2014年5月31日星期六

Seminar Celebrating the WMD, the WAD and the WSD 2014

The Hong Kong Council for Testing and Certification (HKCTC), the Standards and Calibration Laboratory of the Innovation and Technology Commission (SCL), Government Laboratory (GL), Hong Kong Accreditation Service (HKAS) and Product Standards Information Bureau (PSIB) jointly organized the 2014 Seminar for celebrating the World Metrology Day (WMD), the World Accreditation Day (WAD) and the World Standards Day (WSD) on 30 May 2014. Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) was one of supporting organizations. This seminar aimed to enhance the understanding of the three pillars of a quality infrastructure included metrology, accreditation and standardization and how they interacted synergistically to support conformity assessments in a way that contributed to the world-wide efforts to meet the global energy challenge.

Dr. George HK Lau (Asso. Professor & Programme Leader (Testing & Certification), School of Science and Technology, OUHK) and I attended the seminar.


In the beginning, Mr. Johann Wong (Deputy Commissioner for Innovation and Technology, ITC, HKSAR Government) gave welcoming Remarks. He welcomed all guest and participants and explained the aims of the seminar to raise the public awareness on quality infrastructure in Hong Kong.


Group photo of all guests


Mr. Wong Wang-wah (Executive Administrator, HKAS and PSIB, Innovation and Technology Commission, HKSAR Government) gave opening remarks. Firstly, he mentioned the actual celebration dates of WMD on 20 May, WAD on 9 June and WSD on 14 October, respectively. He said a sound quality infrastructure is the cornerstone of a reliable conformity assessment system. Metrology, accreditation and standardization were three pillars supporting this quality infrastructure.


The first speaker was Dr. Barry Inglis (President, International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM)) and his presentation entitled “Metrology – Is Role in Trade, Energy and Quality of Life”. Firstly, he introduced the global infrastructure included International Bodies/agencies (e.g. WHO, WTO), Documentary Standards Writers (e.g. ISO, IEC), Certification Bodies (e.g. IAF, PAC), National Regulators (e.g. FDA, FAA) and Accreditation Bodies (e.g. ILAC, APLAC).


Dr. Inglis said “Metrology is the science of measurement and its application – Metrology includes all theoretical and practical aspects of measurement, whatever the measurement uncertainty and field of application”. Role of Metrology in Trade included Fair trading, International acceptance of products and testing, Food safety, etc. Role of Metrology in Energy included Energy transformation (e.g. efficiency, renewables), Distribution & Trade (e.g. electricity, gas, oil), Qualitification of energy content, Environmental impact, etc. Role of Metrology in Quality of Life included Health and Safety, Impact of emerging technologies, Food safety, Environment, etc. Finally, Dr. Inglis concluded that Metrology played a major roles and measurement in terms of the SI provided the basis for credible and reproducible measurements.

The second speaker was Mr. Peter Unger (Chairman, International Accreditation Cooperation ILAC) and his topic named “The Role of Accreditation in the Provision of Energy – The Perspective of ILAC and IAF”. Mr. Unger briefed the objectives of IAF and ILAC that they aimed to maintain the arrangements and to expand coverage into new economies so as to act as a central ‘hub’ to harmonize conformity assessment best practice. (We had met Mr. Peter Unger in Science Park before. Detailed link is in reference)


Mr. Peter Unger introduced the structure of Accreditation which supported by government, consumers and users. Then he said the provision of energy was the theme because energy was essential to daily activities. The IAF and ILAC Arrangements were structured to build on existing and developing regional MLAs/MRAs established around the world. He concluded that IAF and ILAC commit to develop a harmonized global approach for accreditation practices to esure equal reliability of accredited services as so to support developing economies to establish their accreditation infrastructure.


Mr. Rob Steele was the third speaker and his presentation title was “How Standards Level the Playing Field”. He said the world needed a great standards and conformance infrastructure that was aligned to meet customer needs.


Then Mr. Steele introduced ISO Global System which had 162 national members. There were many ISO’s works in recent years and he pointed out those standards promoted innovation in business which was really important.


Mr. Steele explained the matching of Good Regulatory Practice and Good Standards Practice. Then he briefed different ISO working group for energy such as ISO/IEC JTC 2, ISO 500001, ISO/TC 22, etc. Finally, he concluded government should assist national involvement in International Standards on energy management to promote good energy management practices.


Q&A Session
One of interested questions was “Why UK don’t use SI unit? But they used non-metric measurement system such as pound (lb), gallon, etc.” It was a difficult question because of historical development of measurement in England.


Mr. Lee Wah-kwan, Dennis (Head of Laboratory, Standards and Calibration Laboratory (SCL), ITC, HKSAR Government) was the fourth speaker and his presentation named “The Past, Present and Future of the Physical Metrology Infrastructure of Hong Kong”. Firstly, he quoted Nobel Laureate – Steve Chu’s statement “Accurate measurement is at the heart of physics, and in my experience new physics begins at the next decimal place.”


Moreover, Mr. Lee told us there was the 30th anniversary of SCL and he briefed the history. The details of SCL history is showed in the following photos.



Mr. Lee also prepared a summary of International System of Units for each participants. Then He quoted Dr. Brian Bowsher (MD, NPL of UK) that “Metrology in the 2020s will play a key role in meeting the socio-economic and scientific challenges:
- A sustainable low-carbon economy
- Scientific discovery
- Innovation and R&D intensive growth
- The well-being and security of the citizen.”


At the end, Mr. Lee briefed the direction of developmental tasks in SCL were “Scientific and Industrial Metrology”, “Energy Related Metrology” and “Health Related Metrology”.

The fifth speaker was Dr. Della Sin (Assistant Government Chemist, GL, HKSAR Government) and her topic named “The Scientific Infrastructure of Assuring Measurement Quality”.


Firstly, Dr. Sin introduced the important pillars of Metrology, Accreditation and Standardization which caused reliable measurement results. The she introduced the Metrology-in-Chemistry activities included the Consultative Committee for Amount of Substance: metrology in chemistry (CCQM) level and the Regional Metrology Organization (RMO) level, Production of Certified Reference Materials (CRMs), Proficiency Testing Programmes, International and Regional Collaborations.


The following diagram showed recently comparison related to Energy in CCQM level and RMO level.


The last speaker was Mr. Harry Lai (Assistant Director, Electrical & Mechanical Services Department, HKSAR Government) and his presentation named “Energy Efficiency and Safety of Electrical Products in Hong Kong”. Mr. Lai introduced Energy Efficiency Labelling Schemes (EELS) and Electrical Products (Safety) Regulation.


For EELS, there were separated into Voluntary EELS (VEELS) and Mandatory EELS (MEELS). EELS aimed to provide information for consumers to select energy efficient appliances. The energy labels were shown below. Mr. Lai said MEELS achieved an energy saving of 175 million kWh per year (equivalent to reduce 122,000 tonnes of CO2 emission annually).


Finally, Mr. Lai concluded that the contribution of Standards and Accreditation to Energy Efficiency and Safety of Electrical Products included “Standards adaptation to minimize technical barriers” and “Accreditation on Testing Facilities which provided confidence test results”.

Q&A Session
I asked for advice if no reference standards in advance equipment (e.g. SAM, ToF-SIMS & XPS). Dr. Della Sin said they would do by themselves for calibration and verification.


Reference:
World Metrology Day 2013 Seminar - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2013/05/world-metrology-day-2013-seminar.html
ILAC representative visit to HKSTPC Laboratories - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/09/ilac-representative-visit-to-hkstpc.html
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
HKAS – http://www.hkas.gov.hk
PSIB – http://www.itc.gov.hk/en/quality/psis/
HKSQ – http://www.hksq.org/


2014年5月29日星期四

Seminar on New Policies related to Shenzhen Science and Technology Funding Program (深圳市科技計劃政策介紹會)

CityU Shenzhen Research Institute arranged a seminar named “New Policies related to Shenzhen Science and Technology Funding Program (深圳市科技計劃政策介紹會) on 29 May 2014 in CityU, Hong Kong.


Prof. XUE Quan (薛泉教授) (Associate Vice-President (Innovation Advancement and China Office); Deputy Director, CityU Shenzhen Research Institute and Chair Professor of Microwave Engineering, CityU) gave an introduction. He mentioned the distribution of different China funding in which about 60% was come from National Science Funding and only about 11% was come from Shenzhen. Therefore, he would like to encourage CityU professors to apply more fundings through Shenzhen government.


The guest speaker was 石群貞 (深圳市科技創新委員會副巡視員) and he gave an introduction speech.


Then several representatives from the Science Technology and Innovation Committee of Shenzhen Municipality introduced different scheme to us below:

2014年深圳市科技創新委員會
科技計劃政策介紹
朱永鋒 (深圳市科技創新委員會綜合計劃處主任科員)
He mentioned the annual investment on Science Technology research funding upto RMB 3 billion in Shenzhen Municipality. The different type of schemes are shown as follows:
1. Knowledge Innovation Program
2. Technology Innovation Program
3. Collaboration Innovation Program
4. Innovation Infrastructure Program (Included Key State Laboratory and Engineering Centre)
5. Technology Application Demonstration Program


深圳市科技計劃介紹 - 2014年協同創新計劃
陳穎 (深圳市科技創新委員會政策規劃處主任科員)
She discussed “Shenzhen-Hong Kong Innovation Circle” (深港創新圈), International Technology Collaboration and Technology Finance.
For International Technology Collaboration, the key support countries included Israel, USA, Canada, UK, Denmark and Australia. (Details: www.cistc.gov.cn )


深圳市科技計劃介紹 - 2014年知識創新計劃
李肖力 (深圳市科技創新委員會政策規劃處副處長)
She introduced Fundamental Research, Soft Science Research and Peacock team (孔雀團隊). Peacock team (孔雀團隊) aimed to support talent for innovation start-up business included Internet, Biotech, New Energy and New Material, as well as, IT.


深圳市創新載體情況介紹
文莉 (深圳市科技創新委員會電子科技處副處長)
She said there were 807 Innovative Carriers until Dec 2013 in which 70 carriers achieved National level. Carriers mean Key Laboratories (重點實驗室), National Engineering Center (工程中心), Public Service Platform (公共服務平台), etc.


The following diagram showed Shenzhen Key Laboratories in Hong Kong’s universities.


The whole Shenzhen Municipality funding distribution was shown as follows.


中國創新創業大賽深圳賽區暨第六屆中國(深圳)創新創業大賽
戴仲群 (深圳市技術轉移促進中心服務部部長)
He said government would like to establish a platform to connect the technology and capital (科技+金融).


The flow of Innovation Start-up Competition was demonstrated below. (www.iecsz.org; www.cxcyds.com)


中國科學院深圳先進技術研究院
馮偉 (中國科學院深圳先進技術研究院院長助理)
First, Mr. Fung introduced Shenzhe Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (中國科學院深圳先進技術研究院) (www.siat.ac.cn)


Then he briefed some cooperation with universities in Hong Kong.


There were 5 joined laboratories named by Chinese Academy of Sciences.



2014年5月28日星期三

ASQ InfVoices – Educating a Quality Workforce

The topic of ASQ Influence Voices in May was written by Julia McIntosh of ASQ’s communications department entitled "Educating a Quality Workforce". This article quoted Michelle Rhee presentation in WCQI that she told about the poor quality of education in many US public schools; and low-quality education results in a low-quality workforce. Then Julia asked three questions for our rethinking.

(Photo taken in Hong Kong Student Science Project Competition 2014) 


1. Do you see a correlation between the quality of education in your country and the young people entering the workforce?
For secondary school in Hong Kong, famous schools with higher ranking have more resource and provide better quality education included teachers, environment and facilities to support and lead students. The competition causes better students to select those schools. Thus, the better young people enter the workforce after quality education. On the other hand, the lower ranking schools have less resource and selected by mediocrity students that may be affected the quality of education and workforce.
Therefore, many Hong Kong parents very concern their son to win in the starting line.

2. Does your culture celebrate success or is any attempt considered “good enough”?
Hong Kong Government encouraged that “Learning is more important than Scoring (求學不是求分數)”. However, parents think that “Scoring is the most important”. It is because the higher scoring student get, the higher opportunity they study in university. Universities in Hong Kong are very high quality and ranking in the world but number of degrees are not enough for all students. Therefore, we expect to be celebrated for quality, rather than for mediocrity.

3. What is the role of quality in improving public education in any nation?
I would like to quote two professors' comment on higher education below.

Prof. Sung Hyun Park (President, Korean Academy of Science and Technology, and Chair Professor of Department of Management of Technology, Konkuk University) mentioned Malcolm Baldridge Education Criteria (2013-2014) and TQM implementation in Higher Education in which a case study of Sogang University in Korea. Moreover, Prof. Park said quality in university included four outcomes of students that were “Useful”, “Responsive”, “Available” and “Reliability”. (http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/05/cityu-spring-research-conference-on.html)


Prof. Ka-Ho Mok (Associate Vice President, Dean & Chair Professor, Faculty of Arts & Sciences, The Hong Kong Institute of Education) explained an education hub had the following characteristics: (http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2010/11/lecture-6.html)
1. Concentration of leading educational institutions
2. High-quality international faculty
3. Large numbers of overseas students
4. Cutting-edge frontline research
5. Excellent infrastructure
6. Substantial revenues from student fees and other sources
7. Able to contribute to society’s business environment

Eventhough the above concepts employed in higher education, we could also employ it into lower level / entry level education (e.g. primary and secondary schools) to enhance the quality of education. Many extra supporting activities such as Student Science Project Competition and InnoCarnival lead by government or non-profit making organizations to improve the quality of education.

Reference:
A View from the Q - http://asq.org/blog/
ASQ Influence Voices Article - Encourage younger generation to study Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/02/asq-infvoices-encourage-younger.html
Hong Kong Student Science Project Competition 2014 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/05/hong-kong-student-science-project.html
InnoCarnival 2013 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2013/11/innocarnival-2013.html
InnoCarnival 2012 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/11/innocarnival-2012.html
InnoCarnival 2011 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2011/11/innocarnival-2011.html
InnoCarnival 2010 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2010/11/innocarnival-2010.html


2014年5月27日星期二

Warwick Alumni Event - The Cancer Revolution

My wife and I were honor to be invited to attend Warwick alumni event in Hong Kong by Mr. Thomas Ma (HKQAA) on 26 May 2014. The lecture named “The Cancer Revolution: from Stem Cells to Personalized Medicine”. The guest speaker was Professor Lawrence Young. Prof. Young is Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Warwick, and is internationally recognised for his work on the role of virus infection in the development of various tumours. Lawrence is listed amongst the World’s most cited scientists in the Institute for Scientific Information’s list of Highly Cited Researchers, and has an interest in the communication of science, particularly cancer research.


Firstly, Prof. Young briefed the challenge we face on cancer that more than 50% cancers occurring worldwide are in less developed regions and more than 6 in 10 cancer deaths worldwide occur in less developed regions. This study was performed in 2010.


The following diagram briefed “What is Cancer?” That is a disease of uncontrolled growth and inappropriate survival. Cancer from normal cell transferred to Tumour cell through the accumulation of multiple mutations included Genetics, Virus, Diet & Chemicals.


Prof. Young said the human body contained over 50 million million (50,000,000,000,000) cells. Only six seconds, we had made huge number of different cells below.


Then Prof. Young demonstrated the cancer cell growth through video.


Different regions had different dominated cancer. The characteristic of virus-associated human cancers were discussed.
1. Long latency period between primary infection and tumour development (5 to 50 years).
2. Only small percentage of virus-infected individuals develops the tumour.
3. Complex multi-step pathogenesis.
4. Virus infection is on link in a chain.


The following showed that it must be treated the cancer stem cell otherwise tumor would relapse.


Epstein-Barr Virus - Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte (EBV-CTL) for clinical trials were discussed in which vaccine could be developed from people blood individually. It could develop the stratified (personalized) medicine.


At the end, Prof. Young concluded that Cancer became a chronic, controllable disease through Prevent, Diagnosis, Prognosis, Therapy, Targeted drugs and Biological Therapies.

Reference:
Warwick Alumni Event HK - http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/alumni/news/events/younghongkong

My previous cancer related articles:
Cancer Prevention and Intestinal Bacteria (I) - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2009/01/cancer-prevention-and-intestinal.html
Cancer Prevention and Intestinal Bacteria (I) - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2009/01/cancer-prevention-and-intestinal_23.html


2014年5月25日星期日

The Innovation of the China Quality International Summit

The Innovation of the China Quality - 2014 The 7th Zero Defect Management International Summit (中國品質的創新峰會—第七屆零缺陷國際峰會) was organized by Crosby Management Institute (China), and Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) was one of supporting organizations, in Beijing on 24th May 2014. The venue was in China National Convention Centre.


Dr. KS Chin (Former Chairman, HKSQ), Mr. Simon Tong (Member, HKSQ) and I (Former Chairman, HKSQ) attended this summit. Dr. Chin and I took a photo in front of the China National Convention Centre.


Before the summit, we took some photos with Mr. Freeman Young (楊鋼) (Founder & CEO, Crosby Management Institute (China)) and Mr. Li Wencheng (李文成) (Director, International Exchange Dept., CAQ).


(Left: Dr. Mikey Kung (VP, member of expert committee, Crosby Management Consulting), Simon, KS, Mr. Li Wencheng and I)


In the beginning, the MC briefed the summit objectives and introduced the first guest Dr. KS Chin represented HKSQ to give opening speech.


Dr. KS Chin (Former Chairman, HKSQ) introduced the background of Hong Kong Society for Quality. He briefed our different activities and international networking such as WorldPartner of ASQ since 2002 and Founding member of Asian Network for Quality (ANQ) since 2002.


Asian Network for Quality (ANQ) contained 17 countries’ representative associations / societies and ANQ Congress was performed in different Asia country annually and alternatively.


Then Dr. KS Chin briefed the first Total Quality Engineering degree course in Hong Kong since 2009. Then he mentioned the big trend from Quality to Innovation. For example, ASQ formed Innovation Think Tank. Then Dr. Chin explained why innovation was the critical factor to be success. People and Management were also important of innovation. He asked two questions “Where are you now in innovation?” and “How to manage Innovation?”


The first keynote speaker was Mr. Freeman Young (楊鋼) (Founder & CEO, Crosby Management Institute (China)). He gave the welcome speech and discussed the theme of summit “The Innovation of the China Quality”. Mr. Young reviewed the history of China and said “Quality is Mentality (心態)” and “Innovation is Attitude (態度)”. He added “Quality Innovation is Responsibility (責任)”.
Finally, he concluded into two strategy points below:
1. To be Organization Value Integrator (組織價值的整合者)
2. To be Leader of Quality Culture (質量文化的領導者)


The second keynote speaker was Mr. Yuan Jie (袁洁院士-中國航天科技集團總經理) and his presentation topic entitled “Promotion the Quality Culture of Zero Defect and Implementation of sophisticated Quality Management (弘揚零缺陷質量文化、實施精細化質量管理)”. Mr. Yuan said the quality concepts of people in China Aerospace Science and Technology included “Quality is Policy. Quality is Life. Quality is Efficiency”. The following directions would be implemented continuously.
1. Improve Quality and Develop Strategy
2. Propel Strategy of Technology Innovation
3. Focus on People Development
4. Establish the Brand
5. Enhance Quality Fundamental Development
6. Advance the International Development Strategy


Dr. MA ZhiHong (馬智宏) (Party Secretary) was the third keynote speaker and his topic named “The Innovation Cornerstone of the China Quality is depended on the Fact (中國品質創新的基石在於實)”. He said the Quality was seeking truth from facts (實事求事).


Dr. Ma concluded the way of innovation in China Quality into four elements included Heart, Trust, Lean & Fact.
The Power of China Quality is depended on HEART. (中國品質的力量在於心)
The Future of China Quality is depended on TRUST. (中國品質的未來在於信)
The Way of China Quality is depended on LEAN. (中國品質的路徑在於精)
The Cornerstone of the China Quality is depended on FACT. (中國品質的基石在於實)


During the Tea Break, I took a photo with Dr. Ma.


The expert discussion section was chaired by Mr. Freeman Young and the participants (Start from Left) were Mr. Guo 郭若虛 (中國質量萬里行促進會副會長), 解艾蘭 (China's Industry-University-Research-CIUR), Dr. MA ZhiHong (馬智宏) (Party Secretary) and Prof. Yang Shuangjin (VP, China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT)). Freeman pointed out the discuss topic “What is the need of Quality?”


The ceremony of the 6th Quality People Beacon Awards (質量人灯塔獎).


Then Ms. Hu Yujian (胡毓堅) (Deputy Editor of China Machine Press) introduced the plan for a series of books about The Future of China Quality.


Dr. KS Chin and I were invited to be their editorial committee members.


My certificate


Then I took a photo with Mr. Sun (孫業) (Officer, China Machine Press) and Ms. Hu Yujian (胡毓堅) (Deputy Editor of China Machine Press). Moreover, they were interested in my book “Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師)”.


Before completed of morning session, we took a group photo for memory.


Lunch photo


In the afternoon, the first speaker was Mr. Ray Kim (雷劍) (Chief Quality Engineer, CETC 43) and his presentation named “Integrated Preventive Quality Approach (IPQA) – Exploratory Research on Zero Defect (集成化預防型質量管理方法 - 零缺陷實踐活動研究與探索)”


The IPQA model was briefed. The CETC 43 employed that “Strategy to Front Line”, “Management to Team” and “Culture to Staff”. The Mr. Ray shared some success cases.


Mr. Yansong Wang (王艷松) (VP, Inner Mongolia Mengniu Dairy (Group) Co., Ltd. (蒙牛)) was second speaker in afternoon session and his topic was “Safety Win the World (保障安全 共赢天下)”


Mr. Wang explained the three level quality objectives from safety (Customer Trust) to Consistent (Customer Satisfaction) and to Excellence (Customer Loyalty).


Then he mentioned their TQM framework and focused on supplier management. Systemic and Risk management were two of significant elements in the framework.


The third speaker was Mr. Wang Lin (王琳) (Director, Quality & Operational Development Division, Beijing Sony Mobile) and his presentation topic was “Standardization & Process Effectiveness on Manufacturing Lean Quality Operation (精益質量運營的規范和有效流程)”


Firstly, Mr. Wang briefed their management system certification included ISO 9001 (since 1996), ISO 14001 (since 1999), OHSAS 18001 (since 2009) and ANSI/ESD S20.20 (since 2009) those issued by DNV and its assessment from Level 3 (meet requirement) to Level 5 (Outstanding). Then he explained the lean operation and quality in their production line. After that he shared different applications such as robust process design used Poka Yoke and competence visibility online system. He concluded the common points to lean operation included “Effective Communication”, “Mistake Proof (Zero Defect)” and “Remove Physical Waste”.


The expert discussion section was chaired by Dr. Mikey Kung and the participants (Start from Left) were Mr. Yansong Wang (王艷松), Mr. Ray Kim (雷劍), Mr. Liu Yong (劉勇) and Dr. YAO Zhiqing (姚致清). They discussed how to implement the Zero Defect concept in the organization.


After the summit, Mr. Simon Tong and I visited National Stadium (Bird's Nest - 鳥巢)


and also the National Aquatic Center (Water Cube - 水立方”)


Reference:
HKSQ Lunch with Mr. Freeman Young (Father of Zero Defect in China on 24th May 2014 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2013/05/hksq-lunch-with-mr-freeman-young-father.html
Visit to Crosby Management Institute (China), Beijing - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/05/visit-to-crosby-management-institute.html
Crosby Management Institute (China) - http://www.zdchina.com.cn/


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