Articles for the site or for the Library or Reading Room

Every year, around the world, hundreds of articles and papers are submitted to the BAMs for house magazines, conferences and newsletters and to unattached publications, such as Quality Digest. Many never get published for one reason or another. Those that do may only receive local, national exposure. Other nationals are unaware of ideas and experiences of different nationals. So, there is a wealth of material available if the Institute can encourage membership.

It is impractical and costly for anyone working in “quality” to subscribe to all the magazines available around the world. It is better if a global Institute can make available in a single place the knowledge and experiences of others working in the quality field.

Currently, people submitting material to their national BAM might not get the global attention their work deserves. The new Institute can remedy that situation.

Business sector matters

Interest in quality and business improvement matters is spreading into sectors far beyond manufacturing, the origin of the old BAMs and much of the present day BOKs. As is the case for local national interests, one cannot see any reason why particular sectors should not also have their own set of pages, threads or whatever. Since sites such as the Cove are data based, setting them up (I am informed) is a relatively easy task. And, it is always interesting to know what are the problems, experiences, solutions and BOKs for different sectors and professions. Such is the nature of “cross fertilization” of ideas.

As examples: how does “accounting” go about quality management, continuous improvement and so forth? What about the health care sector? Or biotechnology? Or nanotechnology? Or financial services? Or government? And, since many sectors also have their own smaller versions inside corporations, would not encouraging their involvement be good for all companies and organizations? As an example, every organization has people working in human resources, sales, finance: a sector section devoted to each of those may well be of interest to one’s colleagues in those departments – especially if the organization believes in TQM or is pursuing six sigma (business improvement) programs throughout.

And so, because the cyber institute would be database driven, there could be “sector” pages/forums. As examples: software; electronic products; oil; aerospace; biotechnology; pharmaceuticals; food; nuclear power; microchips; civil engineering; retail; healthcare; biotech; nanotech; HR; banking and insurance, and so forth. Each sector forum would have its own moderator(s) and threads posting news, encouraging discussions on relevant matters and quality management problems and solutions for each.

A particular beauty of a cyber-based institute is that no one month needs to be devoted to a single, special issue – not that such things are tedious. Expecting special interests to wait their turn in the BAMs house magazines does seem inconsistent with a fast changing world where solutions are needed in short spaces of time. Our new, cyber Institute could offer a superior service in that respect.

Better still, one of the problems conventional quality departments have experienced is in getting the attention of, say, HR or finance and offering solutions. Making available to them such an institute cannot possibly damage the quality profession for it would become more respected as a body that can offer solutions and improvement suggestions, useful tools and techniques tailored to special departmental needs.

The Institute will gain in reputation according to its perceived usefulness to management of all disciplines, levels and sectors.

Special interests

These might include such topics as: reliability engineering; six sigma; costing and accounting; auditing; quality management; business strategy; registration; ISO 9000 and similar standards’ development and issues and so forth. Such interests tend to be somewhat generic for many economic sectors, as tools and techniques are often universally applied. In fact, there is a considerable number of threads already on the Elsmar Cove, for example, that might be re-arranged under agreed macro titles, such as just mentioned. Within each special interest area, members can be encouraged to offer articles and effectively create their own periodic “newssheet”. In getting the Institute started, volunteer members might assist in designing a new structure and sorting the various threads.

Next: Headquarters

top of page