ASQ InfVoices – New Generation is the Future of Quality

Mr. Edwin Garro (ASQ Fellow) was invited to post article as the October Topic of ASQ Influential Voice named "A Day with the Future of Quality". He believed remarkable teen (during his visit) would certainly play a role in the future of our profession. Moreover, he introduced the Quality and Productivity Technical Program in Costa Rica for high school where students would still be teenagers when they graduated. In Hong Kong, HKSQ is firstly introduced the Certificate Course on “Quality Management for Laboratory” into University since 2005. Then we created HKSQ Certified Professional Scheme named “Certified Laboratory Quality Specialist (CLabQS)”. (See reference) (Photo is taken during my recently lab workshop.)

I agreed with Mr. Edwin Garro that youth at age 15 or above, they were more worried about their job and study. Moreover, Edwin encouraged about “quality education and near future technical degree that will guarantee their full employment and market rate salaries, plus to pursue full college degrees”.

I met Mr. Anshuman Tiwar (Chair, ASQ Local Member Communities (LMC) in Bangalore, India) and had dinner in City University of Hong Kong on 19 Feb 2014. I learnt that he had a promotion program of basic quality concept for High School student in India. That idea seeded in my mind and incubated for action. On the other hand, HKSQ had met youth for Career Talk on Testing and Certification Industry, as well as, Medical Device and Pharmaceutical Industry held in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

During HKQF the 6th TIC-ITAC Meeting, we knew that most students in high schools had no idea for selecting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) topics which will affect / limit to their course selection during study in University. This problem also existed in USA (See reference: ASQ Influence Voice articles in 20120208 and 2015032).

Therefore, I am planning to launch an in-house seminar in high schools and temporary named “Quality Innovation, Testing and Certification – To be Future Star” in 2016 summer. Moreover, we could also arrange laboratory visit for high schools students to increase their interested in STEM study. This proposal will be aligned with HKSQ, HKQF and HKSTP objectives in Hong Kong for creating Future of Quality Professionals.

Reference:
20091229: Certificate Course on “Quality Management for Laboratory” supported by HKSQ
http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2009/12/certificate-course-on-quality.html
20110722: HKSQ Certified Professional Scheme - Certified Laboratory Quality Specialist (CLabQS)
http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2011/07/hksq-certified-professional-scheme.html
20130706: HKSQ Career Talk on Testing and Certification Industry
http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2013/07/hksq-career-talk-on-testing-and.html
20140323: HKSQ Career Talk on Medical Device and Pharmaceutical Industry
http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/03/hksq-career-talk-on-medical-device-and.html
20140219: HKSQ Dinner with Mr. Anshuman Tiwari
http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/02/hksq-dinner-with-mr-anshuman-tiwari.html
20150602: HKQF the 6th TIC-ITAC Meeting
http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2015/06/hkqf-6th-tic-itac-meeting.html
20120208: ASQ InfVoices - Encourage younger generation to study Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)
http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/02/asq-infvoices-encourage-younger.html
20150328: ASQ InfVoices - Encourage the Next Generation of STEM Professionals
http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2015/03/asq-infvoices-encourage-next-generation.html

ASQ InfVoices – Mission in Hong Kong Science Park

September topic of ASQ Influential Voice is posted by Pat La Londe (ASQ Fellow and ASQ board chair) named “Does Mission Matter?” She analyzed ASQ’s mission and concluded that strong leadership is essential to developing and sustaining a culture of quality. Finally, she asked us to share “What is your organization’s mission? Do you update and refer to it on a regular basis?” Moreover, I am total agreed that “If an organization is seeking to improve its culture of quality, a closer look at the three areas —vision, values and leadership—is likely a good place to begin.”
I would like to share the history of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks (HKSTP) Vision, Mission and Values since 2001. The milestone of HKSTP is shown in the following diagram.

2001-02
Vision
Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation is to play a leading role for Hong Kong to become a major centre of innovation and technology development in the focused clusters*, and a hub for high value-adding, skill-intensive manufacturing and service industry capacities.
Mission
To provide quality infrastructure and support facilities for innovation and technology development in the focused clusters* and the upgrading of manufacturing and service industry capabilities
To provide full-service incubation programme for technology start-ups
To foster partnership and collaboration between industry and universities / applied research institutes through consulting, training and research programmes
(* Focused clusters encompass electronics, biotechnology, precision engineering and information technology/telecommunications industries.)

2012-13
Vision
Transforming innovation and technological advancement into value creation that benefits Hong Kong, Mainland – and the world.
Mission
In propelling Hong Kong towards a world-class hub for selected technologies, we provide facilities, services and a dynamic environment that enable companies to nurture ideas, innovate and develop.
Values
Integrity, Excellence, Safety, Sustainability and Commitment

2014-15
Vision
Create a vibrant innovation and technology ecosystem to deliver social and economic benefits to Hong Kong and the region.
Mission
Connect stakeholders, facilitate knowledge transfer and nurture talents to accelerate technological innovation and commercialization.
Core Values
Proactive, Integrity, Enterprising, Collaborative and Excellence

We have updated the vision, mission and values which depended on environment change. The vision is observed to be expanding and more focus on innovation and technology (I&T) ecosystem that is not only I&T hub in Hong Kong. Mission observed from “local infrastructure and startup incubation” to “acceleration and commercialization”. Moreover, we try to implant core values into corporation since 2012.

Reference:
HKSTP - http://www.hkstp.org/
20140722: ASQ InfVoices – Clear Vision - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/07/asq-infvoices-clear-vision.html
20120826: ASQ InfVoices - The Quality Culture in Hong Kong - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/08/asq-infvoices-quality-culture-in-hong.html

ASQ InfVoices – Evolution of ‘Made in Hong Kong’

Responding to Laurel Nelson-Rowe (ASQ managing director) article in ASQ Influential Voice named “What Does “Made In…” Mean To You?” I would like to talk about Made in Hong Kong and its evolution. Manufacturing in Hong Kong (See Reference) stated the history of Hong Kong’s Industrialization. In the past, I remembered our Industrial Department arranged Quality Week (since 1995, but I don't know when it stopped). HKSQ Founder – Mr. Warner Yeh (Founding Chairman) was one of members in the ‘brains’ behind Quality Week.

During 1980s, Hong Kong is the labour-intensive industries and some famous local brands appeared. I quoted one of brands “Red A” which produced many plastic commodity products.

In 1994, CMA celebrated the 60th anniversary and performed the “Local Industrial Exhibition” (工展會) in Hong Kong annually. After Quality Evolution in many years, “Made in Hong Kong” means “Quality”, “Integrity” and “Safety” (especially compared with “Made in China”).

Hong Kong changed from Industry sector to Service sector; many different government departments promote different items in Hong Kong as follows:
1) Invested in Hong Kong – InvestHK established in July 2000. InvestHK’s vision is to strengthen Hong Kong’s status as the leading international business location in Asia.

2) Created in Hong Kong – Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) as an office dedicated to promoting the development of creative industries in Hong Kong was set up under the Communications and Technology Branch of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau in June 2009. CreateHK’s vision is to build Hong Kong into a regional creative capital.

 

3) Tested in Hong Kong, Certified in Hong Kong – Hong Kong Council for Testing and Certification (HKCTC) was established in September 2009 and then the council submitted a report to government with recommendations to promote further development of the industry on 31 March 2010. In this report, the slogan “Tested in Hong Kong, Certified in Hong Kong” was employed.

4) Startup at Hong Kong – iStartup@HK is a comprehensive one-stop portal with mobile apps for tech startups, is an initiative of the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) since 2014. iStartup@HK is positioned as a virtual pitching and networking platform for tech startups where they can showcase their products and company profile, bridging the gap between startups and potential investors.

5) Innovated in Hong Kong – I added this at the last one. Because Hong Kong government is going to establish Innovation and Technology Bureau in 2015. I hope the Bureau could consolidate resource from all innovation and technology related government departments, universities, R&D centres and Industries together to enhance the new economic environment; so as to follow China Mega Plan on “One Belt One Road” and “Made in China 2025”, as well as, facing to the era of Industry 4.0.

(Remark: HKSQ had prepared a suggestion report to the Innovation and Technology Industry. It will publish in HKSQ website soon.)

Reference:
Manufacturing in Hong Kong - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_Hong_Kong
“Red A” – Star Industrial Co., Ltd. - http://www.reda.com.hk/AboutUs.aspx
InvestHK - http://www.investhk.gov.hk/index.html
CreateHK - http://www.createhk.gov.hk/en/home.htm
Briefing Forum on Report of HKCTC - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2010/05/briefing-forum-on-report-of-hkctc.html
iStartup@HK - https://istartup.gov.hk/index.php
HKSQ’s Quality Publication - http://www.hksq.org/qua_pub.htm

ASQ InfVoices – Creating a Performance Culture

Mr. James Lawther (ASQ Influential Voice) was invited to post article as the Aug Topic of ASQ Influential Voice named "Creating a Performance Culture: What Not To Do". I agreed his point of view and quoted that “Cuture Eats strategy for breakfast” from Peter Drucker and “Drive out fear” by W. Edwards Deming. At the end, Mr. James Lawther would like us to discuss “What are you “dos” and “don’ts” of creating a performance culture?”
(Photo: Almost all HKSQ exco members attended the annual strategy meeting on last Saturday, indicating our commitment and performance culture.)

The first idea come into my mind of poor performance which caused by “Psychological Inertia”. People don’t like “Change”! I wrote an article before named “ASQ InfVoices - Law of Organizational Motion” which using Newton's laws described the organization behavior as follows:

- Newton's First Law: When an organization is steady or be moving to one direction, it is very different to change their state or direction again. It is similar to the Inertia of a body. The bigger the organization is (Mass↑), the more difficult it changes (Inertia↑).

- Newton's Second Law: When you would like to change organizational practice or direction, you need a force internally or externally. Internal force is come from top management and external force is come from market/stakeholder/interested parties. If we would like to accelerate that change, we need to increase the force.

- Newton's Third Law: Sometime too much force to change organization practice will cause bad results such as strike.

The second idea is to understand organization AS-IS culture first. In 2013, Mr. Kitson Leonard Lee who is Honorary Secretary of Singapore Quality Institute (SQI) gave a talk to HKSQ members and the topic entitled “Building a Culture of Service Excellence”. The Cultural Values Assessment (CVA) was the culture assessment tool which was developed from Maslow's Needs to Barrett's Consciousness.

The 7 Levels of Organizational Consciousness was identified and Mr. Kitson Leonard Lee said that culture of organization was a reflection of the values and beliefs of the current leaders. So cultural transformation began from personal transformation.

Recently, my division performed “Team Synergy and Creative Problem Solving Workshop”. The trainer employed DiSC Personality Profile to let us know our colleagues’ characteristic. The trainer separated us into four groups based on our character we think. Firstly, he asked us to separate into two groups between Active (A) and Passive (P). After that each group separated again into Task-oriented (T) or People-oriented (P). Then the four group would be AT – Dominant (D), AP – Influencing (I), PT – Compliant (C), and PP – Steady (S). Their characteristics were summarized in the following table.

Therefore, I believe to establish Performance Culture. The first step is to understand yourself and your colleagues (meaning AS-IS organization culture). The second step is using the Culture Transform Tools (CTT) to enhance the Performance (meaning TO-BE organization culture). The last step is using CVA to assess again for improvement. It is a PDCA cycle for culture development.

Reference:
20131203: ASQ InfVoices - Law of Organizational Motion - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2013/12/asq-infvoices-law-of-organizational.html
20131224: HKSQ Seminar on Building a Culture of Service Excellence - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2013/12/hksq-seminar-on-building-culture-of.html
20150714: Team Synergy and Creative Problem Solving Workshop - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2015/07/team-synergy-and-creative-problem.html

ASQ InfVoices – Knowledge Transfer Through Technology “Social Media”

The July Topic of ASQ Influential Voice was a guest post by Manu Vora (Chairman and President of Business Excellence, Inc USA) and topic named "The Gift of Knowledge Transfer Through Technology". Mr. Manu Vora recommended using simple technology such as “Google Hangout on Air” and concluded that knowledge can be transferred globally leveraging technology in the 21st century. Finally, he raised the following question for discussion.
i) What kind of resources are you using in your organization or your personal life to share information?
ii) Do you experiment with new platforms or do you prefer traditional means of transferring knowledge?
For HKSQ, we established LinkedIn Group in 2009, Facebook Group & Twitter Group in 2010. But the twitter is not so popular in Hong Kong.

 

My personal life used “Blog” to share quality related activities such as seminar, visit, study mission and conference through HKSQ LinkedIn & Facebook platform. I had written an ASQ Influential Voice article on 24 July 2013 named “My Journey of Social Media” and the distribution strategies mentioned as follows:
i) Links in HKSQ website and ASQ Influential Voice website
ii) News posted into the blog and distributed to members / quality professionals through my own email list (about two thousands email)
iii) Blog article posted in Social Media such as HKSQ Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn discussion groups.

I prefer to share knowledge using both new and traditional platform. Seminar should be held physically because we have chance to discuss face to face but distributing the seminar content, promotion and review articles would be used social media because of their penetration power.

Reference:
ASQ Influential Voice articles are related to this topic below.
20130401: ASQ InfVoices - Quality Solutions in Unexpected Places
20130526: ASQ InfVoices - Quality Trends in Uncommon Places
20130724: ASQ InfVoices - My Journey of Social Media

ASQ InfVoices – Quality Life and Succession

The topic in June 2015 of ASQ Influential Voices was written by Sunil Kaushik who shared his travel experience using lean & 5S. His article named “How Lean Helped Me Travel To Egypt With Just $500”. Mr. Sunil Kaushik demonstrated how employed Quality Principle in our life and he got effective and efficiency results. However, I observed many gurus were able to apply quality principle they believed in their life and then influent to their family, friends and others. Therefore, I would like to discuss quality life of quality professionals and their succession.

The first one I would like to discuss was Prof. Liu Yuanzhang (1925-2014) who is the father of Quality Management in China. HKSQ met Prof. Liu during ANQ Congress 2011 in Vietnam.

Recently, I received his daughter (Ms. Liu Ming, (Mindy Fukushi)) email and she sent me an essay on her father for memory. She had influenced by Prof. Liu and became Quality Professional too. I would like to summarize some points of the article to show how Prof. Liu influent Ms. Liu Ming:
i) Don’t complaint the fact (e.g. old factory problem)! You need to accept the fact objectively and face it.
ii) Good Quality Professionals should have high standard on themselves.
iii) When Ms. Liu Ming was 12 years old, Prof. Liu handmade a very delicate small balance. At the time, Ms. Liu Ming understood how to appreciate the taste or standard of things.
iv) When she was a child, Prof. Liu blamed her about the mistake on “cm” and “m” seriously.
v) Prof. Liu had told her that people needed to observe others need (Customer Requirements / Needs) and also focused on effective.
vi) Prof. Liu’s enthusiasm and passion on TQM burn into his daughter’s mind.

The second one was Mr. Bill Hunter (One of authors on the book named “Statistics for Experimenters - Second Edition”) (1937-1986) and worked with Deming before. Bill Hunter was a consultant, educator for practitioners, communicator, and integrator of statistical thinking into other disciplines. Now, his son Mr. John Hunter become Quality Professional and one of 12 people worldwide selected by the W. Edwards Deming Institute to reconfigure Dr. Deming’s famous “Four Day Seminar” into the 2.5 day seminar “Out of the Crisis”. After read John’s blog, I observed that he visited many factories with his father when he was a child.
(Photo: We met on 15 Jun 2014 when John taught a course for HKQAA in Hong Kong.)

The third succession case was Mr. Gregory Watson (Past President of International Academy for Quality (IAQ)) and his son Mr. Andrew Watson. Mr. Gregory Watson is a leading global voice on quality and his son is an artist and educator. They wrote an article named “The Future of Customer Experience (CEx): CEx Becomes the Dominant Design Force Influencing Markets” in the ASQ 2015 Future of Quality Report.

(Photo: We met in ASQ WCQI Chairman Session in 2011)
 

Mr. Andrew Watson was one of keynote speakers in ANQ Congress 2015 and his topic named “The Role of Artistic Thinking as an Innovation Stimulus to Increase Quality” (http://www.anq2015.org/?product_13.html).

Therefore, I could draw a conclusion that most quality gurus practice quality principle in themselves and their quality behavior would affect people around them including family members, friends, co-workers, partners, and others. 

Reference:
A View from the Q - http://asq.org/blog/
20140406: Remember Academician Liu Yuanzhang (劉源張) - Father of Quality Management in China - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/04/remember-academician-liu-yuanzhang.html
20140615: HKSQ Dinner with John Hunter (Deming Institute) - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/06/hksq-dinner-with-john-hunter.html
20110518: ASQ World Conference - World Partner Workshop - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2011/05/asq-world-conference-world-partner.html
John Hunter (2015) “The Aim Should be the Best Life – Not Work v. Life Balance” and (2013) “George Box”

ASQ InfVoices – Future of Quality 2015

The topic in May 2015 of ASQ Influential Voices was “What’s the Future of Quality?” ASQ CEO Bill Troy told us a “bit of a departure” from past editions of the ASQ Futures Study report. The first ASQ Futures Study was conducted in 1996. Subsequently, ASQ’s Board of Directors decided to repeat the study every three years. So it repeated in 1999, 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2011. Previous studies aimed to identify key forces that will shape the future of quality. However, the new report entitled “Quality Throughout” in which contained solid 88-page report and is a compilation of essays from experts in their fields, from around the globe.

The ASQ Future of Quality Summary of Key Forces from 1996 to 2011 was showed in the following table. (Those discussion in conferences and seminar were recorded in reference)

The new ASQ 2015 Future of Quality Report contained ten dimensions for discussion and they were:
- The Future of Leadership
- The Future of the Internet
- The Future of Global Aerospace
- The Future of Manufacturing
- The Future of Cities
- The Future of Healthcare
- The Future of Education
- The Future of Energy
- The Future of Customer Experience (CEx)
- The Future of Quality

My point of the Future Quality should be matching the Five Technology Megatrends included “The Cloud as Supercomputing”, “Material Shifts”, “Robot Renaissance”, “Manipulating Biology” and “Decrypting the Brain”. (By Allen Yeung at HKETA Symposium on Innovation & Technology 2014)

Employing technology based on the megatrends with Quality, I believed that could solve the problem come from population shift (older), environmental pollution, over-production, etc.

Reference:
A View from the Q - http://asq.org/blog/
20110518: ASQ World Conference - World Partner Workshop - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2011/05/asq-world-conference-world-partner.html
20110518: ASQ World Conference - Forces of Change - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2011/05/asq-world-conference-forces-of-change.html
20111121: Seminar on Future of Quality Study 2011 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2011/11/seminar-on-future-of-quality-study-2011.html
20081010: The ASQ's Future of Quality Study 2008 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2008/10/asqs-future-of-quality-study-2008.html
20140830: HKETA Symposium on Innovation & Technology 2014 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/08/hketa-symposium-on-innovation.html

ASQ InfVoices – The Pros and Cons of Conferences

The topic in April 2015 of ASQ Influence Voices was “The Pros and Cons of Conferences”. This article is a guest post by Julia McIntosh of ASQ communications and the content included local events, electronic meetings, meeting a wide variety of people, social functions and networking. I remember Paul Borawski (previous CEO, ASQ) asked a question “What are your tips and advice for making the most of the events you attend?” My tips are taking photos with gurus for memory that belongs to Networking. The diagram showed below which were most of conferences I attended in the past.

I would like to summarize my ideas on the Pros and Cons of Conferences below.
Pros:
i) Catch the most updated trend in both industry and academic of Quality
ii) Networking with different country and culture professionals
iii) Present your finding and observations in your specific field
iv) Build up your own brand and status in your field
v) Open you mind to others
Cons:
i) Time consumption (usually used your own annual leave)
ii) Costly (Some conferences are very expensive, especially oversea conference included travel and hotel)

Anyway, I will join international conference at least annually to update myself. The summary of different conference I had attended was showed below.
International (Oversea):
i) Asia Network for Quality (ANQ) Congress (every year since 2003)
ii) ASQ World Conference on Quality and Improvement (WCQI) (60th and 65th anniversary)
iii) The International Conference on Quality (ICQ) 2014 in Tokyo, Japan
iv) The World Business Capability Congress was co-organized by Centre for Organisational Excellence Research (COER), New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation (NZBEF) and New Zealand Organization for Quality (NZOQ) in 2012
v) The 5th International Quality Manager Forum “TQM Uz-2012” was organized by IAQMA in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. (As Keynote Speaker)
vi) The 11th International Project – International Quality Manager Forum “TQM KAZ-2011” was organized by IAQMA in Almaty, Kazakhstan (As Keynote Speaker)
Regional (Local):
i) Testing and Certification Conference 2014 OUHK
ii) The Spring Research Conference on Systems Engineering and Management Science (SRC-SEMS)

iii) The International Symposium on Innovation Excellence and Practices (ISIEP 2013)

Reference:
A View from the Q - http://asq.org/blog/
20140409: ASQ InfVoices – Conference Tips - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/04/asq-infvoices-conference-tips.html

ASQ InfVoices - Encourage the Next Generation of STEM Professionals

The topic in March 2015 initiated by Mr. Bill Troy for ASQ Influence Voices named “Encourage the Next Generation of STEM Professionals”. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. It seems to continue the question from Paul Borawski asked to encourage the younger generation to study STEM in 2012. Making STEM Funny! It could be the key. (See heroes’ periodic table below)

The most students who study STEM would like to be STEM Professionals. It could be considered what degree student selected in the university. I would like to share Hong Kong higher education distribution for understand our situation. STEM students in university are about 36%.

This distribution is quite good in Hong Kong Education. Recently, different activities to promote STEM such as Hong Kong Student Science Project Competition 2014 for secondary schools and Stem Cell Knowledge Exchange Exhibition 2013 also for secondary schools and arranged by university. However, the future development of university graduate depends on Hong Kong economic structure. The following is the distribution of GDP in different economic activities. 93% is belongs to Service but STEM involved very little potion.

In order to enhance new technology economic, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park promoted different field “Innovation Heroes” who’s work as reference for young generation to purchase their dream.

Therefore, Education and Jobs are critical factors to encourage the Next Generation of STEM Professionals.

Reference:
A View from the Q - http://asq.org/blog/
20120208: ASQ InfVoices - Encourage younger generation to study Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/02/asq-infvoices-encourage-younger.html
Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics 2014 - http://www.statistics.gov.hk/pub/B10100032014AN14B0100.pdf
20130504: Stem Cell Knowledge Exchange Exhibition 2013 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2013/05/stem-cell-knowledge-exchange-exhibition.html
20140510: Hong Kong Student Science Project Competition 2014 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/05/hong-kong-student-science-project.html
HKSTP Innovation Heroes - http://heroes.hkstp.org/en/index.php

Great Q, Big Q and Little q

I would like to further discuss the concept on “Global Quality / Great Quality” from my previous ASQ Influential Voice article. Big Q and Little q is a term coined by Dr Juran in 1980s. Big Q is about a broad, strategic and complex perspective and Little q is about a micro aspect an operational issue such as quality control.

For product, Little q would be manufactured goods, while Big Q would encompass all products, goods and services, whether for sale or not.
For processes, Little q focuses on those processes directly related to the manufacture of goods, while Big Q covers all processes.
Therefore, Little q could be considered as Quality Control for the product & direct process (Traditional concept). Big Q could be considered as Quality Management in the whole organization (Broader concept).

In 1980s, Big Data and Globalization issues had not been happened. So Total Quality Management (TQM) and Company-wide Quality Control (CWQC) were familiar for manufacturing industry and employed Big Q at that time. Therefore, I proposed Great Q (Great Quality = Global Quality) to adopt the 21st century Quality World. Great Quality is not only for product or company-wide management but also included Globalization (world supply chain management), Big Data analysis for user experience and Innovation for new product and service. This evolution is similar to Six Sigma. Generation I of Six Sigma (SS 1.0) was for defect reduction. Generation II of Six Sigma (SS 2.0) emphasized process efficiency. Now, Generation III of Six Sigma (SS 3.0) is used for developing new products and services that reach new and broader markets; that is, for Innovation!

It is obvious that breakthrough innovation can trump quality improvement. Thus, quality engineering needs to be expanded and much of it repositioned as innovation engineering. In order to adopt the change, Great Quality should be covered Big Q and Little q, as well as, new elements included Globalization, Big Data and Innovation.

Reference:
It’s All About “Big Q” - http://www.juran.com/blog/its-all-about-big-q/
ASQ InfVoices – Global Quality, Great Quality - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2015/02/asq-infvoices-global-quality-great.html
George E.P. Box & William H. Woodall (2011) “Innovation, Quality Engineering, and Statistics” Quality Engineering, 24:1, 20-29.

ASQ InfVoices – Global Quality, Great Quality

The topic of ASQ Influence Voices in February 2015 was “Why Should Quality “Go Global”?” Mr. Bill Troy (CEO, ASQ) asked questions that ASQ’s mission statement talks about increasing the use and impact of quality in response to the diverse needs of the world? Are we doing enough, throughout the world, to accomplish that mission?

Globalization has identified as one of key forces in ASQ Future of Quality studies and then it ranked top three key forces in 2005 (No. 1), 2008 (No. 1) and 2011 (No. 3), respectively. In 2013, I proposed “Asiaization (亞洲化)” would be one of key forces based on different Asia countries GDP analysis. Globalization is a big set, Asiaization is a sub-set and Localization is an element. Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) has been recognized as a WorldPartner of the ASQ since 2002 and HKSQ is also a founding member of Asian Network for Quality (ANQ) which established in 2002. HKSQ has through ASQ and ANQ platform to connect the world quality professional for sharing quality knowledge and experience.

The following diagram demonstrated HKSQ strategy that “Serve Locally, Think Globally”. Per Bill’s comment that “We know we must attract more young professionals to quality, and to an ever-increasing degree, demographics tell us those young professionals will come from outside the U.S.” I agreed to attract more young quality professionals from outside. However, we need to Serve Locally first based on our limited resource and Think Globally afterwards such as invited global experts/professionals for exchanging quality new technology and knowledge.

Finally, I would like to conclude that Quality is common language in the world. Quality itself is Global and let’ call it “Global Quality (GQ)”. GQ also means Great Q > Big Q > Little Q!

Reference:
A View from the Q - http://asq.org/blog/
20130929: Asiaization is the Future of Quality - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2013/09/asiaization-is-future-of-quality.html

ASQ InfVoices – Quality Inspiration from My First Research Supervisor

The first topic of ASQ Influence Voices in 2015 was “Finding Inspiration from Quality Leader”. Mr. Bill Troy showed us what he learnt from Mr. Paul O’Neill (former US Secretary of the Treasury) who was a quality throught leader and awarded Juran Medalist in 2013. Then he questioned us “Have you met someone whose teachings on quality influenced you or inspired you? What were these lessons?” and he would like to encourage us to think someone outside the quality field.

The topic let me thinking about my first research supervisor Dr. Ronald Sequeira in the Department of Biology and Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong. My research topic named “Detailed investigations on the inorganic chemical constituents of atmospheric aerosol and various deposition in Hong Kong” which related to air pollution from 1994 to 1997.

(Photo taken in 1997 when I graduated in MPhil)

I would like to share some stories during our dialogue.

1. We always discussed research problems in Chinese Garden and my supervisor was smoking at that time. I asked him a funny joking question “Do you produce more air pollution when you are smoking?” He taught me a scientific word “Scavenging Effect” which could dilute the smoke and particles he produced. (Scientific)

2. There are many mosquitoes in Chinese Garden that I afraid to be bitten. But my supervisor was very calm and still smoking. Mosquitoes did not like smoking smell. I observed one mosquito would like to bit my supervisor, once it closed to his arm and then it was found to be sticking by his hair. The mosquito struggled out of his arm hair and then escaped! (Calm)

3. One day my supervisor asked me what career you would like to do. I replied to be “Consultant”. He then told me to be a good Consultant that you should have at least 10 years experience in any field. (Experience)

4. Dr. Ronald Sequeira always told me that the quality of published paper is more important than quantity of published paper. One of his proud paper named “Monsoonal deposition of sea salt and air pollutants over Bombay (1976)”. (Quality)

In the first dialogue, I learnt that you need to explain phenomena in scientific way that match one of quality principle “Evidence-Based Decision Making”. The second observation is “Calm” that sometime avoids unnecessary fear! The third dialogue my supervisor tell me the TRUTH that Consultant should be experience. In Hong Kong, many consultants (or assistant consultants) are fresh graduate without practical experience! The last dialogue is “Quality is more important than Quantity”. However, University rating for Professor has changed from Quality to Quantity in the past but now they need both Quality and Quantity of publication.

I would like to share some photos showing my research setup in 1995 below.

Reference:
A View from the Q - http://asq.org/blog/
20101030: Lunch with Dr. Ronald Sequeira - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2010/10/lunch-with-dr-ronald-sequeira.html
20140509: Dinner with Dr. Ronald Sequeira and Dr. Cathy Lee - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/05/dinner-with-dr-ronald-sequeira-and-dr.html

ASQ InfVoices – Quality Ambitious in HKSQ and ANQ

The last topic of ASQ Influence Voices in 2014 was raised by Mr. Bill Troy question “Is Quality Ambitious Enough?”. He also advised us to keep the following two questions in mind:
- How do we encourage those who work in quality to understand their own value?
- How do we spread the message of quality in a marketplace overflowing with ideas about how to boost profitability and ever-changing management trends?
Then he mentioned ASQ’s mission “To increase the use and impact of quality in response to the diverse needs of the world.” and expressed his idea of ASQ mission to be more ambitious such as “To improve the function and value of goods and services worldwide, and to facilitate the development of new products and services that improve the quality of life.”

That let me thinking about HKSQ mission that “To promote greater awareness of the need for quality in Hong Kong for ensuring product and service excellence through continuous improvement of quality and customer satisfaction, and to provide continuing education to professionals involved in the quality and reliability disciplines.” Since all HKSQ executive committee members are voluntary and we haven’t full time staff, HKSQ can only run under extreme lean approach to provide our service. However, I can say we are the most active quality society in Hong Kong. Eventhough we have only limited resource included human resource and money, we could provide many activities included seminars, visits, workshops at least once per month, 3 times of newsletter per year and AGM gathering, as well as, Student Project Competition. Our new leaflet graphic showed that HKSQ as a key to open different quality aspects from Hong Kong to China, Asia and the World. It seems to enhance our Ambitious and our new slogan is “Quality and Innovation Today, Success Tomorrow”. Comparison on the resource between HKSQ and ASQ, I think HKSQ is enough ambitious at this moment.

However, I appreciated another ambitious organization named Asian Network for Quality (ANQ) which is consisting of all non-profit organizations in Asia that seek to improve quality of human life by contributing to the progress of science and technology; and to the development of industry through promotional activities for the research and development of philosophy, theory, methodology and application in the field of quality and quality management.

The following diagram showed the ANQ Way.
ANQ Way: Various regions of Asia form Asian Network for Quality with the Goal of contributing to creativity, integration, prosperity and quality of human life in Asia through the Strategy based on constancy of purpose, knowledge creation, voluntary spirit and system approach to improvement; living the Asian Way of harmony in diversity, mutual respect and austerity; following Core Values based on honesty, flexibility and self-control.

Reference:
A View from the Q - http://asq.org/blog/
HKSQ - http://www.hksq.org/
ANQ Way - http://www.anforq.org/ANQWAY.asp

ASQ InfVoices – Quality Professional and Leadership

The November topic of ASQ Influence Voices was come from Mr. Bill Troy idea about “Every quality professional, a leader”. He would like to know do you are quality leader and what kind of leadership training did you receive and was it enough? For Quality Leader, my answer is “yes” and “no”. In quality society, I am a quality leader to service Hong Kong Society for Quality for over 17 years; but in my own company, my post is a quality manager. That post has a certain distance to connect with the C-suite. Talking about Leader, Steve Jobs is one of real leaders in the world.

Before discuss with Steve Jobs, I had reviewed almost all ASQ certificate BOK in 2007 and summarized in the following table. Unbelievable! The body of knowledge (BOK) in leadership training was only found in CMQOE and CQE, in which content are about 17% and 9%, respectively. So little portion of leadership content was included in our official certification training!

On the other hand, leadership is not only trained but also depends on people’s personality. One of ways to realize your leadership is suggested to service in quality society voluntarily. You will have a chance to lead a sub-committee and deploy your planning, as well as, verify your leadership skill.

Lastly, I would like to connect leadership and quality through Steve Jobs wisdom statements classified on leadership.
i) My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better. (Ref. p.54)
ii) My number one job here at Apple is to make sure that the top 100 people are A+ players. And everything else will take care of itself. <Times>, 1999
iii) My model for business is the Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business: one person never does great things in business; they’re done by a team of people. <60 Minutes>, 2003
iv) The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay. <Macworld>, 2004

It could be summarized that Leadership need a team work (Soft skill / Communication), to motivate people to be better and the best (Coaching skill), to create a space and remove obstacle for your team to do their best (Management skill). I would like to conclude the relationship between Leadership and Quality in the simple way below:
Quality is to make things better.
Leadership is to make people better.
Therefore, Leadership is Quality on People.

Reference:
A View from the Q - http://asq.org/blog/
Alan Ken Thomas (2011) “The Business Wisdom of Steve Jobs” Wealth Press.

ASQ InfVoices – Quality Society Membership and Volunteer

Mr. Bill Troy raised the October topic of ASQ Influence Voices entitled “Recruiting Members and Volunteers Amid a Changing Landscape”. He found that “the pool of traditional members is diminishing quickly as demographics continue to shift” through the report from the Center for Association Leadership. He would like Influential Voices bloggers to discuss how do we encourage people to join or volunteer? As well as, how do local trends impact your association?

This topic reminded me that I had read the article named “A Call to Revitalize the Quality Professional” written by Scott D. Dalgleish in 2002. Dalgleish claimed the quality professionals had lost much of their effective; so that the consequence is the membership in ASQ had been steady decline for several year (form 1998 to 2001). Therefore, I would like to discuss the membership trend of Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) and compared with the trend of ASQ. The following diagram showed HKSQ membership variation from 1992 to 2014. About ten years ago, Dr. Aaron Tong (Former Chairman, HKSQ) had told me that Hong Kong’s quality management had behind America’s one up to five years. Decline of membership was also observed in HKSQ from 2002 to 2004.

In 2006, I was nominated to be Vice Chairman of HKSQ. HKSQ introduced two certification schemes that one was Six Sigma Green Belt (SSGB) by Karson Chui (Former Chairman, HKSQ) and the other was Laboratory Quality Specialist (CLabQS) by me that continuous improvement of the membership number. After that I introduced social media through LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for discussion quality issues since 2009; as well as, sharing all HKSQ and quality related activities through my blog. The critical event was Asia Network for Quality (ANQ) Congress which was held in Hong Kong in 2012 when I was Chairman. After that our member increased again.

Recently, we invited potential young quality professionals to join HKSQ executive committee as co-opt members so as to arrange new type of activities such as Quality Life Series included Dialogue-in-the-Dark Experience, Oyster Shucking and Wine Pairing Workshop, and The historical visit to Sheung Wan Hong Kong Island for the past 100 years. Networking with international quality professionals were continuously and provided high value added free seminar time to time.

My opinion on keeping membership and volunteers that HKSQ events should be both Professionalism and Fun! In order to attract new volunteers, we formed two sub-committees named “Innovation” and “Testing & Certification” in this year.

Reference:
A View from the Q - http://asq.org/blog/
Dalgleish Scott D. (2002) “A Call to Revitalize the Quality Professional” ASQ – Annual Quality Congress, Denver, CO, Vol. 56, No.0 May 2002, pp581-593.
(Dalgleish said it is no woder that the ASQ membership has been o a steady decline after a major increase in membership during the height of the TQM movement. See the following diagram)

ASQ InfVoices – Quality Strategy Approach

Mr. Bill Troy shared his five key questions about strategy as August topic of ASQ Influence Voices entitled “Charting A Strategy For Quality – And Beyond”. He would like us to share our strategy in organization, business, professional association or even in our personal life. The photo of Troy’s article was a man in front of Maze and it seems to find the road to the other side. I used a photo which a leader with his people on the top of Transmutation Circle (練成陣) to go to another space.

I would like to use Motorola’s 6 Step to Six Sigma in 1987 (Not GE’s DMAIC) to discuss our Quality Strategy in Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) when I was chairman in 2010 below.

Step 1: Understand your product and service.
HKSQ is a quality professional association and our products / services included Training Courses, Seminars, Symposiums / Conferences, Technology Visits, Study Missions and Student Project Competition. Through our service, we promoted quality awareness to community in Hong Kong.

Step 2: Identify who is your customer.
Our customers were identified as quality professionals, university students in related subjects, any person interested in the topic of quality and companies with quality commitment.

Step 3: Understand your necessary things to achieve your work.
That means necessary resource in HKSQ to provide such products / services including Human Resource, Materials, Venues, etc. HKSQ is a “Lean Society”. We haven’t full time staff and have only voluntary exco members. Our venues usually use University and rental cost is under non-profit organization rate and sometimes is waived for co-organized events. We haven’t office address and all are virtual things (website) but use a mail box service from Post Office. Even though the resource is limited, we still receive a very low membership fee (Only HK$250 per year).

Step 4: Understand how to do it right. Committee members are response to their own profession activities such as Seminar, Training and Visit activities. We all follow HKSQ Administrative Handbook to make sure to do those activities right.

Step 5: Think how to do it better. Before provision of services, we would think how to do it better than the previous time including timing, schedule, venue and transportation. After that this activity (e.g. technology visit or student project competition) arrangement will be our standard operation procedure.

Step 6: Think how to evaluate how well your work done.
After each activity, we would send questionnaire to collect participants’ feedback. Then we analyze it for continuous improvement.

In every year, we will hold HKSQ strategy meeting to identify the theme and related activities to be launched in the coming year. When I was chairman in 2010, I led the theme on “Testing and Certification Era” and many activities were related or co-operated to this direction (See reference). In this year, our theme is “Quality and Innovation Today, Success Tomorrow”.

Reference:
A View from the Q - http://asq.org/blog/
HKCTC Report Summary (Testing & Certification) -http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2010/04/hkctc-report-summary-testing.html
HKSQ’s suggestions to the testing and certification industry posted at http://www.hksq.org/HKSQ_Suggestion_to_HKCTC_20100112.pdf

ASQ InfVoices – Quality Evolution and Revolution (QUALITRIX)

Mr. Bill Troy posted the August topic of ASQ Influence Voices entitled “The Future of Quality: Evolutionary or Revolutionary?” I would like to explain the future of quality using the famous film “MATRIX”. Quality is in everywhere which like MATRIX. So I combined “Quality” and “MATRIX” to “QUALITRIX”.

Morpheus asked Neo for selection. He said “This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”  In here, blue pill is "Unchange" and the story of your company ends. Red pill is "Quality" and it is no turning back!

Being the Quality way, company will modify their product or service continuous. One of famous quality tools is Kaizen. The company will go through the Quality Evolution but it will be moving slowly and will be stopped based on the First Law of Organizational Motion (An object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an Unbalanced Force (Friction)). (See reference)

Therefore, we needed “QUALITRIX RELOAD” for a period of time. It reminds us to review the theories from different quality gurus such as Deming, Crosby and Juran, as well as, different quality tools included six sigma, lean, SPC, etc.

The company usually involved both quality techniques and practices in their development journey and their product or service performance appeared S-curve. (Refer to Sustaining Excellence through Quality and Innovation)  Until the product/service stay in mature stage, we need some breakthrough to go to the next S-curve. That’s why we need innovation. One of famous tools named TRIZ (Theory of Solving Problems Inventively). Quality plus TRIZ that I also called it “QUALITRIX REVOLUTIONS”.

I would like to summarize my ideas in this topic as below.
i) Evolutionary change is continuous improvement. It could be employed Kaizen and Business process re-engineering (BPR)
ii) Revolutionary change is innovation breakthrough. It could be employed TRIZ or other new tools.

iii) Evolutionary change and Revolutionary change exist simultaneously. It is depended on which stage of company’s product/service in S-curve*.

Reference:
A View from the Q - http://asq.org/blog/
ASQ InfVoices - Law of Organizational Motion - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2013/12/asq-infvoices-law-of-organizational.html
ASQ InfVoices – Sustaining Excellence through Quality and Innovation - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2013/09/asq-infvoices-sustaining-excellence.html

*Remark: The early author stated technology innovation through S-curve was found as follows:
Abernathy, William J. and James M. Utterback (1978) “Patterns of Innovation in Industry,”  Technology Review, 80(7), June-July, 40-47.
James M. Utterback (1996) Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation (http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Dynamics-Innovation-James-Utterback/dp/0875847404)

ASQ InfVoices – Clear Vision

The July topic of ASQ Influence Voices is “Do You Have a Clear Vision?” At the end of this article, Bill Troy (CEO of ASQ) questioned about Vision that “Do we have the right focus and does everyone know it?” “How about your organization?” “Do you have a clear vision—and is it giving you the focus you need to succeed?”

I agreed with Bill Troy and believed that Vision is the soul of company. From strategic point of view, vision is the over-riding principle that guides the organization and is the image of the future it seeks to be or to create. The value of vision is giving organization a direction. Mission is the purpose, reason of the organization for being in existence. I would like to introduce the vision, mission and value of two technology leading corporations in Hong Kong below.

(Photo: I am working in Clear Room.)

The first corporation I would like to state is “Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC)”. HKSTPC is a statutory body set up by the HKSAR Government in 2001. We enable science and technology companies to nurture ideas, innovate and grow, supported by our R&D facilities, infrastructure, and services and programmes across five key technology clusters. Their vision, mission and five cole values are shown as follows:

Vision
Transforming innovation and technological advancement into value creation that benefits Hong Kong, Mainland – and the world

Mission
In propelling Hong Kong towards a world-class hub for selected technologies, we provide facilities, services and a dynamic environment that enable companies to nurture ideas, innovate and develop.

Core Values
- Integrity
- Excellence
- Safety
- Sustainability
- Commitment

I had mentioned above in previous article at “ASQ InfVoices - The Quality Culture in Hong Kong”.

The second corporation is the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) which was founded by the Government of Hong Kong SAR in 2000 with a Mission of enhancing Hong Kong's competitiveness in technology-based industries through applied research.
Their goals and values are shown as follows.

Goals are:
- performing relevant and high quality R&D for transfer to industry
- enhancing Hong Kong's technological human resources development
- acting as a magnet to attract international R&D talent to work in Hong Kong
- acting as spawning ground for technology entrepreneurs
- promoting greater application of technology in industry
- providing a focal point for industry-university collaboration in R&D.

Values
- Innovation
- Respect
- Tenacity
- Service
- Accountability

Before the end of this article, I would like to share Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) mission below.

Hong Kong Society for Quality is a not-for-profit organization established to promote greater awareness of the need for quality in Hong Kong to ensure product and service excellence through continuous improvement of quality and customer satisfaction, and to provide continuing education to professionals involved in quality and reliability.

Reference:
A View from the Q - http://asq.org/blog/
HKSTPC - http://www.hkstp.org/
ASTRI - http://www.astri.org/
HKSQ - http://www.hksq.org/

ASQ InfVoices – The Professional Society’s Organization Excellence Journey

The topic of ASQ Influential Voices in June was initiated by Bill Troy (CEO of ASQ) and named “The Organization Excellence Journey – and ASQ”. Let’s welcome to ASQ’s new CEO – Bill Troy and congratulate ASQ awarded the Excellence level of achievement for the 2014 Wisconsin Forward Award (which is the state-level equivalent of the Malcom Baldrge National Quality Award in the U.S.). Since many quality awards in Hong Kong are reference to Malcom Baldrge National Quality Award, I would like to introduce Hong Kong Awards for Industry (HKIA) - Productivity and Quality and review the activities of Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) based on this award.

Hong Kong Awards for Industry (HKIA) (formerly named Governor’s Award for Industry) was initiated in 1989 by the Hong Kong Government. It was organized by a committee that was chaired by the Director-General of Trade and Industry with membership drawn from trade and industrial organizations and industrial support bodies in Hong Kong. It is the first award scheme in Hong Kong. Two of the most important awards in the scheme were the productivity category and the quality category which were merged since 2005. The award is based on Malcom Baldrge National Quality Award but modified the rating on criteria so as to fit the local situation.

The Domains/Items of each criterion are shown as following table and total score is 1000.

I try to review HKSQ management based on these criteria below.

1. Leadership & Strategic Planning
HKSQ has strategic meeting after AGM per year. It aims to set the direction and activities on the coming years. We have HKSQ exco meeting to monitor the activities deployment monthly.

2. Customer and Market Focus
We will select the most modern concern theory/practice on quality management into our strategic plan to provide seminars, workshops, and visits to our members. Each time, we will collect participants’ feedback through on-site survey for further activities arrangement.

3. Innovation & Creativity
HKSQ is planning to form sub-committee for Innovation in order to promote the transformation from Quality to Innovation.

4. Excellence Management & Improvement System
HKSQ has administration handbook to manage our routine activities such as budget for visit, promotion, etc. In AGM, performance review will be showed in the Chairman Report. For Knowledge Management, we will collect and post our guest speakers’ presentation into HKSQ website for sharing.

5. Resources Management
HR management is based on our HKSQ executive committee members; co-opt members and oversea representatives system. All above members are HKSQ voluntary staff. Facilities & Assets are virtually such as website, domain, email, mail box, … etc. Our strategic partners are HKSQ Corporate members (by invitation only).

6. Business Results
HKSQ has very good customer value results based on activities survey feedback. Moreover, our finance performance is very healthful and we keep the low membership fee (only HK$150 per year) and maintained more than 300 individual members. Actually, we have positive financial result because of our lean organization approach (i.e. no fix premises and no full time staff). Our activities are focus on contributing to society such as annual student project competition, World Quality Month activities, Chinese Quality Forum and Asia Network for Quality (ANQ) Congress.

7. Productivity & Quality Improvement Projects
The first project I would like to select is ANQ Congress 2012 which co-organized by HKSQ, CAQ & HKUST. HKSQ is chaired the organization committee and implemented the congress.
(http://www.hksq.org/anq2012/post_anq_news.html)

When an organization gets things right, it will be successful at every level. When things go wrong, it will have disastrous consequences of the bottom line, and more importantly the organization and brand image will suffer too. Thus, “Striving for Excellence through Product and Service Quality” as the theme of ANQ Congress 2012, has become a strategic issue in Asian economies for this decade.

The second project selected is HKSQ Company Based Student Project Competition.
(http://www.hksq.org/company_based_competition.htm )

The brief history is show as follows:
Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) Company Based Student Project Competition offers an opportunity for students to work on an actual industrial case and propose resolution. This allows them to gain experience of resolving an industrial problem. The previous program named "The Quality Management Student Project Competition" which sponsored by Bridgeport Prise in the UK from 1994 to 2000. Then HKSQ recognizes the value of continuing the meaningful event as a vehicle to further the interest of final year undergraduates in quality management and to emphasize its importance and relevance to local industry. Until 2005, HKSQ has changed the competition style from final year project to company based project to enhance student's industrial experience.

The student project competition offers Eligibility: University students in Industrial, Manufacturing, Quality or related disciplines. (Included HKU, CUHK, HKUST, PolyU and CityU). Each University can nominate a maximum of two teams with three to four students in a team, and one staff to provide coaching.
The sponsor company list is shown as follows:
2014 Competition－Woodley Agri-Service Company Limited, and Green Technology Consortium
2013 Competition－Techtronic Industries Co. Ltd.
2012 Competition－Vital-Health Livestock Development Limited
2011 Competition－TDK-EPC HK Ltd. (CA Plant)
2010 Competition－Techworld Industries Ltd
2009 Competition－SMT Ltd.
2008 Competition－ENW Electronics Ltd.
2007 Competition－Manufacturing Modes International Limited
2006 Competition－SAE Magnetics (Hong Kong) Ltd
2005 Competition－Holmes Group (Dongguan Factories: Esteem and Raider)

Reference:
A View from the Q - http://asq.org/blog/
HKSQ - http://www.hksq.org/
Hong Kong Awards for Industry (HKIA) - http://www.hkindustryaward.org/

ASQ InfVoices - Hong Kong Quality Awards & Programs - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2013/04/asq-infvoices-hong-kong-quality-awards.html