Quality Magazine’s 2011 quality professional of the year was Forrest Breyfogle, CEO and President of Smarter Solutions, Inc.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Forrest Breyfogle III, accepted Quality Magazine’s 2011 Quality Professional of the Year Award on Wednesday, April 13, 2011. Breyfogle, a professional engineer and ASQ fellow, founded Smarter Solutions, Inc. in 1992 after 24 years as an engineer, product test specialist and internal statistical consultant with IBM.
More recently Breyfogle engineered the Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) business management improvement system, which blends Six Sigma and lean practices with enterprise-level analytics and a foresight for innovation. Using IEE techniques, Breyfogle enables the companies with which he works to exceed their limitations and thus effect long-term, lasting improvements.
The Quality Professional of the Year Award recognizes individuals who, throughout the course of their careers, have made significant contributions to the quality profession. Each spring, a board of quality and manufacturing experts chooses one winner who exemplifies quality through leadership, significant achievements, application of quality concepts, recognition through other honors and awards, and involvement in professional business organizations.
Smarter Solutions’ clients are enthusiastic about Breyfogle’s contributions to quality. “Forrest challenges the conventional wisdom of traditional approaches to quality management,” said Donald McLachlan, president and CEO of SilverQuest Consulting Group. “Forrest has a zeal for quality that is contagious. He is an enthusiastic proponent of quality and process improvement everywhere he goes. His high ethical standards and commitment to professionalism are additional attributes that make him a worthy role model.”
Genevieve Diesing, Associate Editor with Quality Magazine, said, “Forrest is our professional of the year not just because of his pioneering ideas, but also because of his enthusiasm about sharing them. Perhaps most importantly, Forrest has shared his knowledge with countless companies and empowered them to transcend the limitations of their current management techniques, resulting in long-term, company-wide improvements.”
In his own words, Forrest Breyfogle explains his passionate pursuit of quality. “Looking back on my career, I have noted one consistent belief: People and organizations often answer the wrong, or not the best question, to the third decimal place. This term – to the third decimal place – represents organizations’ attempts to make decisions with seemingly very exact conclusions that ignore the assumptions that were used in the effort,” he explains. “It is like estimating the cost of the organization’s cost of poor quality to the dollar, using the direct cost of the scrap materials. Because of this, my life’s route has seemingly evolved into the creation of a system that helps companies answer their right question for movement toward achievement of the three Rs of business: everyone doing the Right things, and doing them Right, at the Right time.“