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Albertson’s Inc. recently attributed Six Sigma as one of the causes to its significant profit increases for the first quarter of 2005. The company reported net earnings from continuing operations rose 93 percent to $107 billion, compared to $56 million in the first quarter of last year. Total sales…
Bechtel Communications recently received the Most Innovative Six Sigma Project Award honorable mention for a process improvement technique using its Virtual Survey Tool for network deployment. Bechtel uses the VST in its alternative site selection process improvement process, enabling the…
CenterBeam recently completed another phase of an ambitious Six Sigma training plan. The IT outsourcing company is training all of its staff in the fundamentals of lean and Six Sigma. While everyone in the company has received Six Sigma training, about 15 percent of its staff has graduated as lean…
A new Six Sigma book outlines the use of the methodology with an up-to-date approach to enhance the produce development cycle. Graham Wilson’s Six Sigma and the Product Development Cycle (Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005), looks at the common steps companies follow to create the companywide culture that…
Smarter Solutions CEO Forrest Breyfogle recently received the Crosby Medal at the American Society for Quality’s World Conference. Breyfogle, a Quality Digest contributor, was honored for his cutting-edge approach to traditional Six Sigma in the second edition of his book, Implementing Six Sigma (…
Few companies have undergone the quality transformation that Hyundai Motor Co. has seen in recent years.The Korean automaker has gone from producing some of the poorest-rated cars in the world to having its popular Sonata model named as one of Consumer Reports’ most reliable cars for 2005—all in…
RABQSA International announced this month the transition of Singapore Accreditation Council-certified personnel to the RABQSA-accredited auditor certification schemes. RABQSA will transition all consenting auditors currently certified in quality management systems, occupational health and safety,…
Statit Software recently released several enhanced versions of its statistical process control software. Statit e-QC R3.3 is a dynamic Web-based application that serves as a quality information portal, while providing a centralized SPC application organizationwide. The release includes an improved…
Project Management Institute and DNV Certification have formed an alliance to market PMI’s Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3). OPM3 is a new standard developed to determine the maturity of a project management application enterprisewide. Unlike PMI’s…
There will be two conferences in September featuring the 2004 Baldrige Award winners, offering quality professionals an opportunity to learn valuable tips in performance improvement. They will be held Sept. 1 in Orlando, Florida, and Sept. 28 in Minneapolis, respectively. Both conferences will…
Frost & Sullivan selected Celestica, a provider of innovative electronics manufacturing services, for its 2005 Electronics Manufacturing Services Company of the Year Award. The award acknowledges Celestica’s successful market diversification, year-over-year revenue growth, technology leadership…
Chad Kymal, founder and CEO of Omnex Inc., will receive the American Society for Quality’s automotive division’s Quality Professional of the Year Award at an upcoming banquet. The award recognizes the contributions of individuals in the automotive industry that have made significant contributions…
Community Blood Centers of South Florida Inc. recently implemented a quality effort that uses Pilgrim Software Inc.’s SmartCAPA software. The blood center provides more than 75 percent of the blood used in transfusions in Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties, and operates 18 donor…
Paper manufacturers may now improve productivity and paper-roll quality with the new WindPro winder control solution from Rockwell Automation. The solution includes advanced visualization hardware and software to provide real-time control and monitoring in one location. Manufacturers can view the…
STAT-A-MATRIX and Uniworld Consulting Ltd. have joined forces to form SAM Asia, a consulting company that will specialize in Asian training, licensing and consulting needs. SAM Asia will have offices in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Korea, with consultants throughout China and other Southeast Asian…
Minitab Inc. recently released MINITAB 14.2, the latest update of its award-winning statistical analysis software. The updated version includes new statistical capabilities, including chi-square goodness-of-fit tests for single categorical variable and Poisson distribution; enhanced quality tools,…
New curriculum from MoreSteam.com focuses on the use of Six Sigma in the financial services industry. Six Sigma and e-learning are increasingly popular vehicles for process improvement. With this in mind, MoreSteam.com developed the financial services package in response to demand for industry-…
Quality Technology Co. recently introduced its Corporate Performance Improvement framework, a multifaceted approach to business management. The framework comprises four elements: business scorecard, Six Sigma, innovation and management systems. The integrated approach to improving corporate…
Reliance Industries Ltd. received the Silver Award for the Six Sigma project it performed at the American Society for Quality’s Team Excellence Competition on May 18. The competition was held at ASQ’s World Conference on Quality & Improvement. Reliance Industries’ Color Control Team tackled the…
Pyzdek Consulting Inc. has announced a Six Sigma Black Belt training course designed for busy professionals. PCI President Thomas Pyzdek will lead the first TravelFree Training class. TravelFree Training will be delivered on the Web by live instructors to small groups of students in a classroom-…
The second annual Crystal Ball User Conference will be held June 13–15 in Denver. The event will be hosted by Decisioneering Inc. and will feature two days of technical tracks and a third day for workshops. Risk-modeling professionals and simulation experts will present more than 30 case studies,…
Three teams earned awards for their cost-cutting prowess at the American Society for Quality’s World Conference on Quality & Improvement on May 18. Baxter Healthcare’s Value Stream Team earned the top prize, the Gold Award, in the conference’s International Team…
CNC Software Inc.’s educational division recently launched a new competition to find innovative student manufacturing projects. The Innovator of the Future competition requires student participants to produce a part that meets certain size requirements with CNC Software’s Mastercam CAD/CAM software…
The American Customer Satisfaction Index fell in the first quarter of 2005, an indication that there might be further economic slowdown on the horizon. The ACSI for the first quarter of 2005 stands at 73.0, down 0.8 percent from last quarter. The factors driving this decline are falling inflation-…
EMS Consulting Group Inc. will host a public lean manufacturing certificate program in San Diego this fall. The program includes six course modules designed to provide participants with targeted managerial and technical competencies in lean manufacturing. Participants will learn how to apply value…