As a methodology, Six Sigma has been around since the 1980s. Yet it took a couple of U.S. industry giants, Allied Signal and GE, to draw the world’s attention to the benefits the program offers businesses.

(Publisher’s Note: This article, is reprinted with permission from THE INFORMED OUTLOOK, in which it first appeared in Nov. 2003.)

George Group, DeLeeuw Associates Inc. and iSixSigma have formed a strategic alliance to create an Internet portal for the financial services industry, focused specifically on the application of Six Sigma.

Seagate Technology, a leading disc drive company, has earned sixsigmaIQ’s annual Six Sigma Excellence Award for the best design for Six Sigma project.

A recent study indicates that most leading companies target quality by incorporating lean simplification and demand flow techniques with Six Sigma defect reduction.

IXPERION has scheduled this year’s American and European Six Sigma in Finance conferences for April 20 and 21 in Chicago and May 25 and 26 in London.

StatSoft Inc. will hold a STATISTICA training seminar in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, April 13-15. The deadline for registration is March 29.

BSI Management Systems is offering its suite of medical devices management system training courses in Minneapolis and Boston this spring.

Powerway Inc., a provider of product development process solutions for manufacturers, has launched Powerway.com v. 2.0.

Nikon Instruments Inc. has signed an exclusive agreement with Bacus Laboratories Inc.