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Quality Digest
The president and executive coach of the Juran Institute, Joe DeFeo, recently received the 2006 North East Quality Council Special Recognition Award. The award is presented to professionals from the Northeast who have made significant contributions to the quality and business communities…
Quality Digest
Heartbeat Software Inc. has named Six Sigma Black Belt Irena Petsche its new vice president for professional services. Heartbeat Software is a provider of software for the life sciences industry. Petsche has 20 years’ experience in the software industry and was most recently director of…
Quality Digest
John Wilkerson, a Six Sigma Black Belt, was recently certified as the first international lead management consultant in the United States. Wilkerson is executive director of Bellwether Services, a lean Six Sigma consultancy and training organization. Published in 2003, the international…
Steven Ouellette
In this installment of my arbitrary and capricious list of the Top Ten Stupid Six Sigma Tricks (SSST), let’s talk about an error that is perhaps less frequently made now than it has been, but is still common. I call this error SSST No.6, constraining your improvement activities to…
Quality Digest
TrackSpeed, a supply chain technology and tracking company, recently launched surplustrack.com, an innovative remarketing solution that allows companies all over the world to sell, trade or transfer their surplus inventory. SurplusTrack.com uses the best practices of auction, remarketing and…
Quality Digest
Dubai Industrial City, a member of Tatweer, recently developed an integrated management system for all manufacturers operating within Dubai City. Based on international quality, health, safety and environment (QHSE) management standards and applicable manufacturing best practices, Dubai…
Quality Digest
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and the Automotive Industry Action Group will meet in Shanghai April 23 and 24 for the 2007 China-US Automotive Supply Chain Summit, produced by the Shanghai International Auto Parts Sourcing Center.The theme, “Cooperation, Exchange and…
Quality Digest
H.H. Sheikh Mohammed honors Award for Arab Management 2006 winners The 2006 winners of the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Arab Management were recently announced at the 4th Arab Strategy Forum in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.Recognized…
Douglas C. Fair
If you read my previous two columns, you’re well educated on the top 10 mistakes that manufacturers make when implementing statistical process control (SPC). Several of these mistakes are indicative of what I call the “check-box mentality.” This mentality is typically the result of an…
Quality Digest
Comerica Bank recently granted National Quality Excellence Awards to SHI, Standard Register and Adagio Graphics. The award recognizes suppliers nominated by Comerica employees for their outstanding contribution to the company’s core values and vision. “The contributions of our three winners are…
Quality Digest
TÜV SÜD America Inc. recently acquired EST Testing Solutions, an environmental and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing organization that specializes in services to the automotive and furniture industries. TÜV reports that the acquisition will strengthen its environmental and EMC…
Quality Digest
phoenix/x-ray, a manufacturer and supplier of inspection equipment for the electronics, semiconductor, aerospace and automotive industries, recently launched a new Web site. The company developed the site to be clear and user friendly, with a simple page and navigation structure. In…
Quality Digest
GKS Inspection Services Inc., a division of Laser Design Inc., recently expanded its Detroit-area dimensional inspection services with the addition of a third Faro portable CMM articulated arm. The new 12-ft. Platinum FaroArm is equipped with a touch probe and a 3-D laser scanner. GKS’…
Quality Digest
A San Diego judge declared a mistrial on Dec. 6 in the long-running patent infringement lawsuit between Faro Technologies Inc. and ROMER Inc. Hexagon AB, ROMER’s parent company, filed the suit in 2003 alleging that the unlimited rotation feature in Faro’s FaroArm violates ROMER’s patent…
Fred Mason
Continuing last month’s topic of temperature effects on measurements, what about temperature compensation? Some measuring systems claim increased accuracy with the usually optional temperature compensation. What’s that? What’s it supposed to do? And does it do what it claims to do?
Remember that…
Quality Digest
Sam Y. Zamrik, a technical consultant and professor emeritus of engineering mechanics at the Pennsylvania State University, was recently named president-elect of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. ASME develops codes and standards for the engineering and technology industries.…
Denise Robitaille
The adage “The pen is mightier than the sword.” is hackneyed, accurate and profound. I’ve done several pieces on the influence of words. The simple fact is that how we say something often matters as much as what we’re saying. It’s a wondrous phenomenon, one that is too often taken for…
Quality Digest
Nearly 70,000 people attended the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) Telecom World conference last week in Hong Kong to discuss international standardization of telecommunications technologies, among other things. The leading global organization for information and…
Quality Digest
NSF International Strategic Registrations Ltd. (NSF-ISR) was recently accredited to AS9110 by the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB). The registrar reports it is the first in North America to receive ANAB approval to offer AS9110 registration. The standard incorporates ISO 9001…
Quality Digest
RABQSA International Inc. recently announced the formation of an accreditation scheme for auditors that conduct audits using standards that pertain to heavy vehicles such as trucks and buses. The Heavy Vehicle Accreditation (HVA) auditor certification scheme was developed by RABQSA’s…
Quality Digest
The United Nations Global Compact Office recently agreed to cooperate with the International Organization for Standardization’s effort to develop ISO 26000, which pertains to social responsibility. ISO has emphasized that ISO 26000 will complement existing public and private sector…
Last month’s column provided background on the International Electrotechnical Commission, one of only three standards-setting bodies recognized by the World Trade Organization. Readers may have asked, “So what?” The answer is that one of the three “schemes” within the IEC has provided…
Theysan Kasirajan
Editor’s note: We’re intrigued by this article, in which the author posits the idea of "Theozen," the author’s term for a God-based approach to quality.
Most of us have some sort of spiritual belief, whether it’s part of an organized religion such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam,…
Quality Digest
In a letter from Navy Capt. Dorothy J. Freer to Sikorsky president Jeffrey Pino, the oversight agency criticized Sikorsky’s reliance on subcontractors and recommended suspending activity at one subcontractor, according to a recent story from the Associated Press.
In regard to Sikorsky’s attempts to…
Quality Digest
FlexNet Quality, recently introduced by Apriso Corp., supports the prerequisites for effective implementation of Six Sigma, including statistical process control and define-measure-analyze-improve-control techniques.FlexNet Quality supports lean manufacturing programs by focusing on waste…
