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Quality Digest
Cummins Inc. will highlight a selection of its best Six Sigma projects at an upcoming expo that will be held May 8 in Columbus, Indiana. The Six Sigma Project Expo is an opportunity for employees—and the public—to get an inside look at how Cummins’ employees are pushing for process and…
Praveen Gupta
Most of us spend our time being busy. We expect a lot, compare our belongings with those of others and feel miserable about the miss-outs. We complain about the way life treats us. While thinking about my New Year’s resolution for 2007, I looked for an opportunity for self-improvement.I…
Steve Wise
Some folks like to use control charts to analyze gauge study results. When using a control chart in this manner, one can assume that the chart should represent a series of gauge studies conducted over a period of time. In this example, let’s say that each morning a gauge is verified by recording…
Quality Digest
Conference organizer WCBF will host its 4th annual Six Sigma in Financial Services Conference in May in New York City. The event will address challenges for leadership and senior executives in the financial services industry, and feature case studies and interactive workshops designed…
Quality Digest
(Embry-Riddle: Daytona Beach, Florida) -- The Center for Professional Education at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is offering certified Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt online courses in association with the American Society for Quality, that prepare individuals for ASQ’s…
Quality Digest
(Linetec: Wausau, Wisconsin) -- Linetec has won the 2006 Wisconsin Manufacturer of the Year Grand Award for overall outstanding achievement in the large company category. Linetec is one of the nation’s largest paint and anodize finishers and one of just four companies in the state, and…
Quality Digest
(Sutherland Global Services: Chennai, India) -- The Indian Statistical Institute, in association with the Quality Council of India and the National Institution for Quality & Reliability, recently named Sutherland Global Services the 2007 All India Six Sigma Contest winner for…
Quality Digest
(Georgia Oglethorpe) -- Georgia’s highest honor for organizational performance excellence—the Georgia Oglethorpe Award—will be presented on Sept 26–27 at the Loudermilk Center in downtown Atlanta.The event recognizes many Georgia organizations for their journeys and achievements in…
Bill Kalmar
Recent department store sales figures in the Wall Street Journal are interesting and intriguing. Despite a slow economy in parts of the nation and frigid February weather in some states where several retailers experienced a decrease in sales, some high-priced retailers had exceptional results. What…
Quality Digest
(International Organization for Standardization) -- The world’s leading international standards organizations have adopted a harmonized approach to address the inclusion of patented technology in standards. The International Electrotechnical Commission, International Organization for…
Quality Digest
(The American National Standards Institute; Washington, D.C.) -- From air quality to children’s toys and from alternative sources of energy to security and privacy on the Internet, standards and conformity assessment programs have become the tools that bolster social progress and…
Quality Digest
The International Register of Certificated Auditors has announced the launch of its new information technology (IT) service management systems auditor certification program, developed in response to the release of the international standard ISO/IEC 20000, the first worldwide standard…
Quality Digest
(Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc., Vancouver) -- Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc., global specialty pharmaceutical and medical device company, recently announced the appointment of Victor Diaz as senior vice president, global manufacturing and supply chain management.“With his significant…
James M. Anderson
An ABC News/Washington Post survey in 2003 found that for the first time, 54 percent of Americans were dissatisfied with the overall quality of health care in the United States. In 2006, the Commonwealth Fund released results of an international survey that measured 37 areas of quality…
Quality Digest
(Pilgrim Software, Tampa, Florida) -- Pilgrim Software, a provider of enterprise compliance and quality management software solutions, has been named 2007 North American Enterprise Compliance & Quality Management (ECQM) Company of the Year within the life sciences industry by Frost…
Quality Digest
(Sparta Systems Inc.; Holmdel, New Jersey) Sparta Systems Inc., the maker of TrackWise, and an enterprise quality and compliance process management software provider, has released the Beta version of the TrackWise eMDR Submission Manager software. The add-on software enables medical…
Quality Digest
Five pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities scattered around the globe recently received Facility of the Year awards for significantly advancing the industry’s efforts to produce higher-quality medicines at lower costs. The winners are: Cook Pharmica—Facility of the Year for Facility…
Quality Digest
(Underwriters Laboratories Inc.; Northbrook, Illinois) -- Underwriters Laboratories Inc., a world leader in product safety testing, and certification and management system registrations, recently unveiled a service for the medical device industry that streamlines the regulatory…
Quality Digest
(Valeo, Paris) -- Valeo has earned five awards from Toyota Motor Europe, including the Superior Performance Award in Quality. The awards, presented at the Toyota’s Annual Business Meeting in Brussels, are the following: A Superior Performance Award, in the quality category, given to the…
Mike Micklewright
Question:What do you call a root cause analyst?
Answer: A whys guy!
I had been summoned from my Chicago suburban home and office to visit a company in Wisconsin—Land of Cheese—to discuss the possibility of providing some lean training requested by the director of operations, Brent Favor. This was a…
Quality Digest
(ANSI, New York) -- Global manufacturers are facing mounting pressure from the expansion of domestic and foreign chemical controls and regulations such as REACH, RoHS, WEEE and GHS. According to the United States Mission to the European Union, REACH alone is expected to disrupt tens of…
Quality Digest
(IRCA, London) -- The International Register of Certificated Auditors is delighted to announce the launch of its new Information Technology Service Management Systems Auditor certification program, developed in response to the release of the international standard ISO/IEC 20000, the…
Quality Digest
(Kellogg School of Management, Southfield, Michigan) -- The Manufacturing Business Conference is hosted by the Master of Management and Manufacturing program, a joint degree program between the Kellogg School of Management and the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.The MBC…
Quality Digest
(AIAG, Southfield, Michigan) -- The Business Continuity Planning seminar and workshop highlighting AIAG’s new publication, Business Continuity Planning Toolkit for the Automotive Supply Chain, features presentations and case studies to help organizations survive and thrive in the event…
Quality Digest
The city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, used to be typical of a lot of Rust Belt cities: too many boarded-up buildings, insufficient infrastructure, a 37-percent population drop over 50 years, and a flagging downtown area that was in desperate need of revitalization. That all changed in 2000,…