All Features
Patrice L. Spath
Measurements of patient care continuity should encompass all of the components of health care delivery—structure, process, and outcome. “Structure” in health care delivery refers to the way a health care entity organizes itself and sets up operations. Health care structures include elements such…
Brian Hughes
Part one of “To Root Or Not To Root,”presented a dilemma that many managers face all too often. Regardless of approach, does a problem warrant a full-blown root cause analysis? A scan of the comments to part one indicates that root cause analysis has different meanings to different people. Some…
Bill Kalmar
One of my favorite movies is a dark gangster movie starring Joe Pesci entitled "8 Heads in A Duffel Bag." Pesci, a mob courier is hired to transport the heads of eight murder victims to a mafia boss to prove that the “hits” had in fact taken place. Unfortunately and comically, the duffel bag…
In the world of marketing and branding, sticking out like a sore thumb isn’t necessarily bad, advises brand innovation specialist Chandran Dharmarajan, a co-founder of I-morph, a marketing innovation consultancy based in Singapore. Dharmarajan, who has worked for more than a decade with Unilever…
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…
Peter J. Sherman
Today’s hyper-competitive business environment is creating a need for even more new products, new services, and new processes. Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) offers a generalized and effective approach for designing new products and services from the ground up. One of the more popular DFSS…
Steven Ouellette
By the time you read this, the amazingly long U.S. presidential election will be over. All U.S. citizens will be wandering around aimlessly bumping into objects, pressing their hands to the sides of their heads as the indignation poisons slowly leave their bodies, leaving them with a hangover-like…
Thomas R. Cutler
Lean theory suggests that the possibilities for quality improvement exist everywhere. Rarely does that concept translate to a damaged corrugated box in a warehouse—but it should. The cost of damaged packaging, particularly cardboard containers, is very significant in bottom-line costs (damaged…
Brian Hughes
Jodi Ullman glanced at her watch: 10:25 a.m. She pushed back from her desk, stood up, and stretched—after first peeking out the door of her office toward the cubical maze to make sure no one was watching. She’d been staring at the screen of her laptop for two hours, poring over the latest…
Wini Hayes
A well-respected surgical group requests a new surgical device that they swear will revolutionize how surgery is performed in your hospital. The price tag is well into seven figures, with significant annual maintenance and training costs. A competing hospital is advertising to consumers that they…
Akhilesh Gulati
A physics exam question asked students to describe how they would use a barometer to measure the height of a skyscraper. One student who failed the test contested that his answer was correct. He was given a second chance to defend his position, verbally, to the professor. When the student didn’t…
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…
Bill Kalmar
For the past 35 years or so, I have been a runner. My daily routine consists of a five-mile run followed by a seven-mile bike ride. Over the years, I have competed in numerous 10K (6.2 mile) events, 5Ks (3.1 mile), a marathon (26.2 mile), several half marathons; and for the past 21 years, I have…
Thomas Hinton
It was Kermit the Frog who said “It’s not easy being green.” With all due respect to my favorite Muppet, I beg to differ. In fact, it’s never been easier to be green. Kermit would be proud to know that companies around the world are finally discovering the gold in going green.
This decade,…
Steven Ouellette
Every once in a while, people ask about acceptance sampling plans and I get all riled up. We all know (especially in this political season) that humans are addicted to their indignation high, so here’s your fix for today.
Back when defective products and services were considered inevitable, the…
Quality Digest
In the context of project management, a resource is any entity that contributes to the accomplishment of project activities. Most project resources perform work and include such entities as personnel, equipment, and contractors. The concept of a resource and the techniques of resource management…
The use of drug product is widespread and touches all aspects of our daily lives without our knowing it. From aspirin to cardiac medicine and from hormones in animal feed to over-the-counter dietary supplements, these products are used every day. What they all have in common are specific government…
CMSC
The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), a $1.4 billion research facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), is a feat of precision engineering, execution, and control. Each component of the SNS machine requires exactness in location and assembly only achieved through the use of laser tracking…
In 2007, all three Richard Childress Racing (RCR) teams qualified for the Chase for NASCAR’s Nextel Cup. On top of this formidable accomplishment, RCR’s top race car drivers did great: Kevin Harvick won the famous Daytona 500, Jeff Burton won in Texas, and Clint Bowyer won in New Hampshire and…
CMSC
The 24th Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference convened at the Embassy Suites in Concord, North Carolina, from July 21-25, 2008. With a record number of attendees, this year’s conference offered a multifaceted program consisting of a sold-out exhibition hall with 54 exhibitors, a workshop,…
Bretta Kelly
I
SO 9001 says in subclause 5.1, "Executive management shall provide evidence of its commitment to the development and implementation of the quality management system and continually improving its effectiveness by:
a) Communicating to the organization the importance of meeting customer…
Mike Micklewright
Question: What is the proper way of wearing a Black Belt once you’ve earned it?
Answer:
as in ….
I’m a changed man. I’m an American Society for Quality (ASQ)-certified Six Sigma Black Belt. To obtain the ASQ Black Belt, I had to pass a test and then show proof to someone within…
Akhilesh Gulati
"We have had a series of power outages even though we have central and local uninterrupted power supply (UPS) systems. This disruption causes a loss of service to our customers. While we don’t necessarily lose data, it’s an irritant, and also results in loss of productivity. Perhaps we could…
Douglas C. Fair
I travel too much. Invariably, though, it enriches me. I typically return with some unusual experience or a new story with which to regale my colleagues. One day, while sitting in another aluminum tube with wings, I struck up a conversation with the person next to me, an engaging, interesting…
John J. Casey
When I was a boy, my grandmother used to read me nursery rhymes to entertain me and teach me about the world. One has resonated with me for years:
"For want of a nail the shoe was lost
For want of a nail the horse was lost
For want of a horse the warrior was lost
For want of a warrior the…