All Features
Douglas C. Fair
I’ve been privileged to work in the statistical-software industry for the last 10 years, and frequently I receive phone calls from professionals who need information or guidance on statistical methods. Overwhelmingly, they call with excellent questions. Their interest and enthusiasm are exciting,…
Quality Digest
(The Conference Board: New York, New York) -- The Conference Board recently announced that Gail D. Fosler has been named president of the 91-year-old global research and business membership organization.Fosler has served The Conference Board in a number of capacities over the past 18 years, most…
Quality Digest
(ASQ: Milwaukee, Wisconsin) -- Cutting costs, improving quality and boosting profits are phrases every company hears at some point. Six Sigma has long been used in the manufacturing market to meet these goals. However, the use of Six Sigma practices has expanded into health care, service and…
Quality Digest
(AIAG: Detroit) -- For the first time in the association’s history, the Automotive Industry Action Group has appointed a tier-two supplier to the board of directors. Specialty Products joined the board effective Sept. 11, 2007. “Specialty Products brings a new perspective to the AIAG board as a…
Abby Vogel
Tushar Sathe holds a vial of dual-function beads embedded with iron oxide and 600 nanometer emission quantum dots, while Shuming Nie looks on. The other vials contain beads embedded with quantum dots that emit light at other wavelengths. photo by Gary Meek…
Quality Digest
(Duke University Medical Center: Durham, North Carolina) -- Using acupuncture before and during surgery significantly reduces the level of pain and the amount of potent painkillers needed by patients after the surgery is over, according to Duke University Medical Center anesthesiologists who…
Quality Digest
(Pfizer: New York, and Sermo: Cambridge, Massachusetts) -- Pfizer Inc. and Sermo, the nation’s largest online physician community, recently announced a strategic collaboration designed to redefine the way physicians in the United States and the health care industry work together to improve…
Quality Digest
(Juran: Southbury, Connecticut) -- A growing trend among hospitals is the use of lean techniques to improve patient safety measures, in turn improving the overall quality of care. Juran Healthcare’s patient safety model incorporates the Juran Trilogy (safety planning, safety compliance, and…
Quality Digest
(NIST: Gaithersburg, Maryland) -- The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released “Guidelines on Securing Public Web Servers,” which covers some of the latest threats to Web security, while reflecting general changes in Web technology that have taken place since the first version of…
People in an organization usually move from one project to another, repeating the same mistakes, dealing with similar crises, despairing over underperforming team members, and more. Over and over. Some people learn informally what made one project successful and another unsuccessful, but knowledge…
Quality Digest
(SAI Global: Kenilworth, United Kingdom) -- SAI Global, an independent auditing and standards body, has launched a campaign in the United Kingdom designed to monitor and report on the sustainability of British business. The company launched the UK Sustainable Business Awards in a bid to promote…
Quality Digest
(Coca-Cola: Atlanta) -- The Coca-Cola Co. recently announced it is investing more than $60 million to support recycling in the U.S. and build the world’s largest plastic bottle-to-bottle recycling plant. These investments are part of its goal to recycle or reuse 100 percent of the company’s…
Quality Digest
(NCQA: Washington) -- Organizations providing specialized health care information services can now earn certification from the National Committee for Quality Assurance for a range of services they provide. The new Health Information Products certification program assesses functions ranging from the…
Steven Ouellette
I seem to be thinking about the measurement phase a lot recently. I suppose it’s because I’ve seen some teams working hard on problems that turned out to be nothing more than problems with measurement. Let me give you an example.Once upon a time, I was responsible for a product that was frequently…
Quality Digest
(Washington: Army News Service) -- The Army has cut the time it takes to rebuild battle-damaged Humvees with a new assembly-line process at Red River Army Depot, Texas.Red River was recently one of 12 Army commands to receive the Shingo Prize Public Sector Award for Excellence in manufacturing…
Quality Digest
(BMG: Denver, Colorado) -- Breakthrough Management Group has announced that it has expanded its schedule and portfolio of public training offerings for incremental training and continuing education. The new courses and schedule will be managed through BMG’s public training division, BMG…
Quality Digest
(Boothroyd Dewhurst Inc.: Wakefield, Rhode Island) -- Sixty-eight percent of a survey group, including Fortune 400 companies, measured an increase in production throughput, and 47 percent an increase in profit per unit of factory floor space, after applying design for manufacture and assembly (…
Juana Bordas
Not only is the world getting flatter, it’s becoming more colorful. As globalization becomes a reality, more and more companies will employ people of every race, nationality, religious background, and age group. These people will work side by side in the same office building, others a hemisphere…
Quality Digest
(Catalyst: New York) -- Fortune 500 companies with the highest representation of women board directors attained significantly higher financial performance, on average, than those with the lowest representation of women board directors, according to Catalyst’s most recent report, “The Bottom Line:…
Quality Digest
(ARS: Washington) -- The Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has unveiled an Internet resource to help smaller companies answer food-safety questions and help food processors make science-based food-production decisions. The Predictive Microbiology Information Portal…
Quality Digest
(RWE Power: Ludwigshafen, Munich) -- The Linde Group, BASF, and RWE Power have agreed on the development of new processes for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture from combustion gases in coal-fired power plants today. The cooperation will comprise the construction and operation of a pilot facility at the…
Fred Mason
Many measurements assume that a measuring device performs in the same way throughout its measuring range. In other words, a 1 mm distance measured near the center of a machine will measure 1 mm at its periphery. But will it? This column discusses some of the factors that can cause nonlinear…
Quality Digest
(Laser Design Inc.: Minneapolis) -- York Technical College is a community college with associate degree and certificate programs. The Machine Tool Technology department has built a worldwide reputation for excellence on the merits of its 3-D center’s cutting-edge equipment and in-demand…
Quality Digest
(NIST: Gaithersburg, Maryland) -- Materials researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, together with colleagues from IBM and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have pushed the measurement of thin films to the edge—literally—to produce the first data on how the…
Quality Digest
(Labsphere Inc.: North Sutton, New Hampshire) -- Labsphere Inc. is co-sponsoring a light measurement seminar in cooperation with its Halma sister company Ocean Optics, and its sales partner, Pro-Lite Technology.To be held at the Photonics Cluster in Birmingham, England, on Nov. 1, 2007, the…
