Full Issue

Putting Best Practices to Work
DO Y O QUA U
Expe rienc e Cert icat ions Educ ation Indu stry know ledge Hiring to ge manager s tell t the how job in Salar this y y Sur ears vey r esult s
p. 18
QUALITY PROGRESS
www.qualityprogress.com | December 2013
QUALITY PROGRESS | DECEMBER 2013 SALARY SURVEY VOLUME 46/NUMBER 12
LIFy?
The Global Voice of Quality
TM
New Books From Quality Press

The Certified Manager of Quality/ Organizational Excellence Handbook Fourth Edition
This handbook is designed to help address organizational issues, from the application of the basic principles of management to the development of strategies needed to deal with the technological and societal concerns of the new millennium. Item: H1447
Principles of Quality Costs: Financial Measures for Strategic Implementation of Quality Management, Fourth Edition
This book provides a basic understanding of the principles of quality costs. Using this book, organizations can develop and implement a quality cost system to fit its needs. Used as an adjunct to overall financial management, these principles will help maintain vital quality improvement programs over extended timeframes. Item: H1438
The Executive Guide to Innovation: Turning Good Ideas into Great Results
Use this book to get the information, tools, techniques, and methodologies to help align a growth-based strategy with all functions of the organization, create a culture for ideas and growth, acquire and retain the right mix of resources, and sustain what youve built over time. Item: H1453
Quality Press books are peer reviewed and continually being updated to ensure you have the latest in quality knowledge and tools with special member prices.
Learn more about these books by visiting the Quality Press bookstore at asq.org/quality-press.
TRAINING CERTIFICATION CONFERENCES MEMBERSHIP PUBLICATIONS
nterprise Quality &
QMS Software ISO/TS FMEA
PDM
NCMR
QMS
Quality Compliance Software Manufacturing

Product Data Management
TL 9001
Nonconforming Materials
ISO 9000 PDM Quality Software ISO 13485 NCM
Nonconforming
ISO
Quality
CAPA
ISO
Quality Assurance
ISO/TS 16949
Supplier & Materials
ERP
Calibration
NCM
Discrete
QMS Software
ISO 9000
Manufacturing
Quality Compliance
Discrete
Nonconforming Materials ISO 9000
ISO/TS MRB QMS Software

Risk Assessment
Corrective Actions
Supplier & Materials
QMS
ISO 9000 Quality Assurance

Risk Assessment
Process
Quality
CAPA QMS Software
MES
ERP
Manufacturing
Quality Compliance
Nonconformance
Process
FMEA
Quality
ISO/TS
ISO 13485
QMS Software
Discrete
Corrective Actions
Nonconforming
Calibration
Compliance
AS9100
FMEA
Discrete ERP
Calibration
TL 9001
AS9100
ISO/TS
Supplier & Materials QMS QMS Software

TL 9001
Manufacturing
Quality Assurance
Inspections
Process ISO/TS
Materials
ISO 13485
Calibration
CAPA
Receiving Inspections
Quality
Process
Quality Software
Supplier
CAPA
ISO/TS
MRB
PDM
Actions Inspections Corrective Manufacturing
Quality Management Software Supplier Rating
Nonconformance FMEA Quality Systems Software Receiving

FMEA
ISO
Calibration
ISO/TS
Supplier
Quality FMEA Manufacturing ISO 13485

Rating
CAPA
Calibration
AS9100
QMS
ISO 13485 PDM
Quality
ISO
Product Data Management ISO/TS 16949

Process
Quality Compliance QMS PDM Manufacturing Receiving Nonconformance Quality Assurance Materials Compliance ERP CAPA
ISO
Calibration
Quality
Process
ISO/TS
MRB
ISO 13485
TL 9001
...st VALUE
: Integrated modules for Quality and FDA Compliance Management: CAPAange ManagementRisk Assessment ...and more! Risk Management in tQuality System Flexible: Leading edgexible workow adapts to all business processes, witt programming : Integrates wit3rd party business systems Scalable: Readily adapts to enterprise environments, and deployments Supplier Management: Collaborates witrs trouger Business Intelligence in decision-making witreds of congurable carts and reports events
800-354-4476 info@etq.com
www.etq.com/quality
2014 LEAN AND SIX SIGMA CONFERENCE

SUSTAINING RESULTS THROUGH A CULTURE OF QUALITY February 24 25, 2014 | Phoenix, AZ | sixsigma.asq.org
Product quality, service superiority, and increased contribution to the bottom line are all marks of business excellence. The true measure of excellence, however, lies not only in results, but in sustaining those results. The 2014 Lean and Six Sigma Conference will show you how to apply lean and Six Sigma tools and methodologies, and the steps taken to sustain those results to make a difference in your organization by offering more than 50 sessions, hands-on workshops, keynote speakers, and networking opportunities focusing on: New/Unique Applications With Lean and Six Sigma Globalization Lean and Six Sigma in Service Change Management The Human Side of Lean and Six Sigma
Early-bird pricing is available through January 13, 2014.
To register for the 2014 ASQ Lean and Six Sigma Conference, visit sixsigma.asq.org.
TM
Contents
Putting Best Practices to Work | December 2013 | www.qualityprogress.com
FEATURES
18
SALARY SURVEY
18
DO Y QUA OU
Expe rienc e Cert icat ions Educ at Indu ion stry know ledge Hiring m a n to ge a g e rs tell t the Salar job in this how y Sur yea vey r esult rs s
Read Their Minds
In todays competitive job market, everyone looks for an advantage over others seeking the same job and promotion. Something new in this years QP Salary Survey report might give you an edge: an analysis of the qualications, assets and traits hiring managers expect to see in candidates for specic job titles in the quality community. From there, pore over all 24 sections (19 online) of the most comprehensive examination of salaries in the quality community to gain more insight into how you compare to others. Youll nd breakdowns of quality professionals salaries by job title, education, training, years of experience, certication and more.
LIFY?
by Max Christian Hansen
25 29 33 37 45 52
The methodology behind taking loads of data and making sense of it all. Salary by job title.
Behind the Results
Overview of the Money Regional Variations
Salary by U.S. regions and Canadian provinces.
Earnings Rise With Experience Certiably Valuable
Salary by number of years in the quality eld. Salary by ASQ and Exemplar Global certication. Salary by Six Sigma training.
ONLY @
www.qualityprogress.com
Rewards for Master Black Belts
Breaking More Down
Access 19 more sections of the QP Salary Survey, including four dedicated to self-employed consultants.
All in One
56
SERVICE QUALITY
A ve-step framework can be the building blocks for service organizations to develop effective quality programs and process improvement activities, which ultimately leads to better customer service.
The Service Quality Platform
The ve salary survey sections printed in this issue of QP are also available in the complete salary survey online report200-plus pages containing 24 sections and more than 110 graphicsin PDF format.
Calculated Moves
by Arthur J. Swersey
Access results and make quick comparisons with QPs updated salary calculator.
Hear It Out
Listen to a webcast with analysis of this years survey ndings and career advice.
Back to Basics
Translated in Spanish.
DEPARTMENTS
6 8 14
LogOn
Complex coordination in safety, compliance and documentation.
Expert Answers
Measuring customer experience. SPC for low-volume assembly.
QP
Mail
Quality Progress/ASQ 600 N. Plankinton Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53203 Telephone Fax 800-248-1946 414-272-1734 414-272-8575
QUALITY PROGRESS
Curing what ails the Obamacare website. Three 2013 Baldrige recipients named.
Keeping Current
Email
17 74 76
Mr. Pareto Head QP Toolbox QP Reviews
Follow protocol of rst initial and full last name followed by @asq.org (for example, vellifson@asq.org).
Article Submissions
Quality Progress is a peer-reviewed publication with 85% of its feature articles written by quality professionals. For information about submitting an article, call Valerie Ellifson at 800-248-1946 x7373, or email manuscripts@asq.org.
COLUMNS
5 12
Up Front
Being selective.
Author Guidelines
62 66
3.4 per Million
Taking the best of two methods.
To learn more about the manuscript review process, helpful hints before submitting a manuscript and QPs 2014 editorial planner, click on Author Guidelines at www. qualityprogress.com under Tools and Resources."
Perspectives
Be a trendsetter.
Quality in the First Person

Carrying social responsibility over into your personal life.
Photocopying Authorization
12
68 80
Career Corner
Is now the time to reinvent yourself and your career?
Back to Basics
A strategy to strengthen SOPs.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use or the internal or personal use of specic clients is granted by Quality Progress provided the fee of $1 per copy is paid to ASQ or the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. Copying for other purposes requires the express permission of Quality Progress. For permission, write Quality Progress, PO Box 3005, Milwaukee, WI 53201-3005, call 414-272-8575 x7406, fax 414-272-1734 or email reprints@asq.org.
Photocopies, Reprints And Microform
Special section: ASQ enterprise and site members p. 70
Article photocopies are available from ASQ at 800-248-1946. To purchase bulk reprints (more than 100), contact Barbara Mitrovic at ASQ, 800-248-1946. For microform, contact ProQuest Information and Learning, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, 800-5210600 x2888, international 734-761-4700, www.il.proquest.com.
Membership and Subscriptions
NEXT MONTH
- big data
Dening, managing and executing big data projects.
- big quality
Surviving and succeeding in the big data world.
ASQs Vision: By making quality a global priority, an organizational imperative and a personal ethic, the American Society for Quality becomes the community for everyone who seeks quality technology, concepts or tools to improve themselves and their world.
Quality Progress (ISSN 0033-524X) is published monthly by the American Society for Quality, 600 N. Plankinton Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53203. Editorial and advertising ofces: 414-272-8575. Periodicals postage paid at Milwaukee, WI, and at additional mailing ofces. Institutional subscriptions are held in the name of a company, corporation, government agency or library. Requests for back issues must be prepaid and are based on availability: ASQ members $17 per copy; nonmembers $25 per copy. Canadian GST #128717618, Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40030175. Canada Post: Return undeliverables to 2835 Kew Drive, Windsor, ON N8T 3B7. Prices are subject to change without prior notication. 2013 by ASQ. No claim for missing issues will be accepted after three months following the month of publication of the issue for domestic addresses and six months for Canadian and international addresses. Postmaster: Please send address changes to the American Society for Quality, PO Box 3005, Milwaukee, WI 53201-3005. Printed in USA.
For more than 60 years, ASQ has been the worldwide provider of information and learning opportunities related to quality. In addition, ASQ membership offers information, networking, certication and educational opportunities to help quality professionals obtain practical solutions to the many problems they face each day. Subscriptions to Quality Progress are one of the many benets of ASQ membership. To join, call 800-248-1946 or see information and an application on p. 55.
List Rentals
Orders for ASQs member and nonmember buyer lists can be purchased by contacting Michael Costantino at the Infogroup/Edith Roman List Management Co., 402-836-6626 or fax 845-620-1885.
QP www.qualityprogress.com
UPFRONT
QP
EXeCUTIVe EDITOR AND ASSOCIATe PUBLISHeR
Seiche Sanders Mark Edmund
QUALITY PROGRESS
Being Selective
The attributes of high-caliber candidates
ITS BEEN SAiD repeatedlythat money makes the world go round. And yes, what you take home is certainly a contributor to your satisfaction with your job. Someone has to pay the bills, right? But there are so many more facets to a fullling career. Employee engagement is one of the biggest buzzwords right now, probably because of the linkage research has shown between engaged employees and organizations that are more productive, more efcient and more protable. According to a recent Gallup report, 2013 State of the American Workplace: Engaged workers are the lifeblood of their organizations. Work units in the top 25% of Gallups Q12 Client Database have signicantly higher productivity, protability, and customer ratings, less turnover and absenteeism, and fewer safety incidents than those in the bottom 25%. (The report can be found at www.gallup.com.) And this is one reason hiring and retaining the best and brightest talent is getting so much attention these days: Engagement is tied to the right employees being in the right jobs. This years QP Salary Survey specically targeted hiring managers with a set of questions related to what they look for when reviewing candidates for employment. Respondents to these questions got very specic about what it takes to pique their interest in the QP Salary Survey analysis presented in Read Their Minds, p. 18. Author Max Christian Hansen also provides some in-depth analysis as to the key attributes hiring managers zero in on. When youre looking to hire someone to join your team, nding the right t is essential to maximizing performance and the engagement that employee feels. Theres another lesson here for those of you who are coasting, ambivalent or downright miserable in your jobs. If you acquire the right skills, experience, and training and education, you will have a much easier time rising to the top of the candidate pool when that dream job opens up. QP
ASSOCIATe EDITOR ASSISTANT EDITOR

Amanda Hankel Valerie Ellifson
MANUSCRIpT COORDINATOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Megan Schmidt
COPY EDITOR
Susan E. Daniels Mary Uttech Sandy Wyss
ART DIReCTOR GRApHIC DeSIGNeR PRODUCTION

Cathy Milquet
ADVeRTISING pRODUCTION
Barbara Mitrovic Julie Schweitzer Naylor LLC Lou Brandow Krys DAntonio Norbert Musial Rob Shafer Kathy Thomas
DIGITAL PRODUCTION SpeCIALIST MeDIA SALeS
MeDIA SALeS ADMINISTRATOR MARKeTING ADMINISTRATOR

Matt Meinholz
EDITORIAL OFFICeS
Phone: 414-272-8575 Fax: 414-272-1734 Phone: 866-277-5666
ADVeRTISING OFFICeS
ASQ ADMINISTRATION
CEO
Paul E. Borawski
Seiche Sanders Editor
Managing Directors
Ajoy Bose Julie Gabelmann Brian J. LeHouillier Michelle Mason Laurel Nelson-Rowe
Dont forget to watch the new episode
To promote discussion of issues in the eld of quality and ensure coverage of all responsible points of view, Quality Progress publishes articles representing conicting and minority views. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily of ASQ or Quality Progress. Use of the ASQ logo in advertisements does not necessarily constitute endorsement of that particular product or service by ASQ.
December 2013 QP
LOGON
Seen&Heard
Account for complexity
While reading the conclusion of Mustafa Ghaleiws article, Quality vs. Safety (September 2013, pp. 22-27), which states that quality should be rst in everything the industry does or processes wont be safe, I became quite uncomfortable because it does not adequately reect the complexity of offshore development projects. It is unrealistic to think that a single discipline would have sufcient expertise to envelop all systems and processes. For instance, the bow tie and safety-critical elements examples that are presented are generally owned by the risk management and process safety engineering teams, respectively. Similarly, document control is owned by project services, record control by information management and assurance reviews are conducted by an independent safety and operation group function. The quality discipline in oil and gas projects is conned to quality control activities, such as planning for product realization and validation of manufacturing processes via the deployment of inspectors. This set of activities is comprehensive and complex in itself, with multiple interrelated processes and process verication requirements, leading to regulatory acceptance of the asset by the regional authority to operate. Quality professionals in the oil and gas industries should act as integrators to help maintain the focus on the requirements of customersthe users of the asset. I refer to Oscar Combs article, Standard Wise, (September 2013, pp. 16-21): The ability to meet requirements is directly correlated with having an initial understanding of
REFErENcE
1. Prashant Hoskote, QualityIt Isnt What You Throw at a Problem, Quality Management Forum, Summer 2013, pp. 1-4.
them. We also should remember that ASQ's manager of quality certication also includes organizational excellence. Prashant Hoskote highlights this in an article: Too many quality leaders are practitionerstactical thinkers who are more absorbed with methods than with business needs and organizational outcomes quality must prove its value.1 As quality professionals, we should always establish that requirements are documented and understood, adequate resources and competencies are in place to execute, and records will be generated that requirements were met. In my opinion, this is the overall highest quality risk to the business. Quality professionals do not need to replace subject matter experts in everything to achieve these fundamental pillars of safety, compliance and documentation. For example, equipment performance teams should set the functional design input requirements, and reliability teams should be in place for projects. But this quality improvement concept is not well established in the industry. Max Lyoen Houston
Tune In
The latest episode of ASQ TV covers standards and auditing. In the episode, learn why ISO 9001 is being revised, hear how to prepare for a standards audit and get a refresher on the finding sheet. Watch for the next episode, available Dec. 17, which focuses on careers in quality. Visit http:// videos.asq.org to access the full video library.
StayConnected
Find the latest news, quips and targeted content from QP staff.
Executive Editor & Associate

Publisher Seiche Sanders: @ASQ_Seiche Associate Editor Mark Edmund: @ASQ_Mark Assistant Editor Amanda Hankel: @ASQ_Amanda Contributing Editor Megan Schmidt: @ASQ_Megan editor@asq.org www.facebook.com/ groups/43461176682
Quoted on quality
Just read the new issue of Quality Progress (Words to Work By, November 2013, pp. 18-25). Fantastic work! Very well compiled, as always, and fun to read! Thank you for publishing my quoteit feels great. Prateek Dhariwal Dubai
www.linkedin.com/groups/qualityprogress-magazine-asq-1878386
QP
ONLINE EXTRAS@
QP
PAST CHAIR
James J. Rooney, ABS Consulting, Global Government Division
QUALITY PROGRESS
www.qualityprogress.com
Complete package
View 19 more sections of the QP Salary Survey, including four dedicated to self-employed consultants. The ve salary survey sections printed in this issue of QP are also included in the complete salary survey online report, with more than 200 pages containing 24 sections and more than 110 graphics, in PDF format.
CHAIR
John C. Timmerman, Gallup Inc.
CHAIR-ELECT
Number crunching
Access results and make quick comparisons with QPs updated salary calculator.
Stephen K. Hacker, Transformation Systems International
More to hear
Listen to a webcast analyzing this years survey ndings and providing career advice.
TREASURER
Chava Scher, RAFAELAdvanced Defense Systems (retired)
Back to Basics
Read this months Back to Basics column, Pyramid Scheme, p. 80, in Spanish.
PARLIAMENTARIAN
Karla Riesinger, ASQ
DIRECTORS
QUIcK POLL RESULTS

Each month at www.qualityprogress.com, visitors can take an informal survey. Here are the numbers from last months Quick Poll: How did the U.S. government shutdown affect you? I wasnt affected. 51.6% I lost access to some of the services I need. 19.3% I was furloughed. 16.1% Visit www.qualityprogress.com for the latest question: What do you like best about your job? The amount of money I make. Lots of career growth opportunities. Its challenging. I dont like my job.
Heather L. Crawford, Apollo Endosurgery Raymond R. Crawford, Parsons Brinckerhoff Ha Dao, Emerson Climate Technologies Inc. Gary N. Gehring, Saskatchewan Ministry of Governmental Relations Kathleen Jennison Goonan, M.D., Goonan Performance Strategies Eric A. Hayler, BMW Manufacturing Co. James M. Loseke, Sargento Foods Inc. Joanne D. Mayo Elas Monre al, Industrial Tool Die and Engineering Richard A. Perlman, Bayer HealthCare Steven J. Schuelka, Calumet College Daniel E. Sniezek, Lockheed Martin (retired) G. Geoffrey Vining, Virginia Tech Department of Statistics Alejandra Vicenttin, Vicenttin Performance Excellence and Kaizen Bharat Wakhlu, Tata Services Ltd., a division of Tata Sons J. Eric Whichard, JE Whichard and Associates
QP EDITORIAL REVIEW BOARD

Randy Brull, chair
QualityNewsTODAY
(All URLs case sensitive)
Administrative Committee
Recent headlines from ASQs global news service

Automakers Mine Data to Track, Trace Defects Tiny recalls are growing across the industry, experts say, as automakers, like drug companies and food manufacturers, build sophisticated data-mining operations to guard against costly and reputation-crippling recalls. (http://bit.ly/automakersmine) Put Down That Doughnut: FDA to Ban Trans Fats The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has taken a rst step toward potentially eliminating most trans fat from the food supply, saying it has made a preliminary determination that a major source of trans fatspartially hydrogenated oilsis no longer generally recognized as safe. (http://bit.ly/transfatban)
Brady Boggs, Randy Brull, Jane Campanizzi, Larry Haugh, Jim Jaquess, Gary MacLean, R. Dan Reid, Richard Stump
Technical reviewers
Andy Barnett, David Bonyuet, David Burger, Bernie Carpenter, L.N. Prabhu Chandrasekaran, Ken Cogan, Linda Cubalchini-Travis, Ahmad Elshennawy, Mark Gavoor, Kunita Gear, Daniel Gold, T. Gourishankar, Roberto Guzman, Ellen Hardy, Lynne Hare, Ray Klotz, Tom Kubiak, William LaFollette, Pradip Mehta, Larry Picciano, Gene Placzkowski, Tony Polito, Peter Pylipow, John Richards, James Rooney, Brian Scullin, Amitava Sengupta, A.V. Srinivas, Joe Tunner, Manu Vora, Keith Wagoner, Jack Westfall, Doron Zilbershtein
Want the latest quality-related news and analysis? The QNT Weekly e-newsletter delivers it every Friday. Subscribe now at http://email.asq.org/subscribe/qntwk.
December 2013 QP
EXpErtansWE
Measuring customer experience
Q: I am trying to develop appropriate customer experience metrics for service delivery touch points at a nancial institution, such as automated teller machines, internet banking, point of sale, mobile banking and bank branches. These metrics should be linkable to appropriate business nancial performance outcomes, such as protability, deposit liability growth and value of new accounts. Can someone who has worked on this help? Fajimi Oladapo London A: In todays environmentwhere every dollar not only counts, but is absolutely vital to long-term viabilityyou want to make sure that expenditures are moving the appropriate dials. In this case, it sounds like you want to make sure that the expense designated to improve customer experience not only improves the customer experience, but also improves some associated nancial measurements. Here is something important to remember: There are no silver bullets when it comes to metrics. More important than a catalog of potential metrics is a process to generate the metrics that you need, not a list of metrics that has worked for someone else. You need to know how to uncover and establish your own metrics. There are two important tasks that must be completed: a current-state assessment and a future-state design. There are at least two schools of thought here. One position is not to bother with the current state. It will only serve to put you in a box consisting of existing paradigms. The other way to think about this is in terms of a gap assessment. It is easy to debate that without the current state and future state, it is impossible to know what gaps need closing. So where do you start? Consider establishing your current-state baseline. As part of this exercise, it is critical to know the current performance levels for all dimensions, not just customer experience. In the past, I have taken a substantial matrix of data, correlated the data against itself and evaluated it for cause and effect. This narrows down the data from the trivial many to the vital few. Next, or perhaps even concurrently, consider asking your customers what is important to them in terms of customer experience. Conduct surveys, interviews, focus groups or workshops to obtain the voice of the customer (VOC). You may want to consider a benchmarking exercise and research to nd out what others are doing in this space. At this point, you have your current state, potentially know what the future state looks like, and you have the VOC. You have a nice data set that you can leverage for conversation. Bring in functional leaders and start asking what they really need to run their area. Sometimes, leaders struggle with understanding the outputs (the Y variables). Spend time with them A: Lets rst interpret a few units as 30 or less per month. For the purchased parts, to make sure they get this part, as it is crucial to the success of the initiative. You are now ready to start testing for alignment between the identied metrics and the associated levers. This is where you learn whether you have the correct data so that you know the needle will go in the correct direction when you turn a dial. Here is an example of applying this thought process: You nd out that your customers are not happy with the number of times they are handed off during one of their calls to your organization. Your data also show there is a correlation between the number of handoffs and the number of times a cross-selling opportunity is successful. You decide to invest in training to reduce the number of handoffs by increasing the breadth of knowledge your call center personnel have. After a period of time, the cross-selling rate improves. In this example, you were able to turn the dials (take action to reduce handoffs) and see a positive resulting outcome. This response to your question does not give a listing of metrics. Rather, it gives an approach to get the metrics you need. Too many times, individuals look for silver bullets that just do not exist. A good process is better than a silver bullet any day. Keith Wagoner AVP Partner Solutions Lincoln Financial Group Greensboro, NC
SPC for low-volume assembly

Q: How can assembly manufacturing organizations meaningfully implement statistical process control (SPC) if they are purchasing all parts and assembling only a few units per month?
rs
Too many times, individuals look for silver bullets that just do not exist. A good process is better than a silver bullet any day.
assume there is a mixture of commodity items and custom parts built to supplied drawings. As for the nished item, assume it is complex, such as a large medical instrument or an aircraft. In this scenario, the primary focus must be on the parts and working with the suppliers. While the onus is technically on the suppliers to demonstrate capability of their processes to make your parts, you must work with them in partnership. It is more about supplier relationships than it is about SPC. At the macro level, when choosing a supplier, verify it has a certied quality system or one that meets your organizations requirements. At the detail level, you must identify critical dimensions or performance requirements of the parts or part drawings, measurement methods must be agreed upon and suppliers must provide inspection data via certicates of conformance. Incoming part inspection must be conducted for verication until there is condence in the suppliers and the parts. This is often termed item certication. Your organization will have to dene just how much data are required before incoming inspection can be reduced or eliminated for a specic part. This may be a function of part criticality. Some high-priced custom parts may always require incoming inspection while, for others, inspection may be reduced or eliminated after a period of time. Commodity items may require minimal or no inspection. Within your operation, subassembly testing results and nal testing results can be charted over time. What is the nonconforming rate of subassemblies or nished units when initially tested? P-charts can be used. This can be done based simply on number of subassemblies or nished units, or it can be done with consideration for part complexity. For example, a subassembly may have 20 parts. Count the critical dimensions on each of the 20 part drawings and total them. This can be termed opportunities for error. (There are other ways to count opportunities, but well use critical dimensions for the purpose of this discussion.) Say there are 100 critical dimensions (opportunities) in the parts of a certain subassembly. The nonconforming rate can be expressed as the number of failures divided by the number of opportunities. For example, if there were two failures in 10 subassemblies, the nonconforming or defect rate for that subassembly for that week or month could be expressed as: 2 / (10 subassemblies x 100 opportunities) or 2 / 1,000 or 0.2% or 2,000 defects per million opportunities (DPMO). The same could be done for other subassemblies with results presented in Pareto fashion. If desired, an adjusted Pareto can be developed factoring in dollar value per subFOR MORE INfORmATiON
1. Peter E. Pylipow, My Suppliers Capability is What? Quality Progress, May 2003, pp. 60-64, http://asq.org/pub/qualityprogress/past/0503/qp0503pylipow.pdf. 2. S.K. Vermani, Capability Analysis of Complex Parts, Quality Progress, July 2003, pp. 65-71, http://asq.org/data/ subscriptions/qp/2003/0703/qp0703vermani.pdf. 3. T.M. Kubiak, Perusing Process Performance Metrics, Quality Progress, August 2009, pp. 52-55, http://asq.org/ quality-progress/2009/08/34-per-million/perusing-process performance-metrics.pdf.
assembly. Resources may then be directed accordingly. This example is best understood when thinking about putting together an initial subassembly from parts. But as subassemblies are put together into higher-level assemblies, the method still can be applied. At the initial subassembly or higher assembly level, in addition to critical dimensions, the opportunity count can include performance requirements such as mechanical actions or electrical requirements. But dont get too caught up in the math. In almost all assembly or manufacturing operations, if you really want to know what the problems are, just ask the people doing the work. They will tell you. Peter E. Pylipow Principal engineer VistakonJohnson and Johnson Vision Care Inc. Jacksonville, FL
TURN TO THE EXPERTS
Have a quality-related question? Let us help. Submit your question at www. qualityprogress.com, or send it to editor@asq.org, and our subject matter experts will help you nd a solution.
December 2013 QP
QUALITY COUNCIL OF INDIANA

CQIA PRIMER CSSBB PRIMER CQE PRIMER CQT PRIMER CSQE PRIMER CBA PRIMER CRE PRIMER CMQ PRIMER CQI PRIMER CCT PRIMER CQA PRIMER CSSGB PRIMER CQPA PRIMER
C C C C C C C C C C C C C
PRIMERS
New CBA
Our Primers contain study material for the current ASQ bodies of knowledge plus sample questions and answers. The Primers may be taken into the exam. The completeness of our materials makes them the most widely used texts for Certification Training.
Quality Council of Indiana offers detailed solutions to all questions presented in the corresponding Primer.
SOLUTION TEXTS
QCI offers user-friendly interactive software to assist students preparing for ASQ examinations. Each CD contains 1000 total questions. Examinations are timed and summarized graphically. A help file provides explanations and references. The CDs run on Windows XP and newer.
CD-ROMS
CQE CSSGB
CQA
Mail Orders Quality Council of Indiana Order Department 602 W. Paris Ave. W. Terre Haute, IN 47885-1124
Information 812-533-4215
Internet Orders www.qualitycouncil.com
Telephone Orders 800-660-4215
Fax Orders 812-533-4216
Jurans Quality Handbook

by Juran & De Feo The essential quality reference for most ASQ exams
En Espaol
Implementing Six Sigma

by Forrest W. Breyfogle, III A great CSSBB reference
The Quality Technicians Handbook

by Gary K. Griffith Great for CQT and CQI exams.
CSSGB PRIMER
Spanish Green Belt

The Spanish version of the CSSGB Primer.
Quality Dictionary
by Tracy Omdahl More than 2500 definitions. Great for any ASQ certification.
LSS Primer
The Lean Six Sigma Primer is written to a QCI BoK. There are more case studies and lean content than in any other QCI products. 400 questions are included. A solution text is also available.
RAM Dictionary
by Tracy Omdahl Contains 2800 definitions. Helpful for Reliability and Quality Engineers.
ISO 9001 Internal Auditing Primer

by Greg Wies & Bert Scali A convenient book for training internal auditors to the ISO 9001 expectations. An instructor CD is available.
ISO
ISO Primer
by Bensley & Wortman Presents a thorough treatment of the ISO implementation and documentation process. There are generic manuals on the CD.
Reliability & Maintenance Analyst CD

by Bryan Dodson
Solve your Weibull, reliability, warranty, Bayesian & Maintenance, prediction & estimation problems.
Measurement Analyst CD
Performs all measurements required in the AIAG manual. Contains ANOVA methods and excellent graphs.
Used by Chrysler, ITT, FedEx, Ford, TRW, GM, HP, U.S. Postal Service Site and global license available!!!
Quality System Handbook

by Edenborough
QSH
Details the selection, organization, and writing of quality documents. The disk contains procedures and work instructions.
PERSPECTIVES
BY DEbRA KRAFT
Be a Trendsetter
Lead by example with your quality mindset in everything you do
QUALITY PROFESSIONALS should consider expanding their networking efforts into the business realm. Why? Our organizations expect us not only to eliminate the costs of poor quality, but also help optimize protability. The only way to do that is by shedding plant-centric mindsets and infusing quality concepts into our organizational cultures. The only way to do that is by becoming the trendsetters. We must lead by example. think about what you would do in these situations: 1. Youre at an organized gathering, helping yourself to a cup of coffee. A small trash container has been placed at the end of the beverage table, but its not in view when youre looking for a place to dispose of your empty coffee creamer pod. Before you arrived at the table, someone else apparently solved this dilemma by dumping his or her empty pod into a nearly empty metal bowl that had obviously been put into service to dispense full creamer pods rather than to collect empty ones. Other attendees followed suit, dumping used coffee stirrers, empty creamer pods and tea bag envelopes amongst a handful of still-full pods. Do you follow suit, assuming this has become an accepted process? Or do you step up to initiate change by informing the waitstaff, removing the bowl or taking another action to separate the right way from the wrong one? 2. While youre in line at a lunch buffet, the person directly ahead of you tries to replace a small set of tongs into a bowl of shredded cheese, but misses. The tongs clatter to the oor. Do you apply the ve-second rule by picking up the tongs and putting them back into service? Or do you ag down a waitstaff member to take away the tongs and replace them? My assumption for the rst scenario is that most of you would follow suit, using the metal bowl to discard your beverage table trash. The majority of people, after all, are followers rather than leaders. Thats just a fact of human nature. Besides, youre a guest at this gathering; youre not working. But think about it for just a minute. Trash on top of a table isnt acceptable at home. Why should you accept it anywhere else, under any circumstance? If just one person does the right thing, others will follow suit. As a quality professional, try to get in the habit of showing your colleagues the value of doing the right thing, whether youre auditing a manufacturing plant or attending a business luncheon. My fervent hope for the second scenario is that most of you would have the tongs removed. But thats my hope, not my assumption. Sadly, I have witnessed situations in which people who are employed in the eld of quality applied the ve-second rule instead. If youre not sure why that would pose a problem, force yourself to look at a much larger picture. Many manufacturing plants have distinct rules about dropped parts.
What would you do?

Leading by example means sticking with your quality mindset wherever you are and in everything you do. It means infusing quality concepts such as 5S and failure mode and effects analysis into how you approach situations, even if you dont create tape marks or use special forms to assign numerical values to each potential risk. To see whether you lead by example,
12 QP www.qualityprogress.com
Until and unless those parts are proved to remain uncontaminated and undamaged, they must be segregated from good parts and considered nonconforming. Now think about that set of tongs again. You dont know whats on the oor where they landed. Microscopic contaminants are still contaminants. Animal feces and other germ-bearing things Id rather not think about could have been deposited on that oor by any number of peoples shoes. If a quality professional is willing to put his or her colleagues food at risk through potential contamination, it seems reasonable to assume that same person also could be willing to turn a blind eye to a dropped partor worse, put it back amongst usable stock. If a quality professional is doing that, count on everyone else in the organization doing it, too. As quality professionals, it is up to us to be the clarion ringers and set the tone for a quality mindset in our organizations. We need to live and breathe quality, and set the example for everyone else in our organizations. If we dont, no one will. If no one takes the lead in setting the example, our organizations are doomed to repeat failures, or at the very least to never discover what it means to truly optimize protability.
quality hits can lead to recalls. Guess what? Recalls can cost far more than whatever was saved in the rst place by cutting heads. True lean efforts involve developing efcient processes free of waste and always getting it right the rst time. Today, process quality matters more than product quality because the latter is the direct result of the former. Quality toolboxes should be restocked to include business concepts, especially those that are intricately linked to the costs of doing business. In turn, quality concepts also must take root in organizational cultures. Those folks in nance who are always cutting budgets and complaining about overspending should take another look at the costs that might be hidden in their own inefcient processes. If the HR department is more heavily staffed or budgeted on the recruiting and hiring side than elsewhere, the processes targeting employee retention are probably inefcientits costly to fuel a revolving door.
YOUr QUALItY AdvisOr

Are you in a bind at work? Are you looking to clarify a term or methodology? Have you run into a problem where nobody seems to have the answer? Do you wish you had a quality mentor? Someone you could turn to when you run into a roadblock? You do. QPs experts will provide answers and insight to your toughest quality queries. Simply email your situation, question or problem to editor@asq.org, and QPs subject matter experts will offer their sage advice in our Expert Answers department.
Setting the example

How can we get business colleagues to see the critical links between efciency and quality? By setting an example. As quality professionals, we have a responsibility to put quality rst. Dont be so shy, lazy or impatient that you accept problems. Dont play follow the leader and use a creamer bowl for a trash container because thats what everyone else is doing. Be the leader. Raise your hand, raise your voice or just take the reins and start driving teams in the right direction. QP
True quality = efciency

But what does it mean, in the quality realm, to optimize protability? The answer is simpler than you might think. Its about efciencyand that means being lean. Its a tough market out there. Organizations that dont go lean dont get ahead. Regrettably, some organizations still seem to think going lean is all about cutting heads; but efciency is the real driver. Without efciency, process qualityand, by default, product qualitycan take a signicant hit. In the automotive industry, the worst
DEBRA KRAFT is a senior process engineer and business unit audit program manager at a tier-one automotive supplier in Michigan. She holds a bachelor of ne arts degree from Wayne State University in Detroit and is a senior member of ASQ.
December 2013 QP 13
KEEpINGCURRE
T
counts.1
Critical Condition
Sick Obamacare website affects millions as White House scrambles for a cure
The botched rollout of the website built to allow Americans to enroll in a health insurance plan under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Actalso known as Obamacarewill go down in history as one of the biggest technology debacles ever. Since its launch Oct. 1, millions of people who used www.heathcare.gov to nd a health plan have encountered error messages, delays, crashes and stalled acThe snarls didnt end there. The reports generated from the federal exchange on new enrollees and sent to insurance providers were riddled with errorssuch as syntax mistakes and transposed and duplicate data. Insurers also reported receiving multiple enrollments and cancellations without time stamps from the same people. Insurers resorted to contacting enrollees directly to follow up.2 Just six people successfully enrolled on the rst day it opened. Of the 9.47 million people who visited the site the rst week, only 36,000 were able to complete the enrollment process, according to an analysis by the consulting rm Kantar US Insights.3 Nobody is madder than me, President Barak Obama said as he spoke about the problem-ridden websitetechnology thats at the very heart of his plan to bring health coverage to millions of Americans. The online marketplace is central to the 2010 law to reform the U.S. healthcare system. Every American will be legally required to have health insurance after Jan. 1 or face a penalty.4 The federal exchange and similar state websites are meant to be one-stop shops for health insurance for Americans who cant afford coverage and dont get it through employers. features and, nally, enroll the person in a plan.
GOVERNMENT
System snafus
Initially, Obama blamed the website meltdowns on an overwhelming number of visitors.7 Software engineering experts identied fundamental issues with the websites design and function, however. Some software engineers have suggested the websites consumer end, designed by one contractor, is not talking to the websites back end, which was created by a different contractor.8 Anyone in software engineering will tell you that cross-group coordination is one of the hardest things to get right, and also one of the most crucial, because while programmers are great at testing their own code, testing that their code works with everybody elses code is much more difcult, wrote software engineer David Auerbach in a recent Slate column.9 Many of the problems also stem from a design element that requires users to create accounts before shopping for insurance. Making all users go through the registration process created logjams that blocked most other users from the marketplace.10
Complex project
The federal exchange is a huge system thats composed of multiple systems with hundreds of integration points, making it innately difcult to manage, said Robert Charette, president of ITABHI Corp., a business and technology risk management consultancy.5 The website must fuse with disparate platforms of other large government agencies in addition to the systems of state exchanges and insurance providers. The federal exchange website also must do many things: verify a persons identity, legal residence and income; record his or her personal information; match the enrollee with health insurance plans; calculate subsidy eligibility; provide comparison shopping
6
Project management missteps

Building a system takes more than good programming. It also requires sound project management. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) oversaw the entire project while also monitoring the development of the state exchanges.11 The op isnt that surprising, considering the CMS and most of the government has no experience running a project this large, wrote Steve Bellian, a professor of computer science at Columbia University, in a CNN column.12
NT
There are standard approaches, standard tools and standard software for building largescale websites. Using them correctly takes good planning and management. That was in short supply here, Bellian wrote. NAME: Rob Herhold. RESIDENCE: Dardenne Prairie, MO. EDUCATION: Bachelors degree in business management from Washington University in St. Louis. CURRENT JOB: Former president of the Institute for Strategic Management Practices. Herhold is currently disabled with Lou Gehrigs disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), but he continues to volunteer his expertise in quality to companies and nonprot organizations.
Whos Who in
Shoddy testing
Representatives from private contractors charged with building www.healthcare.gov told members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee at a hearing in late October that full testing of the website didnt begin until two weeks before it went live instead of months earlier.13 You must create and emulate the customer experience as closely as possible, said Tim Moynihan, VP of marketing at Empirix, a network performance company that provides testing and monitoring services for web systems. You must understand how it works and appears from the customer side of the equation, not the inside, IT side of the equation.14
INTRODUCTION TO QUALITY: During the late 1970s, Herhold worked for TRW Inc., considered one of the rst Fortune 500 companies to use the Toyota Production System. He met Shigeo Shingo and has been hooked on quality ever since. PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE: During his days with McDonnell Douglas (Boeing), Herhold and others formed its rst quality processes division. The division was on the cutting edge with total quality management and helped establish the Baldrige Foundation. Herhold is also a former executive with the Excellence in Missouri Foundation, which administers the Missouri Quality Award, one of the most successful state quality award programs in the country. ASQ ACTIVITIES: Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award alumni examiner; past chair and board member emeritus of Epworth Children & Family Services; member of the state advisory board of the Missouri Small Business and Technology Development Centers; and member of the steering committee of the Center for Supply Chain Management Studies at St. Louis University. RECENT AWARDS: Herhold received the Ambassador Award from Epworth Children & Family Services. He has also received the ASQ Volunteer Excellence Award and the Waldo Vezeau Technical Achievement Award, as well as other plaques and citations from ASQ and other organizations, including the Human Resource Management Association of St. Louis, March of Dimes, Muscular Dystrophy Association, American Red Cross, University of Missouri, Defense Contract Management Command and the Finnish Government. PERSONAL: Married 17 years to Jan. Three grown children and two grandchildren. FAVORITE WAYS TO RELAX: Reading and staying in touch with the happenings in the quality profession. QUALITY QUOTE: There are two phrases that most people dene as Herholds signature quotes: Trust the process, and You cant make this stuff up.
Delayed start
While CGI Federal, a primary contractor, was awarded its $94 million contract to design the websites back end in December 2011, the government was so slow to issue specications that the rm did not start writing software code until spring 2013. As late as the last week of September, features were in ux because ofcials kept making changes.15 That becomes a real problem if youre using a waterfall method where you begin with the requirement process, then move to coding, then move to testing, then release an entire system, said Kev Coleman, head of research and data at HealthPocket, a site that compares and ranks health insurance plans.16
According to expectations
Major IT projects fail in the private sector, too, but without the entire nation watching. Anyone who has written a line of code or built a system from the ground up cannot be surprised or even mildly concerned that www. healthcare.gov did not work out of the gate, said Jim Johnson, chair of the Standish Group
(continues on p. 16)
December 2013 QP 15
KEEpINGCURRENT
Website woes (continued from p. 15)
International, an IT company. The real news would have been if [www. healthcare.gov] actually did work.17 Still, government IT has a notorious reputation for poor project management and an overreliance on contractors. A 2008 report showed 48% of federal IT projects were restructured because of cost overages or goal changes. Another 2008 report said 43% of the Department of Health and Human Services major projects were being monitored by the Ofce of Management and Budget because of poor performance and other concerns. After improvements trickled in and outages occurred in the rst few weeks following the rocky launch, the White House enlisted some of the best and brightest from Google, Oracle and RedHat to x the problems that were still rampant and crippling the website in early November.18,19 But the clock is ticking, and some ofcials worry the troubled website may start to directly affect the success of the healthcare law.20 The White House hopes to enroll 7 million people in Obamacare by the end of 2014. Obama says the product is good. You can have the best product in the world, but if no one can buy it, it really doesnt matter, said David Lloyd, CEO of IntelliResponse, a customer service technology provider.21 Megan Schmidt, contributing editor
EDITORS NOTE
To see the references and links to the sources, read the online version of this article at http://asq.org/ quality-progress/2013/12/keeping-current.html.
HEALTHCARE
HOSPITAL ERRORS THE third-LEADING CAUSE OF DEATHS IN the U.S.

New research estimates that up to 440,000 Americans are dying each year from preventable hospital errors, which would make medical errors the third-leading cause of death in the United States. The research, prepared by the Leapfrog Group, a patient safety advocacy group, underscores the need for patients to protect themselves and their families from harm, and for hospitals to make patient safety a priority, group representatives said. During this time of rapid healthcare transformation, its vital that we work together to arm patients with the information they need and tell doctors and hospitals that the time for change is now, said Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog. The research also grades general hospitals in the United States. Leapfrog reports that many of these hospitals are making headway in addressing errors, accidents, injuries and infections that kill or hurt patients, but overall progress is slow. For more information about the research and how the hospital safety scores were calculated, visit www. hospitalsafetyscore.org. EXEMPLAR GLOBAL
Three Honored as 2013 Award Recipients

Three organizations from two different categories have been name recipients of the 2013 Malcolm Baldrige National Award. The recipients, announced Nov. 13, include: Pewaukee School District, WI (education category). Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano, TX (healthcare category). Sutter Davis Hospital, Davis, CA (healthcare category). The Baldrige program has had a tangible impact on the success of thousands of organizations worldwide and our nations economy, and the winners will undoubtedly continue that legacy and serve as role models for their peers in the health care and education sectors, U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said during the announcement of this years award recipients. The Baldrige judges also recognized two organizations that excelled in one or more of the Baldrige criteria categories. They are: Duke University Hospital, Durham, NC. Hill Country Memorial, Fredericksburg, TX. A ceremony honoring the organizations will take place during the 26th Quest for Excellence Conference April 7-9, 2014, in Baltimore. To read more about the recipients, visit www.nist.gov/baldrige/ baldrige_recipients2013.cfm.
BALDRIGE AWARD
CERTIFICATION ORGANIZATIONs CHANGE NAME

The ASQ entity RABQSA International and iNARTE last month changed their names to Exemplar Global. The organization, which develops personnel and training certication products for professionals and training providers, wanted to recalibrate itself so that we can demonstrate that we now serve a broader community of professionals and organizations in their pursuit of recognition of their abilities, Peter Holtmann, CEO and president of Exemplar Global, said in a statement. The rebranded RABQSA International Inc. and iNARTE brands are represented in 190 countries and offer certications to 15,000 industry professionals and more than 100 training organizations. For more information about the name change, visit Exemplar Global at www.exemplarglobal.org.
Mr. Pareto Head
BY MIKE CROSSEN
GlObal sTaTE Of qUalITy REsEaRCh
REPORT PUTS THE SPOTLIGHT SQUARELY ON THE QUSTOMER
A balance between quality and customer engagement is needed to increase the value of products and services organizations provide to both internal and external customers, according to the rst of four reports that complement ASQs Global State of Quality Research. The ve-page spotlight report highlights an ASQcoined termQustomerand says 67.4% of respondents share some quality performance information with customers, but a delicate balance is critical to success: Too much interaction with customers can be costly, but too little wont yield adequate information to improve quality. In addition to striking a balance, the report concludes there are other challenges to incorporating the customer into the quality process, including cultural differences, intellectual property issues and regulatory standards. The report also describes how organizations such as Airbus, ABF Freight and Booz Allen Hamilton share information within their organizations about the role of customers. These spotlight reports take a close look at the data presented in the Global State of Quality Research, providing real-world examples of the impact of quality, said ASQ Chair John Timmerman. The Qustomer spotlight offers examples of how organizations are engaging customers to improve product performance and services, and offers approaches that all companies can use and benet from. To download the Qustomer spotlight report, visit http://asq.org/global-state-of-quality/index.aspx. The report is free to ASQ members and $29 for nonmembers.
second Keynote annOUNCED Tony Kern, the founding partner and CEO of Convergent Performance LLC, a think tank based in Colorado Springs, CO. has been announced as the second keynote speaker for ASQs 14th annual Lean and Six Sigma Conferenceto be held Feb. 24-25 in Phoenix. Kern has authored seven books on human performance, including the Plane of Excellence trilogy (Redening Airmanship, Flight Discipline and Darker Shades of Blue). He is also a featured columnist for Canadian Skies, Vertical and Vertical 911 magazines. Kern joins Shane A. Yount, the previously announced keynote speaker for the lean and Six Sigma event. Yount is a nationally recognized author, speaker and principal of Competitive Solutions Inc., an international business transformation consulting rm. Watch for more updates on the conference at http://asq.org/conferences/six-sigma. Early-bird registration pricing runs through Jan. 13. PITTSBURGH SECTION HONORED ASQs Pittsburgh Section has received the Keystone Alliance for Performance Excellence (KAPE) Award. KAPE helps Pennsylvania organizations achieve performance excellence using the Baldrige criteria as a framework for improvement. Five other award recipients were recognized along with the ASQ section at a banquet and conference in November in Harrisburg, PA. STUDENT MEMBERSHIP UPGRADE Student members of ASQ can now select to participate in one of ASQs 25 forums and divisions as a way to further network with those in the quality community and learn best practices. The upgrade is one way to enhance this level of membership and improve the experience of student members. For more information about membership levels, visit http://asq.org/membership/members/ your-benets.html.
ASQNEWs
December 2013 QP 17
EXtrA * EXtrA * EXtrA * EXtrA * EXtr

ALL tHe NuMBeRs YOu NeeD tO KNOW
QP Salary
READ THEIr MINDS

What hiring managers look for in job candidates
by Max Christian Hansen
THE QUALITY PROFESSION is helping the world economy pull

out of its long slump. Those who responded to this years QP Salary Survey seem to be experiencing their own recoverybe it ever-so-slight. After a year in which the average salary for full-time employees in the United States stagnated, the needle moved upward again for quality professionals in 2013.
The average salary for full-timers in the United States was $88,458 in 2013, up a bit from 2012s average of $86,743. That latter gure was $343 lower than the average salary in the previous year, the rst time the U.S. average had decreased in the 27-year history of the survey. This years increase, amounting to only 1.58% over two years, is nothing to crow about, however. Clearly, the world economyand the quality profession itselfstill face some struggles. If youre a quality professional aiming to clear career hurdles and build a successful career, what can you do? Answer: Understand the needs of the marketplace, and prepare yourself accordingly. Hiring managers weigh in Each year, QP accompanies its salary survey results with a discussion of some aspect of the em-
SPONsORED BY
trA * EXtrA * EXtrA * EXtrA * EXtrA
Survey
FOuNDeD 1987
QP SALARY
SURVEY
2013
ployment and salary picture: In 2010, sophisticated statistical techniques showed how several of the variables measured by the survey correlate with salary. In 2011, the value of ASQ certications was highlighted, including an assertion that when certications matched well to the job its holder performs, that certication seemed
to provide a hefty boost to the paycheck. In 2012, formal education and its effect on salary were examined. While every years survey looks at salary by highest degree held by a respondent, extra statistical rigor was applied to the question last year, conrming the high value of education beyond a fouryear degree.
IN THiS ISSUE
Part 1. Regular Employee Results
Section 1 Salary by Job Title Section 2 Salary by U.S. Regions and Canadian Provinces Section 3 Salary by Number of Years of Experience in the Quality Field p. 29 p. 33 Section 14 Salary by Organizational Quality Infrastructure Online Section 15 Salary by Extent of Quality Responsibilities Online Section 16 Salary by Highest Level of Education Online Section 17 Salary by Highest Level of Education and Number of Years in Quality Online Section 18 Salary by Exemplar Global Certication Online Section 19 Salary by Gender and Age Online Section 20 Size of Raise and Additional Annual Payments Online
p. 37
Section 4 Salary by ASQ and Exemplar Global Certication p. 45 Section 5 Salary by Six Sigma Training p. 52
Section 6 Salary by Number of Work Hours Online Section 7 Salary by Nonexempt vs. Exempt Status Online Section 8 Salary by Number of Years in Current Position Online Section 9 Salary by Number of Years in Current Position and in the Quality Field Online Section 10 Salary by Number of Employees Overseen Online Section 11 Salary by Division Size, Organization Size and Location of Headquarters Online Section 12 Salary by Industry Online Section 13 Salary by Geographic Location Online
Part 2. Self-Employed Consultant Results

Section 21 Consultant Overview Online
Section 22 Base Earnings by Years of Experience Online Section 23 Base Earnings by Education and Training Online Section 24 Base Earnings and Rates by Age, Gender and Geographic Location Online
Note: All sections printed in this issue of QP are also available in the online report in PDF format at www.qualityprogress.com/salarysurvey.
December 2013 QP 19
New to the salary survey this year was a set of questions asking hiring managers to describe what they look for in new hires. First, hiring managers were asked what hiring plans they had in the foreseeable future. In total, 2,613 respondents said they believed they knew when they would hire their next employee. Results are shown in Table 1. Remember, the numbers in the second column of this table are the number of respondents answering the questionnot the number of expected hires. Of the hiring managers surveyed, many didnt answer this question, presumably because they didnt know when they would make their next hire. Next, hiring managers were asked which positions they expected to ll with new hires. The results are shown in Table 2. Respondents then were asked to consider what they look for in a prospective hire. They also were asked to rank certain qualications and assets, and other less-quantiable traits they expect in a candidate, including: ASQ certications. Domain or industry experience. Highest academic degree. Personality or character. Exemplar Global (formerly RABQSA International) certications. Six Sigma training. Years of quality experience. There are many ways of gaining an aggregate picture of a groups preferences. No method is ideal; economist Kenneth Arrow received a Nobel Prize for demonstrating how its impossible to design a universally perfect method of gathering and assessing votes. In the case of this years questionnaire, however, two simple methods seemed reasonable: the rst is
to count the number of rst-choice votes received by each option, and average the rankings. The second method is not quite as easy as it sounds. For a simple average of ranking to work, the questionnaire must meet two criteria: 1. It must require each respondent rank every option. 2. It must not permit ties. Because the question allowed options to go unranked and allowed ties, a simple average of rankings wouldnt work, so the closely related method called the Borda count was used. To implement the Borda count, the rankings were normalized so every rstchoice ranking had a value of x 1, each second choice was given x 2 and so on, and x was the number of choices offered. In this case, x = 7. Thus, a rst choice had a value of 6, and values descended by rank until a seventh choice had a value of zero, as did any unranked choice. Then the aggregate ranking was obtained by simply adding up the Borda counts of each option for each respondent. Table 3 (p. 22) shows the ranking results for all respondents, also broken out by the position each respondent was considering when ranking the choices. Many respondents indicated their rankings would have been different if they were interviewing or screening for different positions. For each grouping, the rst line shows the attribute which received the most rst-choice votes, and, in parentheses, the number of rst-choice votes it received out of the total number of respondents who ranked attributes for that job title. The next two lines show the top two choices as determined by the Borda count, with the total Borda count for each option. A complete version of the table with additional rankings listed can be found in the online version of this article at www. qualityprogress.com/salarysurvey. The two methods do not always give the same top choice. However, theres no case in which the rstchoice method ends up a winner that is not among the rst three options as determined by the Borda count.
Expected timing of next hire

When do you expect to hire your next employee? Within 3 months At least 3 months but less than 6 months At least 6 months but less than 9 months At least 9 months but less than 12 months One year or more Number of responses 784 275 271 211 1,072
/ TaBlE 1
Percentage of total 30% 10.52% 10.37% 8.08% 41.03%
Free-form responses
Finally, respondents were asked to name any other attributes they look for in a prospective hire. This question received many responses: 2,321 respondents provided answers, and many named more than one attribute as being important. Of course, there was some redundancy, and many answers provided
Table 1 includes results from managers with hiring authority who answered questions related to their hiring plans.
SPONsORED BY
no information that hadnt already been conveyed by the earlier rankings. Enough new detail was provided to shed light on what hiring managers look for in job candidates, however. Answers that included more than one attribute were divided into individual statements and coded using the schema shown in Table 4 (p. 24), which also shows how many respondents named the attributes. Also for Table 4: Rows one, three and seven: Experience was named far more often than any other desired attribute in a candidate. The overwhelming importance of experience appears only when you see that rows one, three and seven are all codes related to experience. Row one contains the code for experience of a type not specically described. Nearly all other forms of experience fell into one of the other two groups: domain (industry or product type) or quality related. Some responses were even more specic, stating the experience the respondent was looking for was quality experience within a specic product or service realm. These statements often were accompanied by information that the respondents organization operates in a specialized compliance environment. Its worth noting that domain experience seems to be more highly valued than experience in quality. This is especially interesting considering that experience in the quality eld perennially appears as a strong contributor to salary in QPs surveys. Rows two and four: Personality, character and their many facets appeared frequently. Several responses suggested that when personality or character was named, another attribute was given as an example to further explain. This reveals many people dont draw any strong distinction between personality and character. While integrity is often named as a character trait, exibility might be regarded as a feature of either character or personality. Specic traits that may have been given as examples of personality or character, but which were coded separately, were: Fit with existing team or ability to be a team player (row ve). Detail orientation (row 16). Autonomy, ability to be self-directed (row 17). Understanding of quality and quality mindset (row 18). Row six: This was a tricky code to apply, but there
were many responses that clearly clustered around the notion that the hiring manager is looking for candidates with the ability to apply theoretical knowledge in real-life situations, and use it wisely and correctly to solve the variety of problems that arise in workplaces. Many responses used the word exible or some synonym, but those were not placed in this code. The adaptability this code tries to capture is the sort of practical intelligence by which a worker can understand how a new situation is similar to those he or she has already encountered, and can adapt the knowledge gained from school or prior experience to t a new environment. Row 10: When coding, degrees and certications were lumped together because this question was not
QP SALArY
SURVEY
Positions managers foresee hiring / TaBlE 2

Worldwide Quality engineer Technician Inspector Analyst Specialist Associate Manager Auditor Coordinator Other Supervisor Supplier quality engineer/ professional Process/manufacturing/ project engineer Black Belt Consultant Software quality engineer Reliability/safety engineer Green Belt Calibration technician Educator/instructor Director Master Black Belt Champion Vice president/executive 642 607 537 273 270 232 222 207 139 134 129 126 100 88 76 60 55 44 39 37 24 23 10 3 United States 597 560 495 247 256 214 207 186 122 124 118 117 92 86 73 57 53 40 35 36 24 23 7 3 Canada 31 42 34 21 11 14 10 15 12 8 10 6 7 1 1 3 1 3 3 1 164 164 3 0
SPONsORED BY
December 2013 QP 21
2013
Attributes sought by hiring managers

Personality or character (48/139) Analyst Personality or character (639) Domain or industry experience (627) Personality or character (38/92) Associate Personality or character (423) Years of experience (396) Years of experience (39/102) Auditor Years of experience (462) Personality or character (435) Personality or character (18/54) Black Belt Personality or character (241) Domain or industry experience (215) Calibration technician Personality or character (6/16) Years of experience (74) Personality or character (72) Domain or industry experience (2/6) Champion Personality or character (24) Domain or industry experience (22) Years of experience (16/50) Consultant Personality or character (218) Domain or industry experience (218) Personality or character (27/59) Coordinator Personality or character (279) Years of experience (246) Domain or industry experience (21/69) Director Domain or industry experience (306) Personality or character (298) Educator/ Instructor Personality or character (9/23) Personality or character (116) Domain or industry experience (102) Personality or character (4/7) Green Belt Personality or character (39) Six Sigma training received (28) Years of experience (81/226) Inspector Years of experience (1,052) Personality or character (1,018) Years of experience (100/275) Manager Years of experience (1,246) Personality or character (1,215) All positions Technician Supervisor Specialist Master Black Belt
/ taBlE 3
Years of experience (8/25) Years of experience (110) Personality or character (105) Domain or industry experience (28/77) Personality or character (372) Domain or industry experience (351) Personality or character (150/478) Years of experience (2142) Personality or character (2,142) Domain or industry experience (17/38) Domain or industry experience (183) Personality or character (178) Domain or industry experience (19/41) Domain or industry experience (206) Years of experience (198) Years of experience (54/165) Years of experience (733) Personality or character (726) Domain or industry experience (35/98) Personality or character (448) Domain or industry experience (429) Years of experience (20/66) Personality or character (285) Years of experience (282) Personality or character (112/314) Personality or character (1,424) Years of experience (1,344) Personality or character (14/46) Domain or industry experience (200) Personality or character (194) Personality or character (821/2,527) Personality or character (11,672) Years of experience (11,267)
Process/ manufacturing/ project engineer Quality engineer
Reliability/ safety engineer
Software quality engineer
Supplier quality engineer/ professional
Vice president/ executive
What Table 3 shows: Out of all positions for which the respondent plans to hire in the foreseeable future, we asked respondents to consider the highest-paid position and rank the importance they place on each attribute in a candidate for that position. For each position, the rst line shows the attribute with the most rst-choice votes, with the number of rst-place votes in parentheses. The next lines show the ranking as computed by Borda count. For each attribute, the Borda count is given in parentheses. More information about the Borda count method can be found in the article.
SPONsORED BY
regarded as the best means of assessing the importance of either form of standard credential. The reasoning was this: As a few respondents explicitly stated, degrees are often named as minimum requirements in a job description, and thus arent regarded as being within the discretion of the hiring manager when he or she reviews rsums or interviews candidates. For certain job titles, the same may hold true for certications. In other words, respondents were mostly thinking of what theyll have in mind when theyre screening or interviewing a candidate. Theyll mostly think of degrees and certications as something likely to have been already screened by HR before a candidate would be shortlisted and sent for the respondents consideration. Rows eight and 13: Respondents were often very helpful in naming the type of communications skills they sought and the importance of leadership skills in the positions they were thinking of lling. When the attribute was communication, responses often included: Technical competency and ability to professionally communicate with a diverse audience. Ability to communicate technical concepts for the layperson. When it came to leadership, these were typical answers: Ability to be a change agent. Ability to effectively lead from a position of inuence vs. a position of authority. Ability to inuence and drive improvement without direct authority. Experience and willingness to invoke process change. Ability to foster an environment of improvement through prevention, not detection. Many of these assets overlap, meaning one may depend on another. For example, even in an intelligent person, the ability to see how a particular problem ts into the big picture and how various possible actions will affect an organizations overall well-being (in nancial or quality terms) depend on experience of both kinds: domain and quality. In addition, common sense and the ability to apply book knowledge to hands-on situations is often a function of life experience and simple maturity.
plied by respondents to this years special questions were enlightening. The most important responses probably werent the most common. Yes, everybody wants their hires to have experience, t into the team and possess problem-solving skills. From my own experience, however, respondents who emphasize communication and leadership are the ones who are doing the sort of hiring that will best move their organizations forward. Why? Because quality is a quest, and if theres perfection to be found at the end of it, very few, if any, organizations have gotten there. The methods that truly achieve quality will always be at odds with the old paradigm of produce-then-test, and that paradigm is a natural and seductive one. Furthermore, theres a growing awareness that if quality isnt everywhere, it isnt really anywhere. Heres an extreme example: In the 1980s, I worked with a company in the auto parts industry. The rm was at an early stage in the process of implementing statistical process controls, and the vice president overseeing the campaign had a pretty dour view of how long it might take for quality to be consistent across the enterprise. The reason: It might take years to train suppliers on how to work in the companys new quality-oriented processes, and in many cases, it might be impossible. New suppliers would have to be found. At a meeting of workers directly involved with the change project, he talked about supplier quality:
Our contracts wont allow us to send back a roll of metal stock for out-of-spec width unless more than 30% of the roll is noncompliant. Well, we cant know that until we measure, and we dont want to clog up our new, smooth processes with material thats full of surprises. So we have to take every roll into a special room and feed it through a special gauge designed to get it through quickly and alert us when the width is wrong. Here we are trying to be a state-of-the-art company, and we have to invent new machines just to scrap incoming material.
QP SALArY
SURVEY
This is an extreme example and from an earlier decade. In the early 1980s, the United States was just reawakening to the quality teachings that had helped it win World War II but had then been largely forgotten. Theres been a lot of progress since then, but I suspect there are many supply chains that lack end-to-end best practices.
Extend the scope of quality

While QPs annual survey always measures variables that are easy to quantify, the free-form answers sup-
SPONsORED BY
December 2013 QP 23
2013
ASQ recently published a report titled The ASQ Global State of Quality: Discoveries 2013, which reveals that only 46% of manufacturing rms participating in the study train their suppliers on their quality system. Of course, this doesnt mean those suppliers are sending junk. Most probably have their own quality systems in place. The point is that there can be many potential weak links in a supply chain. Even in a products go-to-market process (from conception and design through process design to manufacture and distribution), there may be gaps. Quality is often implemented rst at the downstream end of this process, the end nearest the customer. The farther you go upstream, the more likely it is that quality isnt everything it could be. Manufacturing processes arent always designed to be as controllable as they might be, and products arent always designed for manufacturability.
So, if quality is a questand it isthen the workers who are going to provide the greatest value to their organizations (and be rewarded in turn) are those who can do more than measure, report and take corrective action. Theyre the ones who do their part to carry a proactive and quality-conscious mindset to every part of the business environment they touch.
Practical implications
What does this mean for the quality professional building a career? It means, rst of all, that youll do well to keep your eye on the big picture. Membership in ASQ is a start because it will help you understand the whole realm of quality, even in areas where you may not have an opportunity to gain hands-on experience. Training, schooling, and certications can help you expand your understanding. But as survey respondents this year overwhelmingly reported, experience is king. Every day of work is a day of experience, but there are ways to maximize the value of that experience. Seek out new ways to apply what you know, and areas in which you can gain new hands-on knowledge. Several of our respondents mentioned they werent simply looking for experience in their job applicants, but were seeking broad, diverse or varied experience. This doesnt mean job hopping. Theres a wealth of experience available in nearly every organization. Although QP Salary Surveys consistently show theres little reward for staying in the same job for a long time, this means only that quality professionals advance themselves by being promoted to higher-skilled and better-paying positions. Most often, this doesnt involve a change of employers. Sometimes, however, a new employer is whats called for. If you have what some of our respondents call the quality mindset and youre an eager evangelist for quality, youll quickly enough develop radar for whether your organization is on the same path. If not, it may be time for a move. If an organization really cares about quality, it will gladly reward the employees who help it in the quest. QP
MAX CHRISTIAN HANSEN is president of Bright Hat Communications Inc. in Sacramento, CA. The rm does communications consulting for science-based public policy, quantitative research and marketing organizations. Hansen has an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Sloan School of Management in Cambridge. He is a member of ASQ.
Attributes named by code and number of responses / TaBlE 4

Attribute 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Experiencetype not specied. Attitude/characternot otherwise specied. Domain experience (industry or specic product or process). Personalitynot otherwise specied. Fit with existing team or general ability to be a team player. Adaptability, problem-solving skills and ability to apply theoretical knowledge. Experience in the quality profession. Communications skills. Abilitygeneral. Standard credentials, such as degrees or certications. Track record of achievement. General intelligenceability to learn. Leadership skills and ability. Analytical skill. Response unreadable or difcult to classify. Detail orientation. Autonomyability to be self-directed. Understanding of quality and quality mindset. Total attributes named Number of responses 656 560 367 306 246 218 217 177 170 159 80 69 52 47 41 35 35 15 3,450
SPONsORED BY
Behind the Results
QP SALArY
SURVEY
The 2013 QP Salary Survey was sent to 44,945 ASQ members. There were 7,504 individual responses, for a response rate of 16.7%. Some responses were deleted from the data set because they were incomplete, included implausible earnings amounts that could not be validated or were duplicate responses. After these responses were removed, there were 6,445 usable responses. Each response fell into one of the employment categories listed in Table 1. The data from the 6,039 full-time and part-time regular employees and the 44 regular employees who also work as self-employed consultants were used to create the 20 sections in Part 1. Regular Employee Results. The data from the 167 self-employed consultants and the 44 regular employees who also work as self-employed consultants were used to produce the four sections in Part 2. Self-Employed Consultant Results. Its worth noting that the number of respondents who work both as regular employees and as self-employed consultants dropped considerably from 2011 (163) to 2012 (55). That total has dropped even further to this years 44. Except for the information provided in Table 1, the salary survey report doesnt discuss data from the people who are unemployed, retired or laid off. The vast majority of those who participated in the survey work in the United States and Canada. Because there were few respondents from other countries, only a few sections in the salary survey report include results from this group, which is labeled as international. Sections 13 and 24 discuss the countries represented in this group. You can learn whether tables or gures include international results by glancing at the information boxes below the graphics. In addition to specifying whether tables or gures include results from international, U.S. and Canadian respondents, these boxes specify whether graphics include results from full-time and part-time respondents. Some boxes provide additional notes. Of the 24 sections in the salary survey results, 19 are online only and can be found at www.qualityprogress.
com under the tab Tools and Resources. The website also includes the entire survey report in PDF format.
A note on currencies
For Canadian employees and consultants, salaries and earnings are provided in Canadian dollars. For all employees and consultants outside the United States and Canada, salaries and earnings are given in U.S. dollars. Exchange rates were supplied by the respondent and were retrieved on the day the respondent took the survey during the month of July. In the few cases in which respondents from different countries are evaluated together, all salaries are in U.S. dollars. In cases in which QP editors needed to convert currencies, the exchange rate effective July 1 was used. In a single case (Table 4 in section 4), Canadian and U.S. respondents were viewed together to determine the salary premium afforded by holding certain ASQ certications. In that case, Canadian salaries were converted to their U.S. dollar equivalents using the exchange rate effective July 1.
Statistical terms
In case youre not familiar with the statistical terms and job titles in these sections, here are brief descriptions: Minimum salary: The minimum salary is the lowest salary reported in that particular group. Maximum salary: The maximum salary is the highest salary reported in that particular group. Standard deviation: Standard deviation is a measure of dispersion around the mean. In a normal distribution, 68% of cases fall within one standard deviation of the mean, and 95% of cases fall within two standard deviations. For example, if the mean salary is $70,000 with a standard deviation of $15,000, 95% of the cases are between $40,000 and $100,000 in a normal distribution. Count: The count is the number of respondents in that particular group. Mean salary: The mean salary is the average salary for that particular group.
SPONsORED BY
December 2013 QP 25
2013
Median salary: The median salary is the 50th percentilethat is, the salary at which half the cases fall above and half fall below. If there is an even number of cases, the median is the average of the two middle cases.
quality management, assurance or control activities. Auditor: Performs and reports on internal or external quality system audits. Black Belt (BB): Six Sigma or quality expert. Often a full-time team leader responsible for implementing process improvement projects in the organization to improve customer satisfaction levels and business productivity. Calibration technician: Tests, calibrates, maintains and repairs electrical, mechanical, electromechanical, analytical and electronic measuring, recording and indicating instruments and equipment for conformance to established standards. Champion: Business leader or senior manager who ensures resources are available for quality training and projects and is involved in project tollgate reviews. Often an executive who supports and addresses Six Sigma organizational issues. Consultant: Provides advice, facilitation and training on the development, administration and technical aspects of an organizations quality improvement efforts at any or all levels. Has expertise in some or all aspects of the quality eld. This person can be from outside the organization or can be an employee of the organization. Coordinator: Collects, organizes, monitors and distributes information related to quality and process improvement functions, possibly including compliance to and documentation of quality management standards, such as ISO 9001. Typi-
Job titles
In each years salary survey, QP asks respondents to choose from a list of job titles that most closely matches their own. In all years, there are some respondents whose titles do not closely match any on the list. Those who choose other are asked to ll in a title. This is the rst year we are reporting on other as a group because the number of respondents in that category has risen to 259, larger than in any other year. Here are the suggested denitions for the job titles used in the 2013 survey. Some of the denitions were compiled by an HR expert and have been revised throughout the years. Based on respondent feedback, they will continue to be analyzed and revised periodically. All denitions are intended only as a guide: Analyst: Initiates and coordinates quality-related data from production, service or process improvement activities and reports these data using statistical techniques. Associate: Involved in quality improvement projects but not necessarily full-time. Does not necessarily have primary responsibility for traditional
Employment status of respondents / TaBlE 1

Count Regular, full-time employee Regular, part-time employee Regular employee who is also a self-employed consultant Self-employed consultant Unemployed, retired or laid off for more than six months Unemployed, retired or laid off within the last six months 6,044 39 44 167 66 85 Percentage 93.8% 0.6 0.7 2.6 1 1.3
cally generates reports using computer skills and distributes those reports to various users in the organization or among customers and suppliers. Director: Oversees all aspects of the organizations quality or business improvement efforts, such as developing and administrating the program, training and coaching employees, and facilitating change throughout the organization. Responsible for establishing strategic plans, policies and procedures at all levels so quality improvement efforts will meet or exceed internal and external customers needs and expectations. Educator/instructor: Instructs or trains others on quality-related topics, tools and techniques. This person may be an employee of an organization or teach in a university or college setting. Green Belt: Operates in support of or under the supervision of a BB, analyzes quality problems and
Table 1 includes results for: xFull-time employees, xParttime employees, xU.S.employees, xCanadianemployees, xInternationalemployees Percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding.
SPONsORED BY
This years response rate was 16.7%. After data validation, there were 6,445 usable responses.
is involved in quality improvement projects. Has at least three years of work experience. Inspector: Inspects, audits and reports on materials, processes and products using variable or attribute measuring instruments and techniques to ensure conformance with an organizations quality standards. Manager: Ensures the administration of the organizations quality, process or business improvement efforts within a dened segment of the organization. Might be responsible for dealing with customers and suppliers on quality or performance issues. Typically has direct reports. Master Black Belt: Six Sigma or quality expert responsible for strategic implementations within an organization. Qualied to teach other Six Sigma facilitators the methods, tools and applications in all functions and levels of the organization. A resource for using statistical methods to improve processes. Process/manufacturing/project engineer: Performs engineering work to evaluate manufacturing processes or performance improvement projects for optimization. May develop processes to ensure quality, cost and efciency requirements are met. Quality engineer: Designs, installs and evaluates quality assurance process sampling systems, procedures and statistical techniques. Designs or species inspection and testing mechanisms and equipment. Analyzes production and service limitations and standards. Recommends revision of specications. Formulates or helps formulate quality assurance policies and procedures. May conduct training on quality assurance concepts and tools. Interfaces with all other engineering components within the organization and with customers and suppliers on quality-related issues. Reliability/safety engineer: Uses principles of performance evaluation and prediction to improve the safety, reliability and maintainability of products and systems. Plans reliability tests and conducts analyses of eld failures. Develops and administers reliability information systems for failure analysis and performance improvement. Software quality engineer: Applies quality principles to the development and use of software and software-based systems. Designs and implements software development and maintenance processes. Designs or species test methods for software inspection, verication and validation. Specialist: As the primary assignment, performs a specic quality-related function in the organizations quality program. Examples include: management representative, statistician and testing expert. Supervisor: Administers the organizations quality improvement efforts within a dened department. Has direct reports who implement some aspect of the policies and procedures of the quality functions. Supplier quality engineer/professional: Responsible for all quality improvement issues related to vendors and suppliers of materials, products or services used in development or manufacture. Assesses potential new suppliers. Works with suppliers to develop and improve the entire supply chain. May be involved in purchasing. Technician: Performs basic quality techniques possibly including calibrationto track, analyze and report on materials, processes and products to ensure they meet the organizations quality standards. Vice president/executive: Establishes the direction for the development and administration of the organizations quality improvement efforts. Consults with peers on the attitudes and practices of quality throughout the organization to develop an environment of continual improvement in every aspect of the organizations products and services. Acts as a champion for quality.
QP SALArY
SURVEY
SPONsORED BY
December 2013 QP 27
2013
Because MEIRxRS does it!

u On-shore work u Keep jobs in the U.S.
Contribute to the Economy By

u Training and employing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math professionals u Making jobs available
100 N. Brand Boulevard, Glendale CA 91203 (P) 800.507.5277 or 818-552-2036 (E) info@meirxrs.com
www.meirxrs.com
QP SALARY
O
United States Canada
Overview of Earnings
Of those who responded to this years salary survey, the vast majority are employees of a single organization, and of these, most work full time. Part one of this report, consisting of sections 1-19, addresses these respondents. In the United States and Canada, a small percentage of these respondents also work as self-employed consultants. Table 1 shows they make considerably more money overall through their side work. They also earn more than the average employee in their regular employment. In the United States, full-time employees who also consult earn, on average, $121,560 in their regular employment plus $98,991 from consulting. In Canada, the corresponding numbers are $113,000 and $91,667. For more information about these and other consultants, see the online report, which includes four sections in part two covering self-employed consultants, their demographics and earnings. For the rest of part one, these workers are treated simply with regard to their regular employment, and their side income is ignored. In the United States and Canada, employees who also have consulting clients earn much higher salaries than those who have no such extra income. Perhaps these employees include many with the highest-level skills, making it worth their while to deploy those skills in serving consulting clients in addition to their employers. Figures 1 and 2 (p. 30) show salaries by title for full-time employees in the United States and Canada. The top earners in the United States were vice president/executives, directors and Master Black Belts. In Canada,
Part 1. Regular Employee Results Section 1. Salary by Job Title
SURVEY
Salary by employment status

Percentage Average salary earned as an employee $88,458 51,092 121,560 58,600 $84,226 60,800 113,000 70,000
/ TABLE 1
employees with the title educator/instructor were paid quite well and appear in second place behind those titled vice president/executive. Table 2 (p. 31) provides detailed information for full-time and part-time quality professionals in the United States. Table 3 (p. 32) shows the same information for Canada.
Average base revenue earned as a self-employed consultant $98,991 32,800 156,608 $91,667 70,000 122,253
Full-time employee Part-time employee Full-time employee and self-employed consultant Part-time employee and self-employed consultant Self-employed consultant only Full-time employee Part-time employee Full-time employee and self-employed consultant Part-time employee and self-employed consultant Self-employed consultant only
96.5% 0.6 0.4 0.1 2.4 92.7% 1.3 0.8 0.3 5
Money Talks
Are you satisfied with your job and salary? Why or why not?
Im very happy with how much money I make, but Im always working to improve myself.
Michelle Gutshall, health, safety and quality technician, Flexsteel Pipe Technologies
2013
Table 1 includes results for: xFull-time employees, xParttime employees, xU.S.employees, xCanadianemployees, Internationalemployees Canadian salaries are noted in Canadian dollars.
SPONsORED BY
December 2013 QP 29
Salary by job title for U.S. respondents/FiGuRE 1

Job title (percentage of respondents) Vice president/executive (2.3%) Director (10.4%) Master Black Belt (1.3%) Consultant (2.2%) Reliability/safety engineer (1.5%) Champion (0.2%) Software quality engineer (1.3%) Black Belt (2.3%) Manager (27%) Educator/instructor (0.7%) Process/manufacturing/project engineer (3.1%) Supplier quality engineer/professional (3.6%) Quality engineer (17.1%) Auditor (4.1%) Supervisor (3.2%) Specialist (5.1%) Green Belt (0.7%) Other (1.2%) Analyst (3.3%) Coordinator (2.5%) Associate (0.9%) Calibration technician (0.9%) Inspector (1.7%) Technician (3.6%) 0 $30,000
154,720 123,460 119,274 112,435 103,604 100,630 97,832 93,123 92,740 90,293 86,566 86,456 79,621 76,776 74,212 73,513 73,045 71,801 70,657 60,595 57,614 51,183 50,771 49,557
Figure 1 includes results for: xFull-time employees, Parttime employees, xU.S.employees, Canadianemployees, Internationalemployees
$60,000 $90,000 Average salary
$120,000
$150,000
Salary by job title for Canadian respondents/FiGuRE 2

Job title (percentage of respondents) Vice president/executive (1.3%) Educator/instructor (0.3%) Director (8.6%) Black Belt (0.8%) Software quality engineer (0.5%) Consultant (1.3%) Champion (0.8%) Manager (31.6%) Auditor (3.5%) Reliability/safety engineer (1.3%) Process/manufacturing/project engineer (2.1%) Analyst (4.6%) Quality engineer (12.3%) Specialist (8.3%) Supplier quality engineer/professional (1.3%) Supervisor (5.6%) Green Belt (0.3%) Calibration technician (0.5%) Coordinator (5.4%) Associate (2.1%) Technician (5.6%) Other (0.5%) Inspector (1.1%) $10,000
127,320 125,000 115,153 115,000 103,500 98,400 96,791 95,388 90,754 86,700 84,000 77,772 76,261 74,334 72,600 70,412 68,000 61,000 59,259 56,875 52,310 48,500 44,750
Figure 2 includes results for: xFull-time employees, Parttime employees, U.S.employees, xCanadianemployees, Internationalemployees Salaries are noted in Canadian dollars.
$50,000 $90,000 Average salary
$130,000
SPONsORED BY
QP SALARY
SURVEY
Median $84,530 66,410 56,000 72,000 91,500 50,000 89,128 105,500 55,000 121,000 88,000 67,500 45,000 90,000 116,750 65,500 85,000 77,000 104,000 97,500 70,000 70,000 85,500 45,000 145,000 $51,000 65,000 33,800 52,000 50,000 40,000 23,000 117,000 46,000 43,000 74,800 66,500 49,500 32,350
Salary by job title for U.S. respondents

Minimum Full-time employees All full-time employees Analyst Associate Auditor Black Belt Calibration technician Champion Consultant Coordinator Director Educator/instructor Green Belt Inspector Manager Master Black Belt Other Process/manufacturing/project engineer Quality engineer Reliability/safety engineer Software quality engineer Specialist Supervisor Supplier quality engineer/professional Technician Vice president/executive Part-time employees All part-time employees Analyst Associate Auditor Black Belt Consultant Coordinator Director Educator/instructor Inspector Manager Other Quality engineer Specialist $9,116 65,000 9,116 20,000 36,000 30,000 23,000 117,000 10,000 43,000 63,000 50,000 45,000 30,000 $117,000 65,000 55,000 90,000 78,288 65,000 23,000 117,000 85,000 43,000 86,089 83,000 54,000 34,700 $13,200 27,000 19,000 32,000 50,000 26,000 55,000 36,000 21,496 31,000 36,000 45,000 19,760 27,000 58,000 20,000 45,000 29,000 57,595 56,000 24,000 32,000 47,000 13,200 30,000 $400,000 150,000 147,000 250,000 195,000 100,000 169,050 400,000 160,000 400,000 175,000 140,000 130,000 306,000 200,000 150,000 200,000 180,000 173,160 152,000 180,000 170,000 157,000 320,000 309,100 Maximum
/ TABLE 2
Count Mean
Standard deviation $35,712 23,730 26,085 29,170 21,186 13,823 35,142 48,307 24,348 38,324 33,452 21,272 20,985 28,700 32,328 31,124 24,405 21,793 22,469 20,358 25,790 24,814 20,723 29,354 57,346 $24,778 22,964 32,851 21,542 13,829 27,780 12,365 23,335 6,363 3,323
5,621 184 49 229 128 49 12 123 139 582 40 39 96 1,517 75 66 171 964 84 71 289 182 201 203 128 38 2 3 5 3 6 1 1 6 1 4 2 2 2
$88,606 70,657 57,614 76,776 93,123 51,183 100,630 112,435 60,595 123,460 90,293 73,045 50,771 92,740 119,274 71,801 86,566 79,621 103,604 97,832 73,513 74,212 86,456 49,557 154,720 $52,080 65,000 32,639 54,200 54,763 45,407 23,000 117,000 44,167 43,000 74,672 66,500 49,500 32,350
Table 2 includes results for: xFull-time employees, xParttime employees, xU.S.employees, Canadianemployees, Internationalemployees
SPONsORED BY
December 2013 QP 31
2013
Salary by job title for Canadian respondents

Minimum Full-time employees All full-time employees Analyst Associate Auditor Black Belt Calibration technician Champion Consultant Coordinator Director Educator/instructor Green Belt Inspector Manager Other Process/manufacturing/project engineer Quality engineer Reliability/safety engineer Software quality engineer Specialist Supervisor Supplier quality engineer/professional Technician Vice president/executive Part-time employees All part-time employees Consultant Director Educator/instructor Manager Other Specialist $12,000 70,000 125,000 40,000 78,000 12,000 49,000 $125,000 70,000 125,000 40,000 78,000 12,000 49,000 $38,578 $30,000 40,000 42,000 42,000 100,000 50,000 67,774 69,000 37,500 60,000 125,000 68,000 30,000 31,200 42,000 48,000 45,000 60,000 102,000 43,000 50,000 56,000 35,000 100,000 $250,000 150,000 90,000 145,600 130,000 72,000 135,000 149,000 82,000 250,000 125,000 68,000 65,000 250,000 55,000 120,000 150,000 95,000 105,000 185,000 100,000 85,000 75,000 186,000 $30,362 24,253 15,394 25,022 15,000 15,556 34,543 33,857 15,087 32,458 14,637 27,459 9,192 25,596 23,441 15,189 2,121 27,566 16,858 12,661 10,980 37,975 Maximum Standard deviation
/ TABLE 3
Mean Median
Count
373 17 8 13 3 2 3 5 20 32 1 1 4 118 2 8 46 5 2 31 21 5 21 5 6 1 1 1 1 1 1
$84,458 77,772 56,875 90,754 115,000 61,000 96,791 98,400 59,259 115,153 125,000 68,000 44,750 95,388 48,500 84,000 76,261 86,700 103,500 74,334 70,412 72,600 52,310 127,320 $62,333 70,000 125,000 40,000 78,000 12,000 49,000
$80,000 72,520 50,500 90,000 115,000 61,000 87,600 86,000 60,000 105,000 125,000 68,000 42,000 90,000 48,500 83,500 70,000 95,000 103,500 68,000 70,000 76,000 52,000 105,000 $59,500 70,000 125,000 40,000 78,000 12,000 49,000
Table 3 includes results for: xFull-time employees, xParttime employees, U.S.employees, xCanadianemployees, Internationalemployees Salaries are noted in Canadian dollars.
Money Talks
What will define the future of quality, in your eyes?
Any industrys ability to balance cost with quality. Teams have to
work in tandem to balance a suppliers ability to provide a quality
product at a price which allows both organizations to profit.
Tina Henselmeier, supplier quality improvement engineer, Cummins Inc.
SPONsORED BY
Regional Variations
tion further breaks down salaries by job title for: U.S. states. U.S. metropolitan areas. Canadian metropolitan areas. Other countries. In Canada, the variations in percentage are even larger.
SURVEY
Average salaries of quality professionals vary widely by region, state or province. In the United States, the highestpaying region provides salaries 9.2% higher than the national average, while the lowest-paying region comes in at 9.3% below that average (see Figure 1). The lowest-paying province provides salaries 25.7% below the national average, and the highest-paying province comes in at 35.3% above the average (see Figure 2). In the United States, the highest-paying region is the Pacic, where the average salary for all job titles is $96,769. The lowest salaries are an average of $80,339 in the West North Central region. The East South Central is nearly as low, with an average of $81,738. In both these areas, the relatively low salaries are in line with the cost of living. For example, Tennessee has a cost of living index (COLI) of 90.6 (see Figure 3, p. 34), meaning its living expenses are 9.4% lower than the national average. Each states COLI is its cost of living stated as a percentage of the national average. Thus, Delawares COLI of 108.3 means it is 8.3% more expensive to live there than the national average. Salaries and living costs dont line up so well in the high-paying Pacic region. There, while the average pay of this years survey respondents is 9.2% higher than the national average, this doesnt come close to matching Californias COLI, which is 25.8% higher than average. Figure 3s second-quarter 2013 COLIs were compiled by the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER). This council calculates COLIs for cities and metropolitan areas that voluntarily collect information on the cost of groceries, housing, utilities, healthcare and other items. Figure 3 doesnt include a cost of living gure for Puerto Rico because C2ER doesnt provide COLIs for U.S. territories. For more information about COLIs, see C2ERs website at http://coli.org. In Canada, the highest salaries are paid in Alberta, where they average $114,271. The lowest salaries, averaging $62,786, are in Manitoba. Tables 1 (United States) and 2 (Canada), pp. 3536, break down regional and provincial salaries by job title. More detailed geographically based infor-
mation for both countries, as well as the rest of the world, is available in section 13 of the full survey report, available online at www.qualityprogress.com/salarysurvey. That sec-
Comparison of salaries in U.S. regions/FiGuRE 1

Pacic New England West South Central South Atlantic Middle Atlantic Mountain East North Central East South Central West North Central 9 6 3 0
9.2 ($96,769) 5.9 ($93,838) 3.9 ($92,093) 3.1 ($91,370) 2.6 ($90,949) 2.2 ($86,650) 5.9 ($83,410) 7.8 ($81,738) 9.3 ($80,339)
2013
Part 1. Regular Employee Results Section 2. Salary by U.S. Regions and Canadian Provinces
QP SALARY
National average salary of $88,606
Percentage difference from the national average salary (region's average salary)
Comparison of salaries in Canadian provinces/FiGuRE 2

Alberta Newfoundland and Labrador Saskatchewan Quebec British Columbia Prince Edward Island Ontario New Brunswick Nova Scotia Manitoba 30
35.3 ($114,271) 21.1 ($102,250) 7.2 ($90,528) 4.1 ($87,907) 1.1 ($83,521) 2.9 ($82,000) 8.1 ($82,158) 13.6 ($73,000) 17.2 ($69,903) 25.7 ($62,786)
National average salary of $84,458
20
10
10
20
30
40
Percentage difference from the national average salary (provinces average salary)
SPONsORED BY
December 2013 QP 33
Percentage of respondents and cost of living by state and territory/FiGuRE 3

Regions Alaska 0.1% 134 Pacic Mountain West North Central East North Central West South Central East South Central South Atlantic Middle Atlantic New England
Washington 2% 103.2 Oregon 1.2% 107 Nevada 0.2% 95 California 10.2% 125.8 Idaho 0.2% 91.2
Montana 0.1% 99.7 Wyoming 0% 98 Colorado 1.9% 100 New Mexico 0.5% 97.1
Utah 1.6% 92.7 Arizona 1.7% 102.3
Hawaii 0.1% 154.1
North Dakota Minnesota 0.1% 4.8% 99.7 101.7 New South Dakota Wisconsin York Michigan 0.1% 3.9% 3.7% 130.5 4.4% 97.9 98.4 Iowa 95.2 Nebraska Pennsylvania 0.9% Indiana Ohio 0.4% 4.4% 101.5 Illinois 94.2 5.2% 3.6% 91.4 5.8% 91.5 93.7 WV Kansas 96.4 Missouri 0.1% Virginia 0.8% 2.5% 96.8 2.4% 96.3 Kentucky 91.6 92.7 1.1% 91.2 North Carolina Tennessee Oklahoma 3.9% 96.3 Arkansas 2.8% 90.6 0.7% South Carolina 0.5% Alabama 90.4 0.9% 91.6 MS 0.8% Georgia 96 0.2% 2.7% 93 Texas 92.4 93.7 Louisiana 7.1% 0.6% 92 Florida 96.3 3.6% 99
New Hampshire 0.5% 119.8 Vermont 0.2% 120.5
Maine 0.3% 110.5 MA 3.5% 122.9 RI 0.4% 124.1 Connecticut 1.4% 132.7 New Jersey 2.4% 130.4 Delaware 0.3% 108.3 D.C. 0.5% 144 Maryland 1.7% 122.5
Puerto Rico 0.8%

Figure 3 includes results for: xFull-time employees, xParttime employees, xU.S.employees, Canadianemployees, Internationalemployees Note: Percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding. Cost-of-living index was not available for U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico. D.C. = Washington, D.C. MA = Massachusetts MS = Mississippi RI = Rhode Island WV = West Virginia
Money Talks
What trends are you witnessing in the quality function at your organization?
and real-time measuring, monitoring and reporting of key performance indicators vs. having to manually create reports monthly.
More movement toward automated
Levi Fisk, senior manager of information quality, IHS
SPONsORED BY
QP SALARY
SURVEY
Salary by U.S. region and job title
Pacic All respondents Analyst Associate Auditor Black Belt Calibration technician Champion Consultant Coordinator Director Educator/ instructor Green Belt Inspector Manager Master Black Belt Other Process/ manufacturing/ project engineer Quality engineer Reliability/safety engineer Software quality engineer Specialist Supervisor Supplier quality engineer/ professional Technician Vice president/ executive $96,769754 71,580
28
/ TABLE 1
East North Central East South Central $81,738275 67,700
10
Mountain $86,650341 63,273 74,78312 113,186

7 13
West North Central $80,339556 70,465

16
West South Central $92,093546 62,615

21
South Atlantic $91,370893 81,586

41
Middle Atlantic $90,949582 77,059

14
2013
New England $93,838353 69,8818 78,0003 83,8668 96,28510 47,4003 125,60010 89,5008 126,83238 63,3333 84,5004 45,5002 95,48380 155,8336 47,0133 91,3729 81,19672 92,4867 80,0001 69,65926 77,64612 100,49017 56,17013 185,34010
$83,4101,300 62,782
33
74,5405 83,76337 102,072

16
66,3754 65,80219 85,910

14
32,0002 79,72524 86,900

9
55,61313 65,98154 92,033

32
56,8502 76,97010 84,734

8
57,94013 80,64939 93,148

22
45,3336 86,64224 85,818

9
49,0007 133,479 133,016

17
51,3333 100,512 115,335

10
42,5717 107,5002 126,050 116,952

10
56,9806 107,4615 119,278 126,650

9
53,0849 96,6673 92,475

21
63,9273 94,440
8
50,8336 105,2501 108,895 128,447

25
50,8755 60,0001 118,617 123,038

12
60,35519
82
65,62010
32
53,74814
48
70,52313
61
51,34527 115,836
120
56,18211 115,415
23
60,95625
113
58,85312
61
74,5002 73,0005 54,120

18
87,3346 65,0002 52,278 94,000

9
95,7505 75,0004 43,271

17
70,0001 71,3333 55,256

5
98,3758 72,9005 55,264

21
101,0003 66,3333 72,708

2
81,2448 60,0009 46,020

15
115,0004 99,5654 47,171

7
104,145180 113,809
3
88,80085
4
83,791150 116,167
6
101,046171 126,000
3
88,427338 104,034
20
84,25884 101,333
3
93,475241 119,852
17
92,314186 138,154
13
72,28010 97,69216 87,121136 110,19221 112,73523 81,96338 81,05329 94,55323 57,09324 170,76715
59,2504 94,0638 83,50466 96,4577 82,16411 73,96415 83,74613 83,54011 51,8758 173,8005
56,3805 82,17825 78,15895 98,3648 66,66938 64,02217 79,42923 47,03422 124,4647
71,5717 92,96721 77,99080 107,1888 92,8754 68,64535 80,70316 85,47713 40,45016 155,53813
74,85218 82,79346 75,255249 98,57316 95,68115 70,68955 72,18546 83,07056 53,37159 137,13336
99,0003 74,8779 72,98742 114,9433 102,3001 75,25010 66,75012 84,0685 45,41213 134,7147
70,4009 86,95426 81,928124 104,56411 96,4147 75,13346 69,02318 85,54928 43,55627 160,73722
88,5336 87,3659 79,41596 116,5003 87,2759 79,89825 73,26018 86,79625 45,11321 176,33312
Table 1 includes results for: xFull-time employees, Parttime employees, xU.S.employees, Canadianemployees, Internationalemployees Superscript numbers denote the number of respondents.
SPONsORED BY
December 2013 QP 35
Salary by Canadian province and job title

Saskatchewan Manitoba British Columbia Quebec Ontario Alberta
/ TABLE 2
Newfoundland and Labrador Prince Edward Island Nova Scotia $69,90310 66,0001 48,0002 99,2002 67,3172 52,0002 100,0001 New Brunswick $73,0001 73,0001
All respondents Analyst Associate Auditor Black Belt Calibration technician Champion Consultant Coordinator Director Educator/ instructor Green Belt Inspector Manager Other Process/ manufacturing/ project engineer Quality engineer Reliability/safety engineer Software quality engineer Specialist Supervisor Supplier quality engineer/ professional Technician Vice president/ executive
$83,52149 67,5073 79,5002 87,6001 86,0001 66,000

1
$114,27153 108,6673 115,2003 115,0002 135,0001 76,500

2
$90,5289 68,0001 115,0001 105,5833 115,0001 95,0001 50,0001 55,0001
$62,78610 60,0001 42,000 60,6673 60,0001 46,0002

1
$77,635199 76,9508 59,4005 79,5006 61,0002 67,7741 112,3333 59,299

14
$87,90735 55,0002 46,0002 103,2001 69,0001 40,000

1
$102,2504 95,0001 90,0001 112,0002
$82,0001 82,0001
107,8577 65,000
1
148,9176 125,0001 122,05523 85,2504 127,6673 63,000 65,0001

4
111,4005
113,10010
68,0001 36,000
2
86,8789 97,0002 89,3333 55,0001 78,325

2
86,11619 42,0001 77,0001 92,3064 67,5002 74,0002 53,0003 105,0001
95,9292
89,43256 55,0001 91,0002 74,19330 92,8333 103,5002 72,24322 71,333

15
69,5002 51,21916 143,8673
76,0001
Table 2 includes results for: xFull-time employees, Parttime employees, U.S.employees, xCanadianemployees, Internationalemployees Salaries are noted in Canadian dollars. Superscript numbers denote the number of respondents.
SPONsORED BY
Part 1. Regular Employee Results Section 3. Salary by Number of Years of Experience in the Quality Field
QP SALARY
SURVEY
2013
O
United States.
Earnings Rise With Experience

Over the 27 years QP has been conducting its salary survey, results have consistently shown that quality professionals are rewarded for their years in the profession. In fact, experience by itself accounts for some of the salary premium paid to the highest earners, as Figure 1 shows for the three highest-earning job titles in the The same analysis would be less meaningful for Canadian professionals, due to the small numbers of respondents in the highest-paid positions there. In Canada, however, the overall pattern holds true that earnings show signicant increases with experience, as Figure 3 (p. 34) shows. Figure 4 (p. 39) shows the experience bands for every job title and demonstrates that, in general, the higher-paid positions are held by the most experienced people. For example, in Canada, respondents with more than 20 years in quality earned on average $29,115 more than those with less than a years experience ($95,240 vs. $66,125). In the United States, the difference is even greater, with the most experienced respondents earning $36,315 more than those in their rst year ($101,189 vs. $64,874), as shown in Figure 2. For information on earnings by job title for respondents with various levels of experience in quality, see Table 1 (pp. 39-42) for respondents in the United States and Table 2 (pp. 43-45) for respondents in Canada. The statistical measures used in these tables are described in the introductory section of this report.
Experience in quality for highest-paid job titles in United States/FiGuRE 1

Vice president/ executive ($154,720) Director ($123,460) Master Black Belt ($119,274) All respondents 0% More than 20 years
32 31.94 53.91 45.08 41.33 31.44 30.47 35.92 15.63 19 26.67 36.62
20%
40% 10.1 to 20 years
60%
80%
100%
10 years or fewer
Salary by years in quality for U.S. respondents/FiGuRE 2

Years of quality experience (percentage of respondents) More than 20 years (31.9%) 10.1-20 years (31.4%) 6.1-10 years (15.1%) 3.1-6 years (10.8%) 1-3 years (8.2%) Less than 1 year (1.9%) None (0.6%) 0 Average salary
65,306 64,874 81,103 78,671 76,402 101,189 92,400
$20,000 $40,000 $60,000 $80,000 $100,000 $120,000
SPONsORED BY
December 2013 QP 37
Salary by years in quality for Canadian respondents/FiGuRE 3

Years of quality experience (percentage of respondents) More than 20 years (26%) 10.1-20 years (38.6%) 6.1-10 years (17.9%) 3.1-6 years (9.9%) 1-3 years (5.9%) Less than 1 year (1.1%) None (0.5%) 0 $20,000 $40,000 $60,000
71,735 65,327 66,125 73,000 84,403 83,711 95,240
Money Talks
What do you like best about working in quality?
Its never the same. Its
always changing, always evolving, always improving. Keeps me on my toes.

Ana Luttmann, manager, quality systems and compliance, TV SD America
$80,000
$100,000
Average salary
Years of experience in quality by job title U.S. and Canada/FiGuRE 4

Job title (average salary) Vice president/executive ($153,509) Director ($121,787) Educator/instructor ($91,048) Manager ($92,722) Master Black Belt ($119,274) Supplier quality engineer/professional ($86,067) Reliability/safety engineer ($102,508) Champion ($99,281) Software quality engineer ($97,902) Quality engineer ($79,342) Auditor ($77,380) Consultant ($111,772) Supervisor ($73,611) Specialist ($73,376) Calibration technician ($51,497) Black Belt ($93,545) Inspector ($50,476) Technician ($49,668) Other ($71,073) Coordinator ($60,203) Process/manufacturing/project engineer ($86,339) Analyst ($70,837) Associate ($57,271) Green Belt ($72,868) 0%
18 19.3 22 26.6 26.7 28.6 31.5 33.3 38.4 38.7 40.5 41.7 45.3 47.2 49 49.6 50 52.2 52.9 56 56.4 61.7 70.2 80 24 26.8 22.1 28.3 26.3 21.9 19.3 15 19.5 35.1 41.3 39.8 38.2 46.7 38.4 29.5 34.3 27.6 33 27.8 25.5 35.1 26 21 25 15.7 17.3 16.4 10.5 5 29.3 36.7 58.5 38.3 32 31.6 30.3 20 23.3 31.8 25.2 30.7 21.7 25 25.5 15.3 52.6 44
20% 10 or fewer years
40%
60%
80%
100%
10.1 to 20 years
More than 20 years
Figure 4 includes results for: xFull-time employees, Parttime employees, xU.S.employees, xCanadianemployees, Internationalemployees Salaries are shown in U.S. dollar equivalents. Canadian salaries were converted using the exchange rate in effect on July 1.
SPONsORED BY
Salary by years in quality and job title (CONtiNuEs tHROuGH P. 42) for U.S. respondents / TABLE 1 (cONtiNuED)
Minimum Less than 1 year 1-3 years Analyst 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years Less than 1 year 1-3 years Associate 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years Less than 1 year 1-3 years Auditor 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years No experience Less than 1 year 1-3 years Black Belt 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years Less than 1 year 1-3 years Calibration technician 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years 1-3 years 3.1-6 years Champion 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years $35,000 32,000 33,000 27,000 40,000 45,000 19,000 25,000 24,000 40,000 45,000 27,000 58,000 35,000 34,000 33,800 32,000 42,000 100,000 70,000 50,000 56,000 56,000 65,000 68,000 45,000 37,000 26,000 31,000 36,000 50,000 77,000 105,250 55,000 60,000 80,000 Maximum $80,000 136,000 106,000 133,264 131,822 150,000 36,000 72,000 147,000 107,000 116,480 87,000 95,000 130,000 120,000 120,000 154,000 250,000 102,000 70,000 112,000 125,000 195,000 137,640 128,000 45,000 62,500 50,000 61,000 75,000 100,000 77,000 105,250 85,000 169,050 135,000 Standard deviation $14,891 21,146 15,790 25,603 20,819 23,836 9,539 16,121 40,606 24,855 21,274 21,322 19,655 23,672 24,377 21,178 27,120 34,938 1,414 20,447 18,225 27,798 17,857 18,209 10,264 8,066 8,991 13,242 13,802 16,073 48,125 30,414 Count 9 45 31 31 37 31 3 13 8 9 10 6 3 19 24 49 76 58 2 1 11 25 25 44 20 2 5 6 11 13 12 1 1 3 4 3
QP SALARY
SURVEY
Median $50,000 65,000 60,000 66,000 72,000 91,000 35,000 46,000 49,700 53,700 70,500 64,250 65,000 54,440 66,150 69,000 72,000 90,000 101,000 70,000 77,000 86,000 90,000 99,750 95,150 45,000 42,000 39,500 40,000 60,000 60,000 77,000 105,250 80,000 115,628 130,000 Mean $54,333 64,915 60,385 70,557 72,136 92,338 30,000 47,100 55,425 65,490 72,248 60,917 72,667 59,889 69,703 70,180 75,659 92,482 101,000 70,000 78,060 85,748 95,019 99,120 95,431 45,000 45,951 39,667 43,314 56,115 62,023 77,000 105,250 73,333 115,077 115,000
Table 1 includes results for: xFull-time employees, Parttime employees, xU.S.employees, Canadianemployees, Internationalemployees
SPONsORED BY
December 2013 QP 39
2013
Salary by years in quality and job title for U.S. respondents / TABLE 1 (cONtiNuED)
Minimum No experience Less than 1 year 1-3 years Consultant 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years No experience Less than 1 year 1-3 years Coordinator 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years Less than 1 year 1-3 years Director 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years No experience 1-3 years Educator/instructor 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years Less than 1 year 1-3 years Green Belt 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years Less than 1 year 1-3 years Inspector 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years $103,000 55,000 55,000 36,000 52,000 55,500 85,000 41,300 48,000 23,000 25,000 34,656 33,696 21,496 45,000 37,000 45,000 51,000 31,000 45,000 60,000 36,000 60,000 55,000 45,000 45,000 65,000 45,000 45,000 50,000 56,000 90,000 42,000 19,760 20,640 31,000 36,000 22,000 Maximum $122,000 55,000 142,400 160,000 140,000 275,000 400,000 41,300 84,000 69,000 160,000 154,000 119,000 135,000 271,000 200,000 175,000 230,000 280,000 400,000 60,000 73,000 61,750 80,000 142,000 175,000 86,000 140,000 105,000 116,000 99,500 95,000 62,000 67,000 51,000 70,000 130,000 125,656 Standard deviation $13,435 35,351 33,761 29,681 48,524 56,654 15,534 11,117 27,013 33,091 19,404 25,760 76,092 44,918 32,609 39,877 35,779 37,546 16,021 1,237 17,678 30,368 31,370 14,849 24,149 20,551 21,019 20,121 3,536 14,142 13,322 8,490 11,874 25,021 22,662 Count 2 1 8 20 20 33 38 1 5 23 25 23 39 23 7 21 42 40 208 261 1 4 2 2 8 23 2 14 6 9 6 2 2 12 15 19 24 24 Mean $112,500 55,000 89,363 90,995 94,408 117,953 134,801 41,300 66,400 46,295 59,259 67,882 61,286 67,464 121,000 101,037 109,470 109,107 126,329 127,447 60,000 50,000 60,875 67,500 88,250 103,867 75,500 66,750 71,460 79,444 72,417 92,500 52,000 32,963 40,608 46,737 62,089 57,799 Median $112,500 55,000 72,000 85,000 94,000 110,000 120,500 41,300 65,000 45,000 55,000 55,000 58,680 67,500 100,000 93,000 111,500 96,000 125,000 125,000 60,000 45,500 60,875 67,500 82,000 106,000 75,500 60,000 67,250 79,000 61,000 92,500 52,000 31,128 39,200 44,000 60,000 52,000
SPONsORED BY
Minimum No experience Less than 1 year 1-3 years Manager 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years 3.1-6 years Master Black Belt 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years No experience Less than 1 year 1-3 years Other 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years No experience Less than 1 year Process/ manufacturing/ project engineer 1-3 years 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years Less than 1 year 1-3 years Quality engineer 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years No experience 1-3 years Reliability/safety engineer 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years $27,360 27,000 36,100 32,000 39,000 32,000 30,000 60,000 58,000 76,000 84,000 20,000 50,000 35,000 55,000 27,040 20,000 40,000 82,000 47,000 45,000 52,000 48,000 51,000 61,000 45,000 29,000 37,190 30,000 40,000 35,000 70,000 63,000 58,000 68,000 76,000 57,595 Maximum $130,000 140,000 138,000 178,000 155,000 262,000 306,000 125,000 200,000 197,000 200,000 70,000 82,500 88,000 80,000 98,000 142,000 150,000 125,000 93,000 98,000 118,000 130,200 200,000 160,000 63,900 130,000 130,000 128,000 180,000 180,000 146,000 90,500 110,203 125,000 154,200 173,160 Standard deviation $38,359 27,324 21,558 24,927 23,305 28,691 29,147 26,057 36,697 27,672 34,756 16,544 22,981 14,133 10,840 23,085 38,843 27,214 19,945 15,966 16,419 16,379 18,160 24,414 27,842 7,665 16,897 19,624 17,995 21,592 22,662 28,497 12,311 18,848 18,352 18,319 23,243 Count 5 17 72 133 176 529 583 7 13 31 24 7 2 11 5 10 14 17 4 15 21 22 36 45 28 7 86 123 159 279 306 5 4 5 12 31 27
QP SALARY
SURVEY
Median $100,160 60,000 66,944 81,000 85,500 92,000 95,000 85,000 100,000 116,750 122,000 39,500 66,250 60,000 60,000 46,000 90,700 97,000 89,037 61,650 70,000 75,000 83,000 93,000 97,000 56,300 62,625 71,000 72,000 80,000 84,000 126,500 68,000 82,200 103,750 107,000 104,000 Mean $89,304 64,141 69,280 82,704 88,463 94,438 98,534 96,179 109,973 123,688 125,348 45,200 66,250 57,655 64,000 54,656 82,659 96,000 96,268 64,823 69,830 77,315 84,787 97,773 100,925 55,829 65,694 72,939 75,482 81,785 87,049 118,200 72,375 81,681 96,743 107,994 107,597
SPONsORED BY
December 2013 QP 41
2013
Minimum Less than 1 year 1-3 years Software quality engineer 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years No experience Less than 1 year 1-3 years Specialist 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years No experience Less than 1 year 1-3 years Supervisor 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years No experience Less than 1 year Supplier quality engineer/ professional 1-3 years 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years No experience Less than 1 year 1-3 years Technician 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years 1-3 years Vice president/ executive 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years $56,000 85,000 93,000 67,000 68,000 76,211 52,000 30,000 33,600 34,200 24,000 35,000 35,000 75,000 33,990 37,000 37,272 32,000 38,000 42,000 74,000 52,000 49,500 62,000 55,000 47,000 51,000 13,200 20,000 23,000 25,000 24,000 30,000 17,000 100,000 89,000 95,000 33,000 30,000 Maximum $128,000 110,000 105,000 152,000 140,000 135,000 123,000 76,000 85,000 107,000 120,000 180,000 160,000 75,000 170,000 86,710 119,000 112,000 159,000 150,000 74,000 140,000 130,000 110,000 150,000 157,000 138,000 70,000 45,000 85,000 320,000 73,000 110,000 100,000 300,000 225,000 228,000 235,000 309,100 Standard deviation $30,286 10,485 6,928 26,003 17,479 15,771 35,595 19,382 14,272 18,409 19,188 23,338 30,108 76,582 14,552 19,331 18,704 22,477 27,249 31,406 22,140 15,460 18,761 21,716 18,261 40,164 8,672 15,229 68,938 9,873 14,488 12,282 106,410 52,332 47,396 40,771 61,700 Count 6 4 3 15 26 17 3 6 30 40 58 80 72 1 3 17 16 49 58 38 1 7 15 8 25 80 65 2 8 22 30 46 50 45 3 7 10 39 69 Mean $82,917 98,700 101,000 92,417 98,665 105,838 86,000 49,940 58,565 61,483 67,685 75,233 90,651 75,000 81,663 59,495 64,867 65,927 78,089 88,886 74,000 75,000 76,047 82,462 86,318 86,039 91,341 41,600 34,688 44,040 61,142 44,717 50,169 51,794 179,000 177,887 151,350 130,577 165,448 Median $76,250 99,900 105,000 85,000 96,500 105,000 83,000 45,500 54,000 60,750 69,130 73,500 91,500 75,000 41,000 60,000 60,000 65,000 75,419 86,500 74,000 60,000 66,000 79,500 83,000 85,000 92,500 41,600 36,250 43,250 40,676 42,000 48,000 52,000 137,000 210,000 148,250 127,000 150,000
SPONsORED BY
Salary by years in quality and job title (CONtiNuEs tHROuGH P. 45) for Canadian respondents / TABLE 2 (CONTINUED)
Minimum 1-3 years 3.1-6 years Analyst 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years 1-3 years Associate 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years 1-3 years 3.1-6 years Auditor 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years Black Belt Calibration technician Champion Consultant 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years 3.1-6 years More than 20 years 10.1-20 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years Less than 1 year 1-3 years Coordinator 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years 3.1-6 years Director 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years Educator/instructor Green Belt Inspector More than 20 years 3.1-6 years 3.1-6 years More than 20 years $68,000 54,659 40,000 65,000 80,000 42,000 46,000 50,000 90,000 95,000 70,000 100,000 42,000 85,000 130,000 100,000 50,000 72,000 67,774 69,000 86,000 116,000 37,500 37,500 39,500 53,684 45,000 60,000 130,000 90,000 60,000 98,000 125,000 68,000 42,000 30,000 Maximum $150,000 81,000 70,000 96,500 100,000 50,000 51,000 66,000 90,000 95,000 70,000 100,000 145,600 103,200 130,000 115,000 50,000 72,000 135,000 72,000 149,000 116,000 75,000 77,000 51,000 60,000 80,000 82,000 130,000 132,000 160,000 250,000 125,000 68,000 65,000 42,000 Standard deviation $57,983 14,722 16,073 12,429 14,142 5,657 3,536 8,083 33,403 9,717 10,607 34,543 2,121 44,548 26,517 15,635 8,132 4,466 15,268 15,556 17,082 26,496 50,359 16,263 8,485 Count 2 3 3 7 2 2 2 3 1 1 1 1 7 3 1 2 1 1 3 2 2 1 2 6 2 2 6 2 1 7 16 8 1 1 2 2
QP SALARY
SURVEY
Median $109,000 56,437 65,000 82,000 90,000 46,000 48,500 60,000 90,000 95,000 70,000 100,000 90,000 100,000 130,000 107,500 50,000 72,000 87,600 70,500 117,500 116,000 56,250 59,500 45,250 56,842 68,500 71,000 130,000 105,000 105,000 110,500 125,000 68,000 53,500 36,000 Mean $109,000 64,032 58,333 79,574 90,000 46,000 48,500 58,667 90,000 95,000 70,000 100,000 89,514 96,067 130,000 107,500 50,000 72,000 96,791 70,500 117,500 116,000 56,250 56,583 45,250 56,842 64,500 71,000 130,000 107,857 110,244 129,500 125,000 68,000 53,500 36,000
Table 2 includes results for: xFull-time employees, Parttime employees, U.S.employees, xCanadianemployees, Internationalemployees Salaries are noted in Canadian dollars.
SPONsORED BY
December 2013 QP 43
2013
Salary by years in quality and job title for Canadian respondents / TABLE 2 (CONTINUED)
Minimum 1-3 years 3.1-6 years Manager 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years Other 1-3 years 10.1-20 years None Process/ manufacturing/ project engineer 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years None Less than 1 year 1-3 years Quality engineer 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years Reliability/safety engineer Software quality engineer 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years 10.1-20 years 1-3 years 3.1-6 years Specialist 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years Less than 1 year Supervisor 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years Supplier quality engineer/ professional 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years $31,200 52,500 50,000 60,000 55,000 55,000 42,000 56,000 74,000 48,000 90,000 90,000 62,000 65,000 58,000 45,984 45,000 47,000 60,000 95,000 88,500 102,000 55,000 47,000 45,000 43,000 50,000 90,000 55,000 53,000 50,000 56,000 63,000 76,000 Maximum $133,500 132,000 135,000 150,000 250,000 55,000 42,000 56,000 77,000 115,000 120,000 90,000 62,000 65,000 60,000 94,000 110,000 150,000 60,000 95,000 95,000 105,000 60,000 88,000 185,000 110,000 125,000 90,000 78,000 94,150 100,000 83,000 63,000 85,000 Standard deviation $41,953 23,380 25,250 17,940 34,242 2,121 47,376 16,773 1,414 16,293 17,826 29,945 3,753 2,121 3,536 17,676 46,318 21,280 23,396 10,616 14,925 22,938 19,092 6,364 Count 4 9 18 44 43 1 1 1 2 2 3 1 1 1 2 9 18 14 1 1 3 2 2 5 7 9 8 1 5 9 6 2 1 2 Mean $78,925 86,234 96,700 91,423 102,345 55,000 42,000 56,000 75,500 81,500 100,667 90,000 62,000 65,000 59,000 66,920 71,639 91,516 60,000 95,000 92,833 103,500 57,500 68,300 82,357 75,262 74,250 90,000 62,800 69,294 75,167 69,500 63,000 80,500 Median $75,500 81,000 101,500 90,000 90,000 55,000 42,000 56,000 75,500 81,500 92,000 90,000 62,000 65,000 59,000 64,800 70,000 88,113 60,000 95,000 95,000 103,500 57,500 68,000 68,000 70,000 71,500 90,000 56,000 70,000 78,000 69,500 63,000 80,500
SPONsORED BY
Salary by years in quality and job title for Canadian respondents / TABLE 2 (CONTINUED)
Minimum 1-3 years 3.1-6 years Technician 6.1-10 years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years Vice president/ executive 3.1-6 years 6.1-10 years More than 20 years $35,000 52,000 50,000 38,000 38,000 186,000 100,000 100,000 Maximum $65,000 67,000 75,000 65,000 40,000 186,000 145,600 100,000 Standard deviation $15,695 6,652 17,678 9,051 1,414 25,009 Count 3 4 2 10 2 1 3 1
QP SALARY
SURVEY
Median $42,000 55,000 62,500 52,000 39,000 186,000 105,000 100,000 Mean $47,333 57,250 62,500 52,450 39,000 186,000 116,867 100,000
Part 1. Regular Employee Results Section 4. Salary by ASQ and Exemplar Global Certication
Average salary
Certiably Valuable
In North America, 58.2% of respondents to QPs salary survey held at least one ASQ certication. Table 1 (p. 46) shows the two certications held by most respondents are certied quality auditor (23.9%) and certied quality engineer (22%). Table 2 (p. 46) highlights the value of the quality engineer certication to some of those who hold it. Those with a job title of quality engineer report that holding the certication brings them a 10.2% higher paycheck. For those with a title of process/manufacturing/project engineer, the premium is even greater, at 12.4%. Each year, these premiums appear for different combinations of certication and job title, and they appear to vary from year to year. In 2011, the annual survey was accompanied by a more rigorous analysis of these premiums, including a careful look at sample sizes and their concomitant levels of statistical signicance. Refer to Land the Big One in the 2011 report for more details, particularly on how to use certications strategically in your career.
Salary by number of ASQ certications held by U.S. respondents/FiGuRE 1

$150,000 $100,000 $50,000 0
85,454 87,948 92,866 96,956 96,046 98,094 108,264
None (41.8%)
One (33.9%)
Two (13.9%)
Three (6.1%)
Four (2.8%)
2013
Five Six or more (0.7%) (0.8%)
Number of ASQ certications (percentage of respondents)

SPONsORED BY
December 2013 QP 45
Table 3 shows the number of holders of Exemplar Global (formerly RABQSA International) certications. Note that there are 72 RABQSA certications, and in any given year, many of them will not appear among the QP salary surveys responses. Figure 1 (p. 45) shows average salaries for U.S. respondents by the number of ASQ certications they hold. In most years, a similar chart shows a steady upward trend in salaries with a higher number of certications. This year theres a blip: Holders of four certications show slightly lower average salaries than holders of three certications, but only 2.8% of respondents hold four certications. This is a relatively small number of data points and may be skewed downward by a few low salaries. The bulk of respondents, making up more than 95% of the total, are represented by the rst four columns, which are the most statistically signicant columns in this chart. Table 4 (pp. 48-49) shows average salaries for U.S. respondents by job title and ASQ certication held. Table 5 (pp. 50-51) shows the same information for Canadian respondents.
Percentage of respondents holding ASQ certications / TABLE 1

2013 Certied quality auditor Certied quality engineer Certied manager of quality/ organizational excellence Certied Six Sigma Black Belt Certied quality technician Certied Six Sigma Green Belt Certied quality improvement associate Certied quality inspector Certied reliability engineer Certied software quality engineer Certied quality process analyst Certied biomedical auditor Certied calibration technician Certied HAccP auditor Certied Six Sigma Master Black Belt Certied pharmaceutical GmP professional None 23.9% 22.0 12.7 8.3 7.6 7.2 4.1 3.5 2.7 2.1 1.6 1.2 1.6 1.2 0.6 0.5 41.7 2011 24.1% 22.8 13.7 7.9 7.4 5.7 4.2 3.8 2.9 2.0 1.2 1.1 1.1 1.1 0.6 0.3 42.4 2009 24.9% 22.6 12.8 7.1 7.2 4.0 4.3 3.7 2.3 2.3 0.9 0.9 1.0 0.8 0.1 42.2 2007 23.3% 23.9 12.3 6.9 7.7 2.8 3.5 3.9 2.7 2.8 0.6 0.6 1.0 0.7 44.4
Table 1 includes results for: xFull-time employees, xParttime employees, xU.S.employees, xCanadianemployees, Internationalemployees GMP = good manufacturing practice HACCP = hazard analysis and critical control point
Differences in salary for ASQ certication

Job title Calibration technician Inspector Auditor Quality engineer Auditor Quality engineer Process/manufacturing/project engineer Supplier quality engineer/professional Supplier quality engineer/professional Software quality engineer Auditor Certication Certied calibration technician Certied quality technician Certied quality engineer Certied quality engineer Certied Six Sigma Black Belt Certied reliability engineer Certied quality engineer Certied Six Sigma Black Belt Certied quality process analyst Certied software quality engineer Certied quality process analyst Average with certication $57,055 54,785 92,181 83,615 97,000 97,374 93,625 106,874 93,917 100,739 116,560
/ TABLE 2
Average without certication $47,280 49,655 75,751 75,852 77,299 78,965 83,274 84,665 85,951 93,837 106,837 Salary premium $9,776 5,130 16,430 7,764 19,701 18,410 10,351 22,209 7,966 6,902 9,723
Percentage premium
20.7% 10.3 21.7 10.2 25.5 23.3 12.4 26.2 9.3 7.4 9.1
Table 2 includes results for: xFull-time employees, Parttime employees, xU.S.employees, xCanadianemployees, Internationalemployees Because U.S. and Canadian employees are being viewed together, Canadian salaries have been converted to U.S. dollars using the exchange rate in effect July 1.
SPONsORED BY
Money Talks
How has attaining certifications helped you succeed?
My ASQ certifications have opened doors for me and shown a commitment to quality that goes beyond just showing up for work.
QP SALARY
SURVEY
2013
Tim McLaughlin, senior quality systems specialist, Medtronic Advanced Energy
Percentage of respondents holding Exemplar Global certications / TABLE 3

Certication Quality management system (QMS) lead auditor Internal auditor QMS auditor AS9100 auditor Environmental system lead auditor RABQSA integrated process control (IPC) quality management systems lead auditor QMS provisional auditor Environmental system auditor AS9100 aerospace experience auditor AS9100 aerospace industry experienced auditor Management system certication body lead auditor Occupational health and safety (OHS) lead auditor AS9110 auditor QMS associate auditor RABQSA IPC quality management systems auditor Food safety auditor QMS principal auditor AS9110 aerospace experience auditor HACCP practitioner auditor OHS auditor Food safety lead auditor Skill examiner APIQ auditor Management system certication body auditor AS91100 aerospace industry experienced auditor Laboratory assessor ISO 50001 auditor Management consultant Management system certication body provisional auditor Percentage 5.60% 4.16 2.09 1.69 0.96 0.70 0.53 0.43 0.40 0.38 0.33 0.30 0.25 0.25 0.23 0.18 0.18 0.15 0.15 0.15 0.13 0.13 0.10 0.10 0.08 0.08 0.08 0.07 0.07 Certication HACCP practitioner lead auditor Information security management systems auditor Laboratory lead assessor OHS associate auditor HACCP practitioner associate auditor Management system certication body principal auditor QMS business improvement auditor Responsible care management systems auditor Aged care professional CALA laboratory lead assessor Environmental system associate auditor Environmental system principal auditor Food safety principal auditor Food safety provisional auditor HACCP practitioner business improvement auditor Management system certication business improvement OHS provisional auditor Professional trainers Responsible care management systems lead auditor None Percentage 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 86.15
Table 3 includes results for: xFull-time employees, xParttime employees, xU.S.employees, xCanadianemployees, xInternationalemployees APIQ = Australian Pork Industry Quality Assurance Program CALA = C anadian Association of Environmental Analytical Laboratories HACCP = hazard analysis and critical control point
SPONsORED BY
December 2013 QP 47
Salary by ASQ certication and job title for U.S. respondents / TABLE 4 (CONtiNuED ON P. 49)
Certied Certied biomedical calibration auditor technician United States All respondents Analyst Associate Auditor Black Belt Calibration technician Champion Consultant Coordinator Director Educator/instructor Green Belt Inspector Manager Master Black Belt Other Process/manufacturing/ project engineer Quality engineer Reliability/safety engineer Software quality engineer Specialist Supervisor Supplier quality engineer/professional Technician Vice president/executive $110,65775 69,000 94,004 245,0003 137,88513 42,000 90,74713 105,6673 32,0001 91,3937 70,0001 200,0001
1 6 2
Certied HACCP auditor
Certied Certied pharmaceu manager of tical GMP quality professional $106,456711 95,702
9
Certied quality auditor
Certied quality engineer
Certied quality improvement associate $73,550238 57,11916 47,4297 83,7339 82,0001 41,5002 94,6495 55,78514 108,48823 60,5004 62,0001 37,5285 80,41341 51,0004 65,2005 77,80340 111,0001 92,5002 62,32922 64,43614 79,0003 61,35517 155,5002
$67,62590 45,000 118,5002 56,84420 50,0003 65,8151 55,000 101,000 74,62912 70,0003 62,2504 49,00815 110,0001
2 2 1
$97,99364 71,275 112,0001 125,48015 108,828 86,5002 75,0001 86,7101 54,0001 160,0003
2 8
$111,66925 56,0001 93,075 132,5002 163,5002 114,17510 76,3412 103,2502 130,5001 140,0001
4
$91,1701,352 $95,8561,225 79,376 79,073

26
81,351 92,080 135,000
25
75,0001
78,0001 77,347 105,000

2 17
64,2449
140
78,0001
20
94,89111
89,77411 35,5002 120,125

2
92,71315
1
110,86221 68,1878 127,450142 87,483 50,000

3
116,19929 62,46632 117,539132 78,5002 65,510

16
115,20721 58,72810 124,59195 117,400 50,667

5
62,0001
1
73,5002
3
107,88824
81,08223
87,36030
104,359285 115,0289 68,000

3
96,118410 117,8686 72,333

6
100,094317 119,10414 86,857

7
112,50911 91,82088 106,0638 104,3135 91,36022 88,46213 92,88625 52,7682 149,12524
99,85715 83,422243 99,9459 97,51312 77,56091 74,22636 89,93075 49,63020 153,76828
93,39448 84,406425 103,65526 95,2736 95,18732 84,95935 91,30280 57,77310 173,57427
Table 4 includes results for: xFull-time employees, xParttime employees, xU.S.employees, Canadianemployees, Internationalemployees Superscript number denote the number of respondents. GMP = good manufacturing practice HACCP = hazard analysis and critical control point
In North America, the two certications held by most respondents are certied quality auditor (23.9% of respondents) and certied quality engineer (22%).
SPONsORED BY
QP SALARY
SURVEY
Salary by ASQ certication and job title for U.S. respondents / TABLE 4 (CONtiNuED)
Certied quality inspector United States All respondents Analyst Associate Auditor Black Belt Calibration technician Champion Consultant Coordinator Director Educator/instructor Green Belt Inspector Manager Master Black Belt Other Process/manufacturing/ project engineer Quality engineer Reliability/safety engineer Software quality engineer Specialist Supervisor Supplier quality engineer/professional Technician Vice president/executive $74,921199 43,3333 27,0001 80,820 52,625 175,000 122,236 50,767 55,0001 78,7333 73,52648 67,97614 62,740
5 18 2 5
Certied Certied Certied Certied Certied Certied quality Six Sigma quality reliability Six Sigma Six Sigma process Master technician engineer Green Belt Black Belt analyst Black Belt $74,40785 60,94210 25,0001 141,833 72,526 108,000
5 3
Certied software quality engineer
2013
None
$71,090407 $117,781156 51,3336 35,0002 88,183

6
$86,301405 $104,402472 $128,82733 $110,535122 $85,4542,348 70,58014 92,5003 57,700 138,0001

5
99,1254 128,8754 131,917 148,322

13 6
76,89118 96,63066 115,6282 102,216 130,365 110,197110 120,657

34 14
85,800 140,000 121,8005 126,450 77,0001 86,0001 124,3333 178,000

2 10 10 1
80,7005 114,000 126,800 144,798 117,99128 103,3333 91,40313 109,5373 100,71342 92,000
1 9 5 1
69,76787 54,79227 73,07270 89,21045 47,12421 87,6756 105,05048 59,37273 123,298269 88,47328 74,46414 46,43749 87,766652 123,76124 71,27235 84,54761 75,570348 93,09628 91,64625 70,343136 72,26879 79,69464 48,80393 153,86666
103,0001
4
72,0001
103,0001 47,750 119,000 126,313 54,785 92,000

16 2 6
92,5817
105,6673
99,192 115,464
13
62,4297
11
51,7496
2
48,6119
16
60,6649
35
107,0001
60
115,0001
115,0001 45,0001 20,000

1
120,5002
106,0001 118,17531 86,817

3
122,5002 73,37522 46,000 108,667

2
124,5002
86,32247
75,93314 90,000
1
79,964104
1
94,26699
3
55,0001 77,0001 74,83315 70,0001 62,1909 57,250

4
54,0104 72,5717 71,970103 120,8001 58,97716 67,259

19
105,3333 115,0176 97,37419 112,75743 104,5754 116,6236 99,000

1
49,7008 83,08728 74,00195 98,6254 111,0002 80,61315 95,687

9
81,2876 92,23938 83,83068 105,2005 110,8333 91,6899 85,300

10
84,3336 46,26320 150,000

2
93,9173 50,2682 158,333

3
82,29020 49,07265 100,000

1
111,4855 176,143
7
93,68015 38,0297 144,714

7
106,87413 55,2682 156,545

11
115,7502 55,5361 162,333

6
Table 4 includes results for: xFull-time employees, xParttime employees, xU.S.employees, Canadianemployees, Internationalemployees Superscript number denote the number of respondents.
SPONsORED BY
December 2013 QP
49
Salary by ASQ certication and job title for Canadian respondents / TABLE 5 (CONtiNuED ON P. 51)
Certied calibration technician Canada All respondents Analyst Associate Auditor Black Belt Calibration technician Champion Consultant Coordinator Director Educator/instructor Green Belt Inspector Manager Other Process/manufacturing/ project engineer Quality engineer Reliability/safety engineer Software quality engineer Specialist Supervisor Supplier quality engineer/professional Technician Vice president/executive $73,0005 65,000 61,0002 89,0002
1
Certied HACCP auditor
Certied manager of quality
Certied pharmaceutical GMP professional $87,5004 89,000

1
Certied quality auditor
Certied quality engineer
Certied quality improvement associate $83,54710 150,000 67,774 45,000 90,3502 42,0001 75,0001 85,0001 60,0001
1 1 1
Certied quality inspector
$56,8138 50,0001 69,0001 49,750 81,0001 45,0002 65,0001

2
$96,62256 87,167 100,000 101,387 51,000 96,98825 90,0001 75,2867 82,3715 92,0003 145,600
1 1 2 1 3
$84,05383 60,719 84,920 115,000 94,0002 75,000 95,85223 108,3333 73,40213 71,8339 77,6676 46,2504
2 2
$83,27796 78,333
3
$66,10010 65,0001 65,0001 65,0001 80,0001 90,0001 68,6673 50,0001 40,0001
68,0002
10 1
60,0001 95,5504 115,000 116,0001 125,0003 42,0001 90,51631 98,8005 74,55125 78,2867 84,5002 84,0002 53,1258 145,600
1 1
50,0001
87,0003
131,4867
105,9006
130,0001
Table 5 includes results for: xFull-time employees, Parttime employees, U.S.employees, xCanadianemployees, Internationalemployees Salaries are noted in Canadian dollars. Superscript numbers denote number of respondents. GMP = good manufacturing practice HACCP = hazard analysis and critical control point
Those with a job title of quality engineer report that holding the ASQ quality engineer certication brings them a 10.2% higher paycheck. For those with a title of process/manufacturing/project engineer, the premium is even greaterat 12.4%.
50 QP www.qualityprogress.com SPONsORED BY
QP SALARY
SURVEY
Salary by ASQ certication and job title for Canadian respondents / TABLE 5 (CONtiNuED)
Certied quality process analyst Canada All respondents Analyst Associate Auditor Black Belt Calibration technician Champion Consultant Coordinator Director Educator/instructor Green Belt Inspector Manager Other Process/manufacturing/ project engineer Quality engineer Reliability/safety engineer Software quality engineer Specialist Supervisor Supplier quality engineer/professional Technician Vice president/executive $63,5258 42,000 37,500 93,7001 75,0001 81,2502 60,0001
2 1
Certied quality technician
Certied reliability engineer
Certied Six Sigma Green Belt
Certied Six Sigma Black Belt
Certied Six Sigma Master Black Belt $130,0001 130,0001
Certied software quality engineer $97,3333 93,5002 105,0001
2013
None
$70,36750 72,500 50,000 58,000 84,40911 76,6673 76,0549 60,9523 65,4297 49,35010
2 1 2
$86,1005 85,0001 92,8333 67,0001
$78,55329 67,500 100,0001 66,000 103,3867 83,0002 67,7488 64,2853 58,7502 85,0001 60,0001
1 2
$95,02625 83,667 100,000 90,0001 42,000 96,0002 89,6676 78,1673 94,1501

1 1 3
$87,663149 69,7728 52,2504 110,2003 130,0001 87,6001 117,5002 63,36810 111,65819 125,0001 68,0001 36,0002 95,17755 55,0001 56,0001 72,80010 77,5002 102,0001 86,05010 66,3336 65,0003 54,0004 122,7504
115,0001
115,0002
90,0001
119,8336
Table 5 includes results for: xFull-time employees, Parttime employees, U.S.employees, xCanadianemployees, Internationalemployees Salaries are noted in Canadian dollars. Superscript numbers denote number of respondents.
SPONsORED BY
December 2013 QP 51
Part 1. Regular Employee Results Section 5. Salary by Six Sigma Training
Y
(MBB) training. in Table 1.
Rewards for Master Black Belts

Year after year, QPs salary survey demonstrates it pays to get Six Sigma training. As Figure 1 shows, U.S. respondents whove completed any level of Six Sigma training earn $16,826 more on average than those without any Six Sigma training. For Canadian respondents, that difference is $5,524. Beginning in 2010, we showed the average salaries for holders of Six Sigma training in a multiyear historical view, as we do again in Figures 2 and 3. Although there are always minor variations from year to year, the pattern remains consistent. An especially notable part of this pattern is the large benet that seems to come from receiving Master Black Belt This year, the premium for MBBs over holders of the Black Belt (BB) is $25,583 ($124,661 vs. $99,078). The BB itself is already valuable, bringing $18,709 more for its U.S. holders vs. respondents without and Six Sigma training ($99,078 vs. $80,369). These differences are shown in tabular format Table 2 (p. 54) breaks down salaries by Six Sigma training and job title for full-time professionals in the United States and Canada. Along with the average salary in each cell, the superscripted number shows how many respondents t that category.
Master Black Belt (4.1%) Black Belt (18.2%) Green Belt (23.1%)
Salary by Six Sigma training/FiGuRE 1

$100,000 $90,000
80,790 97,616 87,953 82,429
$80,000 $70,000 $60,000 $50,000 $40,000 $30,000 $20,000 $10,000 0 U.S. respondents Canadian respondents Hasnt completed any Six Sigma training Has completed at least one Six Sigma training program
Figure 1 includes results for: xFull-time employees, Parttime employees, xU.S.employees, xCanadianemployees, Internationalemployees Canadian salaries are noted in Canadian dollars.
Salary by highest level of Six Sigma training for U.S. respondents/FiGuRE 2

81,477
None (52.8%)
79,258 80,369 85,642 86,373 89,672 95,954 98,489 99,078
117,222 119,335 124,661 115,286
Champion (0.98%)
128,203 124,296 126,241
Executive (0.90%) 0
126,735 137,192
$20,000 $40,000 $60,000 $80,000 $100,000 $120,000 $140,000 Average salary 2011 2012 2013
SPONsORED BY
Salary by highest level of Six Sigma training for Canadian respondents/FiGuRE 3

Years of quality experience (percentage of respondents) More than 20 years (26%) 10.1-20 years (38.6%) 6.1-10 years (17.9%) 3.1-6 years (9.9%) 1-3 years (5.9%) Less than 1 year (1.1%) None (0.5%) 0 $20,000 $40,000 $60,000
71,735 65,327 66,125 73,000 84,403 83,711 95,240
QP SALARY
SURVEY
2013
$80,000
$100,000
Average salary
Figure 3 includes results for: xFull-time employees, Parttime employees, U.S.employees, xCanadianemployees, Internationalemployees
Salary differences with successive levels of Six Sigma training / TABLE 1

2009 Executive (0.7%) Champion (1.1%) United States Master Black Belt (3.6%) Black Belt (17.7%) Green Belt (22.7%) None (47.9%) Executive (0.1%) Champion (0%) Master Black Belt Canada (0.1%) Black Belt (0.8%) Green Belt (1.4%) None (3.8%) (4,350) 21,980 9,040 4,763 (6,613) (10,244) 30,894 12,683 2,510 2010 (9,994) 27,384 8,951 7,306 6,000 14,265 13,294 4,303 2011 (1,937) 21,268 10,312 4,166 2012 8,869 20,846 12,116 7,115 36,400 42,062 1,727 10,300 2013 (366) 25,583 9,406 9,303 11,667 15,875 16,114 13,205 (2,316) $8,802 $11,860 $10,955 ($1,469) $12,897
Money Talks
Besides or in addition to certification, what quality-related training have you completed? How has this advanced your career?
Attending my local chapter meetings has put me in touch with other quality
(3,750) (54,071) 11,220 7,486 7,085
(9,889) (15,564)
professionals whose advice and experiences have been helpful.
Lynne Sheets, quality system manager, Lucigen Corp.
Table 1 includes results for: xFull-time employees, Parttime employees, xU.S.employees, xCanadianemployees, Internationalemployees Canadian salaries are noted in Canadian dollars. Numbers in parentheses following the training levels indicate percentage of respondents.
SPONsORED BY
December 2013 QP 53
Salary by Six Sigma training for job titles

None United States All respondents Analyst Associate Auditor Black Belt Calibration technician Champion Consultant Coordinator Director Educator/instructor Green Belt Inspector Manager Master Black Belt Other Process/manufacturing/project engineer Quality engineer Reliability/safety engineer Software quality engineer Specialist Supervisor Supplier quality engineer/professional Technician Vice president/executive Canada All respondents Analyst Associate Auditor Black Belt Calibration technician Champion Consultant Coordinator Director Educator/instructor Green Belt Inspector Manager Other Process/manufacturing/project engineer Quality engineer Reliability/safety engineer Software quality engineer Specialist Supervisor Supplier quality engineer/professional Technician Vice president/executive $80,3692,731 63,79199 52,38937 73,535162 90,0002 51,11342 102,0505 109,93050 56,34693 118,891235 84,31327 69,5002 49,79382 85,323736 69,51732 84,70354 75,339399 100,94138 95,12143 68,729186 69,645103 82,38384 48,742158 147,58562 $82,121217 69,3469 52,3336 93,46010 61,0002 77,6872 101,5004 56,54017 109,67722 125,0001 47,5002 94,22570 48,5002 56,0001 74,44321 77,5002 105,0001 64,90015 67,90911 56,0001 52,69213 127,3205 Green Belt $89,6721,293 71,42936 83,4176 85,31841 83,6254 62,5002 80,0001 103,55227 70,80533 120,889110 92,9384 74,15035 60,2005 96,737364 95,2501 57,59315 78,44744 80,908311 108,64325 105,05915 79,51454 81,08539 86,70273 47,38727 142,65521 $79,80677 73,5002 90,0001 42,0001 100,0001 86,0001 66,0001 68,0001 42,0001 93,39627 82,0002 71,32014 95,0001 102,0001 78,4849 65,6437 76,7504 50,0003 Black Belt $99,0781,011 84,45236 111,8005 92,451112 88,7504 102,73330 72,3628 126,713138 94,5005 57,2502 50,0001 102,924275 105,8568 90,49513 92,25757 84,783188 101,02619 106,5905 91,46627 83,57523 94,35335 37,4005 147,73315 $93,01147 83,6673 100,0001 130,0001 135,0001 80,0001 106,1676 42,0001 107,21411 72,3333 88,3339 91,5836 94,1501 53,8333
/ TABLE 2
Master Black Belt $124,661203 81,0001 111,9333 105,07210 169,0501 165,86411 135,97439 135,0002 114,14938 121,10363 97,0002 126,0004 106,16714 85,4001 96,0001 129,0002 90,7681 124,7502 167,6258 $109,1258 115,0001 127,5002 97,0004 115,0001 Champion $124,29663 61,9004 38,0001 93,2561 125,6501 150,13020 95,0001 117,73921 124,5002 91,0003 127,7504 78,0001 161,2504 $125,0002 130,0001 120,0001 Executive $137,19241 125,91714 58,0001 124,9969 125,0001 82,0001 97,8001 45,0001 79,0001 75,0001 197,75311 $136,6673 250,0001 100,0001 60,0001
Table 2 includes results for: xFull-time employees, Parttime employees, xU.S.employees, xCanadianemployees, Internationalemployees Canadian salaries are noted in Canadian dollars. Superscript numbers denote the number of respondents.
SPONsORED BY
Membership Application
Preferred Mailing Address: Home Mr. Ms. Mrs. Dr.
M
OFFICE USE ONLY
MBKDF32 PRIORITY CODE _______________________

Order Number ________________________ Member Number ______________________
Industry: Healthcare Service Government Education Male Female Manufacturing Business

Y
1 2
Member Type: Full $143
Associate $85
$___________________
/ / Date of Birth _________________________________

D
The one geographic Section included with Full membership will be determined by your primary address.* Sections (geographic) may be added to any member type for an additional $20.00 each. Visit www.asq.org for a listing of available Sections. , , _ $_______ Sections
____________________________________________________________________ First Name Middle Initial Last Name/Family Name ____________________________________________________________________ Company Name Job Title ____________________________________________________________________ Business Address Ste. ____________________________________________________________________ City, State/Province Zip+4/Postal Code Country ____________________________________________________________________ Home Address Apt./Ste. ____________________________________________________________________ City, State/Province Zip+4/Postal Code Country ____________________________________________________________________ Area Code/Business Telephone Area Code/Home Telephone ____________________________________________________________________ Preferred Email Address Fax
cccc cccc cccc
Contact ASQ to change your assigned Section.
Forum or Division Selection As part of your Full membership you receive participation in one topic- or industry-specific Forum or Division. Use the list below to indicate the Forum or Division number and name. included _____ ______________________ $_____________ _ (#) Name Additional Forums and Divisions may be added to all levels of membership. Please indicate in the list below the additional Forums or Divisions you would like and total the number you have selected. Human Development and Leadership (13) Inspection (9) Lean Enterprise (23) Measurement Quality (17) Product Safety and Liability Prevention (25) Quality Management (1) Reliability (8) Service Quality (16) Six Sigma (26) Software (14) Statistics (12) Team & Workplace Excellence (27) Additional Forum and Division selections: Full or Associate member ________ x $10 = $________________________
total
Which one of the following best describes your title? Accountant Administrator Advisor Analyst Associate Auditor CEO Chemist Clinician Consultant Contractor Controller/ Comptroller Coordinator Director Engineer Facilitator Foreman General Manager Inspector Instructor Machinist Manager Mechanic Nurse Owner Physician President Principal Professor Programmer Retired Scientist Six Sigma Black Belt Six Sigma Green Belt Specialist Statistician Student Superintendent Teacher Technician Unemployed Other
Audit (19) Automotive (3) Aviation, Space and Defense (2) Biomedical (10) Chemical and Process Industries (4) Customer-Supplier (15) Design and Construction (20) Education (21) Electronics and Communications (5) Energy and Environmental (11) Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (7) Government (22) Healthcare (18)
Total of all items (1-3):

Please submit your application with remittance to:
$ _________
ASQ does not sell email addresses to third parties. Mailing Lists Occasionally ASQ shares its mailing list with carefully selected quality-related organizations to provide you with information on products and services. Please check this circle if you do not wish to receive these mailings. Member Referred By:
_____________________________________ Member Name _______________________ Member Number
Payment Information
Check or money order (U.S. dollars drawn on a U.S. bank) Make check payable to ASQ. MasterCard Visa American Express(Check one)
____________________________________________________________________ Cardholders Name (please print) ______________________________________________ Card Number ___________________ Exp. Date
WHY DID YOU JOIN?

To help us understand whats important to you, please tell us the top three reasons why you became an ASQ member. Career Development Certification Pricing In-person Networking Involvement in ASQs Cause Involvement in SRO Knowledge/Information Leadership Opportunities O nline Networking/Communities Product Discounts Training
______________________________________________ Cardholders Signature ____________________________________________________________________ Cardholders Address
ASQ P.O. Box 3066 Milwaukee, WI 53201-3066 USA or fax to 414-272-1734.
You may also join online at www.asq.org or by calling ASQ Customer Care at
USA and Canada: 800-248-1946 Mexico: 001-800-514-1564 All other locations: +1-414-272-8575
New memberships are effective upon receipt of payment. New members receive one year of membership from the date they join. Members are billed prior to the anniversary date of their membership for next years dues. Memberships, even those paid by employers, are nontransferable. All prices are subject to change. In becoming an ASQ member, you have the duty to follow the ASQ Code of Ethics and Society governing documents.
The Service Quality
PLATFORM
A 5-step framework that lays the foundation for building a service quality program
In 50 Words Or Less
AFtER ENCOUNtERING INDIFFERENt and

often rude employees on my visits to a local bagel restaurant, I wrote to the president of the organization, which is a national chain. In this restaurant, a customer joins a line, places his or her order, receives it and then pays the cashier. In my letter, I suggested to the president that a reasonable minimum service standard would require the server to greet a customer with, May I help you? while the server and cashier would end each service by saying, Thank you or Have a nice day. I told the president if that were the standard, I had never seen it met. In other words, if each service not meeting the standard was classied as unacceptableor in manufacturing terms, nonconforming or defectivein my experience, this restaurant was delivering service that was 100% defective.
Compared to manufacturing, service quality can be difcult to dene and measure. A ve-step framework helps service organizations establish customer needs, dene quality, measure customer satisfaction, specify standards and develop performance measures. The framework alone wont solve quality problems, but it serves as the foundation for establishing continuous improvement initiatives.
SERVICE QUALITY
by Arthur J. Swersey
December 2013 QP 57
Compared to manufacturing, in service organizations it is harder to dene and more difcult to measure quality. The restaurant, like many service organizations, did not specify service standards, and without them, had no way to measure service quality. The quality of a product, such as a toaster, can be dened in terms of its features, performance and ease of use, but how do you dene the quality of a visit to the doctor or the quality of an educational program? Because of these difculties, the approach to quality management in many service organizations is informal and unstructured. The result is service that is highly variable, inconsistent at best and uniformly poor at worst. Quality cant be improved if it isnt being measured. Service organizations need a structured approach to qualitya framework for dening and analyzing their quality programs and systems. The proposed framework consists of ve steps: 1. Identifying customers and determining their needs. 2. Dening quality and creating a quality statement. 3. Measuring customer satisfaction. 4. Specifying service standards. 5. Developing key quality and performance measures.
from faculty; access to recruiters and to faculty for extra course help and career counseling; and a reliable and useful IT system. Patients require: timely access to physicians, nurses and staff to schedule appointments and receive test results; notication of due dates for regularly scheduled tests and procedures such as mammograms and blood tests; and physicians and staff members who listen and provide simple and clear explanations.
Dene quality, create a quality statement

Dening quality for a service organization requires identifying the key or critical dimensions that contribute to the organizations success. A restaurants list of key quality dimensions would include: Food: ingredients, preparation and serving temperature. Service: speed, accuracy, friendliness and knowledge of servers. Atmosphere: comfort, ambience, noise level, and cleanliness in bathrooms and throughout the establishment. Access to and reliability of reservation system. Key dimensions for an educational program would include: Knowledge and capability of students. Curriculum: range and depth of courses and course content, and teaching effectiveness. Faculty research: quantity, quality and relevance. Comfort and accessibility of physical facilities. Placement program: number and quality of on-campus recruiters and effectiveness of career advising process. Support systems: availability and effectiveness of IT, health services and other support services. Culture and learning environment. A physicians ofce might identify these key dimensions: Expertise of doctors, nurses and staff. Quality of care provided. Patient outcomes. Personal attention to customersavailability, and responsiveness and timeliness of services. Comfort and attractiveness of physical facilities. Building on the quality dimensions dened, the next step is to create a quality statement. This is a detailed document that describes the key aspects of the organizations quality philosophy, culture and activities. The language should be original and imaginative. One organization that has succeeded in accomplishing this is the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., a two-time winner of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.2 Its motto, We
Determine customer needs

Focusing on customer needs is the rst step of the framework and a key element of the Six Sigma approach. A ser1
vice organization consists of a web of provider and customer relationships. A customer of one provider, for example, may be the provider for other customers, and each provider must be dedicated to satisfying his or her customers. Meeting the needs of external customers should be the highest priority. Often, these needs can be determined by surveys, interviews or focus groups, but customers may not be fully aware of their own needs. They may be conditioned to accept the services they receive without envisioning what is possible or desirable. A service organization must be creative in uncovering needs not yet formulated or recognized by its customers. Responding to these unrecognized needs will often surprise and delight customers. One example of responding to unrecognized needs is when a surgeon calls a patient at home a few days after the patient leaves the hospital. The organization should develop an inventory and hierarchy of customer needs. For example, here are two partial lists of customer needs for an educational program and a physicians ofce. Student customers require: an up-to-date, relevant set of courses that are taught effectively; feedback
SERVICE QUALITY
A service organization must be creative in uncovering needs not yet formulated or recognized by its customers.
are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen, is fresh and evocative. Consider what Ritz-Carlton calls its credo, which is lled with expressive adjectives and phrases that describe a visit to a Ritz-Carlton Hotel:
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel is a place where the genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission. We pledge to provide the nest personal service and facilities for our guests, who will always enjoy a warm, relaxed, yet rened ambience. The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instills well-being and fullls even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.3
ing environment in which students and faculty challenge one another to meet the highest standards of excellence. For a group medical practice, a quality statement might include these words: We share a commitment and overriding sense that our patients are our customers, and we dedicate ourselves to their health, well-being and satisfaction. Our physicians, nurses and staff members practice state-ofthe-art medicine and deliver it with care, compassion and respect for our patients.
Measure customer satisfaction

The late Edward Koch, the former mayor of New York City, recognized the importance of customer feedback and was famous for stopping constituents in the street and asking, How am I doing? Service organizations need to have the same attitude. Ongoing, objective, accurate and reliable surveys are necessary to adequately measure customer satisfaction. For years, researchers and service providers have recognized the importance of listening to the customer. The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), developed by the National Quality Research Center of the University of Michigan, is based on annual interviews of about 80,000 American consumers. The ratings of organizations in the private and public sectors are on a 100-point scale and are updated quarterly and published on a website.4 In many cases, surveys are most effective when carried out by independent third parties. But even then, reliability isnt guaranteed. For the last two new cars I purchased, the salesperson told me to expect a phone call from a representative at a research organization asking me to take a survey on the service I received at the dealership. The salesperson said the dealerships management expected the salespeople to receive the highest, most favorable responses to each survey question. The magnitude of bias introduced by such coaching is unclear.
When I taught in an executive program at one of the nations largest nursing home organizations, I divided the participants into small groups and asked them to develop a quality statement for the organization. Their task was not to dene quality as it existed at the time, but to create a vision for the future. Their initial attempts lacked emotion and read like marketing brochures for the organization and its competitors. I asked the participants what the effect would be of including the statement, We treat our residents the way we would treat our own parents. It was clear to everyone that it would set the bar at a high level. It also would signify an incredibly strong commitment to quality. In response to my encouragement, the group added originality and passion to its quality statements and created prose that led to emotional responses. One group described the organizations nursing homes as a great place to live. In the 1980s, mission statements were especially popular. The vast majority of them were similar in style and unoriginal. Many still hang on the walls of hospitals and corporate spaces and, if read, sound hackneyed and worn. In contrast to mission statements, quality statements should be more detailed, fully developed and highly original. It takes more than a paragraph or two to dene quality and describe the substance of an organizations quality activities. The best organizations have a strong culture, and the quality statement should include descriptive phrases about it. A quality statement for a school might include the words, an open, supportive community with a culture based on mutual respect, cooperation and communication; a learn-
Develop service standards

Some time ago I visited an aged friend in a nursing home. The woman needed help undressing for bed and repeatedly pressed the call button. She became increasingly ag-
December 2013 QP 59
itated and my attempts to summon help were unsuccessful. Finally, after about 20 minutes, an aide responded. The next day, I asked the head of the nursing home how long a resident should have to wait after calling for assistance. Her reply was, not too long. Clearly the head of the nursing home had not given much thought to the service she was providing. The vague statement, not too long was of no value. What she needed to do was specify a required response time and then keep track of how well that standard was being met. Standards for a service organization are analogous to product specications for a manufacturing rm. Manufacturers specify product characteristics such as the horsepower of an engine, the maximum brightness of a computer screen or the breaking strength of a steel cable. These specications are a promise to the customer, and taken together, reect the overall quality of the product. Unfortunately, the norm for many service organizations is not to have such specications or standards. Consider the manufacture of printed circuit boards used in a host of electronic products such as televisions, computers and automobile antilock braking devices. Specications dene a product that is conforming or acceptable. Each board must pass an electrical test, meet specications for dimensions and atness (absence of warping) and pass a visual inspection that identies other nonelectrical defects. In addition, throughout the manufacturing process, there are numerous specications for critical process variables. These include specications for drilled-hole locations, temperature and chemical compositions of various baths, and copper plating thickness. The important and general manufacturing concept is to develop capable processes and control them by monitoring critical process variables. The idea is to control the product by controlling the process. Service organizations would benet greatly from a similar approachrst dening the process and then specifying service standards. Ritz-Carlton is a good example of an organization that employs numerous service standards. The standards for telephone etiquette are to answer within three rings and with a smile, or cheerful tone, and when necessary, to ask the caller, May I place you on hold? When talking to guests, employees use phrases such as, My pleasure, but they are not limited to a script.5 Standards or specications are different from goals. For a circuit board maker, having at least 95% of the boards pass the electrical test is a goal. The standard is for a board to function electrically. Similarly, a school administrator
might set a goal that at least 95% of students will arrive to class on time, but the actual standard is arrive on time. To develop service standards, a rm can begin with a fairly short, initial list of key standards that will be expanded over time. For example, a healthcare organizations list of standards might include: a provider should return a patients call within two hours; a patient should not need to wait more than three weeks for an appointment; a doctor in a group practice should greet a patient with a smile and a friendly remark; and a doctor should end a patient visit with a supportive nal comment. Other items might include: a nurse in an intensive care unit should follow a prescribed approach when meeting with the patients family and providing information, and a nursing home residents call for assistance should be responded to within three minutes. A college might set initial key standards such as: a faculty member should be available at least two hours per week to meet with students outside of class; regular homework assignments should be returned within one week; nal exams should be returned within three days; all course materials should be clearly photocopied; classes should start and end on time; an email from a student to a professional in the career development ofce should be answered within one day; and computer services should respond to faculty emergency calls within 30 minutes.
Develop key quality, performance measures

Just as a manufacturer must identify critical process and product variables, a service organization must dene its critical service measures. For each service standard, there will be a corresponding measure or measures. For example, if the standard is to respond to a nursing home residents call within three minutes, the percentage of calls that are responded to within three minutes and the average time to respond to a call are corresponding measures. Given a standard for telephone etiquette, the fraction of calls that meet the standard should be measured by monitoring calls with the knowledge of the callers and employees. Some measures will not correspond to service standards but still involve key variables that should be measured. Examples of these measures include: the percentage of students who have a job by graduation; average student ratings of courses; the fraction of patients who die after open-heart surgery and the number of nursing home residents who attend various social activities. As with service standards, each entity within the service organization can begin with a short list of measures to be expanded later. Measures at a college might include:
SERVICE QUALITY
Just as a manufacturer must identify critical process and product variables, a service organization must dene its critical service measures.
the percentage of students who have a job at graduation; average salary by sector and industry; the percentage of applicants who are accepted to the college; comparative ranking of graduates by employers by sector and industry; various measures of faculty research output; student ratings of courses and instructors; and the percentage of students absent from class. For a physicians ofce, measures might include: the percentage of target female patients who have a yearly mammogram; the time from when a patient calls to speak with a physician until he or she returns the call; average waiting time for appointments; the percentage of patients who are satised with the service they receive when calling for an appointment; and the percentage of patients who rate their ofce visit as outstanding. problem-solving steps of Six Sigma; statistical control charting; failure mode and effects analysis; and design of experiments, a tool from manufacturing that is now being applied to service systems.12 Applying the ve steps is an ongoing and iterative process. Customer satisfaction surveys may reveal unrecognized needs that lead to a revision of the quality statement, and the development of new standards and measures. An organizations culture is likely to evolve over time, and the quality statement should reect these changes. Older measures will be discarded and new ones added as an organization grows. New approaches to quality improvement will surface and further revisions will be needed. In the midst of this dynamic evolution, however, there must be one constant: an organizationwide belief that quality must be continually improved. QP
The bigger picture

This framework relates to broader efforts in the quality community to develop models of service quality. Two notable examples of this effort are work on the service quality body of knowledge (SQBOK),6,7 an initiative undertaken by ASQ Service Quality Division members, and the SERVQUAL model for measuring customer perceptions of service quality.8, 9 One of the papers on SQBOK provides an extensive, useful bibliography of papers on service quality.10 The latest version of the SERVQUAL model has a 22-item rating scale across ve dimensions, which include tangibles (facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel), reliability (dependability and accuracy), responsiveness (the degree of prompt and helpful service), assurance (knowledge and courtesy of employees) and empathy (the degree of caring, individualized attention given to customers).11 The ve-step framework in this article will not solve problems or improve quality by itself. Rather, it provides a foundation or starting point. The framework sets the stage for the development of a quality program and its process improvement activities, such as: benchmarking; cost of quality analyses; service system design validation; the dene, measure, analyze, improve and control
REFERENCES
1. Peter S. Pande, Robert P. Neuman and Roland R. Cavanagh, The Six Sigma Way: How GE, Motorola and Other Top Companies Are Honing Their Performance, McGraw Hill, 2000. 2. Sandra J. Sucher and Stacy McManus, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, Harvard Business School case # 9-601-163, 2005. 3. Ibid., p. 28. 4. The American Customer Satisfaction Index, www.theacsi.org. 5. Sucher, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, see reference 2, p. 28. 6. Rajesh Tyagi and Jen Piccotti, A Service Framework, Quality Progress, October 2012, pp. 40-45. 7. Rajesh Tyagi, Nikhil Varma and Navneet Vidyarthi, An Integrated Framework for Service Quality: SQBOK Perspective, Quality Management Journal, Vol. 20, No. 2, 2013, pp. 34-47. 8. A. Parasuraman, Valarie A. Zeithaml and Leonard L. Berry, A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 49, No. 4, 1985, pp. 41-50. 9. A. Parasuraman, Valarie A. Zeithaml and Leonard L. Berry, SERVQUAL: A Multiple-Item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 64, No. 1, 1988, pp. 12-39. 10. Tyagi, An Integrated Framework for Service Quality: SQBOK Perspective, see reference 7. 11. Parasuraman, SERVQUAL: A Multiple-Item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality, see reference 9, p. 23. 12. Johannes Ledolter and Arthur J. Swersey, Testing 1-2-3: Experimental Design With Applications in Marketing and Service Operations, Stanford University Press, 2007. ARTHUR J. SWERSEY is a professor of operations research at the Yale School of Management in New Haven, CT. He has a doctorate in operations research from Columbia University in New York. Swersey is a member of ASQ.
December 2013 61
3.4 PER MILLION
BY FORREST W. BREyfOGLE III
The Best of Both Methods

MANY ORGANIZATIONS have deployed both business process management (BPM) and lean Six Sigma. The similarities and differences between these two methods could be illustrated using a Venn diagram, shown in Figure 1. There is some natural overlap, as well as some fundamental differences between the two, but organizations can benet from a structured integration of these two techniques in their business. Organizations undertake the deployment of BPM and lean Six Sigma programs for various reasons, but there can be a great amount of difference in how organizations actually implement these programs. In addition, some organizational deployments of BPM and lean Six Sigma have been successful, while others have been less so. There are attributes of BPM and lean Six Sigma methods that are fundamentally positive and other characteristics that could be improved upon. There are improvement opportunities for these deployments that can be mapped out to combine the best of both methods, which then can lead to a sum that is greater than the parts. Sigma and lean.
Combining business process management and lean Six Sigma

the tools of lean and Six Sigma when executing projects, organizations often undertake the task of project execution using differing approaches for Six Six Sigma projects typically follow a
First things rst

Before discussing the creation of an orchestrated method, its important to lay out a general description of BPM and lean Six Sigma to understand how to integrate the two: The Association of Business Process Management Professionals (ABPMP) denes BPM as a disciplined approach to identify, design, execute, document, measure, monitor and control both automated and non-automated business processes to achieve consistent, targeted results aligned with an organizations strategic goals. BPM involves the deliberate, collaborative and increasingly technology-aided denition, improvement, innovation and management of end-to-end business processes that drive business results, create value and enable an organization to meet its business objectives with more agility.1 Lean Six Sigma, on the other hand, is a method that provides a framework to execute projects to improve quality, increase speed and reduce waste through improved workows. Lean Six Sigma projects are often a onetime process event in which controls are established so gains from the project are maintained. Although I think its best to integrate
dene, measure, analyze, improve and control (DMAIC) roadmap for process improvement efforts or a dene, measure, analyze, design and verify (DMADV) step-by-step approach for design projects. Lean improvement projects often use kaizen events, which can involve the active participation of operators, engineers, maintenance technicians and others so immediate action can be taken.
BPM and LSSs process focus

The efforts of BPM and lean Six Sigma highlight the importance of process execution. This is good because overall business performance is the result of the effectiveness of the organizations processes. But the deployment of these methods has evolved over time and can differ greatly between organizations. Even though there are differences in the details of execution, consider a high-level perspective of the general focus for each deployment type. From my observation, those undertaking BPM often give much focus to process automation. A Six Sigma deployment spotlights the quantication of monetary savings from executing projects, and lean implementations target the reduction of waste for their improvement efforts. A general question that typically arises when undertaking all of these methods (that is, BPM, lean Six Sigma and lean) is: Where should efforts focus when initiat-
ing a deployment? Where should they focus on an ongoing basis? Organizations have various approaches to address this question; however, much of this selection process for all deployment options is based on opinions and can result in organizational silo enhancements that dont provide whole-system benets. A better way to address these questions is through an orchestration system, which provides as a foundation an
IEE BPM/EPM system
/ FIGURE 2
BPM
Enterprise
M q u on re arte thly vie rl , ws y
accurate view of what is being done in the organization from a process point of view and of the performance of how well these activities are being executed. With this readily accessible point of view, enterprise and operational efforts can be undertaken through the use of analytics so the big picture benets from their efforts.
analysis Enterprise goals and improvement strategies EIP and improvement planning Improve and implement
Management rules and IT infrastructure Process management Process modeling analysis Process design 30K Tools and methods analysis BPMN and and hyp. Maintain and RCA simulation testing sustain current Risk performance analysis Process Strategic planning Design for BPM Lean LSS Sustained business management and success using the value chain PDCA
EPM
IEE strategic EPM
An orchestrated system
The ABPMP book that contains the BPM body of knowledge2 provides attributes for inclusion of the enterprise in a BPM deployment using the tools of enterprise process management (EPM). But this book and other literature do not describe how to best orchestrate these methods or provide details on how to execute an actual process improvement project. The roadmap in Figure 2 addresses this need by outlining an Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) integration of BPM, EPM and lean Six Sigma methods. In this IEE BPM/EPM gure, the applicaBPM = business process management BPMN = business process model and notation EIP = enterprise improvement plan EPM = enterprise process management hyp. = hypothesis
LSS
Mi vis ssio Va ion n p lue as erfo cha se rm in ss a n a m c nd en e t
Maintain the gain and sustain performance
Modied from Forrest W. Breyfogles The Business Process Management Guidebook: An Integrated Enterprise Excellence BPM System, Citius Publishing, 2013.
BPM and LSS methods / FIGURE 1

Business process management (BPM)
tion of BPM methods is described across the top, while the execution of EPM is described vertically on the left side.3 The application of lean and lean Six Sigma improvement undertakings is highlighted in the roadmap steps improve
Lean Six Sigma (LSS)
and control, in which these efforts from a lean Six Sigma point of view could follow a DMAIC roadmap, DMADV execution, kaizen event or a just-do-it project. Also in Figure 2, note that:
as w Dail se ee y, ss kly m en ts
Business process management
IEE = Integrated Enterprise Excellence LSS = lean Six Sigma PDCA = plan-do-check-act cycle RCA = root cause analysis
The upper-left corner describes the initiation of an IEE BPM/EPM implementation, which involves two steps in which the rst initiation step is the organizations vision and mission. The next step shown in the upper-left corner of the roadmap is value chain and performance assessment. This IEE value chain provides a description of what an organization does and how it measures its performance. The IEE value chain is an extension of Porters value chain.4 A split in the ow next occurs in the
December 2013 QP 63
3.4 pER mILLION

roadmap with the use of information provided in the organizational value chain and its performance reporting. The gures top horizontal branch shows the path for a BPM implementation beginning with process analyses, while the vertical branch addresses analyses and other activities of the EPM system. Both paths then recombine in the lower right, which represents the sustainment of business success when BPM and EPM together are emphasized in an organization. The EPM execution (the left side of Figure 2) step-by-step process begins after an enterprise analysis and realistic nancial goals are established with a timeline for achievement. Next, analytically and innovatively determined targeted strategies are created with an alignment to the nancial needs and organizational objectives. Whenever possible, these strategies should lead to targeted operational value-chain performance goals, in which process owners become highly motivated for the execution of lean Six Sigma projects in their area so that the completion of these projects will benet their performance metrics. Successful completion of these projects will have a positive impact on the entire organization because project selection is based on the needs of the business. An enterprise improvement plan approach is a means to obtain the alignment of projects to business needs.5 Lean Six Sigma projects that improve operational metrics in the IEE value chain, which positively affect the entire enterprise to the magnitude desired, are considered successful. Controls then must be established in the organizational value chain to maintain the gains and sustain performance. An IEE value chain 30,000-foot-level performance metric6 can be one form of controls for maintaining a projects benets. The step called sustained business management and success using the IEE value chain (lower right) shows an arrow that looks back to enterprise analysis. This is equivalent to W. Edwards Demings plan-do-check-act (PDCA)7 improvement method for the entire enterprise. Figure 2s BPM execution (top of the gure) includes the methods that are considered BPM components in which: The creation of an IT infrastructure includes implementation of the IEE value chain with automatic performance data updates, which can be accessed readily by those authorized in an organization. The IEE value chain is used for the day-to-day management of processes. An approach for systematically maintaining and sustaining current performance is applied. Process design for effective implementation. Process modeling for assessing the risks of new process designs implementation and the optimization of processes is applied. An EPM analysis is used to determine where the automation of IT processes should focus so that the enterprise as a whole benets.
FORREST W. BREYFOGLE III is president and CEO of Smarter Solutions Inc. in Austin, TX. He earned a masters degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas. Breyfogle is an ASQ fellow and recipient of the 2004 Crosby Medal.
Analytically and innovatively determined targeted strategies are created with an alignment to the nancial needs and organizational objectives.
The approximate time sequence of potential tool applications in the IEE BPM/EPM structure is shown as oblong circles in Figure 2.
Move to the 3Rs

Organizations have beneted from BPM and lean Six Sigma methods, but often these benets have been short term and the deployments were not sustainable. Organizations prot when they orchestrate the methods of BPM and lean Six Sigma so they can move toward achievement of the 3Rs of business: everyone doing the right things and doing them right at the right time. QP
REFERENCES AND NOTE
1. Association of Business Process Management Professionals, Guide to the Business Process Management Common Body of Knowledge, second edition, Association of Business Process Management Professionals, 2009. 2. Ibid. 3. Forrest W. Breyfogle, The Business Process Management Guidebook: An Integrated Enterprise Excellence BPM System, Citius Publishing, 2013. 4. Michael E. Porter, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, Free Press, 1985. 5. For an example of an enterprise improvement plan, see Forrest W. Breyfogles Inputs Into Action, Quality Progress, January 2012, pp. 52-55. 6. Forrest W. Breyfogle, Insight or Folly? Quality Progress, January 2010, pp. 56-59. 7. W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis, MIT Press, 1986.
Global State of Quality
The ASQ
RESEARCH
View Our Groundbreaking Reports!

The ASQ Global State of Quality Research is an unprecedented research project pioneered by ASQ. It evaluates how the quality discipline is being practiced and performed around the world. Gathered from 2,000 organizations in more than 22 countries, it uncovers trends throughout the world, providing benchmark data to help you compare your organization to the current state of quality. Youll also gain a solid understanding of local, regional, and global landscapes, allowing you to pinpoint new growth opportunities.
View our reports at globalstateofquality.org.

TRAINING CERTIFICATION CONFERENCES MEMBERSHIP PUBLICATIONS
TM
QUALITY IN THE FIRST PERSON
BY JENNIFER J. STEPNIOWsKI
Be the Change
Applying the social responsibility standard to your life
CORPORATE SOcIAL responsibility (CSR) is a signicant issue that continues to gain traction among all demographics. As someone who tries to hold others to the same standards I hold myself, I take CSR personally. If we insist on organizations being accountable for CSR, shouldnt we do our part as well? Recently, I began to wonder: If I were to issue my own CSR report, how would I measure up and appear to my stakeholders? With this in mind, I looked to the seven core subjects outlined in ISO 26000:2010Guidance on social responsibility and audited myself. Ive outlined my general observations of each of the core subjects and related them to my lifestyle. Consumer issues. Our position as consumers holds significant power. It defines us and the marketplace. Socially responsible purchasing decisions and an eye toward the future support sustainability. I prefer to use products and services from socially responsible organizations. However, my big-ticket purchases tend to get more CSR consideration than lowcost convenience items. Also, I am proactive when it comes to ensuring my 401(k) and other investments in my portfolio contribute to the greater good. Environment. Our attention to resource use and pollution prevention requires careful examination. We must review our habits and make conscious decisions that positively affect the environment. My family and I spend as much time outside as possible. Its important to me that my children have an appreciation and respect for nature so they understand the weight of lifestyle decisions. From turning off the lights in unused rooms to reducing our consumption of fossil fuel by walking and biking, as a family, we take deliberate actions to reduce our environmental impact. Labor practices. We manage our households and the relationships within. By improving how we manage our lives at home, we make ourselves and those around us happier and healthier. During a recent summer vacation, my family and I decided on four values that we agreed to hold each other accountable to. Ive noticed that my kids are enjoying a more active role in family administration and a marked improvement in all of us when it comes to pitching in. Community involvement and development. Community involvement gets people talking to each other and caring. Whether its volunteering at a shelter, joining a book club, or even participating in a homeowners association, there are plenty of opportunities to make a difference. We nd time for things that matter. Recently, I took on the role of education chair for my local ASQ section, and Ive recognized a number of opportunities to raise the voice of quality in the community. I also try to stay active in activities offered by my kids schools. I think parental involvement and support makes a big impact on academic success. Human rights. Corporate culture boils down to how we treat one another. Actions must be consistent with communication. We must not discriminate respectfully resolve grievances and practice due diligence. If there is one permeating theme in my household, it is respect. I experienced a proud moment as a parent when my son came home from school recently and shared how he helped a peer being mistreated during a group activity. Fair operating practices. Actions
that are dishonest or otherwise negative tend to bring short-term benets that are followed by long-term consequences. Cooperation is often more powerful than competition. My 4-year-old daughter cheats when she plays games and it drives my son crazy. Hes talked with her about playing fair, but she insists on manipulating the rules to her advantage. Lately, he refuses to try when playing games, which upsets my daughter. She doesnt understand empathy yet and claims he doesnt try because she always wins. Sometimes, its the little things that happen that best demonstrate an example. My daughters priority is the short-term benet of winning a game, but in the process, she does not realize her actions have resulted in no one wanting to play with her in the long-term. Organizational governance. Considered by the International Organization
for Standardization as the most crucial factor in enabling an organization to take responsibility for the impacts of its decisions and activities, organizational governance is a question of values. It asks: At our core, are we consistent? Do we have a vision? Ive found strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analyses to be a helpful way to gain perspective. Its an introspective way to prioritize activities and ensure continuous improvement. My last SWOT analysis identied a personal threata lack of certication that I also identied as an opportunity. Specic, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely (SMART) goals are useful because they encourage me to expand my thoughts into a more well-rounded and attainable objective in a format that also holds me accountable. In response to my SWOT analysis, I used SMART goals plan-
ning to work out the details. I made attaining ASQ certication a SMART goal: I selected the certied manager of quality/ organizational excellence certication because it was the best t, registered for the exam, studied and passed that year. Engineer Henri Fayols six functions of managementforecasting, planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controllingare a logical way to approach the present and future. When making a case for CSR, we mention the benets of an improved reputation, competitive advantage and improved relationships. Of course, the same benets of CSR apply to the individual as well. Social responsibility is win-win for all. QP
BIbLIOGRAPHY
International Organization for Standardization, ISO 26000:2010Guidance on social responsibility. JENNIFER J. STEPNIOWSKI is the communications director for Pro QC International and a management and marketing adjunct instructor at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa Bay, FL. A senior member of ASQ, Stepniowski is an ASQ-certied manager of quality/organizational excellence and is an ASQ Inuential Voices blogger at www. ijenn.me.
TAKE AcTION
To learn more about the connection between quality and social responsibility (SR) and how ASQ is involved, visit the new SR website, www.thesro.org. Youll nd a rich library of research, case studies, videos and ways you and your organization can join the SR movement.
SHARE YOUR QUALITY JOURNEY
QP occasionally includes an interesting, personal quality story in its Quality in the First Person column. If you are interested in sharing your storyhow you got into the quality eld, how it has helped your organization or your career or how quality has enhanced your personal life email editor@asq.org.
December 2013 QP 67
CAREER CORNER
BY RUSSELL T. WEStCOtt
Switch Gears
Beat job boredom and burnout with reinvention
IS YOUR job fullling, bearable or dragging you down? Do you hate, tolerate or love your job? If youre unemployed or underemployed, what are you doing about it? Take a moment to ponder these questions. If you chuckled, remembered the good old days or shrugged and groaned, thats OK. Now, take a deep breath, get up and get productive. opportunity or that available jobs dont compare to the one that they left. Move on. Its unrealistic to try and win an old job back or to nd a job that is an exact match to individual requirements. With diligent introspection and using a few proven approaches, you can learn how to leverage your talent, skills and knowledge. I know a man in his 60s who did just that when he was laid off from a sales job. Instead of vacationing or waiting for the phone to ring, he established himself as a craftsman of one-of-a-kind knives that sell for hundreds of dollars. Even though his income is somewhat lower than it used to be, so are his expenses. Not bad for someone who is doing work he enjoys immensely. New skills can give you an edge. I know a former auto dealership parts supervisor who bounced from job to job during the auto manufacturing crisis. Rather than return to the eld he loved, he surveyed the occupational landscape. After he learned that healthcare was hiring in droves, he focused on a career in that eld and dipped into his familys limited savings to pay for the necessary training and certication. He secured the job of his choice and recently received a second promotion. He still repairs vehicles in his spare time to sustain his love of cars. You have many years of experience, skills and considerable knowledge. Over the years, you may have forgotten things here and there, but you can always unearth your experience and turn it into a marketable skill. Find work that can get you back on your feet, literally and nancially, and bring some enjoyment to your new self.
Disdainfully unemployed
People who fall into the unemployed category may feel like their age makes them undesirable candidates or that potential employers see them as expensive or obsolete. There will always be a place for mature talent in the workforce because it is the most experienced segment. Some in the unemployed category may feel like they havent found the right
Unfullled but paying the bills

You have a job that pays the bills, but youre not thrilled with it. Youre not alone. Many American workers are in the same situation, but that doesnt make it OK. Being unhappy about your work situation drains your energy, affects your personal life and could endanger your present employment. Its time to assess your assets. What do you have to sell to employers and what are they likely to buy? What kind of work would be more fullling for you? But before you make a career change, examine the risks. When a highly talented employee in his 40s at a technology-threatened organization realized he needed a change, he explored his knowledge, experience, skills, aptitude
Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation

(Act of August 12, 1970; Section 3685, Title 39, United States Code)
Assess your current work situation and scan the future to avoid becoming a fruit withering on the vine.
and attitude. In addition to his day job, he wrote music, played three instruments, organized and managed a band and was an accomplished photographer and writer. Because he was a happily married father of two young children, he thought it would be risky to pursue a full-time career in the arts. Instead, he explored opportunities that wouldnt interfere with his family obligations. Within a year, he took on a high-paying corporate managerial position that enabled him to balance a fullling work life and family life. what you produce at work not going to be needed in the future? Is your physical capability going to prevent you from doing the same fullling work in a year or so? Do you have a plan B or C? If youve been in the workforce many years, be mindful that complete retirement is not always fullling. Sure, there are a lot of fun things to do given money, time and healthbut how long will they be fullling, fun or feasible? Taking an occasional vacation instead of fully retiring could be the right strategy for you. Ive personally changed careers (not just jobs) six times so far. Im just eager to have work that is fullling and pays the rent with some left over. The secret to career success is to continually reinvent yourself. If youve been red, or feel tired or mired in your career, its time to get inspired. QP
RUSSELL T. WEStCOtt, based in Old Saybrook, CT, consults on strategic planning, project management, quality management systems, work life planning and career coaching. He is an ASQ fellow and an ASQ-certied manager of quality/ organizational excellence (CMQ/ OE) and quality auditor. Westcott is editor of the CMQ/OE Handbook, third edition, co-editor of the Quality Improvement Handbook, and author of many other books and articles. He serves on the Quality Management Division Advisory Committee and Thames Valley Section executive board.
1. Title of Publication: Quality Progress 2. Publication Number: 0033-524X 3. Date of Filing: 09/30/2013 4. Frequency of Issues: Monthly 5. Number of Issues Published Annually: 12 6. Annual subscription price: $102.00 7. Location of Known Office of Publication: ASQ, 600 N. Plankinton Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53203 8. Location of Headquarters or General Business Offices of Publisher: Same 9. Name and Address of Publisher: Brian LeHouillier, ASQ, 600 N. Plankinton Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53203; Editor: Seiche Sanders, 600 N. Plankinton Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53203 10. Owner: ASQ, 600 N. Plankinton Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53203 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1% or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities: Not Applicable 12. FOR COMPLETION BY NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS AUTHORIZED TO MAIL AT SPECIAL RATES. The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for Federal income tax purposes: has not changed during the preceding 12 months 13. Publication Title: Quality Progress 14. Issue date for Circulation Data below: August 2013 15. Extent and nature of circulation
Average no. of copies each issue during preceding 12 months Actual no. copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date
A. Total No. Copies Printed (Net Press Run)
61,108
57,500
B. Paid Circulation 1. Paid/Requested Outside-County Mail Subscriptions Stated on Form 3541 51,056 48,501 2. Paid In-County Subscriptions 0 0
Happily employed for now

If you love your job, youve either made smart choices or are extremely lucky. You can lean back and savor your good fortune, right? Not quite. Those familiar with the Kano model of customer satisfaction know that what delights eventually becomes a must-have. What is fullling today may be mundane, predictable and boring tomorrow. You should continually assess your current work situation and scan the future to avoid becoming a fruit withering on the vine. For example, is fast-changing technology causing you anxiety or threatening your job? Are your skills becoming obsolete? Is
3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales, and other non-USPS paid distribution
8,549 8,200
4. Other Classes Mailed Through the USPS 39 5 59,644 56,706
C. Total Paid Circulation
D. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution (Samples, Complimentary, and Other Free) 1. Outside-County as Stated on Form 3541 0
2. In-County as Stated on Form 3541 0 3. Free Mailed through the USPS 4. Free Outside the Mail 75 584 659
0 51 363 414 57,120 380 57,500
E. Total Free Distribution
F. Total Distribution (Sum of 15c and 15e) 60,303 G. Copies not distributed H. Total 805 61,108
WiSDOM FROM WESTCOTT
Russell Westcott is a regular Career Corner columnist. To read his other columns about career development in quality, visit the Career Corner page under the Departments & Columns tab at www.qualityprogress.com.
I. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation (15c divided by 15f times 100) 99%
99%
16. Publication of Statement of Ownership is printed in the December 2013 issue of this publication. 17. I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete. Brian LeHouillier Publisher
December 2013 QP 69
ASQ Enterprise and Site Members

These organizations have pledged their commitment to quality by becoming ASQ Enterprise or Site members. Learn more about these membership levels, and the benefits, by visiting asq.org/organizations.
Enterprise Quality Roundtable Members

3M Company Abbott Laboratories Abbvie Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority Alcoa Inc. Baxter International BD Bechtel Bharat Electronics Limited Blackberry/Research In Motion BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC The Boeing Company Booz Allen Hamilton CareFusion Corporation Caterpillar Inc. Cisco Systems The Coca-Cola Company Cummins Deere & Company Defense Contract Management Agency The Dow Chemical Company DuPont Company FedEx Corporation Ford Motor Company General Electric General Motors Genpact Hewlett Packard Honeywell Ingersoll Rand Intel Corporation Ivy Tech Community College Kimberly-Clark Corporation Kohler Company Kraft Foods L-3 Communications Lockheed Martin Mattel (Fisher Price) Microsoft Corporation Northrop Grumman Corporation PepsiCo Raytheon Roads and Transport Authority Siemens Industry, Inc. Tata TE Connectivity Textron Turkish Airlines Inc. UTC Xerox Corporation
Site Members
Abu Dhabi Systems & Information Centre Accellent Accuride Wheels-Camden Actavis Elizabeth LLC Aditya Birla Management Corporation Ltd. Advanced Scientifics, Inc. AECL Aflac (2) AFPSL/Bionetics AGCO Hesston Operations Agilent Technologies AIB International Aitheras LLC Albany Engineered Composites Alcon Laboratories, Inc. Alere Allergy Laboratories Inc. ALP Lighting Components Altria Client Services Quality Amazon American Airlines Inc. (2) American Axle & Manufacturing American Eurocopter American Packaging Corp. American Red Cross Ammroc AMN International S.A. De C.V. Ana G. Mendez University System Andersen Corporation Applied Medical AQS Management Systems Arab Inspection & Q.A. Company Arbitron Inc. Arctic Cat Inc. Arthrex Inc. Asco Valve Manufacturing Ashley Furniture AssurX Inc. ASTHO Atco I-Tek Auto Club Insurance Association B&W Pantex B&W Technical Services Y12 LLC Bard Peripheral Vascular Inc. Bartush-Schnitzius Foods Co. Barwa Bank Bastion Technologies Inc. Baycare Health System Beacon Converters, Inc. BeautiControl, Inc. Benchmark Electronics BEPC Inc. BG Products Bio-Rad Laboratories BeautiControl, Inc. Biomet Inc. BioReliance Corporation BJC Healthcare Blue Cross Blue Shield Arizona Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee Bonfils Blood Center Bonneville Power Administration BorgWarner Turbo Systems Boston Scientific (3) Botswana National Productivity Bridon American Corporation Briggs & Stratton Corporation Brookhaven National Laboratory Bunn-O-Matic Corporation Business Excellence Consulting Inc. The Business School Cameron International Candu Energy Inc. Cangene Corporation Cardinal Health Cargill Inc./Business Excellence Carolinas Healthcare System Carpenter Technology Corp Casa Cuervo S.A. De C.V. Cedarburg Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Celestica International Inc. Cementos Lima S.A. Center for Applied Technology Development Center Quality Office Cerner Corporation Cerveceria Polar Los Cortijos C.A. CGS Administrators Chemonics International Cherokee Nation Industries Chicago Department of Public Health ChildNet Inc. Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia Childrens Services Council Christian Brothers University Chrysler Group CIBA Vision Corporation Cincinnati Precision Instruments, Inc. Climax Portable Machine Tools, Inc. Coherent Inc. Coloplast COMFRC Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. Composite Engineering Inc. ConAgra Foods Conceptus Inc. Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. Convergys Cosmetica Laboratories Inc. Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio Covidien (3) CPI Aero CR Bard Glens Falls Operations Craig Technologies Creation Technologies LP
( ) Indicates number of Site members in this organization.

Credit Suisse Crosspoint Engineering Crown Equipment Corp. (3) CSL Behring CSP Technologies CVS Caremark Cygnus Manufacturing Company Czech Society for Quality Deaconess Hospital, Inc. Decra Roofing Systems Delaware Division of Public Health Dell (China) Ltd. Co. Dendreon Inc. Department of National Defense, Canada Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS/ASPR) DeVry Inc. Didlake, Inc. Digi-Key Corp. Digital Payment Technologies DLA Troop Support Dormont Manufacturing Co. DTI DiversiTech Inc. Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority Duke Energy Dwight David Eisenhower Army Medical Eagle Wings Industries, Inc. East Penn Manufacturing Co., Inc. Eastman Chemical Company Edward Jones Eldre Corporation Elsevier BV Bibliographic Databases Embraer Executive Jets EMD Millpore EMI Industries Emirates Telecommunication Corp. (Etisalat) Energizer Personal Care Energy & Environmental Research Center EnerSys Erickson Air Crane Ethicon Evans Capacitor Company Evans Consoles Corporation Excelitas Technologies Express Scripts, Inc. FAA DOT FDA Federal Bureau of Investigation First Quality Retail Services Fleet Readiness Center East Fleet Readiness Center-Southeast Flexial Corporation FLIR Systems Inc. FMC Technologies Inc. FMI-Medical ForceOne Solutions Inc. Fort Hays State University Fort Wayne Metals FRCSW IQAD DoD Fujifilm NA - GSD-K Fujitsu Frontech North America G&D America GECOM Corporation General Systems Company Genzyme Getinge Infection Control Gilchrist & Soames GM Nameplate, Inc. Gopher Resource Corporation Grande Cheese Company Grant Thornton Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai Greene Tweed Co. Inc. Grifols Academy Biomat USA Grupo Antolin Silao S.A. de C.V. GTS Guyana National Bureau of Standards Harris Corporation (2) Harris IT Services (2) The Harvard Drug Group Haworth Inc. HCL Technologies Ltd. (2) Hemofarm Stada Hengst of North America Henkel Corporation (2) Hertzler Systems, Inc. Hitachi Computer Products (America) Honda Lock America Honeybee Foods Corporation Hospira Hospira, Inc. HSN Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Humana, Inc. Hunting Dearborn Hussman Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama IACT Global iBASEt ICS - ABSG IEC Electronics Igate Computer Systems Ltd. IIT Delhi Illumina Inc. IMS IMSM Inc. Incertec INPRS Integrated Project Management Co., Inc. Integrys Energy Group International Game Technology Intralox LLC Ipsen Biomeasure ITM University ITT Aerospace Controls Ivy Tech Community College Jabil Technology Services JCB India Ltd. Jeppesen JetBlue Airways John Moore Services Johnson Controls Inc. Johnson Matthey Chemicals India (Pvt.) Ltd. Judd Wire Inc. Kao USA Inc. Kelly Services Inc. Keystone Steel & Wire Company Kiekert de Mexico S.A. de C.V. KnowWare International Inc. Korean Standards Association Labinal Salisbury Inc. Labs, Inc. Lakeland Regional Medical Center LAM Research Corporation Land OLakes Lastar Inc. Lauren International Lemcon Networks Ltd. Level 10 NZ Post House Lexmark International Inc. Lfoundry Avezzano Lifescan Scotland Ltd. Linamar Corporation-Quality and Launch Group The Lincoln Electric Co. Liphatech, Inc. Lloyds Register Quality Assurance Logistics Co. Lohmann Animal Health Lule University of Technology Mabamex SA de CV Mahamaya Technical University Mako Surgical Corp. Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) Manroy Defense Systems Market Probe, Inc. Martin-Baker America Inc. Maruti Center For Excellence Mass Precision Inc. Master Lock Mayday Manufacturing Mayo Clinic (2) MBT Repair Inc. Medela Inc. Medical University of South Carolina MedImmune Inc. (2) Medivators Medtronic Cardiovascular Medtronic Inc. Mental Health Center of Denver Mental Health Partners Merck Consumer Care Meta Payment Systems Metagenics Michelin North America (Canada) Ltd. Microfabrica, Inc. Micron Technology Microsemi Lawrence Midway USA MillerCoors LLC Mine Safety Appliances Co. Mitsubishi Polyester Film Inc. MOBIS Alabama, LLC, GA Plant Moog Inc. (4) Moore Norman Technology Center Moses Lake Industries Mountz Inc. Mylan LLC NALCO An Ecolab Company Nammo Talley Inc. The National Graduate School of Quality Management National Marine Dredging Co. National Quality Review National Security Technologies Nationwide Childrens Hospital Naval Dosimetry Center Naval Sea Logistics Center Portsmouth Nelson Laboratories Inc. New Balance Athletic Shoes Inc.
December 2013 QP 71

New Zealand Post Nokia Solutions and Networks Noramco Norfolk Naval Shipyard Northeastern LLC Northwestern Mutual Life Norwich Pharmaceuticals Inc. Norwood Medical Novartis Consumer Health Inc. Novo Nordisk Pharmaceutical Industries Inc. Novozymes NSF-ISR Nu Skin Enterprises Nusil Technology LLC (2) Nypro Inc. (2) ODL, Inc. Office of the Comptroller (Puerto Rico) Ohio Army National Guard Olympus Gyrus Medical Inc. Omega Diagnostics LLC OMNEX Orchid Orthopedic Solutions Orthofix Oshkosh Corporation - Defense Paccar Engine Company Pacific Gas & Electric Company Pacific Precision, Inc. Pacific Southwest Container PakTech Palmetto GBA Panasonic Avionics Corp. (2) Panduit de Costa Rica Ltda Par Pharmaceutical Parker Hannifin Corp. Paychex, Inc. Pearson Pelco Pella Corporation Pera Global Pernod Ricard USA Perrigo (3) Petroleum Helicopters PGT Industries Pharma Tech Industries Pharmaceutics International Inc. PHH Arval Placon Plow & Hearth LLC PMT Corporation Point Lepreau G S Polyone - DDS Pontificia Universidad Catlica del Per Premier Bankcard PSI Repair Services Puget Sound Energy QAI India Ltd. Qatar Petroleum Qatargas Operating Company Ltd. QMI-SAI Global QualiWare Inc. QualTex Quantum Professional Academy RS Software India Ltd. R Stahl Inc. Rauland-Borg Corp. Refineria ISLA Rhein-Minapharm B.G. Ricca Chemical Company Riedon Inc. RIT/CQAS RJ Lee Group Inc. Robert Bosch Mexico Sistemas Automotrices S.A. de C.V. Robert Heely Construction Roche Diagnostics Corporation Rohmann Services RTI Biologics Inc. SAFC SanDisk Corporation Sani-Tech West Sanofi Pasteur Ltd. Santa Clara County Probation Department Sauder Woodworking Saudi Airlines SC Johnson (2) Schleifring Medical Systems Schneck Medical Center Seattle Childrens Hospital SED Systems Shaw Industries Shenzhen Hangsheng Electronics Co. The Shepherd Color Company Sid Richardson Carbon Co. Sigma-Aldrich Biosciences Simon Fraser University Singapore General Hospital Singapore Health Services Pte Ltd. Singapore Quality Institute Skyworks Solutions de Mexico Sorin Group Canada Inc. Southern California Edison Southern Management Corp. Span Packaging Services LLC Spansion Inc. Sparta Systems, Inc. Sparton Medical Systems Colorado LLC Spectralytics Inc. Spectrum Surgical Spellman High Voltage SRA International Inc. St. Louis Childrens Hospital Starkey Labs, Inc. Strategic Solutions, Inc. Stratosphere Quality LLC Stryker (2) Sunpower Philippines Manufacturing Ltd. Suomen Laatuyhdistys Ry Supreme Council of Health Symmetry Medical Manufacturing Inc. Syracuse Research Corporation T & S Brass and Bronze Talon Innovations Techmetals, Inc. Technicolor Technip USA Inc. Telephonics Corp. (2) Tenneco Terumo Cardiovascular System Corp Texas Health Resource TG Missouri Corp. Therma-Tru Corp. Thunder Bay District Health Unit ThyssenKrupp (2) The Timken Company TIP Technologies Inc. Torqtek Design & Manufacturing LLC Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America Inc. Trivascular UAE Exchange & Financial Services Ltd. United Space Alliance United States Pharmacopeia Convention Universidad Continental Universidad de Guanajuato Universidad DeLaSalle Bajo A.C. University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy University of Northern Colorado University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics University Rovira Virgili URS U.S. Army ARDEC U.S. Army CERDEC U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD) U.S. Cellular Corp. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency U.S. Food & Drug Administration USANA Health Sciences, Inc. Usiminas Cubatao UT MD Anderson Cancer Center The Vanguard Group Vari-Form Inc. Vascular Solutions Inc. Ventana Medical Systems Verify Inc. Viastore Viega LLC Vinfen CT Viracon Visit Milwaukee Vistakon Volvo Group Trucks Technology W. W. Grainger, Inc. Wackenhut Services, Inc. Walt Disney World Warner Chilcott Company LLC The Washington Consulting Group, Inc. Water Corporation Watson Drill Rigs Waupaca Foundry, Inc. Webco Manufacturing Inc. Wellmark Wells Fargo Home Mortgage WePackItAll Western Digital Thailand Wilden Pump & Engineering WMATA Xandex Inc. XLI Corporation Zippo Manufacturing Co.
SITE MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

All employees at a single site are entitled to Site membership benefits. If your organization has more than one site, each site must have a Site membership to share membership benefits with its employees. Identify one primary contact who will receive all ASQ-related information and can disseminate this information to employees.
OFFICE USE ONLY MBKEA73 PROMO CODE_____________________

Order Number______________________ Member Number____________________
TM
PRIMARY CONTACT INFORMATION

Mr. Ms. Mrs. Dr. Male Female Middle Initial Last Name Job Title Ste. Country Preferred Email Address
First Name
Company
Business Address (If address is a P.O. box, please provide a street address for deliveries) City, State/Province Zip+4/Postal Code Area Code/Fax
Area Code/Business Telephone/Ext. If you were referred to ASQ by another member, please tell us who referred you. Member Name
ASQ Member Number
Mailing Lists Occasionally ASQ shares its mailing list with carefully selected quality-related organizations to provide you with information on products and services. Please check this box if you do not wish to receive these mailings. ASQ does not sell email addresses to third parties.
WHY ARE YOU JOINING?

To help us understand whats important to you, please tell us the top three reasons why you are becoming an ASQ member.
PAYMENT INFORMATION
1,000.00 Site Member Annual Dues $___________________
ASQ Sections Your companys primary contact will belong to a local ASQ Section determined by your company address. If you wish to choose a specific Section, please visit asq.org/sections for a listing of Sections. Additional Sections may be added for $20.00 each.
Career Development Certification Pricing In-person Networking Involvement in ASQs Cause Involvement in SRO
Knowledge/Information Leadership Opportunities Online Networking/Communities Product Discounts Training

, , $480.00 (does not include shipping and handling) Book Collection Shipping & Handling (United States $20.00, Canada $30.00, International $100.00) Additional Forums and Divisions
$___________________
ASQ FORUMS AND DIVISIONS

Your companys primary contact will belong to one ASQ Forum or Division as part of your Site membership. Additional Forums and Divisions may be added for $10.00 each. Please check one box indicating your included Forum or Division. Add additional Forums and Divisions at right.
Quality Press Book Collection Establish an outstanding resource library for your organization and strengthen and extend quality knowledge and application. Subscribers will receive a minimum of 10 books selected by Quality Press editors. $___________________ $___________________

, , ,
$___________________ $___________________
Audit (19) A utomotive (3) A viation, Space, and Defense ( 2) B iomedical (10) C hemical and Process Industries (4) C ustomer-Supplier (15) D esign and Construction (20) E ducation (21) E lectronics and Communications (5) E nergy and Environmental (11) F ood, Drug, and Cosmetic ( 7) G overnment (22) H ealthcare (18)
H uman Development and Leadership (13) I nspection (9) Lean Enterprise (23) M easurement Quality (17) P roduct Safety and Liability Prevention (25) Q uality Management (1) R eliability (8) S ervice Quality (16) S ix Sigma (26) S oftware (14) S tatistics (12) T eam and Workplace Excellence (27)
TOTAL OF ALL ITEMS
Check or money order (U.S. dollars drawn on a U.S. bank) Make check payable to ASQ. MasterCard Visa American Express(Check one)
Cardholders Name (please print) Card Number Cardholders Signature Cardholders Address Exp. Date
For more information about Forums and Divisions, visit asq.org/forums-divisions or call 800-248-1946.
Please submit your application with remittance to: ASQ, P.O. Box 3066, Milwaukee, WI 53201-3066 USA or fax to 414-272-1734. You may also join online at www.asq.org or by calling ASQ Customer Care at USA and Canada: 800-248-1946 Mexico: 001-800-514-1564 All other locations: +1-414-272-8575
QPToolboX
Automotive testing
Mars Labs has unveiled the Titan modular data acquisition (DAQ) system for largerchannel automotive durability and fatigue testing requirements. The Titan DAQ is available in standard and custom models and can be used for durability and fatigue, noise and vibration, shock, compression and acoustics measurements. It is specically designed for direct integration with a range of sensing technology types. Additional features include 8-pole Butterworth lters and an improved 10-pole linear-phase lter. It supports sample scan rates commonly used in simulation-based systems. It also has a direct interface to specialty automotive sensors, such as wheel force transducers and instrumented steering wheels. Call: 301-470-3278. Email: mars.info@marslabs.com. design of automotive electronics assemblies. The silicone technologies include the TC-2030 and TC-2035 thermally conductive adhesives. The TC-2030 thermally conductive adhesive is a thermal management solution for standard automotive electronics. It reduces thermal resistivity with a high thermal conductivity of 2.7 W/mK. It is a suitable thermal interface material for high-power underhood electronic applications, such as power steering, antilock breaking and electronic control modules. The TC-2035 thermally conductive adhesive reduces thermal resistivity by delivering 3.3 W/mK thermal conductivity and BLT as low as 50 m. A two-part, heatcured silicone bonds reliably to thermal substrate types, including direct bonding copper, high-density interconnect, lowtemperature co-red ceramic and printed circuit board. Email: mirella.kimpen@dowcorning.com. Visit: www.dowcorning.com/ electronics.
Calibration
The P3100 series from Fluke Calibration are deadweight testers that can calibrate a range of pressure-sensing devices including transducers, transmitters and gauges. Each instrument is supplied with a detachable lid, making it portable, and the weight masses are stored in a case with a self-locking mechanism to protect them during transit. All units are provided with weight mass details, operating uid and spare seals. The piston and cylinder assemblies come standard with accredited calibration reports. Call: 877-355-3225. Visit: us.ukecal.com.
Thermally conductive adhesive

Dow Cornings two thermally conductive
adhesives have been developed to enable
Switches
ATC Diversied Electronics has released the ISO/ISL series of switches designed to control energy loads from hazardous locations. The series is available in singleand multi-channel models and it offers up
to four channels. The ISO/ISL series performs under normal and abnormal conditions without releasing energy values that could lead to ignition of a ammable or combustible atmospheric mixture in its most easily ignited concentration. The ISO/ISL series switches feature a fully isolated output, which turns on when the control switch input from the hazardous location is closed. The multi-channel series is available with choice of latching or non-latching output. Call: 304-387-1200. Visit: www.marshbellofram.com. monitor performance from many loca-
Scope Plus comes in two levels: basic and professional. Basic EasyShaft software provides touch-screen operation using selectable feature icons, many of which are easily recognizable from the standard feature control frames the user sees on their part drawings. ProfessionalShaft script-level programming allows expert users access to the machines capabilities. All MarShaft Scope Plus systems are equipped with touch screens with intelligent multi-touch gestures built in. Call: 401-784-3100. Visit: www.mahr.com. tions. Turcks TS530 temperature sensors are designed for easy mounting and installation, allowing users to mount them directly to a tank or pipewithout a mounting bracketusing a 1/2NPT process connection. For performance in harsh manufacturing environments, the sensor meets IP69K protection ratings and operates in temperatures ranging from -50 C to 150 C. Call: 800-544-7769. Visit: www.turck.us.
Temperature sensor
Turck has introduced the TS530 temperature sensor, featuring an integrated resistance temperature detector (RTD). The TS530 combines the display, process connection and RTD all in a single part. The LED rotatable display can turn up to 340 degrees and allows for exible viewing in the eld. The sensor also sends feedback to a PC, allowing operators to
Measurement
Mahr Federal has redesigned the MarShaft Scope. The MarShaft Scope Plus offers micron-level measurements, and includes a MarWin-based controller and system architecture that opens levels of machine capability. Operational software for the MarShaft
GOT A QUALITY PRODUCT?
Send your product description and photo to vellifson@asq.org.
December 2013 QP 75
QPReViewS
Communication Across Cultures
Elizabeth Christopher, ed., Palgrave Macmillian, 2012, 424 pp., $55 (book). This book was created as an academic textbookwritten by a group of authorsthat explores communication across cultural groups where it is necessary to build successes in projects, activities, meeting of standards and delivery of quality in outcomes. Works in this textbook are organized by four dimensions: communication across cultures, communication at work, going global and the planet, and cyberspace. The format of the book supports teaching and learning. Each section provides outcomes presented with a reference to leadership responsibilities and actions that should increase positive outcomes and results. Though it is a useful reference for an operational program, it primarily serves as a core resource supportive of questioning, seminar-type discussions and experimental exercises for groups or individuals. This is not a book on quality methods, standards or systems. Rather, it focuses on moving messages across cultures and knowing the impacts of successful message movement. A detailed index is offered and online resources are referenced for further study related to the books broad content. Also, a dedicated website is referenced by the publisher that offers a manual for a lecturer or professor covering the content in an academic setting or course. For those involved in multicultural and multinational activities, this textbook is a useful resource. It also serves as a model for organization and presentation of other course-related textbooks. Jerry Brong Ellensburg, WA each metric. Ways to present and use data. Going beyond traditional statistical control charts to facilitate learning and decision making. The psychological impact of metrics. The concept of a metric life cycle and how it can be used to evaluate the continuing relevance of each metric. If more information is needed, there are good index and reference sections and appendixes. Metrics are also one way to know if a plan was implemented and if it achieved desired results. After use, metrics evolve and should be reviewed regularly. Good metrics programs will improve processes, but even if you cant affect process deviation, monitoring the correct things can help explain them for better understanding. Management and employees will be happier if the uncomplicated concepts presented here are used with your monitoring systems. Marc A. Feldman Solvay Chemicals Inc. Houston
Performance Metrics: The Levers for Process Management

Duke Okes, ASQ Quality Press, 2013, 128 pp., $24 member, $40 list (book). If you are looking for a list of key process performance indicators (KPI), this is not the book for you, although examples of common metrics are provided. If you wish to learn how to craft a meaningful set of metrics to help you personally or in business, this is the book to read. The book is an easily understood discussion of process metrics, giving background and reasoning for choosing various metrics and implementing them for any process or sub-processes. To ensure that the metrics you select or design are aligned with your goals and objectives, Okes simplybut thoroughlydiscusses: Core processes and process management. Measurement theory, different types of metrics, how their functions differ and example metrics. The thinking behind selecting metrics. Details and factors to consider for
The Basics of Project Evaluation And Lessons Learned

Willis H. Thomas, CRC Press, 2011, 146 pp., $20.95 (book). The book relates to the discipline of project management. Thomas provides his perspective based on lessons he learned in the profession, supported by widely known
project management techniques and case studies from organizations that have executed successful projects as well as those that had major project management failures in the process. The title of the book is misleading. The structure is not user friendly and there is an excessive use of bulleted information and acronyms. Project management techniques such as Pert and Gantt charts which are explained in the bookhave critical visual elements that I did not see once. The individuals who can benet most by reading this book are those in managerial positions who can choose their staff. Supervisors should experience improved efciency in resource and people management based on this book. On the other hand, employees may benet from understanding how the interaction between team members, project leaders and resources could affect the overall project goal when a project manager is not trained enough to perform the job. Roberto Guzman Morrisville, NC
experiences and knowledgecombined with a large amount of data collected from various studies involving hundreds of thousands of participantsto create guidelines for leadership that are realistic to work with, but more importantly, that are accessible and can be followed by everyone. The book is divided into three sections based on the three principles of the VAE: model, vision, alignment and execution. An appendix also provides a more thorough explanation of the 10 stages of development of the VAE model. For each section, there is an introduction, followed by three drivers, and a concluding summary. A driver is dened as a basic element that paves the way for each step in the process and helps make the process achievable. Two best practices are included with each driver showing how this behavior can support the driver. There is a lack of adequate coverage of
the authors understanding of structure of leadership leading to development of the VAE model, and the book needs more testimonials on the successes and challenges of applying the model. However, the authors have clearly succeeded in achieving their goal of providing easyto-apply steps and useful guidelines for making the model achievable. That makes this book required reading for current and would-be leaders. Herzl Marouni ABS Consulting Houston
ReceNt ReleaSeS
The Certied Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence Handbook
Russell T. Westcott, ed., ASQ Quality Press, 2013, 688 pp., $99 member, $139 list (fourth edition, book).
The Process Improvement Handbook

Tristan Boutros and Tim Purdie, McGrawHill Professional, 2013, 416 pp., $90 (book).
The Work of Leaders: How Vision, Alignment, and Execution Will Change the Way You Lead
Julie Straw, Mark Scullard, Susie Kukkonen, and Barry Davis, Pfeiffer, 2013, 240 pp., $24.95 (book). It is refreshing to read a book on leadership that is written by following scientic research methods. The book outlines the development of a leadership model based on three principles of vision, alignment, and execution, namely the VAE model. The authors draw from their personal
Advertisers Index
ADvertiSer
ASQ Membership Application EtQ Inc. MEIRxRS Quality Council of Indiana StatSoft Inc.
PaGe PhoNe
55 1
Web
800-248-1946 www.asq.org 516-293-0949 www.etq.com
28 800-507-5277 www.meirxrs.com 10, 11 800-660-4215 www.qualitycouncil.com OBC 918-749-1119 www.statsoft.com
December 2013 QP 77
PROFESSIONALSERVICES
For information on placing an ad, contact Media Sales at 866-277-5666.
Lean Six Sigma Training

and certification online by Thomas Pyzdek
Save 10%! Enter coupon code ASQ10 at checkout
www.sixsigmatraining.org /store +1 520-204-1957
Since 1994 Complete Quality, Environmental, Safety, Six Sigma, Consulting, Auditing, and Training Services. Comprehensive Quality Management Software (QISS). QISS-based ISO-Easy Program Quality Management Software (QISS) Automating Document and Records Control, Communications, Nonconformance, Corrective-Preventive Actions, Calibration, Maintenance, Training, Audits, and Management Reviews. PH: 281-335-7979. Houston, TX Email: Sales@qisssoftware.com, www.qi-a.com www.qisssoftware.com
Quality Institute of America, Inc.
Quality Systems Registrars, Inc.

Recognized industry leader in rapidly expanding registration industry is seeking a highly motivated quality professional to join our organization as a Lead Auditor. ISO 9001 AS9100 TL 9000 ISO 14001 RC 14001 OHSAS 18001 22375 Broderick Drive, Suite 160 Sterling, VA 20166 Phone: 703-478-0241 Fax: 703-478-0645 www.qsr.com
Statistical Analyses??? StatSolver!!!

We can create your data and submit within 72 hours We do the work and invoice you References found on our website Based in the United States
IMDS Data
www.imdsdata.org 734-205-8874
Download a free trial www.StatSolver.net
TQM ASSOCIatES INC. WERE HERE TO SUPPORT YOU

Established in 1994 Women-Owned Quality Assurance Professionals Across the U.S. and Worldwide Temporary or Permanent Source Inspection Surveys Audits Expediting 800-424-4729 3990 Old Town Ave. #C109 Fax 619-297-3251 San Diego, CA 92110 tqmassociates.com email: stephk@tqminc.net 78 QP www.qualityprogress.com
Classroom Training Aids

g Quincunx Boards g Sampling Bowls g Catapults g Deming Funnels g And lots more
Visit us at: www.qualitytng.com Email sales@qualitytng.com for brochure
Ph: 248-641-7030 Fax: 248-641-7031 PO Box 611 Troy, MI 48099-0611
PROFESSIONALSERVICES
For Accredited Certification Look for the Symbols of Quality
EAGLE Registrations Inc. EAGLE Food Registrations Inc.
For information on placing an ad, contact Media Sales at 866-277-5666.
Hands-On Root Cause Analysis Training/Coaching!

Four Hours of Training, then Hands-On Application w/Teams On Your Toughest Problems!! OutputsSolutions and Actions Guaranteed results!
Highest Ranked Registrar in an independent customer survey! ISO 9001 AS 9100 ISO/TS 16949 ISO 14001 ISO 13485 OHSAS 18001 Safe Quality Food (SQF) ISO 22000 FSSC 22000 SQF Ethical Sourcing Call 800-795-3641 | www.eagleregistrations.com

ISO 9001, AS 9100, ISO 13485, ISO 20000 FDA QSR, Canadian MDR, European MDD Planning, Implementation, Training Process Improvements, Process Validation QMS Internal Audits, Mini-audits
Camille Delmotte, MBA, President Phone and fax: 410-426-2269 info@qualityedgeconsulting.com www.QualityEdgeConsulting.com
Mike Micklewright
CSSBB, CQMgr, CQA, CQE Arlington Heights, IL PH: 847-401-0822 mike@mikemick.com; www.mikemick.com
Consulting on Reliability, Risk Management, and Quality

www.HaibelConsulting.com (425) 458-0202
Beijing Enertic Engineering Technical Co., Ltd.

A 3rd party inspection company 10 years experience for boiler, steel structure, pipes, pumps, valves, etc. in China and Asia.
China Headquarters: Tel: +86-1350-023-1596 Email: xqwang@enertic.com US representative: Tel: 843-810-4805 Email: james.zhang@linxyn.com Website: www.enertic.com
eAudits.org
Learn how to conduct audits remotely.
Experience ASQ TV on videos.asq.org

TM December 2013 QP 79
BACK TO BAsICs
BY MARCIA M. WEEDEN
Pyramid Scheme
A framework for stronger standard operating procedures
AN IMPORTANT element in the quality professionals quest for compliance and excellence is the standard operating procedure (SOP). Often regarded simply as a document with a set of work instructions, SOPs can provide much more. A wellwritten SOP eliminates confusion and disputes, ensures repeatability, and provides a means for continuous improvement. Breaking the SOP into three tiers of information elevates an SOP to a precision quality tool. A pyramid is a helpful model to use to structure and communicate information because its tiered composition allows for varying levels of detail and complexity (Figure 1). The top tier contains high-level informationthe SOPs purpose, objectives and scope, who uses the SOP, as well as training and qualications that are all critical for correct execution. Because strong differences of opinion can arise, be objective from the start and dene responsibilities by department or job function. Indicating SOP ownership ensures proper oversight and approval, and provides users with a resource when questions or problems arise. Include the SOPs revision history to show how methods evolved and when decisions were made. This knowledge is valuable when performing a gap analysis. Because employees can sometimes forget their manager and facility are governed by organization and external requirements, referencing customer, organization, industry, and regulatory standards and policies help employees understand and comply with SOPs. List records associated with the SOP so it is easy to locate records that can demonstrate compliance with procedures if a liability issue occurs. The SOPs middle tier provides a basic understanding of the main processes. Keep it brief. The person reading the SOP, such as a customer or auditor, may not require specics. Managers typically refer to this section for quick insights. Dene the words, terms or acronyms used in the SOP if there is any chance someone may be unfamiliar with them or if the possibility of multiple meanings exists. People feel most comfortable doing something when they know why it must be done. Detailing policies specic to the SOP resolves disputes and instills worker condence. Processes provide an overview of the stages the
Flowcharts for: Complicated tasks Decision making Start-to-end activities
them. Include how to manage unusual or unplanned situations. Details are not necessary; simply point the reader in the right direction. Second-tier owcharts show high-level process ows and decision rules. They permit quick visuals when fast answers are being sought. The bottom tier provides details for carrying out required activities. Consequently, it is the largest and most detailed tier. For each process stage, specify the associated tasks and step-by-step instructions. Illustrations and screenshots are often helpful aids. Flowcharts provide a visual representation of the process and decision points. Address records by indicating the tasks to be documented, who performed them, and where to le or forward them. Make sure records contain the who, what, when, where and why for compliance and traceability. The how is detailed in the SOP. Providing these details ensures records are complete. Checklists constructed in progressive work order are optional but helpful tools to manage complicated or critical activities, and workow interruptions. They serve as reminders and records. Well-written SOPs are a mainstay for reducing costs and ensuring customer satisfaction. When it comes to policies, regulatory directives and liability risks, SOPs are excellent insurance for achieving compliance. QP
MARCIA M. WEEDEN is the owner of Quality Excellence Services in Barrington, RI. An ASQ member, she holds a masters degree in textiles, clothing and related art with specializations in quality assurance and adult education from the University of Rhode Island in Kingston.
Tiered structure of a standard operating procedure / FIGURE 1

Requirements related to: Training Responsibilities References Governance Records History Flowcharts for: Complicated processes Approvals High-level decision making
Overview Purpose Scope
Denitions Policies High-level processes
main activities go through. Briey describe what initiates the processes, the steps to carry out and what concludes
Detailed information How-to steps for carrying out specic tasks Checklists Final steps and records
Source: Quality Excellence Services 2013
Whats Online in the ASQ Knowledge Center?

CASE STUDY
Systematically Improving Operating Room Patient Flow Through Value Stream Mapping and Kaizen Events Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia, PA, used a value stream mapping approach to identify and execute seven lean projects within the perioperative department over four years. BENCHMARKING Manufacturing Tune-Up Diagnostic See benchmarking data updated for 2013 and compare how your organization is performing related to key performance indicators of cost effectiveness, process efficiency, and cycle time.
WEBCAST
Getting the Defects Out of Root Cause Analysis ASQ Fellow Duke Okes provides an overview of root cause analysis (RCA), covering terminology, process steps, and advice on creating a culture that sees this methodology as a learning process.
Access this months featured content and more Web exclusives in the ASQ Knowledge Center at asq.org/knowledge-center/featured.html.
TRAINING
CERTIFICATION
CONFERENCES
MEMBERSHIP
PUBLICATIONS
TM
2300 East 14 Street Tulsa, OK 74104 USA +1 (918) 749-1119

Full Issue

Enviado por

Dados do documento

Direitos autorais

Formatos disponíveis

Compartilhar este documento

Compartilhar ou incorporar documento

Opções de compartilhamento

Você considera este documento útil?

Este conteúdo é inapropriado?

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

Full Issue

Enviado por

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

Putting Best Practices to Work

www.qualityprogress.com | December 2013

QUALITY PROGRESS | DECEMBER 2013 SALARY SURVEY VOLUME 46/NUMBER 12

The Global Voice of Quality

New Books From Quality Press

nterprise Quality &

QMS Software ISO/TS FMEA

Quality Compliance Software Manufacturing

ISO 9000 PDM Quality Software ISO 13485 NCM

ISO/TS MRB QMS Software

ISO 9000 Quality Assurance

Product Data Management

Supplier & Materials QMS QMS Software

Actions Inspections Corrective Manufacturing

Quality Management Software Supplier Rating

Nonconformance FMEA Quality Systems Software Receiving

Quality FMEA Manufacturing ISO 13485

ISO 13485 PDM

Product Data Management ISO/TS 16949

2014 LEAN AND SIX SIGMA CONFERENCE

Early-bird pricing is available through January 13, 2014.

The Global Voice of Quality

Read Their Minds

by Max Christian Hansen

Behind the Results

Overview of the Money Regional Variations

Salary by U.S. regions and Canadian provinces.

Earnings Rise With Experience Certiably Valuable

Rewards for Master Black Belts

Breaking More Down

The Service Quality Platform

Measuring customer experience. SPC for low-volume assembly.

Mr. Pareto Head QP Toolbox QP Reviews

3.4 per Million

Taking the best of two methods.

Quality in the First Person

Is now the time to reinvent yourself and your career?

A strategy to strengthen SOPs.

Photocopies, Reprints And Microform

Special section: ASQ enterprise and site members p. 70

Membership and Subscriptions

Surviving and succeeding in the big data world.

ASSOCIATe EDITOR ASSISTANT EDITOR

MANUSCRIpT COORDINATOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

ART DIReCTOR GRApHIC DeSIGNeR PRODUCTION

DIGITAL PRODUCTION SpeCIALIST MeDIA SALeS

MeDIA SALeS ADMINISTRATOR MARKeTING ADMINISTRATOR

Seiche Sanders Editor

Dont forget to watch the new episode

Executive Editor & Associate

John C. Timmerman, Gallup Inc.

Stephen K. Hacker, Transformation Systems International

Chava Scher, RAFAELAdvanced Defense Systems (retired)

QUIcK POLL RESULTS

QP EDITORIAL REVIEW BOARD

Recent headlines from ASQs global news service

SPC for low-volume assembly

TURN TO THE EXPERTS

QUALITY COUNCIL OF INDIANA

Internet Orders www.qualitycouncil.com

Telephone Orders 800-660-4215

Fax Orders 812-533-4216

Jurans Quality Handbook

Implementing Six Sigma