To survive in today's global marketplace, manufacturing companies must continuously strive for total quality excellence in all aspects of their business. The staff at IQI is totally dedicated to providing our clients with the best in training seminars, products, and consulting services for achieving this goal. Over the past 19 years, we have worked with hundreds of companies worldwide and have trained thousands of people on five continents. Our mission is helping our clients to:

• Embrace the philosophy of continuous process improvement
• Develop and initiate strategic implementation plans
• Select improvement projects that are in alignment with company objectives
• Apply the proper improvement techniques
• Realize the true value and cost savings associated with these improvement efforts

IQI is proud of its long reputation as a leader in the field of Short Run SPC and quality-improvement techniques for high-mix/low-volume production. Our methods are the only ones that have been consistently successful in small job shops and companies adopting lean manufacturing. Our strength also lies in understanding how to correctly measure process capability and knowing how to efficiently reduce process variation.

We are also well known for our ability to handle the most difficult aspect of statistics: making it work on the shop floor as well as in the front office. Implementation has always been the hardest part of any process-improvement initiative and our team of highly skilled consultants is well qualified in this area.

All of our consultants have spent numerous years on the shop floor and know what it is like to work for small job shops as well as with Fortune 500 corporations. The principle consultants of IQI are Fellows of the American Society for Quality (ASQ), ASQ certified quality engineers (CQE), certified reliability engineers (CRE), certified six sigma master black belts, and hold membership in many professional societies. All have written articles that have appeared in numerous quality magazines and journals, both U.S. and international. Most have also taught credit courses in statistics at universities or community colleges.

By attending one of our highly rated public seminars, scheduling us to present an on-site workshop, retaining our consulting services, or purchasing some of our process-improvement products, the International Quality Institute will provide you with the support and tools necessary to attain your company's strategic objectives for process improvement.

Each year, IQI makes its consultants available for a limited number of speaking engagements at quality conferences and for after-dinner presentations at professional society meetings. Please call us for a list of topics and their availability.

Biography for Davis R. Bothe, Director of Quality Improvement for IQI

Dave received his undergraduate degree in Applied Math and Physics in 1973 and a MBA (summa cum laude) in 1976, both from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, where he also worked as an instructor for courses in mathematics and business statistics.

He began his industrial career in 1973 working for NASA at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas as a systems analyst. In 1976, he joined General Motors as a statistician for their warranty data analysis department, responsible for presenting product quality updates to top management. In 1978 he became the senior reliability engineer for a new engine development program, responsible for creating test programs and analyzing test results.

When the quest for quality improvement took hold in the automotive industry, Dave was chosen to direct the SPC program at one of GM's engine plants which had been selected as a pilot facility. There he was responsible for the development of training materials as well as the instruction and implementation of statistical methods. He also headed a unique team of product, manufacturing and quality engineers formed to solve chronic quality problems in both manufacturing and assembly. Based on the successful efforts of these "statistical engineers," Dave made numerous presentations on quality improvement techniques And strategies to GM's executive committee as well as other GM divisions.

In 1985, he co-founded the International Quality Institute, a major consulting firm for quality and productivity improvement with a worldwide client base. For two years, he served as Adjunct Professor for Statistics at Eastern Michigan University, teaching SPC, Statistical Problem Solving, and Industrial Statistics. He is now on the staff of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, teaching their certified six-sigma black belt program.

Dave has published numerous articles in various quality magazines and technical journals (both U.S. and international), in addition to authoring several SAE papers. He was commissioned in 1987 to author the U.S. Army standard for applying SPC to short production runs (document number DAAA08 88 M 7649). In 1991, he was selected to write the reference handbook for applying SPC to short production runs. To keep his clients aware of new developments in the short run field, he published the quarterly Short Run Newsletter. Dave's 1989 book, Industrial Problem Solving, which features his trademarked DOT*STAR problem-solving strategy, has sold over 95,000 copies. In 1997, McGraw-Hill published his 900-page reference handbook for capability studies, Measuring Process Capability, which has become the best-selling book on this topic. His 1100-page book on process improvement, Reducing Process Variation, was published in 2002 and is often chosen as a training manual for six-sigma black belt and green belt courses.

The European Organization of Quality (EOQ) invited Dave to present a paper on his short run SPC methods at their 1991 annual quality conference in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The Chinese Society for Quality Control sponsored Dave to conduct his seminars in Taipei, Taiwan in 1993-1995. Due to the popularity of these seminars, several of Dave's training manuals were translated into Chinese. From 1988 through 2004, he has worked with the Asia Pacific Research Centre to conduct a series of quality-improvement seminars in Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia. In 1995, the British Atomic Weapons Establishment requested Dave to discuss his short run SPC methods at their Aldermaston, England facility. During 1995-1997, he instructed both the Israeli Defense Force and the Israeli Aircraft Industry on his SPC and statistical problem-solving methods. In the last ten years, he has also consulted with numerous industrial companies in Ireland, Wales, Australia, and Canada.

Dave is a Fellow of the American Society for Quality (ASQ), served on the National Education Board, is a book and videotape reviewer for ASQ's Quality Press as well as the Executive Sciences Institute, and is on the editorial review board for the International Journal of Six Sigma. He has spoken at seven ASQ Annual Quality Congresses and is a featured speaker at many local ASQ functions and conferences. He is an ASQ-certified Reliability Engineer, an ASQ-certified Quality Engineer, an IQI-certified Six-Sigma Master Black Belt, and a member of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to the ISO Technical Committee 69 on Applications of Statistical Methods. His articles have been published in many quality magazines and statistical journals, while three of his papers have received the Cecil C. Craig award for being an outstanding technical paper.

In addition to ASQ, he has been a member of the American Statistical Association, the Society of Automotive Engineers, the Mathematical Association of America, the American Society of Metals, and the American Production and Inventory Control Society. He is listed in the 25th edition of Who's Who in Finance and Industry, the 13th edition of Who's Who in the World, as well as the 1st edition of the International Who's Who in Quality.

Currently, Dave is serving as the Director of Quality Improvement for the International Quality Institute, located near Milwaukee, WI. You can contact him directly on 262-375-8868 or at davis@i-q-i.com.