2024 Quality Show South Agenda

Welcome Reception

This opening night Welcome Reception is the perfect opportunity for all event participants to meet and greet one another before the exhibit hall opens and the event officially kicks off on Wednesday morning. Pick up your name badge, grab a beverage and enjoy some casual face-to-face conversations.

Supplier Auditing for You, the Customer

Supplier auditing is a useful tool for you, the customer. It can be used to examine, evaluate, and gain information on how your supplier operates and communicates. It is also a great way to benchmark and compare similar suppliers. Learn the basics of auditing and the keys to having a respectful relationship.

The importance of ISO17025 vs. ISO9001 for dimensional inspection (in house accreditation and outsourcing)

Quality labs play a critical role in establishing credibility with customers through their reputation and integrity. Accreditation is an impartial method of helping establish the general competence of the lab. Choosing the correct accreditation standard is paramount. We will look at 2 such accreditations that are commonly used by quality labs and compare and contrast these. The focus will be on how each of these might establish credibility. This will also cover how using this measure can help in choosing outside resources to help with high loading periods in a quality lab.

The Role of Kaizen in Mass Customization for Industrial Environments

Mass customization (MC) emerged nearly four decades ago with the aim to align individualized customer requirements while maintaining costs and quality. As a result, accelerated demands are placed on industries to meet operational goals. While quality philosophies such as kaizen exist in these industrial spaces, few studies focus on the role it plays in managing the critical tenets of mass customization.
The purpose is to explore to what degree kaizen is connected to mass customization practices. Suggestions will be offered about how the effective use of kaizen tools and techniques can influence mass customization performance and capability.

Panel Discussion: Educating the Next Generation of Quality Professionals

This panel will discuss the education program at Mississippi State University along with several industry experts able to provide their perspective on the field of quality today.

GD&T Fundamentals - Position Tolerances

The fundamentals you need to know to understanding what is True Position and calculating your actual position. Effects of MMC & LMC on position tolerance. Calculating bonus tolerance. Analyzing results and reporting the correct data.

Networking Reception

Networking is one of the top reasons for attending tradeshows, so what better way to end the day than with a Networking Reception, right on the exhibit floor. Catch up with your colleauges and continue to mingle with your peers while winding down with a drink and some delicious Tennessee treats located along main street.

Morning Mingle & Breakfast

Looking for a productive networking experience that will kick off your day? Join us on the final morning for complimentary continental breakfast and coffee right on the exhibit floor. This is one of your last chances to network and make some final business connections.

Validate a Best Practice Process with the BEST Tool

The BEST tool is a structured approach to gap analysis and improvement for an organization creating a Best Practice or an organization seeking a Best Practice as a benchmark. The tool assures a Best Practice is written completely and concisely. When a Best Practice is written effectively, benchmarking organizations have enough information to translate the excellence into their processes. This workshop facilitates participants through a structured process to use and write a comprehensive Best Practice. Activities review definitions and benefits of using the Best Practice method and then guide participants through an assessment toolset covering the criteria and characteristics of a high-performing process. The workshop focuses on four audiences: 1) Members of the management team assessing a Best Practice within the organization.2) The Quality, Business Excellence, or Organizational Development department to use as a guideline for describing a Best Practice.3) Performance leaders seeking external Best Practice examples to benchmark.4) Practitioners or teams prioritizing improvement efforts aligned with company strategy.

This session describes a structured process to develop and write a comprehensive Best Practice. The BEST tool is introduced as a process approach to gap analysis and improvement for creating a Best Practice or seeking a Best Practice as a benchmark. Definitions and benefits of a Best Practice method are discussed, including criteria and characteristics of a high-performance process. Participants will be provided with Excel worksheets for both versions of the BEST tool at the end of the workshop.

Using Data To Drive Organizational Action

What does your quality data tell you?  Are you even collecting the data you really need? Are you receiving actionable messages from your results? Quality data should be used to identify and correct problems within the process.  Unfortunately, too many quality professionals are driven by stated requirements, mandates, and “out-of-the-box” software defaults.  In this session, Sophronia Ward, PhD and Mark Nash CSSMB, discuss the challenges, fallacies, and proper path for using data in a world driven by predefined standards in software packages and the requirements of upper management and auditors. 

Process Maps – a vital tool for Lean

Process maps are an elevated version of flow charts, one of the seven basic quality tools, and are vital for organizations implementing Lean. This session will provide attendees the basic knowledge and understanding of process maps. The presenter will discuss the advantages of developing and using process maps and will explain the difference between them, flow charts and value stream maps. Various examples of process maps of varying complexity will be discussed. Upon completion of the session, attendees will return to their organizations and be able to utilize a common, simple quality tool that will allow them to identify waste and inefficiencies in their processes.

Wicked Good Leadership: Leveraging Lean to Engage People and Grow your Business

Henry Ford once posed this question: “Why is it every time I ask for a pair of hands, it comes with a brain attached?” Henry didn't value his employees' ideas - he was only looking for labor.
This methodology has changed for the better in the past 100 years, but we still have a ways to go. Each year, Gallup polls show that 67% of employees report feeling disengaged from their jobs. It's awfully hard, if not downright impossible, to grow a business with a workforce who is only 1/3 invested into the business' ultimate success.
In this workshop, we will discuss what Lean and Continuous Improvement is truly all about, how to leverage it, and most importantly how to incorporate it into your culture to realize increased growth and success.

The Magic of Problem Solving

Join me in exploring the enchanting world of utilizing a strategic approach to problem-solving. This interactive session will engage the audience in a journey through an intricate strategy, unraveling the magic within. Together, we will dissect a multi-input problem, allowing attendees to collaborate and uncover innovative solutions.The presentation will guide participants through the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology, encouraging teamwork as they perform iterative is/not assessments on inputs. The goal is to achieve a comprehensive narrowing down of options, leading to the creation of a solution roadmap. This roadmap will ensure a consistent and systematic discovery of critical inputs.

Ethics & NDT: An Aerospace Whistleblower Shares His Story

Elements of Quality 4.0 Supporting a Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is not an abstract or theoretical journey. Objectives cannot be effectively developed without analyzing data to establish a baseline. Data science, various types of analytics, and the emerging of unstructured data can be confusing and intimidating for leaders faced with the challenge of “Where do we begin?” This presentation examines the proposed Quality 4.0 focused components of data analysis. The distilling of information as it flows is a process. Developing a data analysis process which includes these Quality 4.0 components supports digital transformation. This presentation addresses key issues of: How data analysis supports the accomplishment of digital maturity?

Boosting Efficiencies: The Impact of Integrating Quality and Manufacturing Data

Abstract: In today's data-driven world, successful organizations understand the value of integrating quality and manufacturing data. For aerospace and defense manufacturers, this integration is particularly crucial, as it holds the key to unlocking unparalleled efficiency gains. This presentation will explore the numerous reasons why incorporating quality data into manufacturing processes is essential to drive profitability and maintain a competitive edge in the dynamic landscape of government contracting and aerospace and defense industries.
Key Learnings:
Strategic Integration Strategies: Gain an in-depth understanding of the strategies and methodologies for seamlessly integrating quality and manufacturing data, ensuring a harmonious and efficient workflow.
Operational Excellence in Government Contracts: Discover how integration translates into operational excellence specifically for Government Contractors, focusing on compliance, cost savings, and streamlined processes.
Precision in Aerospace & Defense Manufacturing: Uncover the precision and advantages integration brings to Aerospace & Defense Manufacturing, optimizing production, quality control, and traceability for heightened efficiency.
Join us for an enriching session that goes beyond theory, providing actionable insights to propel your organization toward a future of enhanced efficiencies and operational excellence.

Regaining Manufacturing Leadership Through Excellence

Quality in manufacturing has been improving over several decades. However, outsourcing started in the late 80's and realization of missing manufacturing in the USA started over the last several years. The significance of manufacturing in R&D, Product Development and Innovation has been felt over years and corporations have started considering and taking actions to work closely with manufacturing.
Praveen will share his success with the 4P (Prepare, Perform, Perfect and Progress) model of process excellence that has been developed to implement or continue the Deming's PDCA approach, and realize excellence instead of acceptability. It is a societal change for excellence that is needed to realize manufacturing leadership. Acceptable or tolerable have become unacceptable performance levels. It is OK to expect excellence or strive for perfection, defect free manufacturing.

Transforming Productivity at GE Appliances through AI: From Personal Effectiveness to Manufacturing Excellence

Leifje will discuss in her presentation how she uses Artificial Intelligence to enable everything from her personal productivity to revolutionizing manufacturing processes: enhancing efficiency, quality, and innovation at GE Appliances.

Advanced 3D Scanning Systems for Part Modeling and Inspection

3D scanning is a critical technology for the engineering and manufacturing industries. It enables manufacturers to create a completely digital process at the start of the supply chain, which is essential for meeting the demands of modern manufacturing. With 3D scanning, manufacturers can capture the physical shape of a part and create a digital model that can be used for a variety of purposes such as reverse engineering and inspection. This presentation will highlight various 3D scanning technologies and many applications especially related to additive manufacturing.