ASQ Poster Session

In 2023 I start my leadership cycle through the Food, Drug and Cosmetic division, starting as chair-elect. This means time to do some content creation! Here’s the first thing I have planned.

The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Division will be hosting a poster share on February 28th from 3-5 pm in Boston, with a cocktail hour afterwards (5-6). The event is being sponsored by Veeva Systems and will be free (big shout out to Veeva!)

We are looking for individuals and companies to share a poster on the theme of “What are you proud of in your eQMS? What about your implementation or continued use stands out and that you want to share?”

If interested in presenting a poster, please complete this form.

We ask that all posters be completed by the 22nd of February so we can get them printed.

We will record the poster presentation and make them available through my.ASQ after the event. Poster presenters must sign a standard ASQ waiver (we will make it available before the event).

An event sign-up will come out in January.

The event is open to all. While I’m thinking the focus will be heavily focused to FD&C and medical device members, other quality professionals will get value.

So please present a poster! I am very excited about this sort of sharing of ideas. I want to keep experimenting with alternative ways to share information and network, and I think the old poster session is something that has renewed utility in this day-and-age. Sort of a speed conference. Easier to create a poster and can be a compact event.

Boscon 2022

I am pretty excited that Boscon, the local ASQ section’s conference is back on and calling for proposals. So for local folks, a good time to share some best practices and case studies.

BOSCON is an annual quality conference hosted by ASQ Boston. BOSCON is the New England signature event where national and international quality professionals hear speakers discuss different quality topics and network with them. The conference focus for 2022 is Navigating Quality Performance in a post-Pandemic World (Risk management, Impact/risk & mitigation of pandemic on companies, Work-life balance, Resource management, Employee Safety, Virtual/ remote workspace, Customer satisfaction, Supply chain).

Tracks and possible focus

Technical Quality tool (CAPA, 5S, SPC, Lean 6 sigma, etc);
IT/Software (Cybersecurity, cloud, virtual workspace, etc);
Pandemic Supply Chain (Lean reconsidered, Change management);
Personnel/People (Work-life balance, resource management).

Not interested in presenting, but want to participate as a volunteer?
Contact Snehal Rane Snehalrane90@gmail.com BOSCON 2022 Chair

B0SCON 2022 PRESENTATION PROPOSAL FORM

We invite you to submit your proposal(s) for BOSCON 2022 oriented towards one of the track areas above. Please provide a concise and clear description of your session topic and the values it provides to our attendees. 50 minutes are provided for your presentation and any Q&A.

KEY DATES

August 15th => Please complete the form referenced below and submit to both Snehalrane90@gmail.com and dmanalan@alum.mit.edu as soon as possible, and no later than August 15th.
September 1st => Applicants will be notified if the submitted proposal was accepted, confirmation requires a signed speaker agreement.
September 15th => Sign speaker agreement and submit.
October 1st => Submit final set of slides by October 1st.

Fill out the form- Word version at

https://1drv.ms/w/s!Aq7kI8QOQQN5hD-FL4JLDqGKF8yc?e=USkE6y

WCQI Day 4

Last day.

Disciplined Problem Solving Demands Disciplined Communication by Frasier Pruitt

The Minto Pyramid Principle as a tool for problem communication. I guess I shouldn’t be snarky at a tool that came out of McKinsey. I’m sure organized crime has provided many useful tools for society.

Structuring information is critical, there are lots of tools out there to help utilize storytelling, I’m a big fan of the work of Nancy Duarte, and I have praised the A3 many a time for its use as for structured narrative around problems and solutions.

Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive (MECE) is a concept that we cannot stress enough as it fundamentally gets to issues of cognitive load, and forms a great example of externalizing and constructing.

Great structure, which originally appeared in Quality Progress, for utilizing this with a DMAIC.

Well done structure, this was a great writing training. This could be expanded into a workshop focusing on narrative structure. One recommendation for Fraser would be using a simpler paper for the writing exercise.

The Innovation Management Principles of ISO 56000 by Peter Merrill

Innovation is one of those things that requires system and process to truly be successful. I appreciate the ideas beyond ISO 56000, and the basis of the Innovation Management System

Realization of value; and benefit
Future-focused leaders; curious, courageous
Strategic direction; will change
Culture; creativity and execution to co-exist
Exploiting insights for unmet needs
Managing uncertainty through a portfolio
Adaptability as context changes
Systems approach; serial innovation

Love the focus on how QMS and Innovation interlink.

Closing Keynote by Jose Morey

Okay, I’ve fan-boyed Leonardo da Vinci in the past, but this did not work for me as an ending keynote. It was shallow and rather generic.

But I got my Bingo card completed.

Which is sad.

Good conference. It was great to be back in person.

ASQ 2022 WCQI Day 3 (second half)

Making a Quality Leader: From Theory to Practice

Always a pleasure to hear from the Human Development and Leadership (HDL) technical community. Their competency framework is a great tool that can help many a quality leader as they struggle to build the leadership competencies necessary to strive towards excellence.

Human Development & Leadership Body of Knowledge Model

Having done a lot of comptency frameworks I think the HDL has done a good job building theirs out as a progressive framework. I think a challenge is how do we make it easy to scale up to this more detailed HD&LBok from the QBok, and occasionally the same concept can be discussed a few different ways across different technical community boks and this lack of consistency is a detriment.

Stressing practice as the core part of a competency framework. A good conversation at my table was how often these competencies move back a little as we change roles and organizations.

No competency framework is valuable without a good development plan and the workshop did a great job at introducing how to use one.

Honor Deming’s 14 Points Through Modular Kaizen by Grace Duffy

Grace has always been a mentor who always brings thought provoking topics to the society.

Goes without saying that I’m a fan of the 14 points and the System of Profound Knowledge. I’ve written a lot about Driving out Fear. It ties in a lot of my thoughts about how much of what is happening now in organizational excellence is the evolution from these 14 points.

Looking to the past is an important part of building the future. I think Grace did a great job of respecting the past to drive innovation and new ideas within the quality practice. I loved the care for our past, and the urge to challenge the future in the audience. She really avoided the tendency in some quality circles to obsess about the past (Toyota nuts I am thinking of you) and thus trap the present and stifle the future.

Grace does an amazing job being a pillar of the quality community while still being an iconcolast. When you see her name on the conference session list I always recommend taking the time to attend.

Quality Past & Present

I found most of the videos to be a little personality driven instead of insightful pieces of history. I would hope this session would draw from our history in exciting ways, that was not realized. However the ending charge to create solutions instead of just solving problems is a pivotal one.

2022 Business Meeting

This business meeting drives home the struggle the ASQ has on figuring out what comes next.

As an organization we do not understand what a digital organization looks like. Only 2000 users of the app in the US is embarrassing. Teens can create apps with 100 times more users.

It is nice to admit that actively listening to the members is crucial. I look forward to that consistently happening. We don’t always do a good job of using the tools at the heart of the QBok.

Finances are still rocky, though the Federal Stimulus has left the ASQ in an okay place.

I was actually shocked to hear the chair of the ASQ say it is hard to have metrics for meeting strategic goals. We have entire methodologies dedicated to that.

There are a lot of challenges ahead of us.

WCQI 2022 Day 3 (first half)

Heather McGowan

I am a huge fan of The Adaptation Advantage: Let Go, Learn Fast, and Thrive in the Future of Work by Heather E. McGowan and Chris Shipley. So I was thrilled when I heard Heather was going to speak. I could write for ever, but you are much better off listening to her yourself.

One of the things I think the quality community is bad about is forming connections with researchers who are basically researching topics at the heart of quality. Heather is a great example of this, she should see herself as a fellow traveler, but I do not think she does. Feels like another post.

Anticipating Disruption in the Supply Chain: Rethinking Business Continuity by Russell Snyder

I chose to come to this session because I was really curious about a practical application of Adam Grant’s model from Think Again.

And my bingo card quickly gets another spot marked off by the speaker extolling Steve Jobs as some sort of good role model.

The central point that in times of constraint everything is a quality issue is an important one for us all to ponder.

Does a good job discussing the rethinking cycle vs the overconfidence cycle, and other parts of Grant’s rethinking model.

The rethink approach is Model (scenarios and revenue impact); Map (all sub-tier supplier networks of key components); and, Mitigate (design your supply chain to withstand disruptive effects).

Very much aligned with a risk-based approach. The examples he discusses were pretty valuable shares relevant across many industries. I am already adapting several of his slides to an ongoing project I have.

I love seeing Grant’s work percolate into quality thinking. Applying it to supply chain disruptions was as fascinating as I was hoping it would be.

Bingo Card at Half-day

My pessimistic self is surprised I’m not complete yet. Well, one more day to go!

Design & Construction Technical Community Body of Knowledge

Based on the member leaders day on Sunday (I need to finish that post, so may thoughts) I was really curious how a body of knowledge was developed recently by a technical community.

A body of knowledge for a broad area like construction is interesting. You need to make it specific enough to be relevant to construction but broad enough to avoid niches. The speakers spoke passionately about this balancing act.

I wish this had gone deeper. I’m really fascinating to understand how we talk about commonalities likerisk based auditing or knowledge management differently in this body-of-knowledge. It is really that quesiton of application.

ASQ Insights on Excellence Tool

I am so excited to see this tool out in the world. I had the priviledge of providing a few ideas to it a while back, so seeing it in use, at the conference was just amazing.