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1. Don't work for ISO 9000; make ISO 9000 work for you to improve your company's productivity and quality.
• Your frontline workers can be management's "eyes and ears" as they discover ways to reduce costs and increase productivity.
2. Use this book to teach front-line production and service workers the principles of ISO 9000 and QS-9000
• Suitable for in-house training, high schools, vocational schools, community college levels
• The book focuses on aspects of the standard that workers can use to improve the system in which they work
3. The book covers the all-important concept of friction ("muda" in Japanese): chronic problems, waste, and inefficiency that is built into the job-- and that people no longer notice because they can "work around it."
• "Gold in the mine" and "hidden plant" refer to often-overlooked opportunities to save money and increase productivity.
• "Friction" is from General Carl von Clausewitz' On War. "Muda" is from Masaaki Imai's Gemba Kaizen ("Continuous improvement of value-adding frontline activities")
4. Activity Initiation and Tracking System draws on James F. Halpin's Zero Defects to outline a system for assuring follow-through on worker-initiated projects.
• Halpin's book is out of print. (Try the Advanced Book Exchange.) P. B. "Phil" Crosby was at Martin while Halpin was developing this book.

• Preface: Why ISO 9000 for Frontline Workers
• Role of the frontline worker in organizational success
• Beyond compliance: taking ISO 9000 to the next step
• The book's audience (designed for frontline workers, others)
• Friction: Sand in the Machine
• Friction from a frontline worker's perspective
• Sample discussion questions

• This Preface is primarily for managers, executives, engineers, and professionals who are thinking about training frontline workers in basic ISO 9000 principles.
• The Introduction is for managers and professionals, and also for frontline workers who want to know more about the underlying goals and principles of quality management systems like ISO 9000.
• Chapter 1, the Introduction for Students, is for frontline workers who will use the book. It explains how ISO 9000 can help them improve the system in which they work, in contrast to just getting the registration certificate for mere compliance with the standard.
• Chapter 2 is the body of the material; it teaches the basics of ISO 9000. Readers should not worry about memorizing section numbers. The book will achieve its mission if readers absorb principles they can apply to their everyday work.
• Chapter 3 handles the additional provisions of the QS-9000 automotive quality management system.
• Appendix I, Guidelines for Instructors and Trainers, includes a pre-class questionnaire that encourages students to bring examples from their workplaces. These examples are often more meaningful than textbook exercises.
• Appendix II, Activity Initiation and Tracking System, is an overview of a system that frontline workers can use to improve the system in which they work. Existing or commercially-available corrective action tracking systems are adaptable to this mission.

Intersil's Mountaintop plant puts its self-directed work teams in the inner circle of its organizational diagram (Wentz, in Levinson, 1998, p. 70), whose central focus is the plant goals. This diagram recognizes that teams of frontline workers are central to achievement of the plant's business objectives. The Society of Manufacturing Engineers' (SME's) Computer and Automated Systems Association's (CASA's) New Manufacturing Enterprise Wheel  places "people, teamwork, and organization" in its inner circle, whose central focus is the customer.

Front-line production and service workers are closest to the job and often understand it better than anyone else. An engineer, for example, can use a computer-assisted drafting (CAD) system to design a product that works very well on paper. A machine tool, however, not a CAD system, has to make the product. An experienced machine tool operator might know the design is not manufacturable in a real factory. Hands-on experience positions the front-line worker to identify quality exposures  and even opportunities to improve quality.

"Frontline workers" means people who add direct value to a product or service. Everybody in the company (hopefully) adds value directly or indirectly, but it is usually hourly production or service workers who are closest to the work. The Introduction will discuss gemba, which is Japanese for "real place": the front-line work environment where the value-adding action really happens.

This book's purpose is to teach frontline workers the basic principles of the ISO 9000 quality standard. It will not go into detailed or highly specialized aspects of the standard. Instead, its mission is to teach the major principles that often affect everyday work in manufacturing and service operations.

This book is meant for interactive (classroom) training, but it is also usable for self-study. It is also usable in high schools and vocational schools. High school graduates who have training in ISO 9000 (and quality in general) should gain an advantage when seeking employment. To get the most from the book, though, high school students should have experience with a part-time job or a shop class. They will gain more from it if they can relate its contents to a manufacturing or a service activity. We have found that a course takes about 4 hours. A high school shop teacher or vocational teacher could therefore teach it in one week (assuming five 50 minute periods per week).

This book's purpose is to help frontline workers understand the basic principles of ISO 9000. It reinforces the principles by presenting short case studies and asking readers, "What (if anything) is wrong with this? How would you change it to strengthen the quality assurance system?" We cannot overemphasize the importance of interactive training, in which students apply the principles as soon as they learn them. Instructors should encourage frontline workers to apply the lessons to their jobs, and share job-related examples in class. The book will then achieve its mission: putting ISO 9000 on the organization's front line.

General Carl von Clausewitz' On War (1976) defines friction as, "…the force that makes the apparently easy so difficult… Countless minor incidents— the kind you can never really foresee— combine to lower the general level of performance, so that one always falls short of the intended goal." Tom Peters (1987) echoes this principle: "The accumulation of little items, each too 'trivial' to trouble the boss with, is a prime cause of miss-the-market delays."

Imai (1997) uses the Japanese word muda to refer to "waste," and it corresponds to friction. There are seven forms of muda: overproduction, inventory, rejects (rework and scrap), motion, processing, waiting, and transportation.  Just-In-Time (JIT) or synchronous flow manufacturing (SFM) address the first two forms of muda.  Excessive processing creates more chances for rework and scrap, and transportation creates chances for damage or deterioration. Neither transportation nor storage adds value to a product, and products with limited shelf lives can deteriorate in storage.  ISO 9000, in fact, addresses packaging, handling, storage, and delivery concerns. ...

Imai's muri, or strain, is a type of friction. When the job is difficult for the workers or the machinery, it's more likely that defects (or poor customer service) will occur [2].

• A poorly placed lamp
• A left-handed operator had to use a machine that was set up for right-handed workers. (This is an ergonomics or human factors issue.)
• A telephone was on the wrong side of a desk.

1. "Between 1907 and 1997, USDA procedures for inspecting meat and poultry in processing plants remained largely unchanged. Inspectors judged abnormalities and contamination on the basis of what they saw, felt, and smelled as carcasses rattled past on a chain or conveyor belt" ("Chicken: What you don't know can hurt you." 1998. Consumer Reports, March 1998, 12-18). What could go wrong with this inspection and testing method?
2. In ancient times, people measured plots of land with ropes. Juran (1995, 46) cites the Talmud (Baba Bathra, V:89b), which says that one must not measure ground for one person during hot weather and for another when it is raining. Hot weather makes the rope dry and unyielding, while moisture makes it stretchable. What kind of standard is this?

 
Answers (not all-inclusive, students might come up with others)
 
1. The test is subjective; it relies on the inspector's judgment. Also, the human nose is not the best gage for borderline situations. While an obviously sick food inspector would probably stay out of the work area, an incipient cold could impair the inspector's sense of smell before the illness became apparent. That is, the "test instrument" could lose its sensitivity or go out of calibration. Also, the human nose can desensitize itself to certain odors. That is, continuous operation reduces the "test instrument's" sensitivity.
2. The Talmud is actually citing a temperature and humidity standard. Temperature and humidity can affect the gage (in this case, the measuring rope).

Order from ASQ Quality Press 800-248-1946 (414-272-8574, fax 414-272-1734)
Item H0987. $10.00  ISBN 0-87389-397-2 Bulk discounts are available.

This 4-5 hour overview of ISO 9000 is designed primarily for manufacturing engineers, supervisors, foremen, and shop personnel. This course goes beyond a mere technical overview of the standard by explaining how its proper use is profitable, and it emphasizes the front-line worker's role in using ISO 9000 to improve the system in which he or she works. This makes ISO 9000 the organization's servant instead of its master, and a money-saver instead of a costly annoyance.

The course includes an in-depth discussion of closed-loop corrective action and closed-loop proactive action.