The tools and concepts of Quality are powerful instruments to make things better--products, processes, and services. This podcast explores those ideas plus concepts of psychology, social and cultural norms, strategy, and business to strengthen the capability of professionals motivated to make things better--the Quality Warriors.
The host is Keith Fong who is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Shainin Red X Master, and Robust Engineering Coach. He has over 20 years as a quality and continuous improvement practitioner, teacher, and coach. He has supported functions ranging from Engineering and Manufacturing to Finance and Human Resources internal to his employer and at suppliers and customers.
Quality Warrior / Problem Solving Teacher & Coach
Since I was a child, I have been drawn to design and system optimization. Of course, I didn't have language to express that when I was a child. I loved airplanes so I read books and built models and imagined how I would design them and the design choices and tradeoffs I might make.
When I went to college, I earned bachelors degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Metallurgical Engineering aspiring to work in the aerospace industry. However, I got a co-op job with the Saginaw Division of General Motors Corporation. I was exposed to manufacturing, competitive analysis, vehicle testing, product design, and advanced development in an environment that gave students real engineering practice. And I discovered how competitive and advanced the industry was. I loved it.
I went to grad school to earn my Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering with the idea that I would continue on to earn a PhD and become a college professor. I very quickly realized that academia was not for me. Academia is competitive, but not in a way that appealed to me. I wanted to be in the cleansing fire of a competitive marketplace where people vote with their pocketbooks.
Graduate school actually was my first experience with continuous improvement tools. My thesis advisor was an empiricist and proposed studying a lot of factors in ceramics processing. Using traditional one factor at a time practices, it would take several years to complete the research and graduate.
I had heard of Design of Experiments and proposed that to my advisor. He wasn't familiar with it, … Read More