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Quality Digest
DNV Certification and the Project Management Institute will launch the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3) ProductSuite Certification Program. PMI has nearly 220,000 members in more than 15 countries and is the leading trade group for the project management profession.…
Quality Digest
Omnex Inc. and the Automotive Industry Action Group have formed a global training partnership to provide lean and Six Sigma training to AIAG members. As part of the agreement, Omnex—which has offices in several Indian cities—will represent AIAG in India. Omnex will provide training to AIAG members…
Quality Digest
Rath & Strong recently joined Decisioneering Inc.’s Crystal Ball Six Sigma Partner Program. As a new Six Sigma partner, Rath & Strong will work with Decisioneering to promote Crystal Ball simulation and optimization tools throughout its Six Sigma initiatives. Crystal Ball is…
Thomas R. Cutler
HR Nicholson Co., “pioneers in the juice industry,” has operated for nearly a century. The company has grown from 45 employees to 75 employees in just the past six years. The family-owned, Baltimore-based manufacturing and distribution company realized that, unlike the first eighty-plus years when…
Quality Digest
Jill M. Considine, chairwoman and CEO of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC) received the top honor as Six Sigma CEO of the Year at the Global Six Sigma Summit & Industry Awards, held June 28. Considine was honored for her leadership and implementation of Six Sigma at…
Quality Digest
Kohler Co. recently selected InfinityQS to provide statistical process control software and services for select plants in the United States. Kohler has used InfinityQS’ SPC software at a plant in Kohler, Wisconsin, for many years. Based on positive results achieved there, the company opted…
Quality Digest
Solectron Corp., a provider of electronics manufacturing and integrated supply-chain services, recently received Stratus Technologies’ 2006 Supplier Excellence Award. Solectron’s Columbia, South Carolina, plant was honored for its outstanding performance in support of the introduction of…
Quality Digest
Kevin Caldwell recently joined the Juran Institute as its vice president for enterprise assurance. Caldwell, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, has more than 30 years of experience in operations, business performance and quality management, for a variety of industries in international and U.S.…
Quality Digest
The Shanghai Association for Quality Management and Shanghai Mobile Communication Corp. recently formed a Scientific Research Base of Quality.The Scientific Research Base of Quality will lead the Shanghai Mobile Performance Excellence Management project, which will help Shanghai Mobile improve its…
Quality Digest
Stelex University recently provided a training session for the Food and Drug Administration’s National Center for Toxicology Research (NCTR) that focused on computer systems validation. Stelex University is Stelex’s professional education and technical training department. Its training…
Christopher Werner
Although conventional homogenization has served the needs of the dairy industry and other industries for more than a century, the producers of pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical and food products are increasingly turning to high-shear fluid processing when highly precise processing is required…
Quality Digest
Microsoft Corp. recently announced the winners of its Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Awards 2006 competition. The awards were presented at the annual meeting of the Drug Information Association in Philadelphia, and were given to companies that have demonstrated the best use of…
Parsec Automation Corp.
Parsec Automation Corp. has enhanced the 4.04 version of its TrackSYS software to better serve pharmaceutical and medical device–industry users. The company reports that many pharmaceutical and medical-device makers believe that their plants have an operating efficiency in the 60-70 percent range,…
Quality Digest
Veriteq Instruments Inc. recently released the enterprise version it its viewLinc monitoring and alarming software. viewLinc Enterprise is designed for applications demanding immediate notice of out-of-compliance environmental conditions. It is a quick method of arranging complete…
Quality Digest
Kaiser Permanente recently received the Innovations in Healthcare Award from the Adapted Business Leaders (ABL) organization. The award was given in recognition of Kaiser’s successful use of five health-improvement programs developed by HealthMedia Inc.: HealthMedia Succeed, which…
Douglas C. Fair
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, deaths, injuries and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $700 billion annually. There are severe costs to the business involved in the recall, in addition to potential costs of civil and criminal…
Quality Digest
Andrew Spanyi’s recently released book uses process management to demonstrate how managers can improve customer service while trimming expenses. In More for Less: The Power of Process Management (Meghan-Kiffer Press, 2006), Spanyi emphasizes the use of process management to streamline…
Quality Digest
Mitutoyo America Corp. recently received a 2005 World Excellence Award from Ford Motor Co. The award was one of 60 presented on May 3, 2006, in Dearborn, Michigan, to Ford’s top global suppliers for their performance in 2005. The award recognizes suppliers that achieve the highest…
Quality Digest
A metrology standard currently under development has the potential to save millions of dollars for any organization that shares quality management data with its suppliers or original equipment manufacturers. The standard is being developed by a technical committee organized by the…
Quality Digest
Ralph Welborn’s and Vince Kasten’s new book delves deep into the global offshoring movement to examine best practices and provide advice for organizations new to—or trying to fix—their operations. In Get It Done! A Blueprint for Business Execution (Wiley & Sons, 2006), the authors…
Steven Ouellette
I
n Dirk Dusharme’s First Word in the April 2006 issue of Quality Digest, he sneaks into the back of the “Church of the Six Sigma” and cannily reports the goings on. In this column, I will burst in through the doors dressed in motley and try to pry the scales off of your eyes, chanting, “DMAIC…
Quality Digest
Xerox Emirates recently received the prestigious Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi. The company, which recently deployed a comprehensive lean Six Sigma program, provides printers, digital copies, multifunction products and color printers, among other business…
Quality Digest
The Juran Institute is offering Six Sigma training at a reduced cost this summer. The training consists of: Step One: A two-day interactive introduction to lean on July 18 and 19. Step Two: A four-day Yellow Belt workshop that includes a review of the skills learned in step one…
Quality Digest
WCBF will host a design for Six Sigma (DFSS) conference in Las Vegas in September. The keynote address—“Design for Six Sigma: A Key to Growth”—will be delivered by Martha Gardner, GE Global Research global quality leader. Other expert speakers include Kamal Ayoub, Tyco Healthcare vice…
Quality Digest
The Society of Manufacturing Engineers’s lean certification bronze-level exam will be used as an outcome assessment as part of the 360vu Research and Education Foundation’s Lean Enterprise Certification Program, the companies recently announced. The exam will be used for lean enterprise…