Hearing Protection: It’s Not Just About Noise Reduction
Jul 1, 2010 12:00 PM, By Doug Ohlin
More than a desire for noise reduction, a worker’s priorities for comfort, convenience and communication can set the agenda for hearing protection acceptance and effective use.

Hearing protectors add foreign objects to our heads and ears. They can add unwelcome pressure, weight and warmth and interfere with hearing neccessary sounds. When we speak while wearing hearing protectors, our own voices don’t sound normal.

Earplugs take it one step further, as they must be inserted into our ear canals. Their invasive nature amplifies our awareness that something foreign is present. Our personal space just is not being shared, it has been violated by something entering within. Earplugs make it personal, and employees wearing them are going to demand (passively or actively) consideration of their needs and preferences.

For years, the hearing conservation mantra was, “The best hearing protection is the one that is worn.” Today, we don’t hear this as much and when we do, the word “properly,” is added. Our emphasis on proper use is the result of a plethora of studies that have shown that, as used in the workplace, wearing hearing protection doesn’t always equate to effective protection or to laboratory-generated noise reduction ratings (NRRs).¹ Noise reduction, as represented by the Environmental Protection Agency’s NRR, just may be the cover on the book.

via Hearing Protection: It’s Not Just About Noise Reduction | EHS Today.

By Kevin Beard, NQA-USA President

For years we have heard and seen signs of counterfeit products in the form of “Knock-Off” handbags, watches and other retail goods. Now imagine a scenario were counterfeit parts are unknowingly being purchased by your company and integrated into the product you deliver to your customer. This scenario may seem unlikely for your company, but it is becoming a bigger threat than many organizations realize.

Organizations around the world continue to look for ways to market their products to their customers at a competitive price. This effort quite often involves a strategy of utilizing the global supply chain to creating beneficial relationships that allow organizations to acquire good quality parts at the best price. As organizations start outsourcing some aspects of their product development and/or manufacturing, as well as stretching out the distances of their supply chains across the globe, the organization may be incurring certain risks associated with “supply chain integrity gaps”; that are allowing counterfeit parts to enter their products supply chain. Many organizations are unaware of the risk with these “supply chain integrity gaps”, and the efforts that less than reputable organizations are going to, to exploit these gaps and pass off counterfeit parts as original.

Visit to continue: http://www.nqa-usa.com/resources/articles_detail.php?id=72.

I often encounter the question of why various quality management system standards require the deployment of lower level process measures if the requirement from the customer is simply to deliver conforming product on time for the contracted price?

When discussing this in the office one of my seasoned colleagues Bob Parsons, came out with the following metaphor that he heard during his travels and I thought it might be nice to share with you all.

Imagine that you were to get into a car that only had one gauge on the instrument panel, a speedometer, and were to start driving down the interstate with a goal of maintaining a speed of 55mph, the chances are you would focus upon the speedometer and adjust the amount of pressure you applied to the accelerator to maintain a steady 55, and I hazard a guess that you would be reasonably successful in meeting this goal. Now after a period of time all things being equal the car would probably start to slow down and eventually come to a stop. Since the car only has the one gauge it would be difficult to ascertain the exact reason why the vehicle was slowing down. Most of us would make an educated guess that the vehicle had simply ran out of gas and indeed this may be the case, but this would be an assumption, not a conclusion based upon data.

Of course, the vehicle may have overheated, run out of oil or got a flat battery, with only one gauge it would be difficult to ascertain which system has failed or to get an early warning and hence react to the fact that a system was close to failing such as the fuel was running low or the vehicle was starting to overheat. Hence why modern cars have an array of gauges and lights to give the driver an instant status report of the current health of the vehicle and what actions, such as a need to get more gas, change the oil, fit new brakes, need to be performed prior to the vehicle suffering a catastrophic failure.

And such is the case for lower level process measurements. Although the goal is to produce conforming material and deliver the product on time, discovering there was a system issue at the point of delivery or post delivery is not an effective way of pro actively managing customer requirements. Like a modern vehicle, a process has a number of different components that need to be monitored to ensure they are operating within specified process parameters.  If the process to ensure that the vehicle has sufficient gas does not work the car may breakdown, similarly if the process to ensure that the barrel temperatures on an injection molding machine are within tolerance is not effective or does not exist, then if the temperature does move out of tolerance the potential to produce and possibly ship non conforming material is that much greater. An early warning such as a fuel warning light or an alarm on the barrel temperature indicating that a process parameter is of concern, prior to a process failure occurring gives the driver or operator an opportunity to react and ensure that action is taken to bring the process back under control. When these reactions occur it ensures that the goal of keeping the vehicle moving or producing conforming product will be achieved. Finding out that a barrel temperature was out of specification after non conforming product has been shipped or is ready to ship can negatively impact the primary objectives of delivering conforming product on time. Ensuring critical lower level processes have been identified, are being monitored and have parameters established can ensure that the top level goal of achieving customer requirements can consistently be achieved.

So take a moment, critically evaluate your processes and establish where the failure points may occur and ensure that tracking mechanisms are in place, no one likes to see the check engine light appear, but it sure beats the hell out of breaking down at 2am in the morning on a cold wet night on the I-90 with no cell reception somewhere in South Dakota.

One of world’s largest data centres certified to ISO 14001, ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 27001by Garry Lambert NGD Europe, one of the world’s largest data centres, located near Newport, South Wales, United Kingdom UK, was recently opened following completion of a GBP 200 million project to convert and upgrade the 750 000 sq ft former Hynix semiconductor plant into a state-of-the-art, ISO 14001, ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 27001-certified, Tier 3 mega data centre.

via One of world’s largest data centres certified to ISO 14001, ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 27001.

Standards: A Big Difference for Small BusinessesImplementing ISO 9001 can help a company during hard times. Feedback Rss Send Article Print Past ContentThere is no shortage of standards. There are standards that define how something should be made vs. those related to processes, such as ISO 9001. According to the International Organization for Standardization ISO, standards that provide requirements or give guidance on good management practice are among the best known of ISO’s offerings. Having achieved truly global status and thoroughly integrated with the world economy, ISO 9001:2000 the transition to ISO 9001:2008 is now taking place establishes requirements for quality management systems QMS. It’s the most implemented standard for providing assurance about an organization’s ability to satisfy quality requirements and enhance customer satisfaction in supplier-customer relationships.

via Standards: A Big Difference for Small Businesses | Quality Digest.

Discussions about the true threats to safety at your workplace might be uncomfortable, but they are crucial if you truly want to reduce workplace injuries and illnesses.

See if this scenario sounds familiar: A worker is changing out a commercial meter. As he completes this task, he always should vent the gas outside. Everyone knows this, but we sometimes skip it because we’re trying to keep up with the production and maintenance schedule.

Well, the small room he was in filled with gas that eventually was ignited by a nearby water heater. The room blew up and the worker was trapped inside because the exit door was locked. Luckily, someone opened the door before the worker died. He was badly burned. That slowed us down for a while, but now I see us feeling pressured again to not let the team down when schedules get crazy.

via Accidents Waiting to Happen: The Five Crucial Conversations that Drive Workplace Safety | EHS Today.

Facilitation is the art of guiding but not leading, bringing learning but not lecturing, engaging but not directing. Coming from the Latin facilitar, meaning, “to make easy,” the role of the facilitator is not to do for others, but to bring out the ability of a group to accomplish a goal. There are many books and manuals on facilitation, yet like many proven business tools, the role of the meeting facilitator is not explored enough. Beyond the basics, and even with facilitators advanced and skilled in their practice, it is not hard to fall into counterproductive patterns. Stepping into a facilitator role again recently, I caught quite a few of my own failure modes. Since then, I have collected a few more as I observed or coached other facilitators to make this list of 10 tips for better facilitation.

via Ten Tips for Better Facilitation | Quality Digest.

Consumer-Centric Warranty Management Vehicle warranty costs the industry $12 – 13 billion annually, equivalent to approximately 2 percent of sales, with a large percentage of warranty being driven by no-trouble-found NTF. As the industry globalizes its vehicle production and component sourcing footprint, vehicles become more complex and warranty terms become more comprehensive and longer term. It also becomes increasingly important to have the ability to prevent – or quickly and effectively resolve – warranty issues so there is no recurrence in same or future models.

The Consumer-Centric Warranty work group, which is comprised of representatives from AIAG and OESA member companies, has developed a warranty reduction strategy guideline that begins with the end customer consumer in mind and includes tactics, techniques and case studies for vehicle manufacturers and suppliers.

The guideline promotes consumer satisfaction and continuous warranty improvement by providing an overview of a robust warranty reduction program and support for instilling a consumer-centric approach to warranty reduction.The AIAG/OESA Consumer-Centric Warranty Management: A Guideline for Industry Best Practices, 2nd edition will be available in April 2010, with training to follow in June 2010.

via AIAG Intitiative – Consumer-Centric Warranty Management.

On April 22, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day will be celebrated from coast-to-coast; a day which was first realized by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson who wanted to find a way to increase environmental awareness and to promote urgently needed federal legislation to deal with an alarming ecological crisis.It wasn’t until visiting Santa Barbara Calif in August, 1969, and reading about the popularity of “teach-ins” at college campuses as way of educating students about the Vietnam War that an idea caught hold in Nelson’s head to hold a similar “teach-ins” only with a focus on environmental awareness.Since the first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970, when a chorus of demonstrators around the nation some 20 million strong voiced their concerns about the environment, specifically about the pollution of air and water, that a significant amount of federal legislation was passed to protect the environment.

via The History Of Earth Day Plus How You Can Get Involved – Yahoo! News.

April 22 is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. What better way to honor Earth Day than to develop your own renewable energy project? As a project manager, you have the skills to reduce your energy costs and even become energy self-sufficient. All it takes is planning, and that’s something you’re very good at. Let’s get started.

via Power Up Your Power | Quality Digest.