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Quality Digest
The Department of the Navy has teamed with the American Society for Quality on a new lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification process.The agreement will allow the Navy and ASQ to develop a testing-standards program geared toward the unique needs of the Navy and Marine Corps. The program…
Quality Digest
A new series of five books explores innovative ways to create organizational excellence.Quality Digest columnist H. James Harrington authored all of the five books from the Five Pillars of Organizational Excellence series, published by Paton Press. The first of the series, Process…
Quality Digest
European software firms are neglecting quality assurance in application development, according to a recently released study. Compuware Corp. found that 78 percent of the surveyed organizations didn’t apply a formal quality assurance methodology to their software development processes. A…
All too often FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis), DFMEA (Design, Failure Modes, and Effects Analysis) or FMECA (Failure Mode, Effects, and Criticality Analysis) ends up costing a company hundreds or thousands of dollars to prepare and returns nothing by way of payback, increased…
Quality Digest
Huntsman Corp., a global manufacturer of commodity chemicals, recently selected SunGard’s AvantGard GETPAID software suite to help improve efficiency in support of its Six Sigma initiatives. Huntsman plans to integrate the software with its SAP enterprise system to help improve cash…
Quality Digest
More than a half-dozen leading Six Sigma practitioners have joined together to update their courses to meet modern project managers’ needs.According to the International Society for Six Sigma Certifications LLC, Six Sigma training has remained rather stagnant for many years. For that…
Quality Digest
The Michigan Economic Development Corp. and Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center recently presented four Michigan hospitals with awards for significant successes with a lean Six Sigma pilot program.The awards were given to Bay Regional Medical Center, Gratiot Medical Center, Mercy…
Craig Cochran
Last year I had the good fortune of doing some consulting with B&C Specialty Products in Hopeulikit, Georgia. B&C does light manufacturing, primarily plastic molding and assembly, and they distribute imported products produced by companies in the Far East. They have about 150…
Quality Digest
The Automotive Industry Action Group’s second Early Warning Standards—Warranty Conference will examine escalating automotive warranty costs. The event will be held June 6 at the Rock Financial Showplace in Novi, Michigan. Panel discussions and presentations will deal with improving working…
Quality Digest
Three teams took top honors at the 21st International Team Excellence Competition in Milwaukee.The competition was part of American Society for Quality’s World Conference on Quality and Improvement, held May 1–3. The live contest featured 27 teams from around the world hoping to achieve…
Quality Digest
Jill M. Considine, chairwoman and CEO of The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), has won the prestigious Six Sigma CEO of the Year Award.Considine will be formally presented with the award at WCBF’s Global Six Sigma Awards Gala Dinner on June 28 at The Venetian Resort in Las…
Quality Digest
WCBF recently announced the 31 Six Sigma projects from 23 companies that are finalists for the Global Six Sigma Awards.The finalists were selected from 65 applicants and were chosen by an independent panel. Listed by category, the finalists for the 2006 Global Six Sigma Awards are…
Quality Digest
STAT-A-MATRIX, a consulting and training company that’s part of the SAM Group, and Cotecna, a Swiss provider of trade security and other services, recently entered into a partnership and licensing agreement. Under the agreement, Cotecna will provide training and consulting services in quality…
William R. Gilman
Metrology is the science of measurement. It’s a very broad topic because so much is measured. In manufacturing, the need to verify and validate dimensions of parts is crucial. These dimensional measurements are done at many stages in the manufacturing process with a range of devices, from simple…
Quality Digest
4D Technology Corp. recently received NASA’s Goddard Achievement in Excellence Award for its contribution to the James Webb Space Telescope project. The company partnered with NASA to develop an electronic speckle pattern interferometer (ESPI), which enables precision metrology on large…
Quality Digest
People having trouble with uncertainty estimation can gain a clearer understanding of the approach from a forthcoming series of courses on uncertainty measurement and estimation hosted by the National Measurement Institute, a division of the Australian government. The course is suitable…
Quality Digest
Bede X-ray Metrology recently launched its wafer edge defect inspection capability that uses the company’s BedeScan defect-inspection system. The tool is capable of looking at process-induced defects on the surface of the wafer. It can also detect crystallographic abnormalities inside the…
Quality Digest
Davis Inotek Instruments has signed a final purchase agreement with GE Consumer & Industrial to buy its instrumentation services unit, a calibration and repair operation based in Duluth, Georgia. The unit serves more than 1,000 manufacturers throughout the country.Davis Inotek…
Quality Digest
The Mahr Group recently acquired Helios Messtechnik GmbH & Co., a German provider of noncontact and contact shaft measurement, and precision gages. The acquisition creates a new corporation, Mahr Helios Messtechnik GmbH & Co. KG, and will allow the Mahr Group to enhance its…
Quality Digest
The International Telecommunications Union has formed a focus group to lead standardization efforts for Internet television.Internet Protocol Television is a system by which digital television content is delivered via a broadband connection. It offers high-speed Internet, television and…
Quality Digest
The American National Standards Institute will host an upcoming forum for standards developers in New York City. Open Forum for Standards Developers will be held June 20–21 and will continue a dialogue initiated in March, when consortia representatives met with members of the voluntary…
Quality Digest
A new standard provides guidance for identifying and quantifying genetically modified materials in foods. ISO 24276, "Foodstuffs—Methods of analysis for the detection of genetically modified organisms and derived products—General requirements and definitions," lists sample collection…
Denise Robitaille
A few months ago, I wrote about the importance of understanding your customers’ requirements. We looked at requirements that exceed the traditional scope of product specifications such as labeling, packaging and documentation.This month, we’ll take a look at how we communicate our…
Esteve Garriga
The 2005+ approach is the system established to characterize and winnow the applicants for the 2006 European Award. Formerly instituted as the European Quality Award, this year it will be designated the 2006 EFQM European Award.The 2005+ approach doesn’t represent a change in the reference and…
Quality Digest
RABQSA International recently released a new certification scheme for auditor certification of information security management systems (ISMS).Many organizations recognize the importance of their information assets, so they’re implementing information security management systems to identify…