Three Critical Behaviors That Experts and Professionals Do That Novices Miss

Tuesday, Sep 20, 2016

This talk will bring out the importance of experts using stories and metaphors, how these stories and metaphors should be used, and where to apply them most effectively. Also discussed will be the skillful use of language by experts to solve problems that cannot be taken on with textbook solutions (addressing an intermediate zone of practice). Lastly the social aspects of educating those that work around the expert will be highlighted.

The behavior of experts is often off-conscious and defies personal examination by them. It is through careful interviews and dialog that we can discover the characteristics that make the expert so good at what they do, and thus providing the opportunity for others to learn at a much greater rate. Three critical behaviors were revealed as a result of analyzing 14 interviews of expert project managers.

These behaviors are:  One, communicating often using stories or metaphors, two, creating innovative solutions to problems, and three, educating other stakeholders with social realities in mind. These three behaviors lead to more successful outcomes, are the preferred way for managing tough situations, make the expert professional easier to work for and with, and overall make them more valuable to their firms.

ASQ’s new on-line Recertification Journal

Mark Lynch

Vicki Mercer

Tuesday, Sep 20, 2016

Mark Lynch and Vicki Mercer will discuss ASQ’s new on-line Recertification Journal.

We will demonstrate:
• What you will need in preparation of filling out your recertification journal.
• How to navigate to it on the asq.org website.
• How to enter your recertification information.
• How to submit for recertification.
• Some “Best Practices” for using the electronic recertification journal.

Supplier Quality Audits

Vicki Mercer, Senior Supplier Quality Specialist, Bausch & Lomb

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Your customer just requested to audit your facility.  Now what?  Your mind races: Is there something wrong? What do they want?  Do you have to show the auditor everything they want or jeopardize business relationships?

Perhaps you’re on the other side & are new to auditing suppliers.  Where do you start?  More importantly, how do you assess an entire company in a very short period of time and make a judgement call on whether or not the company is compliant?

There’s no need to panic!  This presentation will give you the insight you need to confidently host or perform audits.  It will include auditing fundamentals, the audit process, auditor competencies, auditing tools and techniques, and helpful tips.

19 APR 2016 ASQ St. Louis Dinner Meeting at Hussmann Corporation

Hussmann’s “Global Hub” Retail Innovation Center

This meeting will include a visit to Hussmann’s “Global Hub” Retail Innovation Center. The structure of the Global Hub, with thirteen individual venues and touch pad technology, is designed to encourage creative and conceptual thinking that will evoke ideas and solutions to unleash the potential in food retailing. The venue provides a forum where Hussmann and food retailers can work together to uncover new ways to attract consumers, reduce operational costs and create a unique customer experience within their store. Visitors to the Global Hub will take part in a dynamic experience that encourages participation and collaboration.

In addition to the Global Hub there will be a plant tour and a buffet dinner.

24 MAY 2016 ASQ St. Louis Dinner Meeting

Tuesday, May 24, 2015

Join us for a wine tasting by Jeff Rule from PRP Wines International in Maryland Heights, MO. Not only will we have excellent wines to sample, but Jeff will talk to us about how various vineyards ensure quality and consistency in the wines they bring to market.

2016 Annual Quality Conference

St. Louis – Section 1304

2016 Annual Quality Conference

Quality, Today to Tomorrow

November 3^rd, 2016

15 MAR 2016 ASQ St. Louis Dinner Meeting at Orlando Gardens

Shawn Findlater CSSBB, CQE, CSQE
Sr. Quality Consultant
Virtual QE LLC

Shawn Findlater: How to Influence Suppliers to Build Quality

What is the answer to influencing another organization (Your Suppliers) to build your product with the same level of detail, ownership, and conscientiousness as your company? —Leadership.

Learn how to apply leadership skills/qualities that will facilitate supplier participation with Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) type activities.

16 FEB 2016 ASQ St. Louis Dinner Meeting at Favazza

Sandy Hatten, Senior Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Affairs at Flamel Technologies.

Sandy Hatten: The History of Quality or How “Quality” has Changed

Sandy Hatten has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 35 years, primarily in Quality and Regulatory leadership roles.   She is currently the Senior Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Affairs with Flamel Technologies, a specialty pharmaceutical company with offices in the US and Europe.   In her role with Flamel, she has responsibility for all Flamel Quality and Regulatory Affairs functions in France, Ireland and the US.  Prior to joining Flamel, Sandy served as Senior Vice President of Quality with Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals.   In that role, she was responsible for all Global Quality functions, which included 12 manufacturing plants (US, Canada, The Netherlands, and Ireland) in addition to all corporate Quality functions.  Prior to joining Mallinckrodt, Sandy held Quality leadership positions with KV Pharmaceuticals, Cardinal Health, Perrigo, Bausch&Lomb, and Watson Pharmaceuticals (now Actavis).

During her 35 years in the pharmaceutical industry, she has had the opportunity to work with brand as well as generic companies.  She also worked as a consultant for several years and in that role provided Quality and Regulatory advice and support to a variety of companies, both large and small.    Her background includes, in addition to QA/QC and Regulatory, experience in Clinical Operations, R&D, Commercial Operations and Supply Chain.

Steven Lembark, principal consultant with Workhorse Computing.

Steven Lembark: Using Non-Parametric Statistical Analysis

Real data is often messy. Non-parametric statistical analysis offers a variety of ways to analyze the data that really happens. This talk provides a brief introduction to non-parametrics with examples from safety and QA analysis.

What is Non-parametric statistical analysis?

It’s statistics that is not based on parameterized probability distributions, instead parameters are determined by the training data, not the model. Nonparametric statistics make no assumptions about the probability distributions of the variables being assessed. The difference between parametric models and non-parametric models is that the former has a fixed number of parameters, while the latter grows the number of parameters with the amount of training data.

He has ver 30 years experience installing, managing, supporting, and programming systems from CAD/CAM to data warehouses on platforms from VMS to Solaris and Linux. He has worked on startup and refactoring projects in aerospace, telecom, financial, health-care, bioinformatics, web services, and manufacturing.

Team Dynamics, The People Side of Project Management

Ed Vallorani, Avanti Improvement Solutions, LLC.

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

There are many tools that are used to manage projects, and many time, we focus on executing the tools and forget about the people side of the equation. This is a recipe for disaster as the people side of any project is as important, if not more important, than the tools we use. If the people side is not managed properly, the project will fail.

Cultural Dimensions

This presentation will discuss the people side of a project by exploring team dynamics. We will discuss team members, team structure, common pitfalls and how to get your team to a high level of performance. This is an important part of the ASQ Body of Knowledge. As such it is included in the BOK for numerous ASQ certifications.

So You Want to be a Consultant; Part 2.

Steve Mundwiller, SME Quality Resources

 Tuesday, Jan 19, 2016

“So you want to be a consultant and provide performance excellence…or perhaps lead your organization to performance excellence”

The presentation will include brief review of the pros and cons of business improvement consulting, as well as a discussion of why one should or should not consider becoming a consultant.

The criteria for leading an organization to performance excellence is similar whether one is an outside the organization consultant or an internal champion.  These attributes and challenges will also be discussed.  This is planned to be a semi-open discussion between the presenter and the audience.