CHARLOTTE, N.C. –
Several Defense Contract Management Agency employees attended the American Society for Quality’s World Conference on Quality and Improvement in Charlotte, North Carolina, May 1-3.
The conference was a gathering of quality assurance professionals from a diverse mix of corporations, organizations and communities around the world who work to meet critical quality challenges.
DCMA personnel who attended played a key role in furthering the agency’s visibility. Michael Shields, executive director of Quality Assurance, engaged with strategic partners in both an executive roundtable and individual meetings during the conference.
“The meetings with our strategic partners covered a number of important initiatives, including Detection to Prevention and Online Aerospace Supplier Information System,” said Shields. “We continue to make great progress in partnering with industry to implement initiatives that benefit industry, DCMA, and ultimately, the warfighter.”
Also furthering the agency’s visibility was its recruitment booth. Joel Eguiluz, who is Human Capital’s Central Regional Command recruiter, headed up the recruiting effort.
“We met a lot of great folks who work with our quality assurance specialists at various contractor sites,” said Eguiluz. “Many of them had never considered working for DCMA until the ASQ conference, where we were able to tell them about what DCMA has to offer as an employer. Most of them assured us they would be signing up for job alerts and looking forward to joining the team.”
Mark Griffin and Felecia Williams, both quality assurance specialists based in North Carolina, who are part of DCMA Hampton, supported Eguiluz in the recruitment booth.
“The recruitment event helped the agency reach out to individuals in different audiences to further diversify our demographic pool,” said Williams. “DCMA now has a connection with a millennial group via Charlotte’s ambassador for young professionals.”
During the event, Williams and Griffin also had an opportunity to talk with Shields on the Detection to Prevention initiative, also known as D2P.
“It was great to hear directly from Mr. Shields on D2P and how the agency is working with industry to drive that message home,” said Griffin. “You can’t help but be motivated and recharged after hearing from Mr. Shields on the impact this initiative is having within the defense industry.”
Shields said it’s important for DCMA employees to understand the role they play in making sure their customers get the quality items they need according to contract specifications.
“While the discussions with our strategic partners are important, the discussions with our DCMA field personnel are critical to the success of these initiatives,” he said. “As we all know, they are the eyes and ears of our organization. Without their efforts, suggestions, feedback and support, these initiatives will not be the success we expect them to be.
“We must continue to have these discussions in order to understand, implement and continuously improve the processes involved in these initiatives. With that understanding and consistency, DCMA will continue to be recognized as being ‘one team, one voice.’”
DCMA is an enterprise member of ASQ. All DCMA employees can join ASQ for free. Currently, almost 50 percent of the workforce are members. ASQ offers many benefits to its members, including certifications. DCMA is currently participating in the certified quality technician, auditor and engineer certification programs. If an employee has a question about ASQ membership or certification, contact Dawn Smith at 804-416-9396 or Dawn.C.Smith@dcma.mil. Additional information can be found at www.asq.org.
Editor’s Note: This article is intended to inform DCMA personnel about the professional benefits of ASQ membership. It is not intended as an endorsement of ASQ.