Tag Archives: AI

SIG Meeting – October 8, 2026

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From Perfectionism to Hybrid Meetings: What We Learned After QIT

Just two days after ASQ Raleigh’s Quality in the Triangle (QIT) conference, eighteen quality professionals (fifteen in the room and three online) gathered Thursday evening to look back at what worked and look ahead at what’s next. It was part conference debrief, part planning session, and the room was full of people who clearly care about building a strong local quality community.

What stood out at QIT

The clear favorite was Dr. Amna Shabbir’s keynote, “The Confidence Cure: From Perfectionism to Excellencism: Building Executive Presence.” Her message resonated: perfectionism drives stress, while striving for excellence drives results. That idea carried right into our discussion.

AI was the other big theme, with four sessions drawing strong interest:

  • Leading with AI: Practical Quality Engineering Strategies for the Modern Enterprise, Sanjay Murthy
  • Augmenting Excellence: AI in Continuous Improvement, Amita Sherwood
  • AI Risks and Data Integrity Fundamentals in Regulated Environments, Sara Haddad
  • From Reactive to Proactive: How AI is Transforming Quality Investigations in Manufacturing and Life Sciences, Chris Andrassy

Attendees who’ve been to other conferences also brought a practical idea for next year: two-sided name badges with proof of attendance and recertification unit (RU) information printed on the back, making it easy to claim RUs.

Hybrid: it worked!

This was a milestone for us. Using our section’s Webex account, we ran a successful hybrid meeting, letting members join from across the Triangle and beyond. Hybrid does bring its own challenges, so we talked about choosing larger rooms, managing background noise, and planning AV carefully.

An AI course is coming

Building on the energy from QIT, one of the most exciting topics was a planned AI course for quality professionals: four to six sessions combining instruction with discussion. The group weighed the trade-offs, with some suggesting a bigger, quieter room and others valuing the convenience of our current format. Stay tuned for details.

ASQ Raleigh Planning

Great programming takes people, and nobody should have to carry the load alone. Ideas included:

  • Small program committees for specific event types, such as dinner meetings or site visits, with five to ten people each taking one small task per event
  • Partnering with neighboring ASQ sections and other professional organizations on virtual events, expanding our speaker pool and audience
  • Engaging local companies and executives to support meetings with space, speakers, and sponsorship
  • Bringing back favorites like facility tours and dinner meetings

We were also candid about the challenges: recruiting speakers, engaging students, and serving members spread across a large region. Naming them openly is the first step to solving them.

Join us!

Give back: Food Bank volunteer event, Saturday, October 24
Join fellow members at the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina in Raleigh. A few hours of your time makes a real difference, and it’s a great way to get to know the section. Register at https://cerv.is/0225rASQ. Questions? Contact Ashley Norris at ashleynorris@projectfarma.com.

Upcoming SIG meetings, 4:30 to 6:30 pm, Eagles Room, Frontier RTP (and online)

We meet the second Thursday of every month. Topics are still taking shape, and this is your chance to shape them: tell us what you’d like to discuss when you register or reach out to tim@aligncollaboration.com. Bring a colleague!

ASQ Raleigh Special Interest Group Meeting — December 10, 2026

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The Special Interest Group (SIG) event is participant-driven—we will have an open discussion on topics related to the quality profession. We may have a theme but no formal speakers or agenda. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the discussion. So bring your questions and ideas to share with other participants.

This event is free and open to anyone who is interested in the quality profession. No ASQ membership is required. ASQ members will receive RU credits for participation.

This will be a hybrid event for people unable to join in person. The URL to join is http://asq.webex.com/meet/tim.

We will meet in the Eagles Room at Frontier RTP (first floor) at 4:30 pm or whenever you can join us. The Eagles Room is the 2nd room on your left as you enter the large common area on the first floor. There will be an ASQ banner outside of the room. The meeting will be during Frontier RTP’s weekly Out of Office event. It’s a great opportunity to connect with people in the Triangle community. We’ll provide more information to registered attendees before the event.

Contact Tim Whetten at Tim@AlignCollaboration.com for more information.

ASQ Raleigh Special Interest Group Meeting — November 12, 2026

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The Special Interest Group (SIG) event is participant-driven—we will have an open discussion on topics related to the quality profession. We may have a theme but no formal speakers or agenda. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the discussion. So bring your questions and ideas to share with other participants.

This event is free and open to anyone who is interested in the quality profession. No ASQ membership is required. ASQ members will receive RU credits for participation.

This will be a hybrid event for people unable to join in person. The URL to join is http://asq.webex.com/meet/tim.

We will meet in the Eagles Room at Frontier RTP (first floor) at 4:30 pm or whenever you can join us. The Eagles Room is the 2nd room on your left as you enter the large common area on the first floor. There will be an ASQ banner outside of the room. The meeting will be during Frontier RTP’s weekly Out of Office event. It’s a great opportunity to connect with people in the Triangle community. We’ll provide more information to registered attendees before the event.

Contact Tim Whetten at Tim@AlignCollaboration.com for more information.

SIG Meeting – Sept 10, 2026

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Overview

The meeting introduced attendees and focused on quality auditing, supplier risk, quality culture, and upcoming ASQ events.

Event Updates

Tim shared information about the October 6 Quality in the Triangle conference and other ASQ Raleigh activities. Info, the preliminary program, and registration are available at https://app.memberplanet.com/#/event/asqraleighsection/asqraleighqualityinthetriangleqitconference_1.

Remember that the ASQ Raleigh Event page is available at https://www.asqraleigh.org/events/!

Quality Discussion

Attendees talked about work in pharmaceutical manufacturing, medical devices, computerized-system auditing, supplier quality, post-market surveillance, and quality consulting.

There was some discussion around whether current audit methods reveal an organization’s commitment to quality improvement and future risk. People seemed to think that escalating severity upon recurrence forces organizational improvement.

It was mentioned that ISO 9001: 2026 requires top management to actively promote quality culture and ethical behavior (Clause 5.1.1) and requires employees to demonstrate awareness of both as part of their general QMS awareness (Clause 7.3). How will quality culture and management responsibility be measured and audited? Maybe a topic for future discussion!

We discussed an AI platform for quality investigations, including triage, root-cause analysis, reporting, and CAPA documentation

The group distinguished ISO 9001 conformance from regulatory compliance, noting that regulated organizations face additional legal obligations.

Key Concerns

Supplier audits may identify gaps but may not show whether suppliers learn from failures or improve their systems.

SIG Meeting – September 2025

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A group of 11 of us met to “talk quality” in an informal atmosphere over beer and wine on Thursday, September 11, at Frontier RTP – Building 800. Frontier’s Thursday OOO event provided drinks.

We had exciting news to share: one of our first-time attendees in July secured new employment through a connection he made with us!

There was no pre-scheduled topic for discussion, but one of our members asked how those attending thought AI would be used in Quality. It was pointed out that there are different types of AI such as:

  • Generative AI: Capable of creating new content such as text, images, music, or code
  • Machine Learning: Allows systems to learn from data and improve without explicit programming
  • Deep Learning: Uses artificial neural networks to learn complex patterns from large datasets.
  • Natural Language Processing: Understands, interprets, and generates human language
  • Computer Vision: Interprets visual information from images and videos
  • Exper Systems: Emulates decision-making

We expect our companies to experiment with and utilize all of these capabilities. We wonder about supervision and control, though. For example, suppose a vision system is continually updating its defect detection capability. How can we ensure process control and prevent unintended changes that might allow more or different types of defects to slip through or introduce new false failures?

Tim Whetten