November 2007
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Dear Subscriber,

We'd like to send out our wishes to all of you on a great upcoming holiday... a joyful and safe holiday with plenty of quality time for family and friends. We are so grateful for everything we have accomplished this year therefore WQN is giving thanks and giving back in a small way by offering a generous discount to all new clients who come on board during the next month. (Note: This offer is for new clients only who are looking to implement a quality system. Please contact us for details. Expires 12/14/07.)

Thank you to everyone who attended the Grand Opening of our new office and training facility. It was a great success and a wonderful opportunity to meet with friends, clients, and just have a good old time networking. For those of you who could not attend our door is always open. We will also be offering more networking events and open houses in the future so be sure to keep reading the newsletter.

A Quality Experience
 
Lady Liberty

Last week we stopped at a local independent tire shop as the treads on WQN 1 were wearing thin. The inside was a dark and dingy, wood-paneled shop that has been around for a long, long while. It took us back in time - surrounded by faded posters with the intense smell of rubber permeating the air.

We found ourselves in a conversation with the owner about the quality of tires as we were naturally concerned about costs and we were honest in telling him we were shopping this. The nice owner gave us some options. He also mentioned if we really wanted to save more money that he could arrange to put us into a set of tires manufactured overseas. In his words, "if you want to trust your vehicle at highway speeds on tires that were made somewhere where people get paid less than a dollar per day without any real quality". We noticed an old faded sign on the weathered wood-paneled wall just behind his counter as he continued to speak. It said:

"Quality is like buying oats; if you want nice, clean, fresh oats, you must pay a fair price. However, if you can be satisfied with oats that have already been through the horse - That comes a little cheaper. " Author unknown.

The owner continued with his story about the $100,000 Mercedes Benz that had been sitting out on the parking lot for the past 10 days. This was a stunning vehicle with modern chrome wheels - the very large ones you see now with low profile tires. He said the owner of the car had taken it to another discount tire shop where the workers are used to high volume and apparently did not have enough knowledge or training to provide the proper care required for these high end wheels. Apparently they cracked 3 of the 4 wheels during the installation process.

He made a very good point here on something we all know so well. The moral of the story was "You get what you pay for" and when you buy something cheap you may need to sacrifice quality as well. That may also be lack of quality service in the case of the poorly trained tire installers. We had come to realize yet another familiar moral - "Don't judge a book by it's cover". This shop was not pretty, but the owner was obviously an expert and quite pasionate about his committment in providing top quality materials and workmanship. He had inherited this from his father who was there that day. He was an old man, hunched over as he walked. He had a big smile and greeted us, then let his boy do all the talking...but I noticed he never really left our conversation while he was milling about the shop.


Tools For Teams
 
Tool #88 - Gap Analysis
Teams

We are very pleased to bring another tool in a series of workshop tools offered to you exclusively by WQN. They are a product of Dr. Michalski's life work in his creation of the "Das Baustein Konzept" Workshops which is a series of building block workshops . Dr. Walter J. Michalski is a Six Sigma Master and author of The Six Sigma Tool Navigator (2003) - ProductivityPress.com. Now on CD- ROM, this work contains close to 250 tools with step by step examples, flowchart, and diagrams for teams to use in any discipline. He has also authored books for building cross-functional teams, lean manufacturing, and Statistics without Stress.

Tools description: The gap analysis tool is an ideal method to determine resources and action plans required to close a performance gap. This gap is identified as an outcome of comparing current performance or status to desired performance or future status by means of benchmarking, market research, or other results data comparisons.

Tool classification: Changing/Implementing (C/I) Tool linkage example: Before: Benchmarking (17), After: Action Plan (4) Typically used by/for: Research/Statistics, 3 Creativity/innovation, Engineering, 2 Project management, Manufacturing, Marketing/sales, Administration/documentation, Servicing/support, Customer/quality metrics, 1 Change management. Team problem-solving phase: Select and define problem or opportunity Identify and analyze causes or potential change x Develop and plan possible solutions or change, Implement and evaluate solution or change, x Measure and report solution or change, Recognize and reward team efforts

Typical application: · To analyze benchmarking gaps (differences). · To provide input data for organizational change. · To expedite data collection for the planning process. · To identify requirements for reaching future goals.

Notes and key points: · All differences should be evaluated and prioritized for the development of an action plan. · Identify all requirements at the individual or team task level.

Step-by-step procedure: STEP 1 Prepare a gap analysis worksheet as shown in the example Employee Training STEP 2 Fill in column (1), reflecting the Present State of some actual performance state. STEP 3 Indicate the desired performance, the Future State in column (2). STEP 4 List all necessary Requirements in column (3) in order to move from column (1) to column (2). STEP 5 Under each listed requirement, identify all resources needed to effect the change.


WATCH OUR MOVIE
 
Chess Graphic

If you haven't already done so please take a moment to watch our little movie. In just 3 minutes you will get a great feel for 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.)


CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT
 
ARC International Corporation
ARC

With all the talk about being "green" or "environmentally friendly" we wanted to highlight one of our clients this month who is doing a tremendous job in preventing e-waste pollution from entering our landfills. If you have dropped-off any of your old computers , televisions, or monitors at your local community hazardous waste facility ARC is one of the major collectors of this material that breaks it all down to recyclable materials.

Leading Electronic Recycling Since 1996 ARC has been a leader in the Electronic Recycling Industry since 1996. Their goal is to provide a zero waste solution to our customers. ARC International recycles computers and other electronic products helping our customers meet all state and federal regulations. ARC has been diverting over 50 Million Pounds of Electronic Waste from landfills in 2006. CEW is over 98% recycled (Covered Electronic Waste, per SB 50). ARC is ISO 14001 Environmental Certified and ISO 9001:2000 compliant.

Services Services provided include reverse logistics, customized asset recovery, destruction services, and electronic waste recycling. Customers range from OEM Manufacturers of electronics, members of the fortune 500, Government Agencies, to Individuals. ARC has over 8000 customers, over 200 Employees, and over 500,000 ft of warehouse facilities. ARC has locations across the US including California, Texas, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, and New Jersey.

There are a great many more services that ARC provides including recycling of fluorescent lights, including compact fluorescents which are the smaller, spiral version that everyone is encouraged to use (and they are fantastic) but many people do not realize they contain mercury and need to be recycled instead of thrown in the trash!


LAST CALL for CIS Training Next Month
 
CIS TRAINING SEMINAR IN PHOENIX, AZ 12/3-4
CIS

WQN is a Master Distributor for CIS Software. We are looking for qualified professionals such as our contractors and others to become Certified Consultant to assist in the growing demand for rolling out this superb product. This training event is ideal for those of you interested in becoming certified consultants as well as any clients who have been asking us about using CIS at their company.

CIS, Continuous Improvement Software is a Cross- Platform Business solution for managing (without paper) all elements of an organization including ISO 9001:2000, AS9100, NADCAP and FAA requirements. It is simple to use, simple to start and most of all simple to maintain. It has proven itself in hundreds of companies.

Here are just a few things that make CIS such an incredible opportunity: It is very, very user friendly. A QMS can be inputted immediately and set-up within a few days. It is very affordable to clients, especially small to medium businesses. Software updates at no cost - no contract to sign - no termination fee. (This may sound too good to be true in a world where a typical software purchase for a small company is $20,000 - 40,000 with annual maintenance fees to boot!)

RECAP: - You can be up and running in one day. There are no contracts to sign, the software is leased on a month-to-month basis and software updates are FREE. You can quit any time with no termination fees. THE KICKER: You have nothing to risk or loose in trying CIS Software FREE FOR 2 MONTHS!


WQN'S PRODUCTS & SERVICES
 
Confused Man

There are so many ways to improve an operation. Professional assistance is necessary to get the job done correctly and efficiently. Going back to that tire story we mentioned in the introduction of this newsletter. The owner of the tire shop makes a very good point - "You Get What You Pay For". We all know that is true, yet many companies will try to implement a system on their own. It's not always upper management's fault as they hire personnel who "have worked in quality"... but in many cases these individuals do not have the specialized training to develop and train a company adequately, or they at least may need some professional assistance. The other issue we come across all too often is the small business who purchased an inexpensive template on the Internet, or received a copy of someone else's system (usually a much larger company), or they just don't understand how complex this can get if you don't know where to trim all the fat that does not apply... Leave it to the experts and you will receive far more return than you ever realized. What is your time worth? And, is a "do-it-yourself" project always as clean as a professional one? I know of a few projects myself that have been on hold at our home...I realized I don't have the time or energy to complete this and plan on getting bids from the pros to complete the work! 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)



If you have any comments that you would like to share please contact news@wqntoday.com. We are also looking for articles and case studies - anything related to quality and business improvement issues.

Sincerely, The WQN Team


Worldwide Quality Network, Inc.

Phone: 805-987-2199
Fax: 805-987-2195

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