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The largest North American trade show dedicated to innovation in manufacturing opens this week in Chicago. National Manufacturing Week features a Manufacturing Town Hall panel discussion with top government and trade officials, the National Association of Manufacturers’ 2005 Annual Survey and the…
The National Committee for Quality Assurance and the American Board of Internal Medicine will offer a new program to physicians seeking to maintain their ABIM certification and the opportunity to more easily earn a new distinction: recognition from NCQA and its partners. The agreement will allow…
Canada’s National Quality Institute will host an April networking event focusing on mental health and addiction in the workplace. The event, titled “Working Toward Mental Health and Excellence at Work in Canada,” will be held April 12 in Toronto. It will include a town hall-style panel and keynote…
Omnex Systems LLC recently released EwQMS 2.0, a software suite aimed at allowing quality managers to quickly build, approve, manage and analyze critical quality documents for continual improvement. By using a centralized repository and interchangeable software modules, EwQMS users can tailor…
The Performance Management Group recently announced plans to upgrade its management training boot camp to include team leadership, metrics and scorecard training. “Technical companies that have promoted new managers because of their technical skills find their new leaders lacking the requisite…
Training is profoundly strategic. It’s a process aimed at improving the single most important resource in the organization: people. Nothing affects customer loyalty more than the behaviors and competencies of employees.
Training is the most effective way to communicate the correct behaviors and…
Software developer iGrafx recently released Process for Six Sigma, its new suite for practitioners of the popular methodology.The solution includes features customized to Six Sigma, including design of experiments, data fitting, lean tools and value-stream mapping, hierarchical process maps and…
If you’re considering opportunities for business improvement, dynamic growth and profitability, “plan,” “do,” “check” and “act” (PDCA) is a leading option. Walter A. Shewhart developed the PDCA cycle in the 1920s and W. Edwards Deming made it famous in the 1980s, even though he modified the PDCA…
Food & Drug Law Weekly recently reported that one of the largest hospitals in the Netherlands is using Six Sigma to improve its management of clinical trials. The Atrium Medical Center currently conducts about 70 clinical trials per year for major pharmaceutical companies. Its new system will…
Owners and managers of small to mid-sized organizations will learn how to use Six Sigma to improve operations at a full-day workshop scheduled for next month in Moon Township, Philadelphia.The workshop, “Achieving Customer Focus Through Six Sigma for the Small and Midsize Organization,” will be…
FM Solutions, a facility management consulting and technology company, recently added a lean Six Sigma contractor management function to its WorkOasis technology platform.The addition includes processes for sourcing service contractors, handling service requests and paying invoices. It combines…
Excel Partnership Inc. will offer a Six Sigma training course for professionals who want to become familiarized with the methodology. Green Belts are defined as practitioners who spend 5–20 percent of their working hours in support of Black Belt or Six Sigma projects of their own. Course…
DVT Corp., a provider of innovative machine vision systems, recently upgraded its Intellect software to include new algorithms with simplified user interfaces for plant-floor technicians.The new algorithms include an application-specific toolset dedicated to bead tracking, as well as a fixed-font…
The Juran Institute and i-Solutions recently released the Initiative Deployment Manager, a software program that allows users to monitor all business initiatives in real time.With a 360-degree view of business programs, the IDM can launch projects based on methodology templates; share plans and…
Manufacturing industry analyst Bob Parker predicted in InformationWeek magazine that more manufacturing companies will combine lean and Six Sigma to improve efficiency and quality in 2005.Parker, vice president of the Manufacturing Insights group at the market research and advisory firm IDC, also…
A Swiss software company recently added a new quality analysis tool to the popular Marketing Manager for Excel software.The tool, named Quality Manager, allows marketing agents and business analysts to monitor a wide range of activities, such as traffic at call centers, the quality of ongoing…
The National Committee for Quality Assurance plans to honor several high-profile figures, including U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton and former U.S. Representative Newt Gingrich, for their contributions toward improving the quality of health care in the United States.The NCQA Health Quality Awards…
2005 marks the 125th anniversary of The L.S. Starrett Co.The company was founded in 1880 by Laroy Sunderland Starrett to market his innovative combination square tool, an item that has since become a standard in toolboxes worldwide. Starrett later developed innovative design variations to calipers…
The Turkish Standards Association will host the upcoming 49th European Organization for Quality Annual Congress. The event will be held April 25–27 in Antalya, Turkey. The theme will be “Quality: The Way to Sustainability,” and will include 30 breakout seminars examining all aspects of quality,…
Almost 60 percent of telecom executives surveyed reported that performance improvement efforts over the past three years were unsuccessful. However, the respondents judged 90 percent of the efforts to be a success. “The apparent contradiction between disappointing strategic business results and the…
Thomson Scientific & Healthcare Corp., a provider of integrated information products for the health care industry, recently introduced a new pharmaceutical product labeling solution that complies with impending FDA regulations. Thomson is now offering outsourced label conversion using its…
Companies struggling to comply with the FDA’s myriad electronic recordkeeping regulations should take a deep breath and follow it up with a long, careful look at the FDA’s actual GxP and 21 CFR Part 11 rules. After a careful reading of the admittedly long and sometimes dry rules, it should become…
An upcoming conference focusing on stability testing will feature several major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The “Advances and Efficiencies in Stability Testing for the Pharmaceutical & BioTech Industry” conference will be held March 7–8 at the La Jolla Marriott in San Diego. It…
The 6th annual Market Development & Outreach Multicultural Pharmaceutical Conference will be held March 17–18 in Iselin, New Jersey.The event is intended for pharmaceutical and health care companies that produce or develop products for diabetes, heart disease, cancer, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and…
The Regulatory Compliance Workshop Group will present the 2005 Pharma IT Compliance Week training event March 7–11, in Puerto Rico. The event will feature five one-day workshops, with topics including “Auditing Computerized Systems to Pass FDA and European Regulatory Standards,” “Understanding and…