Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師): ASQ World Conference on Quality and Improvement (WCQI) 2016

In 2016, there is the 70^th ASQ The theme of ASQ World Conference for Quality and Improvement (WCQI) with the theme “Quality Expanded: In the Profession, Through the Organization, and Around the World”. In addition, the conference would also focus on risk and change, the culture of quality, and customer experience. The opening of the conference was held in Wisconsin Centre, Milwaukee on 16 May 2016. Dr. Albert Tsang, Ms. Minda Chiang and I were representatives of HKSQ for ASQ WCQI 2016.

Before the opening, I took a photo with Mr. Carlos Eduardo DaSilva (QA & Complaint Resolution Manager, Rockwell Automation) for memory.

Ms. Patricia C. La Londe (ASQ Chair-Elect) gave an opening speech. She pointed out “Longevity is one aspect of quality shared by many businesses and companies related to their recognition and value of employees.” Then she recognized the contribution of different years of ASQ member. One of them was found to be 60year membership. My wife and I were 10 years membership.

About 2600 quality professions attended the conference!

The first keynote speaker was Stephen Dubner (Award-Winning Author, Journalist, and Radio and TV Personality). He told us “Data only tell you “What” but “Why” is more complicated.” He questioned “How data reliable as they are”.

His famous books were included “Freakonomics”, “Super Freakonomics” and “Think Like a Freak”.

During the break, we met Mr. Duan Yong-Gong (Secretary, CAQ) and took a photo in front of China flag.

I also met Mr. Danny Lin (Strategic Branding Consultant, CAQ) and took a photo for memory.

Minda took a photo with her good friend Ms. Long Fei (CQA).

Dr. Albert Tsang (Former Chairman, HKSQ; ASQ Country Councillor) and I took a photo with different quality gurus portraits.

Then I attended the first session named “LinkedIn: The Whys and Hows” by Ms. Julia McIntosh (ASQ Communications). She shared the topics included “What’s LinkedIn and why use it?” “Profiles, connections, tips and tricks” and “Best practices”. She told us that ASQ LinkedIn group had 100,000+ members. She added that first thing first was profile and newsfeed. Remember that LinkedIn is a professional network, not a “social” network.

At the end, Julia shared the best practices included “Complete your profile”, “Connect to people you know or have worked in”, “Join and participate in relevant groups”, “Pay attention to grammar” and “Be Professional”.

During the break, I went to the exhibition booth and met Mr. Bill Wortman (Quality Council of Indiana (QCI)) again.

In afternoon session, I attended Ms. Jane Keathley (MS, PMP) talk entitled “Innovation Planning Using Nontraditional Methods”. Firstly, she quoted Peter Drucker’s statement that “Innovation is a practice, not a flash of genius.” Then she explained Innovation Planning included “Setting direction”, “Involving People”, “Allocating Resource” and “Defining how you will follow your innovation process”

Then she explained the plans for innovation “must be plans for learning rather than plans for implementation (quoted from Clayton Christensen). In addition, innovation plans should include “User Perspective”, “Value Proposition” and “Iterative Value Analyses”. The following diagram showed the value proposition.

After that she compared the traditional plan and innovation plan. Innovation plans adjust the timeline to the project rather than the project to the timeline. Continually reassess initial assumptions and data and modify plan as needed. She also briefed type of traditional plan such as Business, Strategic, Project and Quality. But innovation plan is more likely to Lean Start-up, Business Model Canvas, Agile and Scrum. Finally, she said leadership recognizing the need for innovation and value creation experts so that Jobs were opening up.

At the end of her talk, I got her signature for the new book named “The Executive Guide to Innovation – Turning Good Ideas into Great Results” and took a photo for memory.

Mr. Tracy L. Owens (LexisNexis, Dayton, OH) was one of co-authors.

During the coffee break, I met two past presidents of ASQ and they were Mr. Roberto Saco (http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2008/03/roberto-saco-asq-president-elect.html ) and Mr. Ronald Kingen (http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/11/hksq-wqm-seminar-culture-of-quality.html ). They both visited to Hong Kong.

The last session I attended was presented by Ms. Andrea Hoffmeier (CMO, EVP Quality & Strategic Development, PS BRANDS Policy Security Flashlights, Alpharetta, Georgia) and her topic was “ Quality and Sustainability: Finding Common Cause Factors”. She firstly briefed her new book named “A Six Sigma Approach to Sustainability – Continual Improvement for Social Responsibility”.

The Triple Bottom Line of Social Responsibility (ISO 26000) is People, Planet and Profit. But today’s Sustainability (say CISR – Continual Improvement for Social Responsibility) involved more that were ISO 26000 7 subjects, Strategic Alignment with Organization and Continual Improvement. Social responsibility is a method to achieve the goal of quality and sustainability.

Finally, Ms. Andrea Hoffmeier introduced the SOFAIR Process which included “Stakeholders/Subjects”, “Objectives”, “Function/Focus”, “Analyze”, “Innovate/Improve”, and “Report/Repeat”. The SOFAIR is a method used in the CISR methodology.