The city of Austin, Texas, wanted to be listed as one of the top five places to live in the United States. Explaining that vision to the various municipal departments wasn’t difficult.

Every four years our Gregorian calendar provides us with an extra day. Leap year, as it is called, or intercalary or bissextile year, contains one additional day to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year.

Many companies begin their lean improvement journey by first implementing 5S, the Japanese methodology minimizing errors and mistake proofing: seiri (sort), seiton (set in order), seiso (shine), seiketsu (standardization), and

(NSF-DBA: Ann Arbor, MI) -- In response to growing industry and regulatory demand for certified training courses tailored to the needs of pharmaceutical quality management lead and internal auditors, NSF-DBA has developed an audit and self-inspection course.

(CEESI: Nunn, CO) -- The Colorado Engineering Experiment Station Inc. (CEESI), provider of calibration services, specialty testing, research, and engineering services, has announced its 2012 flow-measurement training courses to be held in San Antonio and Houston, Texas, in April.

(DCS: Troy, MI) -- Dimensional Control Systems Inc.

(Jossey-Bass: San Francisco) -- Management and Organization Theory, by Jeffrey A.

(Indicate Technologies: Santa Clara, CA) -- Have you ever wondered why your organization has not been successful implementing geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T)?

Effective leadership is based on ongoing input and feedback. Where 20 years ago managers rarely asked for input, today effective leaders are regularly seeking and receiving employee feedback.

As the economy improves, albeit at a very slow pace, aggregate customer satisfaction with goods and services has improved as well. The ACSI gain for the final quarter of 2011 is very small, but it represents the fourth consecutive quarter without a decline.