/ Quality Systems Engineering /
The impacts of poor quality are pervasive, potentially devastating, and often overlooked. Everything matters: how products are designed, how they are made, how they are maintained, and how they are delivered. And everything is at stake: from legal liability, to production schedules, to your reputation in the marketplace.
We address the “system wide impact of quality”, documented in the book Variation Risk Management by our practice leader, Anna Thornton. We’re successful because we offer:
- No canned solutions: Our approach to quality goes well beyond standard “tools of the trade” (like Six Sigma, SPC TQM, statistical analysis, reliability analysis, and continuous improvement).
- A systems approach: It makes no sense to fix a local problem only to create a bigger problem elsewhere. We identify and prioritize improvements based on what is optimal for the entire organization. We have experience balancing the competing demands of yield, throughput, cost efficiency, time-to-market, customer satisfaction, regulatory compliance, and other factors.
- Domain-specific knowledge: We have extensive experience in industries as diverse as semiconductors, airframes, optical systems, and truck containers.
It is our unique combination of academic insight, integrated approach, and practical success that delivers business value from quality management.
Analytics
helped a leading truck manufacturer determine that even if every
source
of variation in gas tank welding were reduced, defects would still
occur
at an unacceptable level. Instead, Analytics’ suggested
product redesign cut
defects 98%. 
