All Features
Quality Digest
(NCQA: Washington, DC) -- The National Committee for Quality Assurance launched a new version of its Physician Practice Connections (PPC) program designed to assess how medical practices are functioning as patient-centered medical homes. The new Physician Practice Connections—Patient-Centered…
ScriptNet
(ScripNet: Las Vegas) - To ease the availability of prescription medications to injured workers, ScripNet, a pharmacy benefits manager, is saving time and money with its innovative Call Ahead Program.“We launched the Call Ahead Program over a year ago to make it easier on the injured worker, to…
Siemens Healthcare
(Siemens Healthcare: Orlando, Florida) -- Siemens health care data-mining tool, Soarian Quality Measures, replaces time-consuming manual chart reviews with highly accurate and automated chart abstraction of quality measures, as defined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and The…
Knowledge at Wharton
Accounting techniques such as budgeting, sales projections, and financial reporting are supposed to help prevent business failures by giving managers realistic plans to guide their actions and feedback on their progress. In other words, they’re supposed to leaven entrepreneurial optimism with green…
TAGSYS
(TAGSYS: Düsseldorf, Germany ) -- TAGSYS, a provider of item-level radio frequency identification (RFID) infrastructure systems, recently announced a technology partnership with Sirit Inc., a provider of RFID reader technologies. The combination of TAGSYS’ RFID systems and software with Sirit…
IDS Scheer
(IDS Scheer: Orlando, Florida) -- Customers need business process management (BPM) to constantly align their processes with business needs. ARIS Six Sigma combines IDS Scheer’s proven business process excellence approach and Six Sigma’s statistics-driven view. This not only guarantees…
Dr T Burns
In Part 1 of this article I discussed Six Sigma failures and the fundamental flaws in the term Six Sigma, as seen in figure 1 below, which highlights the flaws in the hundreds of Six Sigma web sites displaying the nonsense of out-of-control processes that are the result of the claimed “unavoidable…
Bill Kalmar
Each year at this time a momentous event is announced in the pages of a prominent magazine. No, I’m not talking about the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, although thoughts of that warm me up on frigid evenings in Michigan (sorry if that’s sexist). I’m referring to Fortune Magazine’s…
the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business Utah State University
(The Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, Utah State University: Logan, Utah) -- The 20th Shingo Prizes will be awarded in Dallas, Texas, March 31–April 3. The Jon M. Huntsman School of Business of Utah State University will stage its annual conference and awards ceremony at the Adam’s Mark Hotel…
Society of Manufacturing Engineers
(SME: Los Angeles) -- The Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ WESTEC 2008 Exposition and Conference will take place March 31–April 3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The largest annual machine tools and advanced manufacturing event in North America, WESTEC connects manufacturing professionals…
Juran
(Juran Institute: Southbury, Connecticut) -- Joseph M. Juran, Ph.D., noted author and a founder of modern quality management, died on February 28 from natural causes.“Dr. Juran recently told me that he wanted everyone to know he had a wonderful life and hoped that his contributions to improving the…
SWPP
(SWPP: Nashville, Tennessee) -- The Society of Workforce Planning Professionals and The Call Center School are pleased to announce the formation of the Quality Assurance & Training Connection (QATC) as an association and resource for those in the call center industry responsible for quality…
RABQSA
(RABQSA: Sydney, Australia) -- RABQSA International Inc. is officially launching the Australian Pork Industry’s Moisture Infused Pork (MIP) Food Safety Auditor Scope, developed in liaison with industry and Australian Pork Limited (APL).“Australian Pork Limited is leading the way in using the RABQSA…
Advanstar
(Advanstar: Iselin, New Jersey) -- The Institute of Validation Technology, a division of Advanstar Communications, will host the “Computer Systems Validation in FDA-Regulated Industries” conference in Baltimore, Maryland, April 29–May 2. The conference will provide updated interactive…
Unigene Laboratories Inc.
(Unigene Laboratories Inc: Fairfield, New Jersey) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a modification for a key enzyme, the first of two proposed improvements for Unigene Laboratories Inc.’s patented manufacturing process for calcitonin, the active ingredient in Fortical, a…
Tim Lozier
In today’s quality management systems, the ability to control and correct processes is key to maintaining a high level of compliance within an organization. Whether it’s tracking incoming customer complaints, identifying nonconforming materials from production, or using corrective and preventive…
AM2 PAT Inc.
(AM2 PAT Inc.: Angier, North Carolina) -- A nationwide recall of Heparin and Saline prefilled flushes manufactured by AM2 PAT was issued by AM2 PAT. These products are distributed under two brand names, Sierra Pre-Filled Inc. and B. Braun. These products are sold in 3-ml and 5-ml sizes for Heparin…
Calypte Biomedical Corp.
(Calypte Biomedical Corp: Portland, Oregon) -- Calypte Biomedical Corp., a developer, manufacturer and marketer of HIV diagnostic tests, recently announced that the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA)—the equivalent of the U.S. FDA—has notified Calypte’s Chinese manufacturing…
Quality Digest
(ACSI: Ann Arbor, Michigan) -- Satisfaction with the goods and services that people in the United States buy declined in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to a report recently released by the University of Michigan’s American customer satisfaction index (ACSI). The index fell to 74.9 on the…
Quality Digest
(ISO: Geneva) -- Equipping pedestrian street crossings with acoustic and tactile signals to help disabled persons was a step forward. The problem is that they vary from one country to another. Now, a new ISO standard provides the basis for harmonizing such signals on a worldwide basis.The aim of…
Quality Digest
(NCQA: Washington) -- Two new measures focusing on obesity in children and adults highlight the additions to the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set, released recently for public comment by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. Two other additions to the 2009 edition of HEDIS…
Douglas C. Fair
I was hiking in the Smoky Mountains National Park with a colleague, and we happened upon fellow hikers. Being the friendly sorts that we are, we stopped to take a breather and chat with our new female friends. We enjoyed resting and speaking with the women until my friend Bob smiled and asked one…
FARO
At rare moments, an idea comes along that makes people rethink how jobs are done from that point on. The engineers at Falk PLI Engineering & Surveying have hit on such an idea for one of the most basic concepts of all: measuring.
The larger-than-life nature of steelmaking would seem to belie…
Delcam
(Delcam plc: Birmingham, United Kingdom) -- Software from Delcam and support from AZtech have helped VMP Team Audi to a successful season.VMP Team Audi has entered into a partnership with Delcam’s South African reseller AZtech covering the supply of software, hardware, and support. Following…
Multi Metrics
(Multi Metrics Inc.: Menlo Park, California) -- Multi Metrics Inc., a global provider of geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) technology, training, and support, recently announced the launch of its SmartGD&T Machine Shop Partner Program, delivering affordable, on-demand, GD…