All Features
Praveen Gupta
Six Sigma is being implemented at more and more corporations. After a significant investment in training, corporations initiate projects. Six Sigma Champions have told me that some companies have several thousand projects in the pipeline. Managing that many projects is a major task. How many…
Quality Digest
(Juran: Southby, Connecticut) -- Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) has improved the way senior executives at Masco Builder Cabinet Group view and manage their business. DFSS is a methodology that focuses on designing products or services in a manner than ensures cost-effectiveness and efficiency of…
Quality Digest
(NCQA: Washington) -- The quality of care for more than 80 million people in the United States enrolled in 767 accountable health plans improved in 2006, according to a new report by the National Committee for Quality Assurance.The State of Health Care Quality 2007 reports that commercial health…
Bill Kalmar
Since 1994, the American Customer Satisfaction Index, under the auspices of the National Quality Resource Center at the University of Michigan, has been the standard for measuring consumer satisfaction. The index measures satisfaction with 200 companies in 43 industries and is the most…
Quality Digest
(NIST: Gaithersburg, Maryland) -- Recommendations for new requirements to make future voting systems in the United States more “secure, reliable, and easier for all voters to use” have been submitted by an advisory panel to the Election Assistance Commission.The recommendations are a rewrite of…
Quality Digest
(ANSI: New York) -- To better protect the public from lead contaminants in drinking water, NSF International recently released an update to its American National Standard for drinking water system components. The update to NSF Standard 61 reduces the allowable concentration of lead from 15…
Quality Digest
(ASQ: Milwaukee, Wisconsin) -- Instrumental in NASA’s efforts to rescue the astronauts of Apollo 13, retired Rear Adm. T.K. Mattingly will share his experience of teamwork and leadership at the American Society for Quality’s 2008 World Conference on Quality and Improvement, slated for May 5–7, 2008…
Quality Digest
(ASQ: Milwaukee, Winsconsin) -- As Food and Drug Administration regulations and quality system requirements tighten, manufacturers can’t afford the ramifications of unidentified risks in production. To help educate producers, the American Society for Quality is offering a one-day virtual course…
Quality Digest
(National Institutes of Health: Bethesda, Maryland) -- National Institutes of Health director, Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., has announced the expansion of a national consortium that is transforming how clinical and translational research is conducted at academic health centers across the country.…
Quality Digest
(Canon Communications: Los Angeles) Canon Communications LLC, a major producer of tradeshows and publications dedicated to the worldwide $220 billion medical device manufacturing market, is introducing a new show—Medical Design & Manufacturing (MD&M) Midwest—for medical manufacturers…
Georgia Institute of Technology
For people with impaired mobility and reduced ability to sense injury, the risk is high for pressure ulcers that can develop when they sit or recline in one position too long or wear a poorly-fitted prostheses for an extended period.
Clinical data collection helps drive the researchers’…
Quality Digest
(Johns Hopkins Medicine: Baltimore, Maryland) -- Mandatory classes that aim to improve the quality of medical care seem to successfully teach doctors new concepts but don’t necessarily improve patient outcomes, suggests a thorough review of articles that examine quality improvement (QI)…
Quality Digest
(USGBC: Washington) -- Sheridan Stationside Village has been selected for a new nationwide pilot program designed to foster smart growth principles and environmentally friendly design. The mixed-use transit-oriented development in Hollywood, Florida, is one of six projects across the state…
Quality Digest
(NCSU: Raleigh, North Carolina) -- North Carolina State University’s College of Textiles and Industrial Extension Service have expanded their programming to include online lean Six Sigma courses. The College and IES now offer a menu of classroom training and certifications related to Six Sigma…
Quality Digest
(NCQA: Washington) -- Fourteen of the nation’s leading preferred provider organizations (PPOs) covering 10.2 million U.S. citizens are among the first to come forward for evaluation under NCQA’s new Health Plan Accreditation standards. The program evaluates PPO and managed-care plans under a common…
Mike Micklewright
Question: What kind of dishes are made out of lead?
Answer: China
Many of us in U.S. industry have forgotten the principles of our dearly departed quality guru, W. Edwards Deming, since his passing in 1993. Since then our quality levels as a country have grown only slightly. At the Society of Anti-…
Quality Digest
(ASQ: Milwaukee, Wisconsin) -- The American Society for Quality, has awarded a $15,000 Community Good Works grant to the Partnership for Education in Ashtabula County located in Ashtabula County, Ohio.The grant money will help to implement PEAC’s Community Partnership Initiative, which supports…
Quality Digest
(Minitab Inc.: State College, Pennsylvania) -- Minitab Inc. recently released a fully translated Korean version of Minitab 15 Statistical Software, its flagship product and the leading package used to implement Six Sigma and other data-driven quality improvement programs worldwide.Minitab 15…
Steven Ouellette
There is something that will get you into trouble if you don’t know about it, and which in my experience very few Black Belts or even Master Black Belts know about. It’s only in the mind of the person doing the research, and no software program will know about it. This mysterious property is “…
V. Viswanathan
For quite some time a major question has been cropping up in my mind: Is Six Sigma’s application in software development as effective as it is in the manufacturing industry?The answer is “No.” The savings and benefits that occur in the software industry due to Six Sigma and other process-…
Quality Digest
(U.S. Navy: Great Lakes) -- A team from Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Midwest headquarters wrapped up the command’s first lean Six Sigma event in Great Lakes on Aug. 17, after a week dedicated to improving its support to commands throughout the region.By applying the concepts of…
Steven Ouellette
There is something that will get you into trouble if you don’t know about it, and which in my experience very few Black Belts or even Master Black Belts know about. It’s only in the mind of the person doing the research, and no software program will know about it. This mysterious property is “…
Quality Digest
(PolyOne Corp.: Cleveland, Ohio) -- PolyOne Corp., a global provider of specialized polymer materials, services, and solutions, recently announced that Tom Kedrowski has joined the company as senior vice president of operations.Prior to joining PolyOne, Kedrowski served as vice president for…
Quality Digest
(Juran Institute Inc.: Southbury, Connecticut) -- Juran Institute has partnered with the Los Angeles Unified School District to implement a Six Sigma improvement initiative.LAUSD is the second-largest school district in the nation, providing educational services to more than 700,000…
Quality Digest
(Galactic Suite: Barcelona, Spain) -- Earthlings seeking adventure beyond the stars may not have much longer to wait. The Galactic Suite—the first hotel in outer space—is expected to open its airlocks in 2012. Resembling a kind of molecular model structure, the three-bedroom hotel will consist…