We just returned from SAE's Aerotech Conference which was held in Los Angeles last week. This was an excellent opportunity to network with PRIMES who were also exhibiting such as Boeing, Northrop, and Rolls Royce as well as many others related to the aerospace industry.

WQN also had the opportunity to deliver a presentation at the conference. It was appropriately titled "AS 9100/9110/9120 - Where Do You Fit In?" This presentation was designed to help clarify the differences between the various standards as well as provide some guidance on which way to go for organizations that may be uncertain. If anyone is interested in a copy of this Powerpoint Presentation please send us an email and will will send it over.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth and attended the presentation. We are always thrilled to see emerging technologies as well as some of the "older and reliable" tools. It's also a pleasure to walk through the exhibition and come across our own customers exhibiting! (Get to know one of them in the Customer Spotlight article below on Solid Concepts.)

And finally, this was also a great opportunity to meet with some registrars and get to know them in person. There was a fairly good turn-out with about a half dozen or so...Perry Johnson, SGS, UL, BSI , and QMI. It is important for us to stay abreast of industry trends as well as the registrars. While they all may seem the same - they are not. Each of them have their own little specialty or niche. Working closely with registrars and fostering relationships that will benefit our clients is very important to all of us.

We are very pleased to bring you the first in a series of workshop tools offered to you exclusively by WQN. These workshops and tools will be available in detail very soon. They are a product of Dr. Michalski's life work in his creation of the "Baustein Concept" which is a series of building block workshops that one can choose as needed. Dr. Walter J. Michalski is a Six Sigma consultant 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 FOR TEAMS

Tool #70 - Double Reversal (aka Reversed Thinking) Tools description: Are you disappointed with your team's brainstorming results? Not getting the breakthrough ideas? Try this tool and produce ideas that ordinary brainstorming will never surface! The double reversal is a reversed thinking process that allows teams to continue with idea generating after they have run out of ideas or simply have found no novel way of looking at the problem. This tool requires an issue, idea, or goal to be reversed or stated in a negative form in order to gain more ideas of what could cause the problem. Reversing again each reversed idea should produce potential action steps to consider in the problem solution phase. Tool classification: Idea Generating Tool linkage example: before: Brainstorming (20), after: Consensus Decision Making (39)

Typically used by/for: Team problem- solving phase: Research/Statistics x Select and define problem or opportunity x Creativity/innovation x Identify and analyze causes or potential change Engineering x Develop and plan possible solutions or change Project management Implement and evaluate solution or change Manufacturing Measure and report solution or change Marketing/sales Recognize and reward team efforts Administration/documentation Servicing/support x Customer/quality metrics x Change management

Typical application: · To identify the less obvious ideas for problem resolution. · To expand the list of ideas developed during a classical brainstorming session. · To search for additional process or quality improvement opportunities. · To recover from an unproductive brainstorming effort. · To further clarify a problem to gain more solution ideas. Notes and key points: Reversed also means, for this tool application, the negated or negative form of the idea presented (brainstormed).

Step-by-step procedure: STEP 1 The team reviews the session objective or desired improvement goal. See the example - Reduce the Percentage of "No Shows" in Scheduled Training Workshops. STEP 2 A list of ideas, previously brainstormed, is displayed and discussed STEP 3 The next action taken is to reverse the objective. See example Increase the percentage of "No Shows" in Scheduled Training Workshops. STEP 4 The team now brainstorms how to make the condition or problem worse - the reversed or negative form of the objective. STEP 5 Once the reversed ideas have been recorded, the team reverses again all Ideas - the double reversal process STEP 6 The final step is to add all newly developed ideas to the previous list. The team now has some fresh, different potential solutions to the problem.

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.)

When industries around the world require truly rapid product development, they turn to Solid Concepts Inc. They are a world-leading supplier of a full range of precise rapid prototyping and manufacturing services. In fact, since 1991 they have produced thousands of accurate prototypes, in less time and at a lower cost than most of their competitors.

Solid Concepts is one of the most technically advanced suppliers of rapid prototyping and manufacturing services in the world. They offer SLA rapid prototypes, SLS rapid prototypes, HDSL prototypes, PolyJet prototypes, QuantumCast, urethane castings, QuickCast investment casting patterns, and CNC prototypes.

Unlike any other rapid prototyping service provider, the engineers at Solid Concepts were integral members on the team that developed the first commercial rapid prototyping systems. This intimate knowledge of the technology, along with their highly efficient production facilities, enables them to produce high-quality prototypes and ensure faster delivery than anyone else in the industry. The result? Their customers receive premium services at competitive prices.

To see how the rapid product development professionals at Solid Concepts can help you accelerate your product development give them a call toll- free at 888-311-1017.

We welcome the following people that are new to our team but not new to the type of services we offer. In fact, our services continue to expand along with the dots on the map.

Barry Scott - Saugus, MA ***** Tom Cutchall - St. Petersburg, FL ***** Ron Tarach- Madison, OH ***** G. Hugh Bartholomees - Elk Grove Village, IL ***** Steve Saunders - Winslow, AR ***** Austin Linden - Cuyahoga Falls, OH ***** Rocco Lupo - Auburn, NY ***** Robert Wolford - Carrollton, TX ***** Tony Yeung - Tucson, AZ ***** Lewis Martincic - Yorba Linda, CA ***** Jerry Arnoni - Kingwood, TX ***** C. Michael Taylor - Rockhill, SC ***** Warren Dickson - Brampton, ON ***** Don Simmons - Wytheville, VA ***** George Ridge - Ft. Meyers, FL ***** Genevieve Lemaire - Fogelsville, PA

We send all of you the warmest WQN welcome. Our clients deserve the best and we thank you for offering to share your talent and expertise with them! We couldn't grow without you.

There are so many ways to improve an operation. Professional assistance is necessary to get the job done right. We finally broke down and installed a proper water filtration system in our office. This could have easily been a weekend project, but rather than spend the time we decided to bring in an expert plumber. Guess what? That short project took him 6 hours to complete because of other potential problems we did not realize. We spent a little more money initially but we received some great improvements and some really clean H2O! Not to mention "your's truly" didn't waste an entire weekend of precious time. Quality Improvement is very much the same. 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? Call today for a FREE analysis! 877-WQN-TODAY (877-976-8632)

We hope to provide some clarification on the various types of workshops as well as some tentative dates. We will be offering 3-5 day Lead Auditor Training for ISO 9001:2000, AS 9100, and ISO 14001. There will also be an assortment of process improvement tools using our exclusive "Baustein Method" created by Dr. Michalski, and finally, we hope to offer CIS Software information workshops.