By Veronica B. Marquez, M.Sc, CSSBB, CSSCP, ASQ Senior Member, ASQ Montreal Vice-Chair, member of Student Outreach Committee
There is no update this month from the Student Outreach Committee.
Check back in April 2021.
Student Outreach Committee Read More »
The Saskatchewan section 414 invites you to participate in the online training session:
Management of Innovation Ecosystem
March 23, 2021 — 12:45 pm, Central Daylight Time (Chicago, GMT-05:00)
Information | Reservations
You will receive a confirmation email with instructions for joining the session.
Management of Innovation Ecosystem Read More »
The Montreal Section will be hosting the 2021 ASQ Canadian Conference, which will probably take place in October, traditionally Quality Month, but in virtual mode. A planning team has started work and has identified many ideas. The working theme for the Conference is Risk and Resilience and it would be illustrated by various conferences and workshops with hands-on experiences, each rated by “knowledge levels”. We have already identified three objectives close to our hearts:
Stay tuned for further developments.
2021 ASQ Canadian Conference Read More »
By Amine Djeffal, ASQ CQA, RAC, Quality and Regulatory Affairs Professional.
Can the Continuous Improvement (CI) Professional Influence the Reduction of Systemic Racism in Healthcare (24 February 2021).
Interestingly 38% of the audience declared themselves as ASQ senior members. If we take a look at poll results in terms of field and responsability, non-managerial roles and manufacturing areas are what defined the audience the most.
Participants expressed interest in attending other webinars. Many topics were proposed such as Risk management, Human error, Audits and Quality standards offered by registrars.
Based on poll results nearly 29% of the participants heard about the event through the section’s newsletter which demonstrates it is still the perfect communication channel to reach a maximum of ASQ members and to keep them informed about the section’s events. In addition, using Eventbrite to inform members about our section’s events was efficient, since 18% of the attendees heard about the event through this platform. Finally 07:00 pm to 9:00 pm was the best time to join webinar.
We would like to thank all the attendees for their enthousiasm, as usual. We look forward to connecting with you soon at one of our events.
Since this Voice of the Customer report is my last one, I would like to take this opportunity to bid farewell to the Section Leadership Team and to all ASQ Montreal section members.
Amidst the pandemic that we continue to endure we’ve learnt a lot. We should continue to see the value in the positive and encouraging lessons of resilience.
Stay safe and healthy.
Voice of the Customer – Voix du client Read More »
If you or your company would like to advertise in our monthly newsletter, please contact me directly by clicking one of the links below this picture. Also, see the “Advertising Rates” section further down for ad sizes and associated rates.
Contact Michael Bournazian, Newsletter Editor
Advertising Space for Rent Read More »
What is your organization doing to positively impact the SDG goals?
Que fait votre organisation pour avoir un effet positif sur les ODD ?
May 19, 2021 – 19 mai, 2021 (12h00)
(Webinar-Webinaire bilingue)
ASQ Region Webinar-Webinaire Read More »
By Michael Bournazian, Eng., Newsletter Editor, ASQ Senior Member, CSSGB
The February 2021 power crisis in the state of Texas, that continues to cause issues even after all the snow and ice has melted away, was something to see.
I have been to the state on several occasions in my professional life: Dallas twice, and Houston, Tyler, Abilene and Lufkin once each. These trips were never scheduled to take into account any specific season because, well, it’s Texas, and never did I assume at any time I may want to avoid, say, Dallas in January because it would snow a lot.
Politics aside, the causes as to why the grids failed will be interesting to find out, to say the least. On February 16, 2021, Governor Greg Abbott declared that there will be an investigation of the power outage to determine long-term solutions. Good idea: of course he then turned around a few days later and declared Texas 100% open for business with no mask mandate, so not so good. But I digress.
I have written in the past about catastrophic failures in industry (British Petroleum, Toyota, Boeing), all with a sense of “look at what these buggers (clean language folks) did?! How dare they?! There better be some honest-to-goodness investigation, cause & corrective action/risk analysis/restructuring/rewriting of processes/hirings/firings/blah blah blah.” To be honest, this was going to be my “tone” for this article.
And then, not long after, I was reminded of something: the January 1998 Ice Storm.
Remember, that storm that came through and affected Eastern Ontario, Southern Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, knocking out power to millions of people for days, weeks, and even months in some cases? At the time, the power grids and installations in this part of the world (aka Canada, the cold snowy country) did not fare much better. I personally remember my family taking in some relatives for one week when their power was out; and then when theirs came back, they immediately returned the favour when ours went out for a week!
Eventually, lives got back to normal, as they will in Texas. But can either of these situations be considered the better of the other?
* In this corner, we have Texas, an American state synonymous with sun, heat and desert. So power grids ill-equipped to handle snow and ice would not be too surprising. That said, the effects of global climate change have been evident for decades, and abnormal weather events have become unfortunately normal. And sometimes, it does take a disaster to make people realize that a risk is real.
* And in this corner, we have Canada, a country synonymous with snow at every given stereotype. You would have expected the power grids here to have been well-equipped to withstand snow, ice, wind, hail, freezing rain and the like. And yet . . . well, you know.
So how was my tone?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Neither the “C” word nor the “P” word were used during the writing of this article.
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Any feedback? Click on the link and let me know.
Thank you, all the best and none of the worst.
The Editor’s Corner Read More »
Nowadays, an increasing number of incredible women work in a wide range of quality fields. As managers, academic leaders and decision makers, women in quality are all hardworking, smart, and professional; focused on making our products flawless, establishing the highest standards of quality, and optimizing the manufacturing and industries’ processes. Our four invited high caliber panelists will share their background, work experience-challenges and general feelings about being a woman in the quality field.
Panel members:
Next Event – Prochain Événement Read More »
Par Chantale Simard, MBA, Analyste Assurance Qualité, Bombardier Aviation, ASQ CMQOE et CSSGB
Ce mois-ci, je vous présente un résumé de notre plan d’affaires pour 2021. Premièrement, tous les objectifs des organisations de l’ASQ au niveau de la communauté géographique (CG), comme la Section de Montréal et la région du Canada et du Groenland, doivent être harmonisés avec les objectifs stratégiques de l’ASQ, qui sont:
Votre plan d’affaires de section comprend des mesures et des objectifs. Voici une liste de nos principaux objectifs pour cette année :
Si vous voulez faire du bénévolat au sein de l’équipe de leadership de la section, nous avons toujours besoin d’aide supplémentaire. Vous devez être un membre “Full”, “Senior” ou “Fellow” pour vous joindre. Nous tenons une réunion au début de chaque mois (sauf pendant l’été). Nos rencontres sont toutes virtuelles pour le moment. Mais, même lorsque nous tenions des réunions en personne, nous avions commencé à utiliser la technologie pour accommoder les membres de l’équipe afin qu’ils puissent se joindre par voie électronique. Il est ainsi plus facile pour les membres à l’extérieur de la région de Montréal ou les personnes ayant des horaires différentes ou chargés de s’impliquer. Certains d’entre nous donnent beaucoup de temps à la Section et d’autres ont moins de temps à y investir et c’est tout à fait correct; toute aide est bienvenue.
Tous les bénévoles ajoutent de la valeur aux membres de la section et nous permettent d’atteindre notre mission : Promouvoir et améliorer la profession de la qualité en appuyant les membres de notre section, en offrant de l’information, des programmes éducatifs et des événements, tout en sensibilisant et en faisant la promotion de la valeur de la qualité dans la communauté.
Contactez-moi si vous désirez aider la Section de Montréal en prenant un rôle au sein de l’équipe de leadership.
Mot de la présidente Read More »
Par Marcel Charbonneau, T.P., Membre senior et CQA de l’ASQ
Webinaire: La réalisation d’audits virtuels, mercredi, le 27 janvier, 2021.
Pré-rencontre: Vous êtes invités à vous présenter 30 minutes avant pour un réseautage et vous familiariser avec l’outil de télécommunication.
Vous n’y étiez pas? Eh bien, pour la prochaine rencontre, SVP cela vous aidera à profiter pleinement de votre soirée.
En attendant l’arrivée de tous les participants, la présidente de la section Chantale Simard, a présenté deux personnes qui ont reçu des honneurs pour souligner une reconnaissance de leurs engagements, contributions à l’association, le travail pour le colloque 2020 et la francisation de l’infolettre (Newsletter) et du site internet, deux gars qui valent leur pesant d’or: Raymond Dyer, membre depuis 1993 et Jean-Pierre Amiel, membre depuis 1977. Des bénévoles, qui ont occupé toutes les fonctions au sein de l’équipe de la section Montréal (401) au cours des années. Nous les avons remerciés chaleureusement et les applaudis pour leur travail. En plus de leur préparation de ce webinaire nous avons aussi remercié David Tozer, Veronica Marquez et Chantale Simard. Il faut aussi féliciter l’équipe pour le succès de ce webinaire et la qualité de la plateforme informatique “TEAMS” de Microsoft.
La présentation animée par Raymond Dyer, B.Sc., ASQ Senior, CMQ/OE, & CQA a été préparée en collaboration avec Annie van Otterdijk, QMS Chef auditeur certifié par l’IRCA. Parmi les 37 participants de divers entreprises des secteurs pharmaceutiques, électroniques, aéronautiques, institutionnels, alimentaires, manufacturiers et de services, on retrouvait des auditeurs d’expériences et novices. Certains travaille avec des Registraires — tel que Guy, Sam et Annie; d’autres sont des consultants qui réalisent des audits internes — Michael, Véronique, Jean, Rosaire et d’autres sont auditeurs internes pour leurs organisations — Amine, Raymond, Tereza, etc. Dans le contexte actuel ils réalisent des audits virtuels et ont bien commenté les différentes situations alors que d’autres ont posé des questions sur des points en particulier.
Nous les remercions pour cet excellent travail qui a couvert tous les aspects des audits virtuels. Une copie de la présentation a été envoyée aux participants, mais pour les absents je vous présente ci-dessous un sommaire des divers thèmes présentés et des discussions qui ont découlée des questions, réponses et commentaires suite à la présentation:
Attention: Je ne veux pas être redondant car nous avons eu déjà une discussion sur les audits virtuels. Je vous invite à lire la Newsletter (l’infolettre) de septembre 2020.
Le client a le choix de l’outil ou de la plateforme informatique pour l’audit virtuel et il doit s’assurer de répondre à un minimum d’exigences pour que l’auditeur puisse réaliser les objectifs de l’audit: c’est le but ultime de la valeur de l’audit. Ils font ce qu’ils peuvent correctement et complètement.
L’auditeur a déjà signé par contrat entre le Registraire et le client toute la confidentialité qu’il doit avoir sur les données et les documents qu’il reçoit.
Les auditeurs utilisent souvent plus d’un écran de grand format pour mieux lire et comprendre les documents et données fournies par le client. Ou, vous installez une carte graphique 4K selon Guy dans votre appareil.
Des effets/conséquences du travail virtuel – certains ne croient pas à son efficacité car il leur manque trop d’informations sur la perception lors du contact avec les audités, le plancher de l’usine, le processus de fabrication et des laboratoires. Une statistique, je dirais lancée, dit qu’il y a beaucoup moins de non-conformités d’émises de 50 à 75%, et cela devrait être confirmé lors d’un retour à la normale des audits sur les sites. Je crois que c’est là que les audits internes prennent leur valeur pour s’assurer du maintien et de l’amélioration.
Audit virtuel ou sur site – le débat a porté aussi sur les audits internes faits par des consultants. Pourquoi des consultants? Sans être ne veux être péjoratif, ils ont les compétences et l’expérience. Mais, les consultants disent premièrement que c’est un bon travail pour eux. Les clients leur demandent. Les clients n’ont pas le temps de libérer et de former du personnel, d’auditer où, surtout dans les PME, le personnel est restreint. Des objections à tout cela – le commentaire des pharmaceutiques: le consultant fera un audit semblable à l’auditeur des agences gouvernementales (FDA, Santé Canada) donc il n’y a pas de valeur ajoutée. Le personnel interne peut plus rapidement identifier les anomalies car il connait les processus et son organisation.
Personnellement j’ai toujours recommandé la formation du personnel cadre et technique d’une organisation pour effectuer les audits internes. Ce personnel découvrira et apprendra les détails de leur organisation et comprendra mieux les forces et les faiblesses des processus.
Je seconde Rosaire, Guy, Luc, Jean, Veronica et Véronique qui préconisent qu’il est possible de faire comprendre au client leur double rôle et que se sera utilisé pour améliorer leur système.
Est-ce que le Registraire devrait s’assurer d’avoir le même auditeur pour les audits? Oui, dit Chantale F. C’est très important à moins que le client ne le demande après un certain temps et qu’il y a une exigence dans des normes après quelques années qu’un nouvel auditeur soit nommé. Est-ce que les Registraires donnent plus de temps de préparation à l’auditeur contractuel? Avec leur professionnalisme les auditeurs se préparent adéquatement, mais des gens professionnels ça se paient.
Merci, et je vous invite à poursuivre la discussion ou à poser vos questions sur LinkedIn ASQ Montreal Quality Network – Réseau Qualité ASQ Montréal.
Had You Connected to the Last Event Read More »
Presentation by Debbie Sears Barnard, MSc, RN, CPHQ, Principal, Diamond Cut Leadership Network and Consultant with Joint Commission International.
Debbie will “unpack” for us how systemic racism and our personal biases impact our patients and communities. This thoughtful session will present some meaningful strategies that the Continuous Improvement (CI) Professional may use to influence the reduction of systemic racism in healthcare and communities.
Racism is not always easy to talk about – even in the health care sector. The Institute of Medicine 2001 report, “Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century,” called for urgent changes to healthcare systems to close the quality gap. The report detailed practices that were seen to impede the provision of quality and detailed six aims that healthcare should embrace to facilitate the creation of a “new health system”. The six aims of a “quality” health system were detailed as: safe, timely, effective, efficient, patient-centered and equitable. Unfortunately, although some organizations have made measurable improvements, others lag, and “equity” has remained elusive.
Debbie Sears Barnard is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ), Canadian EXTRA Fellow and holds a Certificate in Advance Nursing Education (Hons), a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Behavioral Sciences, and a Master of Science in Human Resource Management and Development. She has worked in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Northern Ontario and Alberta, Canada and Georgia, USA.
Next Event – Prochain Événement Read More »
By Michael Bournazian, Eng., Newsletter Editor, ASQ Senior Member, CSSGB
Since I last wrote to you in January, I have had 2 good friends of mine, both of whom work in the Quality field, lose their jobs. Both had been with their respective companies for over a decade, but in both cases, cutbacks and downsizing needed to happen, so their seniority, experience and dedication meant little.
As someone who has been through this myself, I know that starting over and finding new employment can be difficult under the best of circumstances: under our current world circumstances, well, difficult suddenly becomes DIFFICULT.
So I am using my Editor’s Corner this month to highlight a few things that I believe are important when it comes to job searching. If you are reading this and unfortunately find yourself in the same boat, maybe these tips will help you find your way to a new shore.
1) CVs and LinkedIn: Nowadays, a solid and comprehensive LinkedIn profile is as (if not more) important that the paper/Word CV. Recruiters and headhunters use LinkedIn to easily search for candidates that fit the profile of the job they are trying to fill, so making sure that your profile properly summarizes your work experiences, education and training is vital. In the end, make sure both your CV and LinkedIn profile are up-to-date and “attractive”. And don’t forget to use job sites like Monster, Jobillico, Indeed and the like.
2) References: Most (if not all) companies will ask for references during the interviewing/hiring process, so make sure you have (if possible) 3-4 reliable references. A mix of people you have both worked with and worked for is good, and of course, make them aware that you are on the job market and get their buy-in that they will give you a solid reference when called upon. Finally, I have found that having the vital information regarding these references summarized on a single page very handy, especially when asked for them in an interview.
3) Interviews: It’s been said/heard many times, but prepare for your interviews: have copies of your CV, references and certificates with you; research the company ahead of time, as you may be asked what you know about them and/or why you want to work for them; have a list of questions to ask them, it shows that you are prepared and interested. Finally, unless you are very lucky and get hired at your first interview, you are more than likely going to have more interviews that don’t end with a job offer than those that do. The important thing is to not get discouraged, you are probably not the only one who applied and got rejected; and if you do get discouraged, don’t stay down for too long.
4) Zoom/Skype/Teams: Given our current world situation Part 1 . . . the previously discussed interviews may very likely happen virtually. So make sure that you are accustomed to using the current plethora of online meeting tools.
5) Working from Home or On-Site: Given the current world situation Part 2 . . . it is important to determine your comfort level with working at the company site, and therefore, in potential close proximity to other humans. Not all jobs can be done from your home bubble. So make sure to take this into consideration when researching an opportunity or being interviewed for it: it may be important for both your physical and mental health.
6) Any Given Hour: One important thing to finish on . . . when I first entered the job market in the early 1990s, the Internet was not a major player in our lives, so job searching mainly took place during traditional working hours and certainly not on weekends. Well, no more: with everything electronic and online, you can basically job search 24/7 if you wanted to. I am not advocating being on your computer all day and night looking for and applying to job opportunities, but realize that even on a Saturday or Sunday, an opportunity may pop up and the recruiter may be there to see your application. The early bird catches the worm, but so does the omnipresent bird.
I hope these tips have helped someone in some fashion. Good luck to you.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Neither the “C” word nor the “P” word were used during the writing of this article.
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Any feedback? Click on the link and let me know.
Thank you, all the best and none of the worst.
The Editor’s Corner Read More »
By Chantale Simard, MBA, Quality Assurance Analyst, Bombardier Aviation, ASQ CMQOE and CSSGB
I am honored to announce that the Montreal Section will host the 2021 ASQ Canadian Conference, which will take place virtually later this year. We have already identified 3 objectives that are close to our hearts: An interactive experience, activities categorized by level of knowledge of the subject and a bilingual conference.
We will provide you with options for workshops and activities that will promote exchange and discussion and allow participants to learn through small group workshops, software or simulation available online during the activity.
We will offer learning opportunities according to the required level of knowledge of the topics covered (beginner, intermediate and advanced). We hope this will help you choose the activities and conferences that will meet your expectations.
Finally, we intend to take advantage of the fact that we are a bilingual section to ensure that this conference will offer activities in both official languages, as well as simultaneous translations.
We are interested in your comments and suggestions. We will be launching an online survey in connection with this conference shortly. I will tell you about it and will give the link in the next edition of the newsletter. In the meantime, feel free to write to me or start a discussion on our LinkedIn group or on our French or English MyASQ sites.
Thanks to the members of the ASQ Canada region for your trust and support!
Word from the Chair Read More »
By Veronica B. Marquez, M.Sc, CSSBB, CSSCP, ASQ Senior Member, ASQ Montreal Vice-Chair, member of Student Outreach Committee
Are you interested in developing your Lean Six Sigma skills?
The ASQ Montreal section is offering to sponsor students members of any university in Montreal to attend the ASQ Lean Six Sigma conference taking place this March 1st to the 4th. Send us an email before February 19th, 2021 COB, indicating your field of study, university, and why you are interested in attending the ASQ LSS conference. Four eligible participants will be chosen at random from the received emails. The winners will be notified during the weekend of February 20-21, 2021. Winners will be reimbursed after they provide us with proof of purchase (USD $99) and attendance. For more details: ASQ Lean Six Sigma Conference
In return, we will be inviting the selected students to present their experience with our members during our September 29, 2021 event in the form of a 15-minute presentation on a topic of their choosing from the LSS conference.
Send us your email at vmarquez@memberleader.asq.org before end of business day February 19th, 2021.
Student Outreach Committee – Sponsoring students for LSS Conference Read More »
They have been nominated and will collaborate with the various Sections and their leaders to accomplish the Geographic Council (GCC) objectives:
Canada & Greenland Region News Read More »
C’est lors du transfert des responsabilités de présidence que Chantale Simard, nouvelle présidente et Eric Hosking président sortant de la Section de Montréal, ont présenté et remis des honneurs pour souligner une reconnaissance de leurs engagements, contributions à l’association, le travail pour le colloque 2020, la francisation de l’infolettre (Newsletter) et du site internet. Tel que décrit par Marcel Charbonneau, un collègue, — deux gars qui valent leur pesant d’or: Raymond Dyer et Jean-Pierre Amiel, des bénévoles qui ont occupé plusieurs fonctions au sein de l’équipe de direction de la section Montréal (401) au cours des années.
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Special Awards: Félicitations et merci – Congratulations and thank-you Read More »
By Veronica Marquez, MSc, ASQ Senior Member, ASQ CSSBB, Section Vice-chair and Social media chair
Last year’s efforts to continue to offer our members with continued conferences and events, required that we adopt new technologies and work processes. This year, we are continuing in that path and have begun changing a few things with the goal of bringing greater visibility and recognition to our section and to all quality professionals.
If you have any questions or comments about our new approaches, please reach out here!
By Amine Djeffal, ASQ CQA, RAC, Quality and Regulatory Affairs Professional
La section ASQ de Montréal a réussi, en dernière minute, un tour de force en trouvant une alternative suite au désistement de la conférencière qui devait nous livrer une présentation traitant de la planification et du déroulement des audits virtuels. L’équipe de direction a su faire face à l’imprévu en décidant d’en faire un sujet de discussion. Le tout dans le cadre d’une soirée de réseautage.
Un des participants a insisté sur le fait que la discussion était riche et très instructive et que c’était une bonne idée d’avoir l’opportunité d’en débattre avec les autres participants après la présentation. Faut dire aussi que ce sujet nous tenait à cœur.
L’utilisation de la plateforme Teams a été saluée. Cela prouve que l’équipe de direction est en mesure de s’adapter et de trouver les meilleures alternatives afin de répondre aux besoins des membres.
Selon les résultats du sondage la moitié des répondants étaient membres en bonne et due forme de l’ASQ. La plupart d’entre eux se définissaient comme des spécialistes en qualité. La majorité des participants travaillaient dans le domaine manufacturier. Les niveaux d’appréciation ont atteint 100% concernant les catégories Approche et Interaction. En ce qui a trait aux catégories Sujet et Qualité de la présentation les résultats obtenus étaient de 97% et 94% respectivement.
D’autres parts les participants ont exprimé de l’intérêt à l’égard de certains sujets d’actualité. On y trouve, à titre d’exemple, les audits (toujours les audits!), les systèmes qualité, l’amélioration continue et les outils pour la gestion des requêtes.
Toujours selon les résultats du sondage, l’infolettre de la section de Montréal demeure le meilleur moyen pour joindre le maximum de membres afin de les tenir informés des évènements à venir.
Au final l’évènement a suscité un engouement et un enthousiasme sans précédent. En effet, tous les participants ont indiqué qu’ils participeraient à un évènement similaire dans un proche avenir.
Restez connectés pour plus d’informations et à bientôt.
Voice of the Customer – Voix du client Read More »