ASQ Section 1131 April 2011 Meeting

Value-Added Quality Systems

Presented by Norval Johnston, Sr. Quality Engineer, Parker Aerospace  

Quality professionals have a challenging role.  On the one hand, we must be the voice of the customer (VOC) within our organization, implementing standards and making tough decisions that people within our organization dislike - we shut down lines to fix a problem; scrap defective material; and in general, make life difficult.  On the other hand, we must also represent the business to the customer.  This presentation reviews successful methods and techniques of focusing on the internal relationships and techniques necessary for sustainable quality improvement such as internal co-ownership, techniques for building trust in the organization, and "selling" our co-workers on the usefulness of quality systems in a practical way.  In other words - how do you make quality systems appear to be "value-added" within your organization?

About the presenter:

Norval Johnston has a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Virginia Tech and an MBA degree from James Madison University.  He has twenty years of experience in the food, health care, automotive, and aerospace industries, beginning as an analytical chemist and working for the last eight years in Quality Engineering.  Norval is a Senior Member of the American Society for Quality and has been certified by ASQ as a CQE, CQA, CSSGB, CQT, CMI, and CQIA.  He is the Membership Chair for the ASQ Greater Savannah section for 2010-11 and was previously Section Chair of the ASQ Middle Georgia section from 2007-09.  Prior to that, Norval was Treasurer of the Northern Shenandoah Valley section from 2005-06.