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ISO 9000 Conference
(ISO 9000 Conference: Pittsburgh) -- Because the International Lean and Six Sigma Conference is created by practitioners for practitioners, it has become one of the most popular lean Six Sigma conferences in the world. Scheduled for Feb 26–March 1, 2011, in Orlando, Florida, the conference will run…
William A. Levinson
Many appliance, big box, and other stores recommend the purchase of extended warranties to go with consumer electronics. They are available for automobiles as well, but they are rarely if ever cost effective. The bathtub curve (figure 1), a model for failure or hazard rates in reliability…
PPT VISION Inc.
(PPT Vision: Bloomington, MN) -- PPT VISION now extends a full, one-year guarantee on its complete line of machine vision camera installations, including hardware, software, and accessories, as well as the overall performance in meeting the application requirements.
“PPT VISION is the first…
Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence
(Hexagon Metrology: Cobham, Surrey, UK) -- m&h Inprocess Messtechnik GmbH has launched the RWP38.41 radio-wave probe and the RWT35.50 radio wave tool-measuring system.
The new radio-wave probe and tool measuring system can be used together; a single receiver can communicate…
LATAB
(LATAB: Vällingby, Sweden) -- LATAB, the Swedish manufacturer of LED lighting systems for industrial image processing, is expanding its range of ring lights, dome, and coaxial lights by adding RGB models.
Each of the individual light channels (red, green, and blue) can be controlled separately…
SGS
(SGS: Geneva) -- SGS, a leading inspection, verification, testing, and certification company, has completed construction of an inspection and laboratory facility in Carson, California. Strategically located 30 minutes south of Los Angeles and adjacent to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach…
Thomson Reuters
(Thomson Reuters: Ann Arbor, MI) -- Thomson Reuters has released its third annual study identifying the 10 top U.S. health systems based on quality of care, efficiency, and patient satisfaction.
The top 10 are:
• Advocate Health Care*—Oak Brook, Illinois
• Cape Cod Healthcare—Hyannis,…
ISO
(ISO: Geneva) -- With already a wide-ranging portfolio of more than 18,600 international standards covering everything from screw sizes to social responsibility, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) continues to diversify its scope with the recent addition and expansion of five…
Stewart Anderson
Often a firm is confronted with the key question of whether the quality of its products and services should be improved. For many readers, the question may even seem illogical: How could it not be beneficial for a firm to improve the quality of its products and services?
On closer analysis, however…
Bill Kalmar
Have you ever had one of those days where confusion reigns and as each hour ensues, you find something new to dwell on that absolutely drives you nuts? Well, I just had one of those days. It started this morning as I was out for my daily five-mile run. As is my custom, I have my cell phone strapped…
Buehler
(Buehler: Lake Bluff, IL) -- By combining the industry’s most intuitive user interface, custom-designed optics, USB data communication, LED illumination, six turret positions, and an integrated digital camera, Buehler’s MicroMet 6000 Series establishes a new class of dead-weight micro-indentation…
Donald J. Wheeler
Whenever we present capability indexes the almost inevitable follow-up question is, “What is the fraction nonconforming?” What this question usually means is, “Tell me what these capability indexes mean in terms that I can understand.” These questions have resulted in multiple approaches to…
Cole-Parmer
(Cole-Parmer: Vernon Hills, IL) -- Cole-Parmer introduces their Compact Color Meters—ideal for checking painted surfaces, plastics, graphics, paper, textile, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics, plus food and agriculture. Meters containing a sapphire window offer extra protection for the color sensor.…
Wiley
(Wiley: Hoboken, NJ) -- Brand New: Solving the Innovation Paradox—How Great Brands Invent and Launch New Products, Services, and Business Models, by G. Michael Maddock, Luisa C. Uriarte, Paul B. Brown (Wiley, 2011) condenses decades of new-product-launch experience from the consulting firm Maddock…
Institute for Healthcare Improvement IHI
(IHI: Cambridge, MA) -- More than a decade of eye-opening mortality and morbidity studies have steadily increased awareness of the medical errors and defects in care that are heavily embedded in health care delivery. Work in this area, while robust, is far from complete and must be put on the front…
FDAnews
(FDAnews: Falls Church, VA) -- Register today for the Eighth Annual Medical Device Quality Congress, scheduled for June 8–9, 2011, in Bethesda, Maryland. This year the conference will feature more than 15 in-depth sessions headed up by leading quality experts, including sessions led by 10 officials…
Smarter Solutions Inc.
Teaching design of experiments (DOE) to students is not an easy task. It is difficult to simulate the entire effort within the constraints of a classroom. You can teach the analysis with software, but this is not enough to really gain an understanding of DOE. Smarter Solutions Inc. is offering…
NIST
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released a suite of green tea reference materials to help manufacturers evaluate the composition of their products and assure researchers of the accuracy of analytical methods for studying the human health effects of this popular…
Kinetic Systems
(Kinetic Systems: Boston) -- Kinetic Systems has designed a versatile, ultra-low-natural-frequency optical table isolation support system. Due to its unique Minus K negative-stiffness technology, the MK52 optical table isolation support system achieves low net vertical natural frequency without…
ZweigWhite
(ZweigWhite: Fayetteville, AR) -- In an era where creativity, reputation, and interconnectivity are highly desirable, more design firm leaders are turning to social media to strut their stuff, according to an informal online survey held by The Zweig Letter. According to the results, 75 percent…
Advanced Inspection Technologies Inc.
(Advanced Inspection Technologies: Melbourne, FL) -- The new Snakescope Video Borescope is portable and handheld, and can snake through areas as small as 5.5 mm (0.216 in.). This video borescope breaks the price barriers while offering a true, high-resolution image and advanced features. The…
The Beryl Institute
The Beryl Institute released a report highlighting results from its recent patient-experience benchmarking study, conducted in collaboration with Catalyst Healthcare Research, an independent marketing research firm. The report, which offers analysis and perspective on the study, can be…
Mayo Clinic
“We can do better” was the underlying takeaway message from the 15th annual Mayo Clinic Quality Conference. This year’s theme was “Creating and Paying for Value in Health Care.”
The conference, held May 3–4, 2011, in Rochester, Minnesota, drew about 1,000 people to hear national leaders in…
Mike Richman
Last month I wrote an article entitled “Being Comfortable in a World of Never-Ending Change.” Editor in Chief Dirk Dusharme and I also covered this story on the April 29th edition of Quality Digest Live (QDL). QDL, by the way, is our live video show wrap-up of the week’s top industry news and…
David L. Chandler
Photo: Greg Hren/RLE
Researchers at MIT have succeeded in making a fine thread that functions as a diode, a device at the heart of modern electronics. This feat—made possible by a new approach to a type of fiber manufacturing known as fiber drawing—could open up possibilities…