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I had a lot of feedback from interested readers in regards to Stupid Six Sigma Tricks #5, which I jokingly called “Pop Stars Without Clothing,” and which was about the frequent misuse of statistics in the Six Sigma world. Taking heart from this response to what might have been viewed as dusty old…
(Hyperion, Santa Clara, California) -- Hyperion, a leading global provider of performance management software solutions, recently announced that it has agreed to be acquired by Oracle Corp. through a cash tender offer for $52.00 per share, or approximately $3.3 billion.“Requirements for…
(WCBF, Chicago) -- Edward Hanway, CEO of CIGNA Corp. will receive the top honor as Lean Six Sigma CEO of the Year for his vision and leadership in initiating lean Six Sigma to achieve a financial impact of $110 million per year and potential savings of another $200 million per year for…
(SigmaQuest Inc., Santa Clara, California) -- SigmaQuest Inc., a leading provider of business intelligence software solutions that help global manufacturers build higher quality products, today announced the availability of SigmaSure 6.0 that features a new Repair Insight module. With the…
The city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, used to be typical of a lot of Rust Belt cities: too many boarded-up buildings, insufficient infrastructure, a 37-percent population drop over 50 years, and a flagging downtown area that was in desperate need of revitalization. That all changed in 2000,…
(American National Standards Institute, Washington, D.C.) -- The American National Standards Institute is inviting leaders of the U.S. standardization community to participate in the third Conference on U.S. Leadership in the International Organization for Standardization and the International…
(ANSI, New York) -- On June 11–12, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Carlos M. Gutierrez will host the inaugural Americas Competitiveness Forum in Atlanta. The forum will provide a venue for government ministers from the Western Hemisphere to come together with leaders from the private sector…
(Tejari, United Arab Emirates) -- Tejari, the Middle East’s premier online business-to-business service, has become the world’s first e-marketplace to be certified to ISO 9001. The company was audited by Lloyds Register Quality Assurance Ltd., to assess Tejari’s adherence to a…
More than 13 hours per week creating documents and nearly seven hours per week organizing documents are common among small and midsize engineer-to-order (ETO) manufacturers; four hours per week are spent managing document routing and another 10 hours per week searching for information. All this…
On December 29, 2006, passengers of American Airlines’ Flight 1348 were confined in a parked aircraft for eight hours. By this time, “The toilets on the American Airlines jet were overflowing. There was no water to be found and no food except for a box of pretzel bags.” This fiasco was…
On December 29, 2006, passengers of American Airlines’ Flight 1348 were confined in a parked aircraft for eight hours. By this time, “The toilets on the American Airlines jet were overflowing. There was no water to be found and no food except for a box of pretzel bags.” This fiasco was…
More than 13 hours per week creating documents and nearly seven hours per week organizing documents are common among small and midsize engineer-to-order (ETO) manufacturers; four hours per week are spent managing document routing and another 10 hours per week searching for information. All this…
Last month, I talked about vision vs. video and brought up the possibility of confusion between inspection and measurement. Some think that inspection is qualitative and measurement is quantitative. I can’t say I’ll put the matter to rest, but I’ll present a few different…
(National Institute of Standards and Technology, Washington, D.C.) -- A new report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), An Assessment of the United States Measurement System: Addressing Measurement Barriers to Accelerate Innovation, details results of the agency’s first…
(Reno, Nevada) -- Think you have an interesting metrology project or issue that would make a good presentation? Write it up and get it to the Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference organizations, who are accepting presentation proposals for the CMSC’s annual conference until April 10. The CMSC…
(College Français de Metrologie, Lille, France) -- The 13th annual International Metrology Congress will be held June 18–29 in Lille, France. The event is organized by the College Français de Metrologie with several international organizations from Europe and North America. It is a meeting…
(Austin, Texas) -- One of the world’s leading providers of advanced memory and image sensor solutions, Micron Technology Inc., has joined the International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative, bringing its overall membership to 14 companies. Micron will participate in ISMI programs that…
(ARTEL, Maine) -- ARTEL’s 2007 Pipetting Olympics will happen during National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, April 22–28, 2007. In the health care industry, pipetting affects test results and patient diagnoses. The mission of the Pipetting Olympics is to improve pipetting technique…
How do we conclude that a nagging, recurring blip has become serious enough to justify taking action? How do we assess the significance of anomalies—isolated occurrences and scattered, seemingly unrelated events? Can we objectively distinguish those factors that suggest an escalating…
Think Europe’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) was tough? Meet China RoHS. Phase One of China RoHS takes effect March 1, and while it has an intent similar to the European Union’s (EU) RoHS, the approach is different. Like RoHS in Europe, China RoHS (officially known as Management…
(International Organization for Standardization-Geneva) -- A newly published document in the ISO 22000 series gives the requirements for the bodies that carry out auditing and certification of food safety management systems (FSMS). ISO technical specification ISO/TS 22003:2007 provides…
(International Organization for Standardization, Geneva) -- ISO has just launched a CD-ROM containing a collection of 24 ISO/IEC standards and one amendment on radio frequency identification (RFID). A wireless technology enabling communication between interrogating devices and embedded…
In a previous column, we discussed the importance of the IECQ quality assessment systems for electronic components, a certification scheme of the International Electrotechnical Commission. The IECQ mission is to provide a business-to-business quality certification scheme that serves industry by…
(American National Standards Institute, Washington, D.C.) -- A project underway at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory is truly out of this world. Teams from NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency—the research arm of the U.S.…
Mtech’s new Internet-based Quality Inspection Console uses hand-held devices to interface with a hotel’s property management system and automate its quality inspection processes. “Quality inspections, when hotel housekeeping departments inspect the work that room attendants do, have the…