Welcome to July 2014 edition of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.
We have taken up detailed look at the fundamentals of Nonconformity (Ref: Blog Carnival Edition of March 2014) / Nonconformance (Ref: Blog Carnival Edition of April 2014) and then converse of these to terms, Conformity (Ref: Blog Carnival Edition of May 2014)and Conformance (ref: Blog Carnival Edition of June 2014).
We now take a look at these words for a more specific point of view of Quality Management. First, a few definitions.
Encyclopedia of Management: Non-conformity
Non-conformity is a failure to meet the requirements (3.1.2, ISO 9000:2005). Occurrence of non-conformity is not decrease of quality. It may be related to failure to meet the requirements of the standards, documentation, quality, regulations, requirements, contract requirements or customer and other interested parties requirements. A non-conformity can be treated only by what was actually found, or supported by objective evidence.
Business Directory.com defines nonconformity – Occurrence of a condition that does not conform to the specifications of the prescribed standards, drawing a fine distinction with Defect.
1. General: Frailty or shortcoming that prevents an item from being complete, desirable, effective, safe, or of merit, or makes it to malfunction or fail in its purpose.
2. Law: Lack of legal sufficiency due to incorrect or incomplete following of a required or statutory procedure. See also perfect.
3. Manufacturing: Non-conformance of a product with the specified requirements, or non-fulfilment of user expectations (including the safety aspects).
Wikipedia: In quality management,
A nonconformity (also known as a defect) [P.S. the statement in the bracket is technically not correct.] is a deviation from a specification, a standard, or an expectation.
In software engineering, ISO/IEC 9126 distinguishes between a “defect” and a ”nonconformity”. A defect being the non-fulfilment of intended usage requirements, whereas nonconformity is the non-fulfilment of a requirement. A similar distinction is made between validation and verification.
Business Directory also elaborates on Defects as –
Defects are generally classified into four classes:
Class-1: very serious, directly causes severe injury or catastrophic loss;
Class-2: serious, directly causes significant injury or economic loss;
Class-3: major, related to significant problems with respect to intended normal or reasonable use; and
(4) Class-4: minor, related to minor problems with intended normal or reasonable use.
Two other types of defects are latent defect and patent defect.
A non-conformance is a departure from an agreed arrangement between an approval authority (or orthodox position) and an individual or group performing work. In the context of quality management an “arrangement” is commonly an agreement to conform to:
- A work product standard
Example: The format and content of a Software Requirements Specification does not comply with the designated SRS Document Standard - A predefined procedure
Example: The requirements elicitation activities on project X did not follow the steps required by the Joint Application Design Procedure. - A work product specification
Example: The System Architecture Specification does not address all the customer requirements provided in the System Requirements Specification. - A documented plan
Example: The activities described in the Project Plan are not being carried out. - An international standard for best practice
Example: Company XYZ does not have a documented procedure for control of quality management system documentation as required by ISO 9001 – Quality Management Systems Requirements1 clause 4.2.3 Control of documents.
The Significance of a Non-conformance
The existence of a non-conformance means that some aspects of an organisation’s standard operating procedures are not being followed.
How are Non-conformances Identified?
Non-conformance are typically identified in the context of a quality management system audit. The auditor documents the non-conformance in a Non-conformance Report which is subsequently issued to a management representative who directs corrective action.
Non-conformance Lifecycle covers the following topics:
The scope of a blog carnival does not permit us to delve deeper into this subject, however we would devote a section to Non-conformance and Corrective Action related articles in our subsequent Blog Carnival editions once we have covered Corrective in the next edition of this Blog Carnival.
We turn to our regular sections now :
Blogger Round Up for June (2014) has picked up one most debated issue – What’s the Value of Organizational Excellence Programs? ASQ’s bloggers assessed the value of excellence awards—from going through the exercise as part of continuous improvement to following through after winning (or losing). Each of the response covered in this post has thrown up one or other of the aspect that needs careful consideration by the Quality professionals and Top Management for journey that begins once the question is asked.
And then move over to ASQ TV Episode – The Power of Data : Get an overview on data management, from hot topics such as big data to using data to improve quality.
· Read the case study by Kurt M. Hill
· Four data analysis basics that can help
· Seven data collection strategies
· Read the full article by Derek Purdy
The Pros and Cons of Big Data You’ve probably heard the popular term “big data.” It refers to large and complex data sets that go beyond traditional data processing tools. With big data come big challenges. For example, how and when should you collect or analyze big data? Statistics professor Geoff Vining urges caution in relying on big data.
What’s Working: Mining Data to Reduce Costs Change doesn’t come through data collection. The goal is to analyze your data for insights on how to do something better or smarter. Nationwide Insurance did just that in deciding which homes to inspect.
Our ASQ’s Influential Voice for the month is – Tim McMahon
Tim McMahon is a quality manager and lean practitioner with expertise in lean manufacturing with more than 10 years of Lean manufacturing experience. He currently leads continuous improvement efforts for a high tech manufacturer in a Quality Management role. He blogs at A Lean Journey.
A Lean Journey is dedicated to sharing lessons and experiences along the Lean Journey in the Quest for True North. The blog also serves as the source for learning and reflection which are critical elements in Lean Thinking. The blog has a well laid out lists of varied subjects covered through the regular posts on the blog. It also has a very informative blog-roll of “Lean Blogs that I Like’ as well as “Other Sites I Like”. This makes the blog as veritable source of a good deal of reading and sharing of common interests and subjects. We will just list out the posts published in July 2014, till date:
- Listening is Not the Same as Hearing
- Carrots and Sticks Don’t Motivate in a Thinking En…
- Lean Quote: Success Comes From Perseverance
- Daily Lean Tips Edition #65 (976-990)
- What Lean is Not – 10 Things That Are Not Lean
- Lean Quote: Independence
- Five Simple Ways to Make Your VSM A Valuable Impro…
We do not have a fresh insight this month in so far as Curious Cat Management Improvement Carnival category is concerned.
However visiting the blog always leads to interesting articles posted recently. We pick up Gerald Suarez on Creating the Future for our present edition.
The webcast herebelow is the speech Gerald Suarez gave at TedX Loyola Marymount.
I look forward to your active participation in enriching the blog carnival as we pursue our journey …………….
The world is too small? or Is it? 
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