A Quarterly International Service Newsletter

 The  Moorhill  Monitor
 * Volume 13 / Issue 2 / Date 2nd Quarter 2004 *
 
QMS + EMS + OHSMS = ISMS

In this Issue:
[TOP 10] [1STMARDIV] [We've Always Done It This Way]

["A" is for Auditor] [The Eight Quality Management Principles of ISO 9001:2000]

Moorhill International Group, Inc.
Fostering International Relations Through Commerce

1. TOP 10!

The First Marine Division recently returned to Iraq. This is a letter from the Commanding General of the Division to the Marines of the First Marine Division.

Letter to all Hands:

We are going back in to the brawl. We will be relieving the Magnificent Soldiers fighting under the 82nd Airborne Division, whose hard won successes in the Sunni Triangle have opened opportunities for us to exploit. For the last year, the 82nd Airborne has been operating against the heart of the enemy's resistance. It's appropriate that we relieve them.

When it's time to move a piano, Marines don't pick up the piano bench- we move the piano. So, this is the right place for Marines in this fight, where we can carry on the legacy of Chesty Puller in the Banana Wars in the same sort of complex environment that he knew in his early years.

Shoulder to shoulder with our comrades in the Army, Coalition Forces and maturing Iraqi Security Forces, we are going to destroy the enemy with precise firepower while diminishing the conditions that create adversarial relationships between us and the Iraqi people.

This is going to be hard, dangerous work. It is going to require patient, persistent presence. Using our individual initiative, courage, moral judgment and battle skills, we will build on the 82nd Airborne's victories.

Our country is counting on us even as our enemies watch and calculate, hoping that America does not have warriors strong enough to withstand discomfort and danger. You, my fine young men, are going to prove the enemy wrong - dead wrong. You will demonstrate the same uncompromising spirit that has always caused the enemy to fear America's Marines.

The enemy will try to manipulate you into hating all Iraqis. Do not allow the enemy that victory. With strong discipline, solid faith, unwavering alertness, and undiminished chivalry to the innocent, we will carry out this mission. Remember, I have added, "First, do no harm" to our passwords of "No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy." Keep your honor clean as we gain information about the enemy from the Iraqi people. Then, armed with that information and working in conjunction with fledging Iraqi Security Forces, we will move precisely against the enemy elements and crush them without harming the innocent.

This is our test - our Guadalcanal, our Chosin Reservoir, our Hue City. Fight with a happy heart and keep faith in your comrades and your unit. We must be under no illusions about the nature of the enemy and the dangers that lie ahead. Stay alert, take it all in stride, remain sturdy, and share your courage with each other and the world. You are going to write history, my fine young Sailors and Marines, so write it well.

Source: USMC, 2004

Does the statement, "We've always done it that way" ring any bells... ?

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.
Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US Railroads.

Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the
pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

Why did "they" use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that
they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.

The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. And bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses.

Now the twist to the story...

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory at Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass.

.. and you thought being a HORSE'S ASS wasn't important!  

Source: ANSI, 2004

4. "A" is for Auditor!

As part of my training with Internal Audit teams, I assign the Auditors to find words within the word "Auditor." The following is a list that some that have been put together, not necessarily unabridged.

1.    A

2.    Ad

3.    Adit

4.    Ado

5.    Aid

6.    Air

7.    Arid

8.    Art

9.    At

10.   Audi

11.   Audit

12.   Cad

13.   Dart

14.   Dirt

15.   Dit

16.   Do

17.   Dot

18.   Draft

19.   Drat

20.   I

21.   Id

22.   Iota

23.   It

24.   Or

25.   Ort

26.   Our

27.   Rad

28.   Radio

29.   Rat

30.   Rid

31.   Riot

32.   Road

33.   Rod

34.   Rot

35.   Rut

36.   Ta

37.   Tad

38.   Tao

39.   Tar

40.   Tau

41.   To

42.   Tour

43.   Toad

Submitted: The Tech Group, 2003 

5. The Eight Quality Management Principles of ISO 9001:2000!

Principle 1 - Customer-Focused Organization

Organizations depend on their customers and therefore should understand current and future customer needs, meet customer requirements and strive to exceed customer expectations.

Key Benefits:

· Increased revenues and market shares obtained through flexible and fast responses to market opportunities.

· Improved customer loyalty leading to repeat business and referrals

Principle 2 - Leadership

Leaders establish unity of purpose and direction of the organization. They should create and maintain the internal environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving the organization’s objectives.

Key Benefits:

· People will understand and be motivated towards the organization’s goals and objectives

· Activities are evaluated, aligned and implemented in a unified way

· Leading by example thereby enabling continual improvement

Principle 3 - Involvement of People

People at all levels are the essence of an organization and their full involvement enables their abilities to be used for the organizations benefit.

Key Benefits:

· Motivated, committed and involved people

· People feel accountable for their own performance

· People eager to participate and contribute to continual improvement

Principle 4 - Process Approach

A desired result is achieved more efficiently when related resources and activities are managed as a process.

Key Benefits:

· Ability to lower costs and shorten cycle times through effective use of resources

· Improved, consistent and predictable results

· Allows improvement opportunities to be focused and prioritized.

Principle 5 — System Approach to Management

Identifying, understanding and managing a system of interrelated processes for a given objective improves the organization’s effectiveness and efficiency.

Key Benefits:

· Alignment of the processes which will best achieve the desired results

· The ability to focus effort on the processes that matter

· Provides confidence to key interested parties of the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization

Principle 6 — Continual Improvement

Continual improvement should be a permanent objective of the organization.

Key Benefits:

· Increased competitive advantage through improved organizational capabilities

· Flexibility to react quickly to opportunities

Principle 7 - Factual approach to decision making

Effective decisions are based on the analysis of data and information

Key Benefits:

· Informed decisions

· An ability to demonstrate the effectiveness of past decisions through reference to factual histories

· Ability to review, challenge and change opinions and decisions.

Principle 8 - Mutually beneficial supplier relationships

An organization and its suppliers are interdependent and a mutually beneficial relationship enhances the ability of both to create value

Key Benefits:

· Increased ability to create value for both parties

· Flexibility and speed of agreed joint responses to changing markets

· Optimization of costs and resources.

 Source: ISO, Geneva, CH, 2002

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