Title: Simplifying Quality Systems

Abstract:

Quality systems are meant to support success—but too often they become bloated, bureaucratic, and ignored. Instead of driving improvement, they slow progress and frustrate teams. This session shows how to cut through the clutter and design systems people actually want to use.

Simplifying quality isn’t about cutting corners. It’s about distilling systems to their core purpose, aligning them with company goals, and removing everything that doesn’t add value. When done well, simplified systems create agility, enable improvement, and keep organizations compliant without drowning people in paperwork.

In this session, you’ll learn how to:

• Shift quality from controlling to coaching. 
• Align quality’s purpose with the business’s purpose. 
• Set guardrails that prevent catastrophic risks while allowing safe experimentation. 
• Use subtraction—removing waste—rather than piling on more steps. 
• Recognize your limits and seek outside perspectives. 
• Treat simplification as a continuous journey, not a one-time fix.

This session is especially for professionals in organizations where the QMS is overly complex, poorly followed, or slowing down progress. 

Biography

Mike Fank is an Operational Excellence Leader and consultant who helps organizations align quality with business strategy to achieve lasting results. With more than a decade of experience in quality and process improvement, Mike has guided teams across manufacturing and service industries to simplify systems, eliminate inefficiencies, and strengthen performance.

As the founder of Upside Down Excellence, Mike focuses on teaching quality principles to non-quality people—entrepreneurs, managers, and business leaders—so that quality becomes a natural part of how organizations operate and grow. His approach blends Lean, Six Sigma, and human-centered problem-solving, with a strong emphasis on building systems people want to use.

Mike is a Certified Manager of Quality and Organizational Excellence, a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and a long-standing ASQ Senior Member and Mentor. He has developed corporate audit standards, designed training programs, and advised leadership teams on how to build efficient, sustainable systems that free people to focus on what they do best—solving problems and driving innovation.

Driven by the belief that “a bad system can be held together by good people, and vice versa,” Mike’s work centers on creating simplicity, accountability, and alignment between people, processes, and strategy. His vision is a world where quality and business practices are one and the same.

The page link is:

https://app.memberplanet.com/#/event/asqfoxvalleysection/may2026virtualsectionmembermeetingasqsection1208

The meeting will begin with a short section scholarship presentation.