Tag Archives: Continuous Improvement

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.

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.

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 – July 9, 2026

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At our monthly ASQ Raleigh Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting at Frontier RTP, we had 8 people attend, two of whom were newcomers. As we find occasionally, these two were in the process of finding new employment opportunities in the Triangle Area. One is new to the area (welcome!) and one is a victim of layoffs at Asensus Surgical.

Asensus Surgical announced layoffs of 108 employees last month and canceled the development of two products being developed in the Triangle. Asensus Surgical was purchased by Karl Storz in 2024. We talked about a the current difficulty of finding new jobs in the area and how impersonal the job search process seems now. We discussed how people have used the monthly SIG meeting to make connections that lead to new jobs and networking opportunities within the ASQ Raleigh Section.

Our next SIG meeting will be from 4:30 to 6:30 on August 13th, 2026, at Frontier RTP. We will have a short demonstration of an app that can be used to easily and flexibly create forms which can be used in internal and external audits, supplier ranking, prosses changes, etc. The announcement and registration is here!

SIG Meeting — June 11, 2026

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At our monthly ASQ Raleigh Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting at Frontier RTP, we welcomed a newcomer to the Triangle area with substantial experience in the leadership of a large ASQ geographic section. We talked about a variety of topics, such as finding new jobs in the area, how people have used the monthly SIG meeting to make connections that lead to new jobs, and the relationships between ASQ Geographic Sections (like our ASQ Raleigh Section) and the larger society. ASQ underwent a structural change in 2020, and we discussed several ways our local section can better engage with and improve our relationship with the larger organization.

Our next SIG meeting will be from 4:30 to 6:30 on July 9th, 2026, at Frontier RTP.

ASQ Raleigh Special Interest Group Meeting — July 9, 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.

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.

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

ASQ Raleigh Special Interest Group Meeting — August 13, 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 will have a short demonstration of an app that can be used to easily and flexibly create forms which can be used in internal and external audits, supplier ranking, prosses changes, etc. The company who created the app is looking for feedback on capability and use cases. As always we will also have an open discussion. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the discussion. 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 4:30pm 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.

Please contact Tim Whetten at Tim@aligncollaboration.com with questions.

ASQ Raleigh SIG meeting

SIG Meeting — April 9, 2026

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The monthly ASQ Raleigh Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting at Frontier RTP in April had seven participants, all ASQ members who had attended SIG meetings regularly.

We had a discussion theme on “human error” led by Tim Whetten, who planned to submit an abstract around this topic for the annual ASQ Raleigh “Quality in the Triangle” (QIT) conference in October. This in-person SIG meeting was a perfect forum for him to get some feedback and ideas.

Tim started his presentation (a draft version) with understanding various types of work and then common errors associated with each type. Much of the discussion went into the potential causes of each kind of errors and how we might prevent or reduce such errors.

All attendees actively participated in the discussion by asking questions or sharing their personal experiences. One question was simple but profound: “what is human [vs non-human] error?” We all learned from Deming that quality is mostly determined by the systems or processes as designed. Defining and identifying “human” errors is not as trivial as one might think.

Not surprisingly, work involving humans requires cognition, such as perception, memory, and decisions. How people learn and use their knowledge and skills to get work done right in a given environment is complex and fascinating.

We are looking forward to seeing Tim Whetten present at the QIT conference and share his personal story and perspectives on this important topic.

Our next SIG meeting will be on May 14, 2026 at the same place and time.