Pass ASQ CQE Exam in First Attempt Easily

Section I - Management and Leadership (18 Questions)

1. Management and Leadership

Certified Quality Engineer exam consists of seven sections. So if you go to the website, download the body of knowledge which I have in my hand, you will see that this consists of section section 123-4567.Here we are starting with the section number one which is Management and Leadership. From this particular section, which is Management and leadership, you will get 18 questions. In this exam you get 175 questions. Out of these 175 question, 160 questions are marked and 15 questions are unmarked. So 15 questions are just for trial or testing purpose which ASQ puts in this exam. But those questions are not marked. You will not know which of the questions are marked which are not marked. So as far as you are concerned as a person who is taking this exam, you have to attempt 175 questions. Out of that, 18 questions would be from this section, which is Management and Leadership. And then as we move further, you will see that each section has a different number of questions which will be coming from that section. So here we start with the first section which is Management and Leadership. So what do we cover in this section? There are a number of items covered in this section which consists of quality philosophy and foundation. Here we will be talking about quality gurus, their philosophies, we will be talking about some continuous improvement tools, we will be talking about quality management system and in addition to that we will be talking about ASQ, code of Ethics, leadership principles and Techniques, facilitation principles and Techniques, communication, customer Relations, supplier Management. So all these topics will be covered in this section. Most of these topics are soft topics, soft topics related to basic management. Many of you would already be aware of these things. There might be something new about that. But most of these are not really very hard to understand, very hard to answer. So take your time to study this section. Another thing which you need to understand is that in this exam which has 175 questions, you have5 hours to answer all these questions. So with that 5 hours, 5 hours means 60multiplied by five is equal to 300 minutes. So in 300 minutes you have to answer 175 questions. So on the average, you don't even get two minutes to answer a single question. Less than two minutes you need to answer each question. For some questions you might want to go back, look at the hard copy, the binder, the book which you have, you might want to refer that because this is an open book exam, you can go refer to that. But many of these questions you will have to answer straight away because if you start looking for the answer in the binder or book, it's going to take a lot of time. So some questions you need to attempt without looking at the binder. And I consider this section which is section one, is one of those sections where you really don't need Togo and look in the binder too much. Most of these questions you should be able to answer straight away by looking at the question. So with that thing in mind, that for this section, I don’t need to go, refer to my book, refer to my binder. That’s how you need to prepare for this section. So with this basic understanding, let's get started with this section, which is management and leadership.

2. 1A-1 History of Quality

Go back and look at the history of quality, how quality got evolved over a period of time. So quality was basically an individual characteristic, an individual thing which individual craftsman would-be proud of and would pass that particular trade to the next generation. That’s how quality was working. But the formal existence of quality could be looked as far as 19,001 when things were standardized, like iron and steel sections were standardized so that things could be replaced easily. And a few years later Shu hart developed control charts and principle of statistical process control. These things even today form the basis of Six Sigma. So when we say that Six Sigma is something new which was developed let's say in 1985, 86, but we need to understand that the foundation of that Six Sigma goes as far as back to 1924 where Water Shoe hard developed control charts and statistical process control. The golden era of quality was somewhere between 1950 to 1960.And that's where Japanese developed their quality management. So a lot of quality concepts have foundation in Japan. That was a time when quality gurus such as Deming and Jaron, they went to Japan, they helped in developing Japan which has been destroyed by war, second World War. So they have lot of philosophies, lots of things to learn from Dreaming, doctor Jonathan and Philip Crosby. So in this section we are supposed to learn about few quality gurus. If you look at the body of knowledge, body of knowledge just refers to Demi’s 14 points. But we will go a little further than that. We will talk about three main quality gurus here, which are Deming, Jurors and Philip Crosby. We will do that later. But let's come back to evolution of quality. So we were talking that in 60 a lot of quality concepts were developed when these things were being implemented in Japan. If I look at the broad history of quality, how quality transformed. Quality started with inspection. Inspection where an individual will make something, do something that craftsman, which is making a wooden object or something being made out of steel. Those people will have quality in their own work because they want to prove that their work is a good work. So that quality was an individual characteristic and that was based on inspection. Once industrialization became, then things were being produced in mass. That concept really couldn't hold where quality was the responsibility of a single individual. Here as an organization, you have to prove your quality, you have to produce quality product. So there the concept of quality control came, then came the concept of statistical process control, which we talked earlier. Some of these concepts were developed by Walter Schuhart. And then from statistical process control then came the concept of quality assurance. Quality assurance was to make sure that quality is produced, have some systems and procedures in place that can help you in producing quality, rather than checking, rather than monitoring the physical product. Then came the concept of TQM. TQM is the total quality management. The concept here was that all parts of the organization help in achieving quality so that was total means everyone in the organization and QMS quality management. So this concept came into existence. It remained for a few years an important concept and then based on this TQM concept or the TQM principles we have number of business excellence models some of the models are EFQM European Foundation for Quality Management. EFQM award and then we have Malcolm Val ridge National Quality Award and then you have a Deming award so there are a few awards which are given to organization for the quality of work and then recently if you see you would see Six Sigma Lean. You will see ISO 9000 and many other concepts which we have so with this we finish the brief evolution of quality. How quality started from individual characteristics or the individual person doing inspection to today ‘sword where we have a large organization doing quality work based on ISO 9001.Six Sigma Lean and many other quality principles.

3. 1A-1 Quality Gurus

So previously we talked about evolution of quality, how quality got evolved over time. Now going further in next few lectures we will be talking about quality gurus. And when we say quality gurus, these are the people who have contributed to quality. Their teachings have helped other organizations and people to learn about quality. So those are the people we call them as quality gurus. There are a number of people, but here in this course we will be talking about three main quality gurus which are Edwards Deming, Dreaming, doctor Juror, Joseph Duran and Philip Crosby. So these are three main quality gurus we will be talking about in this section. Deming is famous for 14 points of management which you will see in your body of knowledge. There is a specific mention of Deming's 14 points. So we will learn those 14 points in this section and then we will talk about Jurors trilogy and then we will talk about Philip cross bee’s four absolutes of quality. In addition to that, Walter Schuhart developed control chart. We have talked about that earlier when we talk about evolution of quality. But as we move further into this course we will learn about control charts as well. Ishikawa is given credit for the cause and effect diagram which is also known as Fishbone diagram and this is one of the important tool for root cause analysis. We will talk about that once we go into this course and learn about some basic quality tools. So that's where we will be talking about cause and effect diagram and then taboo chi has given loss function. So as we move into this course we will talk about this as well. But right now in this section we will be talking about the three quality gurus which you see in the top row. Dr.Deming, doctor Juror and Philip Crosby. Let’s start with Dr.Demon on the next slide.

4. 1A-1 Quality Guru - Edwards Deming

Before we talk about 14 points of Deming, let’s understand or quickly look at the life of Dr. Deming. Dr.Deming did his PhD in mathematical physics in 1928.Then he worked in Western Electric. He was a professor of statistics. He taught quality control in Japanese. In 1951, in the honor of Dr.Demon and his work to improve the quality of Japan, Japanese introduced Deming price for high level of achievement in quality practices. So that was the honor which was given to Dreaming by Japanese. Maybe if you see around 30 years later he gave an interview to NBC which is titled if Japan can why can't we. You can find this on YouTube. This would be 1 hour interview. So if you want to listen to that, you can find that on YouTube. And look at that. If Japan can, why can't we? That tells the thought of Dr.Deming on improving quality in the US. So this was a brief history of Dr.Deming and looking at the theories or the concepts he introduced. Let's look at that as well. So here is the list of key concepts or key theories which Dr.Deming introduced. First thing was Deming's quality chain reaction. In Deming's quality chain reaction, Deming said that how quality helps in organisation to produce better quality, which leads to less price, less rework and with that company will be able to sustain which gives employment to people. So that's how he produced a chain which tells that if you produce quality, it is good for workers, management for everyone. Because management gets profit, workers get employment. So this is how he explained how quality is useful for everyone. Then he introduced 14 principles of management which we will be learning in this section one by one. So we will learn about those 14principles and few other things which Deming produced was system of profound knowledge. Seven deadly diseases variation common cause versus special cause. He emphasised that that we need to find out the difference between the common cause and the special cause. Management should know the difference between that management should not be reacting to common cause to correct those common causes, rather than management should be knowing that these are the special causes which they need to attend to. We will learn about this once we go to control charts section. Then he used red bead experiment to explain quality concepts in his training. So these are the high level overview of what Deming is credited for. But we are not going into each of these. We will stick to 14 principles of management. So in next few lectures you will be going through these 14 principles one by one. One. Let's start with principle number one in the next video.

5. 1A-1 Deming's 14 Points of Leadership - Part 1

That is the first advice Deeming gives to the management that have constancy of purpose, know what you want to do, have a long term vision rather than working on short term goals. So that is the first principle. So here Deming says that create constancy of purpose towards improvement of product and service with the aim to become competitive and to staying business to provide jobs. So this is something Deming has provided in quality chain reaction as well. In that quality chain reaction, Deming has said that once you improve quality, with the improved quality, your market share increases, with the market share increases, you stay in business and with the help of that, you provide jobs to people. So quality is good both for the management as well as for the workers. Because if the company has quality, company will have bigger market share, will grow and will keep people engaged in the employment. So this is something which organizations or the management need to do to have a long-term view, have customer focus, invest in innovation, training and improve the competitive position by having quality product or service. So this was the principle number one for improvement. With that, let's move on to the second principle, which is adopt the new philosophy. Here what Deming wants to say is that management needs to adopt a new philosophy, philosophy of change, philosophy of improvement. So here what it says is that western management must awake two challenges, must learn their responsibility and take leadership for change. Be prepared for change. That’s something which is important. When you want to implement these 14 principles, the management must be ready to make changes. These are simple things. So whatever you have learned in principle one or principle two, it just tells that have a long-term vision, be ready for change and what sort of change Deming is looking for. As you go into these 14principles, you will learn about those. Some of those are real big changes which management needs to make. So with that, let's move on to the third principle, which is seize dependence on mass inspection. So this is a big change. Rather than depending on the inspection, to have quality, you need to do something beforehand so that you don't need to depend on inspection. So that's what it says here sic’s dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Because inspection is the last stage that really cannot give you quality if you totally depend on the inspection part. So what is required is to eliminate the need for inspection on a must basis by building quality into the product in the first place itself. Have quality built into the product rather than you build the product and then you inspect for acceptance or rejection. So you need to build quality into processes, you need to have stable processes, proven processes, follow those processes. With the help of that, you will be able to achieve consistent quality rather than depending on the inspection. So this was principle number three. On the next video, we will talk about three more principles. Let’s move on to the next video and look at those as well. As well.

6. 1A-1 Deming's 14 Points of Leadership - Part 2

Principle number four, which is don't award business on the basis of price. In spite of all these teachings, even today you would see that many companies, if they want to buy product or service, they will ask for three quotations. And out of these three quotations they will see whether that's technically acceptable or not. And then the product or service will be awarded to the supplier who has quoted the lowest price. That’s what Deming is against. Deming says that don't award business on the basis of price. The first thing is the price which you see or which you pay is not the final price, it's not the total price. So what it says is that you need to look at the lifetime cost of that product or service. So that's one issue here that end the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag instead, minimum total cost. So you need to avoid on the minimum total cost. Because if you are buying a plant, then there is a running cost, there is a maintenance cost, there are so many other things involved in that. Once you purchase that product or service, that thing also needs to be taken care of. This is one aspect of this principle. The second aspect of this principles move towards a single supplier. For one item you have along term relationship with your suppliers. That way supplier is also interested in your success and you are interested in that suppliers success as well, because you depend on each other. So buy one product or service from one supplier. That way you can have along term relationship, loyalty and trust. Another thing which you need to consider here is that single supplier gives you long term relationship, that's fine. But other thing is once you have multiple suppliers, then you have increased variability. So if you get components from number of suppliers, those will have varying variability. So components will vary. That way you will have the problem of standardization. So one part was having a long term relationship. Second part is having decreased variability. If you have less number of suppliers, you get volume discounts, you have few setups and you have long term supplier customer bond. So this was principle number four that don't avoid business just based on the price tag coming tithe next one, which is point number five. Improve constantly and forever. Improvement is a never-ending thing. You can keep on improving whatever processes you are doing. So improve constantly forever the system of production and services to improve quality and productivity, thus constantly decreasing cost. So if you improve the quality, the cost will decrease because you will have less reworks, less repairs, less rejections. So that way improving quality will lead to decreased cost as well. So your focus should be on reducing the variation causes of variation. That’s something which Deming was in favor of. Less variation is always good. Engage all people and have PDC Approach plan, do, check, act. Plan, do, check. Act is a continuous loop you keep on doing. You plan something, you do, you check, and then you act on that again, you plan. So that way you can have improvement as a never-ending thing in your organization, so youkan keep on improving your processes. So this was principle number five, coming tithe next one, which is principle number six. Institute training. On the job training is important. So there are two principles related to training. One which we are seeing here, which is institute training on the job because everyone wants to do good job, not that people want to do bad job, that's why you are getting rejection. You get rejection because there are some system problems. People want to do good job, train them, tell them how to do a good job, what steps they need to take that training can help them achieving the good quality. So you need to train people to know how to do a good job. And this on the job training should include how to identify opportunities, where we can improve and how to solve quality problems. So there are a number of small level tools which all employees could have. Those includes seven tools of quality management. We will cover those as well in this course. So train all your people about those seven quality tools. Train them about how to identify issues. That could include five S, which is workplace, organization and many other things which can help your workers to identify problems, improvement opportunities and then solve them. The concept of quality circle was also introduced in Japan, which empowered these workers to identify issues in their own work areas and improve those. So those could be something which could help in achieving quality. So point number six, or the principle number six here was institute training on the job so that people can identify the issue and solve those issues. On the next video, let's look at three more four principles provided by Dr. Demi.

7. 1A-1 Deming's 14 Points of Leadership - Part 3

Previous lecture, we looked at point number four, five and six, or the principal number four, five and six provided by Damon, not avoiding business on the lowest price. Another one was constantly improving. And the last one which we learned was on the job training. So these were principles number four, five and six, which we learned in the previous video. Now coming to the next one, which is principle number seven, institute Leadership. Here Deming wants to distinguish between supervision and leadership. You need to have leadership where the supervisors or the people who are supervising a group of workers, those supervisors need to help people to achieve the quality, achieve what they want to do, to make it, or to do a better job. So that's the role of supervisors to help people do a better job. They need to understand what processes are. So that way if they understand the processes, then supervisors can help workers in achieving the goal of the organization. Supervisors are coach, they help workers. They are not a policeman to check, inspector force people to do more job. So that's something which needs to be instituted in the organization, which is Institute Leadership. So this was principle number seven coming to the next one, which is principle number eight, drive out fear. Because if you have fear in organization, you really cannot achieve your objective. So organization should not have fear. People should be free to talk teach other, good news or bad news. People should be able to convey that without any fear, and that comes with a mutual respect. So workers and managers should have mutual respect for each other's work. And workers should feel valued in the organization. So if they feel valued, they work towards the organization's goal and without fear. If there's anything which they need to convey, they should be able to convey that. So this is principle number eight, which is dry out fear from the organization. Coming to the principle number nine, which is breakdown, barriers. You would see that many organizations still work in silos. So you have a design group which is only focused on design. There is a marketing group which is only focused on marketing, getting the job and giving it to production. And then there is a production which is only focused on production. They have barriers, they work in silo. So that's something which needs to be broken so that the whole organization works as a single entity rather than different silos. And if there's any problem, if there's any issue, the whole organization or all the parties involved in that particular issue should work together to solve the problem, rather than having a boundaries and just working within their own area of work. And for that, Demi suggested to have the concept of internal customer built in the organization. So if the job goes from person one or the department one to department two, then you need to have that customer supplier relationship between these two departments or functions. So for example, marketing takes the job and gives it to design. So in this case, marketing is the customer for design. So design needs to make sure that they serve marketing as if they are serving an external customer. So that customer supply relationship should be established internally in the organization as well. And rather than working in silo, the organization should have a single vision and everything should be or every department, every person should be working towards that vision. And for any issue, any problem, you form cross functional team. So as I earlier told, you need to have team from all the disciplines which are involved in that particular issue or problem so that way they can solve that problem easily to have a cross functional team. So this was principle number nine breakdown barriers.

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