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Improvement teams from Merck & Co. Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals have been named finalists in the 2006 Team of the Year awards. Now in its second year, the competition is sponsored by Putnam Media and Pharmaceutical Manufacturing magazine, and recognizes manufacturing…
The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) recently received ISO 14001 registration of its Tobin Memorial Bridge, the first bridge in the United States to receive the designation. Massport, which also operates Logan International Airport, the Port of Boston, L.G. Hanscom Field and…
The American Society for Quality’s World Conference on Quality and Improvement will be held May 1–3 at the Midwest Airlines Center in Milwaukee. Thousands of quality professionals from all over the world are expected to attend. The conference will feature addresses from David Kohler of…
The federal Office of Personnel Management now requires preferred provider organizations (PPOs) and other fee-for-service plans to collect and report quality performance measures. Beginning in 2007, 8 million federal employees, dependents and retirees will have better comparative…
The Chief Executives’ Confidence Measure, which had improved to 56 points in the final quarter of 2005, edged up to 57 points in the first quarter of 2006, The Conference Board reports in its latest CEO survey. CEOs’ assessment of current business conditions improved, with 49 percent…
Nonprofit organizations have until May 25 to submit applications to be part of a pilot Baldrige Award program. The National Institute for Standards and Technology, which administers the Baldrige Award, will accept applications from nonprofit organizations that have received a top-level…
StatPoint Inc. and Manugistics Group Inc. recently announced the end of their longtime licensing partnership. Since 1984, Manugistics had managed the sales, marketing and support of StatPoint’s STATGRAPHICS product line. StatPoint has taken back responsibility for all aspects of the…
An upcoming symposium will offer attendees a unique environment to learn about the production of hazardous-substance-free (HSF) products. HSPM2006 International Leadership Symposium for Hazardous Substance Process Management will include a thorough overview of QC 080000 IECQ HSPM, a…
Dozens of the United States’ largest consumer groups and employers recently endorsed new standards released by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. The standards address how health plans assess the quality and efficiency of the care provided by their contracting physicians and…
March 17 marked the first anniversary of the formation of the Quality Managers Club, a growing group of Uzbek quality professionals. The group was formed by TUV Academy and several consulting companies in Uzbekistan, which realized Uzbekistan’s potential to make headway in international…
A study that examined consumer feedback from 17 airlines found the best-performing airlines were low-fare carriers. For the third consecutive year, Jet Blue Airways was ranked as the best-performing airline in the 2005 Airline Quality Rating (AQR) study. Following Jet Blue in the top five of…
The Qingpu district of Shanghai recently commissioned the Shanghai Association for Quality to perform a public satisfaction survey on the quality of service the local government provides. The survey will be performed by SAQ’s Customer Evaluation Center, and the results of the poll will…
A recently released book uses lean principles to illustrate how to improve the value chains of various industries. Improving the Extended Value Stream: Lean for the Entire Supply Chain, (Productivity Press, 2006), by Darren Dolcemascolo, demonstrates the use of lean principles in the…
A conference focusing on the use of lean and Six Sigma in defense applications will be held next month in Washington, D.C. The Lean and Six Sigma for Defense Conference will be held May 8–10. It will feature case studies that demonstrate how the methodologies have been used for defense…
Reliability Center Inc. will host a series of workshops for lead investigator training that include team leadership and the human side of failure. The schedule of the six workshops will be based upon clients’ requests, starting in the second quarter of 2006. Topics include the PROACT root-…
The International Organization for Standardization recently published a new standard designed for the assessment and reduction of greenhouse gases. ISO 14064 is offered as a solution to the problems posed by governments and businesses, which have used varying approaches to assess…
In today’s competitive marketplace, the flow of goods and services to customers must not be hindered by avoidable obstacles such as downtime. To stay on top, managers must implement strategies that keep operations performing at top condition. These issues are the focus of the second…
A poll performed by the American Society for Quality found that while 96 percent of respondents indicated that their companies’ corporate stance toward social responsibility will greatly affect the United States’ economic future, more than 40 percent of them don’t have a social…
TÜV America recently received accreditation to the SQF Program, a certification program for managing food safety and enhancing food-chain quality systems. The SQF Program is managed by the Safe Quality Food Institute and provides two standards based on the type of supplier. The SQF 1000…
The International Organization for Standardization recently opened a new section on its Web site to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) achieve the benefits of standardization. The materials and articles address the benefits of registration to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, and…
Fabricators & Manufacturers Association International will host a lean seminar in May in Nashville, Tennessee.“Practical Lean: Lean Manufacturing for Smaller and Mid-Sized Operations” will be held May 8–9 at the Sheraton Music City Hotel. It will offer interactive training in lean…
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…
The official conference of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award will be held April 23–26 at the Hilton Washington in Washington, D.C.Representatives from the 2005 Baldrige Award recipient organizations will attend Quest for Excellence XVIII and share their exceptional performance…
Mikel J. Harry, co-creator of Six Sigma, recently launched a new computer-based training program for the methodology. Historically, Six Sigma training can take up to 160 hours and can cost up to $12,000 per trainee. These factors have put high-quality Six Sigma training out of reach for…
Two recently released books look at the changes and best practices organizations should follow to comply with the 2006 Baldrige criteria.This year’s changes to the Baldrige criteria include a focus on organizations’ business ethics and governance systems, along with their emergency-…
