Cost is $19/person for dinner

Title:                  Evolving Management Systems Integration: Big Q or little q?

Presenter:                  Dennis R. Arter, FASQ

Quality concepts are evolving as part of a larger trend toward the management of risk. Over the last five years, government and international standards activities have suggested that quality professionals will play an increasingly important and rather different role in organization management systems. Around the world, corporations, consumers, investors, and regulatory bodies are examining the evolving role of audit, security, safety, transparency, environment and risk. Some of these changes are reflected in the new ISO 9004:2009 (Managing for the sustained success of an organization). Even the international auditing standard (ISO 19011) is proposing to remove quality from its title. The quality profession and quality professionals are expected to widen their scope of activities as corporate and government resources dwindle. This coalescence is often called “sustainability” or “social responsibility.” ASQ has taken a leadership role in the development of ISO 26000 (Guidance on social responsibility), due for release in 2010. Large and small corporations are examining sustainability and business continuity in their supply chains.

Our profession is quite mature in understating and applying management system controls. Our tools and technologies are remarkably adaptable to all manner of controls, whether those controls are designed to promote good or reduce evil. Is our profession at the center of the coalescence of management systems (big Q) or is it a contributor, as part of something else (little Q)? What roles do governments and standards have? 

This session will identify the current state of evolving management systems in North America, Europe, and Asia. The session will also identify possible short-term (five year) directions.

Biography:

Dennis R. Arter has been an independent consultant since 1984. His primary service is instruction in the field of quality auditing. Dennis has served a wide variety of clients, including government, manufacturing, energy, chemicals, aerospace, food, software, agriculture, finance, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and health care. He is a Fellow of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and active in the Customer-Supplier Division. He served on the ASQ Board of Directors in 2001-2003.

!n 1988, Mr. Arter was selected to present his auditing instruction nationwide on behalf of the ASQ. Over 9,000 people have learned auditing principles and practices from him. Arter's book, Quality Audits for Improved Performance, was first published by ASQ's Quality Press in 1989, revised in 1994, and revised again in 2002. The book has sold over 40,000 copies and is published in Spanish as well as English.

Prior to the fall of 1984, Mr. Arter worked for Westinghouse, Virginia Power, and the United States Navy. He has a degree in biochemistry from the University of Illinois (1969). Dennis is an ASQ Certified Quality Auditor and a licensed mechanical engineer. He is married, with one grown child and one grandchild. He and his wife of 35 years live in eastern Washington State.