All Features
Quality Digest
A new business-process–outsourcing contract Wachovia recently made with Genpact will allow Genpact to drive Six Sigma deeply into the banking giant. Genpact, which was established as a financial services subsidiary of GE Capital and broke off from the company in 2004, reports that all of…
Quality Digest
The 4th Annual Six Sigma in Healthcare Conference will be held March 29–31 at the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. James G. Springfield, president and CEO of Valley Baptist Health System, will share Valley Baptist’s Six Sigma journey in his keynote address. Valley Baptist has…
Quality Digest
six sigma IQ recently announced the speaker panel for its upcoming Six Sigma Summit in London.The panel includes Sir John Harvey-Jones, from the BBC television series Troubleshooter and former chairman of ICI; Dieter List, Alstom Power Services director of business performance…
Quality Digest
Cessna Aircraft Co. reports that the implementation of lean and Six Sigma helped it make significant gains last year. The company delivered 249 Citation jets, 822 single-engine pistons and 86 Caravan single-engine turboprops, and won FAA certification for two new jets, among other…
Quality Digest
Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey recently announced three recipients of the Army Performance Excellence Awards. The winners are: the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey (Gold Award); Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield…
Gregory Roth II
I, for one, am tired of the quality flavor of the month. It isn’t quite that bad but it seems like it at times. Have you been through statistical quality control, TQM, total quality speed, re-engineering, zero defects, quality circles, SPC, Motorola Six Sigma, AlliedSignal Six Sigma, GE…
Quality Digest
Manipal Hospital of Bangalore, India, recently received that country’s prestigious Golden Peacock National Quality Award. The 15-year-old hospital has 600 beds and is India’s first multi-specialty tertiary care center to be registered to ISO 9001. Additionally, its Manipal Hospital…
Quality Digest
QA Edge Inc. will host a three-day conference on computer validation May 1–3 in Malvern, Pennsylvania. “Risk-Based Approach to Computer Validation” will be held at Penn State’s Great Valley Campus. The focus will be on using computer-validation best practices to lower risk and overall…
Quality Digest
Aiming to promote professional excellence and provide travelers with safe, secure and efficient airports, Airports Council International’s upcoming conference will focus on service quality in airports around the world. The Airport Service Quality Conference will include workshops, one-on-one…
David Zatz
Chrysler is stepping up their use of team-based manufacturing, moving away from the “Fordist” approach that’s been continually embraced and rejected by global automakers. Their approach brings up memories of the many other companies that have gone to teams, including some that were successful and…
Quality Digest
The W. Edwards Deming Institute will host “How to Create Unethical, Ineffective Organizations That Go Out of Business,” a seminar for executives and leaders in all types of organizations. The event, to be held April 24–26 in Boston, will expose the 27 faulty management and corporate…
Quality Digest
e-TQM College is now accepting applicants for its third annual Pan Arab Media Quality Award. Candidates should submit in-depth, TQM-related, published articles or programs for four award categories: best article, best feature, best interview and best research. Subjects may include…
Quality Digest
Trace Laboratories recently acquired a new vibration testing system to expand its services in vibration and mechanical-shock testing. Its new Unholtz-Dickie T2000 Series vibration-testing system meets the high-G vibration- and shock-testing capabilities required by aerospace, automotive…
Quality Digest
Carl Zeiss Industrial Metrology and Hartwig Inc., a machine-tool distributor, have expanded their partnership to allow Hartwig to distribute Zeiss products in the southeastern United States.Hartwig has been a Zeiss distributor since 2001, and its distribution territory used to extend…
Quality Digest
Agilent Technologies Inc. recently introduced an innovative measurement solution that provides precise modulation measurements on the digitized communication signals found in the digital-signal processor-based radio transceivers used in cell phones, base stations, satellite and military…
Quality Digest
Metris, a Belgian automotive and aerospace metrology-products producer, recently announced the simultaneous acquisition of LK Ltd., 3D Scanners Ltd. and Arc Second Inc.Metris reports that the acquisitions will allow it to offer fully integrated hardware and software solutions that cover…
Quality Digest
The 2006 Measurement Science Conference will be held Feb. 27–March 3 in Anaheim, California. The event is expected to draw hundreds of metrology professionals from around the U.S., and will be held at the Disneyland Hotel. The conference will feature dozens of tutorials and workshops,…
Thomas M. Findlan
When purchasing material test equipment for tensile, fatigue or other test modes, managers of test labs may want to compare new and used test equipment due to budget constraints or other factors. The problem is that there’s currently no easy way to determine if a particular used test…
Quality Digest
The American National Standards Institute recently added upward of 13,000 Chinese national standards to its online offerings. The addition increases the number of international standards available at the site to more than 83,000. The ability to access and purchase Chinese standards…
Quality Digest
The International Organization for Standardization has published a standard that will help people assess the ethics and competence of financial planners. ISO 22222:2005, Personal financial planning is aimed at increasing client confidence by providing an international benchmark for a high…
Quality Digest
The Arbitration and Mediation Center of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has ruled that several Web addresses violate the trademark rules of the International Organization for Standardization. Announcing that they could mislead people into buying products or services…
Denise Robitaille
Part of the problem with corrective actions has long been the proliferation of requests for things that just don’t meet the criteria. Significant progress toward selecting the problems that warrant corrective action has been made in recent years. This has improved the image of corrective actions…
Quality Digest
The IT service-management profession has taken the leap into the world of standardization. ISO/IEC 20000:2005, Information technology service management, aligns and replaces BS 15000, the British standard that has applied to the IT profession. It’s been issued in two parts: part one…
Quality Digest
The American National Standards Institute and ASTM International recently adopted a new standard for personnel certification. ISO/IEC 17024, General requirements for bodies operating certification schemes of persons addresses the need for standardization in the service sector, a need…
Quality Digest
The American Health Quality Association recently released new standards for its member quality-improvement organizations. The AHQA’s board of directors approved the policy in December, and already more than a third of all QIO boards—in states home to more than half of the nation’s…
