SQT Blog

Setting calibration intervals is probably the most important decision to be made by those personnel with responsibility for the calibration system; the length of interval will influence the effectiveness of the calibration operations, and will have a considerable effect on the cost of the calibration process.

When I ask people about the sources of information used to make decisions on their calibration intervals, I get a variety of answers, including some which must be seriously questioned as to their validity and usefulness, such as:

I am not saying you should ignore these sources of advice. However, with the possible and rare exception of the manufacturer of very specialised and unique measuring instruments, these external agencies are not in any position to advise you, and especially not to dictate to you, on your calibration intervals.

The intervals should be based on internal sources of information such as calibration histories, frequency and type of use of the instrument, the technical experience of your own company personnel, etc. This information is not generally available to the external agencies mentioned above, so they are not in a position to specify your calibration intervals.

Learn more about the setting of calibration intervals by attending our Calibration training course. The next scheduled date is 12th March in Dublin.

Leadership is such an interesting field of study and one which has intrigued philosophers, business giants and politicians amongst others for generations. There has been much written about these leadership qualities and what makes a leader one which engenders willing followers who share and actively engage in the vision and purpose of the organisation .

The one constant in many of the different insights and definitions of leadership quality is the importance of conscious awareness of who I am and how I am around those I work with. The understanding and importance of this has been widely supported over the last number of years through the work of many different modern writers such as Daniel Goldman’s Emotional Intelligence theory to Stephen Coveys 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

However the notion of conscious awareness of ourselves dates much further back to philosopher Socrates whose life was dedicated to” Knowing Thyself” and living an examined life; to the works of Shakespeare that constantly explored the truth in who we are through his plays and writings. He gave us the insight “to thine own self be true”.

While these are deep questions and widely known thoughts, they are also constant reminders that the privilege of leading others is not a superficial undertaking – the learning from which, for the individual leader can be both immensely rewarding and stretching.

Life and circumstances provide us with opportunities to examine how we approach our interactions with the people we work with and therein how to be more effective in what we do.

In our programmes Gina and I invite personal and group reflection on the question of our own self-awareness as leaders. We encourage people to safely step into the space of what we know about ourselves in the context of how we are with those we interact with and to examine what this tells us about ourselves. It is constantly amazing and a privilege for us to experience our learners embracing this exercise and to witness the reflection it invokes.

Self-awareness is not a one day a year event, and the invitation and challenges are to each day consider the effects of our actions and our way of being on others we lead and interact with. The truth is we will are never far from the receiving end of this, as we typically always get back what we put out. The key is to know this, watch for it and ask ourselves is this serving us and the original purpose we started out with; for ourselves, the people we lead, and the Organisation we serve and represent.

Maire Murphy and Gina Ryan are Trainer/Facilitators for SQT’s Leadership and Personal Development training courses. Maire and Gina also offer One to One or Group Coaching and DiSC Profiling as an additional Self-Awareness tools.

It is quite common for quality personnel to undertake 100% inspection when checking for presence of defects in manufactured products. As a consequence, the sample sizes used to calculate the percentage or proportion defective may be very large, perhaps many thousands in size. Typically, following inspection, the proportion will be calculated and plotted on a P-chart. A difficulty may arise in assessing statistical control of the underlying proportion defective, because of “overdispersion” in the results, which may occur when the proportion defective is calculated based on very large sample sizes. Overdispersion can cause the points on a traditional P chart to appear to be out of control when they are not.

This problem can be overcome by use of a new addition to the generally available set of control charts, namely the Laney chart (there are both Laney P’-charts and Laney U’-charts). The Laney chart makes adjustment for very large sample sizes and provides a more accurate assessment of control signals on the chart.

Laney P’ and U’ charts are now available in statistical computer software, such as Minitab.

Learn more about the use of Laney charts by attending our Statistical Process Control training course. The next public course is scheduled for 13-14 March in Dublin.

Lean Six Sigma Projects involve implementing solutions which to a greater or lesser degree involve people. Resistance to Change is part of human nature with some people more accepting of the need for change and the continuous challenging of the status quo than others.

So how do we convince people to come on board the Lean Six Sigma Journey and go along with our Project Objectives in the Define Phase and the New Process in the Improve Phase of the DMAIC Methodology? Easier said than done, Grasshopper!

Well one technique used is known as the 3Ds – Data, Demonstration, and Demand.

Data

Some people are convinced by Data – this would involve showing them a credible business case and baseline data in the Define Phase e.g. our current process is not capable and has an defect rate of 4.5% (158/3500 units) for Q4 of 2012. The cost of this is €56,000 if annualised.

Demonstration

Other people fall into the doubting Thomas category and have to see to believe – in this case we use Demonstration and could simply let the physical defects accumulate for a lengthy time in the quarantine cage and let people see with their own eyes the magnitude of the problem.

Demand

Demand normally comes from the customer or marketplace but could also come from the Regulatory Body or Corporate Management – this could be a memo saying that unless the process performance improves there is a risk that we might lose the contract or we might not get the new business or we might get fined or have our operations suspended.

Irrespective of which or all of the 3Ds you use, Change Management is all about the People and convincing them to do something different on a Monday morning versus what they were doing the previous Monday!!

(Note: DMAIC is Define Measure Analyse Improve Control)