ASQ’s World Conference on Quality and Improvement 2022
This year’s World Conference on Quality and Improvement (WCQI) will be a hybrid event—online and in person—scheduled for May 15–18, 2022, in Anaheim, California. Themed as “The art and science of quality,” the conference will explore the symbiotic relationship between human and scientific aspects of quality management.
ADVERTISEMENT
The WCQI’s exhibit hall will feature more than 30 exhibitors and provide opportunities to connect with partners and learn about the latest quality products, resources, services, and education to complement more than 70 live and 20 virtual sessions.
The focus this year breaks down into four areas:
• Leadership
• QMS throughout the enterprise
• Quality via technology
• Quality basics
Leading through excellence
Explore how leaders contribute to creating a quality-centered culture in the Master’s series on leadership. Also delve into how leadership roles are key in integrating employee engagement and new technologies.
These times of unprecedented challenge require leaders to reimagine best practices in leadership and engagement, diversity/equity/inclusion, and change management.
This series will shed light on how an organization can build a system of quality processes that exceed customer expectations, cultivate a leader’s mentality, ensure a culture of inclusion and equity, and embrace innovation.
Heather McGowan
“The pandemic accelerated our transition to our digital future, compressing time and creating a greater imperative around learning and adapting to improve one’s individual and mutual capacity to respond to opportunities,” says Heather McGowan, strategic consultant, Amazon best-selling author, and one of the keynote speakers at the event. “The cumulative experience of more than two years of uncertainty, coupled with generational change in both leadership and share of the workforce, has collectively led to the great resignation, reset, and reshuffle of the workforce. These converging trends are creating an unprecedented opportunity to reconceive work for better quality and engagement.”
Human side of quality
All the tech in the world won’t meet the need for design abilities, problem solving, and creative thinking without the insight of the people using it. Transforming human creativity into a practical structure for companies can be done with the help of a quality management system.
José Morey
In the “Engineering an Enterprise-Wide QMS” section, discussion will center around how a QMS can drive improvements in regulatory compliance, supply-chain efficiency, and quality service. Keynote speaker José Morey will talk about Leonardo da Vinci and the new technology renaissance. He explores how people within a company can emulate Leonardo’s traits to innovate within their enterprises and become leaders of the technology renaissance.
"The world is changing faster than ever,” says Morey, consultant to NASA and IBM. “Just over a decade ago in 2007, the first iPhone hit the market... today we’re seeing how devices like the iPhone are revolutionizing medicine. The technology of tomorrow will become as synonymous with physicians as the stethoscopes of today.”
The year of the smart factory
According to Advanced Technology Services, 2022 is “the year of the smart factory.” One example offered is that as older equipment is either retrofitted with onboard sensors and monitoring tools or is replaced, many newer machines come equipped with this technology. These systems necessitate an increased reliance on virtual processes.
Ugwem Eneyo
“Historically, innovation in emerging markets has often led to companies adopting concepts from markets like the United States or parts of Europe and implementing them with local support,” says Ugwem Eneyo, entrepreneur and co-founder of SHYFT Power Solutions, and an event keynote speaker. “But we’re now in a new era where technology and innovation in emerging markets are building local solutions for global challenges. How we think about technology, in Africa in particular, has only increased the idea of what’s possible when it comes to development, innovation, and infrastructure, not only in emerging markets, but also around the world.”
Back to quality basics
More organizations rely on quality practices to navigate digital, cultural, and operational challenges. Quality professionals must possess a thorough understanding of the fundamental tools and techniques to thrive and rise to add value to their organizations. A portion of this year’s WQCI underscores ways that new and advancing quality professionals can remain current on methods, trends, and emerging frameworks—and commit to personal and professional growth in the process.
Attendees can learn about the roles and responsibilities involved in structuring quality teams, as well as getting a refresher on essential tools and terms such as fishbone, Pareto, continuous improvement, and kata.
The WQCI is a great place to discover guidance, mentoring, inclusion, and career planning.
ASQ Center highlights
• Meet the CEOs: ASQ CEO Ann Jordan and ASQE CEO Jimp Templin will be available to meet with members and attendees and discuss exciting society news.
• Learn more about ASQ’s quality certifications, which recently earned International ISO/IEC 17024 accreditation. ASQ’s quality-based certifications are the only quality industry certifications to earn this global recognition by ANSI.
• Learn about ASQE’s Insights on Excellence benchmarking tool and the 2022 Insights on Excellence (IoE) category report. This annual report features the latest emerging trends across organizational excellence practices and a year-over-year review of all eight IoE categories. The goal of the category report is to deliver actionable guidance to ASQ member communities to pursue best practices in organizational excellence and operational performance.
• Hear more about how to become an ASQE organizational member or ASQ individual member.
• Attend an author signing at the bookstore.
• Speak to experts about standards and the role they play in quality excellence.