The Quality Journey has Begun

It has been about six whole months since my career switched. I am now the Quality Manager at the company I work for. Before that I was always involved in engineering. Starting as a software engineer for industrial control products (back in the days of the Intel 8080, Motorola 6800 and assembly language, then to "C" (no pluses)), an Engineering Manager, a Program Office Manager and now Quality Manager.

Over the years I had worked with a few great Quality Managers. I learned much from them. Yet, this new position at first seemed a bit daunting (and still does sometimes).

One thing I have determined is that with a technical background (BSEE), project and program management experience, leadership experience and ISO 9001 knowledge (I was an internal auditor for years), that many basic quality issues require good problem solving skills, people skills, project management skills and leadership skills and a good dose of common sense. The lingo and TLA's (FYI - three letter acronym's and sometimes 4 to six letters) are different in the quality world, but the basic skills are not much different.

This does not mean that there is not very much to learn. There is a wealth of knowledge, theory and skills that  I still need to learn. However, many of the issues I encountered so far in these first six months requires the skills noted above. Problems need to be solved through a cross functional group of people coordinated via a basic project plan and lead by the Quality Manager or my key technical resource.

Therefore, the name of this blog made "sense" to me. 

I have started the networking process to learn more Quality techniques, tools and methods. The American Society of Quality is definitely worth joining. They wave a wealth of resources on line, local meetings and and active Bloggers and Linked In Groups.

Well, that is enough for my first entry. I will try to write an update once every week or two, maybe more, maybe less and mostly about this new and exciting path/journey in the Quality Management world.

Bob