implementation of a TQM initiative. So, would you ask a similar question before the TQM initiative is started? Or You would ask half way during its implementation? How would you like to measure the success of the TQM implementation? Do you accept the opinion of your management comment alone or you rather based on some form of evaluation result? One of the ways to evaluate the TQM success is to adopt a holistic approach of assessing your organization. One of the examples of such a holistic approach is the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award assessment approach. This is a national level award system in the United States to recognize organizations for achieving an excellent in their respective business. To prepare for an assessment, you need to understand the Baldrige criteria which is used a reference for the assessment. Once you have understood the Baldrige Criteria, you would start to conduct an assessment based on these criteria. You may perform a self assessment guided by the Baldrige Self Assessment criteria to ascertain your level of performance with reference to the Baldrige Criteria. For a self assessment, it takes must lesser time. Alternatively, you can go for a full scale assessment. This mode of assessment may be conducted by your management team or a 3rd party Baldrige Assessors. To help you to adopt the Baldrige Criteria, there are eleven core values and concepts used by the Baldrige Criteria. To jump start your assessment effort, perhaps you start with the understanding of these core values and concepts.
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Importance of quality control

For many industries relating to the manufacturing and engineering sectors, assessment of quality control has become an essential factor to survive in the current world market. It is needed in every industry and other complicated projects. Quality control is an important aspect in the manufacturing process. While implementing the operations of quality control, it is essential to determine which methods have to be used and when and where they have to be applied. Check quality control can be applied to all material, structure, component or system used in the production and management of an industry. This control includes the actions necessary to verify and control the quality output of products and services. In order to ensure to meets the requirements of the industry, it is necessary to inspect quality control of raw material while the process initiates. Subsequently, it recognizes and executes sampling and analytical methodology, thus minimizes faults in the analytical records. If you are not good at quality control management, then quality control services provided by the third company will keep you making sure that the product is up to standard and that the employees are working in a professional and respectful manner. If you put your trust in the quality control experts you will find out very quickly if the product you are putting out meets the standards that the general public. A lot of the quality control inspections can prove to be quite costly and if your employees know that they have someone looking over their shoulders at all times, it can be demoralizing, but a good quality inspector will understand the company and its business goals and will offer an outsider's view of the company and its employees. Hiring a quality inspector will cost some money, but it is surely a great way to make sure that you are producing a quality product with the eyes of an unbiased inspector making sure that your customers are satisfied and keep coming back for more.
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Use data analyzing to achieve organizational excellence

For the usage of data in decision making and planning operations, it is necessary to ensure that the data is of high quality. Generally, when the volume of available data is high, the guarantee of the data being highly consistent in terms of quality is low. There can be simple errors in the data that can be rectified but with great difficulty. Quality includes the validity, accuracy and also the consistency of the available data for usage in specific purposes. It is absolutely necessary to make sure that the quality of data is high. Quality Improvement systems, tools and techniques aim at bringing the quality to its full potential. There are several tools that aid in Quality Improvement. • Profiling of data: The defects in a collection in terms of quality need to be calculated by carefully evaluating the data or profiling it. • Standardization: It is necessary to make sure that the data available qualifies set standards for better performance. • Linking: Comparing data for the purpose of aligning similar data by removing duplicity using fuzzy logic. • Monitoring the data: It is necessary to observe and keep a record of the variations in quality of data over periods of time for quality Improvement. To ensure the quality, consistency and to make sure that the data meets the requisite standards, along with the necessary rules and constraints, Data Governance is used to control the entry of data both by a person and by an automated system. It is a collection of methods that helps in managing crucial data. The principal government is to guarantee that low data quality leading to issues is accounted for. It is merely a set of rules, or guidelines to ensure efficient data management. Numerous Governance case studies regarding various functions of an organization are performed to evaluate and asses the current situation and implement new techniques for the improvement of Data Governance. The functions or the aim of governance is to increase the standards and the consistency in the data, to ensure and improve security and to optimize efficiency. Another technique called Data Cleansing that mainly involves finding errors and correcting or replacing incorrect or corrupt records from the main database. This method is used to improve the quality of data by removing or modifying even the smallest of errors. Data cleansing is mainly correction of errors by comparing to an existing list of correct records. These errors, mainly caused by entries from users can be made free of validation and other quality errors using Cleansing.
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How to Avoid the Mistakes of Quality Assurance

Why Quality assurance testing is critical for any business model? When talking about Quality Assurance, we are talking about a process by which corporations and other organizations systematically check of the products and services provided to customers. Using such a system ensures that customers are satisfied with the quality received. Even though this by no means offers assurance of quality. As consumers, all rely heavily upon the quality assurance testing that goes on within the companies we do business with. However, there is generally no other way for use to test the quality of products before we buy. This is why it is important for companies to do QA testing prior to bringing them to the market. Here is a glimpse of quality assurance testing gone wrong, and some of the most frequent quality assurance testing mistakes in the software industry. Let's say that you would like to upload new features along with fixes for bugs on your website. That's great, but you also want to avoid any of several bad side effects from this procedure. You also want these fixes to work the way they were designed, without affecting your system. To ensure this, you will be required to do a good deal of testing in two phases. Basically, you want to test before deploying the product to your server and the other after this has been done. Here are the mistakes you should avoid: 1. Don't forget to do QA testing using multiple browsers. That doesn't mean that you should test over all the existing browsers, but you do want to ensure that you do your testing with the most popularly used ones. Using this quality assurance testing method will allow you to see if your visitors are able to work their way through your site without difficulty. 2. It is always a mistake not to delete the browser cache before starting a new test. The result of not doing this is that you could accidentally view a version of a webpage that remains in the cache from one of your prior sessions. 3. Failure to update host files is another QA testing mistake. Your testing should be done in a test environment that requires a special version from your host's file. You should be certain that the IP address and the domain names have been updated and take the time to confirm this prior to allowing testing from the development team. 4. Never fail to address any cookie issues that may exist. You should always check for functionality requirements such as login and passwords to make sure they work with or without cookies being activated. Most browsers allow you to enable and disable active cookies when the need arises. 5. It is not a good practice to fail to test using multiple screen resolutions. Floating designs are particularly prone to bugs when viewing with larger or smaller screen resolutions. It is worth taking a glance at Google Analytics to determine which resolutions are most common as well as which ones are most attractive. 6. One of the worst mistakes that can be made during quality assurance testing is doing the work manually when you can let automated tools do the work for you. In fact, who would want to do that when there are a lot of free tools available to help you with that? In addition to that, there are some tests that you simply cannot do manually anyway. The truth is that it would be impossible for you to check the potentially thousands of links to your site on a manual basis. So, when you are interested in maintaining the quality of your products and services, it is vital that you do QA testing. Such processes help ensure that the products retain the promised qualities and that the services offered are second to none. Regardless the type of product, corporations and small business around the world understand that if they are going to be able to continue to sell to their clients, while generating new business, they must commit to quality assurance testing to ensure consistency. Consistency is assured only by taking steps to ensure quality is maintained throughout the development and manufacturing processes. This can only be achieved when quality testing processes are implemented. Customers understand that even if they do not put products through a series of quality testing before making a purchase, when they buy from reliable manufacturers who have taken the time to build quality into those products they are assured of receiving what they paid for.
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How to Ensure Quality Control on your Products ?

In the manufacturing, most suppliers strive for their own production of a level of quality control in every product category. There are a lot of different ways or measures to ensure the quality of interlining merchandises, ranging from the actual product performance itself to the physical composition components of the product. Though there are many ways to improve quality control. Here is a list of some ways that you can rely on to improve the control on quality of the interlining products. Firstly, of all the measures and ways to ensure the quality of interlining products, quality control tests and inspections are the greatest ones. Traditional interlining suppliers only have live inspector or testers to perform an audit of control on quality. However, pioneer interlining suppliers like Interlining Source also perform an automated inspection. The option of a live test or an automated inspection depends on the manufacturing process and the type of the products. For example, some types of woven interlining need a live test, while others require both. This is also true to non-woven interlining and fusible interlining. The testing procedure itself is also a key factor to determine the option. In addition, It is recommended the interlining supplier to train the individual employees within the company in quality inspection, rather than hiring a live inspector. This is already becoming a popular option for the interlining suppliers. Not only the company can save money on the additional head count, but also quality control training for the production workers will help improve the quality of the products. This is because that control on quality improvement has become an additional assigned task for the employees in the production lines for products like woven interlining, non-woven interlining and fusible interlining. By this training way, the company will not only get merchandises manufactured and quality improvement inspection done with the same employee at the same time, but also lower manufacturing costs. Secondly, another way you can apply to ensure quality control on interlining products is computer software. There are many leading software providers that help the interlining suppliers to manage control on product quality. Some software is very helpful in increasing the product performance. For example, leading software can track the quality of products to the RoHs Directive. Indeed, if the interlining suppliers need to adhere to restriction of the use of specific hazardous substances in their quality control testing, such software might be helpful in improving the control on product quality. A third way to ensure quality control of interlining products is using charts and graphs. By applying the charts and graphs, the interlining suppliers can map out whether their products like woven interlining, non-woven interlining and fusible interlining are meeting quality specifications. Generally these maps and charts are applied after the quality control inspection, test, or quality experiment is completed. By following comprehensive analyses and stringent observation on the charts and graphs, the interlining suppliers can get a betting idea on weakness point of the quality control on the products in interlining industry. All these ways are only a starting point to get an idea to ensure the quality control on interlining products such as woven interlining, non-woven interlining and fusible interlining. The pioneer supplier like Interlining Source is striving for the linkage between six sigma management and the interlining manufacturing. This is, perhaps, the current ultimate way to ensure control on the product quality.
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Quality Control Circle (QCC)

A quality control circle is a small group of workers who come together to discuss ways of identifying, analyzing, solving, and selecting work related issues. More than 95% of work related problems can be resolved using various QC tools. Some of the tools used are the cause and effect diagram, check sheets, scatter diagram, control charts, pareto diagrams, stratification, histograms, and graphs. For a quality control circle to be implemented the management has to be informed about the intentions of the group of workers that plan on meeting and approval must be granted by the management. A committee is set up, and persons to fill principal positions are selected. Principal members of a circle include the Facilitator, the Team leader, the Secretary, and members. After the selection process, the scope of focus point is defined and effort is channeled towards resolving issues in that sector. Circle coordinators are trained extensively in order that they may efficiently execute their various roles. Employees are then invited to become members of the quality control circle and are trained accordingly by coordinators. The aim of the QCC is to discuss problems in the company and come up with possible solutions to those problems. Hence problems are discussed and solved systematically. It is important that practical solutions be reviewed by the company's administration and implemented without delay. As the circle grows, different circles emerge, and the higher a member rises, more sensitive issues are dealt with. These programs must be functional in all sectors of a company. For the circle to run efficiently, the employees have to be given the power to make decisions, and the solutions they come up with have to be implemented. The management has to approve and support the program by making time available for meetings, and if necessary, training of members. Also participation must be voluntary and team work must be present for the problems to be effectively resolved. QC circles have the same structure of quality improvement systems like Kaizen, Six Sigma, and ISO 9000. Hence, it is important that these circles be part of the company's total quality management (TQM) initiative. With active quality control circles in place, there is a reduction of quality lapses due to heightened quality awareness in the company. There will be an increase in output with the elimination of certain delays due to bottlenecks which translates to a higher profit for the company.
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Benefits of Utilizing a Quality System

How do you currently handle quality control in your business? If you offer products to clients, you must have some system in place to make sure every product delivered to every client is of high quality.

If this is neglected, you will lose your customers and gain a reputation for producing products that do not live up to their hype. This is bad for business and one low quality product could stick with your business in a negative light for many years to come. This is why you may consider working with a quality management system designed by a professional ISO consultant.

There are four main benefits to moving beyond your own system to a quality management system that can be ISO certified:

1. Longevity and growth for your business.

When you work with an ISO consultant to improve the quality of your products, you ensure that your business will be around for a long time to come. When your products become more valuable and are consistent over time, you start to gain the trust of the consumer. Your excellent quality is talked about in communities and word of mouth spreads. You become one of the most trust brands in your market because you care enough to work with a quality management system that keeps your products at the top of the market.

2. Increased prestige and enhanced reputation.

Along with increased quality comes prestige and a positive reputation in your industry. As your customers note your exceptional and consistent quality, so will your competitors. So will others who may be looking for someone in your industry to do business with. A lot of great things can happen for your reputation as you start to implement a quality management system.

3. Greater opportunity to sell in markets around the world.

There are untapped markets that you cannot get into today without being ISO certified. The only way to get ISO certified is to work with an ISO consultant who knows all about quality control and the standards for certification. They can help you implement a quality management system that passes for certification and that you can afford to continue implementing in the future. In order to remain a competitor in these worldwide markets, you will need to be very consistent with implementing and documenting your system as it pertains to quality.

4. Peace of mind that you are delivering what you promised your customers.

Finally, you have your own peace of mind that you are doing the right thing for your customers and the market when you implement an efficient quality management system. Whether you are interested in ISO certification right now or just might be open to it in the future, you will feel good knowing that the products you sell are of high quality.

All product lines require high quality today. Whether you are baking donuts and cakes or selling swing sets or baby cribs, you have to make sure the products stamped with your brand name represent your name very well. Your reputation and the future of your business is on the line!


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Importance of ISO 14001

ISO 14001 is an internationally recognised certificate which evaluates how well an organisation manages its environmental responsibilities by guiding them through the process of putting an Environmental Management System (EMS) into use.

An EMS is a widely used and recognised standard which concentrates on both continued improvement of how you manage the impact you have on the environment while implementing a 'plan, do, check, act' methodology to ensure that no stone is left unturned.

The process by which a business becomes certified is relatively simple and unlike before it is much more accessible in terms of cost and time. You can be certified within 30 days after completing an assessment in which your business is examined and advised on areas that need to be rectified to comply with all the regulations set out for the ISO 14001 accreditation.

There are many benefits to becoming ISO 14001 certified and it can in fact directly help to drive profits of your business. After completion of the assessment, you will receive along with your certificate an environmental manual which will not only outline the guidelines you have to work within but also advice on obtaining maximum publicity and marketing from your achievement which will help you to gain new customers.

In the current climate, seeing to be environmentally friendly is of paramount importance and with the ISO 14001 certificate you are letting your customers, clients and competitors know that the environment is something you take very seriously. This in turn will earn you the respect and reputation of a trustworthy business. There are some customers who are obliged only to work with or purchase from certified organisations therefore with the certification you can be safe in the knowledge that you are not ignoring potential clients and gives you a competitive edge over rivals.

Organisations now are legally obligated to conform to rules and regulations regarding their waste management and energy consumption, an ISO 14001 certificate proves that you are definitely complying with any legislation and avoids potentially being liable for a large fine and any legal cases.

The processes the EMS puts into place will also save your organisation money in the long run. By reducing waste fewer resources are used and by looking at ways in which your organisation consumes energy bills can be reduced.

An ISO 14001 certification also grows alongside the business. When you expand there is no reason to waste time and money on new environmental management systems as they are already there and as the certificate is recognised internationally if you expand into other countries the certificate just effectively moves with you.


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ISO 14001 Accreditation

If you are someone who is looking into getting an ISO 14001, then you may be wondering exactly why it is that you have to get this accreditation. First, you have to understand that ISO stands for the International Organisation of Standardisation.

This is a series of standards that have been developed with a singular level of guidance for all companies to measure up to. The particular 14001 deals with the requirements that you will need to have in order to measure up to the environmental standards that have been set forth by the ISO.

While you do not necessarily have to get the ISO 14001 accreditation to operate your business, it is something you can do to prove to your clients and customers that you are doing your part to help out with the environment. However, you may be confused on how to go about getting this important accreditation, but it is not as difficult to attain as you might think, and most businesses should be able to get the certification within a year of the application. You should know that they will want to make sure that you have been following some form of environmental standards for at least three months prior to your application. To do this you can write an environmental review of your company's environmental impact as it is in its current operating state. You will then want to make sure that you provide this information when you send off your initial paperwork to begin the overall process.

In order to help prove that your company is doing its part to be environmentally aware you will have to go through an initial audit once the application has been filled out and filed. After the audit has been completed you will get a list of issues that the auditor feels you need to resolve before you can be certified for the ISO 14001. You will need to work on and correct these issues before the second audit is conducted, and they will give you a time period (usually three to six months) when they will return to check on your progress.

When the second audit occurs they will once again assess the overall business and then they will address the issues that were laid out in the previous audit. If everything goes well then your company will have proven that they are doing what they can to meet the standard set forth in ISO 14001, and they will then receive accreditation. However, this is not the end of the process. Even though you are now recognised as having environmentally conscious policies that are congruent with the international standards, you will have to go through periodic audits every three years to make sure that you are still operating correctly. Not only this, but every three months partial aspects of your company will be analysed to see that they are still working within the standards as well. As long as you remain within the compliance terms you will continue to receive your ISO 14001 certification.

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On Job Training

On job training is part of every manager's job. But some managers aren't aware that adults learn differently to children. Being aware just how adults learn can markedly improve the quality of on job training.

1. Learning By Doing

In broad terms, children learn by being told. Adults learn by doing. Ensure that your on job training has a strong emphasis on practical action rather than theory and telling. Adults do not need to know "why" in order to learn and practice skills. Few drivers know how a reciprocating engine works. It's the engine that powers your car. You don't need to know how it works in order to drive well.

2. Try Out

Adults like to try out skills. Provided it's safe, allow trainees to "try their hand" extensively. Supervise them closely so that they avoid errors.

3. Discovery

Pose a problem. Give adult trainees the opportunity to "work things out". Ask lots of questions. Don't be too directive. Just make sure you're always on hand to help.

4. Self Pacing

Try to let trainees work at a pace that they're comfortable with. Avoid slow, tedious instruction and avoid rushing through material too quickly. Adapt your instruction to the pace that suits your trainee. If they show that they're learning quickly, provide more opportunities for them to demonstrate their competence.

5. Problem Centred

Make sure you present your instruction as providing skills and knowledge that will help trainees solve a problem. Avoid presenting material that's merely "useful" and lacks direct relationship to on job performance.

6. Making Sense

Adults learn better when the learning process makes sense to them. Elaborate and complex instruction will discourage many trainees.

7. Acknowledge Experience

Take care that you acknowledge trainee's past experience. Test to see what they can already do so that you're not asking them to learn what they know already. That's a huge turn off to adult learners.

8. Results Emphasis

Ensure that you inform trainees what result they'll achieve through the training. Adults like to know the result that they're aiming for.

9. Perceived Needs

Adult trainees want to be certain that on job training meets their perceived needs. Before commencing instruction, make sure that you and the trainee are agreed that the training will satisfy the needs they believe they have.

10. They Are Adults

Treat adults trainees like adults, not children. They may have some knowledge and skill deficiencies that need your training. But they expect you to respect them as mature "grown-ups" not ignorant children.

These principles apply to all on job training, even if it's brief and informal. Ensure that you circulate this article to anyone in your business who's involved in on job training.

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Employee Conflict

These are some common beliefs about the three stages of employee conflict.

Here are my thoughts - what do you think?

•"The presence of conflict is the sign of a poor leader!" (I think conflict used in a competitive way to generate new ideas or increase productivity to meet an earlier deadline can be a good thing.)


•"Anger is always negative and destructive." (I think anger can become negative and destructive if allowed to develop and grow.)


•"Conflict, if left alone, will take care of itself." (I think that's not always true. I believe leaders should always be aware of conflict within their groups but not always involved. Sometimes it can take care of itself.)


•"Conflict must be resolved immediately." (Once again, not necessarily. This is like the one above that can become a problem but is not automatically one requiring the leader's intervention. A wise leader will observe and see if the participants can work out their own differences. After all, the leader will not always be there to act as a referee.)

Conflict builds in three distinct stages and has these characteristics.

STAGE ONE-"Irritating Daily Events"

Characteristics and clues of Stage One


•Comments are focused on "non-human" topics (machinery, weather, traffic, the "system [computers, the organizational culture, procedures]" etc.)
•Words are in the present tense ("This copier is out of paper".)
•More focus on a solution than the problem ("This copier is out of paper: where is the supply so I can refill it?")

Ways to Handle Stage One


•Initiate a response that examines the situation. ("Looks like the copier's out of paper. Do you know where the stock of it is?")
•Ask yourself if the reaction is proportional to the situation. Is anyone carrying "baggage" from previous situations? How would you know? Hint: What tense are they using to describe their position: present or past?
•Identify points of agreement and work from these points first and then identify the points of disagreement. ("I agree with you that it seems like no one else restocks the copier but you. But at least we can rely on you.")

STAGE TWO - Challenges Requiring "Win-Lose" Results

Characteristics and clues of Stage Two

You must LISTEN FOR these clues:


•Words are in the past tense ("This copier never has paper in it! It's always empty!")
•Comments are focused on "human" topics (machinery maintenance person, weather man, traffic - a particular driver, the "system [computers service people, the organizational culture - a particular person within it, procedures - a particular person who doesn't follow them]" etc. "I hate people who can't even restock a copier run they run it out of paper!")
•More focus on who caused the problem - or allowed it to happen - than a solution ("The copier on this floor needs paper. Who is supposed to keep it full?")

Important considerations for Stage Two:


•Coping strategies DO NOT WORK because people are the problem and the conflicts do not go away.
•Self-interest is very important. "CYA" ('Cover Your Assets') is a survival strategy.
•People take sides, take notes, and keep score. Alliances and cliques may form. A "us" vs. "them" mentality develops.
•Discussion of issues and answers are futile because participants and the problem have become too closely entangled. (Similar to a heated political discussion.)
•Participants deal in terms that are more general. You will hear about the phantom "them" and comments as "everyone thinks...", "always..." and "never" increase in frequency. Each side is reluctant to provide facts without asking, "How will you use this information?"
•TRUST IS VERY LOW!

Ways to Handle Stage Two Conflict


•Create a safe environment to discuss the situation which includes:

a) Make the setting informal

b) Establish neutral turf

c) Have an agenda so there is focus on an outcome


•Be hard on facts, soft on people. Take time to get every detail. Clarify generalizations. Who, by name, are "they"? Are you sure that "always" or "never" is accurate?
•Do not let the participants sit across from each other. Arrange to get them sitting beside each other across from you. (Sitting across from each other so they make eye contact can start it all again.)
•Focus on points of agreement to find a middle ground. Do not suggest that each side "concedes" something because that implies "giving in". Rather, suggest a "trade". "Do you agree this bickering is becoming an aggravation for the two of you? If so, maybe we can work a way to resolve this. Sam, would you be willing to trade proof-reading of your work before you give it to Sue if she will stop making comments about your work quality?"
•Take as much time as necessary to reach agreement without forcing concessions or issues.
•Avoid voting to resolve issues because that leads to a "win - lose" result. (The only way to avoid having hurt feelings by voting is if you are assured of a unanimous decision before you begin!)

STAGE THREE- Eliminating the "Enemy"

Characteristics and Clues of Stage 3


•The motivation is to "get rid" of the opponent, not just win. Being right and punishing wrong become consuming goals.
•The competing parties identify "insiders" and "outsiders". "You are either with me or against me!"
•Leaders emerge from the group to act as representatives.
•You equate your position as doing "what's good for the organization! ["I have to fire you for the good of the organization".]"
•Specific causes of the problem get lost in the emotion. Many newly recruited team members may not know the origins of the conflict.
•TRUST IS NON-EXISTANT!!

Ways to Handle Stage Three Conflict


•An outside intervention agent or team (a neutral person or department) is required as a mediator so neither side feels this third party favors the other.
•Details are critical to a thorough understanding of the situation by the mediator.
•You must allow sufficient time to get a true picture of both sides of the case.
•The mediator can ask each side to present their case (without comment from the other) and identify the results they would like to achieve in this process.
•The mediator puts the responsibility on the two teams to find areas of common agreement or trade in search for an agreement.
•Not every participant on both teams may be at Stage 3. Try to break off members at lower stages and redirect their energies away from this situation.


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Error Proofing

Mistake proofing is an effort to stop defects at the source. The prime objective is to prevent defects from occurring in the first place, but if they do occur, to stop their progression through the process. By stopping a defect at its source, its cost impact is minimized.

The further the defect progresses through a process, the more waste occurs. The more waste that occurs, the higher the cost impact. As a result, the best place to stop a defect is in the design of the process, product, or service. Once the process is in place, waste starts to be generated as a process output along with the product or service.

The first step in mistake proofing is to determine the kind of error, or errors, that caused the defect. In a Six Sigma project, this is what the Define, Measure, and Analyze phases have been isolating on a project level. As part of the Improve Phase, the problem process will be re-engineered. Part of this re-engineering will be mistake proofing the process steps.

There are general classifications of errors that lead to defects. Different organizations may have somewhat different categories.

Concentration: Lack of concentration, breaks in concentration, interruptions
Knowledge: Lack of training or experience
Judgment: Prejudice, expectation
Mistakes: Forgetting, accidents
Speed: Working too fast, working too slow
Standards: The absence of standardized work, absence of performance standards
Independence: Deciding to ignore rules or standards, freelancing
Intentional: Deliberate mistakes, sabotage
Incidental: Equipment failures, environment, surprises
Unknown: These will usually find their way into one of the above categories after analysis.

There are several approaches to mistake proofing. Each approach addresses at least one of the above error categories. The following are some of the more common strategies.

In manufacturing, one of the most common approaches is the use of fail-safe devices. These devices prevent the operator or machine from creating a defect. An example would be the use of a slipping-type torque wrench to prevent over tightening.

The magnification of the senses is another mistake proofing method. Examples would be optical magnification to improve vision and closed circuit video to see where it is not otherwise possible to see (distance, safety, etc.). Also used are pictures instead of numbers (LED bar charts instead or a numerical display on a meter) and multiple signals (audible and visual alarms used together).

The elimination of error-prone steps in a process is another method of mistake proofing. This may require designing a new process or the use of automation. An example of this is the use of ambient-light sensors to turn outside lighting on or off.

Facilitation of the work process will also aid in mistake proofing. This is changing the process steps so that they are easier to do, or easier to do right. An example would be to color code parts that are similar in shape. This would make it easier to identify the correct part for assembly.

Devices that detect an incorrect action or part can be used to mistake proof a process. Examples would include a weld counter to ensure the correct number of welds or a software modification that will not allow incorrect entries.

There are as many mistake-proofing strategies as there are mistakes. It requires communication and cooperation between the operators, the process owners, and the engineering staff to successfully execute. In many businesses these functions are silo'ed and do not work together well. This is why progressive companies are putting together production teams for both products and services. These teams are made up of dedicated operators, engineers, and managers all working in the same process. They all have ownership of the process, and as a result, communication and cooperation are easier to maintain.

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Quality Control System For Your Online Business

Quality control begins when an order is placed with a business. A system needs to be in place to effectively manage orders placed through the web. This might include a database. When an order comes through you cannot depend on an email going to one specific person because if that person is sick for the week then you might get backed up on orders and cause irate customers.

An order system needs to be in place so that everyone knows how to use it and can access information when necessary.

You should have a return or an exchange policy. If you have a policy of no returns or people are buying products 'as is', then you are most likely losing trust with the customers. Customers trust a company that will back their products with a guarantee or a promise to replace it if something should go wrong. The return policy should be in place to provide refunds or credit. They might be a pain for your business, and may create a small cost with shipping, but they ultimately create trust with the customers. These customers will rave about your products and keep coming back if they are happy with your services.

The ability to track returns is very important. If you have a product that continuously is returned then maybe you need to look into why this product is repeatedly returned. Without the ability to track which products are being returned, you will not be aware which products are defective or making your customers unhappy. A good quality control system online should include a good system of tracking returns from customers.

A quality control system on the web is different because you really need to address issues regarding quality on a case by case basis. When a customer states there is a defect on a product it is important that you verify. You can trust a customer but you must verify. Be sure you always offer an easy solution to the problem. Keeping the customer happy is important if you want them to return and shop with the online business again. Set appropriate steps in place internally to take care of the customers.

Customers need to come first. The web provides a less personal business because the customers do not see an employee or a face when they are shopping. The best way to remedy problems with customers is to assure them right up front that you are willing to fix any problem or do whatever you can to create a satisfaction.

A quality control system needs to be in place with any business whether it is online or face to face based sales. Establishing quality control begins with the order and return process. Be sure you have an easy tracking method for orders placed, shipped, and returned. Always make the customer feel important and let them know you will do whatever it takes to provide a quality product or give them a refund.



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Qual-ity

Quality
How do you define it?
This is how our readers define quality.
(Note: these definitions are straight from our database and have not been edited.

"Quality itself has been defined as fundamentally relational: 'Quality is the ongoing process of building and sustaining relationships by assessing, anticipating, and fulfilling stated and implied needs.'

"Even those quality definitions which are not expressly relational have an implicit relational character. Why do we try to do the right thing right, on time, every time? To build and sustain relationships. Why do we seek zero defects and conformance to requirements (or their modern counterpart, six sigma)? To build and sustain relationships. Why do we seek to structure features or characteristics of a product or service that bear on their ability to satisfy stated and implied needs? (ANSI/ASQC.) To build and sustain relationships. The focus of continuous improvement is, likewise, the building and sustaining of relationships. It would be difficult to find a realistic definition of quality that did not have, implicit within the definition, a fundamental express or implied focus of building and sustaining relationships."

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Importance of Software Quality Assurance

Software quality is one of the pivotal aspects of a software development company. Software quality assurance starts from the beginning of a project, right from the analysis phase.

Software Quality Assurance (SQA) is defined as a well planned and systematic approach to evaluate the quality of software. It checks the adherence to software product standards, processes, and procedures. SQA includes the systematic process of assuring that standards and procedures are established and are followed throughout the software development life cycle and test cycle as well. The compliance of the built with agreed-upon standards and procedures is evaluated through process monitoring, product evaluation, project management etc.

The major reason of involving software quality testing in the process of software product development is to make sure that the final product built is as per the requirement specification and comply with the standards.


Requirement analysis and definition
Design architecture and description
Coding and logic analysis
Change and configuration management
Testing and standard compliance
Release management and Release Control

Different activities of Quality Assurance are the following:


Maintaining the quality of the project as per the specifications and business requirements.
Defect Prevention. And formal methods for other defect prevention techniques
Defect Reduction
Inspection, formal and informal reviews: Direct fault detection and removal without executing the project scenario.
Testing the project for Failure observation and bug removal.
Risk identification.
Defect tracking techniques and methods
Software fault tolerance.
Concluding Remarks and maintaining reports.

Software quality assurance is concerned with building software products with required quality and maintaining the level of quality. Software processes are important paradigm in achieving the software quality. The software quality assurance (SQA) key process area of the capability maturity model (CMM) consists of activities for keeping track on adherence to the processes and specifications. The term SQA sometimes creates confusions with the quality management concepts. Software quality can be quantified into two major groups such as:


Software functional quality: It basically shows how well the software product conforms to the basic design, based on functional requirements. The attribute can also be described as the fitness for purpose of a software

Software structural quality: It reflects to how well the project meets the non-functional requirements such as usability, accessibility and security that helps in proper the delivery of the functional requirements. It basically defines the degree of correctness of the product.

The Structural quality of a product is defined by the analysis of the software inner structure and its source code. The reason for structural software quality analysis is to check the adherence of the product with the software architecture specification. It is carried out by the developer of the project. In contrast; functional quality is all about checking the functionality adherence with the requirements specification and is measured through software testing.

The major principles required for any software product for quality and business value fulfillment are Reliability, Efficiency, Security, Size and Maintainability




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Two Trends in Quality Control

In production, quality control has long become a part of management system, a tool to help manager examine and control the product quality. However, because the characteristics of recognition and belief differ from country to country, each quality control method, therefore, has its own approach and effect. Most outstanding of all are the two trends, the two approaches in Quality Control in Japan - the US and in Western Europe.

1. The former trend:

Started from the belief that Quality management is a matter of technology which is decided by technical standards and requirements, materials, machines, technology.... therefore, to control the quality, people base on Statistical Quality Control (SQC) and apply automatic examination tools in and after production time. To make basis for comparison, people create quality standards for the products and unify testing methods. Thereafter, take tests to evaluate the decree of compliance of the product with those standards or technical requirements. On basis of the test results, the product quality will be decided to be satisfactory or dissatisfactory.

In this trend, Quality Control methods are formed such as QC (Quality Control), Product Quality Examination and TQC (Total QC). In production system, there are employees trained to examine the product quality - who work independently and specially.

2. The latter trend:

Differing from the above belief, the second trend assumes that QC by examining and removing defect products will be unable to avoid mistakes. Examination does not create Quality but the whole process does, from design phase, production phase to consumption phase. The quality must be assured in every phase, every work and must involve every employee in the organization.

Therefore, to control the quality according to this trend, people must consider Quality Assurance to be their main duty. This duty is done by regular and planned activities of senior managers. Quality Assurance must be started with being set as a main goal of the company. After being publicly introduced about Quality Improvement Programs, all the employees will do researches to find best ways to fulfill their duties. As a result, in companies following this trend, there are many Quality Movements with the participation of all the employees.

Management methods following this trend can be deeply humanistic, such as TQM (Total Quality Management), TQCo (Total Quality Commitment) and CWQI (Company Wide Quality Improvement). With these methods, people can make best use of the human resource in the company, and the result is that not only the product quality is assured but also the business operations are improved.

Above are the two most important trends in QC in the world. These 2 trends are formed throughout the process of consciousness about relevant matters to Quality and have been verified for over 40 years of application as basis for QC in many countries. However, which trend and which model to be selected depends on many specific conditions of each company, each country and each requirement from reality.


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