ISO 9001:2008 Brings More Clarity to QMS Standard

Although the recently released ISO 9001:2008 contains no new requirements compared to the 2000 edition, it does clarify existing requirements of ISO 9001:2000.

Released last November, ISO 9001:2008 is the latest edition of the International Standard used by many automotive companies and other organizations as the framework for their quality management systems (QMS). The ISO 9000 family of standards represents an international consensus on good quality management practices. It consists of standards and guidelines relating to quality management systems and related supporting standards.

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Chiquitos: Best place to have the delicious food

Have you ever tried the Mexican food at chiquitos vouchers ? If your answer is no, then you need to try it. Chiquitos is one of the best places to get the true Mexican food. It has more than 65 restaurants in various parts of the world. But you can see most of its restaurants located in Leicester Square of Leeds. It offers some of the best Mexican dishes for its customers. All the restaurants are well maintained and you find traditional work and pottery lining the walls. The Chiquitos restaurant offers various colorful and spicy foods to its customers. You can choose anything from Acapulco Chicken to Roasted Vegetables. Chiquitos is the best place to enjoy the traditional Mexican specialties with your family and friends. Some of the American Classics are also seen the Chiquitos menu. The nacho is the prefect dish to be shared among the group of friends. Chiquitos is not only the best place for adults but also for kids. The restaurants serve some of the excellent menu for kids like pasta bolognaise or fish finger. Not only food, but also they offer some games to kids for free. Along with the menu, you are served with a colorful cocktail throughout the day. Chiquitos is the great place for food, atmosphere and fun. Also Chiquitos offers some chiquitos vouchers where you can get the food at much discounted prices. You can use these vouchers and get the best prices.

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Cost of Quality

The term Cost of Quality is widely used in various industries. Sometimes called slightly shorter, Quality Cost. Whatever form is used, the term is often wrong interpreted. Cost of Quality is not only the cost incurred for not producing a product or service quality. Cost of Quality is cost needed to make a quality product. Cost we paid for not producing a product or service quality was called Cost of Poor Quality. Cost of Poor Quality must be paid when we spending our cost to follow-up the quality problem like:

1. 
   
   rework of finished goods


2. 
   
   re-checking or inspection of products


3. 
   
   remanufactured or tooling modifications

repetitive tasks in the service sector, for example, repeat the process of loan application, replacement of food in a restaurant, etc. In short, all expenses incurred due to the poor resulting quality for the first time you produce is part of the Cost of Poor Quality. So, what is Cost of Quality? In general, the Cost of Quality is divided into several sections, namely: Prevention Cost All costs incurred to prevent the problems of quality produced. For example the cost of reviews, cost during the APQP process, a survey of supplier capabilities, evaluate the process capability, projects to improve the quality, training and technical education. Appraisal Cost All costs associated with measuring, evaluating or auditing products or services to ensure conformance to quality standards or other requirements. For example, incoming inspection of raw materials, in-process product inspection, final product inspection, product audits, calibration of measuring instruments and machine calibration. Failure Cost (usually called Cost of Poor Quality) Costs incurred due to product or service does not fit with customer requirements or other provisions. Failure Cost is usually divided into 2, namely:

• 
  
  Internal failure cost, Ie costs incurred before the product shipped to the customer. For example, scrap, rework, reinspection, downgrade the product.


• 
  
  External failure cost, Namely the costs incurred after the delivery of products to the customer. For example, fees for handling complaints from customers, returns by customers, warranty claims, product recall that has been circulating (product recall).

Cost of Quality is the sum of all the costs above. So the cost of quality is different with the actual cost of products, which usually is considered only a component material, production costs, shipping costs and profit margins. Cost of Quality log all actions taken both to prevent problems (preventive cost), to ensure there are no problems (appraisal cost) and to follow up the existing problems (failure costs), either before it is sent to the customer or when ship to the customer. Thus, the actual cost of Quality is not equal to zero. There is always a process or an attempt to ensure product quality before being sent to the customer. So at least Appraisal Cost of Quality = Cost. Unless the company is so confident with his performance so that the checking of products was not done at all ... This understanding is often wrong interpreted or ignored by management. Usually companies only count the cost of failure cost (cost of poor quality), so if there is no defect, the Cost of Quality = zero. This does not mean wrong at all for other costs, especially preventive cost accounted for in other books heading. However, if we want to begin to list the Cost of Quality in the true sense, we must take into account all the factors above.

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Vehicle Service Contract

Do you need a car? Do you want buy it? There are a lot of Brand, Type, Model and Price of car. We shall be selective and shall be choose the right car, as we need. Buying luxurious cars are most peoples dream. But we must remember how much we will spend on car services. You should have a right plan on buying it. Vehicle service is expensive. Made a good plan for having luxurious cars. For helping us in making good plan there are a lot of car services, auto insurance quote or others insurance will help us. They will give us the right vehicle service contract. Their services not only vehicle services contract but also extended car warranty for our cars. So, we do not worried about having a luxurious car.

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Understanding about CD Rate Types

If you have made the choice to invest into CDs, you will select among the various CD types for your personal investment portfolio. A CD by definition is an investment certificate that grants the bearer of the certificate a specific rate of interest at the certificate’s maturity date. CD rates will have maturity dates that vary from one month to 5 years in length and are most typically issued by a FDIC insured bank.

CD rates will often range based upon the maturity dates. For example, a $10,000 1 year CD may pay a rate of 2.5% at its maturity. And, a 5 year CD rates may be paying 4.25% at its maturity date. The longer maturity CD rates will offer higher rates as they have a higher risk to the investor than a shorter term CD.

So what type of the major CD types?

Callable CDs

Similar to fixed equity products, CDs can have a callable feature. A callable feature is often included on fixed investments to give the Issuer the option of calling the investment in the event that interest rates change enough to place the Issuer in an unfavorable position. The benefit to the investor is that Callable CDs often bear a higher interest rate to compensate for the added risk that the investor is taking with relating to the chance that the CD will be called prior to its maturity date. If interest rates decline, investors should be prepared for the possibility that their CDs will be called, causing them to reconsider their overall investment strategy with the money released from their CDs.

Jumbo CDs

Jumbo CDs are sold in denominations above $100,000 and while individual investors can invest into them, they are most commonly purchased by institutional investors. Institutional investors can include corporate investors or mutual fund managers. The CD rates for Jumbo CDs will range based on their issuers and maturity dates.

Inflation Linked CDs

Inflation is a common concern of investors using cash instruments within their portfolio, as it can erode purchasing power over time. An inflation linked CD is a federally insured type of debt instrument that provides investors a form of inflation protection through the use of variable interest rates. The interest rates will vary based upon a set standard, tied to the national Consumer Price Index (CPI). These offer CD rates that are below traditional CDs as they pose significantly less risk to the investor as they offer this added inflation protection.

Zero Coupon CDs

Investors may have heard of zero coupon bonds, but may not be familiar with zero coupon CDs. A zero coupon CD is one that is purchased well below the coupon rate. With regards to CD rates, the coupon rate refers to the interest rate expected and the term ‘zero coupon’ refers to a CD that will not in fact make interest payment. The interest stated will be paid to the investor when the CD matures, but the investor will be charged what is called phantom income for the interest payments not received on an annual basis. The advantage is that the CD rates is often higher, but the investor needs to be aware of the annual taxes in order to set aside those needed funds.

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Paid reviews can grow up your business sales

Paid to review is an online business program where blogger is paid to review product or site. Blogger only need to post a review about something on blog and get payment from it. The Blogger get the payment from broker that paid by advertiser whose buy blog reviews.

There are a lot of paid reviews program around the Internet. They have several ways in attracted the reviewer and advertiser to join with them. They almost have same program, bonus, reward, earning and payment method but not all of them was really pays the blogger. Paid reviews that not pay the blogger calls SCAM program.


To avoid us from SCAM program, I would like to introduce one of the paid to review program that was really pay us. It was LinkFromBlog.com. This paid reviews program was really pay us with big earnings. And for advertiser, don’t worry about the reviewer. Almost of the reviewer has a great blogs or site and have a good writings. Advertisers can grow up their business sales. So, don’t wasting your time. Let’s join us.

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Louis Vuitton

Last week I was so confused in giving surprise for my wife birthday. My confusing have gone since I found www.eluxuryin.com. There are lots of handbags; they are fashionable, quality and luxury. There are some types of Louis Vuitton handbags that so luxury. But only one type makes me stunned. It was Monogram Mini Lin canvas (PRODUCT ID: M95229).

Initially created by Louis Vuitton in 1932, the No now comes in Monogram Mini Lin canvas. It features a practical adjustable strap for carrying it on the shoulder. With only $ 248.99 I’ve got this Luois Vuitton Bags.

The size: 10.2" x 13.4" x 10.2".

• Monogram Mini Lin canvas, tone on tone textile lining, grained tone on tone calfskin trimmings
• Golden brass pieces
• Leather strap closure
• Carried on the shoulder
• Adjustable strap with a buckle

My wife so happy received those surprises from me. She told that the Louis Vuitton Bags was so luxury, fashionable and quality. Thanks Louis Vuitton!

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Pressure Sensitive Envelope Making Machine/Postmate

Have you seen this machine? Do you know what machine is this? Let me explain. This machine is pressure sensitive envelope making machine/postmate. This machine was very useful. Now you can buy it from wholesalers. Here is the little explanation and specification of this machine

A.Main functions:
1. Paper feeding, separating,folding ,sealing in one process.
2. 2 parts of form , high converting speed.
3. Improved "L" shape consctruction design for form conveyer stacker higher speed,more stable operation.
4. auto inspection during running, auto fault self-diagnostic.
5. pre-set production amount for mass production.

B. Main specifications:
1. Voltage:220+/-10%,50HZ
2. Power: 1.5KW
3.Continuous running time :24hours/ Maximum time between faults>1000hours
4. max.speed:16000-18000forms/hour( for 12''continuous paper )
5. Machine life:40,000,000 cycles
6. folding styles: C/Z/V
7. Envelope size: 1-5#(2 rows),1-8#(1row)
8. Sealing method: thermosensitive/Pressure sensitive adhesive
9. Referenced paper: 80-120gsm
10. Gross weight:110kg
11. Dimension:2300*1090*1115mm

It's is ude to separate, fold and seal the pre-guled continuous form into different size of PSA envelope in various styles.
For more information pls contact the wholesalers! or visit their site!

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Sepakbola masa kini telah menjadi sebuah INDUSTRI!

Kalau berbicara mengenai dunia bola memang tidak akan pernah ada habisnya. Sepakbola masa kini telah berubah. Sepakbola tidak hanya sebuah permainan bola tangkas dan bukan lagi sebuah cabang olahraga yang sekedar untuk menyehatkan badan. Sepakbola saat ini telah berubah menjadi industri bahkan bisnis yang cukup prospektif. Sepakbola sekarang dijadikan ladang uang bukan hanya oleh penggemarnya tetapi bahkan telah merambah kepada para pengusaha, elit politik bahkan pemerintahan.

Lalu seberapa besar pengaruh sepakbola masa kini terhadap perkembangan sepakbola di Indonesia?

Saat ini Indonesia sedang membuat sebuah liga professional seperti halnya sepakbola eropa maupun amerika. Banyak pengusaha, elit politik bahakan pemerintahan terlibat langsung dalam usaha ini. Tidak salah memang! Karena dunia sepakbola ini nantinya akan menjadi suatu komoditas yang prospektif bagi dunia pariwisata dan hiburan. Bagi pengusaha dunia sepakbola adalah lading uang. Bagi elit politik, sepakbola adalah sarana sosialisasi dunia politik yang lumayan ampuh. Bagi pemerintah, sepakbola akan memberikan sumbangan besar bagi pendapatan pemerintah (pajak).

Mengapa bisa seperti itu?

Sejak pertama kali sepakbola diperkenalkan, para penggemar sepakbola bahkan tidak memperdulikan apapun untuk dapat menikmatinya. Mereka bahkan berani membayar mahal untuk sepakbola yang menurut mereka hiburan yang menarik. Seperti kita tahu ketika Club sepakbola terbesar di Inggris-Machester United yang beberapa waktu lalu hampir saja datang ke Indonesia. Beribu-ribu penggemarnya rela antri berhari-hari bahkan mengeluarkan biaya yang tidak terhitung murah. Bahkan ada pula yang rela membeli tiket pada calo yang tentunya harganya akan berlipat-lipat.

Dunia usaha kecil yang bergerak dibidang peralatan sepakbola (kaos, celana, sepatu, bola dll) juga mendapat bagian dari suksenya dunia sepakbola masakini. Bukan hanya itu dunia usaha souvenir sepakbola juga akan mendapat imbas dari suksesnya dunia sepakbola Indonesia.

Selain itu bukan hanya penggemar sepakbola yang menikmati. Para penjudi bola juga turut menikmati dengan mempertaruhkan sebagian besar uangnya di arena perjudian seperti di agenbola misalnya. (Agenbola adalah salah satu arena judi bola besar di Indonesia karena mereka melayani pembukaan account bola di SBOBET dan IBCBET yang mana sbobet dan ibcbet adalah website betting bola terbesar di ASIA saat ini).

Lalu akan berperan seperti apa kita sebaiknya?

Akankah kita menjadi pesepakbola yang sukses dan bergaji besar? Akankah kita menjadi pemilik club bola yang sukses? Akankah kita menjadi penggemar yang gila bola yang akan menghabiskan sebagian besar uangnya untuk menikmati sepakbola? Akankah kita menjadi penjudi bola yang selalu menghabiskan uangnya di arena judi bola? Atau akankah kita menjauh dari sepakbola?
Semua jawaban terserah pada diri anda sendiri.

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What are debt settlement, debt negotiation and debt relief?

Personal debt has become an increasingly large problem in recent years. With such large debt loads, many individuals have difficulty making repayments on debts and are in need of help. May be you have heard about debt settlement, debt consolidation, debt relief and debt negotiation in banking knowledge or may be you have done the debt settlement. But not much people know about the debt settlement means and what is the benefit. Here is the simple explanation that I known about debt settlement, debt negotiation and debt relief.

Debt settlement, also known as debt arbitration or debt negotiation, is an approach to debt reduction in which the debtor and creditor agree on a reduced balance that will be regarded as payment in full. Essentially, the debt settlement company negotiates on the borrowers’ behalf with creditors to reduce the overall debts in exchange for an agreement upon regular payments to be made. Only credit card debts can be handled, not student loans, auto financing or mortgages. For the debtor, this makes obvious sense – they avoid the stigma and intrusive court-mandated controls of bankruptcy while still lowering, sometimes by more than 50%, their debt balances.

What do you think about debt relief? Debt relief is the partial or total forgiveness of debt, or the slowing or stopping of debt growth, owed by individuals, corporations, or nations. So with this debt relief we can get forgiveness but usually can’t give total forgiveness.

Who can give us the debt settlement or debt relief?

There are many companies who offer debt consolidation services. But we must be selective to choose the debt consolidation agency. Get the agency that gives us the better bid. Better ways is try search on the Internet and find some debt settlement companies. Read carefully about their program in debt settlement, debt consolidation or debt relief.

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Internal Audit Nonconformance/NC is not closed, is it a nonconformity at CB assessment?

Several times ago, I’m find a question that makes me surprised. It’s a question from Peters from Poland at Elsmar.com forum at June 2007.

The question is like this. “Internal Audit Nonconformance/NC is not closed, is it a nonconformity at CB assessment? “ He also explained like this. “These were some minor nonconformity from latest internal audits. Some (only some!) corrective actions began but are not finished and closed. Lead Auditor from CB had doubts that he can accept this. He was not sure it conforms to the requirements. We couldn't find in rules any information about such problem. Do internal audit nonconformities have to be closed before certification audit? Organization began corrective actions but these actions are not closed. Is there any requirement in Rules that this situation is nonconformity in certification audit?”

Several in the cove have answered this question.


Stijloor from North Caroline as the forum moderator’s was response like this. “No not necessarily. The corrective action may have to be monitored for a while to demonstrate its effectiveness before a CAR can be (finally) closed. Your CAR log should show the status of the CAR. Inactions (delays, etc.,) are bad”. He also told, “Now, if the Certification Body's auditor issues nonconformity, then it must be closed within a pre-determined time limit. In other words, a certificate of registration can not be issued unless all NC's have been closed to the satisfaction of the CB”.

Trainerbob from Michigan, USA response like this, “There should be no problem with a third party auditor and a corrective action for an internal audit problem as long there seems to be a reasonable plan in place to eliminate the problem and verify the effectiveness of it. If there is no reasonable plan in place to solve the problem, then the third party auditor would probably have a probably have a problem. As Stiljoor said there is a difference between a corrective action from an Internal Audit and a third party audit. Your third party auditor or his/her organization will have guidelines that they use for the closing of non-conformances found during their audits.

Spartan Kim as Shy poster at Elsmar.com response like this, “I agree with Stijloor and would say the requirement is implied. If an internal audit nonconformance is about a requirement of a standard that is not being done, then that certainly would create a new nonconformance at registration audit time from the registrar. But a departure from an internal, documented process that shows progress in meeting the target completion date (as opposed to no progress for days or weeks) should not create a new nonconformance from a registration audit”.

Sidney Vianna from Long Beach, California response like this, “I don't have my copy of the IATF rules handy, at this moment. So, I can not answer for sure if under the IATF rules that would be a nonconformity or not. But, if this was an ISO 9001 audit, conducted under the requirements of ISO 17021, I would have to ask you further questions. For example, are ALL corrective actions emanating from your internal audit process unresolved/open? If that were the case, how can an external auditor assess the effectiveness of your corrective action process? Further, since results of internal audits and status of corrective actions should be part of your management review, can an external audit assess if your management review activities are done? If we were to assume that a percentage of your corrective actions, originated from your internal audit were "closed" and the external auditor can verify the process is working, I would emphatically agree that there is no requirement mandating all corrective action requests to be closed, prior to the certification audit. However, if NONE of the actions have been closed, verified for implementation and effectiveness, myself as an auditor could not attest that a key process of the QMS, namely the corrective action process, is effectively implemented”.

Howste from Utah response like this, “The Rules are not specifically mentioned what you are talking about. Originally Posted by TS Rules 3rd Edition, the audit team shall record all findings of nonconformity when detected and identify the nonconformities to the client. The identified nonconformities shall not be closed during the audit. If there are still nonconformities present in the system, and the audit team finds them, they must record them. So if a corrective action has been initiated, and correction has taken place, there would be no nonconformity - even if the full corrective action is not complete. If the corrective action has been initiated, and the nonconformity still exists, it must be a nonconformity”.

Arios from Juarez-Chihuahua-Mexico response like this, “Corrective Actions derived from internal audits may still be open provided that the issue does not compromise registration. If for instance you have an internal audit finding and a Corrective Action open because the Management Review meetings have not been performed, then to me is a big issue and I would not take the Corrective Action as a waiver for not meeting a requirement in the management standard.

Raffy from Manila-Philippine response like this, “Hi peters, two years ago we also have the same problem as they are some NC from the internal audits were not closed. This was noted by our CB during our pre-assessment audit and likewise suggests that these items should be immediately addressed by our organization. As regards to the problem, during the certification audit, there also some NC that were not closed and status were not indicated, that's why it was called out against the requirement of the clause 8.2.2 & 8.5.2.1 of ISO/TS16949. Lesson learned, there should be a status of each NC and these should be tracked and monitored. If these are not yet finished and remain Open. Escalation Process must be immediately implemented”.

And I was resuming that stated opinion like this, “I think that is no problem if you have a complete planning about the corrective action. That is including the monitoring of your corrective action progress. And I think that was an excessive finding if that is as a nonconformity. It should be an observation finding not a minor or major finding”.

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Accuracy and Resolution in a Measurement System: What are the differences?

Sometimes we still confuse about the differences between Accuracy and Resolution in Measurement System. Here we find some people opinion about this :

Stijloor from North Carolina (Cross Forum Moderator @ Elsmar.com response :

Are you referring to this?
Accuracy: The closeness of a measurement to the actual value being measured.
Resolution: The smallest detectable increment that an instrument will measure/display to.

West Bucey (Quality Manager) from Illionis response :

Is there a possibility you mean the word "accuracy" versus "accuration?" - if so, click the report button to explain and whichever moderator is on duty during that time period will help you change the thread title.

If it is "accuracy,"perhaps this might help:
From the NIST Handbook
NIST/SEMATECH e-Handbook of Statistical Methods, http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/, date
Specific page for glossary:
http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/glossary.htm

accuracy In metrology, the total measurement variation, including not only precision (reproducibility), but also the systematic offset between the average of measured values and the true value.

resolution
1. In experimental design, especially for two-level designs, the length of the word of the shortest confounding relationship. Geometrically, design resolution corresponds to the 1 plus the strength.
2. In metrology, the number of significant digits of a measurement system that can be meaningfully interpreted.
Bobdoering from LaGrange response :

My definitions (everybody has one...), with a few bonus definitions:

Precision: degree of “fineness” or resolution
Can be checked by Repeatability – the ability to duplicate the result

Accuracy: conformity to a standard
Checked against a standard

Resolution (or Discrimination):
-The amount of change from a reference value that an instrument can detect and faithfully indicate. This is also referred to as readability or resolution
-The measure of this ability is typically the value of the smallest graduation on the scale of the instrument. If the instrument has ‘coarse’ graduations, then a half-graduation can be used
-A general rule of thumb is the measuring instrument discrimination ought to be at least one-tenth of the range to be measured (10 to 1 rule), or one tenth of the process variation.

ndc (number of discriminate categories): an evaluation of the statistically significant discrimination

Metrology is the science of measurement; of mass, time and length (the primary quantities)
Measurement is the “language” of science
Mensuration is the branch of applied geometry that is concerned with finding the length of lines, areas of surfaces, and volumes of solids from simple data of lines and angles

Types of Measurement Error
Tool Error – inherent instrument error
Observational Error – error from the eye
Manipulative Error – error from the hand
Bias – unconscious influence causing error

For more measurement lingo:
Measurement System Analysis from MoreSteam

Dmadance (Shy Poster @ Elsmar.com) response :

Resolution is the smallest change that an instrument can detect, accuracy is a subjective term referring to how close an instrument can be assumed to measure the true value of a quantity.

It is often the case that a given instrument may have less accuracy than resolution. This is not an unusual concept, lets say one measures the ratio between two voltages, one measurement gives 1.0 +/- 0.1 V, and another gives 3.0 +/- 0.2 V. Well an instrument could divide 1.0 by 3.0 and get the result 0.33333 V. In this case one is displaying more resolution than the measurement is accurate. In other words instruments can give more significant digits in a result than are justified by its accuracy. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes an instrument can measure changes in a quantity more accurately than the quantity itself for instance.

My website, LearningMeasure.com has courses available that can explain issues like this in more detail.

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Four Essentials of Effective Work Instructions

Returning the focus to the worker

A work instruction is a tool provided to help someone do a job correctly. This simple statement implies that the purpose of the work instruction is quality and that the target user is the worker. Unfortunately, in many workplaces, today’s work instructions have little connection with this fundamental focus. Factories have encumbered work instructions with content that has been added to satisfy auditors, lawyers, engineers, accountants, and yes, even quality managers. We’ve piled on so much extraneous material that we’ve lost sight of the intended purpose of work instructions.

Instead of providing a simple tool to do a job right, we’ve buried the work instruction under a cascade of specifications, contract requirements, revision history, references, controls, licensing provisions, and engineering theory. The person who uses the work instruction has become an afterthought in favor of satisfying a licensing or certifying auditor.



If work instructions are to be practical quality tools, the worker must at least share focus with the auditor. This shift in emphasis doesn’t require removal of the licensing and certification information that has been added to instructions. However, the procedure portion of the work instructions can be improved, often significantly, by appropriate consideration of the worker. Workers learn quickly to spot the usable portions of the work instructions and apply the appropriate material on the job.

This article suggests a four-part criteria against which work instructions can be evaluated and improved as needed. As a first step in judging the overall effectiveness of work instructions, managers can examine their work instructions against four essential characteristics: credibility, usability, accessibility, and consistency.
Credibility: Workers trust them

Credible work instructions are at the heart of standardized best practices. In a workplace that’s committed to one and only one way to perform all procedures and processes, work instructions must define that standard.

When work instructions are credible, workers accept and trust them. But it’s easy for work instructions to lose their credibility. A common way to lose credibility is when standard procedure updates and changes get passed along verbally, and there are consistent and regular delays in updating the written work instructions. With verbal changes, an important step can be missed or an individual can otherwise fail to get the correct message. In a busy workplace with frequent undocumented changes and updates, work instructions become marginalized with workers no longer trusting them as being accurate.

Work instructions also lose credibility when a supervisor initiates a change and deviates from standardized best practice. Even though the change may be an improvement, the worker is forced to make a choice, and the boss’s words are always going to win over the written work instructions. For work instructions to be credible, workers must believe that they define the one, single, proper way to perform a task.
Clarity: Workers understand them

A clear work instruction can be quickly understood by the worker with a minimum of effort. To accommodate the typical worker, an ideal work instruction explains mostly with graphics using only minimal clarifying text. Illustrations or other graphic support should be immediately visible and the worker shouldn’t be required to go to any other location for supporting information.

Work instructions start to become unusable when they contain extraneous matter not directly related to the procedure. Also, multipage or multiscreen work instructions that cannot be quickly and easily grasped don’t meet the clarity test. Because most workers have neither the time nor the patience to struggle with unclear work instructions, they lose their practical value.
Accessibility: Workers can get to them

Work instructions are accessible when they can be located quickly and easily. "Quickly" means within seconds and "easily" requires a retrieval system that the worker knows, understands, and trusts. An ideally accessible work instruction is displayed as a job aid in immediate full view in the workspace.

If someone with a question about the proper procedure must struggle to even locate the applicable work instruction, the typical worker will find an alternative such as trial and error, guesswork, and questioning an associate or supervisor. While these alternatives might produce the right answer, they lead to a decline in the significance and importance of the work instructions.

Consistency: They match worker training

Consistent work instructions conform to a style guide developed specifically for procedures and work instructions. There must be rigid consistency of terminology so that the same word means the same thing every time. There can be no undefined acronyms and confusing technical terms. All instructions should follow the same format so that the user always knows where to find information such as required tools or control settings.

Consistent work instructions also demand that the material used for worker training is consistent with provided job aids.
Conclusion

In the absence of effective user-focused work instructions, we force the worker to employ a host of unsatisfactory alternatives including guesswork, trial and error, rumor, and tribal knowledge information transfer. The inevitable result is variation, deviation, reduced productivity, and lost potential.

To achieve the desired quality benefits of standard best practice, effective work instructions need to be a fundamental first step.

For more information, visit www.explainers.com.


About The Author

Patrick Sweeney, the founder of Michigan-based Explainers (www.explainers.com), is a noted consultant, writer, and speaker on the topic of procedures and work instructions. He has presented at national and local meetings and conferences of professional organizations, forum keynote talks, college-sponsored workshops, and similar events across a broad range of industries and applications.

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Should Quality Have Time Limits?

Where’s my coffee and a hot shower!

Anyone who has ever purchased merchandise from L.L. Bean is no doubt aware of this rock solid guarantee:
“Our products are guaranteed to give 100% satisfaction in every way. Return anything purchased from us at any time if it proves otherwise. We do not want you to have anything from L.L. Bean that is not completely satisfactory.... Of course, we want you to be the fair judge of quality. If you’re not satisfied with your purchase, we’ll replace it or give you your money back. It’s that simple”.

In my mind, this is the gold standard for how customers should be treated. I’m an L.L. Bean fan and have jackets, coats, fanny packs, and other outerwear that has never worn out. It should come as no surprise that L.L. Bean was just honored as being No. 1 in customer service by the National Retail Federation’s American Express Customers’ Choice survey. What is remarkable about L.L. Bean is that only rarely does one have to activate this guarantee, because merchandise from the company is first-class. If only other companies would adhere to this strong quality ethic. Let me give you an example of how some companies administer their own guarantees.

Several years ago, we received a Cuisinart Grind and Brew Coffeemaker from our children as a Christmas gift. It retails for around $200. It grinds coffee beans automatically whenever you want it to and brews a hot cup of java. The aroma permeates our home as an early morning welcome.

After about a year of use, the coffeemaker developed a defect. A call to Cuisinart and a verification of the three-year warranty provided us with a new brewer. Several years later, another defect surfaced and we made another call to the manufacturer. Inexplicably, at least to me, the customer service representative informed me that the warranty had expired. I was told that the warranty in effect was for the original purchase and the warranty for subsequent coffeemakers reverts back to the date of first purchase. Perplexed by this explanation, I waited a day, called back again, and talked to a different representative who agreed to forward us another coffeemaker. Obviously, he either misinterpreted the warranty or perhaps my calm but firm exhortations convinced him to relent. Whatever the case, we ended our call on a convivial note.

Due to a series of mishaps (i.e., receiving the wrong product, receiving a coffee maker destined for a different customer), we received three new brewers. We returned two of the unopened brewers that were mailed in error, but were told that we were responsible for postage on the defective product. I objected to that and said I was awaiting a postage-paid envelope. The new brewer works perfectly, but is not under warranty.

Shouldn’t each new product have its own warranty? If the merchandise had been sent to another customer it would have the normal three-year warranty—so why not the one I have? It’s ridiculous.

The other example is a water heater that came with our new home—a 40-gallon AO Smith heater. We have lived in our home for 20 years and just last week we had to replace the water heater for the fifth time. The warranty is for six years and, you guessed it, the warranty only covers the first water heater. As long as each water heater gives up the ghost within the first six years, the company provides a replacement.

Each time the water heater failed, it sprung a leak with water cascading all over the basement floor. Our last purchase of a water heater was in 2005, but we were told that the warranty wasn’t valid because the warranty covered a product that was purchased outside of the six-year time period. I have written to AO Smith to compensate me for the cost of a new heater, but I haven’t received a response to date. In the meantime, we purchased a different brand and did so from a different company.

Both of these companies evidently have no confidence in their products. If they did, their warranty would cover each new purchase. If L.L. Bean can guarantee their merchandise forever, why can’t others?

Thanks for listening. After a good venting and a five-mile run I feel much better. So let me move on to some other topics.

Each time I call a company for information or to discuss a problem, I always ask the representative about their location. For instance, when calling a Michigan company I’m always interested to determine if the representatives are headquartered in our state or if the phone bank has been outsourced. I often end up talking to a person in another country. Many of the representatives enjoy discussing their location, because we sometimes talk about the weather or perhaps an upcoming sporting event where their team may be pitted against one of our Detroit teams.

Keep in mind that, as we all know, “calls are being monitored for quality.” Well, just the other day I made a call to Verizon and asked the rep for his location. His response was: “For security reasons I am not able to reveal my location.” I laughed out loud and asked again but was given the same answer. Suggesting that even the President of the United States reveals his location when traveling, the rep saw no humor in that, perhaps taking solace in the fact that former vice president Dick Cheney used to relocate to “an undisclosed location” from time to time. Or just maybe my rep was in a witness protection program and thought I was Tony Soprano. So why does this bother me? I want to think that customer service representatives are there to serve me. I would like to think that along with quality service, their location, and some repartee is part of the contract. But hey, that’s just me!

Now here’s my own special quality message to all of you who use aluminum foil or plastic wrap. Have you noticed that when you attempt to pull out a strip of tin foil, invariably the whole roll comes out of the container? Well, guess what? For quality purposes some companies have located tabs at the two ends of the container with the words “Press in tab to secure roll in box.” Now that’s quality, and something that has escaped me for years until a friend pointed it out. So take a break from reading the remainder of my column and examine the aluminum foil and plastic wrap in your home. Pretty neat, eh?

And what would one of my columns be without my usual reference to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel? The Dearborn property, like all Ritz-Carlton’s, has a bevy of exceptional employees, or ladies and gentlemen as they are called. One in particular is doorman Marty Premtaj who, several years ago, was voted the best doorman in the United States by readers of Condé Nast magazine. Just recently, the Dearborn property celebrated its 20th anniversary and part of the ceremony included an auction for dinner for 10 prepared by the hotel’s executive chef with Premtaj greeting guests at the door. Once Premtaj paraded back and forth on the stage while wearing his top hat, the bidding reached $20,000. The hotel then quickly added another offering and that also went for $20,000 with the money going to charity. It’s obvious to me that quality and great customer service are still a driving force when it comes to purchases, and the attendees at this event certainly solidified that. Way to go Marty!

Career Builder recently published a list of the most ridiculous excuses for missing work. Among the ones that caught my eye were:

• Employee’s dog was stressed out after a family reunion
• Employee contracted mono after kissing a mailroom employee at the company holiday party
• Employee’s psychic told her to stay home

In fact, my psychic just sent me a message through mental telepathy that it was time to end this column, so I will do so. Besides, I have to prepare my coffee brewer for tomorrow’s java and check on my hot water tank to make sure it’s operating properly. By the way, this column has no warranty so if you find it defective or objectionable, contact my psychic. He’ll be expecting you.

About The Author
William J. Kalmar has extensive business experience, including service with a Fortune 500 bank and the Michigan Quality Council, of which he served as director. He has been a member of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Board of Overseers and a Baldrige examiner. He’s also been named quality professional of the year by the ASQ’s Detroit chapter. Now semiretired, he’s a freelance writer for the Detroit News and several other national publications including the St. Louis Post Dispatch. He writes a monthly column for the Mature Advisor and Senior Advocate newspapers, is a member of the USA Today Vacation Panel, is a mystery shopper for several companies, and a frequent presenter and lecturer. Kalmar also does radio voice-overs and competes in duathlons source : www.qualitydigest.com

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Delcam’s New PowerINSPECT Software Supports Five-Axis Inspection

(Delcam International Inc.: Windsor, Ontario, Canada) -- Version 5 of Delcam’s PowerINSPECT software includes support for five-axis scanning with Renishaw’s REVO probe. This new release of the world’s most successful hardware-independent inspection software also features the ability to use multiple alignments within parts or assemblies, additional GD&T features, more flexible best-fit algorithms, improved CMM connectivity. and more versatile report generation.

PowerINSPECT 5 is one of the first inspection software packages to support Renishaw’s REVO for the verification of both geometric and free-form shapes on CMMs. The combined solution offers faster and more accurate measurement of feature-rich parts, such as powertrain components, and complex doubly-curved surfaces, including those found in aerofoils and turbine blades.

As the five-axis REVO head is much lighter and more dynamic than the CMM, with a significantly better frequency response, it’s able to follow changes in the part geometry much more quickly. In addition, five-axis scanning minimizes dynamic errors caused by the inertial forces that affect the moving mass of the CMM structure.

The new PowerINSPECT release incorporates proven five-axis simulation and collision detection technology from Delcam’s PowerMILL CAM system. As a result, users can be confident that the inspection routines will operate safely and efficiently.

Five-axis operation for on-machine verification has also been enhanced, in particular by making the programming much easier. Canned strategies have been added for all standard geometric features, making it faster and simpler to generate inspection routines for prismatic parts.
PowerINSPECT’s new ability to use multiple alignments within a single part will allow independent verification of distinct areas within the component. This will make it simpler to identify the source of any error in a faulty example and so make it quicker and easier to rectify the problem.

Multiple alignments can also be important when checking assemblies of parts. They can be used to discover whether the error is in an individual component, and, if so, in which one, or whether the problem has resulted from an inaccuracy in the way in which the parts have been put together.

Inspection of more complex parts will also benefit from the enhanced best-fit options within the software. These now allow the user to prioritize the most important features in the part when identifying the most accurate alignment. For example, mating faces, which may need to be produced to a finer tolerance, can be given a higher priority.

The GD&T capability has been expanded to include symmetry, surface profile, and run-out, as well as the previously available true position, perpendicularity, angularity, parallelism, and concentricity. The new options are all available within the GD&T Wizard, to easily guide the operator through the process.

Another new option is the ability to compensate for changes in the part temperature. This will be most helpful to companies using portable devices on the shop floor, where it is impossible to maintain the temperature as consistently as can be done in a dedicated measuring area. The software includes specific expansion factors for different materials, allowing accurate compensation allowances to be calculated.

The introduction into PowerINSPECT of I++ technology will make it easier to add the software to new hardware, especially for companies that use a variety of different devices. I++ is the standard communication format for CMMs and is supported by all major equipment manufacturers.

PowerINSPECT’s easy-to-understand reporting has always been one of the software’s most popular features. With the new release, users have been given more control over the way in which the results are displayed. The previous highly automated reporting methods are still available but users are now able to customize reports more easily. For example, the positions and contents of results labels can be adjusted to highlight the most important measurements.

Source : www.qualitydigest.com

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Accuracy, Precision, & Calibration

Accuracy: The difference between the expected value of a sensor's output and the actual value of the quantity being measured. The mean of a set of data is related to the accuracy of the data.

Precision: The variations in a measured signal due to noise or other phenomena. The standard deviation of a set of data is a measure of the precision.

Calibration: Calibration improves the accuracy and precision of a sensor by defining a mathematical relationship between what you measured and what the reading should be. For example, the third plot above could be improved by subtracting a constant from the measured temperature. This would be one type of calibration.

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How to Reap Real Benefit from a Layered Process Audit

Not sure if you are getting the maximum benefit from your LPAs? It’s time to leave the minimal compliance mindset behind, and instead, understand and apply what LPAs can do for your company’s overall performance.

Since General Motors Corp. (GM) initially introduced layered process audits (LPAs) to suppliers in 2002, hundreds of companies rushed to implement the system. Chrysler made LPAs a supplier requirement in 2004, and GM suppliers implementing GM’s Quality Systems Basic Training are also required to implement LPAs. Furthermore, to reduce the variation in interpretations, the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) published CQI-8—Layered Process Audits Guideline in December 2005.

However, while about one-third of North American automotive suppliers have some form of LPA in place (perhaps a bit higher among the Tier One group), some experts say that many suppliers rushed to implement the LPA strategy simply to satisfy a new customer requirement—not to examine and fully utilize the benefits of the strategy itself.

A layered process audit is an ongoing chain of simple verification checks that ensure a defined process is followed correctly. It is a powerful management tool that can improve safety, quality and cost savings by amplifying problem solving systems and making continuous improvement almost routine. Through observation, evaluation and conversations on the manufacturing floor, these checks ensure key work steps are performed properly. LPA interactions are also an excellent way for managers to show respect for frontline workers.

“To meet the new requirements, suppliers quickly created audit checksheets and questions, but never thought about what process elements and what audit questions would actually reduce risk, prevent problems, and reduce costs,” notes Murray Sittsamer, president of The Luminous Group LLC. “I would guess only about half of the companies currently doing LPAs are doing them in a way that is truly helpful to their own business performance.”

Sittsamer says OEMs see LPAs as one of the most powerful strategies to take a good supplier and make them better; or take a great supplier and keep their quality metrics from declining. “By assuring that standardized procedures are in place, an organization can move from minimally complying to an organization where quality and conformance to product and process requirements is the number-one priority,” he says.

Benefits of LPAs
Here are some of the many benefits suppliers have realized from implementing LPAs:

• Protecting operators from injury.
• Eliminating the shipping of nonconforming products.
• Saving money because it’s less costly to have fewer injuries and manufacture products correctly the first time.
• Focusing on process inputs that help achieve first-time quality.
• Ensuring that processes run correctly because you are able to personally verify them.
• Helping top management become more familiar with shop-floor activities and building a relationship between management and shop floor personnel.

“LPAs are not the typical audit of the product,” Sittsamer explains. “Instead, they are an audit of the process. In a process audit, you check to see that the operator is following the defined process. LPAs ensure that the critical process parameters, such as machine settings, temperatures, flow rates and gages, were set correctly. If the defined parameters were set correctly, the process will make good parts.”

The industry can learn more about LPAs through AIAG’s one-day Layered Process Audit Implementation Workshop. This “Train-the-Trainer” course is for individuals who will be leading their site’s implementation of Layer Process Audits to fulfill recent OEM requirements. AIAG also offers a Layered Process Audit Executive Overview for company owners, presidents, plant managers and their leadership teams. It’s designed to layout the LPA strategy, including the benefits, approach, overview of what’s required, leadership’s role, and how to monitor LPA effectiveness.

To register for these and other AIAG training, visit www.aiag.org or contact AIAG Customer Service at (248) 358-3003.

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Breakthrough Improvements in Biscuit Manufacturing

Making quality a way of life

Recognizing that quality is a key growth driver in an increasingly competitive market, the new management of a large, well-established FMCG food company in India decided to explore total quality management (TQM) as the means of establishing a quality culture. The case presented here is the first successful application of TQM in the company’s manufacturing processes. The dramatic improvements achieved went a long way in demonstrating that TQM works.
The problemDamaged stock returned from the market (0.76 percent of sales) was a chronic problem defying resolution, and senior management threw this challenge to TQM. A quick analysis indicated that 67 percent of the returns were due to broken biscuits.
Reducing breakage in a specific product line was therefore chosen as the first project. A cross-functional factory team was selected for the effort. The manufacturing process has the following key steps:

• Mix ingredients as per the recipe
• Preprocess into a pliable mass
• Sheet mass to the specified thickness
• Mold-cut the sheet into individual units
• Cook in a six-stage oven
• Pack stacks of products into flexible retail packs
• Packing into shippers for dispatch

A two-day quality training program was conducted with the team to introduce them to TQM, why and how it works, and most important, to open their minds to explore change. The project was then begun using TQM’s seven-step problem-solving method, as defined below:

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Creating a Sustainable Innovation Process

by Peter Sherman

Today’s hyper-competitive business environment is creating a need for even more new products, new services, and new processes. Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) offers a generalized and effective approach for designing new products and services from the ground up. One of the more popular DFSS methodologies is define, measure, analyze, design, verify (DMADV).
Unfortunately, DFSS doesn’t address how new ideas are generated in the first place nor does it offer a framework for creating a sustainable innovation process. The innovation or ideation process starts much earlier in the typical DMADV process. See figure 1.

The focus of this article is two-fold: first, discuss innovation and its importance to an organization. Second, present a suggested approach for developing and implementing a sustainable innovation process in your own company.
Invention vs. innovation New ideas, more ideas, better ideas. Ideas are the life-blood of most companies, whether it means generating incremental revenues from new products or services, preserving revenues and customers, or reducing costs through new processes to more effectively manage the business. According to a Conference Board 2007 global survey of CEOs, executives’ No. 1 concern is “sustained and steady top-line growth.” Without a constant flow of ideas, a business is condemned to obsolescence.
Historically, invention was the traditional approach for creating new products and services as personified by the lone genius operating in his lab. Thomas Edison or the Wright Brothers come to mind. Gradually, invention in the United States was performed through large corporate research and development (R&D) efforts by companies such as AT&T (Bell Labs), Xerox Corp., RCA, Eastman Kodak Co., and IBM. These internal research labs spawned significant technological breakthroughs and patents such as the transistor, semiconductor, laser, etc.
Innovation is different from invention in that it goes beyond the solitary genius or traditional corporate R&D. Innovation involves leveraging your company’s combined internal core expertise (market research, marketing, engineering, R&D, manufacturing, or distribution) to develop new products or services. It also means working closely with external groups including customers, vendors/suppliers, academia, and even competitors. As A.G. Lafley, CEO of Proctor & Gamble describes, “Innovation is a team sport that uses the expertise of people from a lot of different fields. It lets you make unlikely connections that enable you to solve wickedly hard problems. It ties that idea to a better customer experience, and results in increased sales and profits.”
Creating a sustainable innovation process is even more challenging. Examples of systematic innovators include P&G (household and beauty care products), IDEO (product design), Google (web-based tools and applications) and IdeaLab! (serial entrepreneur of new business models). The innovation process within these companies share the following characteristics:
A strong commitment from executive leadership with clear direction
An inclusive approach that brings together all key stakeholders to encourage idea generation and knowledge-sharing.
A streamlined yet disciplined process to screen, evaluate, prioritize, and recommend ideas to management for approval.
A framework for quickly testing the feasibility of concepts
Leadership commitmentMost initiatives that fail aren’t due to the inherent nature of the initiative or program itself. They die because of the lack of senior management commitment. Even the best of new programs or initiatives require the backing of a senior executive(s). Leadership must be very clear about the mission, how it supports the strategic agenda, and articulate specific goals and objectives, such as, “Within five years we expect to generate 50 percent of our revenues through new products/services introduced within a 36-month period.”
Leadership commitment also means aligning resources, capabilities, and needs. Before ideation, business plans must identify opportunistic markets for the company. Determine priorities for new product/service development in specific arenas according to resources, capabilities and needs. Establish a case as to why this market, why this time. In this way, target constituencies can be identified for exploration. A shotgun approach to the marketplace will dilute resources and result in ideas that may target niche groups or segments that don’t leverage brand equities adequately.
An inclusive approachThe successful innovation process brings together stakeholders from all disciplines (internal and external) to participate in identifying/defining opportunities, refining concepts, product refinement (as it matures in the test stages), and defining success. These stakeholders include internal groups such as marketing, sales, engineering, operations, and R&D, as well as external organizations including customers, vendors/suppliers, academia, and even competitors. It should be recognized that success isn’t defined by numbers alone or that one number will establish the threshold for moving forward.
Internal competition—particularly in larger organizations—hampers communication because it encourages groups to hoard information. To bring together all stakeholders and encourage information-sharing, a level of trust must be created. Consider allowing the sponsoring innovation group to be completely independent (i.e., politically neutral) of the corporate structure to avoid such political landmines. To this end, a dedicated innovation screening team represented by key stakeholders in the organization coordinates and manages the day-to-day activities of the innovation process. This ensures that the process becomes operational. The screening team works closely with the innovators to facilitate the ideation process and foster communication with other innovators.
The next challenge is to determine the means of how information is going to be shared with your stakeholders. The web offers an extremely effective, secure, reliable, and low-cost means to communicate and store information, distribute tools and templates, and show status in real time.
Finally, a proper risk-reward model is critical to encouraging participation in such an innovation program. This might include combinations of formal recognition, gifts, or even monetary awards. Some companies offer equity stakes in the company (in the form of stock options or restricted stock) as an incentive for employees to come up with meaningful ideas. In 2005, Ericsson embarked on an innovation initiative to stimulate employees to think differently about how new telecommunications devices and services could be developed. Ericsson initiated an “Idea Competition” to its 2,000 U.S. employees The screening criteria was very basic and simple, including New Customer Potential, Retain Existing Customers, and Revenue Growth. Within four weeks, 856 ideas were submitted. These were initially screened down to the top 20, which were further screened to the three winning ideas. The winners were awarded cash prizes ranging from $3,000 to $10,000.
The innovation screening processAny innovation process must strike a delicate balance between being simple enough as to encourage idea generation and yet follow a disciplined approach. The key steps in the innovation screening process include: Analyzing, evaluating, prioritizing, recommending, and approving of ideas. A diagram is a useful technique to understand all the key suppliers, inputs, processes, outputs, and customers (SIPOC) of the innovation process. See table 1.

Figure 2 represents a suggested generic innovation process. It’s designed with specific gates including idea generation, screening, recommendation, approval, and testing.

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Statistical Process Control (SPC)

Statistical process control (SPC) is a method for achieving quality control in manufacturing processes. It is a set of methods using statistical tools such as mean, variance and others, to detect whether the process observed is under control.

History

Statistical process control was pioneered by Walter A. Shewhart and taken up by W. Edwards Deming with significant effect by the Americans during the World War II to improve aircraft production. Deming was also instrumental in introducing SPC techniques into Japanese industry after that war.

General

Classical Quality Control was achieved by observing important properties of the finished product and accept/reject the finished product. As opposed to this statistical process control uses statistical tools to observe the performance of the production line to predict significant deviations that may result in reject products.

The underlying assumption in the SPC method is that any production process will produce products whose properties vary slightly from their designed values, even when the production line is running normally, and these variances can be analyzed statistically to control the process.

For example, a breakfast cereal packaging line may be designed to fill each cereal box with 500 grams of product, but some boxes will have slightly more than 500 grams, and some will have slightly less, producing a distribution of net weights. If the production process itself changes (for example, the machines doing the manufacture begin to wear) this distribution can shift or spread out. For example, as its cams and pulleys wear out, the cereal filling machine may start putting more cereal into each box than it was designed to. If this change is allowed to continue unchecked, product may be produced that fall outside the tolerances of the manufacturer or consumer, causing product to be rejected.

By using statistical tools, the operator of the production line can discover that a significant change has been made to the production line, by wear and tear or other means, and correct the problem - or even stop production - before producing product outside specifications. An example of such a statistical tool would be the Shewhart control chart, and the operator in the aforementioned example plotting the net weight in the Shewhart chart.

QA , QC & Quality tools

Quality Assurance , Quality Control & Quality tools

Just In Time (JIT) is an inventory strategy implemented to improve the return on investment of a business by reducing in-process inventory and its associated costs. The process is driven by a series of signals, or Kanban that tell production processes to make the next part. Kanban are usually simple visual signals, such as the presence or absence of a part on a shelf. JIT can lead to dramatic improvements in a manufacturing organization's return on investment, quality, and efficiency when implemented correctly.

New stock is ordered when stock reaches the re-order level. This saves warehouse space and costs. However, one drawback of the JIT system is that the re-order level is determined by historical demand. If demand rises above the historical average planning duration demand, the firm could deplete inventory and cause customer service issues. To meet a 95% service rate a firm must carry about 2 standard deviations of demand in safety stock. Forecasted shifts in demand should be planned for around the Kanban until trends can be established to reset the appropriate Kanban level. In recent years manufacturers have touted a trailing 13 week average is a better predictor than most forecastors could provide.For More info referhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_In_Time

Kaizen ( Japanese for "change for the better" or "improvement") is an approach to productivity improvement originating in applications of the work of American experts such as Frederick Winslow Taylor, Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Walter Shewhart,and of the War Department's Training Within Industry program by post-WWII Japanese manufacturers. The development of Kaizen went hand-in-hand with that of Quality control circles, but it was not limited to quality assurance.

The goals of kaizen include the elimination of waste (defined as "activities that add cost but do not add value"), just-in-time delivery, production load leveling of amount and types, standardized work, paced moving lines, right-sized equipment, and others. A closer definition of the Japanese usage of Kaizen is "to take it apart and put back together in a better way." What is taken apart is usually a process, system, product, or service.

Kaizen is a daily activity whose purpose goes beyond improvement. It is also a process that when done correctly humanizes the workplace, eliminates hard work (both mental and physical), teaches people how to do rapid experiments using the scientific method, and how to learn to see and eliminate waste in business processes.

"Kaizen" is the correct usage. "Kaizen event" or "kaizen blitz" are incorrect usage. Kaizen is often misunderstood and applied incorrectly, resulting in bad outcomes including, for example, layoffs. This is called "kaiaku" - literally, "change for the worse." Layoffs are not the intent of kaizen. Instead, kaizen must be practiced in tandem with the "Respect for People" principle. Without "Respect for People," there can be no continuous improvement. Instead, the usual result is one-time gains that quickly fade.

Importantly, kaizen must operate with three principles in place: process and results (not results-only); systemic thinking (i.e. big picture, not solely the narrow view); and non judgmental, non-blaming (because blaming is wasteful).

Everyone participates in kaizen; people of all levels in an organization, CEO on down, as well as external stakeholders if needed. The format for kaizen can be individual, suggestion system, small group, or large group.

The only way to truly understand the intent, meaning, and power of kaizen is through direct participation - many, many times. Lean accounting and just in time producton are related concepts.

Process Models

A decades-long goal has been to find repeatable, predictable processes or methodologies (software engineering) that improve productivity and quality. Some try to systematize or formalize the seemingly unruly task of writing software. Others apply project management techniques to writing software. Without project management, software projects can easily be delivered late or over budget. With large numbers of software projects not meeting their expectations in terms of functionality, cost, or delivery schedule, effective project management is proving difficult.

Waterfall processes

The best-known and oldest process is the waterfall model, where developers (roughly) follow these steps in order. They state requirements, analyze them, design a solution approach, architect a software framework for that solution, develop code, test (perhaps unit tests then system tests), deploy, and maintain. After each step is finished, the process proceeds to the next step, just as builders don't revise the foundation of a house after the framing has been erected. If iteration is not included in the planning, the process has no provision for correcting errors in early steps (for example, in the requirements), so the entire (expensive) engineering process may be executed to the end, resulting in unusable or unneeded software features.In old style (CMM) processes, architecture and design preceded coding, usually by separate people in a separate process step.

Iterative processes

Iterative development prescribes the construction of initially small but ever larger portions of a software project to help all those involved to uncover important issues early before problems or faulty assumptions can lead to disaster. Iterative processes are preferred by commercial developers because it allows a potential of reaching the design goals of a customer who does not know how to define what he wants.

Agile software development processes are built on the foundation of iterative development. To that foundation they add a lighter, more people-centric viewpoint than traditional approaches. Agile processes use feedback, rather than planning, as their primary control mechanism. The feedback is driven by regular tests and releases of the evolving software.Agile processes seem to be more efficient than older methodologies, using less programmer time to produce more functional, higher quality software, but have the drawback from a business perspective that they do not provide long-term planning capability. In essence, they say that they will provide the most bang for the buck, but won't say exactly when that bang will be.

Extreme Programming, XP, is the best-known agile process. In XP, the phases are carried out in extremely small (or "continuous") steps compared to the older, "batch" processes. The (intentionally incomplete) first pass through the steps might take a day or a week, rather than the months or years of each complete step in the Waterfall model. First, one writes automated tests, to provide concrete goals for development. Next is coding (by a pair of programmers), which is complete when all the tests pass, and the programmers can't think of any more tests that are needed. Design and architecture emerge out of refactoring, and come after coding. Design is done by the same people who do the coding. (Only the last feature - merging design and code - is common to all the other agile processes.) The incomplete but functional system is deployed or demonstrated for (some subset of) the users (at least one of which is on the development team). At this point, the practitioners start again on writing tests for the next most important part of the system.

While Iterative development approaches have their advantages, software architects are still faced with the challenge of creating a reliable foundation upon which to develop. Such a foundation often requires a fair amount of upfront analysis and prototyping to build a development model. The development model often relies upon specific design patterns and entity relationship diagrams (ERD). Without this upfront foundation, Iterative development can create long term challenges that are significant in terms of cost and quality.

Critics of iterative development approaches point out that these processes place what may be an unreasonable expectation upon the recipient of the software: that they must possess the skills and experience of a seasoned software developer. The approach can also be very expensive, akin to... "If you don't know what kind of house you want, let me build you one and see if you like it. If you don't, we'll tear it all down and start over." A large pile of building-materials, which are now scrap, can be the final result of such a lack of up-front discipline.

Formal methods

Formal methods are mathematical approaches to solving software (and hardware) problems at the requirements, specification and design levels. Examples of formal methods include the B-Method, Petri nets, RAISE and VDM. Various formal specification notations are available, such as the Z notation. More generally, automata theory can be used to build up and validate application behaviour by designing a system of finite state machines.

Finite state machine (FSM) based methodologies allow executable software specification and by-passing of conventional coding (see virtual finite state machine or event driven finite state machine).

Recent approaches try to merge the specification and code into one activity to ensure the specification and code match. While Agile methods propagate specification of all requirements in code, methods such as VFSM develop executable specifications, trying to avoid the coding activity entirely

Quality control tools

The following are the mostwidely used Quality control tools

Run Chart : Run charts are used to analyze processes according to time or order. Run charts are useful in discovering patterns that occur over time. Detailed tutorial

Pareto Chart : Pareto charts are extremely useful because they can be used to identify those factors that have the greatest cumulative effect on the system, and thus screen out the less significant factors in an analysis. Ideally, this allows the user to focus attention on a few important factors in a process.

Flow Chart : Flowcharts are pictorial representations of a process. By breaking the process down into its constituent steps, flowcharts can be useful in identifying where errors are likely to be found in the system. Detailed tutorial

Cause and Effect Diagram :This diagram, also called an Ishikawa diagram (or fish bone diagram), is used to associate multiple possible causes with a single effect. Thus, given a particular effect, the diagram is constructed to identify and organize possible causes for it. Detailed tutorial

Histogram : Histograms provide a simple, graphical view of accumulated data, including its dispersionand central tendancy. In addition to the ease with which they can beconstructed, histograms provide the easiest way to evaluate the distribution ofdata. Detailed tutorialScatter diagrams : Scatter diagramsare graphical tools that attempt to depict the influence that one variable has on another. A common diagram of this type usually displays points representing the observed value of one variable corresponding to the value of another variable. Detailed tutorial

Control Chart : The control chart is the fundamental tool of statistical process control, as it indicates the range of variability that is built into a system (known as common cause variation). Thus, it helps determine whether or not a process is operating consistently or if a special cause has occurred to change the process mean or variance.

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