Quality DIY

Quality has different definitions such as "Degree to which a set of inherent characteristic fulfills requirements" (ISO 9000), "Conformance to requirements" (Philip B. Crosby), "Fitness for use" (Joseph M. Juran), "Quality and the Required Style of Management" (W. Edwards Deming), etc. The most popular Quality Management System is ISO 9001:2000 which has been employed in different type and scale companies. In the past, quality consultancy firm almost must be employed to assist a factory to achieve ISO 9001 certification. However, it is no longer to be the term “must”. It is not only appearing in ISO 9001 certification, but also appearing in other management system (e.g. ISO 14001, OHSAS 18000, SA 8000, ISO 27001, etc.) and quality improvement (e.g. 6 sigma, lean, 5S, etc.).

Recently, quality manager would be employed with multidiscipline requirements to handle most of all management systems. It is observed the concept of DIY is a trend for developing quality management. Do it yourself (DIY) is a term that focus on people creating things from themselves without the aid of paid professionals. In terms of Quality, company would like to use the exist manpower to create a quality management system or other quality improvement programs from themselves without the aid of paid quality professionals. It is because of the top management considering the return of investment (ROI) in short term. However, Quality DIY can be executed with some critical criteria. That is people worked in the company having a learning culture, in which solution generation by themselves is encouraged.

Quality DIY means everybody does the quality by himself. How to do it right? Quality DIY needs Quality DIY Instructor (or trainer). So a training zone said “Quality Improvement Center” should be established in the company for all staff. Quality DIY down to individual is “Discipline”. The best tool to train up individual discipline is 5S. The 5S's are: i) Seiri (常組織) Sorting; ii) Seiton (常整頓) Simplifying; iii) Seisō (常清潔) Systematic Cleaning, or Shining; iv) Seiketsu (常規範) Standardizing; and v) Shitsuke (常自律) Sustaining. Moreover, the Quality DIY Culture is to think globally and act locally to achieve quality excellence.

Certificate Course on Quality Management for Laboratory

Background of the course established:
In 2005, I (the course leader) observed that many CityU graduates from chemistry and biology dept had no idea about quality management employed in laboratory. In order to increase their successful employment in the field of laboratory, Dr. Richard Cheung, Dr. Micheal Lam and I developed this program cooperation with Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ). There are free for 15 students and cost only 10 members/non-members of HKSQ for cost balance.

I am also a graduate in 1992, 1994 & 1997. That is a good time to contribute my knowledge and experience to CityU junior classmates.

Objectives of the certificate course:
This certificate course is designed to introduce contemporary concepts and knowledge in quality management, measurement, calibration and audit practice of a laboratory.

Course Content:

For more details, please visit
http://www.hksq.org/HKSQ_CLabQS_20080124.pdf

Leadership DNA

What is Leadership DNA?

My definition is that the characteristic of leader is similar to the characteristic of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) which a double-stranded molecule held together by weak hydrogen bonds between base pairs of nucleotides. The double-stranded molecule indicates “Direction” and “Decision”. Weak hydrogen bonds mean interaction between different elements of leadership.

There are four nucleotides in DNA. Each nucleotide contains a base: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), or thymine (T). Base pairs form naturally only between A and T and between G and C so the base sequence of each single strand of DNA can be simply deduced from that of its partner strand.

In terms of Leadership, (A) means Aggressive, (G) means Gentle, (C) means Confidence and (T) means Trust. Different combination have different outcome and finally it affect the “Direction” and “Decision”.

Therefore, Leadership DNA means the interaction of A, G, C & T to give Direction and Decision; and DNA’s double helix structure implies continual improvement.

About “領袖才幹 DNA” 講座
I would like to summarize the seminar entitled“領袖才幹 DNA” which held on 7th Dec 2007 in HKSTP. The speakers are Mr. Wong (黃謙) and Mr. Tao (陶傑).

黃謙 said:
VCD – “Values”, “Common Sense / Commitment” & “Determination”
DVD – “Direction”, “Vitality” & “Delegation”
“中式” 之領導有 “方”
方向 (Direction)
方寸 “分寸” (4 Right: Right Thing, Right People, Right Place & Right Time)
方法 (Methodology)
方式 (Approach)
方程式 (Formula)

陶傑 said:
有胸襟, 有判斷力.
領袖要像水, 在不同溶器有不同形象, 但本質不變.
H2O – “二份胸襟, 一份判斷”

強幹弱枝 vs 弱幹強枝
實幹虛枝 vs 虛幹實枝
(Micro-Management vs Macro-Management)

疑人勿用, 用人勿疑?

Bio-Quality Management System (Bio-QMS)

What is Bio-QMS?
A management system direct and control an organization by policy and objective with regard to bio-quality. Bio-quality is the degree to which a set of inherent properties of a product, system or process fulfills biotechnology related requirements including bio-risk, bio-safety and bio-security. For biotechnology related product, system or process, it has almost operated in laboratory environment such as biochemistry test, microbiological / culture study, DNA & RNA recombination, GMO study, etc.

Bio-risk is the probability of an adverse health effect as a result of exposure to a biohazard substance. The risk involves interactions among agent, host and environment. Therefore, a systematic process for the assessment, control, communication and review of risks to the quality of the drug (medicinal) product across the product life cycle and safety, as well as, security should be concerned.

Laboratory Bio-safety could be interpreted as containment principles, technologies and practices to prevent unintentional exposure to pathogens and toxins, or their accidental release.

Laboratory Bio-security could be interpreted as institutional and personal security measures designed to prevent loss, theft, misuse, diversion or intentional release of pathogens and toxins. Laboratory Bio-security touches many area including physical security, personnel security, material control & accountability, transport security and information security.

Therefore, Bio-QMS is an integrated management system to ensure safe handling and free contamination risk of micro-organisms and the products of biological processes through the establishment and implementation of the policies on bio-quality (bio-risk, bio-safety and bio-security).

The followings photos show a simulation handling process of bio-agent spill in BSL3 lab.