Lessons in Quality Leadership (Udemy.com)
How to move from tactical thinking towards strategic thinking, from management to leadership
Created by: Ray Harkins
Last updated May 2026
What you will learn
- How to shift from manager to leader
- How to foster productive relationships with your associates
- Basic approaches and techniques of error proofing
- Error proofing (Poka Yokes) in design and assembly
- Integrating error proofing with statistical process control
- How to instill a spirit of ownership in your associates
- The quality and productivity benefits of single-sourcing raw materials
- How to measure and monitor your business
- Setting goals - An approach for both personal and professional goals
- How to uncover unknown causes of defects in your process
- Qualitative and quantitative tools in root cause analysis and corrective actions
- The 8D problem solving approach
- How to measure and quantity variation in you process
- Techniques for spotting trends in your measurement data
- Using SPC to drive improvements
How it compares
Against the other 1,210 rated Udemy courses in Business on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.5 out of 5higher than 46% of them
- Reviews485#665 of 1,211 by number of reviews
- Length6.2 hourslonger than 76% of them
- Last updatedMay 2026more recently than 70% of them
Course Description
The path toward excelling in the quality profession in two-fold:
- Mastering the technical skills of solving problems
- Mastering the soft skills of leading and inspiring others
And in this course, "Lessons in Quality Leadership", you will receive large doses (OVER 6 HOURS OF VIDEO) of the tools and strategies of both the technical and soft skills you need to advance your career in the quality profession.
Taught by senior operations executive, Mike Vella, you will learn not only the theories of leadership and problem solving, but hear real-life examples of these concepts that can only be gained through experience. This course is comprised of seven major sections:
What Leaders Owe ... How associates view their managers and what they need from them to succeed. Understanding the attributes of inspiring leaders.
The Path Toward Zero Defects ... A rich overview of the philosophy and approaches of error-proofing products and processes. Lots of real-life examples!!
Ownership and Empowerment ... How to instill a spirit of ownership among your associates and the benefits of empowering them.
Measuring Your Business ... How to apply the analytical methods of quality to the rest of your organization. Understanding and correlating leading and lagging indicators.
The Benefits of Single-Sourcing ... A deep dive into W. Edwards Deming's fourth point, and why single-souring is still a competitive strategy in today's environment.
Strategies for Effective Goal Setting ... Techniques for personal and professional success. How to set, track and achieve your goals.
Advanced Problem-Solving Strategies ... A deep dive into the major tools of root cause analysis, corrective action, and "locking-down" improvements. (3 hours long ... This section alone is a "class within a class") How to tie together key strategies into an effectively unified quality system.
As an added bonus, you'll hear a candid interview with Mike about his quality philosophies, tips for advancing your career, and key approaches to manufacturing leadership.
Far more than a repeat of the quality tools and philosophies you've heard in the past, this course "Lessons in Quality Leadership" will give you valuable insights that you won't learn in school and simply can't gain from someone who hasn't spent their career in the manufacturing quality trenches.
When you sign up for this class, you will receive LIFETIME ACCESS to all course material, 6+ HOURS of richly-detailed approaches to quality leadership, and access to your instructors through Udemy with your comments and questions.
If you're looking for insights to give you an edge in your career, then this is the class for you. Sign up today to advance your journey into manufacturing quality leadership.
Instructor Details
- 4.5 Rating
485 Reviews
Ray Harkins
Ray Harkins is a senior manufacturing leader, educator, and founder of The Manufacturing Academy, with more than 30 years of experience in manufacturing engineering, quality engineering and management, and operations leadership. He currently serves as a General Manager in manufacturing, overseeing operations, quality, engineering, and continuous improvement while remaining actively engaged in solving the day-to-day challenges faced by manufacturers.
After beginning his career in manufacturing engineering, Ray expanded into quality and operations leadership, working alongside leading industry professionals throughout North America and Japan and touring hundreds of manufacturing facilities. These experiences shaped his belief that manufacturing professionals deserve practical training that they can immediately apply to improve quality, productivity, and their careers.
That philosophy has guided the development of more than 60 online courses covering Lean Six Sigma, Statistical Process Control, Supply Chain Analytics, Manufacturing Leadership, Reliability Engineering, and Operations Management. His courses are used by individual professionals and corporate training departments worldwide and have helped more than 140,000 students build practical skills and advance their careers.
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Reviews
By Erik Bean on 7/23/2026
Almost the entire last min of each video is cut off. Love the information, just sad I cannot get all of it (this appears to be a bug with Udemy, not the course thankfully).
By Jose Luis Dominguez on 8/22/2025
It was just great, thank you to Manufacturing Academy as well as Mike Vella, great insights and tremendous clarification to concepts and fundamentals in quality from a great practitioner.
By Anonymized User on 6/13/2025
I really enjoyed this course and found it very helpful and full of useful information. It gave me a deeper understanding of the subject and I appreciate the effort that went into creating it. If I could suggest one thing, it would be to present the material in a slightly more inspiring and lively way, to spark even more interest and curiosity. Overall, it was a great experience.
By Jacqueline Clarke on 10/4/2024
Yes, this was a good match for me. Managers and Leaders really need to understand and be aware of the symptoms of emotional strain on their staff.
By douglas faulkner on 8/20/2024
Section on mistake proofing a complete rehash of your mistake proofing course. Same with material on 8D problem solving and complete course?
By Anonymized User on 2/10/2024
As per my knolege its a good course for Quality leadership. I like and appricate detail explanination about is on going quality controls topics.
By Thi Kieu Hanh Than on 12/3/2023
Amazing course. In my opinion, it is better to start to see the big picture why Quality Leadership is important prior to going to more details how to control quality. You need to see the goals prior to making a plan. Thank you!
By Anonymized User on 10/9/2023
This platform is useful as always many more things can be explore and pushes us to lead forward and try to redeem skills to elevate ourselves.
By Alyssa Adank on 4/20/2023
This course was a lot of surface level information but easy to follow along to. The instructors have a ton of knowledge to share, and you can tell in their tone of voice that they care about what they're teaching. Overall, I enjoyed the course!
By Alexander Smolle on 2/25/2023
This course exceeds my expectations by far. I totally agree with both instructors that the methods of error proofing and 100% inspection are underrepresented in quality literature and discussion. The lecture on single sourcing (Deming) requires special attention and applause. In the interview lecture both conclude that this concept is indeed controversial and misunderstood. This course has been my third course out of the selection of courses offered by The Manufacturing Academy, and I cannot wait to take the next.
Quality Score
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Overall Score : 90 / 100












