All Features
Quality Digest
(MDMC: New York) -- Mortgage loan analysis provider MDMC has created Quality ONE, a quality control program that emphasizes the quality of each transaction. Quality ONE is the most recent addition to MDMC’s efforts to monitor and improve its level of service. Based on the Six Sigma…
Quality Digest
(Milliken: Spartanburg, South Carolina) -- Milliken & Co. has announced the formation of a dedicated business group to provide performance improvement services to manufacturing companies. The new group is called Milliken Performance Solutions and will be based in Milliken’s Spartanburg,…
Praveen Gupta
It’s easier to start a Six Sigma project than to close it successfully. Green Belts and Black Belts are expected to be working on projects constantly, so they work on projects to meet the existing expectations. Some of these projects are unlikely to yield significant improvement due to lack of…
Quality Digest
(CyberShift: Parsippany, New Jersey) -- CyberShift was recently named one of START-IT magazine’s Hottest Companies of 2007. CyberShift is the only provider of workforce management solutions to earn a spot on this year’s START-IT list. START-IT magazine has held the Hottest Companies…
Quality Digest
(dbMotion: Chicago and Hod HaSharon, Israel) -- Initiate Systems Inc., a provider of enterprise master person index (EMPI) solutions, and dbMotion Ltd., a provider of health care information integration software, recently partnered to create a unique solution for retrieving, integrating, and…
Quality Digest
(NQCA: Washington) -- The National Committee for Quality Assurance recently published an expanded set of measures, guidelines, and technical specifications to allow for standardized, equitable assessment of physician practice quality. The new specifications are based on HEDIS, the most widely…
Quality Digest
(HyperQuality Inc.: Seattle) -- QualityJournal.com was recently launched as a community for people connected with contact center management and operations. It provides industry news, research resource portals, and expert viewpoints, and it’s a resource for all industry-specific…
Bill Kalmar
Organizations that provide spectacular customer service always keep their line people informed of new developments or offers that will improve a process, and of glitches in the system that may have an adverse effect on customers. Similarly, great customer service means being flexible to the needs…
I recently got a call from the owner of a local manufacturing company asking my advice on whether to implement SAP. This is a single-site, $5 million operation with one nice, big, contiguous manufacturing floor, making rather uncomplicated widgets that have a raw material lead time of a couple…
Mike Micklewright
Question:Why was the son of an accountant for a U.S. manufacturing company forbidden to name his dog Fifo?
Answer: His Dad told him that all four-letter words starting with F are bad.
Last Tuesday, I performed another long, exhausting, internal audit with a client near my hometown in Chicago…
Quality Digest
(ES&S: Omaha, Nebraska) -- Election Systems & Software Inc., a provider of total election management solutions, recently announced that its election services division has been awarded registration under ISO/IEC 27001, which defines requirements for establishing, implementing and…
Quality Digest
(TBM Consulting Group: Durham, North Carolina) -- TBM Consulting Group, a provider of business improvement services for the manufacturing and service sectors, presented to WIKA Alexander Wiegand GmbH & Co. the fourth annual Perfect Engine award, recognizing the company’s commitment…
Quality Digest
(ANSI: New York) -- The American National Standards Institute recently announced the availability of an online toolkit for all ANSI-accredited standards developers. Issued under the auspices of the ANSI executive standards council, the comprehensive suite of guidance documents is intended…
Despite the best efforts of pharmaceutical manufacturers, drug labeling is one of the greatest challenges in clinical trials, involving a complex, time-consuming process to meet strict regulatory requirements and obtain wide-ranging approvals from individual countries. That labels must…
Quality Digest
(Natus: San Carlos, California) -- Natus Medical Inc. recently announced that it was awarded a 2007 Medical Design Excellence Award for its Olympic Cool-Cap head-cooling product for newborn brain injury. The award will be presented to Natus at a ceremony to be held June 13, 2007, in New York City.…
Quality Digest
(FDA: Washington) -- U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigators and U.S. marshals recently seized all implantable medical devices from Shelhigh Inc., Union, New Jersey, after finding significant deficiencies in the company’s manufacturing processes. The deficiencies may compromise…
Quality Digest
(Standard Register: Dayton, Ohio) -- For the third consecutive year, Standard Register was named a 2006 Platinum Supplier by MedAssets Supply Chain Systems, a St. Louis-based group purchasing and supply chain services company. The award was recently presented at the 2007 MedAssets…
Quality Digest
(FDA: Washington) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the entry of a Consent Decree of Permanent Injunction against PharmaFab Inc., its subsidiary, PFab LP, and two company officials, Mark Tengler, PharmaFab’s president, and Russ McMahen, PFab’s vice president of…
Thomas R. Cutler
Customer relationship management (CRM) usually refers to sales activities, and CRM software is commonly purchased, and occasionally used, to track potential customers, existing customers and sales activities.
“Contract manufacturing is unquestionably a relationship business. CRM must manage the…
Quality Digest
(Child Care Resources Inc.: Charlotte, North Carolina) -- Child Care Resources Inc.’s Child Care Search service recently became North Carolina’s first quality-assured child care resource and referral service through the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies.…
Quality Digest
(ASQ: Milwaukee) -- The American Society for Quality recently announced a new slate of officers for the 2007–08 term. Chairman Ronald Atkinson President Michael Nichols President-elect Roberto Saco Treasurer E. David…
Quality Digest
(ANSI: New York) -- Members of the American National Standards Institute are invited to participate in the annual recommendation of qualified candidates for the 2008 ANSI board of directors and for membership, voting and nonvoting, on policy committees. Nominations must be received no later than…
Quality Digest
(AIAG: Shanghai)—In a continuing effort to promote communication and collaboration between the North American and Chinese automotive industries, the Automotive Industry Action Group and the Automatic Identification Manufacturer Association of China (AIM) have agreed to work together on…
Thomas R. Cutler
Customer relationship management (CRM) usually refers to sales activities, and CRM software is commonly purchased, and occasionally used, to track potential customers, existing customers and sales activities.
“Contract manufacturing is unquestionably a relationship business. CRM must manage the…
Steven Ouellette
Repent of your wicked ways O fellow Six Sigma Heretics, or surely you shall be smitten (smoted? smited? smartied?) and turned into a pillar of out-of-spec material! The End (of the Top Ten Stupid Six Sigma Tricks countdown, anyway) is here! What could possibly be the No. 1 reason that Six…
