Re: Assurance and Improvement

["H Sodersved" <info@expira.se>]

My personal contribution to John Dowd's kind suggestion:

1.  A standard is a broad agreement between concerned interests on a certain
method och procedure
in order to simplify and reduce cost. It may also include improvement and
TQM:methods as times goes by
and enough people agree upon these new methods. A good standard wraps up
human achievements as they
are today, at this point in time. By standardizing, we do not have to argue
any more about the contents.
However:...as Kaoru Ishikawa stated, a standard older than six months should
be under suspect.
Especially as the rate of change accelerates (ref to Peter Scholtes'
Leadership Handbook),
as we may see in these times of Internet and E-trade growth.
Another aspect is, that people forget the contents if not properly educated
and trained (SoPK!)

2.  ISO 9000 fulfills a part of SoPK (QS 9000 twice as good), but only a
part.
The System of Cooperation is broadly implemented,
especially if subsupplier systems are interconnected. They seldom are.
On the other hand, Dr Deming never was so detailed as the ISO or QS 9000
standards are
- why would he bother at the age of 80 to 93. Would we?
The defined roles of different components of a quality system is a clear
improvement towards SoPK.

The Psychology part (moral & behavior) can not be implemented in written
standard form (text is a logical product).
The psychological effect on people of written text procedures is often
negative, i.e. contradictory to SoPK.
Flow Charts (pictures for the right brain) is less harmful, but still boring
reading to many persons.
In hospitals and schools flow charts for operational procedures might be too
simplistic.

Operational procedures are improved in ISO, but seldom performed as precise
as OoC defines.
The aim of an ISO system is to provide predictable performance, but lack of
proper SPC-routines,
tampering through Corrective Actions in Point 4.14, and External Auditing
Remarks removes that credibility. Corrective actions are often taken based
on attribute data "Outside Spec Limits".
(This will never produce low error rates, it will produce new errors in
other places of the system.)

The most devastating phenomena about the ISO 9000-system in my view is
ISO Consultants helping companies and saying that ISO says nothing about the
quality level,
only that you are performing as you have chosen to perform, predictably at
any quality level.
MBQA talks abot levels of qualiy on a scale 1 to 1000 ponits, that is a
clear improvement over ISO 9000.
The good about ISO is that it calibrates into the quality level where the
company is at the starting point of the quality journey.
Later you yu are free to improve as fast as you can.

3.  Quality Assurance at best is an advanced TQM-program including tools and
methods like:
PRA (probabilistic risk asessment), Affinity Team Planning, FMEA (failure
mode risk analysis), DOE, SPC, MSA etc.
Less developed, rudimentary ISO-quality assurance programs will later prove
their inefficiency: Low Value/Invested Dollar.

4.  The Deming System is a high level System of Empirically Proven and
Theoretical Knowledge
for a good world (very ambitious aim); including industrial, community and
governmental segments.
SoPK is the very core of this crossfuctional system, it may easily be
expanded by components like:
Empathy, Ethics, Aestethics, Emotional Quality - EQ, Social psychology,
Rethorics, Diplomacy etc
Six Sigma is a practical way of combining old (costs, projects) and new
(TQM)
tools to achieve low PPM or DPMO figures in any process (<1 PPM).
My own model "Positive Development for Man" includes all type of intercative
skills for better life,
including Christian Ethics, the foundation of which, given by Deming's
philospohy.

I would say that all these efforts are along the same Socrate's Line: Aim
and Efforts for Good Human Knowledge.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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hakan.sodersved@expira.se
Expira AB
Process & Quality Management
Bjornidegrand 3
SE-162 46  VALLINGBY
SWEDEN

Tel +46(0)8-739 10 70 Fax +46(0)8-739 10 72
Mob phone +46(0)70-556 33 45
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