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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-…
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…
An upcoming conference will offer attendees a unique environment to learn about the production of hazardous-substance–free (HSF) products. HSPM2006 will include a thorough overview of QC 080000 IECQ HSPM, a recently released standard that addresses new requirements (such as RoHS in Europe…
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,…
RABQSA recently reported a partnership with the Australian government and other stakeholders to develop a certification scheme for disability-services auditing personnel. The organization expects to release the scheme this spring. The scheme’s been designed to ensure that auditing personnel,…
Customer satisfaction slowly and steadily climbed during the fourth quarter of 2005, according to The American Customer Satisfaction Index.The index is released quarterly and examines customer satisfaction in rotating groups. During the fourth quarter, it measures satisfaction with the quality…
A new ISO/IEC standard aims to harmonize the various approaches used around the world for assessing the quality of e-learning initiatives. ISO/IEC 19796:2005, Information technology—learning, education and training, quality management, assurance and metrics—provides an overall framework to…
Cognex Corp. will host a series of complimentary machine vision seminars for pharmaceutical professionals involved with packaging operations. The half-day seminars, titled “Applying Machine Vision to Pharmaceutical Packaging” will be held in March and April in Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey…
Digirad Corp., a provider of cardiovascular imaging services and solid-state nuclear medicine imaging products, recently achieved registration to ISO 13485:2003. The standard specifies a quality management system for medical device manufacturers and complies with the Canadian Medical…
Five pharmaceutical facilities from all over the world were recently named finalists for the second-annual Facility of the Year competition. AstraZeneca, Baxter BioPharma Solutions, Daiichi Asubio Pharma Co., Janssen Pharmaceutica and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals are the finalists in the…
PharmaManufacturing.com was recently named a finalist for the Best B2B Web Site award in American Business Media’s 52nd annual Jesse H. Neal Business Journalism Awards program. PharmaManufacturing.com is affiliated with Pharmaceutical Manufacturing magazine, a publication of Putman…
Heightened awareness among electrosurgical-device companies and health care consumers about the potential spread of communicable diseases during surgery has increased market demand for disposable surgical devices. While this is good news for large-scale manufacturers, high expec-tations…
Northrop Grumman Corp. recently achieved its 25th Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) level 5 rating, the highest possible rating for benchmarking commercial and defense industry best practices for management and engineering. The rating was…
Effective this month, Canada’s National Quality Institute will no longer offer auditor certification. The organization, which is Canada’s leading nonprofit quality training and recognition organization, reports that it wants to focus its energies on personnel certification and…
HealthGate Data Corp. has released a new version of its popular Quality Architect software, a product that features innovative tools for continuous improvement in health care environments. The new release includes an expanded library of evidence-based clinical content, including order…
Delegates at the World Standards Cooperation (WSC) workshop agreed that futuristic, digitally connected home networks need an international standard by which to comply. Household connectivity is growing rapidly, with more and more electronic devices and remote networks that control…
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…
six sigma IQ recently announced the speaker panel for its upcoming Six Sigma Summit in London.The panel includes Sir John Harvey-Jones, from the BBC television series Troubleshooter and former chairman of ICI; Dieter List, Alstom Power Services director of business performance…
Cessna Aircraft Co. reports that the implementation of lean and Six Sigma helped it make significant gains last year. The company delivered 249 Citation jets, 822 single-engine pistons and 86 Caravan single-engine turboprops, and won FAA certification for two new jets, among other…
Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey recently announced three recipients of the Army Performance Excellence Awards. The winners are: the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey (Gold Award); Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield…
Aiming to promote professional excellence and provide travelers with safe, secure and efficient airports, Airports Council International’s upcoming conference will focus on service quality in airports around the world. The Airport Service Quality Conference will include workshops, one-on-one…
The W. Edwards Deming Institute will host “How to Create Unethical, Ineffective Organizations That Go Out of Business,” a seminar for executives and leaders in all types of organizations. The event, to be held April 24–26 in Boston, will expose the 27 faulty management and corporate…