Quality Management talks for HKU students

I was glad to be invited by Dr. Aaron Tong to introduce Quality Management in Hong Kong Science Park Laboratories for the year 2 student (Logistics and Industry Engineer students, HKU) as part of the lecture entitled “Global Quality and International Quality Awards” on 20 Nov 2009.


Dr. Aaron Tong briefed the Global Quality concept and different quality awards in USA, Europe, Japan & HK, such as Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Award, Deming Prize, Hong Kong Industry Award – Quality & Productivity, etc.

In my session, implementation of the quality management (ISO 9001) in Technology Support Centre in Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks (HKSTP) was introduced. The execution of Eight Quality Principle in our laboratories was also illustrated. They are:
i) Customer focus
ii) Leadership
iii) Involvement of people
iv) Process approach
v) System approach to management
vi) Continual improvement
vii) Factual approach to decision making
viii) Mutually beneficial supplier relationships

Then ISO 17025 quality management system adopted in our IC Failure Analysis Laboratory and Reliability Laboratory were discussed.

Lastly, I shared the quality movement in Hong Kong and the career path of quality professionals through the introduction of Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ).

The 21st Century is the world of Information Technology. Now, students learn computer in primary school or even earlier, and play games in facebook (e.g. Restaurant city). Some of their teachers play with students through this platform to enhance communication. Therefore, I encouraged students to use information technology for innovation such as blog, twitter, facebook, linkedIn, wikipedia, etc.

2009 Celebration Dinner of EngD Graduands

EngD Society and the MEEM department jointly organized the “2009 Celebration Dinner of Engineering Doctorate (EngD) Graduands” to recognize the outstanding achievements of six EngD graduands. I am glad to be invited by one of graduands Dr. Danny Tang Wah Hau to join the celebration dinner. The following photos recorded the memory of our joyful.

Photo of all EngD students



Photo of Professors and EngD students

Dr. Danny Tang and I

Dr. TW Liu, Dr. Raymond Leung and I

Dr. KS Chin (Asso. Professors) and his students

At the end, Dr. Fok (Former Chairman of EngD Society) gave a talk and shared the development of EngD Society.


More information:
Introduction of Engineer Doctorate (Engineering Management) in CityU

Workshop on Advanced Methods in Food Microbiology and Chemistry

Food safety and security become more and more important in our daily life in Hong Kong. Therefore, one of suggestions from industry to Hong Kong Council of Testing and Certification (HKCEC) is to enhance Food Testing and Legislation. To benefit management of food safety and security, a Workshop on Advanced Methods in Food Microbiology and Chemistry was introduced by Dr. Richard Cheung (Workshop leader) in BCH Dept., City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and co-organized by Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) from 10 to 12 Nov 2009. Hong Kong Society for Quality was one of the supporting organizations. Dr. KS Chin (Asso. Prof, MEEM Dept. in CityU) and Dr. Aaron Tong (Managing Director, TQM Consultants Co. Ltd.) represented HKSQ to present a talk named “Quality Assurance in Food Industry”. I attended the morning session on 12 Nov 2009 and summarized as follows.



Dr. KS Chin shared some fundamental quality knowledge such as quality control, quality assurance, and quality audit. Moreover, he briefed the concept of Total Quality Engineering. After that he discussed some good practices for food safety including:
- GAP: Good Agricultural Practices
- GHP: Good Handling Practices
- GMP: Good Manufacturing Practices
- HACCP: Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points
- ISO 9001
- ISO 22000, etc.

At the end, he mentioned the procedures and methods of quality control in Food Industry. Preventive measures were emphasized to ensure raw material quality.

Then Dr. Aaron Tong shared his consultancy experience in food industry. He introduced different types of food testing such as Microbiology Analysis, Chemical Analysis, Pesticides, Antibiotics, Food Additives, Heavy Metals and GMO. He also showed different food related certification schemes including HACCP/GMP, ISO 22000, BRC, IFS, Global-GAP, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001, etc.

He selected some QA/QC programs which are designed specifically for Food Industries as follows:
1. Food Processing 5S Management System
2. HACCP Assessment
3. LEAN Manufacturing in Food Production
4. Procurement Management
5. Supply Chain Management

During Q&A session, I asked any common faults has been found in food industry. Dr. Tong said it was cross-contamination due to limitation of storage / working area. It is very specific in Hong Kong. One of the suggested solutions was to separate food processing steps in time-based management.

The topic of Dr. Michael Lam (Asso. Professor in BCH Dept., CityU) was “Detection of Paralytic Shellfish Toxins & Other Algal Toxins”. In the beginning, some food safety problems was reminded as follows:
- Natural (bio-) toxins such as mycotoxins, marine biotoxins, cyanogenic glycosides and toxins in poisonous mushrooms;
- Metals, metalloids and organometallic compounds such as lead, mercury, arsenic, etc;
- Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) such as organochlorine pesticides, polychlorinated, dioxins, etc.

There were some shellfish poisoning introduced as follows:
- Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP)
- Diarrheic Shellfish Poisoning (DSP)
- Neurotoxic Shellfish Poisoning (NSP)
- Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP)

After that he introduced some analytical methods for shellfish poisoning toxin such as AOAC 2005.06 for PSP. The Oshima method for saxitoxin determination uses HPLC post-column derviatization fluorescent detection (Throughput ~ 0.5 hr per injection). The trend is to use LCMS which can analyze different toxins per injection (Throughput ~ 2hr per injection). But the standard is very expensive such as Ciguatoxin which costs HK$9000 per 1 microgram.

During lunch, I talked with Prof. Daniel Fung (Professor of Food Science, Kansas State University). He is a pioneer in the field of Rapid Methods and Automation in Food Microbiology. It is pity that I did not attend his talk entitled “World Market Trends and Prediction of the Future of Rapid Methods in Food Microbiology”.

I hope that kind of excellence workshop could be performed regularly.

Innovation Festival 2009 in HKSTP

Innovation Festival, an annual event since 2005, is one of the major initiatives of the Commission in the promotion of an innovation and technology culture. Innovation Festival 2009 – InnoCarnival was held in Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks from 5th to 8th November 2009. I took some photos during lunch time and posted for sharing.

Many rocket models are shown in Science Parks including “Return Capsule”.



This rocket called "神箭".

Control Panel

Top view of the rocket

Real "Return Capsule"!

HKSTP Phase II

The PolyU-made sampling tool, known as the Mars Rock Corer, is considered the most important tool to help unlock the mystery of exobiology on the planet.

Photo took with PolyU’s electric vehicle “MyCar”.

Topview of counters in HKSTP Phase I

Many presentation performed under "Golden Egg".

Amorphous Silicon Thin Film Type Solar Panel

Different Counters in HKSTP Phase II

Different robots were shown in the event.

HKU’s robot was the first runner of robot competition organized in Japan.

Robotcop!!!

Another interesting Robot

HKUST’s helicopter was used after earthquake.

HKSQ membership drive to BEng (Hon) in Total Quality Engineering, CityU

I was invited by Dr. K.S. Chin (Asso. Professor, MEEM Dept, CityU and Programme Leader of BEng Total Quality Engineering) to introduce Hong Kong Society for Quality for the year 1 student in TQE, on 05 Nov 2009. I shared the quality movement of Hong Kong and the career path of quality professionals. I believe the combination of skills sets in TQE training will contribute to the field of testing and certification in Hong Kong.

The Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Total Quality Engineering (BETQE) aims to address the issue of quality control and assurance in international trade, focusing on reliability, safety, health and environment consequences of products. Quality Engineering combines Total Quality Management (TQM) concept and the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) compliance requirements. The need for Hong Kong and Mainland China becomes significant.

The following chart presented the unique features of TQE.

And there were some news related to the need of TQE.

For more information, please visit http://www.cityu.edu.hk/me/prg-betqe.htm .

Ten major values of Internet for 40 years (互聯網40年的十大價值)

I would like to introduce the ten major values of Internet for 40 years, which I read in newspaper, and share some points I observed as follows.

1. Incubating a new society (孵化新社會)
- Bloggers communication in virtual society.
- Facebook, Myspace, etc.

2. Initiative self-identification (倡導自我認同)
- Blogger write which they like and show their interested items only. It is so specific.

3. Establishing society identity (確立社會認同)
- Netizen established different discussion groups. Some netizen organized professional groups in internet.

4. Opening public mind (開啟公共思維)
- It is freedom to discuss different topic in different platform of internet.

5. Improvement of the functioning of the state (改善國家運作)
- I haven’t observed this point in Hong Kong.

6. Innovation of communication (革新傳播方式)
- It is other than newspaper, radio and TV.

7. Re-engineering interpersonal network (重塑人際網路)
- You are “Leo” in internet but to be “Anderson” in real world (MATRIX).

8. Rewriting business transaction mode (改寫交易方式)
- B2B, eBay, etc.

9. Creating social entertainments (創造社會娛樂)
- Youtube, Facebook, etc.

10. Awareness of citizenship (喚醒公民意識)
- Many bloggers would discuss about government policy.

Reference:
內地清華大學傳播學博士 – 中國博客之父 和香港資深傳媒工作者合譜 [十大價值], 刊於內地雜誌<<新周刊>>, 轉載予明報副刊(2009年11月1日).
(MingPao – 1st Nov 2009)

CityU Student visit HKSTP

I am glad to arrange a talk and visit of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks (HKSTP) to Dr. Dan Chiu (Department of Physics and Materials Science, City University of Hong Kong) and his students on 30th October 2009. It aims to introduce the science and technology development in Hong Kong for students’ career perspective.

In the beginning, I introduced the infrastructure of HKSTP and the quality management system in Technology Support Centre (TSC). It included ISO 9001, OHSAS 18001 and ISO 27001 certification, as well as, HOKLAS (ISO 17025) accreditation. After that, students visited our different laboratories as follows:
i) Probe and Test Development Centre (PTDC) for Wafer testing, chip testing, etc;
ii) Reliability Laboratory (RL) for chip reliability testing, PCB testing, etc;
iii) Wireless Communications Test Laboratory (WCTL) for 3G mobile phone test and DTV test, etc;
iv) IC Failure Analysis Laboratory (ICFAL) for SEM, SAM, ESD & FIB testing, etc;
v) Material Analysis Laboratory (MAL) for XRF, ToF-SIMS, FESEM & Auger testing, etc; and
vi) Biotechnology Support Laboratory (BSL) for culturing and protein testing, etc.

Lastly, they visit the Golden Egg of HKSTP and take photo for memory.


Inside Golden Egg is an Auditorium (It has 280 seat.).

Students are very interested in the door design for dark room (Avoiding light leakage) of BSL.

After the visit, many students in pure or applied science were found without the training on Quality Management System. Therefore, Hong Kong Society for Quality had arranged a certification course entitled “Quality Management for Laboratory” to CityU’s student every year.