Local News
- Call for Officer Nominations 2024
ASQ Montreal — Call for Officer Nominations 2024
- ASQ Montreal — 2024 Business Plan (2023-09-22)
ASQ Montreal — Business Plan 2024
By J.P. Amiel, ASQ Senior, CQA ret., Secretary
As fall slowly settles in, your Montreal Section leadership team is looking ahead at next year’s line-up of action plans based on ASQ’s continuing development of its own Strategic Plan. Basically, our Business Plan lists what steps the section will be taking to achieve a specific goal. It is broken down into actionable steps that can be easily followed and tracked so as to clarify what resources will be required to reach it within a specific timeline. You will find below a preview of what we will be working on in 2024.
As for the 2023 Business Plan Objectives, we are proud to report that for the 16 objectives that we defined, so far 12 are 100% completed, 2 are 90% completed, one is at 80% and the last one at 78%. What a Q3 report, indeed!
Here are the 2024 goals for your Montreal Section Section Leadership Team (SLT).
1. DELIVER MEMBER VALUE: Design programs and initiatives that are diversified and add value to membership, meet/exceed their identified needs and expectations and support the Mission of ASQ. Think out of the Box to WOW members. - Deliver events and opportunities that address evolving needs of current and next generation quality professionals to ensure each has an optimized member experience.
- Help quality professionals understand how they can guide their organizations by leveraging standards to achieve operational excellence by publishing multimedia on the use of standards.
2. ENHANCE THE ASQ BRAND AND PUBLIC IMAGE: Highlight Quality experts and provide Quality knowledge growth opportunities in your community and others. - Create opportunities to showcase knowledge of Quality subject matter experts by publishing multimedia on ASQ Montreal Section subject matter experts.
- Generate opportunities for training, learning, and education in Quality:
- Offer and publicize the offering of ASQ certification preparation courses;
- Promote ASQ in local industry conferences by attending local industry conferences with the intent to promote ASQ;
- Conduct Student Outreach events by doing networking session with educational institution(s)/students;
- Recognize section leaders and/or members: Present awards to section leaders and/or members having demonstrated section leadership and involvement.
3. DELIVER OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE: Leverage the expertise of Quality Professionals to ensure best practices in Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEI&B) culture, member experiences, efficient operations, access to quality content and education, governance, and financial responsibility are implemented to support ASQ and Geographic Communities. - Advance a culture of DEI&B to make the Society a place everyone feels welcome:
- Engage francophone members and customers through sponsored French professional events;
- Have Section Leadership Team (SLT) attend a course on DEI&B;
- Develop a DEI&B plan.
- Deliver a greater member experience and make it easier for ASQ members to participate and make their voices heard:
- Issue regular newsletters throughout the active part of the year;
- Post content on myASQ website targeting member feedback.
- Drive efficiency and manage resources responsibly by meeting the approved budget bottom line and taking into account adjustments made throughout the year.
- Contribute content to the myASQ community site to reach members across channels by posting content on the Montreal Section myASQ website.
- Create meaningful learning and networking opportunities.
- Conduct in-person networking session with members;
- Conduct networking session with educational institution(s)/students.
- Deliver Geographic Community minimum requirements:
- Acknowledge the Member Unit Operating Agreement (MUOA);
- All Member Leaders complete General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) training;
- Deliver member value by conducting member events;
- Conduct Section Leadership Committee (SLC) meetings;
- Participate in Geographic Community Council’s (GCC) meetings or trainings;
- Submit officers list using Committee Manager and after having conducted the elections;
- Prepare and submit yearly business plan and budget to RD for approval;
- Member value by posting content on myASQ;
- Submit ASQ Community Annual Report in Q1 by communicated deadline;
- Submit year end financial report, if applicable (not required for sections on Billhighway);
- Sustain the section’s leadership team by recruiting section members to join the Section Leadership Team (SLT).
We look forward to seeing you at our events and should you decide to help us in our endeavours, we will make room around the Section Leadership meeting table. We’d love to hear from you here.
- Call for Officer Nominations 2023
ASQ Montreal — Call for Officer Nominations 2023
From : Sam Weissfelner, ASQ Senior, ASQ CSQE, CQA, Nominations Committee Chair
We are looking for candidates for three elected positions on the 2024 Section Leadership Team (SLT): Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer. Here is a brief description of each position:
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- Chair: Provides leadership and oversight to the member unit, prepares meeting agendas, and is the presiding officer.
- Secretary: Documents member unit business and maintains the records. This position serves as the official correspondent of the member unit.
- Treasurer: Oversees funds, maintains accurate financial records, and reports on financial condition as directed by the Society bylaws and policies and procedures.
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The election process involves that the Nominating Committee submits a slate of officers to be approved at the General Assembly. To hold a Section Officer position, you must be a Professional, Senior or Fellow ASQ Member in good standing affiliated with our Section. To submit alternate nominations for Section officer positions, please complete and submit this Nomination Form before September 30, 2023.
The proposed Leadership Team slate will be published in the October edition of the Newsletter and the new SLT will be approved at our planned Annual General Assembly to be held on October 26th, 2023. Here is a complete listing of current ASQ Montreal Section positions.
For more information on these positions, should you be interested in participating on the upcoming Section Leadership Team or have any questions on the roles themselves, please contact me at the Nominations Committee.
Thank-you to all and have a great vacation.
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- ASQ PEP 2022 Performance Awards
ASQ PEP 2022 Performance Awards
ASQ-HQ offered its congratulations to the 2022 Awardees for Member Unit Performance Excellence!
It was a total of 17 Technical Communities (Divisions) and 28 Geographic Communities (Sections) which were recognized for their commitments and excellence. For 2022, five out of the 13 Canadian Sections won recognition. We are especially proud to report that amongst the seven GOLD winners, both the Montreal and Toronto Sections were recognized. Calgary won Silver recognition, and both Edmonton and Hamilton won Bronze recognition.
The ASQ Performance Excellence Program was created by Milwaukee-based ASQ to recognize Member Units for excellent performance that reinforces ASQ’s position as the thought leader and expands ASQ offerings to members and customers:
• Contributions to ASQ thought leadership, as measured by myASQ content postings;
• Member Engagement and Experience, as measured by myASQ activity and member increases;
• Fiduciary responsibility, as measured by adherence to budget;
• Achievement of business plan objectives, as measured by self-reported progress on business goals and targets.
These measures were evaluated based on the Member Unit’s own baseline data and self-reported business plan progress. Award levels were conferred using a common point system.Congratulations!
- Radical Transformation Kaikaku – A personal Story
Radical Transformation Kaikaku – A personal Story
By Jean-Pierre Amiel, ASQ Senior, CQA ret., Web Committee Chair
On the 30th of November 2022 we had the privilege to meet and hear Albanesa Ymaya, CLSSBB, TPS, Kaikaku Practitioner describe her approach on transformation in Kaikaku Before Kaizen. What I didn’t know then, was that Albanesa had also had her own personal radical transformation. In 2019, she survived a terrible car accident. Today, on LinkedIn, she reports in her own philosophical way how that day caused her to reflect that on life — not personal or professional — but both. This reflection set her on a dream to visit Japan, the place where the Toyota Production System began…. Here’s part of that post, translated from Spanish:
😱 4 years ago in that vehicle! Where my life could have ended in a minute and thus many of my dreams. But if this is a professional network (LinkedIn) why am I sharing something so intimate and personal? Simple. Over the years I have discovered that there is no real separation between the professional and the personal, because all we have is a life. A life that we occupy at different times.
Our professional life is completely tied to who we are as a person. Well, there is only one life!
After that fateful accident, I promised myself that I would live every moment as if it were the last day of my life and fight with all my might to achieve every dream I had… Four years ago, I made a firm decision not to keep waiting and today, thanks to God and the work of my team and family, I will be able to realize another big dream…. I will be in the place where one of the most admired business models in the world (the Toyota Production System) began …. I will finally be in Japan!
Today I invite you to fight with all your heart for each of your dreams ….. I invite you to take one action each day that will bring you closer to achieving them….. Never give up!
- ASQ Montreal —Women in Quality Initiative
ASQ Montreal — Women in Quality Initiative
By
Veronica marquez, M.Sc., CSSBB, ASQ Member, Social media Chair.Today, March 22, 2023, the Montreal Section introduces our Women in Quality Initiative. We want to showcase women, their accomplishments, their successes, and inspire the next generation of Women in Quality.
Will you join us?Click here for a silent video or access the survey.
- Business Plan 2023 | Plan d’affaires 2023
ASQ Montreal — Business Plan 2023 | Plan d’affaires 2023
Jean-Pierre Amiel, ASQ Senior, CQA ret., Secrétaire
Business Plan 2023 Plan d’affaires 2023 In 2023, ASQ-HQ continues its Business Plan based on four major strategic goals. In order to support those strategic goals, the ASQ Regions, Divisions and Sections developed an overall strategic plan aligned with those goals and based on four major priorities: Drive thought leadership; Provide an advanced and comprehensive education experience; Enhance the member experience, and Institute best practices.
For your Montreal Section Section Leadership Team (SLT), this then translated into the development of local action plans and objectives. They are aligned with ASQ-HQ’s Strategic Goals and briefly described HERE along with the results as of 2023-03-03.
En 2023, l’ASQ-HQ poursuit son Plan d’affaires basé sur quatre objectifs stratégiques majeurs. Afin de soutenir ces objectifs stratégiques, les régions, divisions et sections de l’ASQ ont élaboré un plan stratégique global aligné sur ces objectifs et basé sur quatre priorités majeures : Stimuler le leadership éclairé ; Fournir une expérience d’éducation avancée et complète ; Améliorer l’expérience des membres, et Instituer les meilleures pratiques.
Pour votre équipe de direction de la section de Montréal (EDS), cela s’est ensuite traduit par l’élaboration de plans d’action et d’objectifs locaux. Ils sont alignés sur les objectifs stratégiques de l’ASQ-HQ et brièvement décrits ICI ainsi que les résultats en date du 2023-03-03.
- Lean: A catalyst for sustainable businesses — Guest appearance in Indianapolis
Lean: A catalyst for sustainable businesses — Guest appearance in Indianapolis
This Valentine’s Day, February 14th, 2023, while we were enjoying little chocolates with our significant others, our Social media Chair and resident knows-a-lot-about-sustainability, Veronica Marquez, M.Sc., CSSBB, ASQ Member, President, Founder and Senior Consultant of Aristeio was sharing her knowledge and experience on Lean: A catalyst for sustainable businesses with participants at an event put on by the ASQ Indianapolis Section. Her presentation aimed at showing the synergy that exists between Lean management and realizing a sustainable organisation. Here are some notes on that presentation.
Recent unusual extreme weather events in our southern neighbour’s regions, probably peaked her audience’s curiosity to learn more on how “human actions still have the potential to determine the future course of climate”. Veronica, a believer that lean tools are in the forefront of solutions, proposed ways for participants to instigate the necessary changes in their organisation so that sustainability becomes part of their Lean path and evolution.
Her basis is from various European studies in 2019 which showed that ten countries produced more than 68% of global greenhouse gas emissions (!!). In that report, China was the largest, followed by the US, India, the European Union (27 countries counted as one), Russia, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, Iran and Canada. It also showed that for the US and Canada (in similar proportions but not quantities), the majority of the effects were from Electricity/Heat, Transportation, Building and Manufacturing/Construction. It was proposed that in 2016, globally, energy use represented 73,2% of the 50 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Having made that statement, it followed that there goals must be set and solutions found. The United Nations (UN) set 17 goals. Veronica proposes that Sustainability in Supply Chain management — the orchestration and continuous improvement of planning and execution of processes on strategic, tactical and operational level along a value chain end-to-end, operating within economic, environmental, and social thresholds — should be one of them.
The emissions throughout the supply chain may be identified and then reduced or eliminated by thinking in terms of Lean and Green processes — economic growth is combined with continued reductions of greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts. This may be achieved by the use of effective demand management and efficiency measures, the efficient use of energy, water, and other natural resources, optimized inputs to production processes, and a decrease/elimination of the level of waste to landfill.
Lean Green - Management System
- Improve performance
- Create value for the customer
- True north
- Efficiency
- Waste reduction
- People involvement
- Cost reduction
- Reducing hazardous emissions
- Eliminating wasteful resources
- Recycling
- Minimizing health risks and environmental footprint during the whole life-cycle.
Because “linking Lean and Green is a real advantage as opposed to implementing two distinct approaches”, Veronica explained that of the various tools currently available to the professional (5S, ANDON, JIT, KANBAN, POKE-YOKE, SMED and TPM), shared examples of 5S and TPM could work to solve productivity and environmental issues as part of a strategic vision for Lean and Green. In that regard, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed adding a “Green” layer perspective to the traditional Visual Stream Mapping (VSM) typically used in Lean to document every step in the process. This “Green” layer perspective could then be applied to environmental projects and help instigate the necessary changes in an organisation so that sustainability becomes part of their Lean path and evolution.Veronica then proposed how to integrate the Lean-Green deployment as a strategic sustainability, the integration into the corporate bottom-line and discussed steps to overcome barriers. An interesting presentation indeed.
Some further ressources:
- Our World in data GHG Emissions by sector
- EPA Environmental professionals guide Lean and Six Sigma
- Sustainable Development Goals Compass
- ASQ Career Pathways — Map your professional career
By Jean-Pierre Amiel, ASQ Senior, CQA ret., Web committee Chair.Plan your career today: where would you like to go with Career Pathways?
ASQ has developed a tool that will allow you to “map out” your career journey, now available in beta test form for you to provide feedback on. The Career Pathways tool is full of resources and learning to help you reach your desired role, field, and experience level, as well as find new and exciting opportunities on our job board. Click on the links below to find basic information about typical quality field roles, the skills required and potential advancement opportunities.
- The Quality Manager and the Multiple Management Systems — Guest appearance in Toronto
The Quality Manager and the Multiple Management Systems — Guest appearance in Toronto
Last December our Montreal Section Chair, Raymond E Dyer, BSc & MBA, ASQ Senior Member, CMQ/OE, & CQA took his 30 years plus in Quality experiences with various industries, quality methods, models, tools, management system registrations, and registrars virtually to Toronto (A short walk the living room). His objective: To share stories with the ever growing need to have Quality Management System (QMS) professionals represent organizations facing multiple management systems and their certifications, well beyond ISO 9001. This presentation, similar to the one at our General Assembly, last October, but with a virtual twist.
In his presentation Ray suggested that the QMS professional was the individual best able to ensure integration of the various systems because, that person usually had a :
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- • Broad understanding of the business;
- • Cross functional influence;
- • Experience with management system notions in Leadership communications, objectives, risk management, documentation, internal audits, management reviews, metrics/KPIs, corrective actions and improvement, etc. and a growing notion of an Integrated Management System;
- • Experience representing the organization during 2nd and 3rd party audits.
Opportunities Challenges - Adopt common management system processes:
- Risk management
- Objectives and KPIs
- Documentation
- Internal audits
- Management reviews
- Corrective actions
- Improvement opportunities
- Dealing with non integrated systems already in place
- Dealing with overcomplicated process requirements and excessive documentation (some may remember Dilbert’s “One big honkin binder”)
- Dealing with different colleagues responsible (Beware of working in silos)
- Dealing with highly competing priorities
His conclusions:
• Organizations are increasingly seeking recognition in more than one ISO certification (ISO 9001 is often just the start!);
• The QMS professional is often chosen to lead or strongly support such management system certifications due to their experience and the nature of their work;
• Integrating the common elements of these management systems helps improve effectiveness and efficiency of related activities. -
- Canada & Greenland Region: 2022 Business Plan Reviews
Canada & Greenland Region: 2022 Business Plan Reviews
We did our Homework!!
The results of the 2022 Montreal Section Business Plan were reviewed at a recent meeting with Puneet Manchada (Regional Director), Natella Isazada (incoming Regional Director elect) and Sam Weissfelner (Deputy Regional Director), Montreal Section’s Raymond Dyer (Chairman) and Eric Hosking (Treasurer). The section fared very well in attaining and surpassing many of the set objectives.Read the Summary and Results. As a result, Raymond Dyer received a Certificate of accomplishment on behalf of the Section for these results.
Congratulations to the Montreal Section Leadership Team. It was quite a year indeed.
- Canada & Greenland Region: Quality Conference Highlights
Canada & Greenland Region: Quality Conference Highlights
Overcoming Adversity: A Leap Forward
(Surmonter l’adversité : Un bond en avant)Hybrid Conference, hosted by ASQ Vancouver
This year’s ASQ Canada Conference on Quality and Business Excellence was hosted by ASQ Vancouver Section 408 on November 19th, to mark World Quality Month. It also became the first hybrid event hosted post-pandemic by ASQ Vancouver. Around 120 quality professionals attended the conference, with experts from various industries, plus academicians, students, and other friends of the quality community. More than forty attendees joined the sessions online from various parts of Canada.
Amongst the attendees were out-of-province ASQ member-leaders, including Puneet Manchanda, Regional Director of ASQ Canada and Greenland Region, Cecilia Barrios, Edmonton Section Chair and Member Leaders Shireen Fader of Calgary and Sumith Kahanda from Saskatchewan.
The organizing committee included ASQ Vancouver Section Chair Fuat Ramazanov, the Voice of Customer Chair Natella Isazada, and the Publicity Chair Louis Blais. As faculty members of Acsenda Management School in Vancouver, they are grateful to their partner organization Acsenda for accommodating the conference on their campus in the heart of downtown. ASQ Vancouver would also like to extend their gratitude to all sponsor organizations and to other Canadian Sections of ASQ who supported the conference.
Conference presentations generated a lot of interest in the audience. Among the speakers there were a 3x-Olympian, a Canadian track and field athlete completing in the javelin throw; Quality and Continuous Improvement Experts; Best-Selling Author and Podcast Host; Corporate Creativity expert, artist and coach; Corporate Reputation Management Expert; Operations and Technology Management Expert; Ergonomist and Occupational Hygiene Officer; as well certified quality auditors participating in the moderated panel discussion.
The day was packed with engaging sessions, networking opportunities, quality-related trivia games, catered meal and coffee breaks, door prizes and volunteer appreciation. The event was also attended by Acsenda top management who acknowledged the land the conference was conducted on and expressed their gratitude for the partnership with ASQ which is a mutually beneficial relationship that allows Acsenda students to learn through volunteering and to expand their horizons.Congratulations to the organizing committee.
- Certification Study Group
New: Certification Study Group
Would you like to work with others to prepare for the ASQ examinations?
Starting 17 January 2023, we have a Teams based section study group that is open every Tuesday evening from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. Join the team and get to help each other. Contact your host Dr. David Tozer, Montreal Section Education Chair, to obtain a link.
- Serendipity Strikes General Assembly 2022
Serendipity Strikes General Assembly 2022
By J.P. Amiel, ASQ Senior, CQA ret., Web committee Chair
Well, life happens! And sometimes in the most interesting ways.
At our recent General Assembly, Sam Weissfelner was struck by serendipity. Back in the days (around 1998), Sam wrote a chapter in collaboration for the publishing of the book Software Process Assessment & Improvement. It was published by Wiley and the IEEE Computer Society in 1999.
One day, after it’s publication, he dedicated a copy of the book for Denis Pronovost. The dedication reads “To a training professional whom I highly respect and an esteemed quality person!“
Recently the Montreal Section created the 2022 Prix Denis Pronovost in memory of Denis Pronovost who passed away in June 2015. At the General Assembly, participants were reminded of that the award was given to Patrick Barnes at the June 15th, 2022 webinar. They were also offered the opportunity to take quality-related books that Roger Pelletier (past chair of ASQ Section Québécoise) had donated from his private collection.
Now here is the real serendipity, lo and behold, amongst the donated books was the very same book that Sam had dedicated for Denis more than 23 years ago!!
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Serendipity (noun, ser·en·dip·i·ty): the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for. Also: an instance of this. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) - Recognition Awards (General Assembly 2022)
Recognition Awards (General Assembly 2022)
By J.P. Amiel, ASQ Senior, CQA ret., Web committee Chair
Had you attended our General Assembly this past October 26, 2022, you would have had the opportunity to finally congratulate the 2021 ASQ Canada Conference committee led by Chantale Simard. An ASQ Member Leader Excellence Award was given by Puneet Manchada, our Regional Director last year for the committee’s work but because of the Covid pandemic, the actual physical award was only made available recently. We were finally able to do the group photo of the team with the award.In the picture on the left, the team was composed of Sam Weissfelner, Veronica Marquez, CSSBB, Marcel A. Charbonneau, Eric Hosking, David Tozer, Chantale Simard, Jean-Pierre Amiel, ASQ Senior and CQA ret. and absent from the souvenir photo, Mauricio Figueroa, Ruth Stanley, MPA (Ottawa Section) and Michel Guenette (Hamilton Section).
Congratulations to the team for all the hard work to make this bilingual event a success.
In a similar fashion, there was a delay in giving a physical award to Veronica Marquez, CSSBB for all her work in bringing the Montreal Section into the realm of social media. In the souvenir photo at right, Veronica (left) receives the Award from Chantale Simard, Montreal Section Chair 2020 (right).Amongst those efforts, as our Social Media Chair, Veronica launched our own Twitter account, helped set-up and manage our ASQ Montreal Quality Network – Réseau Qualité ASQ Montréal and ASQ Montreal Student Outreach LinkedIn accounts, as well as an Evenbrite account to promote and advertise our activities as well as to register participants to our various events.
Thank-you Veronica for having challenged us.
- Student Outreach: Robustness Thinking in Design for Reliability
Student Outreach: Robustness Thinking in Design for Reliability
Dr. Farnoosh Naderkhani, ASQ Member, Assistant Professor @ Concordia, Student Outreach Committee Chair
In the second seminar series for students held on July 7th, 2022 via Zoom, Dr. Matthew Hu, Senior Vice-President, Engineering and Quality at HAYLION Technologies delivered an interesting talk entitled “Robustness Thinking in Design for Reliability”. The seminar started with a 45-minute talk by Dr. Hu, followed by questions and discussion from the audience.
It was a very successful seminar and well appreciated. Approximately 25 students attended the event. Based on survey results, the overall satisfaction was 93.8% and participants particularly appreciated the exchange with 90%. Satisfaction for the subject and the approach reported as 100% and 90%, respectively. The satisfaction for the presenter was 95%.
As Student Outreach Committee Chair, I will try my best to organize at least one more seminar for this year. Stay tuned for upcoming seminar series.
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Note: If you are part of an educational institution and would like to have more visibility on quality-related topics, please contact us. We have a network of potential speakers that may be of interest to you. Contact Raymond Dyer on LinkedIn .
- Wisdom from our Wisest — Rosaire Ratelle
Wisdom from our Wisest — Rosaire Ratelle
By Eric Hosking, Section Treasurer, Membership Chair, ASQ CQE, CSSBB, CQA and Samira Kazemi, Program Committee MemberTexte en français ICI
Last month in this column we featured Ruth Stanley, ASQ Canada’s former Regional Director. This month we are featuring one of our very longest serving members Rosaire Ratelle, B. Eng., ASQ CQE. April 1st saw Rosaire celebrate 46 years with the ASQ. Like Marcel Charbonneau featured two months ago, Rosaire was instrumental in the development and evolution of the Quality institutions in Quebec.
Rosaire has worked and consulted in various industries and companies. He had the opportunity to watch, act and share his thoughts on the evolution of various quality techniques at work and in various articles he authored. He was also a player in the Quebec quality movement.
You can read his story here.
If you enjoyed this article, send your comments to the Membership Chair.We will share them.
(2022-05-20)
- Student Outreach: AI innovations revolutionizing future of healthcare!
Student Outreach: AI innovations revolutionizing future of healthcare!
By Dr. Farnoosh Naderkhani, ASQ Member, Assistant Professor @ Concordia, Student Outreach Committee ChairArtificial Intelligence (AI) innovations can change patients’ lives by improving diagnosis/treatment methods and assisting clinicians in making informed decisions. In this presentation, we introduced the general applications of AI in healthcare. More specifically, how AI models can assist radiologists in analyzing medical images for a more accurate and faster diagnosis/prognosis of diseases. Nastaran Enshaei was invited to speak about her work with AI at the ASQ Montreal Student Outreach series this May 19th, 2022.
About the speaker: Nastaran Enshaei is a PhD candidate at Concordia Institute for Information System Engineering (CIISE). She holds a Master degree in Quality System Engineering from Concordia University and has been actively involved in performing research in the healthcare domain. In particular, she is working on deep learning-based solutions for analyzing medical images. Nastaran’s research contributions have been published in International Journals and Conferences of high caliber in engineering and healthcare venues including but not limited to Signal Processing magazine and Nature Scientific Reports.
(2022-05-20)
- Wisdom from our Wisest — Ruth Stanley
Wisdom from our Wisest — Ruth Stanley
By Eric Hosking, Section Treasurer, Membership Chair, ASQ CQE, CSSBB, CQA and Samira Kazemi, Program Committee Member
Texte en français ICILast month, in this column we featured Marcel Charbonneau, a very long time member of the ASQ. Some of our members are not necessarily long time members of the ASQ, but they are long time practitioners of Quality. They also come with a myriad of talents that have helped them have very successful careers inside and outside the Quality domain. We had the pleasure of interviewing Ruth Stanley, former Regional Director for the ASQ Canada and Greenland region. She described her career in Quality and her career as a leader. This is what we learned.
RUTH STANLEY – PRESIDENT, BOANN CONSULTING
Ruth Stanley has 30 plus years in Quality working as a public servant in a number of branches of the Canadian Federal Government. While there she worked with ISO standards: 9001 for quality systems; 14000 for environmental standards; 17025 for laboratory information systems and 31000 for risk management.
Ruth became a member of ASQ in 2014 in the Ottawa Section. In 2017 she took the lead on organizing the first ASQ Canadian National Quality Conference which was hosted by the Ottawa Section. Following that she served as the ASQ Regional Director for Canada Greenland Region in 2019 and 2020, then stepping down to be Deputy Regional Director in 2021. From those positions, she was deeply involved in both the 2020 and 2021 ASQ Canadian National Quality Conferences hosted by Toronto Section and Montreal Section respectively. Now retired from the Federal Government, she is far from retirement. She is an author, presenter, blogger and now founder of Boann Consulting.
Samira had a number of questions for Ruth and you can read the article here.
If you enjoyed this article, send your comments to the Membership Chair.We will share them.
(2022-04-17)
- 2022 Prix Denis Pronovost (Award)
2022 Prix Denis Pronovost (Award)
Marcel Charbonneau, T.P., ASQ CQA, led the Montreal Section project to create a $500 award in honor of Denis Pronovost, who passed away in June 2015. Through his outstanding contribution to the association, his leadership and his involvement, Denis greatly participated in the promotion of quality in French in Quebec and was a frequent guest and speaker at the Section.Denis had a career of more than thirty years of work experience mainly in teaching and consulting in the field of management, quality assurance and audits. In 1990, with Pierre Caillibot, he founded Academia Qualitas in Quebec, where they developed courses and trained quality professionals in the manufacturing, service and laboratory sectors. Denis was a member of the Canadian Advisory Committee to ISO/TC 176, particularly active in the Terminology Working Group,the Interpretations Working Group and the joint CAC/ISO/TC 176/CAC/ISO TC 207 Working Group on Auditing and the Future of the ISO 19011 Audit Standard. He was also a lead auditor of quality management systems (QMS) certified by the Registrar Accreditation Board (RAB) and a senior member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ). Denis was an active member and Chair of the ASQ Montreal Francophone Section from 2012-14.
Denis was a speaker and instructor in North America, Central America, Europe and Asia. On more than five occasions, he came to the Montreal Section to present the evolution of the ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 standards. In 2000, he authored Internal Quality Auditing, a guide to conducting more effective internal audits, published by ASQ.
(Photo : Partick Barnes and Marcel Charbonneau)On June 8th, 2022, Marcel presented the award to Patrick Barnes, a student at the Certificat en gestion et assurance de la qualité de l’École de technologie supérieure (Management and Quality Assurance Certificate) of the École de technologie supérieure, a multidisciplinary program that provides training or development in management and quality assurance. Patrick will present a summary of his quality improvement project at the ETS. 
Congratulations to Patrick !!
- Student Outreach: Sustainability in Supply Chain
Student Outreach: Sustainability in Supply Chain
By Dr. Farnoosh Naderkhani, ASQ Member, Assistant Professor @ Concordia, Student Outreach Committee ChairIn today’s competitive business environment, to stay in business and keep up with competitors, it is of significant importance for a supply chain network to operate at its fullest potential. Increased demand for consumer products, however, has resulted in irreversible negative impacts on the environment. This coupled with increased global pollution rate over recent decades has resulted in an urgent quest to design and develop green and sustainable supply chain network. Generally speaking, sustainability in supply chain management focuses on orchestration and continuous improvement of planning and execution of processes on strategic, tactical and operational levels.
As a researcher working on sustainability in supply chain network and as part of the vision to bring industry into classroom, we organized an invited distinguished seminar delivered by Veronica B. Marquez, Social Media Chair at ASQ Montreal. Veronica delivered a unique and an insightful presentation focused on green and sustainable supply chain network. The talk was devoted to strategic vision for advancement of lean and green supply chain networks and how the lean concepts and quality tools can be applied to achieve a sustainable supply chain network.
(2022-04-14)
- Wisdom from our Wisest — Marcel Charbonneau
Wisdom from our Wisest — Marcel Charbonneau
By Eric Hosking, Section Treasurer, Membership Chair, CQA, CQE, CSSBB
Texte en français ICIDid you know that we have a number of ASQ Montreal Section members who have been with the section for more than 40 years. Four decades! What do you think they can tell us about the evolution of Quality in Quebec? What do you think they can tell us about being successful in the quality profession? What was their quality path and why have they chosen to be with the ASQ for so long?
We asked Marcel Charbonneau, who joined the ASQ 49 years ago, and he provided this fascinating story.
- ASQ Montreal Achievement Awards
ASQ Montreal Achievement Awards
By Eric Hosking, Section Treasurer, Membership Chair, CQA, CQE, CSSBBIn January of last year we were pleased to acknowledge two of our leadership teams members, Jean-Pierre Amiel and Raymond Dyer for their extraordinary contributions in 2020. As much as we wanted to acknowledge the achievements of the year just gone by, we could not present the ASQ achievement award trophies because COVID restrictions prevented us from getting together for a ceremony. So this was done in a virtual format, preceding our regular monthly Webinar event. In that virtual world we could only show an image of the award trophy each of them had earned.
We also had to admit that we did not even have the trophies. ASQ headquarters staff had no access to the storage area that the trophies were kept in. They were restricted to working from home. The trophies did not become available until late summer in 2021.
As COVID restrictions eased through the late summer and fall, we planned an event for late November where we would finally be able to do justice and, in a second presentation of the award, actually hand over the trophies. This too was not to be: Omicron reared its ugly head and other personal emergencies arose that prevented our awardees from attending the event.
I ultimately decided that the awards would be put in the rightful hands, COVID and other events notwithstanding. So I made home deliveries as you can see in the photos.
The award to Ray is in recognition of all the things he did in 2020 to keep us going. In particular, the things he did to keep our monthly speaker program going with very severe COVID restrictions in place, while we were driving to make our presence fully bilingual. You all should recognize Ray as the voice and face of our monthly webinar series. He also collaborated with other ASQ Canada Sections to form a Webex training group to support ASQ Canada’s virtual needs, and he contributed to the Canada Conference hosted by Toronto in 2020. This is outside other contributions in his role as Section Secretary and as member of our Student Outreach Committee.
In 2020, J.P. took on the challenge of getting us functioning in not one, but two myASQ sites, making us the only ASQ section to have sites in two languages. He also updated our historical website to give it a more modern look. He joined the Webex training group, he contributed to the Canada Conference hosted by Toronto and he was the master control behind our webinars as we converted to the COVID imposed virtual world. This does not come close to describing all the other things he did as well.
Congratulations again to Ray and JP.
These are very well deserved awards.(2021-12-14)
- Lean start-up of a centre for pediatric emergencies – Follow-up
Lean start-up of a centre for pediatric emergencies – Follow-up
By Jean-Pierre Amiel, ASQ Senior, CQA Retired
We have learned that recently the UP (Unité pédiatrique) centre received visitors who were very interested in the approach of a health system centred on patient experience and access. Not the least of which was the Minister of Health Christian Dubé accompanied by Minister Lionel Carmant, Dr. Lucie Opatrny and Martin Forgues of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, and the management team of the CISSS Montérégie Centre Richard Deschamps, Lyne Marquis, and Dr. Inthysone Rajvong.
We really appreciated Dr. Sasha Dubrovsky’s presentation on the Lean start-up of a centre for pediatric emergencies last November 24 and that we said he should meet the Health Minister… well he did. See: LinkedIn. - ASQ Member Leader Excellence Award
ASQ Member Leader Excellence Award
By Jean-Pierre Amiel, ASQ Senior, CQA Retired
At the General Assembly, Chantale Simard, ASQ Montreal Section Chair presented an ASQ Member Leader Excellence Award to Veronica Marquez, cssbb.
Over the past years Veronica has done some outstanding contributions as Social Media chair and to the evolution of the Student Outreach committee, the Program committee, to the Canada Quality Conference and to the ASQ Region Webinars, just to mention a few examples!
The whole team applauded Veronica for all her hard work. CONGRATULATIONS!Also on behalf of Puneet Manchada, our Regional Director who was absent, Chantale presented the Montreal Section an ASQ Member Leader Excellence Award for their realization of the 2021 ASQ Canada Conference.
(2021-11-09)
- ASQ Canada Conference 2021: IT’S OVER… For this year.
ASQ Canada Conference 2021: IT’S OVER… For this year.
Here’s what you missed.
- Where are you?
** Where are you? **
By Jean-Pierre Amiel, ASQ Senior, CQA Retired
If you think that we can’t reach out to you, you’re probably right.Our event surveys have shown that although our members get to learn of our upcoming events mostly through our Newsletter, we can only send it to you if we have your email address. Many members, probably because they are tired of receiving unwanted emails, do not share their address with ASQ.
If that is your case but you want the Newsletter delivered to your electronic device, Login to ASQ.org, click My Account and set the appropriate parameters (Address Information, Contact Information). To reduce noise from ASQ, click on Opt In/Opt Out then EDIT and select the options in the three categories. To receive our Newsletter, in Member Communication, check-off Section Communication.
Don’t forget to click Save and then surf or Logout. - ASQ Montreal Section Special Guest – Ann Jordan, ASQ CEO
ASQ Montreal Section LT Special Guest: Ann Jordan, ASQ CEO
By Jean-Pierre Amiel, ASQ Senior & CQA, ret.
Ann Jordan, ASQ CEO virtually attended last night’s Montreal Section Leadership meeting (June 8, 2021) via Teams.
Yes, quite an honour for the Leadership Team. We also hosted Puneet Manchanda, the Canada Regional Director and Ruth Stanley, our Deputy RD as well as other directors. Ann wanted to meet the valiant team (70 years and counting) and present an overview of ASQ’s key strategic initiatives. Mission accomplished. She explained how ASQ has been working on refocusing on its members and offer more value as well as recognizing that technology now offers more opportunities for improving this… a weakness identified ‘late’ by ASQ. They will be refocusing on improving that, educational support and quality expertise, as well as providing it in a multi-language environment through the support of the new technologies. More information from HQ will be available in the fall. We will be watching, Ann.
Chantale Simard, Montreal Section Chair sent her a follow-up message: I think I am speaking for the group here by letting you know that it was a pleasure for us as well. If we had had more time, probably everyone on the Leadership Team would have asked you questions and give you comments about the new key strategic initiatives to increase member value. I am glad that we had time for a few meaningful comments and ideas.
I truly believe in these initiatives involving benchmarking, technology, new and existing resources to enhance QBok content. The global provider network, ASQConnEx is also a great idea. Being open to modern ways, to the world, to younger generations, to diversity and other languages and proving it concretely by starting this virtual road show with Montreal, makes me believe that ASQ will achieve the long-term goal of improving member value.
We will look more closely at the presentation and start discussions with our members and other quality professionals in our community about these key strategic initiatives.
PS: Ann Jordan has agreed to be the opening key-note speaker of the 2021 ASQ Canada & Greenland Region: National Bilingual Quality Conference hosted by the Montreal Section on the 4th and 5th of October.
(2021-06-08)
- Congratulations to the Montreal Section From The PEP Committee!
Congratulations to the Montreal Section From The PEP Committee!
On behalf of the Performance Excellence Program (PEP) committee, we want to thank you for all the hard work your leadership team provided to your Section members this past year, as well as ASQ.
We are pleased to announce that the Montreal Section Committee has received the Gold award recognition for 2020. Measures included in the 2020 award program were:
- Contributions to ASQ thought leadership, as measured by myASQ content postings;
- Member Engagement and Experience, as measured by myASQ activity and member increases;
- Fiduciary responsibility, as measured by adherence to budget;
- Achievement of business plan objectives, as measured by self-reported progress on business goals and targets.
Attached you will find artwork that can be used within your Section to honor and promote your member unit’s PEP success in 2020.
Again, congratulations to everyone at the Montreal Section Committee for your achievements. We are proud of your service to ASQ and continue to look forward to what is ahead from your members.With great thanks,
The PEP Committee
- Quality Progress – A Beginner’s Guide to Virtual Events
Quality Progress – April 2021: A Beginner’s Guide to Virtual Events
Michael Bournazian, Eng., Newsletter Editor, ASQ Senior Member, CSSGBIf you are a member of ASQ, then certainly you receive the monthly ASQ magazine Quality Progress. And if you read closely the April 2021 issue, then surely you realized that a few of our ASQ Montreal committee members were part of a group of four people who authored the article entitled “A Beginner’s Guide to Virtual Events“.
I am very proud of both J.P. Amiel and Raymond Dyer, who have both worked very hard to make sure that our current situation of “Virtual Webinar Events only” is well executed every last Wednesday of the month. As well, they have shown an openness to ideas and a regular drive to continuously improve the process of doing these kinds of events, and making them fruitful for everyone attending.
If you have not already read the article, then I encourage you to Click Here and start reading (You must login to your ASQ account first to access the full article).
Congratulations as well to the other two co-authors, Ruth Stanley and Michel Guenette.
Great job everyone!
