Here are some recent news headlines: Rising Factory Costs Erode China's Edge. Apparently, with China's huge economy offering the world's lowest manufacturing costs, is losing its claim on cheapness as factories get squeezed by rising prices for energy, materials and labor. The article goes on to mention that manufacturers in China are now looking to outsource in lower-cost markets such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and India. Hundreds of flights canceled and thousands of passengers stranded. The flights were canceled due to mandatory safety checks that were long overdue. Southwest Airlines flew "unsafe" planes. Discount Air carrier Southwest airlines flew thousands of passengers on aircraft that federal inspectors said were unsafe. FAA inspectors: "Southwest tried to hide safety problems". Southwest Airlines tried to keep serious problems with its maintenance program hidden and pressured the FAA to keep out an inspector who noticed the problems. According to FAA inspectors who blew the whistle on the airline. F-15 grounding strains US air defenses. The grounding of hundreds of F-15s because of dangerous structural defects is straining the nation's air defense network forcing some states to rely on their neighbor's fighter jets for protection and Alaska to depend on the Canadian military. An Air Force investigation found possible fleetwide airworthiness problems because of defects in the metal rails that hold the fuselage together. China arrests 774 in product crackdown. China said Monday that it had arrested 774 people in a crackdown on substandard goods. Part of an ongoing efforts to calm international worries over the quality of the country's products. Weak concrete removed from World Trade Center's Freedom Tower foundation. About 50 cubic yards of concrete was jackhammered away from the core foundation of the 1,776-foot tower under construction at ground zero. The company that developed the high- strength technology for the tower, said the small amount concrete must have been mixed improperly.

We don't want to focus on negative issues. In fact, for every one of these articles that has a negative issue we can see how easily all of them could be avoided with some very simple quality management. Of course, we can't overcome corporate greed or corrupt politicians who continue to sell our country's jobs and products to other countries, but it is becoming obvious we all can recognize there are a great many issues in the world today and recently we are seeing a significant snowball effect.

Let's take a quick look at your organization. Are your suppliers letting you down? Have you decided to save money by outsourcing out of country only to find you aren't getting quite what was ordered? (Does that ten cent part actually cost more like $2.10?) Or, even with US Suppliers - are there issues in receiving 100% good product? What percentage of your company's time and profits are being wasted by loss. These losses can often be hidden...but they are still present. Even the best companies who say they are operating LEAN and may only have 3-5% at best would be suprised to see the real numbers. Unfortunately there is still a high percentage of management that believe their quality department is a cost and the first ones to get downsized are in the quality department...WRONG!

Having an ISO 9001 certification is a good thing. There are many benefits - both internal and external. The cost of production can and will decrease with full implementation. Making sure the system is fully implemented will reduce loss and keep organizations organized and out of trouble. True, there will always be issues and ISO 9001 will not fix the matter by itself. But it will provide notice through various tools such as "trend analysis" and "root cause analysis" and help you find some of those hidden expenses. (There is so much more but that can be the whole newsletter!) By the way, we use the term ISO 9001 in general. This applies to all of the ISO 9000 family of standards as well as the related cousins such as AS 9100, TL 9000, and OHSAS 18001.

Our goal at WQN is to help organizations make some positive, newsworthy headlines. It's not too late...it never is. The best time to invest in streamlining your organization and investing money in a proper system is now. If you have a quality improvement system but are not operating to it's full extent consider getting a system "tune-up" and start receiving the benefits your company deserves.

We are pleased to announce that we are now offering RABQSA accredited Lead Auditor and Internal Auditor training at our facility in Camarillo, CA. We are offering a full schedule of courses including a one day overview for ISO 9001:2000, AS 9100, AS 9110, ISO 14001, TS 16949, ISO 13485, OHSAS 18001, and ISO 22000.

TRAINING COURSE SCHEDULE April 14-18 ISO 13485 5 Day Lead Auditor April 21-25 TS 16949 5 Day Lead Auditor May 12-16 AS 9100 5 Day Lead Auditor May 19-23 ISO 14001 5 Day Lead Auditor June 9-13 ISO 9001:2000 5 Day Lead Auditor June 16-18 AS 9100 3 Day Internal Auditor July 14-16 ISO 14001 3 Day Internal Auditor July 21-23 ISO 13485 3 Day Internal Auditor Sept. 8-12 OSHAS 18001 5 Day Lead Auditor Sept. 15-19 ISO 22000 5 Day Lead Auditor Oct. 13-15 ISO 9001:2000 3 Day Internal Auditor Oct. 20-24 AS 9110 5 Day Lead Auditor Nov. 10-14 ISO 9001:2000 5 Day Lead Auditor Nov. 17-21 AS 9100 5 Day Lead Auditor Dec. 8-12 ISO 14001 5 Day Lead Auditor

For a limited time only we offering a discount on all of the above courses. Contact us for pricing.

If you haven't already done so you may want to watch to watch our little FLASH movie. In just 3 minutes you will get a very good idea of WQN's capabilities. This is FLASH presentation so feel free to forward this to a colleague as the file isn't very large. (If you need to download FLASH on to your computer we have an easy link on our homepage.)

We are very proud of our little movie and hope you enjoy it! It's actually pretty cool...

Today's News Highlights on CIS Software: CIS Software is FREE for the first 2-months and then only $ 337.00/Month which includes 24/7 support, all document storage and back-up and all new revisions as they become available! CIS Software is a CRM system to reduce your expenses and waste and improves customer service to better secure your future in these "tough times"!

CIS Software can save hundreds and thousands of dollars once implemented that directly impact your bottom line! CIS has a solution for Human Resource and Training that will save thousands of dollars and ensure that all training is automatically scheduled and completed!

CIS addresses opportunities for improvement and follows-through on the implementation (Preventive Action)! CIS can make a MAJOR impact on how you do business! Log into www.cissoftware.com to learn more. We just wanted to remind everyone that WQN is a Master Distributor for CIS and if you are looking for an effective, paperless solution to track your system this is well worth it. In fact, it shouldn't even cost you a penny when you add up the savings and find all those hidden costs we were discussing earlier.

Don't just take our word for it, take the CIS challenge yourself. Click on the following link and check out the CIS Saving Calculator. This will only take 1 minute if you view the sample and a few more if you would like to plug in your own numbers. YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOOSE WITH A FREE 2 MONTH TRIAL AND NO CONTRACT. Contact WQN to start your free trial today!

Question from Allison: What's up with registrars? How are they regulated and how do you go about selecting one? We have had one that we selected because they were most competitive in pricing, but they insist on flying auditors in from out of state - which kind of defeated the purpose in choosing them!

Answer: First of all, any accredited registrar is usually listed with the ANAB in the United States. There are also other foreign accreditations - but some that appear to be legitimate are not. When in doubt, go with an ANAB registrar in North America. You can check their website for a complete listing of companies.

We suggest you obtain 3-4 quotes. It is important to ask if they have "local auditors" and whether they can guarantee them or not. Also, if you haven't heard "YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR" then listen up - it's really true. Some of lower priced firms may seem to be competitive up front, but are you getting the quality of auditor you deserve? What is there level of experience? How many audits have they conducted? Are they a Lead Auditor or someone just starting out? Sometimes you are better off in paying a little more for an audit that provides "value added" services and more bang for your buck.

There are many important considerations that go well beyond the price in our industry. (The same goes when shopping for a consultant.) With regards to a registration, you can always switch to another firm - even if you are within a 3 year cycle. As far as travel goes, registrars do their best to keep it minimized. Unfortunately it cannot always be avoided If you really aren't sure about selecting a registrar you are welcome to contact WQN. We know many reputable registrars and can provide you with a few that you may want to contact.

WQN, Inc. provides professional quality consulting to internationally recognized quality standards and applications including; ISO 9001:2000, AS9100/9110/9120, ISO 13485, ISO 14001, ISO 17025, TS16949, SIX SIGMA, 5S, LEAN Manufacturing, Reorganization and more. Our services range from consulting, gap analysis, on going maintenance, internal auditing, full system development, customer/regulatory requirement integration workshops (on or off site). We are also the only training organization to offer the "Baustein Koncept" (building block) series of workshops. Build and customize your own training program from these building blocks or different workshops that cover - Process/Quality Improvement, Tools for Teaming, Training and Organizational Development, LEAN Manufacturing, JIT/CTM Practice, Cycle Time Management, Process Mapping, Customer Satisfaction, Surveys, Employee Motivation, and many more. Log on to: WQN's Baustein Workshops Now offering ANAB Certified Lead/Internal Auditor Training in our Camarillo facility. Call us today for a FREE analysis or at least to answer any questions you may have and offer some realistic option. You can do it on our dime... 877-WQN- TODAY (877-976-8632)