Charles Cianfrani

About the Expert

Charlie Cianfrani is an internationally recognized authority on quality management. He has held a variety of executive positions (vice president-operations, general manager, chief quality officer, vice president-quality) in quality, manufacturing, and general management over the past 40 years in both private and public sector organizations, primarily in high-tech electronics.

His principal areas of focus over the past ten years have been:

1) creating and implementing world-class quality management systems

2) implementing  projects to measure and improve process effectiveness in both service and manufacturing environments

3) leading projects to achieve ISO 9001 compliance

4) structuring and implementing internal audit and self-assessment systems including training of internal auditors and assessors

5) writing proposal content to highlight quality management differentiation from competition

6) developing and deploying processes to improve the effectiveness of operations for product and service delivery

7) directing and improving the performance of government-funded welfare and workforce development programs at the national, state and local levels

He has had direct responsibility and accountability for numerous projects that achieved ISO 9001 compliance and first-pass certification on six continents.

Charlie’s quality and management consulting experiences have included assignments in Europe (Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden), Asia (Japan, Singapore and China), Australia, Africa (South Africa and Nigeria), South America (Brazil and Venezuela) and Central America, in addition to the US, Canada and Mexico.

Charlie has been active in professional societies, locally, nationally and internationally. He is currently a U.S. Expert Representative to the ISO committee that wrote ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 9004:2009 and directly participated in the writing those standards. He is also member of the United States Technical Advisory Group (U.S. TAG) to the ISO Technical Committee (TC) on Quality Management and Quality Assurance and on the ASC Z1 Subcommittee on Quality Management and Assurance.

He has been chairman of the Philadelphia Section of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and serves on the committee of experts for a major international ISO registrar.

Publications:

Charlie has presented or published over 100 technical and management papers locally, nationally and internationally, and his work has been published in numerous technical journals and symposium transactions (listing available on request).  He is co-author (with Jack West and Joe Tsiakals) of ISO 9001:2000 Explained, a best-selling book published by Quality Press and of the ISO 9000:2000 Handbook (co-edited with West and Tsiakals), the definitive reference source on quality management in the international arena. Charlie is also author (with West) of Cracking the Case of ISO 9001:2008 for Manufacturing, Cracking the Case of ISO 9001:2008 for Service, How to Audit the Process-Based QMS and Unlocking the Power of your QMS: Keys to Performance Improvement, all published by ASQ Quality Press.  His latest book (with Jack West), ISO 9001:2008 Explained, Third Edition, was published by ASQ Quality Press in January 2009 to address the ISO 9001:2008 quality management systems standard. His books have been reprinted, translated or published throughout the world (e.g. in Spain, Mexico, Malaysia, Australia, Greece). Charlie has also made three videos on quality topics that are promoted and sold by INFORM, ASQ, Paton Press and others.

Education and Recognition:

Charlie attended Drexel University and Villanova University, receiving B.S., M.S. and M.B.A. degrees.  He is an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE), Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE) and Certified Quality Auditor (CQA), and is a NAWDP Certified Workforce Development Professional as well as being a Registrar Accreditation Board Quality Systems (RABQSA) certified Auditor .  He is a fellow of ASQ.