Quality in Federal Government Research Project Team
Meeting Minutes
ASQ Annual Quality Congress
May 21, 2003
9:15 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
ATTENDEES
Bob King, Co-Chair GOAL/QPC, bking@goalqpc.com
Ivy Slattery Salsbury, Slattery & Associates
Chih-Han Wang, Ph.D., Chinese Society for Quailty
Greg Watson, Co-Chair, ASQ
AGENDA
- Review research project background – Bob King
- Next Steps – Bob King
PROJECT BACKGROUND
- Greg Watson is in charge of the project and contacting governments around the world
- Bob King is in charge of contacting consultants who have already done some of this research
- The project team has designed a survey based on a new definition of quality which includes a macro and micro approach to improve communities. BSS will survey national governments (and U.S. states) who have been involved in the reinventing government movement and IAQ thought leaders to solicit information about best practices in quality that are used by government. What were the lessons learned and best practices observed in the decade of the 1990s? Can these lessons still apply in the current decade?
- The initial study report will be an ASQ white paper for publication
- Study results will be presented at the International Society for Quality conference in November, 2003.
- The final study report will be presented by Vincente Fox (President of Mexico), with a cover letter, to all 192 United Nations countries.
- Some history about quality in the U.S. government:
- WWII – War Production Board – Operations Evaluation Group
- General McPeak – 1990 – How will warfare be conducted in 2020? How to embed creativity into planning? This study was conducted by the Air War College
- Bill Creech – Desert Storm – logistics planning with TQM – 1991
- 1993 GPRA – hoshin planning
- USAF Blue Ribbon Committee on Operational Evaluation – 1996
- Bronze Hammer Award and components of reinventing government
FOCUS QUESTIONS AND KEY IDEAS
What are the key issues regarding quality in federal government?
- Must have a capable quality person heading the program, a capable quality person under him/her, and a small army of people who understand quality to do the work.
- Need to look at the long history of quality programs in U.S. military.
- Identify the use of creativity in planning (decide what you are going to do and then figure out what you will do differently – Frank Toda, Operation Iraqi Freedom).
- Up to now, quality was broadly defined
- A key issue in quality in federal government: pockets of excellence but not systems of practice.
NEXT STEPS
- All attendees will be given personal access Ids and passwords to the ASQ Worldwide Research Program website.
- Meeting Minutes will be placed on the website under the Quality in Federal Government project site.
- Discussion questions will be made available on the website for further project design definition.
- Greg will contact country representatives for participation in the survey.
- Bob will contact consultants who have conducted/are conducting research in the area of quality in federal government.
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PRODUCTS