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Quality Digest
Carl Zeiss SMT recently marked the 40th anniversary of its watershed scanning electron microscope.The product was developed in 1965 by Cambridge Instrument Co., a U.K.-based predecessor of Carl Zeiss SMT’s nanotechnology division. Four decades later, the SEM is still partly manufactured in…
Quality Digest
An upcoming American National Standards Institute course will examine the use of an emerging standardization process in the homeland security profession. Strategic Standardization Management is a process that investigates all aspects of standardization across a business, organization or industry…
Quality Digest
The Standards Council of Canada will simultaneously commemorate its 35th anniversary and World Standards Day next month. SCC will host a special event on World Standards Day, Oct. 14, which will include commemorative speeches, several workshop presentations and an exhibit. National stakeholders,…
Quality Digest
The Standards Council of Canada recently expanded TÜV America Inc.’s accreditation to include SPE-1000-99, field evaluations and special inspections. The accreditation includes the following inspection services: custom-built equipment for special applications, equipment manufactured on a…
Quality Digest
The American National Standards Institute recently granted final approval to a new standard, ANSI/AIHA Standard Z10.The new standard allows organizations to integrate occupational health and safety (OHS) management into their overall business management systems. It focuses on principles that are…
Quality Digest
The German Institute for Standardization (DIN) recently submitted a proposal to the International Organization for Standardization for a new field of ISO activity on the subject of potentially explosive atmospheres. The DIN proposal suggests that there’s an urgent need to harmonize existing…
Quality Digest
TÜV America Inc. recently announced that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has approved an expansion of the registrar’s Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory scope of accreditation. OSHA approved the addition of 44 standards to TÜV America’s NRTL scope, expanding its…
Quality Digest
Rockwell Automation Inc. has acquired Quality Rewind & Electric Inc., a motor repair and management company based in Alberta, Canada. The acquisition provides Rockwell Automation with the opportunity to expand its operations in the Canadian oil sands industry, in which capital spending is…
Quality Digest
The Israel Society for Quality will host its 16th International Conference in November in Tel Aviv. The event, titled “Quality as a Catalyst for Global Cooperation,” will focus on quality’s affects on developing and established economies. It will be held Nov. 14–16, 2006, and will coincide with the…
Quality Digest
IQS has enhanced its enterprise solution to enable seamless integration of its enterprise advanced product quality planning functionality within the Microsoft Project interface. The integration allows an at-a-glance visibility to information across all business units while working in Microsoft…
Quality Digest
General Electric Co. recently announced the acquisition of Everest VIT Inc., a provider of remote visual inspection equipment for industrial applications. Everest VIT, a subsidiary of Welch Allyn, will become part of GE Inspection Technologies, which is based in Huerth, Germany. GE reports that the…
Denise Robitaille
A recurrent theme that dominates discussion on the establishment of corrective action programs is the practice of channeling problems through multiple conduits for assessment and resolution. Organizations inadvertently fragment their corrective action process by trying to address problems and…
Thomas R. Cutler
In repetitive manufacturing, it’s possible to apply statistical process control (SPC) techniques to purchased components and manufacturing quality as well as scrap and yield. Statistical analysis is acceptable if a company mass-purchases or mass-manufactures the same product to the same standards…
Quality Digest
A new survey finds that Six Sigma-related corporate training programs are six times more likely to be recognized as highly successful than those without the methodology. Additionally, only 15 percent of programs rated highly successful didn’t include Six Sigma. Three percent of the programs viewed…
Quality Digest
The American Society for Quality and Creative Healthcare (CHC) will soon offer blended-learning Six Sigma training to quality professionals in the health care industry. Green Belt training sessions will be held Nov. 9–11 in Atlanta. Courses will also be offered at ASQ headquarters in Milwaukee and…
Praveen Gupta
Most Six Sigma initiatives are project-oriented. And although implementing Six Sigma methodology on a project can lead to some improvement, a company can’t achieve full benefit of implementing Six Sigma. To maximize Six Sigma benefits, a corporation must commit to the methodology in its entirety.…
Quality Digest
The 2nd annual Six Sigma in Service & Transactional Environments Summit will be held Oct. 20–21 in Scottsdale, Arizona. The conference, hosted by WCBF, will feature case studies and examples of how Six Sigma is being used in nonmanufacturing environments, an exploration of lean Six Sigma, tips…
Quality Digest
FARO Technologies Inc. recently launched its Software Diversity Program and named Delcam Inc. as the program’s first partner. The SDP is an open-architecture software platform. More than 60 software platforms have joined the first general level, Open Architecture Partnership, which began with the…
Quality Digest
A five-day conference will serve as an educational forum and networking opportunity for business and technical professionals new to information and data quality, as well as those who have already completed data quality improvement projects. The 17th annual Information Quality Conference will be…
Quality Digest
iGrafx’s Partner Program has doubled since its inception at the beginning of the year, the company has announced. iGrafx’s business process analysis software is being used by training and consulting companies all over the world, including Australia, Spain, Jordan and India, among others. This year…
Quality Digest
The Baldrige National Quality Program has released a new case study used to prepare 2005 Baldrige Award examiners. The case study of Landmark Dining Inc. involves a fictitious steak and seafood restaurant and illustrates a theoretical Baldrige Award candidate in the small business category. It also…
Quality Digest
An Indian matchmaking company recently registered to ISO 9001. Kaakateeya Marriages Private Ltd. maintains a database of marriage-minded adults of more than 70,000 people. The company, based in Hyderabad, India, was established in 1981 and today has 25 branches with 300 employees. Members can…
Quality Digest
“Achieving Breakthrough Improvement, No Capital Investment Required,” is the topic of a seminar planned as part of an upcoming conference to be held Sept. 28–30 in Chicago. The seminar will be facilitated by Paul Vragel, president of 4aBetterBusiness Inc. It’s part of the Manufacturing and Economic…
Quality Digest
Infor and Shandong University Qilu Software College recently partnered to promote a study to enterprise applications in the global manufacturing industry. Infor will establish a scholarship and install an Infor Manufacturing Essentials Lab at the college to allow students to attend classes while…
Quality Digest
Virginia and the District of Columbia recently started requiring Medicaid-participating health plans to conform to National Committee for Quality Assurance standards and measures. The agreement reflects the growing emphasis among state Medicaid programs on measuring and improving clinical quality.…
