All Features
Paul McNamara
Brutally competitive markets are driving companies to design, build and improve their products faster and at lower costs. Faced with this economic climate, companies are understandably intent on freeing up resources—capital, engineering time and even plant space—that can be reallocated to high-…
Quality Digest
A newly released pocket-sized book will help automotive suppliers meet an upcoming deadline to comply with the new international technical specification for quality ISO/TS 16949.Robert Peach and James Collins Jr.’s The Memory Jogger for ISO/TS 16949 (QSU Publishing Co., 2005) is intended for every…
Quality Digest
Wilcox Associates recently introduced STI+, an add-on module to its PC-DMIS software that simplifies shop floor measurements. STI+ allows users to check parts without having to become coordinate measuring machine experts. With a few mouse clicks, STI+ guides users through part setup and measurement…
Quality Digest
Quality will need to become more of a focus as service industries realize that competing on price alone isn’t a viable, long-term business strategy, according to authors of the American Society for Quality’s Quality Index.“ISO management systems and Six Sigma have long been a staple of the…
Quality Digest
Brookfield Engineering Laboratories was the recipient of the 2005 Northeast Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing.The award was presented by the University of Massachusetts’ College of Management’s Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership. The Shingo Prize has been dubbed the “Nobel Prize of…
Quality Digest
Nutek Inc. will offer a seminar entitled “Product and Process Design Improvement Using the Taguchi Approach” in August. The event will be held August 2–5 at the Somerset Inn in Troy, Michigan. The seminar will prepare attendees for immediate application of the Genichi Taguchi technique in their own…
Quality Digest
Pilgrim Software Inc. recently completed its first “Crystal Reports/Data Mapping and Reports” Boot Camp for owners of its software products. Eight customers and one partner attended the three-day session, which offered optional Crystal Reports training. The training provided students with the…
Quality Digest
Chemir Pharma Services recently changed its name to Azopharma in response to its extensive growth and commitment as a contract pharmaceutical services provider. Azopharma is a FDA-registered and cGMP-compliant research and development organization that supports the development and…
Quality Digest
Chemical inventory systems deliver real-time and accurate information about inventory status to ensure greater cost control while supporting validation requirements, according to a recent in-depth white paper from ChemSW Inc.“Chemical Inventory Systems Enable Pharmaceutical Pilot Plants to…
Quality Digest
The recent publication of a magazine article about the growing black market for counterfeit drugs prompted the president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America to issue a warning. The article, published in the June 20 issue of Forbes magazine, details the growing…
Quality Digest
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt recently announced of a national private-public collaboration to advance the use of electronic health records and interoperability through established standards. The American Health Information Community will aid in the nationwide transition to…
Quality Digest
P-Wave Inc. and Promium recently formed an alliance to offer environmental labs a unique document and data management solution. The partnership integrates LabCORE, P-Wave’s laboratory document management system, with Promium’s ELEMENT data system, a laboratory information…
Quality Digest
SAFE-BioPharma Association recently announced that INC Research has become its first contract-research organization member. INC Research will deploy the SAFE infrastructure to equip its internal teams and physician investigators with electronic identity standards. “We adopted the SAFE digital…
Quality Digest
The National Institute of Standards and Technology, administrator of the Baldrige Award, has released the application summaries of the award’s 2004 winners. The application summaries reveal how: The Bama Co. increased sales by 72 percent while the overall frozen baked goods industry remained…
Quality Digest
As concerns about food safety and bioterrorism become increasingly prevalent in the food industry, the National Frozen and Refrigerated Foods Association and RQA Inc. have announced an alliance to offer discounted quality assurance services. The service will provide a dedicated RQA account manager…
Quality Digest
A new survey reveals that past failures and bad habits often get in the way of executing successful strategies. The April Leadership Pulse sampled more than 4,000 executives, focusing on how they execute strategies. In the report, 308 worldwide professionals indicated that the top items mostly…
Quality Digest
The National Committee for Quality Assurance recently released its 2004 annual report, which calls for the expansion of pay-for-performance programs and a more-digitized health care system.“The Future in Focus” includes numerous examples of industry leaders who have successfully adopted leading-…
Quality Digest
Executives who wish they had a more practical and detailed outline for implementing and sustaining their lean management system, may benefit from David Mann’s recently released book. Creating a Lean Culture—Tools to Sustain Lean Conversions (Productivity Press, 2005), provides leaders with a lean…
Quality Digest
The Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference 2005, to be held July 18-22 in Austin, Texas, will present 15 white papers written by metrology experts and scientists from all over the world. The selected white papers cover a wide range of 3-D industrial-measurement applications and topics that cater…
Quality Digest
Albertson’s Inc. recently attributed Six Sigma as one of the causes to its significant profit increases for the first quarter of 2005. The company reported net earnings from continuing operations rose 93 percent to $107 billion, compared to $56 million in the first quarter of last year. Total sales…
Quality Digest
Bechtel Communications recently received the Most Innovative Six Sigma Project Award honorable mention for a process improvement technique using its Virtual Survey Tool for network deployment. Bechtel uses the VST in its alternative site selection process improvement process, enabling the…
Quality Digest
CenterBeam recently completed another phase of an ambitious Six Sigma training plan. The IT outsourcing company is training all of its staff in the fundamentals of lean and Six Sigma. While everyone in the company has received Six Sigma training, about 15 percent of its staff has graduated as lean…
Quality Digest
A new Six Sigma book outlines the use of the methodology with an up-to-date approach to enhance the produce development cycle. Graham Wilson’s Six Sigma and the Product Development Cycle (Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005), looks at the common steps companies follow to create the companywide culture that…
Praveen Gupta
I had to catch a 6:10 a.m. flight the other day. The day before, I’d returned from work, done the normal stuff, prepared for the flight and finally had gone to bed so I could get up early the next morning. I got up around 3:00 a.m., got ready and went to the airport. As expected, traffic on road…
Quality Digest
Executives from Automated Engineering Corp., a small electronics design and manufacturing firm in Florida, knew that to land lucrative subcontracting opportunities, the company needed to implement established quality methods, but couldn’t afford the necessary training. That’s where the Florida…
