All Features
Praveen Gupta
A few years ago, lean thinking came to light. It sounded similar to what I had learned about the “pull” system. I wondered why we renamed cycle time reduction, or just in time (JIT), “lean.” Cycle time reduction was easy to understand and related to responsiveness to customer demands and waste…
Quality Digest
The American Society for Quality will host its seventh-annual Six Sigma Conference Feb. 12 and 13 in Phoenix, Arizona. The event will be held at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort. Featured speakers include David C. Everitt, John Deere & Co. agricultural division president;…
Quality Digest
The SGS Group recently published a standard for Six Sigma that requires third-party auditing. The Six Sigma Standard consists of 65 program indicators and incorporates formal program audits done by SGS. Programs that score high enough on the audit qualify for Six Sigma Program…
Quality Digest
B. Braun Medical AG, a supplier of health care products based in Switzerland, recently chose Sparta Systems TrackWise as its compliance and quality management system. TrackWise—Web-based tracking software for electronic tracking and trending, and the enterprisewide management of regulatory…
Quality Digest
Agile Software Corp., a provider of product lifecycle management solutions, recently reported that CooperVision, a fast-growing manufacturer of contact lenses, has installed Agile Product Quality Management as its global quality solution earlier than expected.“It was the easiest and…
Quality Digest
The Florida Manufacturing Extension Partnership has helped Drafting Designs become registered to ISO 9001 and ISO 13485. Drafting Designs develops and documents many different products in a variety of industries, from marine to aircraft.“We wanted to become an ISO-certified facility, but we needed…
Quality Digest
Scientists at the Agricultural Research Service are developing cutting-edge devices to increase food quality and detect contamination throughout the production process.Yud-Ren Chen at the ARS Instrumentation and Sensing Laboratory leads the team designing portable inspection tools, which…
Bill Kalmar
Have you noticed that the airwaves no longer carry informative, unadulterated news anymore? “Breaking News” has become the standard, thus all news is presented in an excited, almost breathless, tone. We at home now question the urgency of any segment, particularly when we discover that a cat…
Quality Digest
TUV SUD America Inc. recently awarded AS9100 certification to Symetrics Industries LLC. The global standard defines quality systems requirements for suppliers to the aerospace industry.AS9100 includes many requirements of the ISO 9001 standard, along with 80 additional requirements and 18…
Quality Digest
Online registration has opened for the 2007 Quality New Mexico Conference, which will be held March 8 and 9 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.Quality New Mexico’s seminars and workshops inform nonprofit, health care, education, government, and large and small business organizations of best…
Quality Digest
Problem-solver Adam Kahane will deliver the keynote speech at the American Society for Quality’s 2007 World Conference on Quality and Improvement.The conference will be held April 30–May 2 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Kahane will present his perspective on…
Thomas R. Cutler
The hiring practices of manufacturing companies have become increasingly lean. The old processes of advertising, screening, interviewing, hiring and training are riddled with waste; it’s both too expensive and extremely time-consuming. The hiring shift to staffing companies has become increasingly…
Quality Digest
SteelCloud Inc. and GoAhead Software recently formed a strategic alliance. SteelCloud offers standards-based, application-ready platforms for developing mission-critical applications for the U.S. Department of Defense or any environment that requires 99.999-percent availability. It…
Quality Digest
Trillium Software recently began offering TS Insight, a data quality dashboard with scorecards and trending presented in a Web-based application for global and domestic enterprises.TS Insight offers data-quality metrics in graphical forms that are intuitive, thereby allowing the data…
Thomas R. Cutler
The hiring practices of manufacturing companies have become increasingly lean. The old processes of advertising, screening, interviewing, hiring and training are riddled with waste; it’s both too expensive and extremely time-consuming. The hiring shift to staffing companies has become increasingly…
Quality Digest
Sparta Systems Inc.’s newly certified channel partners may now sell, implement and support its TrackWise software in market segments outside of the life-sciences industry.TrackWise is enterprise process management software that allows businesses to ensure compliance, lower costs, reduce…
Quality Digest
The Food and Drug Administration recently proposed recommendations to Congress that would broaden and upgrade the agency’s drug safety plan, increase resources for television advertising review and improve drug development processes. The recommendations are part of the reauthorization…
Quality Digest
A Food and Drug Administration senior scientist will be the next chairman for the agency’s Global Harmonization Task Force, which was established as an international effort to improve the quality of medical devices and regulatory systems. Dr. Larry Kessler is director of the office of…
Quality Digest
Pharmatech Associates Inc. has established a Regulatory Compliance Group that’s designed to help the consultancy’s clients ensure long-term drug development compliance with Food and Drug Administration regulations. The RCG’s team members include former FDA employees who have extensive…
Quality Digest
Solectron Corp. will host an upcoming seminar on the effect of the restriction of hazardous substances (RoHS) directive on American medical device makers. RoHS is a European requirement that prohibits the marketing of electronic and electrical equipment that contains hazardous substances—…
John Toon
Georgia Tech professor Zhong Lin Wang holds a sample nanowire array that can be used to power nanometer scale devices. Georgia Tech Photo: Gary Meek Researchers have developed a new technique for powering nanometer-scale devices…
Rick Ringlespaugh
A tier-two automotive supplier faces the challenge of interacting with customers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on many different programs. For each of more than 100 programs the company is involved in, it must submit a detailed quality plan and then be prepared to change the plan as…
Quality Digest
ContingenZ Corp. recently introduced IMCD Small Business. Using the General Cost Consequence model, the new version of the software includes a database designed for small businesses. IMCD Small Business Edition has the same functionality as IMCD Professional, which was formerly called…
Quality Digest
As the American Society for Quality’s managing director, Michelle Mason will be a member of the group’s management committee, which leads in the implementation of its business plan and the achievement of its strategic objectives and vision.Mason was formerly vice president of research…
Quality Digest
Siemens VDO Automotive and Wacker Chemical Corp. recently won the first SAP Industry Leadership Awards. The awards were handed out at SAP Americas’ annual field sales kick-off meeting in Las Vegas.The new awards program honors SAP customers that show business process excellence through…