All News
Precision Wire Components LLC, a medical-component manufacturer, recently received registration to ISO 13485:2003. PWC manufactures guide wires for major medical-device makers, and has been registered to quality standards in the ISO 9000 series since 1997, one year after the company was founded.…
Delphi Medical Systems, a subsidiary of Delphi Corp., recently signed an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with WearAir Oxygen Inc., a Canadian medical-device company. Delphi anticipates using WearAir’s technology for its OEM customers and distributors for portable oxygen concentrators in the…
Shared Services Healthcare Inc. recently recognized Standard Register with its Top Medical Surgical Vendor for 2005 award. Shared Services Healthcare, an affiliate of MedAssets, is a group-purchasing organization composed of health care institutions in the southeast United States. The recognition…
Statit Software Inc. recently released Performance Indicator & Management Dashboard (piMD), a new approach to measurement and analysis for the heath care industry. Statit reports that a review of current software options for health care executives revealed a need for a system that would enable…
Gemba Research, a lean consulting firm, is offering on-site tours of some of Japan’s best lean manufacturing operations. Japan Kaikaku Experience offers a behind-the-scene look at world-class manufacturing operations in a variety of industries. Kaikaku means “in revolution,” or “major change” in…
Congressional negotiators have agreed to support $1.5 million in funding for a new nonprofit category of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The money is part of more than $7 million in total funding for the Baldrige National Quality Program, which is administered by the U.S. Commerce…
The American Health Quality Association has thrown its support behind the creation of a comprehensive system to measure and report on the performance of health care organizations and practitioners. The Institute of Medicine, a health care trade group, recently proposed creating the new system,…
An upcoming seminar will allow attendees to see and hear famed quality expert W. Edwards Deming present his quality theories. “Quality, Productivity and Competitive Position,” a four-day Deming video seminar for advanced students, will include large-screen footage from Deming’s archives of him…
The 60th anniversary World Conference on Quality and Improvement, one of the largest gatherings of quality professionals, will be held May 1–3 at the Midwest Airlines Center in Milwaukee. The event will feature dozens of networking sessions and breakout groups with topics such as “The Impact of Six…
iSixSigma, publisher of iSixSigma magazine, has announced an exclusive partnership with International Quality and Productivity Center. Through the partnership, iSixSigma will help shape and promote IQPC’s Six Sigma IQ conferences and provide input to the Six Sigma Excellence Awards, which recognize…
Perot Systems Corp. and Six Sigma Advantage Inc. have teamed up to provide Six Sigma and software training, consulting and certification services. Perot Systems, a provider of collaborative information technology services, reports that together the companies will form a highly refined set of…
SixNet Intelligence is the fastest-growing solution for the operational-excellence marketplace, according to recent market research. The results were released by Six Sigma Qualtec, which surveyed corporate performance improvement initiatives and the users of home-grown technology systems. The…
Karen Reynolds is the new vice president of operations at StraightSource, a provider of recruitment-process outsourcing. Reynolds is a Master Black Belt and most recently was vice president of enterprise effectiveness for L3 Communications. Prior to that position, she held a series of leadership…
Six very diverse organizations recently received 2005 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality awards. President George W. Bush and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez announced the award winners, which range from an automotive dealership to a community college and oil-industry business. It’s the first…
Peter F. Drucker, one of the most influential management theorists of the 20th century, died Nov. 11 at his home in Claremont, California. He was 95. Drucker’s career as a writer, consultant and teacher spanned nearly 75 years. The author of 41 books that have been translated into 37 languages,…
Although five of its six facilities bore damage from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, without compliance to ISO 14001, recovering from the storms could have been a lot worse for DynMcDermott Petroleum Operations. The company, a 2005 Baldrige Award recipient, is the sole management and operations…
American consumers are more satisfied than ever with the quality of beer produced by the nation’s largest breweries, according to the American Society for Quality’s Quarterly Quality Report. This quarter, ASQ examined consumer ratings on the following manufactured nondurable goods: food and…
ANSI/ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) is developing an accreditation program for the recycling industry. The scheme, called the Recycling Industry Operations Standard (RIOS) is a comprehensive, integrated standard based on ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. It includes six components: general…
ANSI/ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) is developing an accreditation program for the recycling industry. The scheme, called the Recycling Industry Operations Standard (RIOS) is a comprehensive, integrated standard based on ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. It includes six components: general…
Rockwell Automation Inc. recently acquired Datasweep Inc., a provider of manufacturing production-management software. Based in San Jose, California, Datasweep has customers in the pharmaceutical, high-tech, automotive and medical-device industries. Datasweep’s management team and employees will…
The Department of Defense recently awarded the Navy’s NAVAIR Depot North Island with the departments’ first-ever Continuous Process Improvement Achievement Award. The award cited the depot, which is based in Coronado, California, for being at the forefront of the Navy’s AIRSpeed program since its…
A new book shows how lean principals can be used to maximize training efficiency and improve job performance. Training Within Industry: The Foundation of Lean (Productivity Press, 2005), by Donald A. Dinero, shows how training within industry (TWI) was originally developed by the United States…
Buffalo Rock, the largest single-family, privately owned Pepsi bottler in the United States, recently received a 2005 Alabama Quality Award. Buffalo Rock is a process-driven organization that has implemented a number of innovative management practices to allow employee-partners to become more…
Missouri health care provider SSM Health Care recently received several quality awards. The awards were presented by the Excellence in Missouri Foundation, which administers the Missouri Quality Award and Missouri Team Quality Award programs. SSM St. Joseph Health Center, St. Charles; SSM St.…
Food Technology Corp., a supplier of food-texture measurement systems, and Mecmesin, a European supplier of quality testing solutions, have formed an alliance to jointly provide their offerings to the food industry. The companies will combine FTC’s TMS-Pro food-texture measurement system with…