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Quality Management Articles

Trends in Six Sigma Deployment Paul Keller discusses trends that influence the industry-wide deployment of Six Sigma.

Common Questions on Six Sigma deployments Paul Keller answers some of the most common questions on Six Sigma Deployment.

Integrating Six Sigma and Related Initiatives Tom Pyzdek discusses integrating Six Sigma with other organizational initiatives.

Pros and Cons of Six Sigma Dr. Jiju Antony discusses the limitations of Six Sigma.

Customer-Centered Six Sigma Initiatives Dr. Jiju Antony discusses the benefits of customer focus in a Six Sigma deployment.

Six Sigma Success Authors Mukkarram Bhaiji and Dr. Jiju Antony discuss the Key Ingredients for a Successful Six Sigma Program.

Drive for Show, Putt for Dough....except for the PGA? From our Summer '02 Newsletter. Tiger is great, so is Phil, Ernie, Vijay, David, Sergio and others. But what separates them from the rest of the best golfers in the world? Follow this link for a statistical analysis of their game.

Does Six Sigma Work in Smaller Companies? As Six Sigma becomes more mainstream in Fortune 500 companies, many small to mid-sized companies are asking if a Six Sigma deployment is right for them.

Process Excellence: Leadership must give careful thought on how various overlapping activities can best be organized to optimize their impact on performance. An "umbrella concept" often provides the needed guidance to successfully integrate the different but related efforts. Tom Pyzdek discusses one concept found to be particularly useful: "Process Excellence," or PE.

Six Sigma Deployment:Knowing where to start with a Six Sigma deployment is sometimes the most difficult part of the journey. In this conclusion to Six Sigma Deployment: A Guide for Implementing Six Sigma in Your Organization author Paul Keller suggests ways to jump start Six Sigma in your organization.

Selecting Black Belts: An important role of a Six Sigma Black Belt is that of technical expert in Six Sigma methods. This expertise allows the Black Belt to understand the link between complex customer needs and the critical internal process elements designed to achieve them. This article discusses the selection and training of Six Sigma Blackbelts.

The Six Sigma Revolution: An overview of Six Sigma Implementation: the players and the methods. 

Six Sigma vs. Three Sigma: Is a Six Sigma level of quality really that much better than the traditional Three Sigma levels? How is the Six Sigma level defined? These questions are addressed in this article.

Sigma at Motorola: Motorola learned about quality the hard way: by being consistently beaten in the competitive marketplace. See how they applied Six Sigma methodology to transform their business.

ISO 9000: 2000: Perhaps the biggest changes for the ISO 9000:2000 standard relative to its predecessors is the extent of management involvement required. In this except from ISO 9000:2000 An Essential Guide to the New Standard, author Eric Stapp describes the commitment necessary from senior management.

Management of the Audit Function: This article excerpted from The Complete Guide to the CQA provides guidelines on measuring the effectiveness of an audit so that improvements may result.

Document Control Got You Down?: See how Q-Pulse im

Repeatability Analysis: Don't just look at the statistics! Important information for Measurement System improvement can be found by charting the data.

Conducting R&R Studies: This article identifies some important considerations for performing studies to estimate Repeatability and Reproducibility.

Conducting Calibration Studies: This article presents some of the basics of Measurement System uncertainty as related to Calibration Studies.

The Collapse of Planned Economies: This article excerpted from The End Of Management draws a parallel between planned economies and popular management practices.

The Auditor's Ethical Responsibility: This article excerpted from The Complete Guide to the CQA outlines strategy to ensure you act responsibly during Audits.

QS 9000 Case Study: Nye Lubricants: Thomas Gray, Quality Manager for Nye Lubricants, discusses their implementation of QS 9000 using Q-Pulse software.

Benchmarking: This article, excerpted from The Handbook for Quality Management,  is an introduction to benchmarking. (Part 1 of 3).

Getting Started on Benchmarking: This article, excerpted from The Handbook for Quality Management,  provides useful techniques for finding and selecting candidates to benchmark. (Part 2 of 3).

Why Benchmarking Fails: This excerpt from The Handbook for Quality Management, provides insight into how failed approaches to benchmarking can be prevented. (Part 3 of 3).

Criticality: Excerpted from The Complete Guide to the CQA, this article discusses Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis.

Defining Customer Needs: In this excerpt from Dream Teams: How to Delight Customers While Cutting Costs and Saving Time, author Faith Ralston, Ph.D. outlines the keys to successfully establishing priorities based on customer feedback and several pitfalls to avoid.

Importance and Utility of Quality Documentation : In this excerpt from The Complete Guide to the CQA, Steve Baysinger discusses the distinction between Quality records and documentation. (Part 1 of 2)

Importance and Utility of Quality Documentation, Part 2 : In this excerpt from The Complete Guide to the CQA, Steve Baysinger discusses the prudence of reviewing the auditee's past performance history. (Part 2 of 2)

Organizations and Their Functions: In this excerpt from The Handbook for Quality Management, Tom Pyzdek discusses the role of Managers. (Part 1 of 3)

Management Styles,  Part 1: In this excerpt from The Handbook for Quality Management, Tom Pyzdek explains several Management styles. (Part 2 of 3)

Management Styles,  Part 2: In this excerpt from The Handbook for Quality Management, Tom Pyzdek explains other Management styles.  (Part 3 of 3) 

Characteristics of Audits : In this excerpt from The Complete Guide to the CQA, Steve Baysinger describes System, Process, Product and Compliance audits. (Part 1 of 3)

Characteristics of Audits : In this excerpt from The Complete Guide to the CQA, Steve Baysinger describes First Party, Second Party and Third Party Audits. (Part 2 of 3)

Characteristics of Audits : In this third excerpt from The Complete Guide to the CQA, Steve Baysinger discusses Audit methods. (Part 3 of 3)

New Research Casts Doubt on Strategic Planning: Tom Pyzdek explains why the term "strategic planning" has proved to be an oxymoron.

Avoiding the Crisis du Jour : Do you find yourself constantly "fighting fires"? A different perspective by Paul Keller.

Applications in Practice: A Look at the Seven Management and Planning Tools : A look at the 7 Management and Planning Tools, by Sharon A. Youngblood.