Quality Counts Canada

My latest quality trip took me to a local diagnostic clinic.  Strategically displayed on the door and near reception was a calendar depicting coloured blocks in the hours of the week. The red, green and yellow coloured blocks clearly marked the likely "wait time" for service; red was longest wait and green was shortest wait.

When asked how these were derived, I was told that the service provider examined data regarding frequency and time  of visit.  As a means to schedule staff and to improve service, a frequency histogram was used to depict the busiest times.  The calendar was used to help their customers understand the best time ( 11 to noon during the week) to visit the diagnostic clinic and avoid a long wait! Green means good for this clinic!

Posted by Lucy Stange at 01:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My next travel destination was not in Canada though the climatic conditions were very similar.An adventurous series of airplane flights followed by lengthy taxi rides took me to a little town outside Eddyville Iowa. Though the temperatures were cold (-10C) and the grounds snow covered, I was told by my well informed taxi driver that Iowa was THE state for Corn production.  Yes, Golden ears of Corn! 

I also learned on my trip that Pig and Cattle farming was also a main activity in Iowa.  This was further promoted by the plush stuffed animals and ears of corn I saw at the Des Moines airport gift shop. The reason for my visit was to visit a site that manufactures product uses derivatives from corn as a starting material.  A site where Quality also counts as practices for production are based on ISO 9000 and ISO 14001 principles.  Infact, there OHSAS( Health and Safety policy) is also developed on a continuos improvement model! Quality gold! 

Posted by Lucy Stange at 08:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)