Jan 22, 2011

ASQ Global Influential Quality Voice from Down Under on Social Responsibility - Safe Foods - Quality Back to Basics - inspired by Paul Borawski

In Down Under Australia, January is usually the post New Year summer holiday season - beaches, long lazy lunches - but this year it's been one of crisis as we find so much of our country under water with the latest La Nina event - perhaps one of the worst in years. Great to see so many now volunteering in the clean-ups as the floods & cyclones (aka Hurricanes) continue. I have been fortunate that my family, friends & our properties have escaped. So I'm a little behind in my ASQ Global Influential Voices blogging (please note I do receive a variety of quality resources as an honorarium in exchange for my commitment. However the thoughts & opinions that I express here in my blog are my own!).

We have this amazing ASQ CEO Paul Borawski who's blogged on CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility, Quality Goals for 2011 and Food Safety. So inspiring to see our leader "being a leader". Especially when I read my daily RSS feeds of ASQ News. At times it's been horrifying to read some of the updates - food safety issues on so many different continents, electronic voting machine fraud. Although I am Engineering/Knowledge Quality Manager, my first job was as a junior casual at a Tourism food outlet, where I learnt about food quality & safety
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And I am really enjoying reading the thoughts of my fellow ASQ Global Influential Voices for Quality as they blog on key quality related topics - eg from the USA, South America & India. Without this ASQ program I might never have encountered all of these fantastic people's ideas ! See my Blogroll (Left Frame) to read their latest thoughts !

As for my goals, some I've made a good start on already ...
  • Back to the basics re-focus on quality - yesterday I pulled together a quick Powerpoint for my Team on what ISO 9001 says about expectations on Product Conformity (quite a lot  actually !) I was inspired by Dr Nigel Croft, Chair of ISO TC 176 SC2, at the Sydney meeting in December 2010 - clearly it's not meant to be about "concrete life jackets & concrete lifeboats" but consistently conforming with customers' product conformity requirements
  • Maintaining & gaining new national & international certifications (ISO 9001, CE Mark, ISO 17025, Singapore BC 1, Malaysia SIRIM, Indonesia SNI & new Australian ATIC) to enable my company to win new markets - means using new technologies like social media to stay on top of what's happening eg the EU's upcoming Construction Products Regulation due to replace the Directive with associated CE Marking requirements
  • Exploring the different "Managements" in a Quality Paradigm - Knowledge, Risk, Records - and sharing these via Sharepoint wiki pages so the knowledge is not just locked up in my brain and my PKM - Personal Knowledge Management system (across Googlereader RSS, ASQ, UK CQI, Elsmar Cove, Quality Magazine, ISO, Hootsuite, Twitter, Diigo, Blogs, C-Drive & Servers, LinkedIn, Hard Copies, Sharepoint, Documentum)
  • eg facilitate cross fertilizing between our Knowledge Management Service Librarians & our Quality Management Systems Auditors on Records Management
  • Working with our Learning & Development & Product Stewardship teams on issues of common concern, like reinvigorating our Knowledge Management program, on Corporate Social Responsibility ISO 26000 issues & capturing it in Sharepoint wiki pages
  • And, post the "worst of the last 2 years of the Global Financial Crisis" to set up Quality Development & Awareness programs, to create Lessons Learned from the experiences of BP and Toyota, as it would be so easy to succumb if we don't take a strong stand on quality and ethics
  • Migrate our site' main controlled document system from an Intranet to a Sharepoint portal connected with anEMC Documentum CMS
  • Upgrade our org's Atlassian Confluence - our critical IP system
  • Foster use of Web 2.0 tools by my colleagues to achieve cost effective DIY ways of staying current in our professional discipline areas
  • Reincarnate our organization's Quality Global Community of Practice
  • Help my external network members to understand the records management compliance requirements in a rapidly changing world of social media, mobile web & Cloud computing technologies. Fortunately my significant other is a governance manager in ICT Project Management so we do lots of cross-fertilization !
  • Participate in ISO TC 176 SC 2 WG23 as a corresponding member under Tania Marcos and in Australia's ISO TC 176 SC2 mirror committee, QR-008 under Darryl Yanniuck - also its sister committee on Auditing QR-006
  • To learn from my fellow Standards Australia committee members, Kevin Foley & Alex Ezrakovich
  • Help to capture the amazing knowledge of one of Australia's governance icons, a silver citizen & Web 2.0 Apprentice, Stan Ambrose, in writing a technical note on the performance of steels, in pressure equipment under emergencies like serious fires / explosions - so much great knowledge - too valuable to lose !
  • To reflect on the various ideas & concepts I'm encountering, rather than just filing - my new A Maven's Magnets weekly blog
  • And to support my Ms 16 year old Teenager as she enters her last year of High School & seeks to gain entry to an Australian University
so much to do ... it's going to be a great ride !


Postscripts from my Google Reader RSS & Twitter feeds :

The happy people are those who are producing something; the bored people are those who are consuming much and producing nothing.”

William Ralph Inge (1860 – 1954)

English author, Anglican priest, Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, and Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral

"Open your arms to change, but do not let go of your values"~ Dalai Lama