Quality World
March 2017

INSIDE:
10 things yourQMS must do
Automation
at Ocado

3M
Takatoshi
OhkuboWelcome to a world where businesssystem design drives innovation

Are you using yourmember benefits?
Visit the Members’ Area for a hostof learning resources, including:• ISO 9001 analysis report• ISO 14001 analysis report• Annex SL briefing note
• Repositioning the Profession ebook• Quality World digital magazine• The eLibrary, with thousands of journals.
Plus, don’t miss the Knowledge email
and the Members’ Update each month.

Visit quality.org or contact
the membership team for
more information:membership@quality.org

From the editor

Contents
FEATURES

14

26

Assurance in achanging world
In an exclusive ebook
extract, senior leaders
explain the components
of a 21st century QMS

Mention the name Takatoshi Ohkubo,or ‘Taka’, to anyone who has met him
and you’ll be greeted with a smile anda positive memory. Ohkubo is director
of corporate process innovation andquality assurance at 3M Japan. In our
exclusive interview (p20) he explains his
concept of ‘business system design for
innovation’, through which the world’sof assurance and improvement work inharmony by harnessing neuroscience.
Robert Gibson

20

The Innovator
Natasha Cowan
interviews Takatoshi
Ohkubo about quality
and neuroscienceat 3M Japan

26

Cover image: Steve Morin
Quality World +44 (0)20 7245 6676
editorial@thecqi.org Twitter: @Qualityworld
Published by the CQI. Registered charity: 259678

Robot revolution
Dina Patel discovers
how humans and robots
are working together
to deliver more forcustomers at Ocado

Content Manager and Editor Robert Gibson
Content Executive Natasha Cowan
Content Creator Dina Patel
Senior Designer Ricky Elizabeth
Advertising
Joe Elliott-Walker (display)joe.elliott-walker@redactive.co.uk
Jude Rosset (recruitment)
jude.rosset@redactive.co.uk
Subscriptions+44 (0)20 7245 6866 qwsubscriptions@quality.org
11-issue subscription fees
UK: £72 Europe: £92 ROW: £110
Print and distribution by Warners Midlands Plc
ISSN 13528769. Vol 43 Issue 3

The views expressed in QW are those of the author and do not necessarily
represent those of the CQI. The advertising of courses, events, products andservices in this publication does not imply that they have CQI endorsement.
Reproduction of QW in whole or part without permission is strictly prohibited.

REGULARS
02 News and analysis
Supply chain improvement
to boost economy,
and global brands
fund extremists

12 Digital highlights
Sellafield challenges thenext generation, plus
fake news andconsumer trust

39 Reviews
Leadership in the
Headlines, and Coaching
Skills for Leaders in
the Workplace

06 CQI news
CQI launches
London branch

32 Knowledge
Neil Mellor on
how improving
his writing helped him
become an influencer

40 5 minutes with...
Lucy Payne, quality
management consultant

09 Standards special
ISO 9004 under review
10 Opinion
Stuck in the Dark Ages,
and Can I lead?

35 Experts uncut
Russell Jowell urges
businesses not to let fear
drive social compliancequality.org | 1

News and analysis

Prime minister
Theresa May andchancellor of theexchequer PhilipHammond meet staff
at Jaguar Land Roverin Solihull, England.
© Getty Images,
Carl Court/Staff

The news

Improve supply
chains to boost
the economy
after Brexit,
says May

2 | Quality World | March 2017

Opportunities for quality andimprovement have emerged ina green paper outlining the UK’s
industrial strategy after Brexit.
The green paper, Building
our Industrial Strategy, focusesheavily on improving procurementto ‘drive innovation’. The
Government suggests this
could be achieved by creating
cross-sector deals to address
challenges in the supply chain.
These challenges include
promoting competition andinnovation, and facilitating
sustainable investment andcoordination between suppliers
and their customers. A key part ofthe vision involves collaboration
with stakeholders acrosssectors, including academia anduniversities and it is hoped thenew plans will benefit SMEs.
The report states that theapproach is not about funding,instead the Government hasgiven industry an ‘open door’
challenge to develop proposals
to transform and improvetheir sectors. By developing
these business deals with theGovernment, it is hoped that
sectors will transform theirstrategic prospects.

The views
Jan Rae, head of policy at Nesta,
welcomed the change. In a blog
for City AM she said: “While thisbuilds on work started by Vince
Cable in establishing Sector
Councils, there’s a noticeable andwelcome difference: these priority
sectors are not being specified
beforehand by government.
“In the past, the system
worked well for large businesses
with dedicated government
relations teams, as they could
coalesce around one view andpresent this to policy makers.
The new open door policy could
level the playing field. But the
open door needs flashing lights,
easy access and a welcome mat.
Emerging, fast-changing sectors,
such as digital and tech, tend to
be less defined, comprised ofsmaller firms and, as a result,
may find it more difficult to
respond to the Government’s call.
“These sectors could be
responsible for creating thejobs of the future, requiring
early stage support to reap longerterm benefits. It means getting
the right regulatory frameworkin place and harnessing
government procurement todrive their growth.”

The analysis
Steve Coles, CQP FCQI,
consultant and auditor at SBC
Consultants, and a memberof the CQI Advisory Council,
said: “ISO has introduced
risk and opportunity to all its
management standards andis the focus of clause 6.1 of
ISO 9001:2015.
“Brexit, while presenting
all businesses with new risks
to consider, also presents
major opportunities to review
relationships and this has been
a common challenge for thoseworking in the supply chain.
“While nobody yet knows
what the business environment
will be like in two or three
years’ time, the Government
recognises that waiting until thedetails are sorted out will not begood for UK plc. Involvement
now, throughout the full supply
chain means we have theopportunity to start with almosta blank sheet and develop whatis needed and drive progress,
rather than wait for what is
possible and be limited. This
also presents the opportunity
to focus agreements on trueneeds of specification andquality, rather than price.”

News and analysis

Radio system plansfor emergency services
failed to consider risks
The news
A new radio system for
emergency services is facing
delays after calls were madefor additional testing andassurance work.
The Emergency Services
Network (ESN) will be usedby the 105 police, fire andambulance services in GreatBritain. Through an enhanced
4G mobile network it promises
extensive coverage, highresilience, security and public
safety functionality.
But the Public Accounts
Committee said the current
delivery date of December 2019
does not allow for further testingof the ESN, which will replace
the current Airwave system.
There are concerns over
the technology, such as how wellit operates on the underground.
The committee warned
that the Home Office has notbudgeted for an extended
transition period and has not put
in place detailed contingency
arrangements to manage the risk.
The current Airwave contracts
expire in December 2019 and theonly contingency if ESN is not
functional by then is to extend
the existing contracts, which
would cost an estimated £475m
for a year’s delay nationwide.

The views
Meg Hillier MP, chair of the
Public Accounts Committee,
said: “It is absolutely rightthat emergency services will
not commit to using ESN
in potentially life-or-deathsituations until they areconvinced it works.
“Questions continue tohang over the technology,
not least how it will operateon underground rail systems
in London and elsewhere –high-risk environments that
present unique challenges inemergencies. These must be
addressed urgently.
“It is encouraging that thehead of the ESN programme
has remained in post since2011, providing a degree ofstability absent from some highprofile projects our committee
has examined.
“However, we aredisappointed that detailed
contingency plans have notbeen budgeted for or drawn up
in the event that, as now seems
likely, implementation over-runs.
“It is critical for public safety
and achieving value for moneythat the Government has afirm grasp of the implicationsof delays in its timetable and acosted plan to tackle them.”

Meg Hillier MP, chair of the Public Accounts Committee© Goldberg/REX/Shutterstock

The analysis
Grant Wordsworth, CQP MCQI,
quality manager at Affinity
Water, told QW that quality
planning was missing:“The potential to reuse thecommercial 4G bandwidthpresented an ambitious
opportunity to meetthe future communicationneeds of the emergency
services. However, the National
Audit Office (NAO) and theHome Office have identified
flaws in the plan around thelevel of national coverage by the
network provider, the software,

the functionality and the lackof devices that will apparently
work in this brave new world.
“From my viewpoint, there
is more than a hint of poor
quality in the planning for the
project delivery programme,
which appears to have placeda reliance on the NAO to passor fail the scheme. I have little
doubt that a costly extension
to the current Airwave contract
will be seriously considered, if
not granted, but with a hopethat future contracts will containsuitable plans and exit terms.”

quality.org | 3

News and analysis© Alex Segre/ REX/Shutterstock

Big brands
discover theyfund terror
through
onlineadvertising
The news
Major global brands are
unknowingly funding Islamic
extremists and white
supremacists by advertising on
their websites, an investigation
by The Times has shown.
In a string of revelations thatraise serious questions about
assurance in the media supply
chain, advertisements fromcompanies including Waitrose,
Marie Curie, Argos andMercedes-Benz have appearedon hate sites and YouTube
videos created by supportersof terrorist groups.
The Times reports that thepractice is “likely to generate
thousands of pounds a monthfor extremists”.
Many companies said
they were unaware of theadvertisements on the sites
and blamed ‘programmatic
advertising’, a system whichallows advertising agencies totrack potential customers aroundthe web and serve them adverts
on any sites they are browsing.
According to The Times’
analysis, blacklists designed toprevent digital adverts fromappearing next to online extremist
content are not fit for purpose.
The six top advertising
agencies, Havas, IPG, Dentsu,
Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP
have denied wrongdoing andemphasised their commitment
to their clients.

4 | Quality World | March 2017

The analysis

The views
Speaking at the IAB Annual
Leadership Meeting 2017,
Procter & Gamble’s chiefmarketing officer, Marc Pritchard,called on the media buying
and selling industry to be
more transparent.
Pritchard said: “Better
advertising and media
transparency are closely related.
Why? Because better advertising
requires time and money, yet
we’re all wasting way too muchtime and money on a media
supply chain with poor standards
adoption, too many players

grading their own homework,
too many hidden touches, andtoo many holes to allow criminals
to rip us off.
“We have a media supply
chain that is murky at best andfraudulent at worst. We need toclean it up, and invest the timeand money we save into better
advertising to drive growth.”
Pritchard said ads are
currently served to customers
through a ‘non-transparent
media supply chain withspotty compliance tocommon standards’.

Robert Gibson, content manager
at the CQI, says the investigation
is likely to have major
ramifications both for the media
industry and any organisation
advertising online. He said: “It’sthe headline to make any CEO
shudder – your business isinadvertently funding terror andyou have no understanding of
how this happened. As online
advertising becomes moresophisticated, it has also grown
more complex, harder to manage
and to regulate.
“From a compliance
perspective, media players andadvertising agencies will betaking a hard look at their controls– they are aware of the threat
posed to their business models.
YouTube was quick to remove
the videos that escaped its
checks, but must focus moreon preventive action.
“For quality professionals
it’s another example to help
express the value of quality interms that senior management
cannot ignore: how confident are
you that your business is using
the right methods to protect its
reputation against such risks?
Agile assurance is crucial.”

News and analysis
ESCAPETOWER

PAYLOAD

Remembering the Apollo 1 disasterFifty years ago, on 27 January 1967, three
astronauts perished in a launch pad flash
fire aboard Apollo 1. A subsequent 18-monthinvestigation led to safety improvements that helped
pave the way for NASA’s successful moon landings
COMMAND MODULE
1pm: Crew board forlaunch rehearsal test
6.31pm:Faulty wiring
beneathGrissom’s
couch
ignites
pure oxygen
atmosphereinside cabin

SECOND
STAGE

FIRST
STAGE

ChaffeeWhite

Cabin ablaze: Within 17 seconds, rising air pressure
ruptures hull. Astronauts die from asphyxiation
AS-204launchvehicle:Not fuelled
for test –smalleremergency
responsecrew onduty

Apollo 1
68 metres

Hatch: Astronauts can
not unbolt complex
two-part, inwardopening hatch –a process that
requires 90
seconds innormalconditions

Apollo 11
to scale

Apollo 1 crew(L-R) Ed White, Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee

INQUIRY IMPLEMENTATIONS

Flammable oxygen environment for groundtests replaced with nitrogen-oxygen mix
All flammable items removed from cabin
Hatch redesigned to allow astronauts
to open it within seven seconds

Improved relations between astronauts andengineers helps quickly enact design changes
Sources: NASA, Space.com, wire agencies© GRAPHIC NEWSquality.org | 5

CQI news

CQI launches
London branch
The CQI has opened its new London branchwith a session on the 2020 strategy fromacting chief executive Vincent DesmondOn 2 February more than 30
guests joined the new branch at
the CQI’s London office to findout more about their vital role inthe strategy and to network withpeers from small, medium andlarge organisations.
Alex Woods, professional
networks manager, introduced
the event by sharing his
aspiration for CQI members
everywhere to benefit from thebranch network. He gave thanks

to the CQI Regional Operations
Panel, which has worked
tirelessly to ensure branch
events support the continuing
professional development (CPD)of our members.
Next, delegates heard fromVincent Desmond (pictured),
who talked through the CQI’sjourney since 2011 and thestrategy to 2020, including theopportunities for the profession
to grow this year. Desmond said:“I’m pleased to say the event
was a great success. The CQI iscommitted to all of our members
and it’s great to see such a highlevel of engagement from ourquality professionals in London.
“CPD should be a top priority
for members and engaging
with branch events is an

excellent way of continuing
your development.”

governance and the role of thequality professional within it,
companies can make positivechanges and prevent problems
from reoccurring.
In a call to arms, Clark said
good governance should be partof “Brand UK” and this would
mean “that we do governanceproperly and in a way thatmeans it doesn't get in the wayof being competitive. We canbe well governed and deliver,and be lead.”

Host it

We are looking fororganisations to host quality
tours for branches. Email:branches@quality.org

CQI executive director of policy
Estelle Clark
Estelle Clark has given anemphatic interview on quality
calls forand governance in the February
CEOs to better edition of Director – the magazineof Directors (IoD).
understand their of theClarkInstituteoffered readers an
insight into the world of quality,
organisations
urging directors across the globe
to remember that governancematters to all organisations,regardless of their size.
She articulated the vital roleof quality professionals in turning
the idea of good governanceinto reality.
In today’s uncertain economic
and political climate, Clark
reminded directors that too
often organisations make thewrong type of cuts in order tostay afloat – cutting ‘muscle’rather than ‘fat’. However,by prioritising organisational

6 | Quality World | March 2017

For event listings visit: quality.org/community
Pharma SIG celebrates its 40th anniversary
The CQI’s longest establishedspecial interest group, thePharmaceutical Quality Group(PQG), has planned a host ofindustry events this year as it
celebrates its 40th anniversary.
On 7 February, the PQG met
to discuss upcoming events andways in which it can continue tosupport quality professionals in
the industry. The PQG is a great
way for members to networkwith other quality professionals
in the pharmaceutical industry.
The group recently visited
manufacturing company PQ
Silicas, which serves a wide
range of markets and faces
challenges in managing the levelof good manufacturing practices(GMP) needed to meet stringent
customer and regulatory
requirements. The site visit
provided a unique opportunity to

see the manufacturing processes
and to discuss experiencesin meeting the challenge of
operating to different GMP
requirements for a rangeof markets.
Upcoming events at the
PQG include two data integrity
workshops, which will behosted in London and Sheffield
and organised in conjunction
with the Research Quality

Association. Along with eventsand networking opportunities,
members can also benefit froma forum that provides ongoingsupport, particularly for trainees.

Book itBook your place at thenext PQG event at
pqg.org/pharma/events

Inspire your peers

The CQI celebrates a year ofinnovation and influence

By recommending the CQI to
your peers you are creatinga shared understanding of
quality throughout industry andaround the world. This not only
leads to the improvement of
products and services, it helps
to create a shared language forthe profession and addresses
future needs and expectations.
At the CQI we value ourmembers, so we offer a £25
reward for every colleague you
recommend. David Probyn,(pictured right) lean and quality
management consultant at
BAE Naval Systems, said:“CQI membership certainly
helps with credibility. The mostvaluable aspect of being a CQI
member is the validation – there
is a common logic between
what we do and what the CQI
stands for. From a personal

The CQI’s 2016 Annual Review
has been launched, celebrating
our achievements in advancing
the profession.
Among the highlights,
we are proud we were able
to support excellence in thequality profession by investingin our members. As part ofthis investment we built a newlearning and development
portfolio, a new membershippathway and we made sure yourprofessional development wasat the heart of our work.
Collaboration with otherorganisations and professions
is a key part of what we doand we engaged with morethan a thousand organisations
spanning the globe to influence
the good governance debate.
We also delivered industry andtechnical reports, and resources

CQI staff visit
Bombardier

CQI staff have been treatedto a tour of Bombardier
Transportation's Derby site aspart of a new initiative at the
CQI to meet and observe quality
professionals in action.

point of view, it’s good to know
people who think in a similar
fashion, whom you can bounce
ideas off. We can learn fromthem and perhaps they canlearn from us.”

Share itTo recommend a colleague
visit the Members' Area atquality.org

Through an exclusive tour of the
production facility from project
quality leader Tony Jordon, CQP
MCQI, the team was able tolearn about Bombardier’s
quality culture and its quality
graduate scheme.
Jordon said: “The site
tour helps to demonstrate the‘Built-in Quality’ approach wehave deployed at Bombardier
Transportation to provide
assurance that quality is at
the heart of what we do.
“All three attendees actively
asked questions as they wereintroduced to our team todetermine for themselves thatto help you practically. As yourprofessional body we have a
responsibility to influence andsupport employers and wider
industry. We partnered with 24
corporates, in industries ranging
from defence to automotive
and construction, helping us tocreate legacies and offer clear
development pathways for theentire quality team. By working
closely with industry we wereable to gain insight and provide
cutting-edge information on whatbusiness needs from you as aquality professional, as well as
how you can rise to the challenge.

Read itGet the full story by reading
the Annual Review atquality.org/annualreview

the approach was deployedthroughout the site.”

Do it

Do you want CQI staff to see
quality at your organisation?
email editorial@quality.org

quality.org | 7

CQI news

Spring at the CQI: what’s on in your area
March signals the start of spring, so why not turn over a new leaf and makethe most of our opportunities for professional development? From branch
events to training opportunities, we have your learning needs covered
MARCH

APRIL

CQI London: Customer loyalty
and the quality profession

CQI North East: Anti-fragility,
more than robustness

Time: 6.30pm to 8.30pm
Location: The CQI, London

Time: 6.30pm to 9pm
Location: Durham

9th

10th

This seminar is hosted by the brand new London
branch. Mark Eydman, CQP MCQI, chair of the CQI
Leicester and Coventry branch, will discuss the impactof customer loyalty on success and the role of thequality professional in this process. Expect to find out
about the challenges of implementing an impactful
Net Promoter System in a commercial business.

Professor Tony Bendell, CQP FCQI, will question
the factors impacting the reputations of high-profile
organisations, asking why system and organisation
failures are higher now than ever before. Delegateswill gain an insight into problems and solutions fororganisations and they will find out how they canrise to the challenge as a quality professional.

A new season of cutting-edge training

Our foundation courses are perfect for those new to quality or for those in wider
industry looking to learn new skills. Book a course today or recommend a colleague

Introduction to product andservice management
Date: 6 March and 23 March
Location: The Cotswolds
Overview: Gain a better
understanding of thefundamental tools andtechniques, and gain astructured methodology
for effective product andservice management acrossa broad range of contexts.
Perfect for: those new tosupply chain management,
customer liaison and thoselooking to understand the
product or service lifecycle.

8 | Quality World | March 2017

Introduction to
management systems
Date: 8 March
Location: The Cotswolds
Overview: Gain an overview andawareness of the structure andpurpose of a formal management
system. Delegates will leave thecourse with the ability to explain
how customer and stakeholder
requirements can be used todevelop a management approachthat sustains improvement andcustomer satisfaction.
Perfect for: those new
to compliance and formal
management systems.

Introduction to stakeholder
communications
Date: 27 March
Location: Birmingham
Overview: Learn the key skills
needed to communicate,influence and negotiate withstakeholders in a broad range ofcontexts. Leave with the ability
to explain how understandingorganisational change can
improve stakeholder relations.
Perfect for: those who want
to improve both their own
communications and thecommunications of othersin their organisation.

Introduction to risk
management
Date: 13 March
Location: Birmingham
Overview: Learn thefundamental tools andtechniques and walk awaywith a structured approach
to risk management.
Perfect for: those who want toapply key tools in the workplace.

Book itTake the next stepin your career and visit
quality.org/bookacourse

Standards special

Behind the scenes:
revising ISO 9004
I am pleased to reportback to our members
on developments at the32nd plenary meeting of
ISO/TC 176 on quality
management and quality assurance.
ISO 9004:2009 ‘Managing for the sustained
success of an organisation – A quality
management approach’ gives guidance
for supporting the sustained success oforganisations who work in a complex,
demanding, and ever-changing environment,
and use a quality management approach.
The standard explains that sustained
success will be achieved when businesses
meet the needs and expectations of customers
and other interested parties.
This will only be effective if you plan for thelong term and create a learning environment,
led by management so that enhanced
improvements or innovations are madethroughout the entire organisation.
One advantage of this standard,
compared to many others, is that it includes
a self-assessment tool for reviewing thematurity level of the organisation – covering
its leadership, strategy, management system,
resources, and processes. This tool identifies
areas of strength and weakness as well
as opportunities for either improvements
or innovations.
ISO 9004 provides a broader focus on
quality management than ISO 9001. It aims tomeet the needs and expectations of all relevantinterested parties and provides guidance forthe methodical and constant improvement of
the organisation’s overall performance.

At the meeting

The meeting took place in Rotterdam,
Netherlands. On the first day we stayed
together as a working group and went
through the general, title and clauses 0-4,
before breaking into smaller task groups tocomplete clauses 5-11 and annex A.
For those who do not know the process,we start by reading through the comments andMark Braham, CQP FCQI, reports from
Rotterdam, where he represented the CQI as
Category A liaison for ISO/TC 176, the committee
revising the quality management standard

the recommended action. Believe it or not, ISOdoes not have a standard response for eachcomment. The secretary of each technicalcommittee decides the format we should use,
so once all comments have been dispositioned
we have an auditable record.
We then decide the outcome as a task
group, using experience and knowledge fromindividual experts from industry in different
countries and consultants who use thestandard. There are a number of outcomes foreach comment: it might be accepted in full or
partially, it could also be noted or rejected.
Despite the many comments I hearon various forums, the process is fair and
we reach consensus on every comment.
Sometimes everyone agrees but in othersituations we can debate for some time until
the majority in the room agrees with the text
in the standard. It is the responsibility of theconvener to ensure all group members have an
opportunity to speak and debate their views.
I have the utmost respect for manymembers because everything is discussed
in English so those from other countries
have to translate and then respond quickly.
With so many different people from different
backgrounds, I often find that we all read thesame text but apply it differently. However, thishelps us to agree on a way forward. As wehave people in the room from different culturesand languages, we can quickly check if thetext makes sense when translated.
We are aiming to publish a draft in early2017. The decision to go directly to Final Draft
International Standard has not been madebut is permitted by ISO. All CQI and IRCA
members will be informed of changes as soon
as they occur.

Read itCatch up with breaking news and insight on
quality standards by visiting the Knowledge
hub at quality.org

In total there
were 815 comments:

39

02

GENERAL163

ON TITLE

ON CLAUSES 0-4

82

ON CLAUSES 5 AND 6

100 79

ON CLAUSE 7

ON CLAUSE 8

123 88

ON CLAUSE 9

ON CLAUSE 105878

ON CLAUSE 11 ON ANNEX A

03

ON BIBLIOGRAPHY

quality.org | 9

Opinion
Phillip
Russell

JoanneSmith

Stuck in the
Dark AgesCan I lead?

Understanding
the people I
work with has
played a hugepart in my job as a seniorquality engineer. My current
role is dynamic because I
am exposed to academic
and practical tasks. One
day I could be inspecting
components and solving
manufacturing issues, thenext day I could be leading
improvement projects. I
am continuously having
an impact on governance,
assurance and improvementin the business.
However, I want tobecome better and more
influential in my role, and I
am always looking at the gaps
in my knowledge. Recently,
I completed a self-evaluation
against the CQI Competency
Framework. The evaluation
identified clear gaps in myskills – the biggest gap being
leadership. The Competency
Framework tells quality
professionals to use leadershipbehaviours to maximise
influence and develop aculture of evaluation andimprovement. In this very
sentence there are key words
that highlighted what I
was missing – ‘behaviours’,‘influence’ and ‘culture’.
As productive as I was inmy tasks, I was lacking theleadership skills to influence.
I needed to find the optimal
method to understand myteam so I could encouragea culture of evaluation andimprovement. I createdprofessional personal profiles
using a questionnaire forcolleagues to complete. Thisrevealed their behaviouralstyles, motivations,
expectations and stressbehaviours – allowing me tointerpret their personalities.
My advice for quality
professionals is to understandhow you can work more
effectively with yourcolleagues. Then you can
use the results to support
your decisions as a leader.
Joanne Smith, PCQI,
senior quality engineer
at Mixing Solutions

M

ore than 30
years ago I was
involved in thehandover ofdata at project completion,
which included boxes full of‘as built’ drawings (drawings
which show the changes
made during construction)
and associated operationaland maintenance manuals in
paper form.
Throughout the past 30
years, we have used floppy
disks, CDs, memory sticks
and now we are promised
BIM, the 3D model-based
process for designingbuildings. Still, as an
operational and maintenanceengineer, I am provided withlittle information I can use toefficiently operate a project
once it is completed. This isdue to poor communication.
My maintenance engineers
use YouTube videos to better
understand how to maintainequipment, rather thanoperational and maintenancemanuals that do not speak
to them in a media they
understand. The construction

Say itindustry is stuck in the Dark
Ages with regards to theprocessing and handoverof data. People who use
technology in every aspect of
their life revert to paper andpen for much of our industry.
We must embrace
the opportunities thattechnology offers, with a
new approach to integrated
digital information throughthe opportunities BIM
offers. This means a digital
representation of projects
updated in real time with
the information we need.
For example, I should be
able to click on the asset on
my tablet and a video of all
the appropriate operationaland maintenance proceduresshould be available.
Operational andmaintenance engineers
should be involved at thedesign stage so they can
decide what they need – notwhat the rest of the industry
thinks they need.
Phillip Russell, asset
manager at Costain

To have your say on the burning issues or share your thoughts on anything in this edition of QW, email: editorial@quality.org
or send your letter to: The Editor, Quality World, Chartered Quality Institute, 2nd Floor North,
Chancery Exchange, 10 Furnival Street, London, EC4A 1AB.

10 | Quality World | March 2017

De-Stress Your QMS

Complicated? Bureaucratic? Old fashioned?
Designed for auditors? Not adding value?
Time to put the Q back in QMS
Simplify it

LOOKINGTO PROMOTEYOUR PRODUCTS
AND SERVICES?
Quality World reaches 10,000 members of theChartered Quality Institute each month, so you areguaranteed an audience of readers who support
the CQI’s mission to promote best practicethrough professional recognition, qualiﬁcations
and training.

If you are looking to advertise then pleasecall Joe Elliott-Walker on 020 7880 6217 oremail joe.elliott-walker@redactive.co.uk

Challenge it

Focus it

Update it

Integrate it

Redesign it

Evaluate it

Improve it
Verify it

Reboot it

Exploit the new flexibility in ISO 9001: 2015
Combine Compliance, Performance & Risk

Call or email to discuss how we can help your business
Read our case studies at Qfactorial.co.uk
Get started with the Q! Gap Closer
Make Qfactorial your Management System Partner
Contact Kevin Brown,
CQI Registered Consultant
kevin@Qfactorial.co.uk+44 1256 814111

March 2017 | Quality World | 11

Digital highlights

12345

5 most read:
Find thesearticles andmore atquality.org/
knowledge

How to conduct a
successful audit
risk evaluation

Tweets:The big story: Training the next generation@Qualityworld

ISO 9001:2015 andISO 14001:2015:
what you needto know

Understandingorganisational
context in
ISO 9001

ISO 9001 quality
policy objectives

LinkedIn
discussionof the month

Louise James ‫‏‬‪
@LouLouJames31‬‬
It’s nearly time....
@Qualityworld CQIin Healthcare
Science Session at@ViapathUK#innovation
Symposium can’t
wait #carehomehack#A3 #IA6

Claire‫‏‬‪@claireTempleQMS‬
Congratulations@Temple_QMS
proud to host an
evening ofcelebration for ourlearners [who are]now Chartered
Quality Professionals.

Oliver Parry ‫‏‬‫‏‬‪@OliverWParry‬ ‬ ‬ ‬Great session thismorning with
@Qualityworld@ICSA_News@PwC_UK on@The_IoD’s future
work on #corporate
governance@estelleclark

Richard Smith, HSE&Q manager at Sellafield, explains how thenuclear decommissioning site is working with the next generation ofquality professionals.

Quality and consumer trustin the age of fake news

2016 in pictures – improving yourmember benefits

Fake news is high on the agenda in 2017,with more than 44 per cent of US adults
receiving their news from Facebook.
Triaster’s Brad Fagan explains why aculture of quality is critical for protecting
reputations and ensuring consumer trustis maintained.

To complement the launch of the new
CQI Annual Review, we look at some ofthe highlights from 2016, showing how we
improved your member benefits. View theslideshow to make sure you are using allof your benefits. Visit the MembershipNews section in the Members’ Area.

The CQI provides a wealth of content as part of your membership package.
As well as Quality World magazine, you can access a whole archiveof great content on our website, quality.org. Read the expert articles
in our Knowledge hub and search by sector, topic or competence. You canalso download ISO reports and resources in the Members’ Area. Look out
for the yellow action boxes in this issue of QW for further reading.

12 | Quality World | March 2017

Update:ISO 17021-3 tolaunch in January

Download it

Mark Eydman,
CQP MCQI, calls
for members to
support branches“Branches are notjust about the AGM
and committee
meetings but
offer an ongoingprogramme of
events, which may
revolve arounda presentation,site visit or social
event. Attendance
supports your CPD
and provides a great
opportunity to build
relationships withfellow professionals.
How aboutcommitting to attend
a branch event or
two in 2017?”
Visit linkedin.com/
groups/1908534

Prefer to read QW on your tablet or computer? Flick throughthe digital version of the magazine or download it to readon the go. Just log in to the Members’ Area at quality.org

Quality World
June 2015

The magazine of the Chartered Quality Institute

LOOKING TO PROMOTEYOUR PRODUCTS ANDSERVICES?
Quality World reaches more than 10,000 readers a month, so
you are guaranteed an audience of readers who support the
CQI’s mission to promote best practice through professionalrecognition, qualiﬁcations and training.

The truth behind

Fukushima

If you are looking to advertise then please call Joe Elliott-Walker
on 020 7880 6217 or email joe.elliott-walker@redactive.co.uk

March 2017 | Quality World | 13

Assurance in achanging world
Illustrations: Richard Duckett
Words: Mike Turner

In an exclusive extract from the new Repositioning the Profession series by the
CQI and Oakland Consulting, leading quality professionals share their views on
the top 10 components of a 21st century QMS

T

he CQI’s Competency
Framework shows how
governance provides thefoundation for organisational
effectiveness by establishingclarity of purpose/intent,
which is then captured in policies, plans,
processes and the capability requiredof the people and the partners. This all
becomes meaningless, however, if the
setup is not implemented. Assurance
activities are needed to ensure that all
stakeholder requirements are being met,in terms of both the product or service
and the operation of the processes by
the people.
In recent years we have seen manywell-publicised examples of the absenceof effective assurance activities andthe disastrous consequences that candevelop, including the serious impact
on reputations. These have ranged
from companies simply failing todeliver products and services that meetestablished and accepted customer
requirements, through to phone hacking
by members of the press, overstatingof profits in the retail sector, banks
involved in a range of misdemeanours,
falsification of product performance data
– and even to the claiming of excessive
expenses by MPs. The effects of theseoccurrences in the modern world canquickly become global news.
The Repositioning the Profession series has
been informed by interviews with senior

14 | Quality World | March 2017

quality professionals from a range ofprivate and public sector organisations.
In semi-structured interviews, each
respondent was asked a set of questions
relating to their experience of the
key areas of competence within theframework. As in the previous parts inthe series, this part makes direct reference
to their experiences, as well as using themto inform conclusions. This contributes
to understanding the complexities ofassuring quality in the 21st century.

Assurance
Governance: How quality professionals use the rightapproaches to create plans, polices and processes thatdeliver strategic goals, working to harness the entire
organisation to meet all shareholder and stakeholder expectations
Leadership

Assurance: How quality professionals provide theinvaluable confidence that these plans, policies andprocesses are effectively implemented to minimise
and manage risk and sustain reputation
Leadership

Governance

Assurance

Governance

Assurance

Improvement

Leadership

Governance

Assurance

Improvement: How quality professionals enable andfacilitate organisation-wide learning and improvement
Leadership

Governance

Assurance

Improvement

Context

Leadership

Governance

Assurance

Improvement

Governance

Assurance

Improvement

Context

Leadership

Governance

Assurance

Improvement

Context: How quality professionals use domain
and/or industry knowledge and understanding, essential forthe implementation and sustenance of the above
Leadership

Context

Leadership

Governance

Assurance

Improvement
Context

quality.org | 15

The 10components
of a fit-forpurpose 21st
century quality
management
systemAssurance is about ensuringthat the defined requirements
are understood and fully met,
so it is important to:1.

Get a balanced set of indicatorsthat provide assurance
The use of balanced scorecards wasreferred to frequently in our interviews
with senior leaders in the quality
profession. According to Nigel Croft,chairman of ISO TC176/SC2 for
Quality Systems, it is important for allboards and top management teams tolook beyond just the financial report,
and to consider other aspects, such associal and environmental reporting, andtheir potential impact on reputation andbusiness performance.
The head of quality in a leading
automotive company said: “Themassive thing for most companies ismeasuring ‘cost of quality’, but so few
adopt it. Within our industry standard
it is actually stipulated that a company
shall measure and understand thecost of poor quality and I have foundpersonally that, if you want to wake up
senior management teams to focus in on
quality, once you put it into pound or
dollar value, it certainly makes people sit
up in their chairs.”“To wake up senior
management to quality,
once you put it into
pound or dollar value,it certainly makes people
sit up in their chairs”
16 | Quality World | March 2017

2.

Focus on process assurance aswell as product assuranceThis is especially important in a
services or ‘manu-services’ (involves
the manufacture of goods and theprovision of after-sales service)environment where the ‘product’is a combination of tangible andintangible outcomes. Paul Bunting,environmental health safety andquality manager at the Nuclear
Advanced Manufacturing ResearchCentre (Nuclear AMRC), noted in
the context of that business: “Thelines between product and process
are becoming increasingly blurred.
The processes that run that pieceof research or that development
programme are the ones that
underpin it and, therefore, it’s about
getting those processes right sothat the product comes right at theend.” So often, managers focus toomuch on trying to monitor and fix
the outcomes, rather than building
process and people capability.

3.

Work to reduce the potential
causes of failure
Croft notes that in ISO 9001:2015,
the production and service provision
process requirements contain elementsof automation – foolproofing etc– that form the basis of a robust
assurance approach. He says: “I don’t
see process and system approaches as
two separate things. My suggestion
would be to look at the descriptionof the quality management principles
described in ISO 9000:2015, oneof which says, ‘Consistent andpredictable results are achieved
more effectively and efficiently when
activities are understood and managed
as interrelated processes that function
as a coherent system’.
The quality professional really has
a role as translator, putting ‘technicalquality language’ and concepts into
the context of the business in which
they are working – in simple terms
that top management and all levels ofmanagement can identify with.”

Assurance

4.

Work hard to get a goodbaseline for your metrics
At the Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHSFoundation Trust, they believe in theimportance of observation in establishingand maintaining this accurate baseline.
Director of operations Adele Coulthard
speaks of the importance of “teachingpeople how to observe, how to see things,
in order to measure appropriately”.
At Leonardo MW Electronic WarfareLines of Business, a metrics pack isdelivered to the board. Head of quality
Gary Illingworth says: “The metrics packis used to monitor business performance,but ownership and business improvement
is driven through the operational guys
on the shop floor.”

5.

Obtain sufficient resources
to deploy the chosen approach
for assurance
Efficiency drives can lead to a reductionin the resources deemed affordable.
Clearly, over-resourcing risks the quality
function being seen in a ‘policing’role, with the attendant abrogation of
responsibility for ‘quality at source’, ie
putting quality in the hands of those
producing it, but too few can generaterisks to the business.
How do organisations find thebalance point? A number of them are
mapping quality activities across theentire value chain and using the output
to scope and size the resources required.
Christopher Elliott, head of quality andconfiguration management policy at the
Ministry of Defence (MoD), is acutely
aware of the importance of finding
this balance point. He argues that theefficiency agenda demands that roles
cover a number of different disciplines,
while the ever-increasing demand forspecialist approaches leads to a divisionof labour. Achieving this balance is aconstant challenge.

6.

Develop your own approach toassurance, based on the specificcontext of the business
The variety that so many businesses
need to manage in their valued
outcomes has led a number ofcompanies to develop business
management systems that allow specificprojects or products and services tovary practice within a framework ofgovernance and risk management.
Steve Williams, head of quality at
Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance sees
this as a critical element of developing
the right approach to assurance.
He says: “You have to understandwhat you are doing, who you are doing
it for and what the risks are of notdelivering what your customer wants.”
Neil Anderson, managing director
at Caterpillar Skinningrove, says
his organisation designed a bespoke
QMS, developed from the best of
a number of different approaches,
as a consequence of finding that no
single approach provided the levels of
assurance its customers required.

7.

Assess the maturity of theorganisation to handle thechosen assurance approach
Croft has observed how important
this is. He describes how a ‘quality
at source’ approach to assurance
worked well where there was a strong
quality culture led from the top,
but how it failed in a less matureenvironment where quality had been
driven by the quality function witha policing approach.

8.

Adopt the principles oftarget operating model(TOM) design to develop
the assurance approach
A number of companies have used the
TOM approach, which encompasses
the design of the right processes,
people resources, organisation design,technology, data, and partnerships,
required to deliver the assurance
outcomes necessary and sufficient

Assurance“quality professionals
need to be working
at the point we can
influence rather thanbeing wheeled in whensomething’s gone wrong”
to deliver the strategic goals. Process
design stems from a review of quality
across the value chain, whereby
organisations are mapping the quality
assurance and control activities thatmust take place at every stage andwhen these activities will be carriedout. This determines the skills,
experience and capacity needed inprocess ownership roles and within
the formal quality department.
From that, the best organisation ofthese roles into teams and areas of
responsibility and accountability isdetermined. Additionally, the bestuse of technology and data can beused to drive increased efficiency andeffectiveness from the model.
A major automotive manufacturer
uses this approach to assure thequality of supplied material andcomponents to the assembly line.
Every supplier is subject to a common
set of quality standards, with help
given by in-house technical assistants.
These standards are developed rightat the start of the design of a productor variant and set out the processes
that will be required (manufacturing
and business) to build a vehicle
consistently and reliably.
At Leonardo MW Electronic
Warfare, Illingworth has organised his
quality team into functional assurance
lead roles that carry out the necessary
assurance activities, in concert withthe relevant process managers andproject leads. One of their roles is
to approve changes or deviations tothe business system as a consequenceof the specific requirements of any
one project. This achieves the rightbalance of agility with assurance.
It enables his team to build up
functional specialisms and, over time,earn credibility with the business.
quality.org | 17

9.

Establish the rightpoints of influence‘Quality’ can so often be called in after
the event when it is too late, or too
early in the management cycle, whenvalue-add is not recognised and there
is no recognised role for quality to play(the resurgence of quality planning ischallenging this business assumption).
Illingworth has recognised this and seeks
to discover the key points of influence,
where a tactical contribution can be
made: “I think quality professionals
need to be working at the point we
can influence rather than being overhere checking stuff or wheeled in whensomething’s gone wrong. Of course, we
spend a chunk of time when things havegone wrong but the real cusp of it is to getin where we can influence what’s goingon.” Illingworth has a theory that this isdetermined by two key factors: the extent
of the changes required to meet variety(termed ‘unplanned changes’) and theextent of functional assistance required –or inherent risk. Figure 1 shows a simple
correlation whereby, as both of thesefactors increase, the potential points ofinfluence increase. Williams notes
that, where the quality
professional is integrated
into the management
team and not seen as
on the periphery of
the business, theirinfluence on whatgoes on in the business
improves dramatically.

18 | Quality World | March 2017

Figure 1
Involvement of the quality professional to add value

Unplanned

Extent ofchangesrequired tomeet variety/variation

POTENTIAL POINTSOF INFLUENCE
INCREASE

PlannedExtent of functional assurance required (inherent risk)

10.

Figure 2
The extent and nature of influence

Extent ofprocesschangerequired
to meetvariety invalue chain
outcomes

Functional quality leads
provide peer review forrequired changes

Direct intervention byquality experts at key
points of influence

Business management
system-driven(concession managed)

Coaching andsupporting functional
leads to manage
assurance activities

Level of functional assurance required or inherent risk

Download it

CQI and IRCA members can readpart four of Repositioning theProfession in full, by visiting theMembers’ Area at quality.org

Provide up-to-date and accurate
data to each point of influence
Anderson describes how he uses datain the Skinningrove plant: “We havea fantastic system at Caterpillar. Oncethe shoes are shipped and they are ona machine or an excavator, they aremeasured in four ways:i) 	0-20 hours of ownership, whichis the first couple of daysii) 	 21-200 hours, which is the firsttwo months of ownershipiii) 201-1,000 hoursiv) 1,000 hours or more.
“I can go onto the system today andtell you our current figure is one PPM,
so that’s one failed shoe and the hours
this defect occurred with a field report.
This report tells us all we need to know.
We feed this back to the shop floor
with any process changes we deem
appropriate. This corrective action,
if required, is put in place withimmediate effect.”
The automotive industry also collects
field warranty data at service points
for zero, three, six and 12 months.
In addition, it collects customer survey
feedback, both from internal processes
and from industry bodies such as JD
Power. It also collects data from roadsideassistance services and dealer experiences.
Audit feedback, from suppliers rightthrough to dealers, completes the setof data that is fed back into the design,
manufacturing and assembly processes todrive improvement. This minimises therisk of missing the ‘silent error’, ie failurethat is not reported.
Illingworth sums up this approach:“You know you can’t always get engaged
at the right point of influence, sometimes
you don’t know when it is, and it’s a very
busy environment, but that to me is whatassurance is about – applying it at theright point.”
This simple thinking could be applied
across the whole value chain model inorder to identify where the quality teamcan and must have the most influence.
Moreover, it could be expanded into afour-box model that could be used to
identify the extent and nature of influence(see Figure 2 above).

quality.org | 19

Theinnovator
Takatoshi Ohkubo isa Japanese quality
director making a
big difference.
Here, he speaks
to Natasha Cowan
about whatmakes quality thedifferentiator at
3M and how heuses neuroscience
to turn his team
into influencers

Words:
Natasha Cowan
Photography:
Steve Morin

20 | Quality World | March 2017

International: JapanT

akatoshi Ohkubo is the
director of corporate
process innovation andquality assurance at 3M
Japan. The company iswidely considered one of
the most innovative organisations in
the world and is a winner of the US
government’s prestigious National
Medal of Technology.
3M was founded in Minnesota
in 1902 as a small mining venture.
Fast-forward to 2017 and the company
now makes 55,000 products andoperates in about 70 countries acrossthe globe. These products include
everything from the sticky tape on
your desk to stethoscopes used byhospitals internationally.
Famously, the organisation has
employed the ‘15 per cent rule’, which
encourages staff to spend up to 15
per cent of their time pursuing theirown thought experiments and projects
to create breakthrough inventions.
This policy has inspired innovation
organisation-wide and was responsible
for the invention of the company’s
most famous product, the Post-it Note.
Ohkubo has risen up the ranks
by understanding the psychology ofmanagement and creating a culturethat ensures quality meets 3M’s
innovative philosophy. His novel
management techniques have madehim a force to be reckoned with andensure he keeps his customers happy
and his staff even happier. Here, hetells QW readers his secrets.

quality.org | 21

“I tell my team to
get to meetings fiveminutes early andsubmit their meeting
minutes within 24
hours because thisbuilds a good
relationship, freefrom anxiety andfull of trust”

22 | Quality World | March 2017

What is your role at 3M?
I design innovative quality processes
and take responsibility for the
corporate process and corporate
products, including complaints.
The quality team optimises thedigital process at 3M and our job
is to improve results while using
limited resources.
What does quality look like at 3M?
I employ high-potential people to comeup with solutions to process issues. The
team collaborates with different people
across the company, such as the sales
department, as well as the supplierand also the customer. Importantly,
we play a governance role in thecompany because it is our job to makesure we deliver good quality to all ourcustomers. This includes forecasting
preventative activity to make sure thecustomer is satisfied.
What are your aims for 2017?
From a quality assurance perspective,
we need to be prepared for potential
quality issues in the new productintroduction process and managerialchange process. Crucially, we will
be assuring against human error
in the production line. We are alsousing Lean Six Sigma to solve issues
in our processes and a key tool for
us is DMAIC methodology (define,measure, analyse, improve, control).
Why is team development
so important to 3M?
To do a good job quality professionals
need a certain level of competency, forexample, understanding the 5 Whys –this requires training and certification.
By training the team in FMEA
(failure mode and effects analysis),
we are able to find clues for identifying
potential risks in new products. The
tool helps us to provide preventative
action whenever we identify potential
risks. Then we use a programme toidentify quality issues after products
are introduced to the market.
How do you train your auditors?
Often we hold workshops, including
programme work sessions, to help
auditors understand how to identify
potential risks. We also give training

in audit design because we want our
auditors to speak to the supplier and gain
information on the quality control process
before they visit the workplace.
We then show them how to provide a
potential risk analysis using FMEA andconduct a check based on the outcomes.
Next, we identify issues through theaudit and we meet with the supplierrepresentatives to provide corrective
actions. It’s important to continue tocommunicate with the supplier after theaudit so you can help them solve theproblems with the product. Developing
skills in communication with the customer
is vital. Our auditors need to know how
to build a relationship of trust with thecustomer so we identified a skillset for this.
Tell us how you build trustwith the customer
I tell my team to use a good, logicalapproach when they are explaining anonconformance. It’s very importantthat the customer understands the issue
with the product and they understand thecorrective action, so we have trained ourpeople to think about the issue from thecustomer’s point of view.
How does understanding
neuroscience help you becomea better manager?
By understanding neuroscience we canlearn about the biology behind doubt
and anxiety in the workplace. Thesefeelings are detrimental to relationships.
For example, I ask my team to tell me
if they are frustrated as soon as the
feeling occurs. Why? Because when
we are stressed our body creates theneurotransmitter cortisol, which leads tounconscious anxiety. Our brains use up
20 per cent of our daily calorie intake and75 per cent of this is consumed by our
unconsciousness, so the question is: how
do we use this energy productively?
When we think negatively we wasteenergy. One way of preventing this is tosolve the customer’s problems quickly
with a well-thought out explanation.
Our Six Sigma Black Belts need tobuild a solid team so they must havegood teamwork skills in order to build
trust effectively. If cortisol is the key
neurotransmitter in anxiety, then weshould understand oxytocin is the key
neurotransmitter for trust.

International: Japan“When we think negatively
we waste energy”

3M by
numbers
1902

THE COMPANY BEGAN AS A
SMALL MINING VENTURE IN
MINNESOTA, US

55,000PRODUCTS USED IN HOMES,BUSINESSES, SCHOOLS,HOSPITALS AND MORE

70

OPERATES IN ABOUT
70 COUNTRIES

2016

OPENED A STATE-OF-THE-ART,$150M (£120M) RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT LABORATORYIN MINNESOTA

2017

WINNER OF THE 2017 CATALYSTAWARD, WHICH RECOGNISESCOMPANIES WORKING HARD
TO EXPAND OPPORTUNITIESFOR WOMEN

quality.org | 23

I tell my team to get to meetings fiveminutes early and submit their meeting
minutes within 24 hours because thisbuilds a good relationship, free fromanxiety and full of trust. By acting inthis way you become an influencer inyour organisation.
What is your ‘business systemdesign for innovation’ idea?
The idea is based on understanding thepsychology of the human mind andusing it to create organisational systems
we can use to inspire people to pursue
their professional goals and work in amore innovative way.
To empower your team and foster
innovation you have to give people thefreedom to pursue new ideas with theknowledge that whatever the result,they will be supported. For example,
when a new hire joins a company,
senior executives often expect themto deliver a productive and positive
outcome quickly. During this time
the new hire might propose an idea
for making an improvement. If their
manager is not supportive of the ideaor the idea fails and the new hire ispunished, he or she will sense there isa poor company culture.
People do not like change, however,change is crucial if we want innovation
to take place. For an organisation to be
successful, employees have to stretch
themselves and often this means doing
something that is a little out of their
comfort zone. This might give themsome anxiety and they might feelcompelled to do the task. I call thisthe ‘stretch process’. A manager’s job
is to support this process by giving theemployee a feeling of safety and security,for example, directly helping them when
they have a question and reminding
them your door is always open. I callthis the ‘serotonin effect’ as it creates
feelings of a calmer atmosphere.
Serotonin is a chemical in our brainthat helps us feel happy and secure.
Sunshine and eating enough protein
help us to create serotonin but you canalso create serotonin through kinshipwith the people you like. This helps
you during the uncomfortable stretch
process and ensures you will succeed
in a sustainable way. This type ofmanagement is proven to work far
24 | Quality World | March 2017

“We play a governancerole in the company
because it is our job
to make sure wedeliver good quality
to all our customers”
better than giving people a light and easy
workload and it even works better thanincreasing an employee’s salary – giving
someone a pay rise alone will not help
them achieve their goals or climb the
career ladder. Feeling respected by yourmanager and colleagues motivates you topursue new goals and stretch yourself.
By creating a continuous cycle ofsetting new ‘stretch goals’ and supportingyour staff, you will give people moreresistance against stress as they know
they will be supported in the future. By
following this formula, employees willbe less afraid of failing and will want topursue new achievements for the teamand the company as a whole.

How are you engaging
people across the company
in quality?
Our team is able to demonstrate
excellence across the organisation
because they show people theirachievements. We lead workshops
across the company and we always
find the root cause of a problem andgive a corrective action, along withidentifying potential future risks.
During these workshops weengage with others, for example,
our manufacturing and sales teams,
and solve their challenges – proving
quality is an asset to everyone in
the company.

International: Japan

Hygge:
the Danish
way to createa culture ofhappinessand innovation

Across the world from 3M’s Japan
headquarters, the Danish HappinessResearch Institute conducted a studyof job satisfaction in the workplace –with surprising results.
The report, published in 2016,
found Denmark has the happiest
workforce in Europe, with 94 per centof Danish employees saying they weresatisfied with their work, while the EU
average is a mere 77 per cent.
If you read the lifestyle sectionof any magazine or newspaper inthe last year, you would have learned
about the Danish phrase ‘hygge’. The
seemingly untranslatable word has sprungin to the vocabulary of design gurus andEast London hipsters alike. A feeling of
homeliness or cosiness is often used tosum up hygge and it is often likened tositting by an open fire on a cold winter’snight. Now, CEOs are using this idea toincreased productivity in the workplaceand evidence suggests this could this be
the root cause of the 17 per cent increasein job satisfaction.
According to the Happiness ResearchInstitute, good leadership plays asignificant part in ensuring job satisfaction
and managers need to pay attention toemployee’s achievements, telling them
how their contributions have helped
achieve the big picture. As Morten Fjord,
manager at Kolind Centralskole, says:“It is particularly important as a leader,when work assignments get complex andchallenging for a company, to strengthen
employees’ belief in their own abilities.”
Additionally, the research suggests
money has almost no positive impact
on job satisfaction. However, this does
not negate its importance to people’ssatisfaction with their life outside of
the workplace.
Lastly, the report found that trustis pivotal for creating job satisfaction
and retaining staff. Trust increases
productivity and decreases stress but
it has to operate as a two-way system,
between colleagues and between
employees and managers. However,
the trust between leaders and staff has
a greater impact on motivation. To
strengthen trust, leaders and employees
should meet regularly and these meetings
should be smaller as people tend to hidein larger crowds.
quality.org | 25

RobotRevolution
Ocado has grown rapidly since its launch in 2000, from three people ina single room to over 10,000 employees, becoming the world’s largest
online-only grocer. Dina Patel speaks to engineering R&D manager Sid
Shaikh and Ocado Technology general manager James Donkin to findout how humans and robots are working together to deliver more

WORDS: DINA PATELILLUSTRATIONS: RICHARD OSLEY

26 | Quality World | March 2017

THE BIG PICTURE: AUTOMATION

ince three former Goldman
Sachs bankers launchedOcado, the business has
blossomed as a successful
online retailer with nophysical stores. The company evenrecorded growth during the 2008
recession while other supermarkets
and retailers floundered. In aninterview with the Financial Times, oneof the founders, Tim Steiner, said
Ocado had adopted a number of
initiatives to protect the business during
the economic downturn. These included
understanding the changes in consumerpurchasing patterns, adapting totheir needs and introducing internetonly prices.
Today, the company continues
to innovate by utilising the latest
automation technology at its newwarehouse in Andover, Hampshire.
Automation has come a long way since
the first robot was used in a General
Motors plant in the 1960s, and withother industries choosing to explore
the intensive use of industrial robotics,
there is an opportunity to re-imagine thepossibilities of using automation and AI.
Visit Ocado in 2017 and you will
see robots form an integral part of
the fulfilment of customer orders. It’sa system designed to improve speed,
accuracy, efficiency and customer
satisfaction. These robots deliver results,
as QW reveals…

S

Rooks on a chess board
Planning for the Andover warehousebegan three years ago and the first partof the journey was to prove that Ocado
could deliver product development. Sid
Shaikh, engineering R&D manager,tells QW: “We were confident we coulddeliver the pick stations because we’ve
done that before, but developing thegrid, bins and robots was new to us.
We partnered with a lot of external
suppliers to map out what this journey
and timeline would look like.”
The new warehouse takes the existingprocess at the Hatfield and Dordon
facilities to another level. The biggest
difference between the old and newis that the previous conveyor system,
which transported goods around thewarehouse, took up a lot of space.
The new system at Andover isconcentrated in a compact grid, withrobots moving up and down like rooks
on a chess board. Underneath the‘chess board’ sit yellow and green crates
containing products in storage, which
are picked by the robots and taken to
the edge of the grid. Here, a memberof staff picks the desired item and puts
it in the customer’s crate. The robot
then takes the storage crate back via
the grid.
“These robots run on a track that’s
several metres up in the air,” Shaikhsays. “We have a racking system that
includes hundreds of thousands ofquality.org | 27

bins full of products and there are up
to 3,000 robots running on the top of
this grid. The robots travel in different
directions and go down several metres topick up a bin.
“Then the robot zooms off and puts
the bin in the appropriate location. The
challenge is to avoid collisions as the
3,000 robots run at four metres a second,
within a few millimetres of each other.”

28 | Quality World | March 2017

The accuracy of the system is criticalas every customer order is different.
“We pick millions of products and wehave over 50,000 different products,”
Shaikh adds. “We never have an
identical order so our softwareneeds to track inventory coming in,inventory being picked, and schedulecustomer orders.”
One of the benefits of the systemis that if one robot stops working,another robot can pick up the
shopping. As a result, the average time
it takes to pick a customer’s shopping
has been reduced from two hours to
15 minutes.
In order to avoid thecontamination of products andproducts being crushed, Ocado

also measures the size and weightof its goods. “We have a machine
which scans the shape of products aswell,” general manager James Donkinsays. “There’s an algorithm whichlooks at combinations and the sequenceof picking things. That algorithm
will favour the segregation of products,
based on keeping meat separate
from fresh vegetables, and avoiding
things like putting a heavy melon on
top of crushable eggs. It’s all aboutdata gathering.”
Donkin says the safety process aroundthose in an operating warehouse is also
critical, particularly
for thoseworking on
engineering

THE BIG PICTURE: AUTOMATION

and repairs. “The customer fulfilment
centre in Hatfield has a similar
length of conveyor belt to Heathrow
Terminal 5. It means there is a lotof automation at work and, froma safety perspective, having theability for any pick station to hit astop button is really critical to us.”

Smarter tech
Shaikh says Ocado is a company thatwears two hats. “We deliver online
groceries but we’re also developing
technology for our use and for use
by other clients. We currently have adeal with Morrisons where we deliver
online orders to their customers

from Dordon. We also supply Waitrose
products to our own customers and as
a result we provide the equivalent of
25 stores in terms of grocery deliveries.
With Morrisons, we took them fromhaving a zero presence in ecommerce
to having a state-of-the-art system.”Ocado has recently signed up
Morrisons for its Ocado Smart Platform,
an end-to-end grocery ecommerce
fulfilment solution.
The technology allows other retailers
to operate the entire shopping process
for their customers using integrated
software systems. These include
interfaces with their customers,
management systems for supply andinventory, management and control
systems for the fulfilment centres, andsoftware to optimise delivery routes.
Ocado is now looking to market the
Ocado Smart Platform to otherretailers worldwide.
Shaikh says the software helps
convince companies overseas that they
can have an automated warehousefacility with an online presence without
the need to build a 200,000sq ft
warehouse and the £200m investment.
With the Ocado Smart Platform,
Shaikh says these businesses will be able
to lease a small facility and build a small
grid with a few robots and pick stations,and then scale up the grid as their online
business grows.

Kanban and improvement
Donkin, who oversees the Ocado Smart
Platform, says a big part of his role
involves getting the right people in theright place to carry out the right work.
He ensures the teams understand what
good looks like in their discipline andthat they’ve got the knowledge todeliver results.
The real way to create continuous
improvement, Donkin says, is to give
teams at the ground level a clear idea ofwhat Ocado is trying to do and where
the company wants to go. “We needto tell them what our mission is andthen give them enough autonomy andscope for decision making. In most agile
practices, there will be a workflow
quality.org | 29

of some kind and often tasks will bevisualised using a whiteboard, typicallywith a ‘done’ column.
“It’s important there’s a common
understanding among teams about
what ‘done’ means. It sounds easy but
depending on the context of thesoftware you’re building, ‘done’ canmean different things. It’s basicallyspecifying what it means for work to
be finished. When someone says
something is 90 per cent working, tome that’s not working. So we’ve beenvery clear about what ‘working
software’ is.”Ocado also has a ‘Kitemark’-type
initiative in place to ensure the software
conforms to high standards. Donkin says
there were two stages to the initiative:“The first was establishing the marks
and rolling them out. When we decide
on a new mark, we will typically look toassemble a group of experts. They forma working group and write a white paperon why it should be a mark.
“We’ll then release that to the wholetechnical community for comment andget feedback. Once we get consensus
or feedback, we’ll then document it
into the mark requirements and build it
into the process so it becomes part ofthe checklist. With the new marks wealso have a new process where we give
people time to work through all thesoftware and implement it.”Donkin says the company is growing
quickly and bringing in new teams all
the time. It can be a challenge to educate“The new system
is concentrated ina very compact
grid with robots
moving up anddown like rooks
on a chess board”
the teams on what they should be aimingfor. “If teams are releasing software very
slowly and have very long testing anddebugging cycles then that’s a sign ofbad quality. We’re not trying to build
the organisation like a machine withcogs and wheels, and specify all
the interactions.
“I’m trying to empower staff toproduce really good code and be able
to identify an issue and take corrective
action. This means allowing variety inteams and variety in ways of working,because people face different challenges.
It’s important to tell employees why
quality is important and why the senior
managers really value it.”And Ocado’s senior management
team is highly involved in the day-to-day
running of the business. Shaikh says it isessential to gather senior stakeholders ina room to discuss multiple projects taking
place on multiple sites.
“These meetings occur regularly so
our rate of innovation is quite high. Thisis because we don’t have to wait a longtime for a decision to be made.”

The human touch
While quality principles clearly playa leading role at Ocado, what does its
move toward automated process mean
for the quality profession? Automation
and AI will undoubtedly change theshape of industry and business over the
coming years but Shaikh is adamantthat the machines do not pose a threat
to human resources. He argues thetechnology has only made Ocado morecompetitive in the retail market andencouraged growth. “When I joined
Ocado five years ago, there were 2,000
employees. We now have over 10,000
employees, so although we’re highly
automated, we’re still employing more
and more people.”
Two-and-a-half years ago, theengineering R&D department consistedof Shaikh alone, but has grown to 35
employees. Shaikh predicts by the endof 2017 there will be 60 people focussing
on high-end product development
capabilities. “Rather than just project
management, we will be focussing on
systems engineering capability, reliability
engineering and safety engineering.
We’re also recruiting a design team,
new product introduction engineers andmanufacturing engineers.
“I think that ‘100 per centautomation’ is a while away. If you ask
people on the street what they know
about Ocado, they usually talk about thegreat customer service. While we knowthat automation is a very hot topic at the
moment, for the most part consumers

The journey to robot pickers
Ocado’s first
customer fulfilment
centre (CFC)
opens in Hatfield,
Hertfordshire

2002

30 | Quality World | March 2017

Ocado on the
Go apps launchon Appleand Android

Ocado Technology
established as
separate division
within Ocado

Generalmerchandising
warehouse andDordon CFC open

2009

2012

2013

THE BIG PICTURE: AUTOMATION

Engineering R&D manager,
Sid Shaikh

The robots travel in
different directions
along the grid and go
down several metresto pick up a bin. The
bin is then taken to theedge of the grid wherea member of staff will
pick the desired item.

Ocado Technology generalmanager, James Donkin“The average time
it takes to picka customer’s
shopping has
reduced fromtwo hours to
15 minutes”

Signs deal with Starts toMorrisons –develop OSP
first strategic end-to-end
customersolution forretailers

2013

2014

prefer to have a human touch. For
Ocado, that human touch is expressedby the delivery drivers and our customer
contact centre.”
Shaikh says Ocado’s long-term
robotic research programme willcontinue to explore areas where
automation can be applied to assist withheavy lifting or repetitive tasks.
The business is involved with theSecondHands project, which aims todesign a robot that can offer assistanceto warehouse maintenance engineers.

“We’re looking at areas where you could
use a robot assistant to help maintain an
automated facility.” The first version ofthis robot could be demonstrated later
this year.
“It’s a very exciting time at Ocado,”
Shaikh says. “It’s a very fast-paced
company. I’ve been working in
automation for more than 25 years
and I’ve never worked in a company
where you learn so much and where
there is so much innovation.”

Launches
world’s firstgrocery app
for the Apple
Watch

Announcesautomated
warehousesolution for
Andover CFC

2015

Opens
development
offices in
Poland, Spain
and Bulgaria

2015

2015

Andover
CFC goes
live

2016
quality.org | 31

Knowledge
HOW TO WRITE AKILLER ARGUMENT
Neil Mellor, CQP FCQI
The chair of the CQI Construction Competency Working Group
shares his tips for effective writing for quality professionals

W

With our skillset of governance,
assurance and improvement
and our detailed insider
knowledge and experienceof implementing change, thequality professional should be
top of the list when it comes tomaking a bigger contribution
to company success. Surely weshould be in demand in every
company – not just the few
enlightened ones.
While the reasons are hotly
debated in the profession, forme the biggest issue is our
failure to present our message
in the right way. We have agreat story to tell but we do
not always make it compellingenough for others to listen.
After recently attending
cross-training on bid
management and reviewing
several submissions from otherquality professionals, I came32 | Quality World | March 2017

up with a few writing tips which
could help boost the profile ofquality in the corporate world.
Each of these rules has stoodme in good stead when it comesto engaging management in
my work.
Rule 1
Ask: what’s in it for me?
This is the first rule for writing
a compelling article. When
you ask, ‘What’s in it for me?’you are putting yourself inthe mindset of the reader andthe aim is to understand what
would motivate them to readon. If you cannot engage thereader in the first few lines,
then it does not matter how
good the argument is because
it is unlikely to be read.
This is especially true with
time-poor members of senior
management who need tounderstand proposals quickly.
At school, we are taught towrite scientifically by setting
the scene, going on to explain
and then laying out the results
and reaching a conclusion.
This is great to mark but isunlikely to be read unless it’s
obligatory. Quality professionals
are particularly comfortablewith supplying lots of accurate
facts but these are not always
palatable for readers.
Instead, think like ajournalist. Journalists often
reverse the structure to give us
the reason to read their article(the conclusion) first. So why
not make a resolution to startthat important board paperor email by telling the reader
why they should read it, before
going on to explain the how?
Leave our previous opening
gambit – the evidence – tobring up the rear.
Rule 2Make it readable
This may sound obvious but
how many of us understandor use the readability statistics
that are supplied with ourword-processing package?
Turning on the readability
statistics might throw up some
confusing numbers but only
a few of these are important.

For assessing readability, theFlesch-Kincaid Grade Levelis probably best. This is ameasure of how easy a sectionof text is to read, based on thereading ability of the average
US school child. For example,
ninth graders should be able
to read articles at an index of
9.0 or below. The formula forthe score is: (.39 x ASL) + (11.8
x ASW) – 15.59. ASL is theaverage sentence length (thenumber of words divided by
the number of sentences) and
ASW is the average number ofsyllables per word (the numberof syllables divided by the
number of words).
A piece is consideredreadable when it scores withina target band between 10.0 and
12.0. Too low and the piece willsound trivial, too high and thepiece becomes difficult to readand is no longer enjoyable so it
is unlikely to get the attention
it deserves. So, keep that inner“To be effective we have to be seen
as part of the solution, not offering
advice from the sidelines”

How to use readability
statistics in Word (for Windows):
1. Click the ‘File’ tab then ‘Options’.
2. Select ‘Proofing’ then check thereadability statistics box
3. Click ‘OK’
4. Highlight the text for review
5. Click the ‘Review’ tab
6. Click on ‘Spelling & Grammar’
7. Check the spelling and grammar
8. A box will appear detailing thereadability statistics.

‘expert’ on a leash and stoptalking about ‘requirements’and use ‘needs’ instead.
Rule 3
Avoid passives  
Another little indicator thatappears in the readability
statistics is a percentage labelled‘passives’. To make the piece
more engaging you should
keep this measure below 10
per cent as passives make thepiece sound either wistful or
lecturing, neither of which will
spur our reader to the action

we propose. To be effective wehave to be seen as part of thesolution, not offering advice
from the sidelines.
Rule 4
Keep it short and sweet
It is not surprising that thequote: “I am sorry I havewritten you a long letter
because I did not have time
to write a short one,” hasbeen attributed to effective
influencers from Blaise Pascal
to Winston Churchill. They
all knew the key to influencing

others was to take the time
to sharpen the message as
much as possible because a
concise piece will always be
more interesting and engaging
for any reader. This may notalways be practical, but for thatimportant email or paper it
might be worth it.
Keep these four rules inmind and you will soon be
on your way to writing more
hard-hitting and influential
pieces. The evidence? Since
adopting the above approachfor my more important emails

and written documents the
responses have been noticeably
more positive.
Neil Mellor, CQP FCQI,
is head of business
improvement at Kier

Read itInterested in reading
more articles like this?
Browse the Knowledge
hub at: quality.org

quality.org | 33

CQI and IRCA
Certified Training
New quality training courses for professionals at all career stages

Foundation
Level• Introduction to Problem Solving• Introduction to Risk Management• Introduction to Change Management• Introduction to Process Design• Introduction to Management Systems• Introduction to Stakeholder Communications• Introduction to Product and Service Management

Practitioner
Level• Managing Supply Chains• Managing Problem Solving• Managing Quality Planning• Managing Process Performance• Managing Management Systems• Managing and Influencing Stakeholders• Managing Customer Excellence• Managing Change and Continual Improvement

Professional
Level• Leading Supply Chain Assurance• Leading Enterprise Risk Management• Leading Quality Strategy and Planning• Leading Business Process Excellence• Leading Enterprise Performance Measurement• Leading Strategic Change and Improvement

FIND A COURSENEAR YOUquality.org/bookacourse

Experts uncut
LETTING GO OF FEAR
Russell Jowell

The communications manager at Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP),a CQI and IRCA Approved Training Provider, urges businesses not to let fear drive social complianceT

here’s an adagethat proclaims the
key to change isto let go of fear.
Fear is highly antithetical tomeaningful change and, in anindustry like social compliance,
fear can put you on the roadto failure.
Let’s consider the conceptof working hours as it pertains
to social compliance, andspecifically the origins of
the industry. WRAP wasborn amid a push for greater
accountability for working
conditions in global garment
factories. A set of standards
known as ‘WRAP’s 12
Principles’ were established
to be used by independent
accredited monitors to conduct
an objective evaluation ofa given production facility’ssocial compliance.
Certification decisions
could then be based simply on
whether the facility provided
adequate objective evidence
to verify compliance withthe principles. Among otherrequirements, these principles
mandated that factories abideby the working hour lawsof their home countries, anecessary provision in a time
when many facilities were
forcing their workers into
excessive overtime – and inmany cases, failing to pay forthese extra hours.
Fearing the negative effects
to their business of not passing
a social audit, many of these“Fear is a poor post on which tomoor your business and labour
practices. It is highly unstable andwill eventually lead to demise”
facilities maintained dual setsof time records, including
one that portrayed fullcompliance with working hourlaws, even though the reality
may have been different – aconcept that became known
as ‘double books’.
Fast-forward to today
and the world has changed
significantly. Excessive working

hours still exist in many
facilities but economic
opportunity is making more
and more of these hours
voluntary. What’s more, theprevalence of double books has
become a running joke in social
compliance circles, mainly
because the only thing they
improve are the deception skillsof fearful factory managers,which has resulted in aplateau of overall progress.
At the beginning of
2016, WRAP changed
its policy on working hours
to say that factories shouldmeet the working hour lawsof their country insteadof insisting that they meetthe requirement. Our
ultimate objective at
WRAP is to partner withfacilities to improve theirworking conditions.
This is only possible if
we have an accurate pictureof conditions in the facility,
even if the facility is not yet
in full compliance with local
laws. Rather than indicatinga non-compliance, we workwith these facilities to developa ‘Working Hour Action
Plan (WHAP)’ that outlines
an accountable path tocompliance for the facility.
All overtime must be
worked voluntarily in healthyand safe conditions, and thefacility must demonstrateprogress on their WHAPin each successive audit, in
addition to complying with therest of WRAP’s 12 Principles.
Fear is a poor post on
which to moor your businessand labour practices. It ishighly unstable and will
eventually lead to demise. Real
meaningful change can only
occur when fear is replacedwith mutual, transparent trust
and understanding as a basefor progress.

quality.org | 35

Recruitment Tel: 020 7880 7621 Visit online at www.quality.org

Looking for
quality?
To target or recruit over

10,000qualityprofessionals contact...

Jude Rosset
020 7880 7621 | jude.rosset@redactive.co.uk
www.qualityjobs.org.uk

36 | Quality World | March 2017

Tel: 020 7880 7621 Visit online at www.quality.org

Recruitment

Quality Standards
Specialist & Auditor
NAVBLUE, an Airbus Company, is a leading global provider of ﬂight operations solutions, including
aeronautical charts, navigation data solutions, ﬂight planning, aircraft performance software (take-oﬀ/
landing, weight and balance), and crew planning solutions. These products directly support millions of
ﬂights each year and help NAVBLUE customers maximize eﬃciency, reduce costs, ensure compliancewith complex national and international safety regulations, and eﬀectively deliver their services.
NAVBLUE is currently seeking a Quality Standards Specialist
Auditor. This role will be responsible for collaborating withthe production teams to ensure that a high-level of quality ismet, working with all departments to monitor and maintainproper documentation procedures, assisting with customer
communications to demonstrate quality commitment, and meet
quality metrics to help the business make accurate and strategic
decisions.
The successful candidate has experience in ﬂight operations, witha focus on air navigation and quality. Your ability to collaborate
eﬀectively at all levels of the business and champion Quality bestpractices throughout the organization is integral to this role.
You are experienced in collaborating with teams to drive proper
documentation, and setting high quality standards that are criticalto making sound business decisions. You strive for success andare committed to supporting Quality whether it be for internal orexternal customers including or Civil Aviation Authorities.
Responsibilities:
•

•

•
•

•
•
•
•
•

Partner with management & production teams, providing
consultation and guidance on eﬀective corrective andpreventative actions, and identifying situations where the
QMS could be more eﬀective or updated as a result of nonconformances
Maintain and assist in communicating the overall company
audit schedule, ensuring that all departments are prepared andequipped, to ensure conformance with the Quality System anddocumented procedures
Lead wash-up meetings and facilitate agreement on corrective
and preventative actions
Document areas of non-conformance and monitor nonconformances to verify that corrective actions have been taken,
ensuring timely resolution or escalation as necessary, and close
non-conformances with proper completion and evidence
Assist with monitoring regulations and best practices issued
by authorities and partner with management and production
teams to ensure that they are integrated into products
Research changes in industry standards as directed
Review service providers in accordance with contracts andservice level agreements; and, Conduct quality audits forcustomers as required
Consult with management & production teams on developmentof process speciﬁc instructions and procedures that fulﬁll the
QMS
Liaise with appropriate authorities on behalf of theorganization, including Civil Aviation Authorities, EASA andcustomers

•
•
•
•
•

•

Maintain quality process documentation and track/analyze key
quality metrics as required for continual process improvement
and to aid decision-making
Assist the Quality Director in devising Quality Management
programs
Support teams by promoting accessibility and understandingof the Quality Manual and QMS and conducting local training
sessions on Quality initiatives and standards
Participation in Quality Management Review Meetings as
required
Applying knowledge of air navigation and aircraft performance
to assist in the review and suggestion of quality improvementsfor production processes, methods of instruction and quality
check procedures
Ensures procedures and training materials for various
departments adequately addresses ﬂight operations, customer
use of the end-product and quality output

Academic/Education Requirements:•••

Auditor course by an accredited organization (preferably Lead
Auditor’s course)
Vocational qualiﬁcation, diploma or degree in relevant subject
Minimum 2 years’ experience in aviation

Required Skills/Experience:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Knowledge of quality systems and their implementation
Experience as Quality Manager or equivalent in an ISO9001
environment an asset
Ability to contribute in a collaborative environment
Detail-oriented, well organized, and able to work with minimal
supervision
Proven ability to communicate and learn quickly while applying
knowledge eﬀectively
Strong time management skills and ability to successfully work
under tight time constraints
Strong verbal and written communication skills
Excellent analytical and problem solving skills
General understanding and base knowledge of ﬂight
operations, aircraft navigation systems and/or aircraft
performance

How to Apply:
Candidates who are interested in joining the NAVBLUE team areinvited to submit their resume and cover letter, highlighting theirwork experiences and skills via email to hr@navblue.aero.
We thank all applicants for applying. Only selected applicants will
be contacted.

March 2017 | Quality World | 37

Our open courses are available in London,
Birmingham and the Middle East

Public Lean Six Sigma training from PMI and the CQI

Lean Six Sigma Foundation Green Belt
This single-module, five-day programme provides a thorough understanding of
the fundamental tools for delivering Lean Six Sigma improvements.

Price: £1,799
Duration: 5 days

Lean Six Sigma Full Certified Green Belt | Accredited by the University of Warwick
This two-module, 10-day programme teaches the bestprocess improvement, Lean and Six Sigma tools, methods,
theory and application using the PMI Improvement Cycle.

Price: £3,599
Duration: 2 x 5 day modules

Lean Six Sigma Online Yellow Belt
This online course is an accessible way to learn about the tools, methods and benefits ofbusiness improvement and Lean Six Sigma.

Price: £250
Duration: 10–15 minutes
each module

Green Belt qualified elsewhere? Want to make the move to Black Belt?
Become eligible to complete a PMI CQI Black Belt Conversion course by taking a seriesof FREE preparation modules – all included in the price of our conversion course.

Price: FREE

Six Sigma Black Belt
This two-module, 10-day programme develops the specialist Six Sigma and statisticalskills needed to operate at the forefront of Six Sigma and operational excellence.

Price: £3,799
Duration: 2 x 5 day modules

The Change Leader
This module teaches delegates how to drive change effectively in their organisationand the soft skills needed to manage relationships.

Price: £2,250
Duration: 5 days

Process Management for Managers
This two-module, three-day programme explains how to improve continually
an organisation’s processes using improvement methodologies.

Price: £1,995
Duration: 2 x 3 days

Master Class Programme
Whether it’s to support your own professional development or to be inspired bywhat is possible, you’ll find our expert-led master classes thought-provoking,rewarding and energising.

Price: £449
Duration: 1 day

Lean Six Sigma White Belt Webinar Programme
Whether you’re looking to refresh your skills or want to introduce a member of your teamto improvement, these six interactive webinars are a great way to access the topics coveredin our Lean Six Sigma training.

Price: £89 per webinar or£507 for the complete White Belt
Duration: 3 hours

Lean Practitioner
Learn about the art of Kaizen improvement and a structure that tackles problems quickly
and effectively. The end result is the elimination of waste in the system.

Price: £1,095
Duration: 3 days

Lean Expert
Understand how to address complex business issues, assess the whole organisational
value stream, and become equipped to deal with simultaneous and multiple customer
demands with this highly practical and interactive course.

Price: £1,995
Duration: 5 days

Getting the best out of implementing ISO 9001:2015
Helping you to implement ISO 9001:2015 so that the standard’s true purpose becomesan integral part of how your business is managed, achieves its goals and delights yourcustomers time and again.

Price: £425
Duration: 1 day

To enquire about courses and discounts, please contact
sales@pmi.co.uk or call us on +44 (0)1676 522 766

Reviews: Members’ views on the latest literature

Leadership in the Headlines: Insider
Insights into How Leaders Lead

Coaching Skills for Leadersin the Workplaceby Andrew Hill, Pearson (2016), £16.99

Leadership in the
Headlines is acollection ofshort newspaper
columns that have been brought
together, all on the subject ofleadership. I generally agreed
with most of the principles,as I believe there is a strong
difference between leadershipand management, especiallythe importance of saying thankyou. As it is a collection ofthemes, the book never goesvery deep into any one aspect
and I found it hard to get into.
The articles are well written
and accessible, but occasionallythey feel slightly general atfirst glance and only later
reveal more intricate thinking.
The themes are broken up by
chapters and each chapter ends
with a set of leadership lessons
summarising the take-homemessage. These leadershiplessons provide some linkage
between the articles.
There are some articles that
resonate more than others.
For example, the article on‘purpose’ being the new
CEO buzzword was aparticularly interesting read, as
it considers the advantages andrisks of such an approach toleading people.
This book is definitely
different to other books onleadership. It’s neither complex,
nor patronising. There are a
few interesting insights but thearticle format does make it feela little disconnected and madeit difficult to immerse myself
in the book. Overall, I would
recommend this to people whoare looking for a quick read on
their commute.
Hannah Murfet,
CQP MCQI

by Jackie Arnold, Robinson (2016), £14.99

W

hen I spotted theopportunity toreview a book for
Quality World,
this title immediately jumped
out at me as I am a firm
believer in effective coaching
and the value it can add to aperson and a business.
I was intrigued about
whether this book would
enhance my knowledge andpractical coaching skills.
I found it to be very
informative, easy to read,well-referenced and structured.
Each section has applicable
case studies to back up theapplications of the theories
mentioned. The theories
include establishing the rightcoaching climate and use ofcoaching models such as theJohari Window.
The book also contains
guidance on coaching tools

and exercises that a coach canconduct with their coachee,for example, confronting theenergy drainer and the SDOC
tool which analyses someone’s
strengths, development areas,
opportunities and challenges.
The appendices also containuseful information such as
example document formats touse. These include coaching
contracts and coaching models.
The book is very detailed
and does not neglect the basics
of effective coaching such as
establishing the right climate,effective communication, being
aware of your body language,
preparing in advance for acoaching session and avoiding
bad habits such as rushing intoa coaching session when you
are running five minutes late.
Geran Davies,
CQP MCQI

Review it

If you would like to be a reviewer email editorial@quality.org to find out what’s involved.
We value your views and welcome suggestions of books you would like to see in QW.

quality.org | 39

5 minutes with…
Lucy Payne, CQP MCQI
Quality management consultant at Vale Quality Management Services,
a CQI and IRCA Approved Training Partner

Being able to communicate at
all levels is a must. Interpreting
the requirements of ISO 9001
is great, however, getting thatacross to everyone throughout theorganisation takes special skills.
Today the profession is facing a
new cultural challenge: inspiring
top management to be actively
involved in quality management
systems. Getting quality into theboardroom where it belongs
will rely on skilled and tenacious
quality professionals.
If you want to promote quality
you have to keep it simple. Bysharing your knowledge, skills,
experience and ideas, you can open
up channels for communication thatsee quality permeate through thewhole organisation.
Pitching quality in theboardroom requires a different
language to pitching to the shop
floor. The board are more likely to
pay attention if you show them thebenefits for the things that matterto them most.
Training is a great way to gain
the skills to achieve buy-in fromsenior management. A great course
can help you become the resident
expert on tools and techniques.

40 | Quality World | March 2017

The new CQI and IRCA
Certified Training courses
provide quality professionals
with recognition, knowledge andpractical skills that can be appliedin any organisation and in any
industry. This gives employers more
confidence in the purpose andpower of quality.
The courses help to eliminate
any mystery surrounding
ISO 9001:2015 by addressingorganisational context, risk-based
thinking and the process approach.
The foundation courses
include process design,
stakeholder communications
and risk management – key
concepts in ISO 9001:2015,
helping implementation to be
more meaningful.
Not every employer is willingto grant study leave and many
quality professionals self-fundtheir learning and development.
This can be challenging so
I’ve created an e-learning
platform to give people theopportunity to complete thecourses within a budget andtimescale that suits them.
The key to success is hard work,
determination and always being
open to a learning opportunity.
But above all, a good support
network is essential for keeping
me focused on my goals.

Book itBook a CQI and IRCA Certified
Training foundation course andbecome an influencer in yourorganisation. Visit:
quality.org/bookacourse

Image: Ryan Cowan

I’m a quality management
consultant and trainer. As a sole
trader I have to do everything thebusiness needs, from admin tomarketing and strategic planning.

Reward
your colleagues,
reward yourself

Here at the CQI we like to reward ourmembers and that is why we are offeringa £25 voucher for every colleague you
suggest who joins the CQI.

1

Fill in the form:
Simply enter the details
We’ll send a recommendation:

2 Your colleague will get an offer
to apply for membershipGet rewarded: We will send

3 you a £25 voucher via email if

your colleague applies within
30 days of receiving the request

VISIT MY DETAILS –CQI FOR MORE INFO

quality.org/content/my-details-cqi

eLibrary: knowledge
at your fingertips
Did you know that CQI and
IRCA members receive an annual
subscription to the CQI eLibrary?
Browse through thousands ofjournals, magazines and academic
papers from around the world to findtechnical articles and guidance on
business trends, quality management
tools and standards guidance.

Log in at
quality.org/members