2012年5月30日星期三

World Metrology Day 2012 Seminar

The World Metrology Day on the 20th May each year has marked the anniversary of the signing of the Metre Convention since 1875. The Hong Kong Council for Testing and Certification (HKCTC), the Standards and Calibration Laboratory of the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC/SCL), and the Vocational Training Council were joined by Government Laboratory (GL) and the Hong Kong Accreditation Service (HKAS) jointly held the seminar on 24 May 2012. Metrology is the science of measurement and it has application in every facet of daily life.

Since I had joined the Chinese Quality Forum in Taiwan, Ms. Minda Chiang (Secretary of Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ)) attended the seminar. I would like to summarized the seminar through Minda's information below.


In the beginning, Mr. KS Chiang (Head of ITC/SCL) gave a welcoming Remarks.


Ir. Dr. Lawrence Chan (Deputy Executive Director and Academic Director (Engineering), VTC) gave an opening remarks.


Presentation of souvenirs and group photo


The first speaker was Mr. Dennis WK Lee (Senior Electronics Engineer, ITC/SCL) and his topic entitled "The Socioeconomic Impacts of Metrology".


Metrology is fundamental to the production and delivery of high quality goods and services. Then Mr. Lee briefed Meter Convention which had 17 countries signatory originally. It aims to reduce technical barriers to trade (TBT).


Mr. Lee mentioned a sound measurement system in Hong Kong.


According to the basic law (No. 139), HKSAR has own scientific and technical standards.


Finally, Mr. Lee introduced different reference standard in SCL such as volt, resistance, length, thermodynamic temperature, mass and time.


The second speaker was Dr. CS Mok (Acting Chief Chemist, Food Safety and Quality Group, GL) and his presentation was "Metrology in Chemistry -- The need for Hong Kong".

Dr. Mok introduced different application of chemical measurement such as Pharmaceuticals, Foods, Forensic examination, etc.


Dr. Mok briefed the roadmap of GL to be a reference laboratory.


Finally, Dr. Mok summarized the proficiency tests which had organized by GL since 1987.


The third speaker was Mr. MY Wong (Honorary Chairman, Hong Kong Electronics & Technologies Association) and his presentation title was "Experience Sharing on Using Metrology in Business".


Mr. Aaron YK Yan (Senior Electronics Engineer, ITC/SCL) was the forth speaker and his topic named "Evaluation of Measurement Uncertainty - Present and Future Trend".


Mr. Yan briefed the uncertainty measurement from the past "Error (Systematic and Random)" to GUM (1993) "Type A and Type B uncertainty".


Apart from the GUM fundamental document (First edition in 1993, 2nd print in 1995 and 3rd print in 2008), there were some JCGM100 series document as GUM supplements below.


Mr. Yim Chi-Keung (Acting Department Head, Department of Engineering, VTC) with Mr. Aaron YK Yan (ITC/SCL) and Mr. Dennis WK Lee (ITC/SCL) presented the topic "What's in a certificate of calibration?" They discussed how calibration certificate fulfilled HOKLAS report requirement.


Mr. KW Chen (Senior Accreditation Officer, HKAS) was the last speaker and his topic entitled "Role of Accreditation in Metrology".


Mr. Chen said relationship of measurement result with definition of relevant measurement unit was measurement traceability. Then he showed the global traceability diagram and summarized that accreditation assured the competence of an accredited laboratory through confirming that its measurement were traceable.


Q&A Session


Reference:
HKCTC - http://www.hkctc.gov.hk/en/about.html
HKAS - http://www.itc.gov.hk/en/quality/hkas/about.htm
SCL - http://www.itc.gov.hk/en/quality/scl/about.htm
GL - http://www.govtlab.gov.hk/english/home.htm


2012年5月26日星期六

The first meeting for the Chinese Quality Forum (華人品質論壇)

The first meeting for the Chinese Quality Forum (華人品質論壇) was held on 25 May 2012 at Chinese Society for Quality (CSQ). The theme was "Chinese excellence business quality model (華人卓越經營品質模式)".


In the beginning, Prof. Ching-Chow Yang (楊錦洲) (Chairman, CSQ) gave a welcoming speech. Prof. Yang explained the purpose of the formation of Chinese Quality Forum (CQF). It aimed to develop quality management and operation which was considered Chinese culture, behaviour and nationality through Chinese quality professionals, scholars and management leader cooperation.


Mr. Chen Bang Zhu (陳邦柱) (President of China Association for Quality (CAQ)) was our guest speaker and gave us an opening speech. Mr. Chen said Quality was the key problem of strategy and Quality was the foundation of national economic. Quality Development Outline (質量發展綱要) 2011-2020 was issued by China's State Council (中國國務院). Therefore, CQF was a very important platform for exchanging quality technology by professionals from China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore.


Prof. Yang presented an appreciation plaque to Mr. Chen for his contribution on this important event.


Then we took a group photo.

(First Row Left: Ms. Catherine Chan (陳燕屏) (Chairlady of HKQFDA), Dr. KS Chin (錢桂生) (Past Chairman of HKSQ), Dr. Lotto Lai (黎劍虹) (Chairman of HKSQ), Mr. Chen Bang Zhu (陳邦柱) (President of CAQ), Prof. Ching-Chow Yang (楊錦洲) (Chairman, CSQ), Mr. Kenneth Leung (梁偉賢) (Chairman, SQI)).


The first speaker was Prof. Ching-Chow Yang and his topic entitled "Establishment of Management System for Chinese Characteristics (建立華人特色的管理系統)".


Prof. Yang said many industries employed Chinese culture for their management philosophy recently. In the past, we used Japanese, American and European management style. It was the time to develop Chinese management style. Confucianism (儒家思想) had great influential power on Chinese community. One of important elements of Confucianism was Loyal and Forbearance (忠恕). The following structure was used to establish Chinese Management System. It started from Chinese Culture and then benchmarking with western management, plus local economic factors.


Finally, Prof. Yang concluded that any management system introduced into Chinese company must considered the Culture (文化), Ethnicity (民族性), Values (價值觀)​​ and Habits (生活習慣). Since the 21st Century was Chinese Century, we should have our vision to establish Chinese Management System.


The second speaker was Mr. Su Chin-Ho (蘇錦夥) (President, Corporate Synergy Development Center) and his presentation named "From Quality to Qualia (從品質到感質)". Mr. Su briefed the development of industries from agriculture economic (Primary Industry), manufacturing economic (Secondary Industries), Service economic (Tertiary Industries) to experience economic (Sixth Industries).


Mr. Su demonstrated the trend of product value from functional to experience. The diagram showed the scientific part and Art part. After than he used different examples to explain this phenomena such as product from National Palace Museum.

Qualia was from a Latin word meaning for "what sort" or "what kind," which was a term used in philosophy to refer to subjective conscious experiences as 'raw feels' (Source: Wikipedia). Mr. Su compared Quality and Qualia. Finally, Mr. Su concluded the heart of Qualia as follows:
- Use to User
- Specification to Style
- Product to Philosophy
- Technology to Touch
- Function to Feeling


The third speaker was Mr. Kenneth Leung (梁偉賢) (Chairman, SQI) and his topic named "Singapore's Service Quality Improvement Model (新加坡改進品質服務的模式)". Mr. Leung said Service industry was very important in Singapore in the past ten years. Singapore government was awareness the importance because service industry involved 2/3 GDP. Therefore, Singapore Service Excellence Medallion was birthed to commend the pinnacle of achievement for service in Singapore.


Singapore also focused on Singapore Tourism Board. It was included Hotel, Airline, Land Transportation, etc.


Recently, Singapore Casio was established and good tax returned to the government. It was one of strategies to establish resort center in Singapore.

The forth & fifth speaker was Dr. KS Chin (錢桂生) (Past Chairman of HKSQ) and Dr. Lotto Lai (黎劍虹) (Chairman of HKSQ). Our presentation entitled "A Model on Development of Quality Professionals: Sharing from Hong Kong Experience (質量管理人才的發展模式:香港經驗的分享)".


Dr. KS Chin introduced Quality Professional Development (QProfD) Gap Analysis Model which showed quality society worked as a bridge between industries and education sectors.. Quality Professionals' competence was based on "Know-How", "Experience" and "Education". We identified three principal dimensions to be ASK, meaning "Attitude", "Skill" and "Knowledge".


Then Dr. Chin introduced the bachelor course "BEng of Total Quality Engineering" in City University of Hong Kong. It was case one to reduce the gap in Education Sector.


And then I introduced the case two to reduce the gap in Industrial Sector. It was because many university graduates were found not meeting the requirement from industry. Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) provided different certification scheme to enhance the competence of the university graduates.

One course named "Quality Management for Laboratory" was introduced to the market and HKSQ issued the certificate scheme named "Certificated Laboratory Quality Specialist", so as to assist laboratory to achieve ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation.


At the end, I introduced the coming ANQ Congress 2012 in Hong Kong from 31 July to 3 Aug 2012 and invited all participates to join the congress.


The sixth speaker was Ms. Catherine Chan (陳燕屏) (Chairlady of HKQFDA) and her presentation was "Understanding Customer Need was the key of Enterprise Survival (認識顧客需求-企業存續之匙)".


Ms. Chan explained how to describe customer need through Quality Function Deployment concept. Firstly, it needed to collect the voice of customer, then translated it into product or service specification. Finally, it needed to re-arrange and prioritize the outcome items.

Ms. Chan pointed out some key points for Enterprise Survival such as Safety, Environment, Customer as stakeholder and Corporate Social Responsibility, etc. Lastly, Ms. Chan concluded that Enterprise Survival was based on understand of your customer.


The last speaker was Mr. Lin Gon-Fu (林公孚) (Exco member of CSQ) and his presentation title was "Ideas and Practices of the Quality Knowledge Communities (QKC) (品質知識社群的想法與做法)". QKC was established in 2004. The vision of QKC was "Enhancement of knowledge exchange and development for Chinese Quality Professionals in the world (促進華人世界品質同道知識交流,共同成長。)". It was suggested to use Internet to connect all Chinese together for this vision.


Mr. Xiong Wei (熊偉) (GM, CQA) was invited to give a speech. He was very support the Chinese Quality Forum and committed to hold the next meeting in Beijing.


After the seminar, Dr. Wang Chih-Han (Former Chairman of CSQ) chaired the meeting to discuss the operation of Chinese Quality Forum (CQF). It was agreed to arrange one or two days seminar once per year. Primary language was in Chinese and secondary language was in English. The topic of forum related to Quality Leadership, Quality Culture, Strategy Management, Development and Innovation Quality, Manufacturing Quality, Service Quality, etc.


After CQF meeting, I visited Chinese Society for Quality (CSQ) office and presented the HKSQ flag to Prof. Yang.


Prof. Yang was a famous writer for quality related book in Taiwan. I got his books for further study.


All speakers and participants had a dinner together.


It was a happy night to exchange quality idea and understanding different areas quality culture.


Reference:
China Association for Quality (CAQ) - http://www.caq.org.cn/
Chinese Society for Quality (CSQ) - http://www.csq.org.tw/mp.asp?mp=1
Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) - http://www.hksq.org/index.asp
Hong Kong Quality Function Deploment Association (HKQFDA) - http://www.qfdhk.org/
Singapore Quality Institute (SQI) - http://www.sqi.org.sg/