All Features
Matthew J. Savage
As companies downsize, they cut down on the number of employees, or move, or close, and thousands find themselves without jobs in a highly competitive job market that they never anticipated. A 55-year-old former NCR systems engineer is in line for jobs along with whiz-bang new college graduates,…
Resistance to the National Animal Identification Scheme (NAIS) has been strong. This six-year-old USDA policy initiative to reduce the catastrophic effects to the livestock and meat industry from a major animal disease outbreak has received so much negative reaction from so many and now seems…
Bill Kalmar
The band “Chicago” sang those words about "time" decades ago. The second line “Does anybody really care?” seems to sum up what is still in vogue today, especially in the workplace. Just as with vacations where workers are reluctant to leave for fear that someone will discover that their job is…
David C. Crosby
When I say quality manager, of course I’m talking about the department he or she manages as well.
I’ve been in the “quality business” for fifty years now. That’s right, fifty years. Much of my career—from source inspector to quality engineer, to corporate director of quality—was spent in other…
Richard A. Vincins
Through the 1990s, the application of a quality system relied primarily upon the Food and Drug Administrations’ (FDA) good manufacturing practice requirements or the FDA 21 CFR Part 820 Quality System Regulation. At that time, the international standards for quality management systems (QMS) were…
H. James Harrington
I often get assignments at organizations where I am required to take aside a group of people, either within the building facility or off campus, to focus on issues or problems. Typically these groups spend a considerable amount of time to summarize and present a well-defined problem. The next step…
David C. Crosby
The most important element in producing a quality product or service is the attitude of the people doing the work—not only the worker—but the attitude of all levels of management. Employee attitude about the product, about the work, about the boss, and about the company will pretty well determine…
Minitab LLC
A $1 billion annual budget may sound ample, but a few years ago, the costs of services ranging from law enforcement to cleaning county buildings had squeezed the government of Erie County, New York, to its limit. Residents faced a painful choice: raise taxes or slash services. But Chris Collins,…
Dale Hershfield
Twitter is the latest new thing. Want to follow John McCain or Al Gore throughout their day? Easy. Just sign up to receive their tweets. While their tweets may provide insights, or just entertainment (Ashton Kutcher and 50 Cent also tweet), does Twitter have value for business management?
The…
Craig Cochran
When I first got into quality, I really hated verifying the effectiveness of actions taken to correct a problem. After all, I was young and inexperienced. All of the people whose actions I was verifying were older, wiser, and more experienced than I was. Who was I to say that their actions were…
Mark Symonds
It’s no secret to anyone, anywhere, that we’re experiencing a global business challenge, especially in manufacturing.
One could argue that for too long, manufacturers in the United States have been complacent and indifferent to signs of market change, steadily losing market share to offshore…
Geoff Bilau
Geoff Bilau, senior writer for the International Association for Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) Group, was awarded first place for his paper by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for describing the importants of quality standards and accreditation.
--Editor
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t was…
James Odom
Charles Kettering, the famous inventor, once said: “A problem well stated is a problem half solved.” This implies that a good portion of problem solving should be devoted to a thorough understanding of what’s going on before any corrective action steps are taken.
In many cases, too much time is…
Sandford Liebesman
I've been auditing to ISO 9001 since 1992. A part of my auditing philosophy has been to add value to the audited organizations by suggesting opportunities for improvement. Following, I will describe the most effective “value adds.”
Continual improvement
Look at ISO 9001:2000 subclause 8.5.1--"…
Tamar June
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has had many challenges and setbacks in the past few years. From budget cuts, to high-level departures, the agency has also faced fury from lawmakers on Capitol Hill over high-profile device, drug, and food recalls.
Off the record, current, and former…
Lysosomal storage disorders may not sound as dire as diseases such as cancer or Alzheimer’s, but to the people that suffer from them, life can be a nightmare. In fact, three of the primary disorders in this category—Gaucher’s Disease, Fabry Disease, and Pompe Disease—aren’t only characterized by a…
Richard Strouse
Internal auditing, when effectively implemented, can arguably be considered the most important tool in the quality system tool box. It’s the primary method for continuously monitoring a company's quality management system (QMS). In fact, the feedback from internal auditing is critical to the growth…
George Rodrigues
Liquid delivery is a common laboratory process and this critical function is often overlooked. As a result, routine research and test results can be in error based on a simple misunderstanding or misapplication of liquid delivery instruments. This article focuses on defining and exploring accuracy…
Rory Granros
When regulatory compliance and risk management come to mind, they usually evoke feelings of fear, uncertainty, and doubt as to how well an organization is prepared for government scrutiny or any worst-case business scenario. Questions arise, such as: Have we developed the proper procedures to…
Nancy Fullbright
Alan Kent, president and CEO of Meadows Regional Medical Center in Vidalia, Ga., was a champion for implementing lean principles in the hospital’s emergency department. Photo by Gary Meek Emergency rooms in the United States aren’t known for their…
From an antacid to a new cancer treatment, every drug must be proven safe and effective in controlled clinical trials before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows it to be sold in the United States.
When federal law first required controlled clinical trials in 1962, most people…
George Rodrigues
Pharmaceutical processes typically take place on the scale of gallons or liters, even tens of thousands of liters. So why would anyone worry about one little microliter? Because in some situations, deviations as small as one microliter can mean the difference between success and failure.
Modern…
James Jardine
The International Organization for Standardization has developed more than 17,000 international standards on numerous subjects. For medical device companies, the most important of these standards is ISO 13485, which provides internationally recognized guidelines pertaining to quality management…
James Jardine
The International Organization for Standardization has developed more than 17,000 international standards on numerous subjects. For medical device companies, the most important of these standards is ISO 13485, which provides internationally recognized guidelines pertaining to quality management…
In June 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued the dietary supplement current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) final rule (21 CFR Part 111). In essence, the final rule requires that the proper controls be in place for dietary supplements during manufacturing, packaging, labeling, and…