(Aicon: Braunschweig, Germany) -- A separate measuring system for each measuring task; this philosophy is a thing of the past. Today, due to economic reasons, measurement equipment must be versatile.

(ASQ: Milwaukee) -- An American Society for Quality (ASQ) survey shows a majority of manufacturers are optimistic about a small economic uptick in 2010 at their organizations. However, respondents believe further cost-cutting measures will continue to be implemented.

(KnowWare International: Denver) -- The QI Macros SPC Software for Excel announces the addition of Levene's Test of variance in normal and non-normal data. One of the keys to Six Sigma in manufacturing and service industries is the reduction of variation.

On Dec. 4, a California-based consumer watchdog group announced that testing performed by them on the enormously popular Zhu Zhu Pets showed that levels of the heavy metal antimony were in excess of federal limits.

Story update 11/23/2010: A paragraph was added to the end of this case study to reflect the current state of the company's quality initiatives.

(Sparta Systems: Holmdel, NJ) --  Sparta Systems Inc., the maker of TrackWise software and a provider of enterprise quality and compliance management solutions, is pleased to announce new additions to the

(Nikon Metrology NV: Leuven, Belgium) — Nikon Metrology and Magestic Systems Inc.

Is anyone performing total quality management (TQM) anymore? MIL-Q-9858A? Total cost of quality (TCQ)? Pert planning? Are there any one-minute managers around? Pareto? What about “up the organization?” Value analysis? Quality is free?

(Olympus NDT: Waltham, MA) — Olympus, a provider of nondestructive testing technologies, is pleased to introduce TomoView v. 2.9—the newest software version of the TomoView ultrasonic data acquisition and analysis software suite.

(CyberMetrics: Phoenix) -- CalPro, from Cybermetrics, is a database of complete step-by-step calibration procedures covering more than 60 kinds of measuring devices—everything from gauge blocks to micrometers and calipers. CalPro is an indispensable asset for any calibration department.