Corporate Learning and Quality Control at the Bell System, 1877–1929

2005 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul J. Miranti
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
Statistical Quality Control ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Corporate Learning ◽  
Innovative Methods ◽  
Gradual Development ◽  
Manufacturing Knowledge ◽  
Reducing Costs

From 1877 to 1929 the Bell System extended its qualityassurance capabilities, a step that was critical to the company's ability to certify the reliability of its equipment and apparatus and to provide economical service. Learning in this context involved the gradual development of an organizational structure for coordinating and controlling quality-assurance activities at both the staff and line levels and between the corporate elements of the Bell System. Over the course of the initiative, innovative methods of analysis emerged that provided useful new insights into the manufacturing process. The company's adaptation of probability theory, for example, enabled it to launch a comprehensive inspection regime, which became known as “statistical quality control” (SQC). Based on this new approach, Bell succeeded in broadening its manufacturing knowledge, quantifying definitions of quality, reducing costs and risk, thus assuming the more reliable operation of its vast telephone network. Eventually this upgrading of learning led to the formation of a new profession of quality engineering, which found adherents across many industries in the United States and abroad.

Teamwork and Statistical Quality Control at Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation

MRS Bulletin ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 50-52
Author(s):  
Manoj K. Choudhary
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Quality Control ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Team Building ◽  
The United States ◽  
Statistical Quality Control ◽  
Statistical Techniques ◽  
Manufacturing Environment ◽  
Statistical Quality ◽  
Manufacturing Quality

The terms “teamwork” and “statistical quality control” (SQC) have become an established part of U.S. manufacturing vocabulary, though not necessarily of manufacturing practice. Much has been written on these subjects, as even a cursory glance at the literature reveals (e.g., see References 1–11). This article will describe the organization and functioning of an SQC team at Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation. My observations are not necessarily novel, but I hope they provide some useful insights into team building, teamwork, and SQC in a U.S. manufacturing environment.SQC is not a new concept at all, but it was largely ignored in the United States. The contribution of SQC (more accurately, Deming's and Juran's SQC precepts) to Japanese manufacturing quality has by now become a matter of folklore. This does not mean, however, that the SQC “philosophy” is correctly understood by U.S. companies. SQC is often viewed too narrowly as a production tool, or S and C in SQC are given undue attention. SQC is much more than a collection of statistical techniques. Indeed, the major impact of SQC results not from its engineering or technical attributes but from the changes it brings about in attitudes and in a factory's social organization. Drucker has identified SQC as one of the four concepts in the emerging theory of manufacturing.

Time series modeling for quality control in clinical chemistry.

1988 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 1396-1406 ◽  
Author(s):  
L C Alwan ◽  
M G Bissell
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Quality Control ◽  
Control Charts ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
Clinical Chemistry ◽  
Statistical Quality Control ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Control Rules ◽  
And Performance

Abstract Autocorrelation of clinical chemistry quality-control (Q/C) measurements causes one of the basic assumptions underlying the use of Levey-Jennings control charts to be violated and performance to be degraded. This is the requirement that the observations be statistically independent. We present a proposal for a new approach to statistical quality control that removes this difficulty. We propose to replace the current single control chart of raw Q/C data with two charts: (a) a common cause chart, representing a Box-Jenkins ARIMA time-series model of any underlying persisting nonrandomness in the process, and (b) a special cause chart of the residuals from the above model, which, being free of such persisting nonrandomness, fulfills the criteria for use of the standard Levey-Jennings plotting format and standard control rules. We provide a comparison of the performance of our proposed approach with that of current practice.

scholarly journals Statistical Quality Control of High-Resolution Winds of Different Radiosonde Types for Climatology Analysis

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 1796-1812 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karim Houchi ◽  
Ad Stoffelen ◽  
Gert-Jan Marseille ◽  
Jos De Kloe
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Wind Shear ◽  
Vertical Motion ◽  
Vertical Shear ◽  
Statistical Quality Control ◽  
Horizontal Wind ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Measurement Systems ◽  
High Vertical Resolution ◽  
Good Improvement

AbstractQuality control (QC) is among the most important steps in any data processing. These steps are elaborated for high-vertical-resolution radiosonde datasets that were gathered and analyzed to study atmospheric winds. The database is composed of different radiosonde wind-finding systems (WFSs), including radio theodolite, Loran C, and GPS. Inspection of this database, particularly for wind, wind shear, and ascent height increments (dz), showed a nonnegligible amount of outliers in radio theodolite data as compared to the two other WFSs, thus denoting quality differences between the various systems. An effective statistical QC (SQC) is then developed to isolate and eliminate outliers from the more realistic observations. Improving the accuracy of the radio theodolite WFS is critical to the derivation of the vertical motion and the vertical gradients of the horizontal wind—that is, wind shear—mainly because of the direct dependence of these quantities on dz. Based on the climatological distribution of the quality-controlled dz, a new approach is suggested to estimate these wind quantities for radio theodolite data. The approach is validated with the high-quality modern WFSs (Loran C and GPS). Although initially of reduced quality, applying SQC and using the climatological mean dz of 12-s smoothed radio theodolite profiles shows very good improvement in the climatological wind analyses of radio theodolite WFSs. Notably, the climatologies of ascent rate, vertical motion, horizontal wind, and vertical shear now look comparable for the various WFSs. Thus, the SQC processing steps prove essential and may be extended to other variables and measurement systems.

Quality Control of Data in a Large-Scale Cancer Register Program

1966 ◽  
Vol 05 (02) ◽  
pp. 67-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. I. Lourie ◽  
W. Haenszeland
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Quality Control ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The United States ◽  
Newly Diagnosed ◽  
Related Data ◽  
Cancer Register ◽  
Independent Review ◽  
End Results

Quality control of data collected in the United States by the Cancer End Results Program utilizing punchcards prepared by participating registries in accordance with a Uniform Punchcard Code is discussed. Existing arrangements decentralize responsibility for editing and related data processing to the local registries with centralization of tabulating and statistical services in the End Results Section, National Cancer Institute. The most recent deck of punchcards represented over 600,000 cancer patients; approximately 50,000 newly diagnosed cases are added annually.Mechanical editing and inspection of punchcards and field audits are the principal tools for quality control. Mechanical editing of the punchcards includes testing for blank entries and detection of in-admissable or inconsistent codes. Highly improbable codes are subjected to special scrutiny. Field audits include the drawing of a 1-10 percent random sample of punchcards submitted by a registry; the charts are .then reabstracted and recoded by a NCI staff member and differences between the punchcard and the results of independent review are noted.

Ethnographic Service Learning: An Approach for Transformational Learning

Journal ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie A. Medeiros ◽  
Jennifer Guzmán
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Transformational Learning ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
The United States ◽  
Field Methods ◽  
The Social ◽  
Service Learning Projects ◽  
Transformational Experiences ◽  
Learning Projects

Trends in higher education pedagogy increasingly point to the importance of transformational experiences as the capstone of liberal arts education. Practitioners of ethnography, the quintessential transformational experience of the social sciences, are well-positioned to take the lead in designing courses and term projects that afford undergraduate students opportunities to fundamentally reshape their understanding of the social world and their own involvement within it. Furthermore, in the United States, colleges and universities have become proponents of service learning as a critical component of a holistic educational experience. In this article, we describe how service learning can be incorporated into training students in ethnographic field methods as a means to transformational learning and to give them skills they can use beyond the classroom in a longer trajectory of civic participation. We discuss strategies, opportunities, and challenges associated with incorporating service learning into courses and programs training students in ethnographic field methods and propose five key components for successful ethnographic service learning projects. We share student insights about the transformational value of their experiences as well as introduce some ethical concerns that arise in ethnographic service-learning projects.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document