SQA News | December 2015

SQA Wins & Challenges

What a year – 2015 has been another record year for our growing firm! Everyone has worked very hard; we keep reaching new altitudes wherever we are challenged, and we are extremely proud of what we’ve collectively accomplished. A quick thanks for the great interaction following my last article; some of you replied with some super ideas that will undoubtedly assist us in our further growth in 2016.

Wins
2016 SQA Quality Calendar
In a few weeks you all will be receiving our calendar for the upcoming year. It has some awesome photos and provides some great themes that we’re focusing on. We received extremely positive feedback from our premier piece, and we hope you all pin it up. If you would like more copies, or don’t receive one for some reason, please send us a note and we’ll ship one off right away.

New Associate Medal Program
We’ve been around for 20 years now and have had the good fortune to work with so many amazing people. I want to start recognizing our Associates in a more formal capacity. With such a diversity of projects, it is difficult to pick out highlights, but we’ve come up with a concept that I think you will all enjoy. We are going to institute four levels of SQA Associates that will have specific criteria on how each person moves up the ranks. Expect an update soon explaining the program. In short, we will have Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum levels of Associates and there will be a reward program for moving up the ladder. Stay tuned!

One-on-one meetings with department heads.
Every other month I get the chance to catch up over a meal with about 15 key performers within our ranks. These individual meetings are where I get to speak a little, but mostly listen, to our team. They are really open about things that are going well, and not so well, and we get a chance to get to the bottom line outside of the office. I get a lot out of these meetings, because people open up and feel that they work in a company where their voice counts. I plan to continue these meetings in the spirit of making SQA better, and if you’re ever in LA and have some time, please reach out to me and let’s grab a bite!

Challenges
More sales please! When my Dad and I started the company, my original goal was to build a $100M company with 100 full-time employees and 100 active clients. I wanted to start a small company based in Palos Verdes (where I grew up) that would change the way the world manufactures things. We’re well on our way – but only about a third of the way – after a lot of hard work. One way to expedite our success is to involve all of you fantastic SQA Associates around the world, and create an established sales program that improves with your input.

I’m going on a global tour in January, and again in February, to meet candidates with the intention of expediting our growth. If you are interested in meeting me and representing SQA in a sales capacity in your respective region, then please do the following: send a brief note to careers@sqaservices.com and include the following data: your brief background, specifics regarding any sales experience you might have, your ideal workload, and how you would grow our services. Given recent technological advances, location isn’t the only thing we’re after – we want more relationships, and we want to know more about leads in any industry that our sales team should pursue, with your direct involvement. I hope I get some good responses here, folks – I’m excited to meet people aligned with our approach!

Thanks again for reading. If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me at mmckay@sqaservices.com.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all of you!

Mike McKay
President/CEO

FEDs & SQA Onsite Management Solutions

As many of you know, SQA provides Quality and Manufacturing support services throughout the world. Some of these activities include managed solutions to build a team of subject matter experts and provide immediate changes that address customer requirements. In 2006, our CEO saw a need for a field-focused technical team that led to the role of a FED (Field Engineering Director). A FED’s responsibility is to provide technical support throughout the customer acquisition process, but more importantly to ensure that the implementation of a customer program or project has consistent technical leadership and focused customer support and satisfaction. Customers face a lot of challenges at the start of an outsourced project, especially with large teams. It is our intent to lessen or eliminate these challenges, and in our experience, a FED’s active presence as a leader and contributor will ensure project success.

This was the foundation for the SQA Managed Solution. Members of Business Development, Associate Development, Program Management, FED, and Senior Management make up the cross-functional team providing active and supporting roles throughout each phase of the SQA Managed Solution. Following a DMAIC process to implement a solution or utilize a team to produce an immediate impact is our goal. The Define stage starts with the customer requirement, identifying the team and skillsets required to support the project implementation, and defining the affectivity of the implementation by determining metrics. To Measure the scope of the project, the FED uses initial customer requirements along with the first few days onsite to refine the project scope by better understanding the environment, systems, and current tools and SOPs. The FED Analyzes the problem and either communicates an implementation plan to our customer or leads and implements a SQA Managed Solution. The Improve stage is not only implementing the solution but also evaluating the current project plan and looking for opportunities for improvement. Finally, metrics and active leadership are implemented to Control the project and work toward overall completion, so the client can, at some point, take ownership of any final closure.

Shawn Liberty
Field Engineering Director

Associate Spotlight

I have had a great time working with my SQA teammates. Through the years, I have worked on some fantastic projects, from RBSP (Radiation Belt Storm Probe, John Hopkins) MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission, GSFC), to my current project JWST (James Webb Space Telescope), each of which has been at the forefront of space technology! This is very exciting to me, as you can imagine, seeing something you have contributed to ready for launch into space.
The teamwork it took to allow me to conduct three separate inspections in three different time zones in one day was astounding. The number of precise logistics coordinated from my SQA team was just short of a miracle. The first inspection was at the University of Iowa (RBSP), the second was in Boulder Co. at LASP, and the third was back in Southern California, at Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo. Needless to say I was a little overwhelmed, but with a great team of experts at SQA backing me up, it was very successful.

William M. Whitehead II
SQA Associate

SQA Website

Happy Holidays from all of us at SQA! We are proud to announce the release of our newly redesigned website! It has been crafted to reflect what our Associates and Clients told us they need, but also showcases our services and the technology we have that makes us capable of addressing future requirements. Immediately you will notice streamlined menus, simple navigation, and access to the information you need, available at any time of day. By providing an improved design and destination to learn more about our history, our services, and our technology, we have developed the new SQA Services, Inc. website as a resource hub to schedule webinars with our sales team, discover how we hire Associates, log onto STEPQ, or chat live with our experts to provide expanded capabilities for learning, sharing, and interacting.

Click www.sqaservices.com and start exploring! We hope you enjoy our new website, and if you would like to take a brief moment to share your thoughts by emailing improve@sqaservices.com, we would appreciate hearing how your experience is and how we can continue to improve it.

How can we help you?