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(ISO: Geneva) -- A new ISO/IEC guide to developing service standards for consumers will benefit standards developers and be of value to service providers in reducing customer complaints and cutting the business costs of poor service.ISO/IEC Guide 76:2008—“Development of service standards—…
(FDA: Rockville, Maryland) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has sent letters warning seven pharmacy operations that the claims they make about the safety and effectiveness of so-called bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) products are unsupported by medical evidence, and…
(FDANews: Falls Church, Virginia) --The Food and Drug Administration recently issued proposed changes to the drug-manufacturers’ clinical good manufacturing practices (CGMPs) (21 CFR 210/211). The revised standards would affect three major areas: water quality, verification by a second…
(FDA: Rockville, Maryland) -- After years of study and analysis, the Food and Drug Administration has concluded that meat and milk from clones of cattle, swine, and goats, and the offspring of clones from any species traditionally consumed as food, are as safe to eat as food from…
(Food Safety and Security Summit: Washington, D.C.) From farm gate to dinner plate, the 10th annual Food Safety and Security Summit, held March 17–19, 2008, at the Washington, D.C., Convention Center, is the largest and most established food safety and security expo and conference in North…
Former Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca once noted, “You can have brilliant ideas; but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.” In their new book, The Art of Woo: Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas,Wharton legal studies and business ethics professor G. Richard Shell…
(ACSI: Ann Arbor, Michigan) -- According to a recently released report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index, U.S. citizens are less satisfied with federal government services than they are with private-sector services. In aggregate, citizen satisfaction with the federal government is 67.8…
Industrial-marketing programs must encompass the full range of activities needed to grow a business profitably, and often these programs neglect to cover the retention and expansion of a business with existing profitable customers.
In a global competitive environment, a lean industrial-marketing…
(ANSI: New York) -- The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), an ANSI-accredited standards developer, recently published ANSI/HFES 100-2007—“Human Factors Engineering of Computer Workstations,” a new standard that addresses the design of workstations, furniture, and computer systems.…
Industrial-marketing programs must encompass the full range of activities needed to grow a business profitably, and often these programs neglect to cover the retention and expansion of a business with existing profitable customers.
In a global competitive environment, a lean industrial-marketing…
(ACSI: Ann Arbor, Michigan) -- According to a recently released report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index, U.S. citizens are less satisfied with federal government services than they are with private-sector services. In aggregate, citizen satisfaction with the federal government is 67.8…
(ANSI: New York) -- The American National Standards Institute recently issued the revised 2008 edition of the ANSI Procedures for U.S. Participation in the International Standards Activities of ISO (ANSI International Procedures) and the 2008 ANSI-Accredited U.S. TAG Procedural Compliance Form.To…
By the time you are reading this, you will have made your New Year’s resolutions, and I will have already broken mine. But I have an idea for a resolution that you might be interested in keeping, and one that could make your New Year happy and profitable. It is something that most Black Belts I…
Catherine Jimerson, online preregistration user (seated) and Meg Nicklas, director of WCA Hospital patient access services, (standing) cut the ribbon, officially announcing the new WCA Hospital online preregistration service. (WCA Hospital: Jamestown, New…
(Smarter Solutions Inc.: Austin, Texas) -- Today’s Six Sigma Black Belts need more than technical and analytical skills. They also must work with others, using capabilities that include teaching, mentoring, coaching, and motivating. Here are 10 capabilities essential for a Black Belt today, as…
(Instantis: Santa Clara, California) Join Stephan Schwarz, DuPont Master Black Belt, Tuesday, Jan. 22 at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST, as he leads a focused session describing best practices and lessons learned from one of the largest, most iconic, and successful operational excellence deployments in…
(ANSI: New York) -- What do cell phones, hot coffee, mp3 players, burritos, and toddlers have in common? Each contributes significantly to driver distraction, the leading cause of automobile accidents in the United States. With the demonstration of a new, totally unmanned vehicle at this week’s…
If you work in a project-based environment, you may feel like one of those juggling clowns at the circus, trying to keep your ball, your baton, and your flaming torch in the air at the same time, all while maneuvering your unicycle around the ring. Focus too much on one object and you risk dropping…
(ISO: Geneva) -- A brochure recently published by ISO and IEC gives an overview of joint guides that provide advice for standards writers, consumer representatives, designers, product manufacturers, service providers, retail chains, testing laboratories, regulators, and others. “How ISO/IEC Guides…
(NIST: Gaithersburg, Maryland) -- “Economic Impact of Measurement in the Semiconductor Industry,” a recent report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology indicates that investment in measurement science has, and will continue to have, a dramatic effect on innovation, productivity,…
(Mercy Health System: Janesville, Wisconsin) -- Mercy Health System, a recipient of the 2007 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, is recognized for organizational excellence across its entire vertically integrated organization spanning three hospitals, 285 employed physicians and their…
(NQF: Washington, D.C.) -- National Quality Forum is formally soliciting candidate measures for review and evaluation for potential inclusion in its set of NQF-endorsed voluntary consensus standards for health care information technology (HIT). Any organization or individual may submit…
(CIGNA HealthCare: Bloomfield, Connecticut) -- In an effort to manage the high-volume data used in its health advocacy programs, CIGNA HealthCare is teaming up with Thomson Healthcare’s MedStat data services. By employing greater data management, the goal for CIGNA HealthCare is to engage…
(WCBF: Las Vegas) -- WCBF will host the Seventh Annual Six Sigma and Process Improvement in Healthcare Summit in Las Vegas, April 1–4, 2008. The focus will be on lean, Six Sigma, and other process improvement methodologies within the health care system. The summit will feature nine presummit…
(U.S. Senate: Washington, D.C.) -- The cost of poor quality in health care accounts for from 30 to 60 cents of every health care dollar. Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) along with a bipartisan group of legislators have introduced a bill that would expedite the adoption of…