Tag Archives: Artificial Intelligence

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.

ASQ Raleigh Special Interest Group Meeting — October 8, 2026

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ASQ Raleigh will continue the monthly Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting in the Eagles room at Frontier RTP at 4:30 PM on Thursday, October 8th! To find the Eagles Room, enter the large common room on the first floor. The Eagles Room is the third-to-last room on the left. There will be an ASQ Raleigh Banner next to the door.

As this meeting will be two days after the Section’s annual one-day conference, Quality In the Triangle (QIT), we’ll be sharing with each other what we learned. Info and registration for QIT is at https://app.memberplanet.com/#/event/asqraleighsection/asqraleighqualityinthetriangleqitconference_1 .

We will be testing a hybrid version of this meeting. If you aren’t able to attend in person, join us at https://asq.webex.com/meet/tim

The event is free and open to the public. No ASQ membership is required. ASQ members will receive RU credits for attending.

For questions, please contact Tim Whetten at Tim@aligncollaboration.com.

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.

Aug 13 2026 SIG Meeting

SIG Meeting — August 13, 2026

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Attendance: 9 members participated in this month’s Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting, including 4 newcomers!

Poimapper App Demonstration

The meeting featured a live demonstration of Poimapper, a mobile data collection app currently under review. Discussion centered on three potential quality applications:

Standardizing audit forms across sites or teams
Tracking non-conformance processes from identification through closure
Real-time reporting, using field-collected data to support faster decision-making

The group agreed that Poimapper’s strongest fit is likely for organizations that don’t yet have an established electronic QMS, where it could serve as a lightweight, accessible entry point into digital data collection rather than a replacement for a mature system.

Hybrid Meeting Format Discussion

The group discussed shifting the monthly SIG meeting to a hybrid format (in-person and online). Overall sentiment was open to the idea, with two practical concerns raised:

Background noise from the space outside the meeting room
Audio clarity for remote attendees trying to follow the discussion

These will need to be addressed (for example, through room changes or an improved microphone setup) before adopting a hybrid format.

Future Event Ideas

Members shared ideas for future SIG and section events, including:

Company tours
Dinner meetings
Educational courses, with specific interest in a multi-session course on AI basics for quality professionals

Next Steps

Explore solutions for hybrid meeting audio quality
Gauge interest in and scope out a possible multi-session AI basics course

Next Meeting

Our next SIG meeting will be Thursday, September 10, 2026, at 4:30 PM, at the same location, Frontier RTP. A floor plan will be included in the meeting announcement to help everyone find the room easily. Register here: https://www.asqraleigh.org/event/asq-raleigh-special-interest-group-meeting-september-10-2026/#rsvp-now

Quality in the Triangle (QIT) Conference: Registration is now open for the QIT Conference! Register here: https://app.memberplanet.com/#/event/asqraleighsection/asqraleighqualityinthetriangleqitconference_1

Stay Connected: For a full list of upcoming section events, visit the ASQ Raleigh Events Calendar: https://www.asqraleigh.org/events/

ASQ Raleigh Special Interest Group Meeting — September 10, 2026

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This Special Interest Group (SIG) event is participant-driven—we will have open discussions on topics related to the quality profession. Talal Hossain will provide a short presentation on the theory of validated AI for Biotech. 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.

We will meet at Frontier RTP (first floor) at 4:30 pm or whenever you can join us. It 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.

Please contact Tim Whetten at Tim@aligncollaboration.com with questions. As a trial, this meeting will be hosted in a hybrid fashion, online as well as in person. If you would like to attend online, please let me know, and I will provide you with a Google Meet address.

SIG Meeting — January 8, 2026

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The first ASQ Raleigh Section open discussion meeting of 2026 was well attended, with 14 participants, several of whom were newcomers! Following the lively discussion on AI in quality at our December meeting, Chris Andrassy volunteered to lead a session on integrating AI into nonconformance investigations and reporting. We discussed his implementation in which data is collected, guided by AI, followed by AI analysis, suggested likely root causes, and report generation.

ASQ Raleigh SIG meeting
Chris Andrassy shares his thoughts

There was extensive discussion about the interaction and roles of humans and AI. While AI can provide consistency, efficiency, and sometimes insights, it can also make mistakes and requires human oversight. Is there an issue with “oversight fatigue”, where human experts don’t notice AI errors? One suggestion was to use the interaction between the AI agent and the human, in which the AI agent asks the human probing questions.

It seemed as though a similar capability could be created for change control.

It was noted that, as with other quality areas, a process needs to be established with valid data before automating it with AI. To analyze the problem and identify potential root causes, AI needs a sufficient volume of accurate historical data.

Tim Whetten

ASQ Raleigh Special Interest Group Meeting — January 8, 2026

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The Special Interest Group (SIG) event is participant-driven — we will have open discussion around 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.

Theme of the month: Process Improvement with Artificial Intelligence

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.

We will meet at Frontier RTP (first floor) at 4:30pm or whenever you can join us. It will be during Frontier RTP’s weekly Out of Office event. It’s a great opportunity to connect with people in the triangle community. More information will be provided to the registered attendees before the event.

Register here.

ASQ Raleigh SIG meeting

SIG Meeting — December 11, 2025

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The last Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting of 2025 welcomed three first-timers, among the eight attendees. One of them was preparing for his ASQ Six Sigma Green Belt (GB) certification and was interested in joining ASQ.

One of the attendees was a leader of a service provider using artificial intelligence (AI) to help their pharmaceutical clients in the quality and compliance area. He shared with us some of the work they did to automate tasks, reduce errors, and improve consistency.

Unsurprisingly, the topic of AI triggered many questions and responses among attendees. For example

  • Where do we see the most improvement when AI automates the tasks?
  • How much do we improve the the process before implementing AI or automation?
  • How do the AI models or tools integrate with the existing Quality Management Systems (QMS)?
  • How do we address regulatory or compliance concerns related to AI implementation?

Another attendee shared their experience using AI to process large amounts of literature and documents that humans just could not handle. But with AI, human experts only have to review a select subset of documents or a summary of the information. It sounded like many organizations have started experimenting with AI to evaluate its effectiveness and potential issues.

One of the concerns was people’s ability to learn and adapt to new technology vs. the speed of technological advance.

  • Who are responsible for keeping up with the change?
  • How much do employees have to learn on their own vs. training provided by employers?
  • How can the educational system, such as universities, prepare students for the future?

There was a general consensus among the participants that data integrity training provided by employers was insufficient and junior employees might not have the opportunity to build experience or critical thinking if AI was widely implemented.

The interest and discussion about AI will certainly continue in future meetings. So join us in 2026 at our monthly SIG meetings on the second Thursday at Frontier RTP.

Happy Holidays!