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MoreSteam.com has expanded its course offerings to include training for Lean Six Sigma Black Belts. The training includes the following topics: value-stream mapping, spaghetti diagrams, continuous flow & Little’s Law, level-loaded processing, quick changeovers, pull-scheduling systems, 5Ss,…
Leading manufacturing principles are no longer for manufacturing processes alone, according to executives from a variety of service industries using lean principles to dramatically improve administrative, professional and service value streams. The Lean Enterprise Institute will host a summit June…
TÜV America recently updated the organizational structure of its electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) operations in Minnesota to improve responsiveness, customer focus and the overall quality of its services. Sandy Downs, an EMC team member for nearly eight years, was promoted to the position of…
Thomas V. Fernandes, president and CEO of AirTronics Gage & Machine, has acquired Air Gage Co., a manufacturer of gaging systems.Fernandes reports that the acquisition won’t change the day-to-day operations of either company. “This move will allow us to concentrate on our core area of expertise…
An upcoming workshop will focus on the integration of ISO 9001 and Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. The event, scheduled for May 4 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will show how the requirements of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 can be used to support the system of internal controls mandated by the standards, and how…
For several decades, competition in the health care industry has been touted as the way to curb rising prices by reducing inefficient practices and improving quality and safety, but a new study suggests that it may not be as effective as researchers once believed. The study of 341 HMOs shows that…
The fourth annual Manufacturing Excellence Conference will be held June 20–23 in St. Louis, Missouri. It will bring together lean, Six Sigma and quality professionals, and will feature strategies for manufacturing organizations to increase profits and improve efficiencies. Speakers will include…
HealthStream Inc., a provider of learning solutions for the health care industry, recently acquired Data Management & Research Inc., a provider of quality and satisfaction surveys and other research-based measurement tools. HealthStream purchased all of DMR’s shares for approximately $10.6…
Honeywell recently announced that its Electronic Materials unit received the Best Quality Award from Samsung Electronics’ Semiconductor unit. Samsung noted that Honeywell was chosen for the award because of a close customer/supplier relationship and cooperative technology development in 2004. “We’…
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and the National Quality Forum are now accepting applications for the 2005 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards. The annual award recognizes health care workers and organizations that make significant contributions to…
Peter J. Kolesar is the newest elected member of the Juran Institute’s board of directors. Kolesar, a professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, teaches courses in statistics, quality and productivity management. He holds a joint appointment with the university’s School of…
Nikon Instruments Inc. recently announced the integration of its semiconductor inspection and Nexiv vision measuring systems under the company’s SITECH division, which is based in Tempe, Arizona.The purpose of the move is twofold. First, Nikon hopes to improve customer responsiveness by building on…
A workshop focusing on using the senses as quality tools will be held June 6–10 in Florida. The course will be facilitated by Nancy McDonald, president of M&M Consulting & Laboratory Inc. She will show participants how to use their senses of taste, smell and sight to evaluate the overall…
Decisioneering Inc. recently released a sped-up version of its Crystal Ball software, version 7.1. Crystal Ball 7.1 Extreme Speed allows user to run simulations 100-times faster than previous versions. In creating the solution, Decisioneering partnered with Frontline Systems Inc., developer of the…
Six Sigma has had dramatic effects on many of the companies that have implemented it, but understanding the methodology is often difficult for those just starting the process. A new book, Six Sigma for Dummies (John Wiley & Sons, 2005), details the process in lay terms for easy understanding.…
MoreSteam.com recently pledged to donate $250,000 in lean Six Sigma training to Starfish Family Services, a Detroit-area social services agency. The training will allow the agency to become more efficient with the use of its funds and other resources, says Bill Hathaway, MoreSteam.com president. “I…
Voltaix Inc., a manufacturer of chemicals and gases for the semiconductor and photovoltaics industries, recently announced that 15 of its employees recently received Green Belt certification. Voltaix provided the employee training to invest in customer support relationships and improve product…
Canadian real estate companies are reportedly finding Six Sigma a useful tool to reduce data errors. The Canadian newspaper, Globe and Mail reports that although the industry has been slow to fully adopt the methodology, an increasing number of companies are using it to drive the decision-making…
A consultant who helped Xerox Business Services win a Baldrige Award will be speaking about organizational performance improvement at an upcoming seminar. John Lawrence, a consultant and former senior executive at two Fortune 500 companies, will present a program entitled “Mapping the Journey–A…
Minitab recently started offering its software to academic customers at discounted rates through e-academy.com, an online provider of brand-name software. The site offers MINITAB 14 in multiple languages, MINITAB French 13 and Minitab Quality Companion for as little as $29.99 per semester. Free,…
A recent study shows that hospital administrators are heeding advice to integrate and embrace quality improvement efforts.Researchers from the Yale School of Medicine interviewed 100 directors from a randomly selected cross-section of all acute-care hospitals and compared their responses with those…
A new book concludes that medical practitioners need a better grasp of quality management principles, methods, programs, systems and experiences. The issue is the topic of a recently published book, Core Curriculum for Medical Quality Management, (Jones and Bartlett Publishers Inc., 2005). It…
In an effort to improve the quality of instruction in its classrooms, the Los Alamos Public School District in New Mexico has adopted the Baldrige Award criteria. The Los Alamos Monitor reported the Baldrige Award criteria adoption has already been met with some success. The district’s main office…
RABQSA International and the National Quality Institute of Canada have joined forces to promote personnel training and certification throughout Canada. The agencies will temporarily allow people and organizations currently registered to standards by NQI to also be registered to one or more of…
User satisfaction with federal e-government Web sites leveled off after nine months of steady improvement, according to the latest quarterly findings of the American Customer Satisfaction Index. The new data shows a slight decline to an aggregate government Web site score of 71.9 from the December…