QP Asq

PLAN AND PACK
THE STAPLES TO
SUPPORT YOUR
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RV E Y
CAREER ASPIRATIONS
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QUALITY PROGRESS
T H E O F F I C I A L P U B L I C AT I O N O F A S Q
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QUALITYPROGRESS.COM
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WOMEN IN QUALITY
We Culture
Luciana Paulise
Today’s global, complex, and
disruptive business environment
demands companies to become
more adaptive and agile. It’s
imperative that organizations upskill their
personnel and develop a culture where
leading change is everyone’s job, promoting
a collaborative approach with a We Culture
mentality.
Implementing some Six Sigma best practices, this
book will help you create a culture in the future
of work to increase worker engagement through
the 12-skills CARE model for hybrid and remote
workplaces. Content includes hands-on exercises
and access to a mobile app with learning tools to
develop each skill.
Item: H1591
Connected, Intelligent,
Automated
N. W. Radziwill
Connected, Intelligent, Automated
provides you with the techniques,
philosophies, and broad overall
knowledge you need to understand
Quality 4.0. Navigate the ecosystems of
FEATURED
infrastructure, people, objects, machines, and
data. Sift through the noise around AI, AR, big
data, blockchain, cybersecurity, and other rising
RELEASE technologies and emerging issues to find the

signals for your organization. You will learn how
to leverage these factors for the future success of
from Quality Press your enterprise.

Item: H1567
Successful Management of Cloud
Computing and DevOps
ASQ MEMBERS RECEIVE DISCOUNTS
Alka Jarvis, Prakash Anand, Johnson Jose For a complete listing of available titles, visit the
ASQ Quality Press Catalog.
Cloud computing has helped businesses handle technology https://tinyurl.com/qpcatalog
and streamline their IT operations. Yet, with the glut of
software and information available, it can be overwhelming
to know how to maximize the use of that technology and
successfully manage DevOps.
Through their combined years of experience working in Silicon
Valley, the authors take their collective experience to share
with readers best practices of cloud computing from both
operational and business perspectives. The information shared
will help all practitioners in making informed decisions while
shaping their technology policies, procedures, and operations
that will improve customer experience.
Item: H1586
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December 2023
RVE Y
VOLUME 56
NUMBER 12 SQ
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A
S A L A RY
COVER STORY
14 || Only the Essentials
Packing for a trip may seem simple, but it can be tricky:
Add too much, and you’re overloaded with needless items
that weigh you down. Leave things out, and you’re harried
with detours to pick up much-needed clothes or accessories
along the way. But do it strategically, and you’re ready to go.
Think of your résumé as the suitcase you’re packing
for a successful career journey. You must have the proper
pieces (certifications and Belts), along with various items
of equipment (education, experience and training) to
ensure you’re ready for anything.
The 37th annual ASQ Salary Survey report serves as
a packing list to make sure you have all the right items in
your trunk of offerings. In addition to the four sections here,
there are six more to unpack online—including two dedicated
to self-employed consultants.
by Max Christian Hansen and Jenny Chu
26 || Lay of the Land 38 || Buckle Up 46 || Educated 52 || Been There,

Salary by job title and Salary by ASQ certifications. and En Route Done That
satisfaction scores. Salary by highest level Salary by years of
of education. experience in quality.
WEB EXCLUSIVES
More to Explore Cool Calculations
Six more sections of the ASQ Salary Survey, including two The ASQ salary calculator tool updated to include this
sections dedicated to self-employed consultants, as well year’s results for you to slice and dice data on your own.
as salary breakdowns by industry, Six Sigma credentials,
geographic location, and age and gender. Insightful Interviews
Additional commentary and analysis of this year’s survey
All in One Package results in a webcast as well as a video from ASQTV.
The complete ASQ Salary Survey report—all 10 sections plus
appendixes—together in PDF format ready for easy download.
Check out these extras

at qualityprogress.com
qualityprogress.com || QP || 1
CONTENTS
December 2023 VOLUME 56 NUMBER 12
FEATURES 68
Editor in Chief and Publisher Media Sales
62 || The Influencer Model Seiche Sanders SmithBucklin
Implement the influencer change ssanders@asq.org 866-277-5666
model to alter behaviors and boost
Senior Editor Editorial Offices
measurable results. Mark Edmund 414-272-8575
by Peter J. Sherman medmund@asq.org
Mail
68 || Under Surveillance Assistant Editor
Lindsay Pietenpol
Quality Progress/ASQ
600 N. Plankinton Ave.
Results from a survey of medical lpietenpol@asq.org Milwaukee, WI 53203
device manufacturers show how
device telemetry can improve the Publications Specialist Telephone
Valerie Ellifson 800-248-1946
monitoring of product performance.
by Carolyn Wright Copy Editor Amanda Hankel Fax 414-272-1734
Design Email vellifson@asq.org
COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS

GLC glcdelivers.com
03 || Foreword 86 || Marketplace Article Submission Process
04 || Seen & Heard 88 || Try This Today Quality Progress is a peer-reviewed publication with 85% of its
feature articles written by quality professionals. To learn more
Deploying the reliability-centered about article submission and the manuscript review process,
06 || Progress Report maintenance method. visit www.qualityprogress.com under “Tools and Resources”
and click on Author Guidelines.
Report: Women continue to aim
high, but still meet resistence. Photocopying Authorization
PLUS
Getting to Know ... Keith Wagoner DIGITAL
X Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use
or the internal or personal use of specific clients is granted
EDITION
by Quality Progress provided the fee of $1 per copy is paid
09 || Mr. Pareto Head to ASQ or the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood
Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. Copying for other
purposes requires the express permission of Quality Progress.
10 || Expert Answers For permission, call 800-248-1946 or email reprints@asq.org.
Tips on transitioning away from
Photocopies and Reprints
FMEA to AIAG/VDA FMEA.
Article photocopies are available from ASQ at 800-248-1946.
To purchase bulk reprints (more than 100), call ASQ at
12 || Career Coach 800-248-1946.
Become more creative by learning
to love your job. Quality Progress (ISSN 0033-524X) is published monthly
by the American Society for Quality, 600 N. Plankinton
Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53203. Editorial and advertising offices:
76 || Standard Issues 414-272-8575. Periodicals postage paid at Milwaukee, WI,
All about the new aerospace QP is now available in a and at additional mailing offices. Institutional subscriptions
are held in the name of a company, corporation, government
standard AS9125. convenient digital format agency or library. Requests for back issues must be prepaid
to make it easier to access and are based on availability: ASQ members $20 per copy;
78 || Six Sigma Solutions the quality information nonmembers $28 per copy. Canadian GST #128717618,
Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40030175. Canada
How to sustain lean Six Sigma gains. you need on the go. Post: Return undeliverables to 2835 Kew Drive, Windsor,
Make sure to log in ON N8T 3B7. Prices are subject to change without prior
82 || The Download to view the link. notification. © 2023 by ASQ. No claim for missing issues
will be accepted after three months following the month of
A trio of technology trends to keep publication of the issue for domestic addresses and six months
tabs on in '24. for Canadian and international addresses.
digital.asq.org/
qualityprogress/ Postmaster: Please send address changes to ASQ,
library PO Box 3005, Milwaukee, WI 53201-3005.
Cover image: urfinguss via Getty Images Printed in USA.
2 || QP || December 2023
F O R EW O R D TH E QUAL IT Y INSIDE
QUAL IT Y PROGRE SS
Trip of a
Lifetime
ASQ’s Vision Stephanie Gaulding,
ASQ will be the thought Pharmatech Associates
leader and community
Steven Schuelka,
Bring along
of choice for individuals
California State the essentials
and organizations seeking
excellence through quality.
University-Dominguez Hills to catapult
your career
INTERIM CHIEF GCC
EXECUTIVE OFFICER Therese Steiner, Lexis Nexis
Sid Bhatnagar ven for the most sea-
E
Nancy Nouaimeh, Abela & Co
soned traveler, packing
CHIEF FINANCIAL for a trip requires
Jose Carlos Flores-Molina,
OFFICER Jim Monnat
Pontificia Universidad Catolica del some thought and
Peru (PUCP)
CHIEF MEMBERSHIP preparation because
EXPERIENCE
Sachin Garg, IndoSpace there are so many variables at
OFFICER
Stephanie Denvir Capital Advisors play: the method of transport
and route you’re taking to get
ASQEXCELLENCE, Michael Kirchner, Retired
INC. CEO there, the weather at your destina-
Jim Templin Dan Sniezek, Dynamic tion, the activities and events you
Education Services
have planned, the accommodations, salaries are outpacing inflation—
Senior Leadership
CHAIR and, of course, style, convenience and then some! The authors also
Francisco Santos, Metalsa QP Editorial Review Board and comfort. And don’t forget the provide some advice and direction
Matthew Barsalou, Sureshchandar
CHAIR-ELECT snacks for fuel! as you consider the data.
G.S., Gary Jing, Trevor Jordan,
Wanda Sturm, Resources Packing all the right items for The research findings include so
Scott Laman, Stephanie Parker,
Global Professionals
Gene Placzkowski, Peter Pylipow, a successful trip is the perfect par- much information, we can’t fit it all
Narahari Vittal Rao, Tiea Theurer
PAST CHAIR allel for examining the factors that into one issue. Don’t forget to check
Blanton Godfrey, North
Carolina State University make for a fruitful career journey. out six more sections that appear
QP Technical Reviewers Each year since 1986, ASQ has online at asq.org/quality-progress/
TREASURER
Kerry Bass, Potential to Ashraf Ali, Suresh Anaganti, helped quality professionals map salary-survey as well as the auto-
Reality Consulting, LLC Zubair Anwar, M. Onur Artan, their ideal career strategy by pub- mated salary calculator tool, which
N.T. Balakrishnan, Andy Barnett,
Bernie Carpenter, Ken Cogan,
lishing the most comprehensive provides you with a quick estimate
Members at Large
Sheronda Jeffries Ahmad Elshennawy, Brian Galli, research on quality profession- of what you should be making
Cisco Systems T. Gourishankar, Tolga Göcer, als’ salaries that exists—the ASQ given your specific background
Roberto Guzman, Lynne Hare,
Peter Merrill Bering He, Lou Ann Lathrop, Denis
Salary Survey. and qualifications.
Quest Management Inc. Leonard, Pradip Mehta, Larry The results of this intensive There’s even more in this issue.
Tracy Owens Picciano, Ritam Priya, Imran research serve as a valuable tool “The Influencer Model,” p. 62, lays
The Ohio State University Ahmad Rana, James Rooney,
Ayman Sakr, Anusha Selvakumar,
by which you can see how you out an approach that can help quality
Pedro Saraiva Mahboubeh Shabani, Luigi Sille, stack up against peers in various professionals manage change within
NOVA University of Herman Tang, B. Vaithiyanathan, roles, with varying backgrounds their organization using six sources
Lisbon Manu Vora, Denise Wrestler
in all corners of the United States of influence to drive and sustain
TCC and Canada. Use the 48 pages of continuous improvement. QP
To promote discussion of issues in the
Polly LeBarron, charts, graphs and analysis to plot
field of quality and ensure coverage
National Quality Review
of all responsible points of view, your next career move, whether it
Frank Murdock, Quality Progress publishes articles
be attaining a new certification, or Seiche Sanders
FKM Consulting, LLC. representing conflicting and minority
views. Opinions expressed are those looking for that next-level position Editor in Chief
Shawn Armstrong, of the authors and not necessarily of
in a different industry. and Publisher
PakTech ASQ or Quality Progress. Use of the
ASQ logo in advertisements does not Turn to p. 14 for “Only the
Lisa El-Shall, necessarily constitute endorsement
EAS Consulting Group, of that particular product or service
Essentials,” and learn the possible
LLC. by ASQ. reasons why quality professionals’
SEEN HEARD &
READER REACTIONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD THE REACTION GAUGE
THIS MONTH’S QUESTION
LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE There’s no question that salary is a big

In response to “Back to Basics: part of accepting—and staying at—any
job, but money isn’t everything, as they
Style and Substance” (September say. What’s the best non-compensation
2023, p. 56): An organization benefit your employer offers?
viewing nonconformances
as negative is indicative of a
lack of quality environment. Join the discussion on myASQ
at my.asq.org, or on LinkedIn at
Perhaps the first step is to www.linkedin.com/company/asq.
conduct an awareness leaders
workshop to gain buy-in from
LAST MONTH’S QUESTION
leaders. Nonconformances
drive correction and corrective Which culture affects the pursuit
action. As a finer point, of quality excellence the most
nonconformances don’t improve in your workgroup? Workgroup/
division, organizational, local or
the system. They merely tell the national/regional?
organization where the system
doesn’t meet requirements. Producing confirming Alexander Kholodov, Søborg, Denmark,
products and services and ensuring continual writes:
improvement depends on how the nonconformances On my journey, it has most often been
are addressed. a blend of local and organizational,
where the best results come from
Inderjit Arora, Ashburn, VA
management’s commitment to and
investment in people and systems
A B E T T E R U N D E R S TA N D I N G
together with dedication and
In response to “Expert Answers: September 2023” (p. 5): I find it confusing to
care from the people doing their
refer to human error and address the topic of failure. Human error is a cause of
job professionally on the ground,
failure, but not the only one. One reason for not addressing root cause analysis
day in and day out.
(RCA) properly is because the failure’s origins aren’t understood.
In turn, human error can be traced to a lack of skills and abilities (which can be
traced to deficient training programs), a lack of good habits (which can be traced Norm Howe, Ann Arbor, MI, notes:
to deficient on-the-job training and supervision), emotional distractions, changes Our experience in building a
in the workplace and environment, overconfidence, thinking biases and so on. strong quality culture showed that
If we understand human behavior, it is easier to address the topic. Obviously, workgroup/division, organizational
a culture of accepting failure and national/regional all were
as a means of improvement important. They are all interrelated,
is needed. But that is in but it’s critical that improvement be
addition to a proper RCA driven from the bottom up. Of course,
based on understanding that doesn’t happen unless top
human behavior, process management molds the organization
and systems. to empower frontline workers.
Luis Iturriaga Morales, Boca Culture is what you do when nobody
Del Rio, Mexico is looking.
A digest of trends, research & late-breaking news
The Next
CAREERS
Women’s
ambitions in
the workplace
Level Up
climb, but
obstacles
to advance
persist, report
finds
omen in the workplace
Women of color face the steepest drop-
W
are more ambitious
than they were before off in representation from entry level
the pandemic—and to C-suite positions. As they move up the
flexibility is fueling that pipeline, women of color’s representation
ambition. But women’s representation drops by two-thirds.
at the top is not necessarily keeping pace. The report found that although women’s
That’s one of the main findings in representation in the C-suite has grown
the latest “Women in the Workplace” study to 28% from 24% last year and 17% in
recently released by McKinsey and Lean In. 2019, the researchers call this prog-
Researchers of the ninth annual report said ress “notable but fragile” because
that about 80% of women want to be promoted to it comes without sustained
the next level, compared with 70% in 2019. Women improvements throughout
of color are even more ambitious than white women: 88% the pipeline.
want to be promoted to the next level. Young women, too,
are especially ambitious. Nine in 10 women under the age of
30 want to be promoted to the next level, and three in four aspire
C.J. Burton via Getty Images
to become senior leaders.

But ambitions don’t always translate into advancements and promo-
tions. Consider these results:
Women represent about one in four C-suite leaders, and women of color
just one in 16.
S U S TA I N A B I L IT Y
ASQ EED SUSTAINABILITY SURVEY 2023 OPENS

Eight years ago, the United Nations established 17 sus- looks to ascertain perceptions of the level of materiality
tainable development goals (SDG) for businesses, cities of each SDG, SDG alignment and adoption as well as per-
and nongovernmental organizations to achieve by 2030. ceived effects from projects targeted at addressing SDGs.
Halfway toward that deadline, member states are on track to Upon completion, survey respondents will receive a free
achieve 15% of SDGs by 2030 and in many instances previous SDG assessment report, sustainability risk maturity report
progress is being reversed, according to António Guterres, and certificate of recognition.
UN Secretary General.
In response to this development, the ASQ Energy and Scan the QR code or visit freemium.sdg-assessment.com
Environmental Division (EED) Sustainability Survey 2023 to take the survey, which is open until Dec. 31.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
“We don’t face a constraint on ambition—we face a constraint

on opportunity,” said Lareina Yee, senior partner at McKinsey & Co.
More than 27,000 employees and 270 senior HR leaders from 276
organizations were surveyed for the report. Other results from the
report debunked common myths about women’s workplace experiences
Research:
and career advancement, including:
The biggest barrier to women’s advancement is the “glass
AI Aids in
ceiling.” Actually, it’s the “broken rung”—the ﬁrst critical step
up to manager—that proves to be the biggest obstacle women face
Customer
on the path to senior leadership, researchers found.
Microaggressions have a “micro impact.” Not true, according
Service
to the report. Microaggressions have a large-and-lasting impact on
women. Years of data show that women experience microaggressions
at a signiﬁcantly higher rate than men: They are twice as likely to be
mistaken for someone junior or hear comments on their emotional Customer service agents using artificial intel-
state, for example. ligence (AI) experienced a nearly 14% increase
It’s mostly women who want—and benefit from—flexible in productivity, according to research released
work. Not exactly. Researchers found that men and women con- earlier this year.
sider flexibility as a top-three employee benefit and critical to their The academic study out of the National Bureau
organization’s success. of Economic Research in Cambridge, MA, also
found that lowest skilled and least-experienced
For more from the report, visit bit.ly/3ZN5sKf and leanin.org/women-in-the-workplace. workers saw the greatest gain in productivity
(up 35%), and the most experienced and most
ASQ
able workers had no improvement.
The researchers—using call data from about
WOMEN IN QUALITY EVENT

5,000 agents working for a Fortune 500 software
company—attribute the productivity increase to
FAST APPROACHING
three factors: Agents, who could participate in
multiple chats at once, spent about 9% less time per
chat, handled about 14% more chats per hour and
Time is running out to register for ASQ’s fourth annual successfully resolved about 1.3% more chats overall.
Women in Quality Symposium, to be held Thursday, Dec. Customer satisfaction measurements showed no
7. The online symposium is touted as a “personal and Visit asq.org/ significant change, suggesting that the productivity
professional development event to leverage the unique conferences/ improvements did not come at the expense of
strengths of women in the quality community.” Organizers women-in-quality interaction quality.
are building conference programming around the theme for updates on
of “Breaking Through Barriers.” programming. For more from the study, visit bit.ly/3PXpYU2.
WORKPL ACE
Watch for These 10 Employee ENGINEER: EWEEK

Engagement Trends
FEB 18-24 NSPE
ENGINEERING
EWEEK SLATED
Employee engagement continues to be a challenge for many workplaces
throughout today’s business world. Here are 10 employee engagement
FOR FEB. 18-24

trends to watch for in 2024, according to Together, a mentoring software
startup company.
1. Hybrid work will continue to evolve.
2. More organizations will use mentorship programs for skill development. Seven days in February devoted to promoting
3. Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging will remain a critical priority. and raising public awareness around the engi-
4. Employee wellbeing programs will expand to include a holistic approach. neering profession—deemed EWeek—takes
5. HR leaders will focus more on artificial intelligence-powered place Feb. 18-24.
employee experience. Founded by the National Society of Profes-
6. Employees will continue to prefer purpose-driven work. sional Engineers in 1951, the initiative is organized
7. Organizations will invest more in upskilling and by a coalition of more than 70 engineering,
reskilling employees. education and cultural societies, and more than
8. Technology-driven engagement will be the norm. 50 corporations and government agencies.
9. Sustainable workplaces will gain popularity.
10. Innovative benefits packages will gain wide- Visit bit.ly/3PLIgHH for more details on activi-
spread acceptance. ties and promotions.
For more information about these

trends, visit bit.ly/49a1Iqy.
NEWS BRIEFS
S U S TA I N A B I L IT Y The second edition of The ASQ Certi-

fied Quality Engineer Study Guide
ISO, UNDP FORM PARTNERSHIP

has been released. The companion
to The ASQ Certified Quality Engineer
Handbook is helpful for anyone plan-
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the ning to take the certification exam.
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) recently signed a The guide, edited by Scott A. Laman,
landmark statement of intent, signaling their commitment to “the was developed specifically to address
role of international standards in addressing global development the 2022 certified quality engineer
challenges.” body of knowledge.
The two organizations will collaborate on initiatives geared toward For more information, visit asq.org/quality-press/
enhancing international standards that advance sustainability actions display-item?item=H1601.
by public and private sectors, including the prospective development
of the first international standard for the United Nations’ Sustainable Registration is open for the 2024 Conference on Statistical
Development Goals (SDG) based on UNDP’s SDG Impact Standards Practice. The three-day American Statistical Association
and relevant ISO standards. event takes place Feb. 27-29 in New Orleans. The event brings
“As we see with SDG 17—Partnerships for Goals, achieving the SDGs together hundreds of statistical practitioners—including
requires true partnering across all sectors. This partnership between ISO data analysts, researchers and scientists—who engage in the
and UNDP brings forth an opportunity to build on the unique contribu- application of statistics to solve real-world problems on a daily
tions of each organization for a more resilient and equitable future for all,” basis. Four themes at this year’s event include: career, profes-
said Ulrika Francke, ISO president. sional and leadership; study design and data management;
implementation and analysis; and effective communication.
For more details on the partnership, visit bit.ly/3LWAbi5. For more details, visit bit.ly/48OCNZm.
GETTING TO KNOW…
Keith Wagoner
Current
Consultant.
position:
Education: Bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and sciences/liberal studies, Excelsior University.
In high school, the head of the food science department at Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, NC, Dean Simpson,
spoke to our advanced biology class. He told us about having 100% placement in the food industry for lab technician jobs.
Introduction to quality:
Subsequently, I went to school there and received an associate degree in food science. This opened the door for my career
as my first position was working on Hawaiian Punch as an R&D lab technician.
My high school math teacher, Hoyt Reece, helped me realize that math was something that came easy to me. My pro-
Teacher who influenced fessional career first started in research and product development, and later moved to the quality arena. At that point,
you the most: I was glad I had a solid foundation in math. This was especially useful when I was preparing for my ASQ certified quality
engineer exam.
Do you have a mentor who
In the mid-1980s, Joe Brooks taught me a lot about quality system management. He also taught me that it is acceptable
has made a difference
to tell the customer “No” when needed. (He also taught me the right way and wrong way to say “No.”)
in your career?
Best career advice: Make sure to never be the source of surprises to your manager.
My position as a reliability engineer at Dow Corning Corp. was probably the coolest job I had, but also the most
demanding. We manufactured high-performance silicones used in the aerospace and defense industry. Products
that we manufactured were on satellites, a space shuttle, and all types of airplanes and missiles. I visited several
Previous noteworthy jobs:
manufacturing sites where our product was used, as well as the final assembly bay for the Patriot missile. I visited
Kelly Airforce Base in San Antonio, TX, after the first Gulf War. At that base, they were rebuilding Pratt and Whitney
engines that had our product.
ASQ activities: Contributor to QP’s Expert Answers department.
Noteworthy activities
Baldrige National Quality Award Examiner for four years.
outside ASQ:
Personal: Wife, Susan; one son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter.
Favorite ways to relax: We love to fish. Sitting on our boat while anchored inshore is very enjoyable as well (without the fishing pole).
“At the end of the day, it is all about driving up customer and employee satisfaction while reducing costs.
Quality quote:
Make sure you do it!”
Mr. Pareto Head b y M i k e C r o s s e n
EXPERT ANSWERS
S U B J E C T M AT T E R E X P E R T S TA K E O N YO U R Q U A L I T Y- R E L AT E D Q U E R I E S
THIS MONTH’S QUESTION
My organization is transitioning from the traditional

failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) process to the
new Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG)/Verband der
Automobilindustrie (VDA) FMEA process for process FMEA
(PFMEA). What are some lessons learned or words of advice
to follow during the transition?
OUR RESPONSE
he AIAG and VDA approaches has failure effects and the lowest
T
to FMEA have been combined system element has failure causes,
in the AIAG/VDA FMEA but what is a failure cause, failure
Handbook.1 The first step in mode or failure effect can be unclear
using the handbook is learning at the system elements in the middle.
the new terminology. For example, each In such a situation, the failure mode
system, assembly, subassembly, com- is at the system element you are look-
ponent and characteristic in a design ing at. Therefore, failure effects are
FMEA (DFMEA) is a system element. above, and failure causes are below.
In the PFMEA, a process, process step
and work element are system elements.
System elements are at system levels,
such as assemblies below the com-
plete system and above components
in a DFMEA, or PFMEA opera-
tions below the entire process An AIAG/VDA FMEA Hand-
and above the work element book-style FMEA can be done
from the Ishikawa diagram. in a spreadsheet; it looks like
The system element an old-style AIAG form sheet
with the failure mode The best program is with additional columns.
is the focus element. useless if nobody can However, consider FMEA
This is an important figure out how to use it. software. Although some
consideration because FMEA software programs
although a simple Excel- may resemble a simple Excel
based FMEA may have only form sheet, there are more
three system levels, Often I complicated programs with
have seen six or seven linked graphical interfaces that also
system elements in old-style should be considered.
VDA FMEAs created in software. The AIAG/VDA FMEA Handbook has
In such cases, the top system element seven steps, beginning with planning and
preparation, and ending with document- isn’t a dedicated moderator with soft- effect and the failure mode just to sep-
ing results.2 With many programs, steps ware experience available. The best arate main operations. For those who
two through six are added directly in program is useless if nobody can figure want to keep things simple, three sys-
the software starting with a structure out how to use it. tem levels is fine.
analysis. Next, functions are added to There can be many system levels The handbook has replaced risk
the system elements, and failures are in software. A colleague of mine pre- priority number (RPN) with action
added to the functions. Entering system fers to have six or seven system levels priority (AP). Instead of multiplying
elements, functions and failures into starting with a failure cause, a failure severity, occurrence and detection
a software program ensures they are mode, and many failure effects linked to calculate an RPN for periodiza-
located where they should be on the together and leading to the final effect tion, an AP is derived using a table
form sheet. The risk analysis and opti- of failure. I agree that such an FMEA to display combinations of severity,
mization steps are then much like in is highly detailed, but this approach occurrence and detection values. 3
an old-style FMEA. may be overwhelming for people used In place of looking up AP in tables,
Using software has advantages. to three system levels in an Excel form create a matrix so that AP can be
Donald Iain Smith via Getty Images
Complex FMEAs can be navigated sheet, and I prefer four system levels. derived quickly and easily.4 QP
easily, there may be options for adding In a DFMEA, I like to have a level for
EDITOR’S NOTE
translations and it may be possible intermediate failure effects between References for this department can be found on
to change the form sheet style with the failure mode and the final failure the department’s webpage at qualityprogress.com.
just a click or two. Some programs effect. In PFMEAs, I prefer to have an
are complicated, however, and ease intermediate system level named after This response was written by Matthew Barsalou,
of use should be considered if there the main operation between the failure QPLUS, Germany.
CAR EER COACH
A DV I C E TO A DVA N C E YO U R C A R E E R
ccording to Simone Stolzoff— including belief in the dignity and Passion is a deep personal interest
A
writer, designer and work sacredness of all work: “To pray is and engagement. Researchers Paul A.
expert—workers whose to work, to work is to pray (Orare est O’Keefe and E.J. Hornberg have found
professions exhibit noble laborare, laborare est orare).4, 5 The con- “that encouraging people to ‘find’ their
purpose and who buy “rhet- temporary “religion of workism” decried passion may cause them to eventually
oric that a job is a passion” are victims by Stolzoff also seeks identity and mean- believe that interests and passions are
of “vocational awe,” which blinds ing in work, but without the theology or inherent and relatively unchangeable.
them to the fact that work is a simple communal life of monasticism. People who think this have a fixed
economic contract, and subjects them As defined by Derek Thompson in mindset of interest. By contrast, some
to exploitation because their organi- The Atlantic, “It is the belief that work is people, whom we refer to as having a
zations are perceived as “inherently not only necessary to economic produc- growth mindset of interest, view their
good and sacred.”1 tion, but also the centerpiece of one’s interests and passions as developed.”8
In a New York Times op-ed piece, identity and life’s purpose; and the belief A fixed mindset can hinder explora-
he finds that during the pandemic, that any policy to promote human wel- tion, creativity and innovation prized
“The perceived by quality organiza-
righteousness of tions. Curiosity and
In Pursuit
honorable industries CAREERS involvement are criti-
covered up poor con- cal, as is an expectation
ditions like frosting that actively pursuing
on a burned cake.” new interests isn’t
Further, “While voca- always easy. O’Keefe
tional awe is common and Hornberg write,
of Passion
in do-gooder profes- “The old saying ‘find
sions, it can exist in something you love
any field that relies to do, and you’ll never
on the strength of have to work a day in
its brand to distract your life’ needs to be
from the reality of updated. The science
workers’ experi- tells us we should
ences.”2 That covers
Learning to love your job can help you become more instead work toward
a lot of territory, so
creative and resilient by Henry J. Lindborg loving what we do.
most of us can relate. We might expand our
Stolzoff’s book horizons and become
The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life fare must always encourage more work.” more creative and resilient as a result.”9
From Work 3 is an engaging compilation Thompson cautions that “our desks were Not an easy path, but a better one
of narratives about people liberating never meant to be our altars” and elites than alienation and cynicism. QP
from the “religion of workism.” They conditioned to seek their passion and
EDITOR’S NOTE
cover the contemporary landscape “religious” community in work are bound References listed in this column can be found
of work and resonate with discon- to be disappointed.6 on the column’s webpage at qualityprogress.com.
tents expressed across industries With such contested views of work,
by millennials seeking autonomy what about careers? Witnessing high
and opportunity to “be themselves.” levels of burnout in K-12, higher edu-
They ask fundamental questions cation, healthcare, quality, social work Henry J. Lindborgis
about the meaning of work. His op-ed, and other professions may discourage executive director and CEO
however, seriously discounts workers’ us from embracing a value of service of the National Institute
awareness of their own experiences through vocation—which always has for Quality Improvement
Jose Luis Pelaez Inc via Getty Images
and the sometimes-painful paradoxes offered deep personal challenges.7 If we in Fond du Lac, WI. He holds a doctorate from the
of service while maintaining that work view calls to a higher purpose as masks University of Wisconsin-Madison and teaches in a
is mainly about pay. for faux religion and exploitation, we leadership and quality graduate program. Lindborg
Once, it was (and in some places still may close avenues for organizational is past chair of ASQ’s Education Division and of the
is) about prayer. St. Benedict formulated and personal development, as well as Education and Training Board. He is a past chair of
principles and practices for the conduct encourage superficial and easily extin- the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
of life in the monastery he founded in 529, guished “passions” for work. Career Workforce Policy committee.
ASQ SALARY SURVEY SECTIONS
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S A L A RY
ONLY
Planning out what’s
most suitable to
carry on a successful
career strategy
by Max Hansen
THE
and Jenny Chu
T
he data
are in, and
quality profes-
sionals’ salaries are
looking sharp. In fact,
the increase in median
salaries has outpaced
baseline inflation,
according to this
year’s ASQ Salary
Survey results. The
largest cohort of survey
respondents—full-time
U.S. employees—
reported a median
salary of $118,000,
representing the
largest year-over-year
increase—11.3%—seen
in more than a decade
(Table 1, p. 5).
If you read the ASQ
Salary Survey regularly,
you’re probably keen
to understand how,
precisely, to maximize
the growth in your
salary. Think of your
professional résumé
as a way of packing for
a successful journey.
You must add the
ONLINE 5: Geography 6: Six Sigma
1: Job Title - p. 26 2: Certifications - p. 38 3: Education - p. 46 4: Experience - p. 52
urfinguss via Getty Images

asq.org/quality-progress/salary-survey
7: Gender + Age 8: Industry 9: Self-Employed 10: Self-Employed—Interviews 11: Appendixes A-C
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proper wardrobe pieces, along with various items

of equipment and gear. Whether you don them and
how can affect earning potential.
REAC
H BAC You can carry this metaphor into as much detail
K as you want: Is an ASQ certification a warm down
For mo
re insig
mation ht and jacket? Is the industry you work in the equivalent
o inf
quality n the salaries or- of rugged hiking boots? Is your backpack equipped
profess of
asq.org ion
/qualit als, visit
with the right climbing gear?
salary- y-prog However you choose to play with this imagery,
su res
link to rvey and find s/
the arc a what matters is that the ensemble you put together
ASQ S hiv
alary S e of past affects how far you can go. Outside the metaphor,
dating ur
back to vey reports in the real world, the attention you want is money.
2008.
Swapping certain items can lead to a significant
glow-up.
Catching on to consulting
For many years, ASQ Salary Surveys have shown
that full-time employees who supplement their
W-21 income by offering consulting services earn
the highest salaries in their regular employment.
Table 2 (p. 6) shows only the 10 years up to 2023,
but the fact has been true farther back than that.
This year, those moonlighters reported salaries
averaging $179,054, supplementing that fine
income with an average of $171,135 earned
through their consulting work (Table 3, p. 9).
When we set out to interview some of that
smart set, we found few of them available to talk
(they are, after all, very busy). But we did find some
of the other group of consultants (also highly paid),
who are self-employed full time, and were willing
to answer some questions. These findings allowed
us to put together a composite profile of the success-
ful self-employed consultant.
They not only talked about the work they do
but also offered advice to others wanting to access
the pot of gold they’ve found. We have dedicated
two sections of the report (sections 9 and 10, found
at asq.org/quality-progress/salary-survey) to this
year’s star-studded posse of the self-employed.
Here, we’ll just mention some salient features
of the highest-earning consultants:
Most work in one or both of two industries:
pharmaceuticals or medical devices.
They commonly hold at least one ASQ
certification directly relevant to their
healthcare-related work.
They tend to be mature and highly experienced.
Eight of the nine interviewed, in fact, were over
the age of 30, and all eight had held lofty job titles
in their years of regular employment.
Like our entire respondent base, they are over-
whelmingly likely to live and work in the United
States. However, there were exceptions: Two live
and work in Canada, and another serves clients
worldwide from his home base in Switzerland.
Of course, you may not aspire to join the elite corps
that rake in money in both W-2 and self-employment.
But surely, you want to maximize your earnings—and
that’s what the ASQ Salary Survey serves up.
TA B L E 1
Historical average salaries—

U.S. employees
Year Average salary Change Percentage change
2008 $77,563 — —
2009 80,000 $2,437 3.14%
2010 81,816 1,816 2.27
2011 83,986 2,170 2.65
2012 83,000 (986) -1.17
2013 84,530 1,530 1.84
2014 83,000 (1,530) -1.81
2015 85,000 2,000 2.41
2016 85,000 0 0.00
2017 87,500 2,500 2.94
2018 89,000 1,500 1.71
2019 90,000 1,000 1.12
2020 96,000 6,000 6.67
iStock.com/tovovan/bonetta
2021 100,000 4,000 4.17

2022 106,000 6,000 6.00
2023 118,000 12,000 11.32
Table 1 includes results for: x Full-time employees, Part-time employees,

x U.S. employees, Canadian employees
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More than numbers
Each year, we examine a few variables that affect
salary and try to convey just how great the impact TA B L E 2
10-year salary
of each variable can be. We offer many statistics,
but QP always has offered more than mere numbers
to those seeking satisfaction in their employment.
Really? you ask, is there something more than
numbers? comparison: employees
who don't and do consult
Yes, there is.
First, let’s look at the limitations of statistics.
Fifteen years ago, the 2008 ASQ Salary Survey
presented specific variables that had the greatest W-2 salary for
W-2 employment
Year those who also are
impact on salary through a fairly sophisticated only self-employed
statistical analysis, resulting in coefficients for the
2013 $88,458 $121,560
general linear model predicting anticipated salary.
iStock.com/skitti/Kseniia Ivanova
2014 88,366 110,027
The model showed that supervising others was
2015 92,092 112,268
worth, so to speak, $14,600 in salary, while being
2016 91,563 113,981
male was worth $8,973. This analysis answered
2017 92,742 141,564
some important questions regarding salary deter-
2018 94,368 126,498
minants, but it raised arguably more important
2019 95,521 123,318
questions about the likelihood, feasibility and
2020 103,202 136,226
desirability of achieving those determinants.
Rather than focusing solely on which variables 2021 108,522 129,959
impact salary most, it might be worthwhile to assess 2022 114,143 135,118
potential changes to these variables through the 2023 179,054 171,135
lens of your own personal circumstances. While not
Table 2 includes results for: x Full-time employees, Part-time
an exhaustive list, these five questions help analyze employees, x U.S. employees, Canadian employees
the value of pursuing a personal change to any
given variable:
1. How much does it increase salary?
2. Is it humanly changeable?
3. Does changing it have side effects?
4. Do you personally want to change it?
5. Would the change play to your strengths?
Question 1: How much does it
increase salary?
First and foremost, ascertain the extent to which a variable
affects salary according to the data, which can be found in
the sections that follow. Education, certifications, industry
and location, for example, all have a significant effect on
salary. Other variables, such as gender, have a lesser impact.
Still others, such as tenure, have been shown to have
minimal—and not always positive!—impact on salary. In
the 2015 survey report, the section on time in position was
titled “Scant Reward for Longer Tenure.” The tie between
This year, full-timers this variable and salary was so tenuous for so many years
in the U.S. who that 2015 was the last time we even asked the question.
also functioned On the other hand, holding ASQ certifications tends
as self-employed
to pay dividends, as the survey has shown each year
(see section 2). In addition, certain industries tend
consultants reported to pay better than others, as do certain locations.
salaries averaging So, the answer to this first question establishes a start-
$179,054 and self- ing point for determining the value of pursuing a personal
employment income
change to a specific variable. Responses to the remaining
four questions augment or diminish that baseline value.
of $171,135.
DEEPER INROADS
Read interviews and discussions with the nine

self-employed consultants giving their takes on a
number of topics, including the state of quality today,
how they transitioned to the world of consulting and
what makes a consultant effective. Sections 9 and 10
of this year’s report are dedicated to more in-depth
coverage of self-employed consultants.
Access those sections at asq.org/quality-progress/
salary-survey.
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SHARE, LEARN
AND NETWORK
It’s not always what you know, but who you know. ASQ’s
online member community platform, myASQ, allows you
to share, learn and network with leaders and peers in the
quality community. Explore the different ASQ geographic
and technical communities, check out upcoming events,
catch up on ASQ news and peruse the discussion boards.
Visit my.asq.org for access to relevant solutions,

meaningful connections and interaction.
Question 2: Is it humanly changeable?

Some variables are largely unalterable through effort alone.
Obviously, there’s no way to speed up or slow down the
aging process for the sake of a salary bump, or for any other
reason. As aging a decade overnight is impossible (and thank
goodness for that), the value of attempting to change this
particular variable decreases to zero. By the way, some evi-
dence of possible ageism was reported by both the oldest and
the youngest professionals surveyed for the August 2023 QP
article, “Next Is Now.”
Other variables, like certifications, are highly change-
able through intervention. Most salary determinants are
at least somewhat subject to change through effort. It is
certainly possible to earn an advanced degree, change
industries, take on a managerial role, move to another
geographic region or switch to a larger organization with
greater resources. The decision to make changes like these,
however, is much more nuanced than determining whether
the changes themselves are humanly possible.
Cost, family obligations and even health are just a few
considerations that move these potential changes up or down
iStock.com/AlexRaths/Anchiy/bonetta
the feasibility scale. Could you moonlight as a consultant? The

answer might depend on your full-time employer’s policies or
how much time you have to pursue self-employed consulting
on the side. Feasibility is not predicated on your capabilities
alone, but also on your—and your loved ones’—circumstances.
Not everything that is possible is truly feasible.
TA B L E 3
Salary by employment status

Average salary Average base revenue
Percentage earned as an earned as a self-
employee employed consultant
United States
Full-time employee 89.63% $123,141 —
Part-time employee 1.09 82,706 —
Full-time employee and 2.03 179,054 $171,135
self-employed consultant
Part-time employee and 0.31 43,000 43,250
Self-employed 6.94 — 155,517
consultant only
Canada
Full-time employee 86.32% $58,505 —
Full-time employee and 4.27 82,517 $107,936
Self-employed 9.40 — 73,995
consultant only
Table 3 includes results for: x Full-time employees and consultants, x Part-time employees and consultants,
x U.S. employees, x Canadian employees
Earnings for Canadian respondents are reported in Canadian dollars.
Question 3: Does changing it have side effects?

As a quality professional, you’re no stranger to predicting down-
stream impacts. That very analysis can be applied here as well.
Take, for example, location as a variable. The data show that even
in this remote-friendly era, location certainly has an impact on sal-
ary. In some cases, where you work can add upwards of $30,000 to
your overall salary. Depending on your family’s situation, a move
might be feasible.
But a move from South Bend, IN, to San Francisco would come
with a sizeable cost-of-living increase that could negate any addi-
tional purchasing power resulting from a salary increase. The move
still might be worthwhile, especially if your future plans include
a subsequent move back to Indiana. Regardless, it’s important to
analyze potential effects based on your unique circumstances.
Similarly, advanced degrees often create value in terms of earn-
ing potential and increased knowledge. However, getting a Ph.D.
also could render you overqualified or otherwise narrow the range
of roles for which you’re likely to be considered. It is indeed possi-
ble to acquire too much of a good thing. While it’s hard to believe,
even too many certifications could have unintended negative
impacts, making you appear unfocused or professionally insecure.
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Question 4: Do you personally want to

change it?
At this point in assessing a potential shift, you’ve likely
decided the juice is worth the squeeze. You’ve deter-
mined the variable at hand affects salary enough, based
on the data. You’ve determined the change is possible
and even feasible based on your unique circumstances.
You’ve considered how the change might play out and
ruled out any unintended consequences that would
outweigh the potential benefits. The next assessment
concerns motivation—another data point that you won’t
find within the salary survey report.
Humans are complex. Our emotions, values, goals and
priorities represent data that should be considered when
Peter Dazeley via Getty Images; iStock.com/bonetta/bonetta

making career decisions. Anyone who has squeezed
into a pair of unyielding dress shoes understands that
the perfect-looking outfit doesn’t work if it doesn’t feel
right. Fit is largely personal, and finding a good fit often
requires a mirror. You must know your values, for exam-
ple, to recognize when something conflicts with them.
While moving to a new city might, on paper, seem
beneficial, feasible and unlikely to cause material negative
consequences, leaving friends and family might conflict
with your values or priorities. And living in conflict with
your values can have dire consequences for your mental
and emotional well-being. What you value also is relevant
because it directly affects motivation.
Climbing the proverbial ladder into a role that shifts
your primary focus from quality work to general man-
agement could be demotivating to someone who values
working in the details. Alternatively, making a lateral
move and forgoing an immediate salary increase could
lead to more interesting work, such as, for example,
an opportunity to gain Six Sigma experience on a variety
of improvement projects. Incidentally, that breadth
of experience itself could open up future salary
growth opportunities.
Though this particular question requires some
introspection, there are data that might be helpful.
Job satisfaction may be an indicator that certain pur-
suits are particularly worthwhile. This year, we added
questions to ascertain the level of job satisfaction
associated with different variables. Of note, those with
titles of (or equivalent to) vice president seem to have
cornered the market on satisfaction. Not only are they
more satisfied with their salaries, but they also are more
satisfied with the non-compensation aspects of jobs—
colleagues, environment and the work itself, for example
(see section 1).
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Question 5: Would the change play to

your strengths?
Chances are good the change(s) you’re interested
in pursuing will require substantial effort. Very
few salary-affecting maneuvers are quick and easy.
If they were, you would have made them already.
As a quality professional, you’re probably adept at
identifying the steps necessary to make the change.
If you’re planning to pursue certification, you’ll
research the requirements, schedule courses and
apply for the exam. Like so many things worth doing,
however, the difficulty comes in the follow-through—
particularly when setbacks arise.
One of the tools you have to help you cross the finish
line is your own personal strengths. We all have knowl-
edge, skills and attributes that we have developed into
strengths. Your strengths likely have been instrumen-
tal in your past successes, even if you weren’t aware.
And while it’s likely you have considerable industry and
quality knowledge, there are other strengths that are
less overt that have helped shape your career trajectory
thus far and will continue to do so—especially if you
become more aware of them and how to leverage them.
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The largest cohort of survey
respondents—full-time U.S.
employees—reported a median
salary of $118,000, representing
the largest year-over-year
increase—11.3%—seen in
more than a decade.
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STAY THE COURSE
Your strength might be influencing others, Keep tabs on the latest in quality
for example. Perhaps you are naturally gifted or expand your quality knowledge
at communicating persuasively and often inspire with the latest releases from Quality
others to adopt your thinking. Maybe your strength Press. In addition, you can locate
is competition. You are energized by the prospect material to prepare for an ASQ
of working extra hard to come out on top. Perhaps certification exam.
you are extremely adaptable and flexible. You sense
when it would be beneficial to pivot, and you easily For more information, including
shift gears without skipping a beat. a book catalog, visit asq.org/
quality-press.
Consider how any of these strengths might serve
you as you ask for managerial responsibility, pursue
an advanced degree, start a consultancy or switch
industries. Because there is a flipside to strengths.
There are things that are particularly challenging
for us. Perhaps you instead struggle with influence or
shut down in competitive environments. While there
might be value in working to mitigate those deficien-
cies, it is often more impactful to put that same effort
into leveraging strengths instead. When setbacks arise
in your journey, leaning on your natural strengths can
pay dividends.
Again, knowing your strengths requires looking Max Hansen is a management consultant based in
in the mirror. The information presented in this Sacramento, CA. He has helped auto parts manufacturers
year’s ASQ Salary Survey represents fairly black- with their first implementations of statistical process control
and-white, concrete data points. What is equally and has lectured on data quality at the Massachusetts
important to analyze as you create your path to Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. Hansen has an MBA from MIT’s Sloan
increased salary, though, are the data points you School of Management. He is an ASQ member.
can’t find on these pages: your allies and supporters,
your values and strengths.
Combined, these data make up much actionable
insight, allowing you to assemble the complete pack- Jenny Chuis the owner of Lagom Consulting.
age—you—that looks and feels right and sets you on As an organizational development consultant and
a path to success. QP coach in Richmond, VA, Chu focuses on culture
design and development, and her coaching focuses
NOTE
1. W-2 is a U.S. tax form for reporting income from employment. Even in on personal development. Chu holds a master’s degree
other countries, regular employment, as opposed to self-employment, in organizational development and leadership from St. Joseph’s University
is sometimes referred to as one’s W-2 job. in Philadelphia.
2023 SECTION 1: SALARY BY JOB TITLE AND SATISFACTION SCORES
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I
f you’re a quality professional in
the United States—where more
than 86% of this year’s ASQ
Salary Survey respondents work—
the overwhelming likelihood is that
your income during the past year
Yagi Studio via Getty Images; iStock.com/AlexRaths/Alberto Masnovo/Nastco

outran the ravening wolf of inflation.
And trust us, the authors of this
report are breathing a sigh of relief
at this fact. In 2022, despite a 6% rise
in the median salary for the entire
response base of full-time workers,
the spending power this would bring
was very much in question.
For many of you, of course,
the first question may be just where
your own salary falls among those
with similar job titles. The answer
to that requires combining two bits
of knowledge:
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1. Your salary, which sits securely in your own brainpan.

2. The average salary for your job title (shown in Figure 1),
along with where that title falls in the ranking of titles
by average salary.
In the introduction to this year’s survey, we reported
an increase of 11.3% in the median salary for all U.S. full-
time respondents. This is greater than the scary 6.5%
inflation rate for 2022 and considerably greater than the
2023 inflation rate, as forecast by the U.S. Department of
This year’s 11.3%

Labor, of 3.2%.
Figure 1 shows your position—or at least that of your
job title—within our overall pool of full-time respondents. increase in the
The graphic only shows where you are in relation to other median salary
job titles. A more critical question is where you are versus
for full-time U.S.
respondents is
two things:
1. Where you were a year ago.
2. The ravening wolf of inflation. greater than the
Regarding the latter point, Table 1 (p. 18) shows a hope- scary 6.5% inflation
ful picture indeed. Here, we see the job titles ordered by
average salary, from highest to lowest, as well as divided
rate for 2022.
into five tiers of five titles per tier.
For a majority of job titles—14, to be exact—the increase
in average salary exceeded the 6.5% inflation rate of 2022.
If, indeed, the inflation rate for 2023 winds up at 3.2%,
which was the inflation rate for the year at the end of July
2023, 20 of our 25 job titles showed increases exceeding
iStock.com/Alexey Surgay/Liudmila Chernetska
FIGURE 1
Salary by job title—U.S. respondents

Vice president/executive (4.8%) $222,539
Director (12.8%) $163,810
Statistician (0.8%) $160,017
Master Black Belt (1.1%) $154,157
Reliability/safety engineer (2%) $141,288
Consultant (2.2%) $141,271
Black Belt (1.5%) $132,591
Other (0.6%) $129,571
Champion (0.3%) $128,500

Job title (percentage of respondents)
Green Belt (0.2%) $125,500
Software quality engineer (0.9%) $125,123
Educator/instructor (1.1%) $123,761

Manager (30.4%) $120,918
Process/manufacturing/
project engineer (2.1%) $115,330
Supplier quality engineer/ $112,138
professional (3.1%)
Auditor (4.1%) $110,252
Quality engineer (16.3%) $108,886
Supervisor (2.6%) $92,358
Specialist (5.3%) $92,044
Analyst (1.7%) $90,087
Coordinator (1.6%) $78,676
Calibration technician (1%) $75,730
Inspector (0.6%) $69,609
Associate (0.6%) $69,439
Technician (2.4%) $63,340
$0 $25,000 $50,000 $75,000 $100,000 $125,000 $150,000 $175,000 $200,000
Average salary
Figure 1 includes results for: x Full-time employees, _ Part-time employees, x U.S. employees, _ Canadian employees,
_ International employees
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Salary by job title—U.S. full-time

employees—2022 vs. 2023
2022 2023 Percentage
2022 2023
Job title average average change in
percentage percentage salary salary salary
Vice president/executive 3.43% 4.76% $219,993 $222,539 1.16%
Director 12.08 12.76 156,857 163,810 4.43
Statistician 0.39 0.77 151,973 160,017 5.29
Master Black Belt 0.96 1.11 141,310 154,157 9.09
Reliability/safety engineer 1.17 1.96 127,490 141,288 10.82
Tier 1 totals 17.85% 21.34% $165,766 $174,213 5.10%
Consultant 2.52 2.21 135,412 141,271 4.33
Black Belt 1.61 1.53 114,834 132,591 15.46
Other 3.74 0.60 109,344 129,571 18.50
Champion 0.16 0.34 126,833 128,500 1.31
Green Belt 0.44 0.17 84,196 125,500 49.06
Tier 2 totals 34.74% 4.85% $118,124 $135,644 14.83%
Software quality engineer 0.99 0.85 115,678 125,123 8.16
Educator/instructor 0.94 1.11 116,639 123,761 6.11
Manager 28.50 30.44 116,446 120,918 3.84
Process/manufacturing/ 2.26 2.13 104,510 115,330 10.35
project engineer
Supplier quality engineer/ 3.20 3.15 102,700 112,138 9.19
professional
Tier 3 totals 25.36% 37.67% $101,521 $120,048 18.25%
Auditor 4.10 4.08 99,342 110,252 10.98
Quality engineer 16.00 16.33 98,789 108,886 10.22
Supervisor 2.55 2.55 90,478 92,358 2.08
Specialist 6.11 5.27 82,963 92,044 10.95
Analyst 2.21 1.70 84,904 90,087 6.10
Tier 4 totals 15.41% 29.93% $88,883 $103,629 16.59%
Coordinator 1.64 1.62 76,970 78,676 2.22
Calibration technician 0.62 1.02 68,594 75,730 10.40
Inspector 1.27 0.60 57,034 69,609 22.05
Associate 1.14 0.60 69,866 69,439 -0.61
Technician 1.97 2.38 55,059 63,340 15.04
Tier 5 totals 6.65% 6.21% $64,643 $70,554 9.14%
Table 1 includes results for: x Full-time employees, _ Part-time employees, x U.S. employees,
_ Canadian employees, _ International employees
that benchmark. The five titles that showed an increase of less than the
inflation rate of 3.2% make up under 10% of our total responses. Eleven
titles showed a rise of greater than 10%.
But are you satisfied with your salary?

Although we can’t answer that for any individual, the fact is that most of
you are. To understand how we arrived at this conclusion, Table 2 (p. 20)
provides some results from our satisfaction questions and will help us The job titles that
prepare to interpret details in Table 3 (p. 22), which continues the satis- bring the highest
faction discussion. salaries also provide
We asked questions to determine whether respondents were satisfied
with their salaries and jobs. We asked survey takers to react to a state-
high scores about job
ment about salary worded this way: “I am satisfied with my salary.” Next, satisfaction. In other
we asked respondents to explain whether they strongly agreed, agreed, words, the highest-
neither agreed nor disagreed, disagreed or strongly disagreed with that paid professionals like
statement. This form of inquiry provides results to build a Likert scale.
We used the same approach to examine job satisfaction. For that, the
their work even more
statement was “I am satisfied with the non-compensation aspects of my than they like their
job. In other words, without considering compensation, I am satisfied high pay.
with the job itself.”
Table 2 shows the results of these inquiries for five combinations of
a question with a job title. The first five columns show the percentages
of respondents who gave each possible answer. There, you see that those
iStock.com/Liudmila Chernetska
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Satisfaction by job title—Likert scale example

Neither Likert
Strongly Strongly Likert
Agree agree nor Disagree standard
agree disagree average
disagree deviation
Vice president/executive (job) 37.4% 40.9% 13.0% 7.8% 0.9% 4.06 0.95
Director (salary) 23.3 50.8 12.4 11.7 1.8 3.82 0.98
Manager (salary) 15.8 49.4 16.2 15.8 2.9 3.59 1.02
Manager (job) 21.3 50.1 16.4 9.9 2.2 3.78 0.96
Technician (salary) 9.9 28.2 28.2 22.5 11.3 3.03 1.17
Table 2 includes results for: x Full-time employees, x Part-time employees, x U.S. employees, x Canadian employees, x International employees
with job titles of vice president/executive were

generally quite pleased with their salaries—and
they should be. Here, you see that 78.3% gave
a better-than-neutral answer, while only 8.7%
disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement
that they were satisfied.
FURTHER A common way of compiling the results of
EXPLANAT
ION Likert-type questions is to assign a numerical
value to each answer, which we did to arrive
Watch the late at the last two columns of this table. “Strongly
st ASQTV ep
released last m isode agree” was given a score of five, “agree” a score
onth that high
the results from lights of four and so on down to “strongly disagree”
this year’s ASQ
Salary Survey
, as well as ad receiving a score of one.
insight from M ditional
ax Hansen an To arrive at a single value for the satisfaction
Chu, the surv d Jenny
ey report’s rese of all vice presidents/executives with their sala-
and subject m archers
atter experts. ries, we simply took the average of these numerical
Visit videos.a values, resulting in a score of 4.06. As is commonly
sq.org for mor
information. e done with Likert data, we also looked at the stan-
dard deviation, although this is far less meaningful
for our purposes than the score itself.
A low standard deviation, however, means
greater uniformity in the answers. A low standard
deviation with a high score—such as the score over
four that we see for vice presidents/executives—
means that the answers were nearly uniform and
that most answers were, in fact, positive. A low
standard deviation (with a score below three)
would mean that the answers were fairly uni-
formly neutral to negative.
62% The five rows of data in Table 2 were chosen because
they represent extremes of satisfaction (in the two top rows)
and an extreme of less satisfaction (in the last row). Having
THE PERCENTAGE OF examined this table, we see that minor differences in the
Likert average actually are fairly meaningful. A score of
RESPONDENTS TO A
three would be a score that is, on average, neutral. And the
SURVEY FIELDED BY satisfaction of technicians with their salaries—this group
THE CONFERENCE being the lowest-paid job title in our response bays—is barely
BOARD EARLIER above neutral. This row was chosen, however, because that is
the lowest salary-satisfaction score in our entire data set.
THIS YEAR WHO
It’s not surprising that the highest-paid job titles also
INDICATED OVERALL provide the highest average satisfaction scores with regard
SATISFACTION to salary (see Table 3). The titles of vice president/executive
WITH THEIR JOBS. and director provide the two highest salary satisfaction
scores among any job titles in which respondents make up
Source: The Conference more than 2% of our response base—in other words, if we
Board, bit.ly/3LAjwkq. choose to ignore those happy statisticians who make up
only 0.77% of respondents, or Master Black Belts,
who make up only 1.11%.
Continued on page 37
NS
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I ONER
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NURS
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INE S E
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TU R B EC TED : 45%
• PROJ YE AR S
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WIND N X T 10
N ICI A N E
T EC H TH E
VER N PAY:
W TH O MEDIA
G R O • 2022
EC TED : 45% 0/ YEA
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• PROJ YE AR S $121,61
E N E X T 10
TH AR
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• 2022
lt6z.
tics, b it.ly/ 3Rq
f L ab or Statis
U.S . B ureau o
S o u r ce :
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Satisfaction with salary and job by

income tier and job title
Satisfaction with salary Satisfaction with job
Standard Standard
Average Average
deviation deviation
Tier 1 3.81 1.03 3.96 0.90
Vice president/executive 3.77 1.12 4.06 0.95
Director 3.82 0.98 3.92 0.89
Statistician 4.00 1.11 4.21 0.70
Master Black Belt 4.08 1.10 4.08 0.97
Reliability/safety engineer 3.64 1.08 3.95 0.93
Tier 2 3.62 1.06 3.84 1.02
Consultant 3.78 0.93 4.06 0.84
Black Belt 3.70 1.10 3.65 1.21
Other 3.38 1.16 3.60 1.08
Champion 4.00 0.00 4.40 0.55
Green Belt 2.57 1.27 3.71 0.95
iStock.com/Creativeye99/Krafla
Tier 3 3.61 1.02 3.82 0.96
Software quality engineer 3.89 1.12 4.04 0.94
Educator/instructor 3.53 1.06 4.14 1.07
Manager 3.59 1.02 3.78 0.96
Process/manufacturing/ 3.78 0.95 3.99 0.88
project engineer
Supplier quality engineer/ 3.63 1.02 3.81 0.90
professional
Tier 4 3.43 1.10 3.72 0.94
Auditor 3.51 1.05 3.81 0.92
Quality engineer 3.49 1.06 3.74 0.94
Supervisor 3.24 1.21 3.58 0.95
Specialist 3.42 1.13 3.76 0.94
Analyst 3.17 1.18 3.48 0.98
Tier 5 3.14 1.12 3.55 0.97
Coordinator 3.29 1.13 3.70 1.01
Calibration technician 3.14 1.11 3.61 0.92
Inspector 3.10 1.16 3.29 0.98
Associate 3.20 0.92 3.56 1.09
Technician 3.03 1.17 3.55 0.92
Table 3 includes results for: x Full-time employees, x Part-time employees, x U.S. employees,
x Canadian employees, x International employees
FIGURE 2
Earnings by average hours per week

—U.S. respondents
More than 55 hours (4.7%) $172,177
Average number of work hours per week
50.1 to 55 hours (3.4%) $153,402

(percentage of respondents)
45.1 to 50 hours (21.5%) $131,829
40.1 to 45 hours (26%) $121,777
35.1 to 40 hours (41.9%) $113,946
35 or fewer hours (2.4%) $99,050
$0 $20,000 $40,000 $60,000 $80,000 $100,000 $120,000 $140,000 $160,000
Average salary
Figure 2 includes results for: x Full-time employees, x Part-time employees, x U.S. employees, _ Canadian employees,
FIGURE 3
Percentage of respondents working more than

45 hours per week
Percentage working more than 45 hours/week
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 2023
Year
U.S. Canada
Figure 3 includes results for: x Full-time employees, _ Part-time employees, x U.S. employees, x Canadian employees,
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TA B L E 4
Salary by job title—U.S. respondents

Standard
Minimum Maximum Count Mean Median
deviation
Full-time employees
All full-time employees $30,000 $600,000 $50,369 1,176 $124,378 $118,000
Analyst 54,000 180,000 33,537 20 90,087 78,500
Associate 53,600 100,000 18,392 7 69,439 61,000
Auditor 45,000 200,000 38,293 48 110,252 103,363
Black Belt 75,000 238,000 37,599 18 132,591 129,541
Calibration technician 45,000 110,000 22,565 12 75,730 74,500
Champion 105,000 180,000 34,627 4 128,500 114,500
Consultant 40,000 220,000 46,079 26 141,271 150,000
Coordinator 45,000 123,000 24,533 19 78,676 74,995
Director 78,000 335,000 41,473 150 163,810 160,000
Educator/instructor 49,000 222,000 58,469 13 123,761 100,384
Green Belt n<3
Inspector 32,000 115,000 30,130 7 69,609 73,000
Manager 59,650 250,432 31,310 358 120,918 120,000
Master Black Belt 71,000 255,000 43,737 13 154,157 146,000
Other 74,000 205,000 47,327 7 129,571 121,000
Process/manufacturing/project engineer 70,000 190,000 31,834 25 115,330 110,000
Quality engineer 50,000 320,000 31,684 192 108,886 102,750
Reliability/safety engineer 88,000 215,000 37,079 23 141,288 137,000
Software quality engineer 90,000 169,000 23,084 10 125,123 120,000
Specialist 43,000 240,000 34,654 62 92,044 83,184
Statistician 93,500 277,050 54,158 9 160,017 150,000
Supervisor 52,000 188,500 30,165 30 92,358 83,925
Supplier quality engineer/professional 65,000 185,000 23,412 37 112,138 110,000
Technician 30,000 115,000 23,696 28 63,340 59,640
Vice president/executive 80,000 600,000 93,207 56 222,539 200,000
Part-time employees
All part-time employees $10,000 $135,000 $40,449 16 $66,356 $72,500
Consultant 10,000 85,000 37,280 5 51,400 70,000
Quality engineer 10,301 108,000 48,926 3 57,567 54,400
Table 4 includes results for: x Full-time employees, x Part-time employees, x U.S. employees, _ Canadian employees, _ International employees
n < 3 indicates that a row contains fewer than three respondents, and data have been suppressed to shield personally identifiable information.
Continued from page 33
A bit less intuitive, although still not surprising,
51%
is that the job titles that bring the highest salaries
also provide high scores regarding job satisfaction,
as shown in the last two columns of Table 3. In other
words, the highest-paid professionals like their work
even more than they like their high pay.
Among all of those job titles that constitute 2% THE PERCENTAGE OF
or more of our response base, the highest job satisfac- EMPLOYED ADULTS WHO
tion score in the entire table is that of vice presidents/ SAID THEY ARE EXTREMELY
executives. These people are even happier with the
OR VERY SATISFIED WITH
non-compensation aspects of their work than with
their ample salaries. THEIR OVERALL JOB,
ACCORDING TO A PEW
Greater satisfaction, more hours worked RESEARCH CENTER SURVEY
Referring again to Table 2, we highlighted the two
EARLIER THIS YEAR. MOST
satisfaction scores of managers because these are
precisely in the middle of Table 3. Out of 24 titles other WORKERS SAID THEY
than manager, exactly 12 of them gave us lower salary ARE EXTREMELY OR VERY
satisfaction scores than managers, meaning that 12, SATISFIED WITH THEIR
of course, were higher. The same was true of their job
RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR
satisfaction scores: Managers landed squarely in the
middle, with 12 titles scoring higher and 12 lower. CO-WORKERS (67%) AND
It is a good thing that higher pay seems to correlate WITH THEIR MANAGER
with higher job satisfaction because those profession- OR SUPERVISOR (62%).
als who bring home the largest paychecks also seem
to work more than 40 hours per week to earn that Source: Pew Research Center,
money. As shown in Figure 2 (p. 23), the small per- pewrsr.ch/3LvdCko.
centage of employees who report working more than
55 hours per week bring home an average of $172,177,
which is quite close to the average salary for the entire
top tier of job titles shown in Table 3.
As Figure 3 (p. 23) makes clear, even in the United
States, where workweeks tend to be longer than
elsewhere in the world, the percentage of respondents
who report working more than 45 hours per week COUR
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has dropped almost steadily since 2007. Similarly, SE CORR

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period, although the trajectory of the decline in Can- can help ast quality learn reer lev-
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ASQ’s m our organizatio
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Despite this drop, 29.6% of U.S. respondents still
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work more than 45 hours per week—meaning a lot of industry ur full catalog b ics
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Table 4 provides additional salary details for ght for y find
ou.
the individual job titles among U.S. respondents.
Visit asq
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2023 SECTION 2: SALARY BY ASQ CERTIFICATIONS
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bout 29.5% of respondents
hold at least one ASQ certi-
fication, and if you’re among
this group, you probably make more
money than if you weren’t.
So, yes, it’s good to hold one
certification. But is more better?
Figure 1 (p. 28) shows that a holder
of two ASQ certifications makes,
on average, $132,244, which is 10%
Morsa Images via Getty Images
more than those with one ASQ cer-

tification and 12.6% more than those
without any ASQ certification.
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A third ASQ certification brings even more

cash. After that, “more equals better” breaks
down, although holding any number of ASQ
certifications that is more than two results in
It’s good to
more cash, on average, than accrues to those
with two or fewer.
hold one ASQ Why, then, do we see no incremental
certification, but increase when ASQ certifications are added
more is better … beyond three? The answer may be a loss of
up to a point.
focus: When a person holds an extensive
portfolio of certifications, not all are likely
to match the work being done, and this
match matters.
FIGURE 1
Salary by number of ASQ certifications held—

U.S. respondents
$140,000 $142,482
$138,976 $136,650
$132,244 $133,831
$120,000 $120,239
$117,489
$100,000
Average salary
$80,000
$60,000
$40,000
$20,000
$0
None (37.4%) 1 (33.6%) 2 (13.8%) 3 (8.1%) 4 (3.7%) 5 (2%) 6 or more (1.4%)
Number of ASQ certifications

TA B L E 1
Differences in salary for ASQ certification

Respondents Average Salary
Average with Percentage
Job title ASQ certification holding without premium
certification premium
certification certification (U.S. $)
Manager of quality/
Quality engineer 31 $125,768 $101,989 $23,778 23.3%
organizational excellence
Quality engineer Quality auditor 57 115,285 101,849 13,436 13.2
Director Quality engineer 44 173,623 156,024 17,599 11.3
Manager Quality engineer 108 124,932 114,929 10,003 8.7
Manager Reliability engineer 16 138,422 116,793 21,629 18.5
Reliability/
Reliability engineer 22 143,735 121,737 21,998 18.1
safety engineer
Manager Six Sigma Black Belt 31 135,995 116,106 19,889 17.1
Quality engineer Six Sigma Black Belt 17 115,154 104,720 10,434 10.0
Table 1 includes results for: x Full-time employees, _ Part-time employees, x U.S. employees, x Canadian employees
Note: All salaries are noted in U.S. dollars. Canadian salaries were converted using the exchange rate in effect on July 30, 2023.
Table 1 shows some pairings of job titles
$61,900
with certification. This table, which shows
different pairings each year we publish it,
picks out only the combinations that have:
A high premium.
A large enough number of certification
MEAN ANNUAL WAGE
holders to make the premium statistically
significant. ACROSS ALL OCCUPATIONS
iStock.com/bonetta/Dushlik/Cipariss
By “premium,” we mean the salary amount IN THE UNITED STATES.

over and above the average for those without
the certification. In this table, for example, Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor
you see that quality engineers who also are Statistics, bit.ly/3Lm5wdG.
ASQ-certified quality auditors earn a premium
of $13,436, or 13.2% more than those with the
same job title but without that certification.
The close match between certification and
job title is evident in many years of the ASQ
Salary Survey. The title of “auditor” with the
ASQ quality auditor certification, for example,
is a pairing that has appeared in several past
iterations of this table, showing a clear con-
nection between job title and certification.
Continued on page 44
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TA B L E 2 — PA RT A
Salary by ASQ certification and job title—

U.S. respondents
Manager Quality
Biomedical of quality/ Medical Quality Quality improvement
auditor organizational device auditor auditor engineer associate
excellence
All respondents $142,87927 $147,374225 $157,77925 $130,025 339 $135,292 329 $106,815 47
Analyst — — — — 122,500 2
62,0002
Associate — — — 76,0002 — —
Auditor — 140,500 4 144,0002 105,28927 145,5899 150,667 3
Black Belt — 122,0002 — 141,1712 112,946 4 —
Calibration technician — — — — — —
Champion — — — — — —
Consultant — 56,5002 — 165,5006 120,800 3 —
Coordinator — — — 88,200 5 114,0002 —
Director 172,0005 163,84748 174,8016 161,00748 176,15942 191,525 4
Educator/instructor — 179,000 3 — — 136,2867 —
Manager 149,929 7
127,322 86
116,600 5
122,979 114
129,94797 102,94918
iStock.com/hxdbzxy
Master Black Belt — 161,700 3 — 157,2456 134,2205 —
Other — — — — 132,833 3 —
Process/manufacturing/ — 154,402 2 — 113,7502 120,326 4 —
project engineer
Quality engineer 126,643 7
127,710 30
119,375 4
115,285 57
112,317 100
90,167 3
Reliability/safety engineer — — — — 169,737 4
—
Software quality engineer — 120,0002 — 112,410 3 105,0002 —
Specialist — 132,9297 148,3382 95,502 20 110,5698 74,000 3
Statistician — 198,017 3 — 157,000 3 193,683 3 —
Supervisor — 125,450 3
— 106,630 8
95,450 5 83,847 3
Supplier quality engineer/ — 131,7797 — 114,50015 118,97512 —
professional
Technician — — — — — 55,0002
Vice president/executive 161,0002 239,262 20 366,0002 241,623 18 263,42514 —
Technician — 62,857 7
— — — 51,4199
Vice president/executive 176,667 3
— — 220,667 30
— —
Table 2 includes results for: x Full-time employees, _ Part-time employees, x U.S. employees, _ Canadian employees
An em-dash (—) may indicate that there were no data, or there were data from one respondent, which was suppressed to protect privacy.
Superscript numbers denote the number of respondents.
TA B L E 2 — PA RT B
Salary by ASQ certification and job title—

U.S. respondents
Supplier
Quality Quality Reliability Six Sigma Six Sigma quality
inspector technician engineer Green Belt Black Belt professional
All respondents $103,50747 $99,13475 $151,45258 $121,46393 $145,331118 $122,823 45
Analyst — — — — — —
Associate — — — — — —
Auditor — 135,5002 — 101,700 3 — —
Black Belt — — — — 126,134 9
—
Calibration technician 63,0002 58,253 3 — — — —
Champion — — — — — —
Consultant — — — 100,0002 123,6676 —
Coordinator — 114,0002 — — — —
Director 163,750 4
169,8336 193,143 7 156,893 15 175,23415 154,5009
Educator/instructor — 76,5002 — 121,667 3 206,0002 —
Manager 100,669 14
107,018 21
141,231 13
124,572 32
139,34829 135,60010
Master Black Belt — — — — 143,4089 —
Other — — 156,7502 — 110,0002 —
Process/manufacturing/ — — 165,0002 94,167 3 128,0005 —
project engineer
Quality engineer 92,563 8
82,005 11
132,143 7
104,323 15
115,154 17
111,043 12
Reliability/safety engineer — — 145,733 20
— — —
Software quality engineer — — — 105,0002 — —
Specialist 90,7502 99,875 4 — 121,2506 113,0005 —
Statistician — — 193,683 3 — 187,013 4 —
Supervisor 89,425 2
75,713 4
— — — —
Supplier quality engineer/ 97,000 3
99,225 4
— 110,113 4
— 104,688 8
professional
Technician 70,4176 57,7709 — — — —
Vice president/executive 170,667 3 156,0002 — 114,0002 208,3269 —
An em-dash (—) may indicate that there were no data, or there were data from one respondent, which was suppressed to protect privacy.
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RESOURCE-READY
ASQ’s Quality Resources has become the preeminent one-stop

online library of all information related to quality. Access nearly
80 years’ worth of content for all experience levels at asq.org/
quality-resources. Specifically, visit the Learn About Quality page
at asq.org/quality-resources/learn-about-quality to explore the
concepts, tools, applications and technical terms that comprise the
world of quality. In addition, definitions of quality terms, acronyms
and key people in the history of quality can be found in the ASQ
Quality Glossary at asq.org/quality-resources/quality-glossary.
Continued from page 41
This year, the connection is less obvious for many

In the United
States and Canada,
combinations, but our perennial observation still holds
true: A certification matched to the work is where
certifications show their strength. respondents with the
ASQ-certified quality engineers, for example, job title of manager
appear in this year’s table, but do not hold the title
who are ASQ-
certified Six Sigma
of quality engineer. Yet, many of the 108 managers
and 44 directors who hold that certification probably
have moved into management from the quality engi- Blacks Belts earn a
neer position and still may be performing work akin beefy 16.9% more,
to that in which they were certified.
on average, than
managers without
Table 2 (pp. 30-31) details the salaries earned by
U.S. full-time quality professionals, with each cell
that certification.
iStock.com/bonetta/bombuscreative
showing a combination of a title and certification.

Table 3 shows the satisfaction scores for holders
of each certification compared to all professionals
without that certification. In only a few instances
(highlighted in red) do certification holders have a
lower average satisfaction score than those not hold-
ing the certification. Generally, it goes the other way:
Certification holders show satisfaction equal to or
greater than those without the certification.
TA B L E 3
Satisfaction with salary and job

by ASQ certification
Satisfied with salary Satisfied with job
Certification (number of With Without With Without
certification holders) certification certification certification certification
Biomedical auditor (28) 3.43 3.56 3.64 3.80
Calibration technician (29) 3.59 3.56 3.79 3.80
Food safety and quality auditor (27) 3.67 3.56 3.74 3.80
Manager of quality/ 3.81 3.54 3.91 3.79
organizational excellence (269)
Medical device auditor (27) 3.96 3.56 4.07 3.80
Pharmaceutical GMP professional (26) 4.00 3.56 4.19 3.79
Quality auditor (372) 3.74 3.54 3.86 3.79
Quality engineer (375) 3.77 3.53 3.85 3.79
Quality improvement associate (53) 3.58 3.56 3.85 3.80
Quality inspector (49) 3.71 3.56 3.796 3.798
Quality process analyst (27) 3.44 3.56 3.70 3.80
Quality technician (85) 3.65 3.56 3.81 3.80
Reliability engineer (74) 3.81 3.56 4.04 3.79
Six Sigma Yellow Belt (24) 3.65 3.56 4.09 3.80
Six Sigma Green Belt (110) 3.60 3.56 3.87 3.80
Six Sigma Black Belt (135) 3.73 3.55 3.93 3.79
Six Sigma Master Black Belt (7) 3.86 3.56 3.86 3.80
Software quality engineer (30) 4.20 3.56 4.13 3.79
Supplier quality professional (51) 3.57 3.56 3.96 3.80
Table 3 includes results for: x Full-time employees, x Part-time employees, x U.S. employees,
2023 SECTION 3: SALARY BY HIGHEST LEVEL OF EDUCATION
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iStock.com/bonetta/Liudmila Chernetska/chictype
I
f you’re a U.S. full-time quality professional
who earns more than this year’s median salary,
chances are good that you’ve earned at least a
bachelor’s degree.
This is seen in Figure 1 (p. 36), which showcases
the average salary by educational achievement for
professionals in the United States. The stairstep pattern
reveals that higher degrees bring fatter paychecks.
Respondents whose highest education is a bache-
lor’s degree earn, on average, $119,321 per year, which
exceeds the median of $118,000 for the profession as
a whole. But those with a master’s degree, who make
up 36% of U.S. respondents, bring home paychecks
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FIGURE 1 U
Salary by highest level of education—

U.S. respondents
High school or less (5.2%) $93,868
Highest level of education
Two-year program (11.7%) $94,564
Bachelor's degree (43.6%) $119,321
Master's degree (36%) $140,285
Doctorate (3.5%) $167,756
$0 $40,000 $80,000 $120,000 $160,000
Average salary
averaging $140,285. The profession’s overall aver-

age of $124,378 (not median—see Table 4 of section
1) is clearly pulled upward by the most highly
educated respondents.
Table 1 details respondents from all countries
together, showing for each job title the percentage
of holders of that title and the respective level of
academic achievement. Table 1 brings considerable
detail to the fore. It shows, for example, that while
Master Black Belts earn good money ($154,157 average
salary, as shown in Figure 1 in section 1), their high
take-home isn’t attributable only to their Six Sigma
credential. They also pack a good deal of university
schooling, with 64% holding at least a master’s degree.
Table 1 also shows that the most educated group
among our respondents is the statisticians. None
of this elite group has less than a bachelor’s degree,
and all of them hold a master’s or higher.
Table 2 (p. 38) details earnings by job title and level
of education. Table 3 (p. 39) shows how increasing
educational attainment corresponds to higher satis-
faction levels with both salary and job. (Satisfaction
scores are explained in section 1 of this year’s report.)
$131,200
MEAN ANNUAL WAGE ACROSS
MANAGEMENT OCCUPATIONS
IN THE UNITED STATES.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor

Statistics, bit.ly/3Lm5wdG.
TA B L E 1
Highest level of education by job title

High school Two-year Bachelor's Master's Doctorate
or less program degree degree
All respondents 5% 12% 43% 36% 4%
Analyst 17 17 33 33 0
Associate 13 38 50 0 0
Auditor 8 20 43 27 2
Black Belt 5 10 52 29 5
Calibration technician 17 75 8 0 0
Champion 0 0 75 0 25
Consultant 3 3 46 41 8
Coordinator 12 15 38 35 0
Director 2 7 36 49 7
Educator/instructor 0 12 12 35 41
Green Belt 0 0 100 0 0
Inspector 9 27 27 36 0
Manager 5 14 45 35 1
Master Black Belt 0 7 21 64 7
Other 0 8 58 33 0
Process/manufacturing/project engineer 3 14 52 31 0
Quality engineer 3 12 48 35 3
Reliability/safety engineer 0 0 42 46 12
Software quality engineer 0 0 60 30 10
Specialist 7 8 55 27 3
Statistician 0 0 0 78 22
iStock.com/bonetta/Neyya
Supervisor 22 6 47 22 3
Supplier quality engineer/professional 0 5 51 44 0
Technician 10 55 32 3 0
Vice president/executive 5 2 36 43 15
Table 1 includes results for: x Full-time employees, x Part‑time employees, x U.S. employees, x Canadian employees,
x International employees
Percentage may not equal 100% due to rounding.
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TA B L E 2
Salary by highest level of

education and job title
Two-year Master's
Bachelor's
program or degree or
degree
less higher
All respondents $93,737 195 $119,390503 $142,880 456
Analyst 81,8016 75,2176 107,453 8
Associate 66,533 3
71,618 4
—
Auditor 89,783 11 105,623 20 133,573 14
Black Belt 86,333 3 138,63010 148,2685
Calibration technician 74,524 11
— —
Champion — 111,333 3 —
Consultant — 135,743 14 150,69511 The fat checks
Coordinator 73,548 7
74,600 5
80,667 6
earned by Master
Director 135,53113 153,24851 174,164 85 Black Belts aren’t
Educator/instructor 76,5002 — 133,08910
attributable only
Green Belt
Inspector
—
65,000 3
125,5002
101,250 2
—
44,8802
to their Six Sigma
Manager 105,347 62
117,838 163
131,671124 credentials. They
Master Black Belt — 132,490 3
160,657 10 also pack a good
Other — 142,400 5
— deal of university
Process/manufacturing/project engineer 74,667 3 125,48010 117,5569
schooling, with
77% of them
Quality engineer 101,69527 103,86592 117,40570
Reliability/safety engineer — 134,100 10
146,81613
Software quality engineer — 130,872 6
116,500 4 holding at least a
Specialist 79,100 10
87,893 33
107,90518 master’s degree.
Statistician — — 160,0179
Supervisor 72,706 9
99,472 14
103,3967
Supplier quality engineer/professional — 106,342 19
118,56616
Technician 62,870 19
62,500 8
—
Vice president/executive 151,667 3 221,85621 229,63132
Table 2 includes results for: x Full-time employees, Part‑time employees, x U.S. employees,
Canadian employees, International employees
An em-dash (—) may indicate that there were no data, or there were data from one
respondent, which was suppressed to protect privacy. In the latter case, data have been
removed to shield personally identifiable information. Rows in which no data can be shown
have been removed.
3.8%
THE U.S. UNEMPLOYMENT
RATE AS OF AUGUST 2023.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor

Statistics, bit.ly/3riaykL.
iStock.com/Neyya/Roki Rodic
TA B L E 3
Satisfaction with salary and job title by

highest level of education attained
Satisfaction Standard Satisfaction Standard
Count with salary deviation with job deviation
High school or less 66 3.23 1.21 3.74 1.03
Two-year program 164 3.50 0.97 3.77 0.87
Bachelor's degree 580 3.64 1.02 3.88 0.90
Master's degree 477 3.72 1.05 3.86 1.01
Doctorate 55 3.93 0.99 4.05 0.93
Table 3 includes results for: x Full-time employees, x Part‑time employees, x U.S. employees,
SIZING UP THE RIGHT

CERTIFICATION
Learn more about ASQ’s world-class certi-

fications at asq.org/cert/catalog. Also visit
the interactive Certification Pathways Tool
at asq.org/cert to learn which certification
to pursue.
2023 SECTION 4: SALARY BY YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN QUALITY
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Quality
Airways
BEEN
THERE
DONE
THAT
Quality
Airways
I
f you’ve worked in the quality profession for
more than 10 years, your income has likely risen
considerably since you crossed that threshold.
And the longer you keep working in the quality field,
the happier you are likely to be with your pay. This
is not only because of this year’s increases, which
affected everybody, but also because the profession
tends to reward experience.
As Figure 1 (p. 42) shows, the benefit of staying
in the quality field is clear for U.S. employees. For
those who stick with the profession beyond 10 years,
that extra experience brings a premium of $18,312
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per year: $124,914 vs. the $106,602 earned,

on average, by people with more than
six but not more than 10 years in quality.
The rewards just keep coming for those
who stay in the profession longer. Figure 2
shows a similar bump at the 10-year mark
for Canadian respondents.
Figure 3 (p. 44) shows the level of quality
experience that characterizes each job title.
Here, it becomes clear the higher-paying job
titles tend strongly to go to those with more
years of experience in quality. At the top
are the well-paid Master Black Belts and, of
course, vice presidents/executives, the title
with the highest pay. Of these last-named
professionals, 65.5% have been in the quality
field for more than 20 years.
Contrast this to the lower-paid positions
near the bottom of the chart. The lower
salaries there correspond to the far fewer
professionals who have many years of qual-
ity under their belts. The takeaway from
FIGURE 1
Salary by years in quality—U.S. respondents

More than $138,212
20 years (44.5%)
$124,914
Years of quality experience
10.1 to 20 years (29.8%)
6.1 to 10 years (13.7%) $106,602
3.1 to 6 years (8.4%) $97,907
1 to 3 years (3.1%) $77,859
Less than 1 year (0.5%) $92,430
$0 $20,000 $40,000 $60,000 $80,000 $100,000 $120,000 $140,000
Average salary
Figure 1 includes results for: x Full-time employees, _ Part-time employees, x U.S. employees, _ Canadian employees
FIGURE 2
Salary by years in quality—Canadian respondents

More than $119,800
20 years (46.2%)
$113,554
Years of quality experience
10.1 to 20 years (24.5%)
6.1 to 10 years (17%) $87,811
3.1 to 6 years (7.5%) $78,422
1 to 3 years (3.8%) $67,250
Less than 1 year (0.9%) $44,024
$0 $20,000 $40,000 $60,000 $80,000 $100,000 $120,000 $140,000
Average salary
Figure 2 includes results for: x Full-time employees, _ Part-time employees, _ U.S. employees,
x Canadian employees (Canadian dollars)
this chart? Your years in quality may be your

ticket to higher-paid positions.
Table 1 (pp. 45-46) details salaries by years
of quality experience within job titles for U.S.
and Canadian respondents. We’ve combined the
two countries due to the relatively small survey
response we received from Canadian quality
professionals. All salaries are shown in U.S.
dollars, with Canadian salaries converted to the
U.S. dollar equivalent using the exchange rate
in effect on Aug. 1, 2023.
Section 3 laid out the benefits of higher
iStock.com/MARIIA MALYSHEVA/viperagp
schooling. Here, we see how formal education

synergizes with quality experience to drive
earnings increases. Figure 4 (p. 47) shows a
dual stairstep pattern, in which every increase
in education brings more cash, as does each
increase in experience.
Table 2 (pp. 48-49) divides our response base
into small buckets, showing earnings at levels of
job title, education and years in quality.
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FIGURE 3
Years of experience in quality by job title—

U.S. and Canadian respondents
Champion ($128,500) 25% 75%
Educator/instructor ($141,921) 13.3% 13.3% 73.3%
Master Black Belt ($154,157) 7.7% 23.1% 69.2%
Vice president/executive ($216,442) 12.1% 22.4% 65.5%
Software quality engineer ($129,026) 10% 30% 60%
Director ($162,959) 10.2% 33.1% 56.7%
Statistician ($160,017) 33.3% 11.1% 55.6%
Green Belt ($125,500) 50% 50%

Supplier quality engineer/
23.1% 28.2% 48.7%
professional ($111,976)
Manager ($120,515) 17.7% 34.6% 47.7%
Job title (average salary)
Consultant ($139,573) 14.3% 39.3% 46.4%
Analyst ($90,732) 30.4% 26.1% 43.5%
Quality engineer ($106,486) 34.1% 24.4% 41.5%
Reliability/safety engineer ($142,151) 24% 36% 40%
Other ($127,862) 30% 30% 40%
Coordinator ($77,849) 43.5% 17.4% 39.1%
Auditor ($110,298) 29.6% 31.5% 38.9%
Calibration technician ($75,730) 25% 41.7% 33.3%
Black Belt ($135,139) 42.1% 31.6% 26.3%
Specialist ($91,126) 48.6% 25.7% 25.7%
Supervisor ($92,499) 53.1% 21.9% 25%
Technician ($60,134) 60% 16.7% 23.3%

59.3% 18.5% 22.2%
project engineer ($111,033)
Associate ($70,634) 75% 12.5% 12.5%
Inspector ($69,140) 50% 50%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
10 or fewer years 10.1 to 20 years More than 20 years
Figure 3 includes results for: x Full-time employees, _ Part-time employees, x U.S. employees, x Canadian employees
Data were sorted by the percentage of respondents with more than 20 years of experience in quality, in descending order. All salaries
are shown in U.S. dollars. Canadian salaries were converted using the exchange rate in effect on Aug. 1, 2023.
T A B L E 1 – C O N T I N U E D O N P. 5 8
Salary by years in quality and job title—

Standard
Minimum Maximum Count Average Median
deviation
10 or fewer years $54,086 $80,000 $8,857 7 $66,695 $68,900
Analyst 10.1 to 20 years 54,000 97,200 16,643 6 73,700 73,738
More than 20 years 70,000 180,000 36,471 10 110,650 102,750
10 or fewer years 53,600 65,000 4,180 6 59,054 59,861
Associate 10.1 to 20 years n<3
More than 20 years n<3
10 or fewer years 56,160 186,000 31,467 16 87,895 78,750
Auditor 10.1 to 20 years 45,000 200,000 42,051 17 109,190 112,000
More than 20 years 63,000 190,000 34,182 21 120,360 114,000
10 or fewer years 94,500 238,000 46,036 8 141,115 125,420
Black Belt 10.1 to 20 years 75,000 160,000 32,787 6 112,500 108,750
More than 20 years 125,000 157,341 12,293 5 139,745 138,600
10 or fewer years 74,000 89,000 8,386 3 79,333 75,000
Calibration 10.1 to 20 years 48,760 110,000 24,000 5 73,952 65,000
technician
More than 20 years 45,000 110,000 32,149 4 75,250 73,000
10 or fewer years n<3
Champion 10.1 to 20 years n<3
More than 20 years 105,000 180,000 40,723 3 133,333 115,000
10 or fewer years 40,000 192,000 67,089 4 123,250 130,500
Consultant 10.1 to 20 years 73,000 220,000 46,695 11 144,945 140,000
More than 20 years 48,750 208,000 45,321 13 135,531 150,000
10 or fewer years 47,840 123,000 21,789 10 69,848 69,000
Coordinator 10.1 to 20 years 43,493 93,000 22,699 4 76,123 84,000
More than 20 years 45,000 123,000 29,912 9 76,556 67,500
10 or fewer years 78,000 230,000 39,261 16 152,359 144,500
iStock.com/Sasithorn Phuapankasemsuk
Director 10.1 to 20 years 90,000 260,000 37,586 52 157,288 158,500

More than 20 years 97,500 335,000 45,219 89 163,657 155,000
Educator/ 10.1 to 20 years n<3
instructor
More than 20 years 49,000 283,500 78,744 11 142,672 140,000
Green Belt 10.1 to 20 years n<3
10 or fewer years 45,760 115,000 30,317 5 69,902 52,500
Inspector 10.1 to 20 years 32,000 90,000 26,650 5 65,800 73,000
10 or fewer years 56,538 170,000 28,612 69 107,607 110,000
Manager 10.1 to 20 years 60,000 250,432 30,664 135 118,533 120,000
More than 20 years 43,586 209,000 34,470 186 121,244 120,000
All salaries are shown in U.S. dollars. Canadian salaries have been converted using the exchange rate in effect on July 21, 2023.
n < 3 indicates a row contains fewer than three respondents, and data have been suppressed to shield personally identifiable information.
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T A B L E 1 – C O N T I N U E D F R O M P. 5 7
Salary by years in quality and job title—

Standard
Minimum Maximum Count Average Median
deviation
Master Black 10.1 to 20 years $135,000 $155,000 $10,017 3 $145,333 $146,000
Belt
More than 20 years 115,000 255,000 42,234 9 166,338 155,000
10 or fewer years 74,000 121,000 26,519 3 90,406 76,217
Other 10.1 to 20 years 94,500 105,000 5,268 3 99,500 99,000
More than 20 years 97,500 205,000 47,450 4 154,000 156,750
10 or fewer years 70,000 190,000 30,339 16 104,778 98,750
Process/
manufacturing/ 10.1 to 20 years 97,500 160,000 26,458 5 132,500 135,000
project engineer
More than 20 years 58,500 168,803 45,965 6 110,542 113,750
10 or fewer years 33,018 211,000 27,599 70 93,261 90,000
Quality 10.1 to 20 years 56,250 165,000 25,840 50 107,560 102,750
engineer
More than 20 years 48,750 320,000 38,308 85 114,573 106,000
10 or fewer years 95,000 130,000 13,947 6 109,958 109,375
Reliability/ 10.1 to 20 years 109,000 204,000 34,666 9 147,963 137,000
safety engineer
More than 20 years 88,000 215,000 38,835 10 150,570 147,000
Software 10.1 to 20 years 106,000 120,000 7,371 3 111,667 109,000
quality engineer
More than 20 years 90,000 169,000 26,401 6 127,705 123,616
10 or fewer years 42,795 132,000 22,754 34 78,391 74,000
Specialist 10.1 to 20 years 55,000 135,000 23,013 18 90,821 90,300
More than 20 years 50,000 240,000 51,715 18 106,151 95,000
10 or fewer years 93,500 150,000 31,427 3 129,700 145,600
Statistician 10.1 to 20 years n<3
More than 20 years 150,000 277,050 52,683 5 189,610 167,000
10 or fewer years 52,000 130,000 24,598 17 88,396 80,000
Supervisor 10.1 to 20 years 52,000 125,000 24,817 7 78,071 73,500
More than 20 years 75,000 188,500 40,178 8 106,594 90,500
10 or fewer years 61,500 139,000 27,893 9 97,489 105,000
Supplier quality
engineer/ 10.1 to 20 years 78,000 185,000 29,811 11 110,731 102,000
professional
More than 20 years 83,000 150,000 16,432 19 118,166 119,561
10 or fewer years 28,800 104,000 19,665 18 52,532 48,500
Technician 10.1 to 20 years 60,000 115,000 21,696 5 78,700 75,000
More than 20 years 39,000 112,320 24,219 7 65,678 61,500
10 or fewer years 48,750 200,000 56,645 7 143,098 156,936
Vice president/ 10.1 to 20 years 105,000 600,000 128,418 13 239,115 223,000
executive
More than 20 years 96,000 448,400 83,322 38 223,835 200,000
All salaries are shown in U.S. dollars. Canadian salaries have been converted using the exchange rate in effect on July 21, 2023.
n < 3 indicates a row contains fewer than three respondents, and data have been suppressed to shield personally identifiable information.
FIGURE 4
Salary by highest level of education and number

of years in the quality field—U.S. respondents
$180,000
$157,390
$160,000 $141,651
$140,000 $131,462
$121,819
$113,449
Average salary
$120,000 $106,089
$100,242 $94,005
iStock.com/Michael Burrell/vasiliki
$100,000
$80,000 $68,011
$60,000
$40,000
$20,000
$0
10 or fewer years 10.1-20 years More than 20 years
Years of experience in the quality field
Two-year program Bachelor’s degree Master’s degree
Figure 4 includes results for: x Full-time employees, _ Part-time employees, x U.S. employees, _ Canadian employees
The highest-paid position in the United States

is vice president/executive. Nearly 70% of
professionals with this title have been in the
quality field for more than 20 years.
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T A B L E 2 – C O N T I N U E D O N P. 6 1
Salary by education, years of experience

in quality and job title—U.S. respondents
10 or fewer 10.1 to More than
years 20 years 20 years
Two-year program or less $68,01144 $94,00559 $106,08989
All respondents Bachelor's degree 100,242 145
121,819 148
131,462 205
Master's degree or higher 113,449 104
141,651 134
157,390217
Two-year program or less — 63,488 2
101,667 3
Analyst Bachelor's degree 74,267 3
— 77,0002
Master's degree or higher — 80,242 3
137,500 4
Two-year program or less 54,3002 — —
Associate
Bachelor's degree 62,157 3
— —
Two-year program or less 70,470 3 92,0405 105,333 3
Auditor Bachelor's degree 100,5198 105,9455 111,2257
137,6369
—
Black Belt Bachelor's degree 138,3206 — 138,794 3
Master's degree or higher 149,5002 — 141,1712
Calibration technician Two-year program or less 74,500 2
73,952 5
75,250 4
Champion Bachelor's degree — — 110,0002
An em-dash (—) may indicate that there were no data, or there were data from one respondent, which was
suppressed to protect privacy.
T A B L E 2 – C O N T I N U E D F R O M P. 6 0
Salary by education, years of experience

in quality and job title—U.S. respondents 0.5%
Bachelor's degree $130,5002 $121,350 4 $144,250 8
Consultant THE REAL AVERAGE
165,667 6
143,883 3
Two-year program or less 65,2783 — 79,750 4 HOURLY EARNINGS
Coordinator Bachelor's degree 60,000 2
— — INCREASE FROM AUGUST
Master's degree or higher 66,5002 85,5002 90,0002 2022 TO AUGUST 2023.
Two-year program or less — 134,750 4 136,488 8
Director Bachelor's degree 150,000 8 165,55211 148,85831 Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor
161,118 33
183,75745 Statistics, bit.ly/466GcRD.
Educator/instructor Master's degree or higher 81,5002 — 145,9878
—
Inspector
Bachelor's degree 101,2502 — —
Two-year program or less 83,6586 105,14420 108,90635
Manager Bachelor's degree 107,600 28
116,543 63
124,39669
136,797 39
135,84855
Bachelor's degree — — 163,2352
Master Black Belt
iStock.com/malerapaso/ansonsaw

167,2257
Two-year program or less 74,667 3
— —
project engineer Bachelor's degree 98,6005 157,5002 148,934 3
Master's degree or higher 124,6676 106,2502 —
Two-year program or less 86,769 4
92,357 7 109,513 16
Quality engineer Bachelor's degree 92,49837 108,09922 113,78633
119,810 18
120,36631
Reliability/safety engineer
117,500 4
163,750 4 For U.S.
172,333 5
142,3895 respondents
Software quality engineer
Bachelor's degree — — 135,2465
who stay in
the profession
—
Two-year program or less 71,000 4 — 84,5006
Specialist Bachelor's degree 80,78114 93,04013 93,3336 beyond
99,000 2
181,865 4 six years,
Statistician Master's degree or higher 129,700 3
— 189,6105 that extra
Supervisor
Two-year program or less
Bachelor's degree
61,333 3
104,026
72,875 4
85,000
89,4252
101,800 3
experience
brings a
8 3

— 146,7502
Supplier quality engineer/ Bachelor's degree 98,700 7
108,266 6
113,3336 premium of
professional Master's degree or higher — 113,690 5
120,36010 $14,865 per
Two-year program or less 47,525 83,375 78,083 3
year.
11 4
Technician
— —
Two-year program or less — — 151,667 3
Vice president/executive Bachelor's degree 178,0002 316,3005 194,39114
203,143 7
253,77521
An em-dash (—) may indicate that there were no data, or there were data from one respondent, which was
suppressed to protect privacy.
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
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et’s face it: Whether it’s a lean initiative or a quality program,

driving change in an organization is tough. Seventy percent
of corporate change management programs fail, largely from
employee resistance and a lack of management support.1
Transformations, no matter how important or inevitable,
frequently are viewed as negative. Because it’s uncomfortable
to alter the status quo, change can be resisted fiercely.
Organizations that create and sustain real change usually They leverage these two principles across three dimensions
are successful for reasons you would not expect. They don’t of influence: personal, social and structural. In doing so,
necessarily have the most resources or the best technology. they create six sources of influence, not just one. Figure 1 is
Many do not hold monopolies in their industry, nor do they a schematic of the influencer model. It involves three steps:
rely on top-down mandates. Rather, they accomplish their Step one: Focus on goals with measurable results.
goals through influence. Influence is about changing hearts, Everything begins with identifying and articulating clear
minds and behaviors to produce meaningful and sustain- goals. Don’t waste time on your strategy to create change
able results. until you’ve clarified what you want, why you want it and
Such are the findings of Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, when you want it. Vague goals lead to confusion and don’t
Ron McMillan and Al Switzler, authors of Influencer: The New inspire us. Infrequent or nonexistent measures lead to
Science of Leading Change.2 wasted efforts. Compelling goals, on the other hand, focus
This article introduces their model for implementing on outcomes, not activities. They are specific, measurable
change, describes how it works and provides an example and clearly timebound.
of how a small manufacturer applied the model to drive Consider the extraordinary influence of Donald J.
continuous improvement (CI). Berwick, former president and CEO of the Institute for
iStock.com/Watcharin panyawutso
Based on extensive research of successful and unsuccess- Healthcare Improvement (IHI). In 2004, Berwick was frus-
ful change efforts, Patterson, Grenny, McMillan and Switzler trated that preventable errors in healthcare (such as medical
developed what they call the influencer change model. The injuries and hospital-acquired infections) had become the
model focuses on changing behaviors to achieve measurable sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. 3 Berwick
results. The authors assert that people do things because and his team wanted to do something about it. What was
they want to (motivation) and because they can (ability). needed was a bold, audacious goal that would inspire
FIGURE 1
Three-step influencer model 3
Motivation Ability
Personal
1 2
ourc
es
s
1 2
3 4
i x
S nce
flue
Analyze Analyze Social
Goals with Find vital
o f i n
measurable results behaviors Execute
5 6
Execute
Structural
TA B L E 1 Look for crucial moments. Identify times when behavior

puts success at risk. Crucial moments tell you when it’s time
Examples of vital
to act. A crucial time in a warehouse operation, for exam-
ple, is when the tractor-trailer backs up to the loading dock.
behaviors and results

If the truck wheels are not chocked, the trailer could move
or overturn while workers load, unload, hitch, unhitch or
service the vehicle. This can lead to accidents.
Vital behavior Result Spot culture busters. Watch for crucial moments that
call for behaviors that are taboo or punished, or that
Pull the andon cord when you see a challenge cultural norms. Organizations that punish
nonconformity. Insist on built-in quality. Achieve 100% first-pass
Don't make a defect. Don't accept a yield by end of Q1 2022. poor decisions or bad results, for example, create a toxic
defect. Don't pass a defect. culture. Speak honestly and you pay for it. The result is
Never leave a tractor-trailer unsecured. Create an accident-free
that problems tend to remain underground. Ford Motor
Secure it with chock blocks or a zone in the loading dock Co. presents a good case study:
dock-lock. area in 2022. “When Alan Mulally arrived as president and CEO
Conduct weekly gemba walks in the plant Increase productivity of Ford Motor Co. in 2006, Ford was facing a crisis. …
starting at the loading dock and ending output 10% by end of “[During] his first leadership team meetings at Ford,
at material staging. Q2 2022.
everyone came prepared with their updates and reported
an overwhelming number of ‘green light,’ or on-track, ini-
Americans while being specific and measurable. Here is what tiatives. However, it was clear these updates did not align
Berwick told the audience at the 16th annual IHI Forum on with reality. Even though Ford was on pace to lose $17
Dec. 14, 2004:4 billion in 2006, Mulally’s key executives were signaling
“I think we should save 100,000 lives. I think we should that everything was going according to plan. …
do that by June 14, 2006—18 months from now—by 9 a.m.”4 “Mulally set a clear expectation for his team that he val-
Step two: Find the vital behaviors. Influencers focus ued transparency first and foremost. He wanted managers
on the few high-leverage behaviors that drive results. to highlight potential problems—red and yellow lights,
Behaviors are actions, not results. Vital behaviors are like rather than green—so that Ford could tackle issues and
DNA—they tell you precisely what to do, how to do it and blind spots openly.
when to do it. They often start a reaction that leads to pos- “Slowly, but surely, Mulally’s team came to meetings
itive results. Table 1 describes examples of vital behaviors. with less-than-stellar reports, and leadership began to
How do you identify these vital behaviors? Recommended have a more accurate picture of the company’s problems.
strategies include: Getting this clarity was crucial to Mulally’s larger plan to
Insist on vital behaviors. Recognize behaviors that resurrect the company based on clear vision and goals.”5
are obvious but underused. When analyzing problems Step three: Engage all six sources of influence. Rather
(such as defects and late orders), for example, focus on than look at just one source for influence, the model allows
the process rather than the people. Pointing fingers makes you to apply six sources. See Figure 2 (p. 66).
individuals defensive. When I’m stuck in analysis paraly- Motivation encourages people to do things, while ability
sis, I tend to go back to the end-user—the customer—and enables people to achieve those things. Personal refers to the
how they are affected. The customer’s perspective tends individual employee, social refers to the business unit and
to neutralize internal silo thinking. structural refers to the corporate or enterprise level. Think of
FIGURE 2 these sources as levers you can apply when trying

to drive change.
Six sources of influence

The first four influencers in Figure 2 are intu-
itive. Influencer five, “Change their economy,”
applies structural incentives or disincentives to
drive behaviors. These include recognition (for-
Motivation: Ability:
Is it worth it? Can I do it? mal or informal), monetary awards (bonus and
profit sharing), career paths and performance
improvement plans. Influencer six, “Change
1. Help them love what 2. Help them do what
Personal their space,” leverages physical surroundings
they hate. they can't.
to enable people to do things. This includes
designating space on the shop floor for contin-
uous improvement efforts, visual boards and
Social 3. Provide encouragement. 4. Provide assistance.
metric dashboards.
Application in industry
Structural 5. Change their economy. 6. Change their space. During the past year, I’ve worked with a small
manufacturer to implement a CI program. The
owner and I went to great lengths to understand
the current state, identify goals and objectives, and
plan the program, including selecting participants,
designating the owner as the champion, identifying
suitable projects, conducting training and managing
the program using clear metrics.
Despite our efforts, the CI program floundered.
FIGURE 3
Most projects were not getting implemented.
The few that did were back-sliding in terms of
Six sources of influence

progress. Employees had returned to a business-
as-usual mode. I suggested to the owner that we
meet with the entire team and address the issue
for manufacturers candidly using the influencer model to evaluate

the program for gaps.
Five minutes into the meeting, it was obvious
Motivation Ability that we had only partially addressed the needs at
Litean Six Sigma should make ofEmphasize the principles

value-add vs. nonvalue-
the personal level. The training certainly equipped
the team with the ability (skills and tools) to improve
easier to perform my job
add (the eight wastes).
and meet my targets.
Personal
Let me work on micro- G o back to the
fundamentals of how to
processes. But training is one thing. Application of
training is another. Our belief that giving everyone
projects I can control
observe and measure work an opportunity to learn new problem-solving skills
directly and see the results.
activities.
was a sufficient motivating factor turned out to be
Tonehe day
trainer will be available
per week on site to
somewhat misguided.
provide coaching.
First, we addressed the goal. The original goal
Social
Managers will allocate one hour
per week for each team member
team
Maintenance will support
members in building
was to “improve the ‘perfect’ order rate from 92%
to 95% or higher during year one.” Perfect was
to work on their projects. jigs, moving equipment,
building new work stations,
defined as producing the right order in the right
installing visual boards and quantities without defects and delivering it on time.
with 5S tools, for example. While specific and measurable, it never resonated
Build a dedicated continuous with employees. It was driven by the owner.
Cofonduct weekly readouts
accomplishments by team
improvement center on We reframed the goal as: “Take waste out of the
the shop floor where team
members. business. Specifically, remove at least 15 minutes
Structural members can work on projects,
Irecognition
mplement a formal
program for
show project status, hold just- of waste per day for each associate during the first
in-time training and conduct year to free up folks for higher-value activities.”
achieving milestones.
meetings.
Higher-value activities were defined as handling
2. For managers: Stop fixing and start coaching. This entails

asking good coaching questions. Coaching questions help
others improve their problem-solving skills. We focused on
three types of coaching questions: open-ended, non-leading
and nonjudgmental.6
With our goals and vital behaviors clearly in mind, we
addressed the gaps in the CI program using the influencer
model (see Figure 3). To help employees achieve the goal of
removing 15 minutes of waste per day, we focused on their
daily work activities. I created an easy-to-use three-step pain
point selection template (see Online Figure 1, which can be
found on this article’s webpage at qualityprogress.com).
Step one is to baseline how people spend their typical
workday in terms of activities and amount
of time, and to determine what is value-add
vs. nonvalue-add. We emphasized the eight
wastes and how to conduct observation. This
allowed everyone to see how much waste occurs
during a typical day.
Step two is to rank the waste in each step using
a severity-frequency scale. Step three is to answer
the degree of control you have over the activity
(high, medium or low). Next, the pain points can
be narrowed by filtering those activities that have
a high severity and high frequency. These are the
most pressing. Next, select those that you have a high
degree of control over. These represent the easiest pain
points in terms of your ability to influence the outcome.
Improve your chances

I like the influencer model because it is intuitive and simple
to use. The beauty is that it scales up and down from personal
lifestyle changes, such as losing weight, to organizational
more orders, increasing the average dollar purchase, increas- changes, such as implementing a new CI program.
ing repeat orders and developing new products. The new goal What surprised us was how easy it was to create a work-
resonated with everyone because it connected them more able roadmap for what seemed to be such a complex initiative.
closely to their work. Getting folks to improve their own work activities turned out
We concluded that removing waste is more of a leading to be a big breakthrough. Although this is a work in progress,
indicator that would, in turn, improve the perfect order rate. early results show promise. Each person has saved at least five
The new goal also had a positive tone. It was not about reduc- minutes out of their day.
ing headcount. Freeing up 15 minutes per day per associate So, the next time you’re tasked with leading an initiative,
was the equivalent of two new hires. large or small, improve your chances of success with the
Next, we identified two vital behaviors: influencer change model. QP
1. For frontline operators: When in doubt, always engage in
EDITOR’S NOTE
Jamie Grill via Getty Images; iStock.com/Balora
direct observation and measurement. Don’t guess. We took References listed in this article can be found on the article’s webpage at
lots of videos of processes to help baseline performance. qualityprogress.com.
Peter J. Shermanis the managing partner of Riverwood Associates LLC in Atlanta. He earned a master’s degree in civil engineering from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and an MBA from Georgia State University in Atlanta. From 2008 to 2011, Sherman was
the lead instructor of Emory University’s Six Sigma certificate program in Atlanta. A senior member of ASQ, Sherman is an ASQ-certified quality
engineer, a Smarter Solution-certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and an APICS-certified supply chain professional. Sherman has served
as chair of ASQ Atlanta Section 1502.
TELEMETRY
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TELEMETRY
Medical devices specif icat ions

have been used to and implementations.
improve human health for It laid the groundwork for
more than a century. Their reg- what regulatory bodies expected
ulatory history, however, is much of organizations in the design phase,
shorter. The landmark Medical Device although it stopped short of specifying
Amendments (MDA) of 1976 updated the what was needed from a design standpoint.
U.S. Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act to give the These guidelines were not directed specifically
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the at software. Instead, they were generalized to
authority to classify and control the distribution of include the development and integration of all parts
medical devices based on their complexity and risk of the medical device.6
to public health.1 The rapid advancement of radio frequency biomed-
At that time, however, most marketed devices only ical technology, the availability of cloud-based data
were beginning to incorporate sophisticated elements storage and the low cost of increasingly capable sensors
such as electronic components and soft- encouraged a new facet of industry called
ware. Today, a broad range of medical devices the Internet of Things (IoT). Medical device
contain and are controlled by electronics and JUST THE FACTS industries were not excluded from using the
software. In some cases, devices communicate new and powerful tools introduced by IoT.
interactively with other devices or remote sites, IoT technology allows devices to “talk to
with more advanced devices having the ability An exploratory the cloud” to send data about their location,
to be adjusted from those remote sites based on study assessed how performance, as well as consumer and patient
device telemetry.2 device telemetry biometrics and behaviors. High-powered
Fourteen years after the MDA was enacted,
is being collected analysis tools then enabled organizations to
and monitored by
the FDA took an important step to draw attention defibrillator and evaluate the much larger collections of data
to the safety challenges associated with complex infusion pump com- housed in the cloud.
medical devices by publishing “Device Recalls:
panies to ensure the The phrase “data is the new gold” was
safe and effective
A Study of Quality Problems.”3 In that report, operation of their coined to capture the importance of this
the FDA identified that about 44% of medical devices. transmitted telemetry to improve capabil-
device recalls could be attributed to faults This survey's results ity, performance and profitability. The
in the devices’ design.4 indicate that many use and sale of such data for targeted
The report prompted the develop- manufacturers consumer marketing are perhaps the
ment of “Design Control Guidance for
monitor perfor- most visible parts of telemetry use.
mance aspects of
Medical Device Manufacturers,”5 their products using The data’s health-related uses,
which clarified several expec- telemetry data however, include a role in
tations associated with the
without specific patient, device and security
requirements from
design, risk management, regulators. monitoring to ensure
control and revi- safe and reliable
sion of product
Regulators could patient care.
add value by
clarifying and
perhaps expanding
their expectations
related to device
telemetry used
for post-market
surveillance.
TELEMETRY
FIGURE 1
Product type with which respondents had experience

Q3: Please choose one product with which you have telemetry or post-market experience.
This product should be used as the basis for answering the remaining survey questions.
N = 85
Infusion pump 29
External defibrillator 21
Implantable defibrillator 16
Other 19
Manufacturers of medical devices sold in the United States medical device safety, they provide relatively little guidance on
are expected to develop their products according to 21 Code of when and how to use available telemetry to ensure that a device
Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 820—Quality system regulation, continues to meet its intended use as it ages.
whereas manufacturers that sell devices in other countries
typically must be compliant with ISO 13485:2016—Medical Research approach and results
devices—quality management systems—requirements for reg- This research was based on a mixed-methods approach in
ulatory purposes. Both sets of requirements take a life-cycle which a literature review and analysis were followed by
approach. Of the two, ISO 13485 makes stronger statements further exploration using survey methods. The survey was
about the use of feedback signals to monitor performance: broken into four main elements:
“The organization shall document procedures
for the feedback process. This feedback process
TA B L E 1
shall include provisions to gather data from pro-
duction as well as post-production activities.”7
In contrast, 21 CFR Part 820, which was
written 20 years prior, includes little about per-
‘Other’ product types with which
formance feedback and certainly nothing about
telemetered signals. Part 820 refers to data moni- respondents had experience
toring only when it is associated with production
processes. At best, it is implied in a section on
Ophthalmic
complaint handling. Patient monitors Telemetry
device
It was, however, positive to see that when an
Heart-rhythm Kyphoplasty,
adverse event or a device failure occurred, some Drug-eluding stent
monitoring diabetes devices
organizations used telemetry as their method to
Insulin pump Pacemaker Neurostimulator
satisfy 21 CFR Part 820.100—Corrective and pre-
ventive action, or in some cases, used it to satisfy Electrosurgical
a requirement for post-market surveillance.8 products, ventilation Heart monitor Oxymetry (sic)
iStock.com/kool99/Terriana/AlexLMX
products
In medical device telemetry, such as software
malfunctions and cyber threats, the industry has Body-worn sensors Cochlear implant
been guided at a high level by regulations, guidance Software as medical Ventricular assist Biofeedback telemetry
documents and international standards for design, device, arrhythmia device, inductive device—electromyography
detection coupling sensor
risk, complaint, and corrective and preventive action
(CAPA) management.9 Although these documents Bluetooth-enabled stethoscopes, medical device data systems,
picture archiving and communications systems (stand-alone software)
are helpful for establishing approaches to improve
TELEMETRY
TA B L E 2
Data types monitored via telemetry by device type

Infusion External Implantable 1. Respondent profile.
Telemetry data types Total
pump defibrillator defibrillator 2. Implementation of telemetry
Device performance data 12 12 16 40 monitoring.
3. Specifics of device performance
Patient biometric data 12 11 14 37 telemetry.
Device cyber-threat data 3 1 3 7 4. Specifics of cyber-threat data
Total participants 29 21 16 66
telemetry.
The survey was sent to professionals
who worked for defibrillator and infu-
Percentage of telemetry data types External Implantable
Infusion pump sion pump manufacturers and those
per participant defibrillator defibrillator
involved in the service of such devices.
Device performance data 41% 57% 100%
The targeted respondents included
Patient biometric data 41% 52% 88% software, system, service, clinical,
Device cyber-threat data 10% 5% 19%
regulatory and quality engineers who
support the product development or
business-sustaining efforts for medical
device manufacturers.
The survey was open Oct. 8 to Dec. 7,
FIGURE 2 2020. The overall survey response rate
was 75% and included 85 respondents
Performance telemetry data collected

who completed at least one survey ques-
tion. Most (66%) had more than 10 years
by external defibrillator companies

of experience in the medical device
industry. Those with three to 10 years of
experience (28%) formed the next larg-
est group. Only a few respondents (6%)
had zero to two years of experience.
Infusion pump experience was the
External defibrillator performance telemetry
most common type of product experi-
N = 10 ence (34%). Smaller numbers reported
experience with external defibrillators
Battery capacity 10
(25%) and implantable defibrillators
(19%) (see Figure 1). The remaining
Paddle impedance 9 respondents (22%) categorized the
devices with which they had experi-
ence as “Other,” many of which are
Battery charge time 5
defined further in Table 1.
Most respondents (71%) described
Battery impedance 3 their medical devices as being sold
Respondents were encouraged to
select all that applied globally. A minority were sold only in
Time to power up 3 the United States and Europe (20%),
or only the United States (15%). Some
were sold in other locations (6%), and
Data transmission time 7
one respondent (1%) indicated that
he or she didn’t know the location of
Time to upload software 2 product sales.
Respondents were asked about the
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% data collected by their device from a
TELEMETRY
FIGURE 3
Performance telemetry data collected indicated that their external

defibrillators monitor device
by implantable defibrillator companies

performance data, but only
10 respondents provided
detail about specific types of
telemetry data, such as battery
Implantable defibrillator performance telemetry capacity (Figure 2). This
N = 14 pattern continues with subse-
quent figures and tables with
Battery capacity 14 a drop-off in responses as the
survey progressed.
Respondents were asked
Warnings, alarms or error messages 14
about who was expected to
review the device perfor-
mance telemetry to ensure
Lead impedance 13
consistent performance.
Most respondents (91%)
Battery charge time 12 expected hospital staff to
review the data transmitted
by the devices. A majority
Battery impedance 11 (77%) said they believed that
the device manufacturing
staff also should review the
Frequency of network 6 device performance data.
A few respondents (14%)
expected the patient to monitor
Data transmission time 4
the data delivered by his or her
device, and one respondent
Total time 2 (3%) indicated that the trans-
Respondents were encouraged to
select all that applied mitted performance data were
not expected to be reviewed
Time to upload software 1 by anyone. One respondent
(3%) selected “Other” and
commented that “Device
Other 3 manufacturer staff receive
raw and analyzed data if an
issue is detected or advanced
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
troubleshooting is needed.”
One respondent (3%) did not
know or could not answer.
series of choices. The results from the infusion pump and Respondents working with infusion pumps or defibril-
defibrillator respondents are shown in this article. Many lators had their results examined to look for differences in
respondents identified that they had telemetry for their device device types. Of those working with implanted defibrilla-
performance (61%) and patient biometrics (56%), and a few tors, 100% expected hospital staff to review performance
indicated that their devices had cyber-threat telemetry (11%) data, but only 53% expected device manufacturer staff to
(see Table 2, p. 71). The specifics of the device performance review the data.
parameters that were monitored are shown in Figure 2 (p. 71), An opposite pattern characterized the views of those
Figure 3 and Figure 4, and Tables 3 and 4 (p. 74). working with external defibrillators: 73% expected hos-
It is important to note that the respondents indicated in pital staff to review the data, but 91% expected the device
Table 2 did not all respond to additional questions related to manufacturer staff to review the data. Almost everyone
specific types of telemetry data. For example, 12 respondents working with infusion pumps expected hospital staff
TELEMETRY
FIGURE 4
and device manufac-

turers to review the Performance telemetry data types
collected by infusion pump companies
performance data (90%
and 90% respectively).
Respondents were
asked about the purposes Infusion pump performance telemetry
for which device perfor-
N = 10
mance data were used
from a list of options. Warnings, alarms or error messages 10
Most respondents (89%)
said their company used Number or resets of the program 6
the data for risk manage-
ment activities; two (6%)
Frequency of battery usage 4
disagreed and two (6%)
didn’t know or couldn’t
Battery pressure 3
answer.
Most respondents also
said their company used Total time 4
the telemetry data for
several other functions: Pump RPM at various flow rates 4
future product develop-
ment (86%), post-market
Frequency of network connects and disconnects 5
surveillance (83%), and
data trending and analysis
(83%) (see Figure 5, p. 75). Number of alerts/unit time 4
For each of these choices,
only one or two disagreed, Number of repeat key strokes 3 Respondents were encouraged to
and four or five didn’t select all that applied
know or couldn’t answer. Pressure delta across the pump 3
About two-thirds (69%)
thought their company
Total life cycle clock 4
also used the data to assist
in CAPAs, a few (11%)
disagreed, and several Number of tubing door closures/unit time 3
(19%) didn’t know or
couldn’t answer. Some Energy consumption at flow rates 3
respondents suggested
they had other uses for Pump temperature 1
the data, as specified in
Table 5 (p. 74). (Also see
Pump altitude 0
Table 6, p. 75, and Online
Figure 1, found on this
feature article’s webpage Other (please describe) 2
at qualityprogress.com.)
Finally, respondents 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
were asked whether
they believed regulators
should require telemetry-capable devices to monitor perfor-
mance parameters for post-market surveillance. Most (78%)
agreed, but a smaller number disagreed (12%) or didn’t know
(10%) (see Online Figure 2).
TELEMETRY
TA B L E 3
‘Other’ performance telemetry

collected by implantable defibrillators
Last therapy delivery
Unsure on software upload. Don't know what total time refers to
R wave, P wave, pacing thresholds, arrhythmia events, therapy and effect of therapy
TA B L E 4
‘Other’ performance telemetry

collected by infusion pumps
Glucose sensor readings
Number and type of interactions with the patient programmer
TA B L E 5
Performance telemetry reviewer

expectations by device type
Total External defibrillator Implantable defibrillator Infusion pump
Medical staff, clinical engineering,
32 8 15 9
hospital biomedical engineers
Device manufacturer staff 27 10 8 9
Patient 5 1 2 2
Data is not reviewed 1 1 0 0
Other (please describe) 1 0 1 0
I don’t know/can’t answer 1 1 0 0
N = 36 N = 11 N = 15 N = 10
Medical staff, clinical engineering,

89% 73% 100% 90%
hospital biomedical engineers
Device manufacturer staff 75% 91% 53% 90%
Patient 14% 9% 13% 20%
Data is not reviewed 3% 9% 0% 0%

iStock.com/oatintro
Other (please describe) 3% 0% 7% 0%
I don’t know/can’t answer 3% 9% 0% 0%
TELEMETRY
FIGURE 5
Performance data use

N
Risk management 89% 6% 6% 36
Future product development 86% 3% 11% 36
Postmarket surveillance 83% 6% 11% 36
Data trending and analysis 83% 3% 14% 36
Current product CAPA 69% 11% 19% 36
Other 40% 60% 5
Yes No Do not know/cannot answer
CAPA = corrective and preventive action It seems, however, that manufacturers are leading reg-
ulators in their expectations for performance monitoring.
Manufacturers of the products included in this research
TA B L E 6 have proven that they can monitor and learn from their
device telemetry data even without a specific directive to
‘Other’ performance do so from regulators. Adoption of this capability, however,

may not be universal.
telemetry data uses

Regulators could add value by explaining to manufactur-
ers what they view as responsible actions related to device
performance monitoring. At least in the areas of implantable
defibrillators, infusion pumps and external defibrillators,
Benchmark/analytics.
the industry appears capable and willing to include this data
The data is used only for CAPA as needed. Not routinely scanned. in its post-market surveillance programs.
Complaint investigation (PMS). How far these practices extend to monitor the perfor-
mance of other device types remains unclear. The results
here suggest that additional research should be conducted
CAPA = corrective and preventive action to see whether other medical device types are equally capa-
PMS = post-market surveillance
ble of using telemetry to conduct performance monitoring
and whether such an approach would be valuable. QP
EDITOR’S NOTE
Stay connected References listed in this article can be found on the article’s webpage at
The medical device industry has gone through an enormous qualityprogress.com.
change since the MDA was adopted in 1976. Now, medical
devices not only can diagnose and improve health, but they
also can monitor how outcomes progress through telemet-
ric connections even when devices are implanted or hard Carolyn Wrighthas more than 30 years of experience
to reach. These advancements in monitoring have a great in the drug, biologic and medical device areas. She
deal of potential to improve patient care and ensure reliable received a doctorate in regulatory affairs from the
device function. University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
S TA N DA R D I S S U E S
Standards-related developments and activities
Hot Off the Press

AS9125
Everything you need to know about the new aerospace standard, AS9125 by Inez L. Gronewold
n the world of aerospace and aviation, precision, service. It typically is not delivered to the end-user under
I
safety and quality are paramount. Establishing a contract or agreement. Non-deliverable software can be
common requirements for use at all levels of the developed internally or procured externally.
supply chain by organizations worldwide results in
improved quality, schedules and cost performance. Developing a new standard
This holds true for many types of products and services, The International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG®)
and applies to non-deliverable software. approved the development of a new international standard,
Non-deliverable software can affect significantly an organi- AS9125—Aerospace series—Non-deliverable software require-
zation’s ability to produce acceptable products. Unverified and ments, to address the unique requirements of non-deliverable
uncontrolled non-deliverable software can lead to critical fail- software. It is on track to be published in early 2024 in all
ures, cost overruns, nonconforming product and schedule slips. IAQG sectors.
Aerospace Standard (AS) 9100—Quality management AS9125 was created by an IAQG writing team consisting
systems—requirements for aviation, space and defense organi- of members from all three IAQG sectors and is represented
zations could be used to control non-deliverable software, but by seven member companies that include commercial, space
many organizations find it overly burdensome. Organizations and defense original equipment manufacturers, and suppli-
worldwide recognize the necessity to control non-deliverable ers worldwide. With the onset of COVID-19, the writing
software, yet an international standard to fill this need was team quickly adapted to work effectively through virtual
not available—until now. meetings and bring this new standard to life.
iStock.com/Mak_Art
AS9125 supersedes and modernizes Aerospace recom-

Non-deliverable software defined mended practice 9005—Aerospace guidance for non-deliverable
Non-deliverable software is used to design, manufacture, software published in 2005 as guidance for the control of
inspect, test, accept or calibrate a deliverable product or non-deliverable software. AS9125 expands applicability
to international use by aligning with the AS9100 series Review and approval.
framework. Identification and traceability.
The new standard provides requirements to control Control of changes.
non-deliverable software effectively during its life cycle, Information security.
from design through retirement. The requirements apply Externally provided software. This section pertains to
to non-deliverable software that: software that is procured from an external provider instead
Relates directly to designing, manufacturing, inspecting, of being developed internally. Examples of externally pro-
testing or calibrating a deliverable product. vided non-deliverable software include custom-developed
Directly affects the configuration, conformity or quality or modified software, commercial off-the-shelf software,
of a deliverable product. government off-the-shelf software, and free and open-
Some types of non-deliverable software are outside the source software.
scope of the new standard. AS9115—Quality management It is important to note that where externally provided
systems—requirements for aviation, space and defense organi- software is modified or newly developed, the organization
zations—deliverable software is the appropriate standard for determines the extent of applicability of the design and
deliverable software. Examples of non-deliverable software development section of AS9125.
that are not within the scope of AS9125 include: Release and control. Release and control apply to
Operating systems, such as Windows, Linux and macOS. non-deliverable software regardless of whether it was
Enterprise software, such as systems applications and developed internally or procured from an external provider.
products, enterprise resource planning and email. This section covers:
Office software, such as Microsoft Office and Teams. Release and distribution.
Access control.
Benefits of controlling non-deliverable Obsolete software.
software Software preservation.
AS9125 compliance provides a range of benefits to the aero- Documented information.
space industry, including:
Enhanced product quality. AS9125 helps organizations Relationship to other standards
maintain product and service quality, reducing the likeli- AS9125 focuses solely on the unique requirements that per-
hood of defects and nonconformities. tain to non-deliverable software. Operational processes not
Improved safety. Adherence to AS9125 requirements covered in this standard (for example, risk management) are
leads to safer products and services. addressed by the organization’s quality management system
Reduced costs. Cost savings can be realized through (QMS), based on AS9100 and ISO 9001. AS9100 compliance is
improved efficiency, as well as reduced rework and not required to implement AS9125, but an AS9100-compliant
rejection of nonconforming products. QMS supports a more effective AS9125 implementation.
Global recognition. AS9125 was developed as an Although AS9115 and AS9125 both address software,
international standard. there is no dependency between the two standards. AS9125
Customer trust. Meeting AS9125 requirements instills applies to non-deliverable software whereas AS9115 applies to
customer confidence, demonstrating a commitment to deliverable software. In addition, AS9115 is a QMS standard,
quality and safety. addressing all elements of developing software that will be
delivered. AS9125 was developed to address non-deliverable
Noteworthy sections software used in manufacturing or verifying deliverable prod-
Three sections worth noting include: ucts but does not define a full QMS. QP
Design and development of non-deliverable soft-
ware. AS9125 requires users to create and maintain a design ©2023 Inez L. Gronewold
and development plan that defines the processes, tools and
resources needed to develop the non-deliverable software.
The standard lists 14 items that must be included in the
design and development plan, as applicable. This applicability Inez L. Gronewoldis a principal technical project
approach is used several times throughout the standard and manager at Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rapids, IA.
allows an organization to tailor the requirements to meet its She received a master’s degree in computer information
specific needs. systems from the University of Phoenix. Gronewold
Other topics covered in this section include: leads the writing team responsible for AS9115 and AS9125, as the IDR for both
Inputs and outputs. standards. She has been with the International Aerospace Quality Group in the
Verification and validation. Americas Aerospace Quality Group sector for 11 years.
SIX SIGMA SOLUTIONS
Practical knowledge about Six Sigma
Sustaining
PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
LSS Gains
Maintaining improvements is more easily praised than
practiced by Ronald D. Snee and Roger W. Hoerl
ne of the most discouraging aspects
O
of deploying lean Six Sigma (LSS) to
generate improvements is seeing over
time—sometimes a short time—that the
iStock.com/PeopleImages/Lightboxx
improvements put in place are no longer

there or no longer working.
Some may think that when improvements are
in place, the work is done. There is, therefore, no
need to pay significant attention to maintaining
these improvements. Often, such thinking leads
to a minimal control plan developed quickly and
with little thought. Black Belts (BB) may be anx- because the control phase is intended to
ious to move on to the next challenge, for example, hold the gains and sustain the improvements.
now that the heavy lifting has been accomplished. The degree of control going forward, however,
Unfortunately, the second law of thermodynamics only will be as strong as the control plan put
tells us that processes left alone tend to deteriorate into place.
into chaos. In our collective experience, inadequate con-
trol plans are one of the most common causes of
So, what should we do? failed projects. To be effective, the control plan
We might get a false sense of security using must include:
define, measure, analyze, improve and control Training of personnel in how to operate the
new-and-improved process.
Continued process monitoring using control
charts or other methods.
Assessment of the new process capability using
Cp, Cpk, Pp or Ppk indexes.
Periodic process audits, which include the
finance organization and reviews by operations.
Ongoing assessment of any models developed
in the improve phase being used to control the
process.
Use of checklists to simplify and standardize
the required tasks.
Some may assume that training is
unneeded because process operators and
supervisory personnel already know how
to operate the process. This is likely not the
case because the improved or revised process
likely will require additional process knowledge
and instruction. The training also helps ensure
all involved are on the same page regarding the
process and its operation.
Stability and capability are two critical char-
acteristics of process performance. Continued
process monitoring using control charts and pro-
cess capability indexes helps ensure the process
operates as desired, and the product is meeting
specifications over time.
One method to make process audits a regu-
lar procedure is to make them part of the ISO
9000 quality system documentation. As a result,
maintaining the improvements will be audited
automatically. Financial audits are done sepa-
rately—typically at a six-month interval for at
least a year after the improvements have been
put in place—to ensure that the claimed financial
benefits are captured.
The improve phase often produces a pre-
diction equation that can be used to aid in the
control of the process. When such a model exists,
it is helpful in the control plan to include a pro-
cess for the continual verification of the model
performance. Typically, this is accomplished
by monitoring the difference between model
SIX SIGMA SOLUTIONS
Stability and capability

are two critical
characteristics of process
performance. Continued
process monitoring using
control charts and process
predictions should be
and the capability indexes helps scoped so BBs
observed values ensure the process operates and Green Belts
of the response as desired, and the product (GB) can complete
measurements the project in the
is meeting specifications
(residuals) using allotted time. We
a control chart, for over time. recommend that projects
example. Trends or out- be selected by the man-
of-control model residuals agement team to ensure that
are an indication that the they receive full management
model may no longer be giving support.
accurate predictions.1 Allocation processes to select the right per-
Checklists are effective in ensuring that the new sonnel to serve in key roles, including Project
process operates as designed. Surgeons and airline Champions (PC), Master Black Belts (MBB), BBs
pilots make regular use of checklists.2 Co-author and GBs. The organization’s top talent should be
Ron Snee speaks from personal experience. His selected for the most strategic projects. While
wife was having a serious lung operation. Snee all BBs may be qualified, for example, not all
asked the surgeon whether he used checklists. have the same level of experience and expertise.
Much to Snee’s pleasure, the surgeon answered Training systems for all roles, including PCs,
he did. Before every surgery, the surgeon said MBBs, BBs, GBs and Yellow Belts as needed.
he “called a time out. Each team member in turn These training systems should include mentoring
described his or her role in the surgical procedure skills for PCs, MBBs and BBs.
being performed.” (Snee is pleased to report that Reward and recognition systems to help demon-
the surgery was successful, and his wife experi- strate management’s commitment to LSS. Such
enced a speedy recovery.) reward often involves compensation, but many
other forms of recognition are appropriate, such
Building infrastructure for as interactions with senior leadership, freedom
long-term success to pursue improvement ideas and opportunities
While developing and deploying an effective to present the team’s results.
control plan can help ensure long-term mainte- Communication systems that keep the orga-
nance of project improvements, it is not sufficient nization informed of the LSS deployment
to sustain the overall LSS initiative over time. accomplishments and future directions. Like
Infrastructure, in the form of managerial systems reward and recognition, regular communica-
and processes, and potentially new organizational tion sends a message that LSS is not a fad, but
models, is needed. here to stay.
Initially, LSS often is sustained through heroic Project tracking systems to document the proj-
efforts of motivated employees. Obviously, this ect goals, team members involved and results
approach will not be successful in the long term. obtained, including performance improve-
Infrastructure enables LSS to achieve firmer foot- ments as well as bottom-line financial gains.
ing as a formally managed initiative. Examples of Formal documentation of the improvement
needed systems and processes include: work being completed enables factual commu-
Project selection processes that support the nication of projects and accurate estimates of
organization’s goals and objectives. Projects financial impact.
Importance of management reviews It works if you follow the process
A system for regular management reviews of Snee heard an AlliedSignal manager admonish a
individual projects and the overall initiative are group of PCs that “Six Sigma works if you follow the
critical to long-term LSS success. In fact, we refer process. If it is not working, you are not following the
to the review system as LSS’s “secret sauce.” While process.” This is our experience as well. Certainly,
this review system could be viewed as part of the sustaining LSS improvement is necessary for long-
overall infrastructure, we break it out separately term success. In our experience, the approaches
to give it the emphasis we feel it deserves. Reviews described earlier will take an organization a long
assess progress and identify what’s working and way toward sustaining LSS for the long haul. QP
what needs changing in the deployment and indi-
NOTE AND REFERENCES
vidual projects. 1. A description of this method, including an example, can be found
At the strategic level, Snee saw two CEOs make in Roger W. Hoerl and Ronald D. Snee’s, Statistical Thinking—
particularly effective use of initiative reviews. Improving Business Performance, third edition, John Wiley
Richard Jalkut, CEO of the NYNEX Corp. (now and Sons, 2020, pp. 548-551.
Verizon), used Friday morning calls with his top 2. Atul Gawande, Checklist Manifesto, How to Get Things Right,
Picador, 2009.
100 managers to review the progress his company
was making in improving customer satisfaction. BIBLIOGRAPHY
These calls and the resulting improvements Snee, Ronald D., and Roger W. Hoerl, Leading Holistic Improvement
contributed significantly to increasing customer With Lean Six Sigma 2.0, second edition, Pearson Education, 2018.
satisfaction from about 70% to about 90% in about © 2023 Ronald D. Snee and Roger W. Hoerl
six months.
Snee heard Paul Norris, chairman of W.R.
Grace, admonish his management team to
“schedule the reviews and show up. You don’t
even have to say anything during the reviews. Ronald D. Sneeis president of Snee
Improvements will happen.” As with the famous Associates LLC in Newark, DE. He has a
Hawthorne experiment, improvement almost doctorate in applied and mathematical
always follows managerial attention. statistics from Rutgers University in
In fact, we are unaware of any LSS deployment New Brunswick, NJ. Snee is an Honorary
being successful long term without management Member of ASQ and has received ASQ’s
reviews. At an operational level, we recommend Shewhart, Grant and Distinguished Service Medals. He is an ASQ
PCs review BB and GB projects at least biweekly, fellow and an academician in the International Academy for Quality.
and weekly if needed. The management team
should review deployment progress quarterly,
with the fourth quarter review being the
annual review. Roger W. Hoerlis a Brate-Peschel
The annual review is a good opportunity to set professor of statistics at Union College
goals and objectives for the coming year, as well in Schenectady, NY. He has a doctorate
as for selecting projects that will help the organi- in applied statistics from the University
zation achieve its major goals and objectives. The of Delaware in Newark, DE. Hoerl is
annual review also is an important opportunity to an ASQ fellow, a recipient of the ASQ’s Shewhart Medal and
assess the performance of the overall infrastruc- Brumbaugh Award, and an academician in the International
ture for LSS and make needed improvements. Academy for Quality.
THE DOWNLOAD
Quality 4.0 and the Digital Revolution
INDUSTRY 4.0
Accelerate
And Advance What to know about three
technology trends expected
in 2024 by Nicole Radziwill
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot
read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and
relearn.” —Alvin Toffler in Future Shock1
n my first week as a chief data I soon discovered that everyone chose magical capabilities to re-emerge in the
I
officer, I knew it was import- Dan over dashboards. They relied on the new year. On my notepad, I jotted down
ant to find out how internal software only when he was unavailable. “dialogue-driven discovery” right under
stakeholders used dashboards, This pattern is not an anomaly. “quick wins.” (Why should I expect
reports and analytics to make Despite the wealth of technology many people to interact with complicated
decisions. I noticed a concerning trend, of our organizations depend on—as software and dashboards when I can
though: No one had submitted work well as the wide variety of software and just program a “Dan-bot” for them to
tickets to continually improve business data-enabled capabilities we have—the engage with?)
intelligence, even though a system to sup- volume of information can be over- As 2024 ramps up, there are three
port it had been in place for two years. whelming, and it’s often easier to ask technology trends that stand out to
“It’s just easier to go to Dan,” a col- our colleagues. After decades of tech- me: the rise of intelligent agents, the
league told me. “I don’t have to waste nology investments, we are swimming expansion of centralized digital cur-
time wondering which dashboard to in data, but still searching for meaning. rencies and the emergence of a more
iStock.com/Sylverarts
pull up, trying to figure out what to look Even though the buzz of generative conversational future. Each of these
at or looking for something that’s not artificial intelligence (AI) had faded trends will continue to shape the way
there in the first place. He always gets somewhat by the time I met Dan in the you work—and think—in the upcom-
me what I need, and does it quickly.” fall of 2023, I knew I could expect more ing decades.
1 Intelligent agents 2 The rise of the 3 The first glimpse of a
catalyze market thinking digital dollar conversational future
Intelligent agents perform tasks or Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) In 2023, we witnessed a significant
make decisions based on data and is a digital form of a country’s official shift toward conversational interfaces
algorithms. They can learn from currency, issued and backed by its cen- driven by advancements in generative
interactions, analyze patterns and tral bank. Unlike Bitcoin, CBDCs have AI. While generative AI models have
optimize actions over time, often using the same status as paper money because been available for years, the release of
machine learning. Examples include they are backed by (and centralized subscription services like Midjourney
chatbots, recommendation systems and through) governments. The emergence and OpenAI’s ChatGPT made these
self-adjusting supply chain managers. of CBDCs has been influenced heavily powerful capabilities available to nearly
As intelligent agents become more by the cryptocurrency movement’s everyone, removing barriers to entry lit-
integrated into daily work, leaders examples of how blockchain and dis- erally overnight. Organizations quickly
will be nudged toward a decentralized tributed ledger technology can facilitate started implementing chatbots and voice
“market-thinking” approach. Instead of monetary transactions. Central banks assistants for customer service, opera-
top-down directives, decision making will recognize the advantages of digital tions and data analysis.
become more distributed as agents enable currencies—speed, transparency and As these systems become more
micro-decisions based on real-time data. reduced transaction costs—and the context-aware and adaptive, traditional
This mimics the principles of a market in potential to modernize the financial point-and-click user interfaces (UI)
which a multitude of individual choices— system while retaining regulatory will start to feel outdated:
rather than centralized decisions—are oversight by adopting CBDCs. Static interactions: Traditional
governed to determine outcomes.2 While governments aim to enhance software UIs rely on menus, buttons
Each of us will have the opportu- electronic transactions, reduce pay- and dropdowns. As generative
nity to become the orchestrators of a ment frictions and counter the growth AI and natural language process-
network of intelligent agents, setting of private cryptocurrencies that might ing (NLP) advance, these static
overarching goals and letting the threaten global monetary stability and interfaces may seem cumbersome
agents optimize the paths to those control, not everyone is enthusiastic compared to the fluidity of conver-
goals. If you’ve ever wished you had about CBDCs. The CBDC Anti-Surveil- sational interfaces in which users
a team of people who could complete lance State Act, introduced by U.S. House can simply speak or type their
tasks on your behalf or give you multi- of Representatives Majority Whip Tom needs in natural language without
ple solutions that you can choose from, Emmer (R-MN) in September 2023, seeks navigating through multiple layers
this year’s personal AI assistants can to prevent a “digital dollar” from becom- of options.
help you accelerate your impact. ing a tool for surveillance and financial Rigidity in task execution: Tradi-
I’m looking forward to the time I can control that could threaten freedom. tional UIs have a predetermined flow
program an avatar with the knowledge For consumers and businesses, for task execution, requiring users to
and insights I’ve gleaned throughout CBDCs could provide a quick and follow specific steps. With AI-driven
iStock.com/bsd studio
my career, and make it available to my secure digital means of payment, interfaces, users can jump directly to
team members, helping them navigate incorporating the trustworthiness their desired outcome by stating their
our shared priorities without having to of official currencies with the conve- intent, bypassing intermediary steps.
interact with me directly. niences of electronic transactions. 3 This increased flexibility may make
THE DOWNLOAD
traditional step-by-step processes clearly, as well as interpret AI-gener- of intelligence—human and artificial—
feel restrictive. ated output and insights critically. more effectively. QP
Limited personalization: While The challenge won’t just be techni-
REFERENCES
traditional software sometimes can cal, but adaptive—understanding when 1. Alvin Toffler, Future Shock, Bantam Books, 1984.
be customized, it cannot adapt to to converse with AI, when to trust its 2. Nicole M. Radziwill, Connected, Intelligent,
a user’s behavior and preferences. outputs and when human intuition Automated: The Definitive Guide to Digital
AI-based systems can learn con- should overrule. While the future of Transformation and Quality 4.0, Quality Press,
tinuously from user interactions, work is conversational, success will lie 2020.
3. Joseph Wilkins, “About 93% of Global Central
providing a more-tailored experience in mastering the art of dialogue, learn- Banks Are Exploring Digital Currencies—and
that evolves with the user’s needs. ing how to effectively provide context That Could Boost De-dollarization, a Report By
Information overload: Often, and asking the right questions. IMF Says,” Business Insider, Sept. 22, 2023, bit.
ly/46Eyii7.
traditional UIs present a lot of
information upfront, relying on Learn—and unlearn
the users to sift through and find The ascendancy of intelligent agents,
what they need. As NLP becomes the growth of centralized digital curren-
more commonplace, interfaces can cies and a shift toward conversational Nicole Radziwillis chief
shift toward a more just-in-time interfaces will accelerate Quality 4.0 data officer of Wolfe
information presentation, deliv- in 2024 by accelerating our ability to LLC. Formerly senior vice
ering precise data based on the add connectedness, intelligence and president and chief data
user’s current query, making older, automation to many business processes. officer of Ultranauts, and
information-dense layouts seem Conversational interfaces, powered by a former tenured associate
overwhelming. advances in generative AI, will begin professor of data science and production systems
Heading into 2024, be prepared to to render traditional UIs obsolete and at James Madison University, she holds a doctorate
develop a more symbiotic relationship make customers expect even more. in technology management (quality systems) from
with technology. Technical tasks will To prepare for this change, Indiana State University in Terre Haute. Radziwill is an
mimic human-to-human interactions, strengthen foundational skills around academician in the International Academy of Quality,
and increasingly begin by framing a problem solving and prepare yourself and she is an ASQ fellow and an ASQ-certified Six
problem, building context and pre- to continually learn—and unlearn! Sigma Black Belt and quality manager. Radziwill is
iStock.com/Sylverarts
paring an “ask.” While this promises By improving your ability to provide the author of Connected, Intelligent, Automated: The
ease and enhanced efficiency, it also context, express meaningful ques- Definitive Guide to Digital Transformation and Quality
demands a new skill set: the ability tions and critically evaluate results, 4.0 (Quality Press, 2020) and the former editor of
to communicate complex questions you’ll be positioned to use all kinds Software Quality Professional.
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sensor with a 4.5 x 4.5 μm pixel cell size and 2,048 x 1,216 resolution. www.thomsonlinear.com | 540-633-3549
Its ultra-high-speed 100GigE interface has benefits including low-
cost accessories, low CPU overhead, low latency, low jitter and accurate
multicamera synchronization using IEEE 1588.
The camera allows cable lengths from 1 M up to 10 KM without costly
fiber converters and repeaters.
www.emergentvisiontec.com | 866-780-6082
CALIPERS
Ready for roaming inspectors

Mahr Inc., a Providence, RI-based manufacturer of measurement accurate measurements of large/heavy parts, ultimately enhancing
equipment, has released its new MarCal 18EWR(i) digital caliper. overall measurement precision.
The device features an extended measuring range of 800 mm Developers said the tool is particularly useful for roaming qual-
to enable users to measure larger components without requiring ity inspectors who must measure parts that are too challenging to
larger 1,000 mm calipers, which can be cumbersome and chal- be brought to a stationary gaging station or bench. Ideal applica-
lenging to handle. tions include large gears, driveshafts, and anything substantial in
Suited for a wide variety of industrial applications, the MarCal size or weight.
18 EWR(i) digital caliper alleviates the complexities associated with www.mahr.com | 800-343-2050
CONNECTORS
Reducing
CO2 footprint
A new green line collection of appliance connectors—
available with bio-based plastics—have been released
by Schurter, a Swiss manufacturer of electrical and
electronic components.
The IEC 60320-1 appliance connectors are the indus-
try’s first to contribute to less CO2 emissions and lower
material consumption. Product series 6100-3, 6100-4,
6102-3, 6102-5, 6600-3 and 6600-4 IEC 60320-1 appli-
ance connectors also are available in bio-based plastics.
The new bio-based collection of inlets and outlets are
rated up to 10 A at 250 VAC and 50 Hz according to
IEC and CCC, and up to 15 A at 250 VAC and 60 Hz
according to UL.
www.schurter.com | 707-636-3000
T R Y THIS Center of
Attention
TO DAY
A new twist on an established quality concept
Leveraging dynamic risk evaluation in a reliability-centered maintenance program by Karan Bhatia
ndustrial maintenance shut- or artificial neural network (ANN)
I
downs should be planned can add new findings to the prior
sparingly and strategically probability to get updated posterior
to minimize impact. Reliabil- probability. BN and ANN can start
ity-centered maintenance with minimum data and update the
(RCM) is effective for designing such risk without revising initial assump-
programs. The system’s function tions or values as more data/evidence
must be preserved by capturing all become available.
possible failure modes and prioritiz-
Process-parameter approach:
ing them based on the assessed effect A risk function is developed based
and frequency of failures. on the limits and actual process
Traditional RCM is limited. Gen- parameters such that deviation
erally, the maintenance strategies are from optimal conditions adds to the
locked in until the following review. dynamic risk value. The dynamic risk
The asset’s life is assumed to follow a measures the process characteristics
predetermined rate, but operational with known mean and standard devi-
parameters can affect the rate signifi- ations of each instance over time.
cantly. Such assumptions can provide
Degradation-based approach:
a false sense of security or lead to When a failure mode follows a
over-maintenance of the asset. continuously wearing mechanism,
Prioritizing and ranking the failures is subjective . The RCM the risk can be defined based on the degradation rate and
program’s success depends on how well the team addresses modified with weighted condition factors, for example,
the uncertainties of the identified failure modes. Capturing too and the corrosion rate adjusted with weighted factors
many details can take too long. But too few failure modes can such as operational environment or management system.
lead to superficial and unsafe analysis. Unlike traditional RCM, in which a static limit triggers
This column discusses leveraging dynamic risk estima- maintenance activities, the acceptable risk limit is a probabi-
tion within the RCM process. The frequency of maintenance listic boundary in this approach. It’s an active program that
activity is defined as a function of dynamic risk that can be monitors the real-time value of risk and compares it with the
updated as new information becomes available. acceptable risk instead of predetermined static thresholds.
Curve A in Online Figure 1 (found on this column’s web- Tools such as RCM must be improved to adapt to risk’s
page at qualityprogress.com) shows point of failure evolution dynamic nature. Dynamic risk can be used to rank process
assumed during RCM. Due to the dynamic nature of opera- safety and criticality and helps organizations achieve higher
tional and human factors, the risk progression could follow reliability while increasing uptime and saving resources. QP
curve B, in which failure happens before preventive action
EDITOR’S NOTE
is executed. Or it could be scenario C, in which preventive A bibliography can be found on this column’s webpage at qualityprogress.com.
action is performed even with no credible risk of failure,
leading to over-maintenance and unnecessary downtime.
Dynamic risk can optimize inspection and maintenance
iStock.com/mustafahacalaki
intervals to address these shortcomings. Karan Bhatiais a maintenance and reliability engineer
Data-driven approach: The dynamic risk is based on at Rio Tinto in Canada. He received a master’s degree
predefined performance degradation or failure indica- with research focus in reliability, process safety and risk
tors, like system trip events or precursor failure data. engineering from Memorial University of Newfoundland
Tools such as Bayesian belief network (BN), event tree in St. John’s. Bhatia is an ASQ-certified reliability engineer.
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PLAN AND PACK

RELEASE technologies and emerging issues to find the

from Quality Press your enterprise.

26 || Lay of the Land 38 || Buckle Up 46 || Educated 52 || Been There,

Check out these extras

Design Email vellifson@asq.org

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS

03 || Foreword 86 || Marketplace Article Submission Process

LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE There’s no question that salary is a big

to become senior leaders.

ASQ EED SUSTAINABILITY SURVEY 2023 OPENS

“We don’t face a constraint on ambition—we face a constraint

WOMEN IN QUALITY EVENT

Watch for These 10 Employee ENGINEER: EWEEK

FOR FEB. 18-24

For more information about these

S U S TA I N A B I L IT Y The second edition of The ASQ Certi-

ISO, UNDP FORM PARTNERSHIP

Mr. Pareto Head b y M i k e C r o s s e n

THIS MONTH’S QUESTION

My organization is transitioning from the traditional

urfinguss via Getty Images

7: Gender + Age 8: Industry 9: Self-Employed 10: Self-Employed—Interviews 11: Appendixes A-C

proper wardrobe pieces, along with various items

Historical average salaries—

2021 100,000 4,000 4.17

Table 1 includes results for: x Full-time employees, Part-time employees,

also functioned On the other hand, holding ASQ certifications tends

Read interviews and discussions with the nine

Visit my.asq.org for access to relevant solutions,

Question 2: Is it humanly changeable?

the feasibility scale. Could you moonlight as a consultant? The

Salary by employment status

Question 3: Does changing it have side effects?

Question 4: Do you personally want to

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Question 5: Would the change play to

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1. Your salary, which sits securely in your own brainpan.

This year’s 11.3%

iStock.com/Alexey Surgay/Liudmila Chernetska

Salary by job title—U.S. respondents

Director (12.8%) $163,810

Statistician (0.8%) $160,017

Master Black Belt (1.1%) $154,157

Reliability/safety engineer (2%) $141,288

Consultant (2.2%) $141,271

Black Belt (1.5%) $132,591

Other (0.6%) $129,571

Champion (0.3%) $128,500

Green Belt (0.2%) $125,500

Software quality engineer (0.9%) $125,123

Educator/instructor (1.1%) $123,761

Quality engineer (16.3%) $108,886

Supervisor (2.6%) $92,358

Specialist (5.3%) $92,044

Analyst (1.7%) $90,087

Coordinator (1.6%) $78,676

Calibration technician (1%) $75,730

Inspector (0.6%) $69,609

Associate (0.6%) $69,439

Technician (2.4%) $63,340

$0 $25,000 $50,000 $75,000 $100,000 $125,000 $150,000 $175,000 $200,000