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Quality Digest
Rockwell Automation will host a series of professional education courses for the manufacturing industry through the end of the year. The courses will be held throughout the United States, and include: Motion Control Fundamentals, Oct. 17-18 in Boston Introduction to Vibration Technology, Oct.…
Quality Digest
The Shanghai Power Co.’s use of quality chain management theory allowed it to keep the electrical grid up and running in the bustling Chinese city all summer last year. The organization recently released a report on the process it used to avoid power failures, which have been common in Shanghai.…
Quality Digest
The National Quality Institute announced 13 recipients of the 2005 Canada Awards for Excellence recently. The CAE Quality Award is based on the Canadian Framework for Excellence, used by many organizations as a management model for continuous improvement and the achievement of operational goals.…
Quality Digest
Alka Jarvis, Cisco Systems manager of software quality, will likely replace John E. "Jack" West as the chair of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to TC 176. West is stepping down after nine years of leading the committee and Jarvis is the only person nominated for the position. Nominations close…
Quality Digest
The International Organization for Standardization released a new standard this month in response to a significant increase in the number of food-borne illnesses around the world. ISO 22000 harmonizes regional requirements for managing food supply chains on a worldwide basis. It’s designed to…
Quality Digest
Statistical Design Institute and Southern Methodist University’s Systems Engineering Program will host an upcoming workshop for enhanced product development using Six Sigma. The event will focus on the integration of systems engineering and design for Six Sigma in product development. It will be…
Quality Digest
The Performance Management Group recently started offering a package that includes unlimited training and consulting for a full year. The package also includes Black Belt certifications, Green Belt certifications, Yellow Belt certifications, the implementation of a customized Six Sigma system and…
Quality Digest
Vintara recently released a fully integrated tool that allows authorized document editors to revise and save any compliance-related document. The software is useful for easily maintaining and verifying compliance to a long list of standards and methodologies, including Six Sigma, ISO standards and…
Quality Digest
An upcoming conference will focus on creating synergy between organizations’ various quality improvement efforts. The SCOR/Six Sigma/Lean Convergence Forum will examine ways to align implementations of quality efforts for maximum benefit. It will be held Nov. 7–8 at the Grand Hyatt DFW Airport…
Quality Digest
An upcoming conference will focus on the use of Six Sigma in the services and transactional sectors. The 2nd annual Six Sigma in Services and Transactional Environments Summit will be held Oct. 20–21 in Scottsdale, Arizona. It is sponsored by WCBF, which reports that last year’s event sold out.…
Quality Digest
Henri Pierre Sallé was recently elected as board director of the International Accreditation Forum Inc. Sallé, who is president of KEMA Registered Quality Inc., has been the chairman of the Independent Association of Accredited Registrars since 2002. He has been the IAF’s Financial Oversight…
Quality Digest
Blue Care Network of Michigan ranked first among nine Michigan HMOs in the behavioral health and pharmacy management categories in a recent quality study. The survey was performed by the Greater Detroit Area Health Council and the National Business Coalition on Health. BCN also ranked second in…
Quality Digest
Excel Partnership Inc. recently moved its offices from Sandy Hook, Connecticut, to Southbury, Connecticut. The company, which provides business training, consulting and self-directed learning programs, will occupy 10,000 square feet in the Heritage Center. Its offices are designed to maximize team…
Quality Digest
An upcoming conference will focus on creating synergy between organizations’ various quality improvement efforts. The SCOR/Six Sigma/Lean Convergence Forum will examine ways to align implementations of quality efforts for maximum benefit. It will be held Nov. 7–8 at the Grand Hyatt DFW Airport…
Quality Digest
The secretariat of the Dubai Quality Award recently published a guide for implementing kaizen. The Dubai Quality Award is administered by the kingdom’s Department of Economic Development, which partnered with the Kaizen Institute Ltd. to produce the book. Masaaki Imai, the founder of kaizen,…
Quality Digest
Hexagon Metrology has emerged as the winner in the competition to acquire Leica Geosystems. The Swedish company recently announced that it has acquired 71.3 percent of Leica Geosystems’ outstanding shares, easily surpassing the minimum requirement of 50.1 percent. An additional acceptance period…
Quality Digest
The use of value-stream mapping recently helped the U.S. Navy improve its acquisition processes. The value-stream map was produced by some of the Navy’s top lean Six Sigma practitioners at a kaizen competition designed to improve the Navy’s complex justification and approval (J&A) process. J…
Quality Digest
American pharmaceutical companies have donated millions of dollars in cash and medicines to the Gulf Coast region for victims of Hurricane Katrina. The assistance is being sent to both public and private relief organizations. The donations include:
$2 million in cash and $4.5 million in…
Quality Digest
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America recently launched a new, more patient-friendly Web site. The new site includes stories of patients who are successfully fighting serious illnesses, provides information about the research and development of new medicines, details facts and…
Quality Digest
TÜV America recently announced its ability to offer medical device certifications to the new Japanese Pharmaceutical Affairs Law (PAL). Effective since April 1, PAL monitors how medical devices are marketed and regulated in Japan. It regulates and classifies medical devices by their level of risk.…
Quality Digest
The Optimize Clinical Trial Data Collection and Exchange conference will be held Oct. 24–25 at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. Kelly Vaillant, Amgen Corp. global head of clinical data management, will serve as the conference chairman. Valliant and Tim Dietlin, Campbell Alliance…
Quality Digest
Because of the great confusion about restricted access barrier systems (RABS), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering have released a definition paper to elucidate industry professionals on the topic.The paper includes key elements of RABS…
Quality Digest
Customer satisfaction with American-made automobiles increased slightly in the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index, but satisfaction with Japanese- and Korean-made cars increased even more, widening the customer satisfaction gap that U.S. automakers have been struggling mightily to close.…
Quality Digest
The Association for Operations Management (APICS) has moved its 2005 conference from New Orleans to Kansas City, Missouri. The event will be held on the same dates (Oct. 16–18) as it was originally planned, but at the Kansas City Convention Center instead of at the Ernest P. Morial Convention…
Quality Digest
A new survey by the International Organization for Standardization finds that the service sectors are the largest users of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. The worldwide number of ISO 9001 certificates at the end of 2004 was 670,399, up 35 percent over 2003 and up 64 percent from 2000, the year before the…