Denis Leonard has a degree in construction engineering an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. in quality management. Denis is a Fellow of the American Society for Quality, a Certified Quality Manager, Auditor and Six Sigma Black Belt. He has been an Examiner for the Baldrige National Quality Award Board of Examiners a Judge on the International Team Excellence Competition and a Lead Judge on the National Housing Quality Award. A former Professor of Quality at the University of Wisconsin, he has experience as a quality manager in the homebuilding industry as well as construction engineer, site manager and in training, auditing and consulting with expertise in strategic and operational quality improvement initiatives. His work has achieved national quality, environmental and safety management awards for clients.
Denis is co-author of 'The Executive Guide to Understanding and Implementing the Baldrige Criteria: Improve Revenue and Create Organizational Excellence'.
The Organizational Excellence Committee for the Quality Management Division of ASQ has launched a webpage with a series of papers to support and promote Business Excellence Models such as Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, the European Excellence Model and therefore, the National Housing Quality Award. So if you want to hear new...
Diversity in the workplace is a key issue in Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. Diversity creates new perspectives, new viewpoints. Talking with colleague Michael Avramides recently reinforced this issue. Here is a thought from Michael on this important topic.
Memo to Human Resources: It's about time! Lessons from a...
A study published in ASQ’s Quality Management Journal this month (Jan 2012) found that ISO9001 Certification (Quality Management Systems Requirements) improved workmanship performance substantially in construction projects. It establishes a substantial correlation between ISO9001 certification and the improvement of workmanship performance. ...
Trade partners have used the National Housing Quality Award over the years as an application process to gain independent feedback on how they can improve their bottom-line and the criteria as a way to evaluate their own processes. Trades have used the NHQA to create fewer callbacks, lower cycle times and better overall quality. Best...
Remodeler winners of the National Housing Quality Award over the years cite a range of best practices that helped them to achieve this level of excellence. This includes the following as just a few.
The creation of a mission statement created with employee involvement as part of the process to gain employee commitment.
An ongoing exchange among...
Many people today still see quality as being about 'incremental improvement' rather than innovation and fast dynamic change and particularly those focusing on six sigma tend to see it as being about 'defect reduction/elimination' only. It is good to go back to the original source and for quality that means going back to Deming. Consider these...
This short video wonderfully highlights key quality issues that impact the Cost of Quality and avoid risk. It is ideal for introducing quality, risk management or for opening a discussion, presentation or training on quality.
http://asq.org/audit/106287/web.html?shl=106287&WT.dcsvid=MjI0MzEyNzg1NQS2&WT.mc_id=EM117917
This video clip was...
Perhaps you heard the story in December about the truck driver that won a Lamborghini Murcielago LP-640 worth over $200,000. A few hours after getting the car he crashed it!
http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/truck-driver-wins-lamborghini-crashes-hours-later-220724449.html
It is a nice analogy about process improvement. Often there is...
Netflix loses 60% of its market and RIM (Blackberry) also loses over 50% of its market, not a great year for what had been some of the strongest companies. They certainly never planned for such an impact at the start of 2011. What happened, well the customer spoke!
Both losses are included amongst the ‘worst CEOs of 2011’ listings. This presents...
Learning from the past and planning for the future. As we move toward 2012 we have a wonderful opportunity to evaluate what happened this past year, where we were successful and how and where did we fail. Both provide lessons for our 2012 planning.
Hindsight is the recognition of the realities, possibilities or requirements of a situation or event...
The American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) announced the release of an interim procedural guide that will provide a documented, optional process to extend...
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