All Features
Jerry Fireman
Diagnostic Hybrids Inc. manufactures discrete units of mammalian cell cultures and diagnostic reagents—such as antibodies—that are used to grow, isolate and type viruses. The company faced complex information-management challenges because of its many different product offerings, complex…
Quality Digest
iAdvantage Software Inc. and StatSoft Inc. have partnered to deliver a full array of statistical and visualization capabilities with an upcoming software release. eStudy version 5.0 will include StatSoft’s WebSTATISTICA engine, giving life-sciences users statistical and analytical…
Quality Digest
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) recently announced four new members of its Guiding Principles Independent Review Panel.The new panel will review trends in direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising as they relate to PhRMA’s voluntary Guiding Principles on Direct…
Quality Digest
DDL Inc., a medical device package testing lab, will present a webinar to explain upcoming revisions to ISO 11607.The standard applies to organizations that package terminally sterilized medical devices. “Understanding Clause 6” will focus on a package’s ability to deliver a medical…
Quality Digest
Rochester Medical Corp. recently signed agreements with Coloplast A/S and Mentor Corp. regarding Coloplast’s acquisition of Mentor’s urology business.Under the agreements, Rochester Medical will acquire certain assets of Coloplast and Mentor related to male external catheters in the United…
Quality Digest
Rockwell Automation recently introduced a complimentary configuration tool to its RSLogix programming environment. The new feature eliminates the manual configuration typically associated with adding DeviceNet products to a Logix-based control system. The tool automatically defines data…
Quality Digest
The technical committee charged with planning the 2007 International Lean & Six Sigma Conference is seeking proposals for technical sessions and workshops.Technical presentations are typically 45 minutes and include a question-and-answer period, although the committee will consider…
Quality Digest
The Department of the Navy has teamed with the American Society for Quality on a new lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification process.The agreement will allow the Navy and ASQ to develop a testing-standards program geared toward the unique needs of the Navy and Marine Corps. The program…
Quality Digest
A new series of five books explores innovative ways to create organizational excellence.Quality Digest columnist H. James Harrington authored all of the five books from the Five Pillars of Organizational Excellence series, published by Paton Press. The first of the series, Process…
Quality Digest
European software firms are neglecting quality assurance in application development, according to a recently released study. Compuware Corp. found that 78 percent of the surveyed organizations didn’t apply a formal quality assurance methodology to their software development processes. A…
American Airlines’ CEO Gerard J. Arpey’s letter to the editor (Quality Digest, January 2006) shows exactly why the U.S. airline industry is in trouble: “We carry about a quarter of a million people every day,” writes Arpey. “Inevitably, there will be mistakes that impact our customers…
Quality Digest
Huntsman Corp., a global manufacturer of commodity chemicals, recently selected SunGard’s AvantGard GETPAID software suite to help improve efficiency in support of its Six Sigma initiatives. Huntsman plans to integrate the software with its SAP enterprise system to help improve cash…
Quality Digest
More than a half-dozen leading Six Sigma practitioners have joined together to update their courses to meet modern project managers’ needs.According to the International Society for Six Sigma Certifications LLC, Six Sigma training has remained rather stagnant for many years. For that…
Quality Digest
The Michigan Economic Development Corp. and Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center recently presented four Michigan hospitals with awards for significant successes with a lean Six Sigma pilot program.The awards were given to Bay Regional Medical Center, Gratiot Medical Center, Mercy…
All too often FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis), DFMEA (Design, Failure Modes, and Effects Analysis) or FMECA (Failure Mode, Effects, and Criticality Analysis) ends up costing a company hundreds or thousands of dollars to prepare and returns nothing by way of payback, increased…
Craig Cochran
Last year I had the good fortune of doing some consulting with B&C Specialty Products in Hopeulikit, Georgia. B&C does light manufacturing, primarily plastic molding and assembly, and they distribute imported products produced by companies in the Far East. They have about 150…
Quality Digest
The Automotive Industry Action Group’s second Early Warning Standards—Warranty Conference will examine escalating automotive warranty costs. The event will be held June 6 at the Rock Financial Showplace in Novi, Michigan. Panel discussions and presentations will deal with improving working…
Quality Digest
Three teams took top honors at the 21st International Team Excellence Competition in Milwaukee.The competition was part of American Society for Quality’s World Conference on Quality and Improvement, held May 1–3. The live contest featured 27 teams from around the world hoping to achieve…
Quality Digest
Jill M. Considine, chairwoman and CEO of The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), has won the prestigious Six Sigma CEO of the Year Award.Considine will be formally presented with the award at WCBF’s Global Six Sigma Awards Gala Dinner on June 28 at The Venetian Resort in Las…
Quality Digest
WCBF recently announced the 31 Six Sigma projects from 23 companies that are finalists for the Global Six Sigma Awards.The finalists were selected from 65 applicants and were chosen by an independent panel. Listed by category, the finalists for the 2006 Global Six Sigma Awards are…
Quality Digest
STAT-A-MATRIX, a consulting and training company that’s part of the SAM Group, and Cotecna, a Swiss provider of trade security and other services, recently entered into a partnership and licensing agreement. Under the agreement, Cotecna will provide training and consulting services in quality…
Quality Digest
4D Technology Corp. recently received NASA’s Goddard Achievement in Excellence Award for its contribution to the James Webb Space Telescope project. The company partnered with NASA to develop an electronic speckle pattern interferometer (ESPI), which enables precision metrology on large…
Quality Digest
People having trouble with uncertainty estimation can gain a clearer understanding of the approach from a forthcoming series of courses on uncertainty measurement and estimation hosted by the National Measurement Institute, a division of the Australian government. The course is suitable…
Quality Digest
Bede X-ray Metrology recently launched its wafer edge defect inspection capability that uses the company’s BedeScan defect-inspection system. The tool is capable of looking at process-induced defects on the surface of the wafer. It can also detect crystallographic abnormalities inside the…
Quality Digest
Davis Inotek Instruments has signed a final purchase agreement with GE Consumer & Industrial to buy its instrumentation services unit, a calibration and repair operation based in Duluth, Georgia. The unit serves more than 1,000 manufacturers throughout the country.Davis Inotek…
