All Features
Peter J. Sherman
Few process improvement topics generate more questions or may be least understood than design of experiments (DOE). This is regrettable as DOE is probably one of the most important activities—after the charter definition—that a manager/Black Belt will be performing during the Six Sigma process.This…
Pivotal Resources
(Pivotal Resources: Walnut Creek, California) -- At a time when rapid change is affecting nearly every industry, and the ability to adapt is business-critical, corporate America is still proving weak at turning change efforts into real results. A new study commissioned by Pivotal Resources…
Dimension Data
(Dimension Data: New York) -- Fifty-nine percent of U.S. organizations have engaged with information technology infrastructure library (ITIL), a best practice framework for IT service delivery, according to research recently released by Dimension Data, an IT solutions and services provider.…
Bill Kalmar
Starbucks’ announcement that it would close for three hours on February 26 to retrain about 135,000 in-store employees sent shudders through the thousands of coffee fanatics in the nation. Would java aficionados have to forego their venti-decaf-no foam-double vanilla-light whip-extra caramel-…
The Conference Board
(The Conference Board: New York) -- The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had declined sharply in February, fell further in March. The Index now stands at 64.5, down from 76.4 in February. The Expectations index declined to 47.9 from 58.0. The Present Situation Index decreased to 89…
The Joint Commission
(The Joint Commission: Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois) -- Health care organizations, practitioners, purchasers, oversight bodies, and the public all rely on performance data to determine priority areas for quality improvement, evaluate performance, and make informed health care decisions. Yet, most…
(ISO: Geneva) -- The International Organization for Standardization recently launched an essay competition for young professionals in developing countries and economies in transition on the contribution that international standards can make to the implementation of public policies.The purpose of…
GOALQPC
(GOAL/QPC: Salem, New Hampshire) -- GOAL/QPC CEO and founder Bob King will discuss “The Future of Quality, Transformation and Innovation in Healthcare” during WCBF’s seventh annual Lean Six Sigma and Process Improvement in Healthcare Summit, occurring in Las Vegas, April 1–4.
“Health care…
America needs you to get your act together. This isn’t just about jobs, although many people are getting hurt because of your mismanagement of three of the most important name brands in America. You’re a symbol of what used to be the strength of America, and you have lost your way. Two of you have…
UCSF
(UCSF: San Francisco) -- The approval process for medical devices doesn’t involve the same rigorous review used for pharmaceuticals, and to improve health outcomes this needs to change, say researchers from the University of California, San Francisco.In the January 2008 issue of the Journal of…
FDA
(FDA: Rockville, Maryland) -- In an effort to facilitate stronger cooperative relationships with its counterpart agencies around the world, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to establish eight full-time, permanent positions at U.S. diplomatic posts in the People’s…
Journal of Supply Chain Management
(Journal of Supply Chain Management: Clemson, North Carolina) -- A new study from the Journal of Supply Chain Management illustrates the real potential for contamination of globally sourced foods and proposes a conceptual framework of supply chain quality management.Led by Aleda V. Roth of…
Modulo
(Modulo: New York) -- In an effort to streamline its risk assessment and compliance processes, New York University Medical Center has selected the Modulo Risk Manager, an automated information tool.As one of the nation’s largest research and academic medical centers, NYUMC is subject to…
MasterControl Inc.
The advantages to pharmaceutical companies of using electronic solutions to modernize their paper-based or partially electronic processes are enormous. Automation speeds up and connects all interrelated processes (corrective and preventive actions, customer complaints, audits, deviation…
Mike Micklewright
Question:What do you call it when a quality manager is caught cheating on a quality exam?
Answer:Benchmarking
Several months ago, I taught a three-day internal-audit class to about 15 people. On the morning of the first day, Joe, the quality manager, gave me an Excel spreadsheet of the lunch orders…
ASQ
(ASQ: Milwaukee, Wisconsin) -- The American Society for Quality will present three distinguished service medals and 10 national awards on May 5 during its annual World Conference on Quality and Improvement in Houston, Texas. The recipients are recognized for their innovative contributions and…
AIAG
(AIAG: Detroit, Michigan) -- The 2008 Automotive Executive of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to industry legend Carroll Shelby at an invitation-only luncheon at the Detroit Athletic Club on April 16. Approximately 225 automotive original equipment manufacturer executives and…
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(The Joint Commission: Oak Brook, Illinois) -- Representatives from the health care organizations involved in responding to recent disasters—the crash in Atlanta of the bus carrying the Bluffton University baseball team, the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the…
Alan P. Brache
Six Sigma promoters and innovation advocates have emerged as opposing camps in the battle for tool supremacy in the organization improvement wars. As Business Week said in “Six Sigma: So Yesterday?” and “At 3M, A Struggle Between Efficiency and Creativity,” which described how GE, Home…
Steven Ouellette
For the last couple of columns, we have been analyzing a simple experiment where we look for the best choice for a new gear material. We have used analysis of variance (ANOVA) to detect a difference in the mean wear for the four different materials. In the last column, we performed a post-hoc…
SBTI
(SBTI: San Marcos, Texas) -- Sigma Breakthrough Technologies Inc., an international business process solutions consulting firm is now offering lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification testing online. For the certification test, a set of 90 randomly selected questions are divided into five main…
Mike Thelen
As is the case with any lean implementation in a traditional environment, culture change is the most difficult obstacle to success. A company can hire consultants, develop work teams, and begin lean initiatives, but if it only talks the talk, the initiative soon becomes just talk.
The…
Mike Thelen
As is the case with any lean implementation in a traditional environment, culture change is the most difficult obstacle to success. A company can hire consultants, develop work teams, and begin lean initiatives, but if it only talks the talk, the initiative soon becomes just talk.
The…
(ISO: Geneva) -- ISO/IEC 24762:2008—“Information technology—Security techniques—Guidelines for information and communications technology disaster recovery services” aims to offer guidance on the information and communications technologies and services necessary for disaster recovery (ICT DR) as…
NCQA
(NCQA: Washington) -- The National Committee for Quality Assurance recently announced the certification of eight leading software vendors for their Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS)-related software. Such software collects HEDIS-related data from health plan databases and…