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In an effort to improve its services and patron access, the Houston Public Library turned to Xerox Corp. and Six Sigma. The improvement effort began last year, when Xerox was hired to measure and analyze the operations at four branches of the Houston Public Library. Services analyzed…
Nader Fathi, SigmaQuest Inc. CEO, will deliver a presentation at an upcoming symposium for the medical device industry. “How to Ensure Medical Product Quality in a Zero-Tolerance World” will be delivered at the third-annual Surface Mount Technology Association’s Medical Electronics…
The Society of Manufacturing Engineers will host the Productivity & Lean Integration for Plastics Manufacturing conference June 20–21 in Chicago. The conference will be part of the National Plastics Exposition 2006 show, which will be held June 19–23 at McCormick Place. A new educational…
American Express executives head up the speaker roster at the third annual Six Sigma in Financial Services Conference. The conference will be held May 10–12 at the New York Marriott Eastside. Karim Houry and Rick Irving, American Express vice presidents of global reengineering, will…
Organizers of the Global Six Sigma Summit have received almost 70 entries for the Global Six Sigma Awards. Organizations from India, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Europe and the United States have submitted a total of 65 entries for all 10 award categories and for the Six Sigma…
Management Systems International LLC recently introduced a new lean and Six Sigma consulting service. ImprovePlus is designed to help companies streamline their operations, reduce cost and enhance customer retention. The benefits of implementing the system include better bottom-line…
The U.S. Army has chosen software from PowerSteering Software Inc. to track its lean Six Sigma projects.The Army uses lean Six Sigma to identify functions that are no longer relevant, to eliminate nonvalue-added operations and positions, and to focus resources on required capabilities.…
MagnaChip Semiconductor recently announced the launch of its Six Sigma management system designed to improve product quality, save money and enhance its business profile. The program started March 21 at the company’s headquarters in Cheongju, Korea. The initiative focuses on MagnaChip’s…
Rath & Strong recently published a new, easy-to-carry guide to lean implementations. Rath & Strong’s Lean Pocket Guide (Charlene Adair, Rath & Strong, 2006) includes concise, easily accessible, practical instruction for understanding lean and implementing improvement projects.…
The American Society for Quality recently awarded Milwaukee County a $5,000 grant to implement a pilot Six Sigma program. The grant was provided through ASQ’s Community Good Works Program, which provides money and expertise to nonprofit organizations that want to improve their…
New software developed by Breakthrough Management Group Inc. and Raptor International promises to simplify the tedious process of data-set analysis. Already in use in South Africa and Australia, where it was developed, RapAnalyst uses advanced artificial intelligence techniques to identify…
PowerSteering Software Inc. recently released enhanced software that features an advanced reporting module and new demand management functionality driven by an active voice-of-the-customer program. PowerSteering Enterprise 4.7 provides more than 100,000 users with beefed-up strategy…
A conference focusing on the use of lean and Six Sigma in defense applications will be held May 8–10 in Washington, D.C. The Lean and Six Sigma for Defense conference will feature case studies that demonstrate how the methodologies have been used for defense purposes, along with experts to…
Cummins, one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of engines, will host its annual Six Sigma Project Expo in May. The event will showcase 43 winners of the company’s annual Chairman’s Quality Award on May 9 in Columbus, Indiana. It’s open to the public. The projects displayed will…
The winners of the prestigious Six Sigma Excellence Awards were announced recently at the seventh annual Six Sigma Summit in Miami. Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York, was the conference’s keynote speaker, and conference organizer IQPC reported a significant increase in the number of…
The Conference Board’s 2006 Six Sigma Leadership Conference—Business Innovation Initiatives for Building Successful Results Through Six Sigma will be held March 28–29 at the Wyndam in Chicago. It’s being presented in collaboration with the Premier Performance Network. James A. Firestone, Xerox…
Ten very different organizations recently received The Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing. The prize, which has been dubbed the Nobel Prize of manufacturing, recognizes organizations’ quality and efficiency achievements using lean principles. It’s the premier manufacturing…
The Global Six Sigma Awards will be presented on June 28, 2006, at the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Scheduled to coincide with the Global SixSigma Summit, the awards will honor Six Sigma’s best achievements and leading practitioners.Entries for 12 different awards (10…
Synthis Corp., a provider of enterprise knowledge-management software, was recently named one of Georgia’s most innovative technology companies. The list was compiled by the Technology Association of Georgia, which accepts nominees from the state’s technology community. Recipients are…
Perkins Technical Services Inc. was recently awarded a nearly $500 million contact to provide lean Six Sigma consulting, process management and organizational development throughout the U.S. Army Aviation & Missile Command. Perkins has subcontracted much of the work. One of the…
Diane Ritter, a prolific author and former colleague of W. Edwards Deming, recently joined The Quality Group as its director of business excellence. Ritter is a co-author of the popular The Memory Jogger (GOAL/QPC, 1994) series of Six Sigma pocket guides, and has more than two decades of…
Dave Rasmusson’s The SIPOC Picture Book: A Visual Guide to the SIPOC/DMAIC Relationship (Oriel Inc., 2006) helps readers use Six Sigma concepts to sort, categorize and organize new concepts and information, and integrate them with what they already know. SIPOC—supplier-input-process-…
An upcoming conference will examine the dual use of lean and Six Sigma to achieve the most return on investment. Lean Six Sigma 2006, hosted by Ixperion, will focus on the application, not simply the theory of the methodologies. There will be streams designed for manufacturing,…
A new business-process–outsourcing contract Wachovia recently made with Genpact will allow Genpact to drive Six Sigma deeply into the banking giant. Genpact, which was established as a financial services subsidiary of GE Capital and broke off from the company in 2004, reports that all of…
The 4th Annual Six Sigma in Healthcare Conference will be held March 29–31 at the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. James G. Springfield, president and CEO of Valley Baptist Health System, will share Valley Baptist’s Six Sigma journey in his keynote address. Valley Baptist has…