All Features
Theysan Kasirajan
Editor’s note: We’re intrigued by this article, in which the author posits the idea of "Theozen," the author’s term for a God-based approach to quality.
Most of us have some sort of spiritual belief, whether it’s part of an organized religion such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam,…
Quality Digest
In a letter from Navy Capt. Dorothy J. Freer to Sikorsky president Jeffrey Pino, the oversight agency criticized Sikorsky’s reliance on subcontractors and recommended suspending activity at one subcontractor, according to a recent story from the Associated Press.
In regard to Sikorsky’s attempts to…
Quality Digest
The market for continuous improvement software—primarily programs for lean and Six Sigma—had total hardware, software and services revenues of more than $200 billion in 2005, and it will nearly double by the end of 2010, according to new research. Research firm ARC Advisory Group forecasts…
Quality Digest
MoreSteam.com recently announced a two-fold expansion of its lean Six Sigma curriculum. Each of the online training company’s lean Six Sigma DMAIC courses—Black Belt, Yellow Belt and Executive Overview—are now available in versions customized for service or transactional environments. In…
Quality Digest
Tom Johnstone, president and CEO of SKF, recently received the Six Sigma Premier Leader Award from the International Society of Six Sigma Professionals. Johnstone is the first corporate leader in Europe to receive the prestigious award. It was presented during the ISSSP’s 6th annual Six…
Quality Digest
Chuck Aubrey, vice president of process management and lean Six Sigma for Anderson Packaging Inc., received the prestigious Harrington-Ishikawa Medal at the 12th annual Asia Pacific Quality Organization Conference. The conference was held in October in Sydney, Australia, and Aubrey spoke…
Praveen Gupta
Most quality management systems don’t produce the desired results because of the way companies use it to affect their bottom line.
A QMS is often considered to be a burden, and there’s apathy in all levels of the organization toward quality. ISO 9001 systems, for example, are considered to be paper…
Quality Digest
A civilian worker at the Corpus Christi Army Depot was recently recognized for his supervision of a Six Sigma project that dramatically improved maintenance work on Army aircraft. George Kunkle III, the depot’s process optimization manager, received the first-ever Joint Depot…
Quality Digest
CATSWeb PreConfigured Quality Management and Regulatory Compliance Solutions provides organizations with an alternative secure, easy-to-use enterprise quality solution that can be accessed over the Internet.AssurX’s latest solution includes best practices for managing the quality and…
Quality Digest
VLSI Research Inc.’s customer satisfaction survey on chip-making equipment has bestowed five stars on Advantest Corp., based on the company’s equipment performance and customer service evaluations.Advantest sells automatic test equipment to the semiconductor industry and demonstrated…
Bill Kalmar
As the holiday season approaches, several inevitable occurrences will try our patience. Along with people jostling in lines, the NASCAR-like jockeying in the parking lots, out-of-stock merchandise and interminably long lines for Santa, we also have to endure the banes of holiday…
Quality Digest
As quality assurance manager of the flex circuit division, Chester Wright will manage all compliance programs and activities related to products, including ISO standards, Underwriters Laboratories certification and military specifications certifications for Vulcan Electric Co. Wright…
Quality Digest
Hormel Foods Corp. recently bestowed its Hormel No. 1 Award on Silgan Containers, a subsidiary of Silgan Holdings.Hormel uses a supplier quality management system to evaluate its largest suppliers’ performance in deliveries, quality, administrative services and customer satisfaction. “Silgan…
Quality Digest
The American Association for Laboratory Accreditation has granted accreditation to the Moldflow Plastics Labs testing facility in Ithaca, New York.The A2LA accreditation validates nine mechanical property tests and is a testament to Moldflow’s technical competence in the field of…
Quality Digest
Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance recently launched businessAssurance.com, and in so doing made a strategic investment in global knowledge-sharing among quality managers and others in management systems and reporting. A first in its field, businessassurance.com aims to enable the creation…
Quality Digest
Verizon’s LiveSource operator services team answers more than 3 million wireless and wireline calls a day and was ranked best in the semiannual National Directory Assistance Performance Index. Verizon leads independent local exchange carriers in customer fulfillment with a score of 93.7…
Quality Digest
ASI DataMyte Inc. recently opened a new representative office in Singapore. Candice Choy, formerly with ASI DataMyte distributor Cairnhill Metrology Pte. Ltd., will manage the new office as ASI DataMyte’s regional sales manager for the Asia Pacific region. ASI DataMyte already has a…
Quality Digest
Three organizations—a manufacturing company, a hospital and a health care alliance—received the 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The winners are MESA Products Inc., Premier Inc. and North Mississippi Medical Center. The companies were announced by President Bush and Commerce…
Quality Digest
A new version of the online Quality Dividend Calculator demonstrates that choosing high-quality health plans often results in lower health care costs and better employee productivity. The QDC, released by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, estimates the number of sick days…
Larry P. English
Déja vu After the 2006 primary elections in the United States, a local newspaper article headline read, “Computer ballots in stage of ‘trial and error.’” Although elections are critical in a democratic society, electronic voting that isn’t transparent has been introduced with a trial-…
Quality Digest
The Food and Drug Administration recently named Orion Registrar Inc. a member of its Inspection by Accredited Persons Program (IAP). The designation will let Orion Registrar perform federally mandated product safety and quality system inspections of eligible medical-device manufacturers.…
Georgia Tech postdoctoral fellow Jean-Francois Masson holds a microelectrode modified with a biosensing layer capable of measuring adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a chemical involved in energy transport in humans. It’s of interest to medical…
Quality Digest
The current research and development of dozens of major cancer therapies will spur enormous sales potential in the market over the next 15 years, according to a study by Pharmacor and Decision Resources Inc. The report says that five new classes of cancer drugs will jointly account for…
Quality Digest
Lonza Group AG recently bought Cambrex Corp.’s bioproducts and biopharma businesses. Cambrex’ bioproducts business manufactures and markets research, therapeutic and analytical testing products based on cell biology for drug discovery and biotherapeutic manufacturing. The biopharma segment…
Quality Digest
Medicare beneficiaries previously without drug coverage significantly reduced their out-of-pocket prescription costs and now have better access to medication because of the Part D drug benefit added to Medicare last year. Those were the findings of a study conducted by the Amundsen Group…
