ASQ InfVoices - Quality Trends in Uncommon Places

The May Topic of ASQ Influential Voice was "Quality Trends in Uncommon Places" which initiated by Paul Borawski (CEO, ASQ) on 9 May 2015. It has multiple topics for discussion included "Workplace Motivation and Goals", "Charm and Fascination (or Soft Skills)", "The Quality/C-Suite Connection" and "What's The Future of Quality?"

For motivation, I agreed with Daniel Pink that "Money" is a motivator. Besides money, the three key motivators are autonomy, mastery and purpose. It is similar idea in my article "Staff Motivation Snapshot" in 2008. It mentioned there were four common factors of motivation including "Worthwhile Work", "The Power of Acknowledgement", "Your Personal Credibility" and "Working Through People".

The second question from Paul is "How do you make yourself distinct as a quality professionals? As a quality professional, quality technique and philosophy (called hard skills) are default. But the soft skills included communication and leadership are also key elements to distinct quality professionals. I remembered I told my colleagues that my job (Quality Manager) is talking more than working!

The common problem is about the disconnect between the quality department and the C-suite. It is still very difficult to help building a bridge to the C-suite. I have only 10 min to brief about company quality management review to the C-suite annually.

Finally, ASQ do a beautiful job on studying the Future of Quality every three years and released Global State of Quality Research report recently. However, my personal view on the future of quality will be focused on New Industry - Social Media. "Quality in Social Media" should be the new topic and new trend of Quality in Uncommon Places. Recently, I read Dragon's book named "Social Marketology" and he introduced Social Media Platforms named "Social Pyramid Diagram" with Nine Significant Devices. I would like to show the diagram of Facebook for sharing.

One of roles and responsibilities Dragon proposed was "Community Manager" who span both internal and external communities. I expect the Community Manager also had a role as quality manager.

Reference:
Dragon, Ric. (2012) "Social Marketology: Improve Your Social Media Processes and Get Customers to Stay Forever", McGraw-Hill.

ESG Leadership Strategy Seminar - How to Engage Customer and Employees through Social Media

The May topic of Executive Study Group (ESG) named “Leadership Strategy – How to Engage Customer and Employees through Social Media” which was held by the Executive Study Group (ESG), Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp (HKSTPC) on 24 May 2013. I would like to summarize the seminar for sharing below.

Dr. Mark Lee introduced the seminar included "Mega Trends", "Three Elements of Successful Social Strategy", "Establishing New Relationships (新相識)", "Strengthening Existing Relationships (舊相好)", "Connecting with Friends and with Strangers", and "Group Discussion".

In the beginning, Dr. Mark Lee explained social media gave a chance for people communication and satisfied their need such as Facebook with The Rubber Duck in Hong Kong recently. Moreover, people could participate your product design such as Pepsi - DEWocracy. For General Electric, CEO used GE Colab, which designed by GE employees to facilitate global teamwork, to share his ideal weekly.

Then Dr. Lee told us "Don't Import Digital Strategies into Social Environments". Social Media was not a website but a platform to connect with other people. The following diagram showed the different between digital and social strategies.

Three Elements of Successful Social Strategy was introduced. Dr. Lee quoted Prof. Mikolaj Jan Piskorski (Harvard Business School) social strategies:
1. By helping people establish or strengthen relationships
2. If they do free work on a company's behalf
3. Finally reduce cost or increase customers' willingness to pay.

Based the Social Strategy, it separated into social impact (Establish Relationships and Strengthen Relationships) and strategy impact (Reduce Cost and Increase Willingness to Pay). There were four ways to pursue social strategies:
- Reduce costs by helping people meet
- Increase willingness to pay by helping people meet
- Reduce costs by helping people strengthen relationships
- Increase willingness to pay by helping people strengthen relationships

There were four samples in the table and each company represented their position of social strategies.

In Yelp case, many volunteers contributed free food review to the platform called Yelpers. (It liked "Openrice" in Hong Kong. (One -way)) The most passionate and prolific Yelpers would be invited to join the Elite Squad. Moreover, Squal membership gave them accessed to exclusive Yelp-hosted events (Two-way). It was not only online activities but also offline activities. It was found that average elite Yelper would produce about 100 more reviews than a nonelite. It could be summarized that social strategy of Yelp allowed the best contributors to meet like-minded people. If contributors wrote reviews, it could help the company obtained quality content for free.

In American Express case, OPEN credit cards targeted small business owners and launched OPEN Forum. They also launched a members-only social network called Connectodex. It provided a platform for service offer and need, as well as freely connected for business. It was not like LinkedIn (many professionals), Connectodex members usually were small business bosses / owners. The member was not only customer, but also referral. The social Strategy summary was helping SME owners to meeting others like them. If members would like to maintain their card membership, they would increase willingness to pay American Express.

In Zynga case, the company provided free social games in Facebook including Farm Ville and City Ville. The game presented players with obstacles such as limits on number of plots or businesses they was able to possess. In order to overcome the obstacles, player could pay with virtual goods they bought from Zynga or asked their friends to help through Facebook status updates or Zynga's messaging system. The social strategy was allowing people to reconnect with friends. If they invited them to return to the game, it could reduce acquisition and retention costs of customer.

In eBay case, they joined with Facebook to provide Group Gifts Online Application that people used to pool funds to buy gifts for their common friends. Group gifts helped people purchased better-targeted and more expensive gifts than they might otherwise. Its strategy allowed people to strengthen their friendships through gift giving. If they asked their friends to buy from eBay, it increased willingness to pay.

Dr. Lee said the major pitfall of business was that company focused on their business goals but paid less attention to customer's unmet social needs. After that Dr. Lee raised a case study from XCard and showed us the four formulas of social strategy. Before discussed the XCard strategy, we needed to do a excise to select two of the most difficult social strategies and one of the easiest social strategy.

After discussion, Dr. Lee explained XCard social utility test. For social need of women executive, invitation-only events for them to capitalize on their heavy travel schedules were not. For social need of Moms, it was no edge for Moms and large retailers of children's products such as Toys "R" Us or Walmart, could create a more effective platform. For Gift giving, people would hesitate to use a program from credit card because of privacy issue risk. For Shopping with Friends, it leveraged the card's superior rewards program and invited 10,000 customer for pilot test. They encourage the users to post a Facebook status update after shopping. Moreover, customer informed others that all involved would received additional XCard rewards for coshopping.

Finally, Dr. Lee refreshed the vision, mission and value of Executive Study Group. The group was formed in 2008 after economic crisis. It aimed to assist Hong Kong industry upgrading their management skill at that time.

Reference:
The Centre for Logistics Technologies and Supply Chain Optimization, CUHK - http://www.logitsco.cuhk.edu.hk/
HKSTP - www.hkstp.org

HKSQ Lunch with Mr. Freeman Young (Father of Zero Defect in China)

HKSQ exco members included Peter Fung (Vice-chairman, HKSQ), Minda Chiang (Hon. Secretary, HKSQ) and I (Former chairman, HKSQ) had a lunch with Mr. Freeman Young Gang (楊鋼) and Mrs. Young at Science Park on 24 May 2013.

Mr. Freeman Young Gang (楊鋼) is the founder and chairman of the Crosby Management Institute (China), and Zero Defect Management Center. He is the "Father of Zero Defect in China", a best-selling author, and one of the most influential quality management thinkers and speaker.  He is the only Chinese Disciple of Crosby (美国管理大师克劳士比唯一的中国弟子).

We exchanged quality assurance idea between Hong Kong and China. We also discussed some cooperation opportunities between Crosby Management Institute (China) and Hong Kong Society for Quality such as seminar and conference, etc.

(Group Photo (Left) : Mrs. Young, Mr. Freeman Young, Ms. Minda Chiang, Dr. Lotto Lai and Mr. Peter Fung)

After the lunch, I as tour guide to introduce Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks included Green Building 18, IC Development Centre and Reliability Laboratory.
We took a photo in front of the Charles K. Kao Auditorium (Golden Egg).

We appreciated to receive Freeman's book included "零缺陷", "第一次把事情做对" and "质与量的战争". The following books I searched were written or translated by Mr. Freeman Young.

Freeman's Book in Chinese
2002年08月 - 质量无惑 (作者：杨钢 编)
2006年05月 - 零缺无陷：中国零缺陷管理首席专家杨钢省思录 (作者：杨钢 著)
2006年10月 - 零缺陷大道 (作者：杨钢 著)
2010年05月 - 质与量的战争：透视“中国品质”的的真相与未来 (作者：杨钢 著)
2011年05月 - 第一次把事情做对（修订版）(作者：杨钢 著)

Freeman translated Crosby's Book to Chinese
2006年05月 - 完整性：21世纪的质量 (作者：（美）克劳士比 著; 杨钢，林海 译)
2006年05月 - 永续成功的组织：企业健康的艺术 (作者：（美）克劳士比 著; 杨钢，林海 译)
2006年05月 - 削减质量成本：经理人缺陷预防工作手册  (作者：（美）克劳士比 著; 杨钢，林海 译)
2006年05月 - 随心所欲的工作艺术：现实中的情景管理 (作者：（美）克劳士比 著; 杨钢，林海 译)
2011年06月 - 质量免费 (作者：（美）克劳士比 著; 杨钢，林海 译)

Finally, we are looking forward to join their conference in Beijing.

Photo: HKSQ exco members had dinner with Crosby in 1999.

Reference:
20100705 - "中国零缺陷之父"杨钢谈中国制造 - http://book.ce.cn/zzdt/201007/05/t20100705_21581885.shtml
Crosby Management Institute - http://www.chinacrosby.com/
Zero Defect Blog - http://weibo.com/fredman
Freeman Young (2013) "The Quest for Quality in China" The Quality Management Forum, Vol. 39, No.1, pp.1-5.

HKSQ - http://www.hksq.org/

World Metrology Day 2013 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 (SCL), and Government Laboratory (GL) jointly organized the World Metrology Day 2013 Seminar on 20 May 2013. Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) was one of supporting organizations. This seminar unveils metrology and how measurement works behind the scenes in human activities.

In the beginning, Mr. Terence Chan (Secretary-General (acting), HKCTC) gave a welcoming Remarks. Terence shared his story about metrology during he studied in primary school. He worked with his classmate to build a paper house. They separated duties into two that one for roof and the other one for basis. When they combined it in school playground, they found that the size did not match even though they had a drawing with scale. Finally, Terence found the root cause came from the different rule scale (One was Chinese Tailor's rule scale and the other was not.). The story matched the theme "Measurements in Daily Life".

The first speaker was Ir. Y.K. Yan (Senior Electronics Engineer, SCL) and his topic named "The Role of Measurement Uncertainty in Conformity Assessment". He firstly asked a simple questions "Does the measurement result meet the specification?"

Then Ir. Yan introduced the concept of the effect of uncertainty. The greater the measurement uncertainty (MU), the larger the area of unclear decision.
Test uncertainty ratio (TUR) = Spec Limit / MU
(Left: Out of limit, Unable to judge, Unable to jude, Within limit) Intuitive approach referred to ISO 14253-1 and ILAC-G8.

Then Ir. Yan briefed maximum risk approach included consumer's risk (risk of accepting non-conforming items) and producer's risk (risk of rejecting conforming items). Then he introduced Guarded Acceptance (Upper acceptance limit (Au) < Upper tolerance limit (Tu)) to reduce the consumer's risk and Guarded Rejection (Au > Tu) to reduce the producer's risk.

Finally, Ir. Yan mentioned the Joint Committee for Guides in Metrology (JCGM) which was a committee established in 1997 and aimed to address common problems encountered in metrology. JCGM relevant documents included JCGM 100, 101, 102, 104, 106 & 200. Since JCGM 106 issued in October 2012, SCL developed a software tool that allowed easy calculation of the acceptance limits based on the production process.

The second speaker was Dr. S.K. Wong (Senior Chemist (Quality Management Section, GL) and his presentation was "Metrology in Chemistry and Daily Life". Dr. Wong said chemical test related to our basic necessities of life (衣食住行).

Dr. Wong said about 670,000 chemical test per year included food, environmental, pharmaceutic, etc. For chemical test, there had 198 HOKLAS accredited laboratories in Hong Kong. Then Dr. Wong briefed food test as example. There were six elements affected the test results included sample source, sampling procedure, laboratory competence, testing method, data traceability and reference material.

Presentation of souvenirs and group photo after the tea break

The third speaker was Dr. Nim-kwan Cheung (CEO, Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company Ltd. (ASTRI)) and his presentation entitled "The Role of Metrology in Research and Development". He introduced some observations in the measurement of distance, temperature and time.

Firstly, Dr. Cheung introduced the history of the Meter. The International Bureau of Weights and Measures upgraded the bar to one made of 90% platinum / 10% iridium alloy in 1875. Then it redefined as 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of orange-red light in 1960. In 1984, 1/299,792,458 seconds with time measured by a cesium-133 atomic clock was employed. After that Dr. Cheung mentioned his measurement experience during his study in 1970s. He needed to measure different reading in different part of equipment setup for ultralow temperature.

Finally, Dr. Cheung mentioned the world's "most accurate" clock - Quantum Logic Clock which developed in 2007-8. Dr. Cheung said the time measurement was very important for mobile synchronization.

Mr. Dennis Lee (Senior Electronic Engineer, SCL) was the fourth speaker and he presented the topic "Optical Metrology for Daily Life". Mr. Lee introduced photometry and radiometry. Photometry stated the range of wavelength which was visible to the human eyes. Radiometry was measurement of optical electromagnetic radiation with frequency range from 3x10^11Hz to 3x10^16Hz.

Then Mr. Lee briefed the history of the unit for light intensity. It was interested that the original unit was by candles in 1860. In 1979, SI definition of the Candela adopted in terms of the watt at only one wavelength of light (540x10^12Hz). The photometric and radiometric units were shown in the following diagram.

Finally, Mr. Lee told us SCL's photometric and radiometric capabilities development map from 2012 to 2015. Their capabilities in Illuminance (lux) meter from 10 to 2000 lx and Standard Lamps from 100 to 3500 cd were covered all work place lighting requirement in Hong Kong. Lastly, Mr. Lee mentioned their inter-laboratory comparison through participating APMP Comparison of Luminous Intensity.

Dr. Y.C. Yip (Senior Chemist (Strategic Development Section)(acting), GL) was the fifth speaker and his topic entitled "Metrology in Chemistry and Its Applications". First of all, Dr. Yip introduced GL scientific services included Foods, Chinese medicines, DNA, Forensics, Pharmaceuticals, Environment, Toys, Commodities and Legal measurement.

Dr. Yip explained the important of metrological traceability. The following milestone demonstrated different accreditation and international scheme in GL since 1993.

Dr. Yip also mentioned some Calibration and Measurement Capability (CMC) Claims in Food such as Total Malachite Green in fish and Melamine purity standards. Moreover, GL also organized different Proficiency Testing (PT) programmes under the scope of food, environment, commodity products, pharmaceuticals and Chinese medicine testing since 1987. They was accredited as a PT scheme provider based on ISO/IEC 17043:2010. Finally, Dr. Yip expected that metrology in chemistry supported the testing and certification sectors in Hong Kong and produced more CRMs and organized more PTs to meet our specific needs.

The last session had three speakers and entitled "Metrology Omni-range". They were Ir. Johnny C.Y. Poon (Electronics Engineer, SCL), Ir. Samuel C.K. Ko (Electronics Engineer, SCL), Ir. Brenda H.S. Lam (Electronics Engineer, SCL) and Dr. S.Y. Wong (Electronics and Mechanical Engineer, SCL).

Ir. Johnny C.Y. Poon presented the topic related to Electricity (Medical Testing Devices). He introduced different types of devices such as Electrical Safety Analyzer, Electrocardiogram (ECG) Simulator, Defibrillator Analyzer, etc. He focused on electricity leakage testing.

Ir. Samuel C.K. Ko presented the topic for Ultrasonic (Ultrasonic Flaw Detectors). The main calibration parameters were reflection time (horizontal scale) and reflection amplitude (vertical scale). The test items would be calibrated according to EN12668-1:2010.

Ir. Brenda H.S. Lam responded to the Acoustics measurement (Sound Level Meters). She explained the unit of sound that was pascal (Pa). (1 Pa = 1 Nm^-2 = 1 Jm^-3 = 1 kgm^-1s^-2) Sound level meters (SLMs) measured the sound pressure level which did not correlate well to human-perceived loudness. Details could refer to IEC 61672.

Dr. S.Y. Wong mentioned the Physical Geometry (Surface Texture Measurement). Dr. Wong mentioned the definition of surface roughness based on ISO 4287. He explained the different of 1um and 2um stylus radius for surface texture profile measurement. The measured value by 2um stylus was smaller than that of the 1 um stylus by 27%.

Q&A Session

Reference:

HKCTC - http://www.hkctc.gov.hk/en/about.html
SCL - http://www.itc.gov.hk/en/quality/scl/about.htm
GL - http://www.govtlab.gov.hk/english/home.htm
HKSQ - http://www.hksq.org/

ANQ Congress 2013 at Bangkok, Thailand

The 11th Asia Network for Quality (ANQ) Congress will be held at Bangkok, Thailand on 14-18 October 2013. (http://www.anq2013.org/)

The important dates of the Congress are shown below:
Registration of ANQ Congress 2013 Early Bird: before 14 July 2013 (Sunday)

Call for papers: 8 April 2013 (Monday )
Deadline for Abstract Submission: 15 June 2013 (Saturday)
(ANQ organization of the author's country)
Accepted Abstracts Notification: 1 July 2013 (Monday )
Deadline for full paper submission: 15 July 2013 (Monday)
Paper presentations: 16 - 17 October 2013 (Wednesday or Thursday)

The ANQ Congress 2012 was held in Hong Kong and post-congress news included Feedback Questionnaire, Media Reports, Messages from ANQ Friends, Congress Report and Photo Gallery are posted at http://www.hksq.org/anq2012/post_anq_news.html .

Some activities in ANQ 2012 Congress were recorded in my blog's links in reference.

Reference
Asia Network for Quality (ANQ) - http://www.anforq.org/
ANQ 2012 Hong Kong:
20120729 - ANQ-CEC Meeting Dinner - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/07/anq-cec-meeting-dinner.html
20120731 - Pre-ANQ Congress Preparation - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/07/pre-anq-congress-preparation.html
20120731 - ANQ Congress 2012 - General Assembly Meeting - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/07/anq-congress-2012-general-assembly.html
20120731 - ANQ Congress 2012 - Welcome Reception & Registration - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/07/anq-congress-2012-welcome-reception.html
20120801 - ANQ Congress 2012 - Day 1 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/08/anq-congress-2012-day-1.html
20120801 - ANQ Congress 2012 - VIP Dinner Gathering - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/08/anq-congress-2012-vip-dinner-gathering.html
20120802 - ANQ Congress 2012 - Day 2 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/08/anq-congress-2012-day-2.html
20120802 - ANQ Congress 2012 - Banquet - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/08/anq-congress-2012-banquet.html
20120803 - ANQ Congress 2012 - Technical Visit - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/08/anq-congress-2012-technical-visit.html
20120807 - Post-ANQ Congress Networking and Ceremony Dinner - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/08/post-anq-congress-networking-and.html

HKTIC Spring Gathering 2013

I attended Hong Kong Association for Testing, Inspection and Certification Ltd. (HKTIC) Spring Gathering 2013 in The Sha Tin Racecourse on 11 May 2013.
HKTIC was first founded by a group of testing laboratories, inspection companies and certification bodies that recognized the growing importance of product testing, inspection and certification services in supporting further social and economic development in Hong Kong since 1981.

Most TIC industries representatives participated the gathering and we took a group photo for memory.

Ms. Christina Law (Chairlady of HKTIC) gave a welcome speech to all representatives.

Some members were very lucky to win the race and took a photo for memory.

More information:
HKTIC: http://www.hktic.org/

CityU Spring Research Conference on Systems Engineering and Management Science 2013

The Spring Research Conference on Systems Engineering and Management Science 2013 (SRC-SEMS'13) organized by Department of System Engineering and Engineering Management (SEEM) and Department of Management Science, City University of Hong Kong from 10 - 11 May 2013. SRC-SEMS'13 aimed to provide a research platform for academics and researchers, particularly young faculty and graduate students, in Greater China region and neighbouring areas to share and exchange experience and research findings in various disciplines of Systems Engineering and Management Science

The conference was held in City University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Research Institute (CityUSRI), Shenzhen Hi-tech Industrial Park, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, China.

HKSQ members supported the activities. (Left: Mr. Ivan Ng, Dr. Andy Wong and I)

Since I only attended the afternoon session on 10 May 2013, I would like to summarize some of activities for sharing.

In Healthcare session, Ms. Meiyan Lin who was PhD student under Dr. KS Chin and her presentation topic named "An Integer Programming Model in Elderly Care Timetabling: A Case Study" Her study aimed to efficiently generate a service schedule to improve the operational performance of the center.

In Quality session, the second speaker was Mr. C.H. Lam, who was a study under Dr. Ken Yiu, and his topic was "Evaluation of Total Quality Management in Hong Kong Higher Education. His study purpose was to evaluate the programme organized in the university and student experience in the programmes, so as to provide the useful information to the university policy planners.

Mr. Ivan Ng presented his research subject named "The Impact of Cultural Factors on Quaity Management in South China". His study considered both Chinese cultural characteristics and the organization culture profile through a series of multiple individual interviews in Hong Kong and Shanghai, an online survey performed in Hong Kong to explores the best practices of Six Sigma with regards to objectives, values, implementation and change, as well as, outcomes.

I as session chair presented a certificate to Mr. Ivan Ng.

In my part, my presentation topic was "Extension the Application of the QISM Model to iLMS Model: HKSTPC Case Study". I had developed QMS based Information Security Management (QISM) model for my EngD study since 2008. QISM Model was integration approach between ISO 9001 and ISO 27001. This paper aimed to extend the existing QISM model to the Integrated Laboratory Management System (iLMS) Model and a case study involved in the Technology Support Centre (TSC) at HKSTPC.

Dr. Ken Yiu presented a certificate to me.

The last session I attend was presented by Prof. Jingxian Chen and his topic entitled "Easing the FMEA with the DHU Model of Software Architecture". Prof. Chen studied why FMEA worked well for hardware engineering but did not work in software quality assurance. He pointed out that hardware products and their manufacture processes possessed Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) property whereas the counterpart for software products had not known yet.

During the Banquet, Dr. KS Chin (Program Chair) gave an opening speech.

Then Prof. Kwok Tsui (Conference Co-chair; Head and Chair Professor, SEEM Dept., CityUHK) gave a welcoming speech.

I took a photo with Dr. KS Chin (my EngD supervisor).

At the end, we took a group photo for CityU members and guest speakers.

Reference:
SEEM, CityU - http://www.cityu.edu.hk/seem/
HKSQ - http://www.hksq.org/index.asp

SRC-SEMS'13 - http://www.cityu.edu.hk/seem/srcsems2013/