All Features
George Rodrigues Ph.D.
The pipette is a reliable precision instrument that has been used and trusted for many years. However, as with many forms of instrumentation, a pipette performs only as well as the operator’s technique allows. Differences in technique—some more than others—can alter delivery volumes and affect data…
Fred Mason
No, this isn’t about promises you made on New Year’s Eve and broke the next day. It’s about measurement resolution—the number of decimal places to which a measured value is calculated and presented. The measurement can be of any parameter—voltage, distance, weight, temperature, whatever. The…
Chip Evans
This is the first of a series of articles intended to share with Quality Digest’s readers key aspects of the global movement toward hazardous substance–free (HSF) products and processes and how they affect organizations. SBGi helps producers of electronic and electrical products prepare…
Quality Digest
The American National Standards Institute will host its 2006 Annual Conference on Oct. 11 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. Carlos Gutierrez, Department of Commerce secretary, will deliver the keynote address, focusing on how standards…
Quality Digest
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association is developing a new standard for a new technology called broadband over power lines (BPL). BPL will allow consumers to access the Internet, send e-mail and automate their homes simply by plugging into an…
Quality Digest
A new standard in the ISO 14000 series is expected to help users increase business support and confidence, while promoting their environmental credentials and performance. ISO 14063: 2006, ”Environmental management—Environmental communication—Guidelines and examples,” will help…
Quality Digest
Two new documents published by the International Organization for Standardization address supply chain security. The documents will help implement ISO/PAS 28000:2005, a recently published specification for supply chain security management systems. They’re part of a suite of standards…
Denise Robitaille
I was recently asked to comment on the ISO 9001 requirements regarding external documents. My first reaction was to point out a distinctive subtlety in the actual text of the requirement. Many users have gotten into the habit of referring to this category as “external documents” when in fact, the…
Brandon Kerkstra
For 20 years, I have worked with many companies to achieve a variety of registrations. As a sales manager, auditor, consultant and trainer, I have noticed that a number of companies haven’t realized the benefits that they expected from standards registration. Some of them have actually become worse…
Quality Digest
To demonstrate how manufacturers can comply with the Restrictions on Hazardous Substances directive (RoHS), the California Manufacturing Technology Consulting organization will host two day-long seminars this month. The first will be held Sept. 19 at the Holiday Inn Mission Valley in San…
Quality Digest
TÜV SUD AG, the parent company of TÜV SÜD America, recently acquired two German companies, a move that will allow it to extend its services in the chemical, pharmaceutical and process industries. Effective Oct. 1, the materials technology unit of R&M Industrieservice Höchst…
Thomas R. Cutler
The tagline to the 1989 film "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" was “The Enterprise is back. This time, have they gone too far?”
With up to 10 years of continued process improvements on the plant floor, and in back office and distribution operations, manufacturers have finally arrived at the front…
Quality Digest
Wayne Caccamo is Instantis’s new vice president of marketing. Caccamo will oversee and execute global plans to promote EnterpriseTrack, the company’s flagship software product. Before joining the company, Caccamo was vice president of worldwide marketing for Pathlore Software Corp. He has…
Quality Digest
Employees of Mercury Marine recently completed their 1,000th lean Six Sigma project. Mercury Marine, a Wisconsin-based manufacturer of marine propulsion systems, began using Six Sigma and lean concepts in its manufacturing processes in 2003. Since then, it has trained almost 700 management…
Quality Digest
Despite rising vehicle costs and high gas prices, consumers gave the auto industry its highest perceived quality rating in a decade, according to the Quarterly Quality Report. Compiled by the American Society for Quality, the report measured the auto industry’s perceived quality score…
Quality Digest
Professionals in the software and information technology industries will learn to implement Six Sigma at a WCBF Inc. conference Nov. 8 and 9 in San Francisco. The event has been designed to provide attendees with proven approaches to common problems that they can implement immediately. It…
Quality Digest
The Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center reports that a pilot lean and Six Sigma program it led in four Michigan hospitals saved up to $4.1 million. Four northern Michigan hospitals took part in the eight-month program. They reported significantly increased surgical capacities,…
Quality Digest
Decisioneering Inc. recently released its widely used Crystal Ball software in Spanish, French and German versions. The software was previously translated into Japanese, and Decisioneering reports that its growing worldwide customer base required further translation. The evaluation version…
Quality Digest
UGS Corp., a provider of product life-cycle management (PLM) software and services, will soon host its 4th annual Digital Manufacturing Symposium in Dearborn, Michigan. The conference will be held Sept. 13–14 at the Conference & Event Center. Scheduled to present are executives and…
Praveen Gupta
Editor’s note: This is an attempt to use DMAIC methodology to resolve conflicts, in concert with the approach presented in an article titled “Feds may unleash Six Sigma on terrorism” by Del Jones in USA Today, October 30, 2002. By no means does either the author or Quality Digest consider the…
Bill Kalmar
Rather than travel to Pamplona, Spain, for the annual Running of the Bulls, one need go no further than the parking lots of many U.S. companies. Here people described in many company brochures as “our most important asset" are being herded and unceremoniously told to go home after years…
Quality Digest
Hexagon Metrology will host an opening celebration of its new North American headquarters in the Quonset Business Park in Kingston, Rhode Island, on Sept. 14. Guests will include Governor Donald L. Carcieri; Saul Kaplan, Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. executive director; Ola…
Quality Digest
The Commercial Vehicle Group recently chose Fred Pippen as the new director of quality of its Americas division. Pippen will be responsible for overall quality systems management, directing supplier quality management and development, supporting emerging market supplier identification…
Quality Digest
The 22nd Canada Awards for Excellence, equivalent to the Baldrige Awards in the United States, will be announced Oct. 24 at the Performance Excellence Summit in Toronto. The National Quality Institute administers the awards and will host the event at the Toronto Metro Convention Center…
Quality Digest
Red River Army Depot recently won the Department of Defense’s highest award for depot-level maintenance, and it credited its lean Six Sigma program for the recognition of its High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle Recapitalization Program, in which depot employees streamlined their…