Due to personal reasons, our Chair Don Griego has withdrawn from his role of Chair. We wish him well in his on-going quest to embed quality into the workforce and community. We also hope to welcome him back in the future when he's able to return.

Our board is working with our Regional Director in an effort to restructure and so in the mean time, rather than end this mailer short, I decided to send you my recent thoughts regarding what I think our roles should be as quality professionals ... <smile>.

Roles as Quality Professionals

I've been thinking lately that we need a better definition as to what our roles as quality professionals should be. After all, as with a company, our profession at large needs to have a clear strategic direction to align with.

So what is the current role of the quality professional? I see:

Problem solving, including returns, complaints, and related communication.
Standards support via auditing, documentation, etc. for ISO, CMM, FDA, QS, etc.
Control efforts such as inspection, SPC, metrics, etc.

This looks a lot like monitoring other employees (glorified babysitting) to assure conformance to standards and or bailing them out of trouble? If those other employees performed their jobs perfectly we wouldn't be needed, right?

So what should the role of the quality professional be? One of our past officers (Diane Geldreich) is now a consultant that flies all over the US auditing and teaching. The company I work for recently hired her to come into our facility and make suggestions for how we can improve. Here are some interesting points she made that are related to this discussion:

Business objectives = quality objectives with the new ISO9000:2000.
Quality professionals therefore need to facilitate business objectives.
Today's quality professionals therefore must become facilitators, educators, and process improvement experts.

Key gaps in my opinion are:

Understand Business Objectives: Understanding top management's business objectives should be second nature to us. I don't believe they are.
Find Barriers to Objectives: We need to focus on looking for barriers to these business objectives throughout the company. We tend to focus on finding gaps between standards and existing documentation and practice. By doing this we have a natural tendency to overlook the business level objectives, especially when processes can be easily directed away from barriers.
Plow Through Barriers: We need to work towards removing barriers to business objectives as they apply to our scope of work. Six Sigma is one way to do this. We become team leading or participating facilitators within Six Sigma projects that tie directly to business objectives. There are also other ways to do this.
Continuously Improve Ourselves: We need to become barrier plowing experts. To do this we need to continuously gain experience and education related to plowing through barriers to business level objectives.

It doesn't matter what you're doing, you're following processes that tie in some way to business objectives. Therefore, this applies to all of us. We need to become well educated in statistical and quality tools and methods to where we can "educate" others. Then with experience, we will become "process improvement experts". Then with focused success, we will become recognized as barrier plowing "facilitators". Once recognized, we will achieve self actualization, allowing us to make a big positive difference individually and collectively, at the company level and for society at large.

That's my take on it. Send me your comments at kim.niles@cox.net.

Key Announcements

Sign up now for this month's meeting to be held October 11 at Fillippi’s Pizza Grotto, 5353 Kearny Villa Rd, Kearny Mesa. See below or our meetings page at http://www.asqsandiego.org/meetings.htm

No workshop is currently planned for October but we are working on a case study oriented modular course. Contact me with requests. More info to be published soon on our workshops page at http://www.asqsandiego.org/3hrwrkshp.htm.

See Refresher Courses; The CSSBB Projects refresher course is in planning to start on the 13th. See the newly posted syllabus on our refresher courses page. The CSQE and CQT courses just started. The CQA will likely be cancelled unless we can find a new coordinator. Keep signing up at http://www.asqsandiego.org/educ_refcourses.htm.

A few new jobs have recently been posted on our jobs page. See http://www.asqsandiego.org/jobs.htm and keep sending them in.

Don't forget to check out our sponsor pages. Great courses and products being offered!! See links at the bottom of this email. Here's some details:

Sponsor: UCSD Extension has a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt program starting 10/6 as well as other new Lean / Six Sigma BB / GB / Leadership program coming soon ... in addition to their many other programs such as Supply Chain Management and Biomedical development. See links and a calendar at http://www.asqsandiego.org/sponsorucsde3.htm

Sponsor: GMP Label. Order online or download our catalog or Regulatory Compliance newsletters. Over 100 GMP and ISO compliant labels. Check them out at http://www.asqsandiego.org/sponsorgmplabel.htm

Sponsor: USD. Learn how to implement Lean and Six-Sigma in your Company. Space is limited - reserve yours today. Call (619) 260-4894 or email 6sigma@sandiego.edu or see their ASQ webpage at http://www.asqsandiego.org/sponsor_usd.htm

Sponsor: QPRS who has a new Lean SSBB course starting soon that is meant to prepare ASQ members to pass the ASQ SSBB certificate. Other Lean and Kaizen courses are also available. See more information and a brochure at http://www.asqsandiego.org/sponsor_qpr.htm

Sponsor: Grant Rothbard, Inc. provides integrated compliance and improvement solutions that address multiple compliance objectives including Sarbanes Oxley, ISO 9000, BS 7799 (ISO 17799), HIPAA and numerous other business standards and regulations. Additionally Grant Rothbard provides proprietary software solutions, quality skills training and lean quality improvement programs. Extensive international experience with staff fluency in Spanish and other languages. See more at http://www.asqsandiego.org/sponsor_grantrothbard.htm

See you on the 11th.

Best regards,

Kim Niles

Web Liaison

ASQ Section 0703

This Month's Meeting

Our September meeting went well (see details here). Our October meeting will be as follows:

Quality Social
Oct. 11, '05	FREE FOR ALL "Pizza Party" in celebration of certification test takers, other recent education accomplishments made, and to promote social aspects of joining our ASQ society. Come get to know one another!! Bring your significant other. No cost but please RSVP. More to be posted here soon.	Fillippi’s Pizza Grotto 5353 Kearny Villa Rd Kearny Mesa

Abstract

Our second annual FREE FOR ALL "Pizza Party" in celebration of certification test takers, other recent education accomplishments made, and to promote social aspects of joining our ASQ society.

Come get to know one another!! Bring your significant other.

It's free but please RSVP.

Meeting Details

RSVP Required

Please use the RSVP Form Here. Attendance fee includes a delicious dinner.

Meeting Date

Tuesday October 11, 2005 (2nd Tuesday of the month)

Agenda

5:15 pm             Registration & Happy Hour Begins

6:00 pm             Dinner

6:30                  ASQ Announcements

6:40                  Main program

7:40             Adjourn

Menu

Great buffet meal

Price
RSVP Form Here

These are sponsor
subsidized prices
Dinner With RSVP Dinner Without RSVP No Food Arrive Late

ASQ Student Members $10 $12 Free

Regular Members $20 $22 Free

Non-Members $24 $26 Free

Door Prizes We averaged $185 in door prizes per meeting last year!!

Dress
Nice Casual

Location
This month we're at:

Fillippi's Pizza Grotto
5353 Kearny Villa Road
2 rooms seat 20 & 40.
Their phone: 858-279-7240

Directions: Just off the corner of Clairmont Mesa Blvd and I163 on Kearny Villa Road. Going North on 163 exit Clairmont Mesa Blvd. go right (East) then make a quick right again (South) onto Kearny Villa Road. Fillippi's is about 1 block South on Kearny Villa Road on the left (East) side next to the old General Dynamics site.

Parking
Ample free parking

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS UPDATES

Our section proudly sponsors a variety of educational and professional training

opportunities. See our main education page for more details.

Classes to be Held This Month

Several classes are under way this month as outlined on our Refresher page and Modular page. Keep signing up for any courses you'd like to take and we will keep adding more so that perhaps the class you want will be held next month. If you have any special requests, please make them also as we will try to accommodate you.

Current Exam Dates Schedule

Certification exams are held in member company meeting rooms around San Diego and administered by proctors. They are held on Saturday mornings twice per year as shown in the table below. Note that these dates don't include special quality conference tests. Main ASQ certifications page.

Certification Types and Links to "Body of Knowledge", & Additional Information

Application Deadline

Exam Dates

CQT - Quality Technician
CRE - Reliability Engineer
CMI - Mechanical Inspector
CQM - Quality Manager
CSSBB - Six Sigma Black Belt
CHA - HACCP Auditor
CBA - Biomedical Auditor

Jan. 13, 2006

Oct. 22, 2005

again on Mar. 4, 2006

CQE - Quality Engineer
CQA - Quality Auditor
CSQE - Software Quality Eng.
CQIA - Q Improvement Associate
CCT - Calibration Technician

Oct. 7, 2005

Dec. 3, 2005

Upcoming Workshops and Modular Courses

For future month workshops see upcoming workshops.

TOPIC	Taught By	Date;Tm;Loc	Cost	Contact
None ready but we're working on a case study workshop.

Newsletter Sponsors

Our newsletter sponsors this month are:

See Schedule of Numerous Events!

Six Sigma Leadership - Act Now!

University of California, San Diego Extension

Six-Sigma Black-Belt

Newly Revised Programs Starting Soon

Lean Six Sigma BB Starting Oct. 6!

A Black-Belt Professional Certificate Program

Lean Six-Sigma: Green-Belt, Black-Belt and Master Black-Belt Workshops Learn how to lead and facilitate a Lean Six-Sigma implementation in your company. Click Here for More Information.

Click on picture

Sarbanes Oxley
ISO 9000
BS 7799 (ISO 17799)
HIPAA, etc.

Click Here For Information

or see http://grantrothbard.com/

Six-Sigma & Lean

Providing you the roadmap for successful Implementation

Hands-on workshops

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt - NEW
Lean Kaizen Simulation One-Day
Six Sigma Black Belt
At your company. Call now.

Location: San Diego, CA

Call 858 566 6432 or info@qprs.com

QPR - Quality and Productivity Resources - http://www.qprs.com/

Be Our Sponsor - Contact Don Griego

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