Ihave had a big smile on my face for much of the last month because I’ve had the opportunity to visit progressive organizations on three continents to look at their efforts to create lean value streams.

(XPRESS Precision Engineering: Eindhoven, The Netherlands) — XPRESS Precision Engineering B.V. announces its next series of tactile probes: the Heimen series. This range is positioned between ultra precision probes and standard scanning probes.

(TÜV SÜD America: Peabody, MA) -- TÜV SÜD America Inc. announces the recent hiring of Eric Ripley to the position of greenhouse gas (GHG) engineer and auditor for its Industry Service’s Carbon Management Division.

(Bosch Rexroth: Buchanan, MI) --  Bosch Rexroth and well-known lean manufacturing training organization

(TÜVRheinland: Newtown, CT) —  Starting March 21, all medical device manufacturers must comply with the Directive 2007/47/EC or risk being pulled from the European Union market.

(LMI Technologies Inc.: Delta, BC, Canada) — LMI Technologies Inc.

(ASQ: Milwaukee) -- While Congress debates the best options for reform, a new poll of U.S. health care quality improvement experts shows that solving payment problems and restructuring the malpractice suits/tort reform top the list of areas that would help to eliminate waste.

T

was the night before Christmas and all through the plant
Not a technician was stirring, no quality rants.

After a meal at a local Chinese restaurant, my fortune cookie said, “If you keep too busy learning the tricks of the trade, you may never learn the trade.” When I think about how this applies to Six Sigma, it seems obvious that far too much Six Sigma training is ded