Tools & Resources
Best of Back to Basics
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Hit Parade
50 of the most popular Back to Basics columns together in one collection
For many music lovers, a particular artist’s greatest hits album offers everything they need: The must-have No. 1 hits conveniently packaged together to be played on repeat. No more skips. No digging through stacks of dusty CDs and LPs.
When you think about it, a greatest hits compilation really is the perfect way to rediscover favorite old songs and relive the best ones once again. That’s how we saw this special edition of QP playing out: 50 of the most popular Back to Basics columns assembled in one spot for all experience levels—new to the profession or seasoned veterans—to discover for the first time or pick up on something they might have missed.
Since debuting in April 2001, QP’s regular back-page resident has become one of the magazine’s most popular columns. Covering a wide range of topics, Back to Basics summarizes quality concepts and tools in a simple and succinct way—usually in about 600 words or so.
So it sounded like a good idea to take what’s resonated with readers (we tracked the number of times the columns are accessed at www.qualityprogress.com) and assemble a greatest QP hits collection: a special edition—one we hope you’ll keep around for years to come.
You’ll see this particular collection of Back to Basics columns covers a variety of topics—auditing, measurement, process improvement and quality tools, just to name a few—organized by general topic areas and seen as they first appeared in print. Note the column’s original publication date inside the record on each page’s upper-right corner.
You’ll be sure to recognize many of the artists on the album (er, authors in this issue)—regular QP columnists, and other subject matter experts and thought leaders in the quality community who have become solid contributors to ASQ’s body of knowledge.
We hope this collection hits the mark with you and becomes a must-have guide to quality tools and concepts that you can easily reference and share with others. Be sure to tune in to future installments of Back to Basics in upcoming issues. We’re confident the hits will keep coming.
by Mark Edmund, associate editor
Auditing
According to Plan - by Jonathan Port, PDF
Solid Proof - by John G. Suedbeck, PDF
Certification
Use Your Head - by Luis Echeverria, PDF
Change management
Stakeholder Management 101 - by Philip J. Kangas, PDF
Customer satisfaction
Customer Delight - by Harold Curtis, PDF
Data
All About Data - by Jack B. ReVelle, PDF
Eight Simple Steps - by Mohit Sharma, PDF
Documentation
Minimizing Chaos - by Tony Gojanovic, PDF
Take Note - by Vicki Hart, PDF
Pyramid Scheme - by Marcia M. Weeden, PDF
Measurement
Assessing Failure - by Scott Stamm, PDF
Which Six Sigma Metric Should I Use? - by Frank Rudisill and Steve Druley, PDF
Problem Solving
Turning ‘Who’ Into ‘How’ - by Kenneth Thomas, PDF
Process
In the Beginning … - by T. Dan Nelson, PDF
Outputs and Outcomes - by Russ Westcott, PDF
That’s So Random—Or Is It? - by Cecelia McCain, PDF
Understanding Variation - by Jonathan D. Port, PDF
Improving a System - by Robert Pintavalle, PDF
Quality tools
Putting It All on the Table - by Sean Goffnett, PDF
Know the Drill - by Mohit Sharma, PDF
It's Fun To Work With an F-M-E-A - by Kristen Johnson, PDF
Solve Problems With Open Communication - by Grace L. Duffy, John Bauer and John W. Moran, PDF
Tell Me About It - by Nicole M. Radziwill, PDF
Separate the Vital Few From the Trivial Many - by Melissa G. Hartman, PDF
To DMAIC or Not to DMAIC? - by Carl F. Berardinelli, PDF
Breaking It Down - by Alberto Ayulo, PDF
Smart Charting - by Peter J. Sherman, PDF
1+1 = Zero Defects - by Chris Hermenitt, PDF
QFD Explained - by Corinne N. Johnson, PDF
Curve Your Enthusiasm - by David Phillips, PDF
Make a Choice - by Cecelia McCain, PDF
What Is a Fault Tree Analysis? - by Simha Pilot, PDF
Successful Relationship Diagrams - by Lisa Boisvert, PDF
The Benefits of PDCA - by Corinne N. Johnson, PDF
Creative Combination- by Scott Force, PDF
Return on Investment - by Russ Wescott, PDF
The Art of Root Cause Analysis - by Vidyasagar A, PDF
Why Ask Why? - by Rajeev Chadha, PDF
Get to the Root of It - by David M. Rucker, PDF
Checks and Balances - by Janet Bautista Smith, PDF
Risk management
Calculated Risk - by Peter J. Sherman, PDF
Sufficient Evidence - by John Suedbeck, PDF
Statistics
Sample Wise - by Kim Niles, PDF
Clearing SPC Hurdles - by Scott A. Laman, PDF
Suppliers
Supplier Selection and Maintenance - by Dennis Arter, PDF
Teams
Team Advantage - by Victor Cascella, PDF
Building a Quality Team - by Terry E. Logan, PDF
Testing
Plan Experiments to Prevent Problems - by Scott A. Laman, PDF
Substantiation Test - by Joseph Paul Mitchell, PDF
Training
Training Day - by Cliff Moser, PDF
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