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KB Home Tucson is the first and only builder in Arizona to achieve National Housing Quality certification, according to the National Association of Home Builders Research Center. KB Home Tucson has built nearly 7,000 homes since 1998. In 2004, homebuyers gave the company a 97-percent customer-…
RABQSA has announced the suspension of its Certification Training Plan, requiring auditors to transition to competency-based certification schemes for quality management systems (QMS), environmental management systems (EMS), food safety, and occupational health and safety (OH&S) audits. The…
Quality professionals in Shanghai have a 10-percent higher pass rate on quality-certification exams than quality professionals in other parts of China. The Shanghai Academy of Quality Management reports that the nationwide average pass rate for the exam is 30 percent, while Shanghai’s average pass…
A new survey of 1,200 Six Sigma professionals shows that the more companies invest in their Six Sigma projects, the greater the return. Companies that invested less than $500,000 were most likely to break even, at best, while companies that invested $2,000,000 or more were most likely to see a two…
PowerSteering Software recently released Enterprise 4.6, a product that provides unprecedented functionality for Six Sigma practitioners. Falling closely on the heels of the recent PowerSteering Enterprise release that contains more than 50 enhancements specifically geared to improve Black Belt…
Switching from a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) to a laser scanner has helped the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Langley Research Center, increase the accuracy of models used to evaluate proposed spacecraft designs in wind tunnels. Accuracy is critical for the 6- to 12-in. scale…
The American Council of Independent Laboratories presented its Seal of Excellence Awards at its annual meeting in Palm Springs , California, last month. Participants in the award program are committed to ensuring the integrity of laboratory data, meeting customers’ quality needs and setting the…
AMETEK Calibration Instruments recently opened a direct-sales office in the United Kingdom. The office will operate as part of AMETEK Lloyd Instruments, which is based in Fareham, Hampshire. The new sales office is led by U.K. sales manager Ian McPhie, and provides site visits, demonstrations and…
Illinois Tool Works Inc. has announced its acquisition of Instron Corp., a supplier of instruments, software and services for the testing of materials and structures. Based in Norwood, Massachusetts, Instron has manufacturing facilities and technical centers in 13 countries throughout North America…
The metrology division of Leica Geosystems recently relocated its Midwest Service Center to a new state-of-the-art facility in Wichita, Kansas. The new Wichita Service Center is a 4,000 square-foot facility that is staffed with highly qualified Laser Tracker service technicians. “We are responding…
View Engineering Inc. recently acquired Micro-Metric Inc., a manufacturer of high-precision noncontact dimensional and coordinate metrology systems. View Engineering provides high-accuracy, large-area video, and laser-based and coordinate measuring systems for process monitoring and control in the…
Rockwell Automation will host its annual Manufacturing Perspectives and Automation Fair next week in St. Louis. The Manufacturing Perspectives portion of the event will be held Nov. 15 at the Renaissance Grand Hotel. It will feature a full day of discussions about factory automation led by experts…
It’s been my experience as an auditor and as a consultant that the overwhelming majority of corrective actions originate from customer returns. The good news is that the corrective action request (CAR) process is being utilized to address the cause of these problems. Unfortunately, CARs that arise…
A new international standard aims to combat information security flaws and prevent threats to ensure business continuity, minimize damage and maximize return on investments. The new standard, ISO/IEC 27001:2005 was jointly published by the International Organization for…
In an effort to provide essential construction guidelines for the use and care of commercial explosives, the American Society of Safety Engineers has announced the availability of ANSI/ASSE A10.7-1998(R-200X), “ Commercial Explosives and Blasting Agents, Safety Requirements for Transportation,…
The National Committee for Quality Assurance recently announced that nine commercial software vendors that will seek certification of their Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS)-related software. To evaluate each company’s product, NCQA will give each vendor a number of test cases…
The International Organization for Standardization Working Group continued moving toward forming a new international standard on social responsibility at a recent meeting in Thailand. The group agreed that ISO 26000 will give organizations harmonized, internationally agreed-upon guidance for social…
The International Organization for Standardization recently published a new standard for the management of Web-based PDF documents. ISO 19005, or PDF/A-1, enables organizations to archive documents in a way that maximizes content preservation and appearance over an extended period of time. It also…
The American Society for Quality and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s Quality Forum plan to roll out quality management training programs for Indian firms. The program will include discussions around three topics: quality engineering, Six Sigma and plans for a major…
The International Organization for Standardization has published a new edition of ISO 9000, “Quality management systems—Fundamentals and vocabulary.”The updated version introduces no changes to the descriptions of the fundamentals of quality management systems, but instead defines the vocabulary…
Minitab Inc. recently released MINITAB 14.2, a Japanese-language version of its award-winning statistical analysis software. Minitab launched its original Japanese-language version of MINITAB in 2004. The new release improves translation and adds several features developed in response to customer…
Watchfire, a provider of software and services to manage online risk, quality and compliance, has been awarded the prestigious HP/IAPP Privacy Innovation Award. The award is sponsored by Hewlett-Packard and managed exclusively by the International Association of Privacy Professionals.Evaluated by a…
The California Council for Excellence is offering two upcoming events for quality professionals. The organization will host a two-day workshop in Rancho Bernardo, California, entitled, “Applying the Baldrige Criteria in Your Organization.” The event, to be held Dec. 5–6, will feature Karen Trisko,…
Our minds continually perform root cause analysis, which is a way of answering our questions about our surroundings and quenching our curiosity. We establish cause-and-effect relationships between what we see and what we do, or what we get and what we do, or what we want to get and what we need to…
The Automotive Industry Action Group has announced that it will cancel next year’s Auto Tech trade show. The next AutoTech won’t be held until May 2007, and the venue has yet to been announced.“To avoid overlap with other automotive events, AIAG has determined that May would be a better month to…
