All Features
Steven Ouellette
This month let’s examine another common mistake that some people (not my loyal, intelligent, heretical and, let’s face it, downright attractive readers) make when they use Six Sigma. I expect to seriously annoy some practitioners when I say that Six Sigma isn’t a method of continuous…
Craig Cochran
Last year I had the good fortune of doing some consulting with B&C Specialty Products in Hopeulikit, Georgia. B&C does light manufacturing, primarily plastic molding and assembly, and they also distribute imported products produced by companies in the Far East. They have about…
Quality Digest
StatSoft Inc. has opened a new office in Oslo, Norway. It’s the third international office the company has opened this year, bringing the number of StatSoft’s international offices to 22. The facilities provide sales, technical support, implementation services, configuration services…
Quality Digest
The American National Standards Institute and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, along with the Standardization Administration of China, recently launched a new online portal to simplify trade between the United States and China. Designed primarily for industry…
Quality Digest
The e-TQM College, the world’s first online school for the field of total quality management (TQM) recently announced the creation of the Harrington Best TQM Thesis Award, named in honor of renowned quality expert, and Quality Digest columnist, James Harrington. The award was established…
Quality Digest
Do you want to use Six Sigma concepts, but you’re frustrated by the complex mathematical equations involved?An upcoming book addresses this issue, outlining nonmathematical presentations of the statistical topics that Green Belts must master. Statistics for Six Sigma Green Belts with…
Quality Digest
RABQSA International Inc. recently entered the European personnel training market. The personnel certification organization signed a cooperation agreement with the Society of Trainers, Assessors and Registered Professionals (STAREGISTER) for the delivery of RABQSA’s personnel and training…
Fred Mason
No, this isn’t about promises you made on New Year’s Eve and broke the next day. It’s about measurement resolution—the number of decimal places to which a measured value is calculated and presented. The measurement can be of any parameter—voltage, distance, weight, temperature, whatever. The…
Quality Digest
Instron Corp. was recently accredited to perform displacement verifications in compliance with ASTM E 2309. The company reports that it is among the first calibration providers to receive accreditation for the new standard. Standard verification includes five data points within the…
Quality Digest
The L.S. Starrett Co. recently acquired the assets of Tru-Stone Technologies Inc., a Minnesota-based provider of high-precision, custom-engineered granite machine bases and accessories to manufacturers of inspection and measurement equipment. Starrett reports that the acquisition will…
Quality Digest
Team Torque Inc. has announced the recent accreditation of its calibration lab and customer support center. The American Association for Laboratory Accreditation awarded the company with registrations to ISO 17025 and Z540-1. The accreditation includes a mutual recognition agreement…
Quality Digest
ACLASS Corp., a Washington, D.C.-based ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation body, recently signed onto an international recognition agreement for calibration and testing. Company representatives attended the 11th Annual General Assembly of the Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation in August,…
Quality Digest
Bede X-ray Metrology, a provider of X-ray metrology solutions to the semiconductor industry, has announced a collaboration with IMEC, a Belgian nanoelectronics and nanotechnology research center. The companies will investigate the use of X-ray metrology in the process control of new…
George Rodrigues Ph.D.
The pipette is a reliable precision instrument that has been used and trusted for many years. However, as with many forms of instrumentation, a pipette performs only as well as the operator’s technique allows. Differences in technique—some more than others—can alter delivery volumes and affect data…
Quality Digest
A new standard in the ISO 14000 series is expected to help users increase business support and confidence, while promoting their environmental credentials and performance. ISO 14063: 2006, ”Environmental management—Environmental communication—Guidelines and examples,” will help…
Quality Digest
Two new documents published by the International Organization for Standardization address supply chain security. The documents will help implement ISO/PAS 28000:2005, a recently published specification for supply chain security management systems. They’re part of a suite of standards…
Denise Robitaille
I was recently asked to comment on the ISO 9001 requirements regarding external documents. My first reaction was to point out a distinctive subtlety in the actual text of the requirement. Many users have gotten into the habit of referring to this category as “external documents” when in fact, the…
Brandon Kerkstra
For 20 years, I have worked with many companies to achieve a variety of registrations. As a sales manager, auditor, consultant and trainer, I have noticed that a number of companies haven’t realized the benefits that they expected from standards registration. Some of them have actually become worse…
Chip Evans
This is the first of a series of articles intended to share with Quality Digest’s readers key aspects of the global movement toward hazardous substance–free (HSF) products and processes and how they affect organizations. SBGi helps producers of electronic and electrical products prepare…
Quality Digest
The American National Standards Institute will host its 2006 Annual Conference on Oct. 11 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. Carlos Gutierrez, Department of Commerce secretary, will deliver the keynote address, focusing on how standards…
Quality Digest
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association is developing a new standard for a new technology called broadband over power lines (BPL). BPL will allow consumers to access the Internet, send e-mail and automate their homes simply by plugging into an…
Thomas R. Cutler
The tagline to the 1989 film "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" was “The Enterprise is back. This time, have they gone too far?”
With up to 10 years of continued process improvements on the plant floor, and in back office and distribution operations, manufacturers have finally arrived at the front…
Quality Digest
Wayne Caccamo is Instantis’s new vice president of marketing. Caccamo will oversee and execute global plans to promote EnterpriseTrack, the company’s flagship software product. Before joining the company, Caccamo was vice president of worldwide marketing for Pathlore Software Corp. He has…
Quality Digest
Employees of Mercury Marine recently completed their 1,000th lean Six Sigma project. Mercury Marine, a Wisconsin-based manufacturer of marine propulsion systems, began using Six Sigma and lean concepts in its manufacturing processes in 2003. Since then, it has trained almost 700 management…
Quality Digest
Despite rising vehicle costs and high gas prices, consumers gave the auto industry its highest perceived quality rating in a decade, according to the Quarterly Quality Report. Compiled by the American Society for Quality, the report measured the auto industry’s perceived quality score…
