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Quality Digest
The use of value-stream mapping recently helped the U.S. Navy improve its acquisition processes. The value-stream map was produced by some of the Navy’s top lean Six Sigma practitioners at a kaizen competition designed to improve the Navy’s complex justification and approval (J&A) process. J…
Quality Digest
Statistical Design Institute and Southern Methodist University’s Systems Engineering Program will host an upcoming workshop for enhanced product development using Six Sigma. The event will focus on the integration of systems engineering and design for Six Sigma in product development. It will be…
Quality Digest
The Performance Management Group recently started offering a package that includes unlimited training and consulting for a full year. The package also includes Black Belt certifications, Green Belt certifications, Yellow Belt certifications, the implementation of a customized Six Sigma system and…
Quality Digest
Vintara recently released a fully integrated tool that allows authorized document editors to revise and save any compliance-related document. The software is useful for easily maintaining and verifying compliance to a long list of standards and methodologies, including Six Sigma, ISO standards and…
Quality Digest
An upcoming conference will focus on creating synergy between organizations’ various quality improvement efforts. The SCOR/Six Sigma/Lean Convergence Forum will examine ways to align implementations of quality efforts for maximum benefit. It will be held Nov. 7–8 at the Grand Hyatt DFW Airport…
Quality Digest
An upcoming conference will focus on the use of Six Sigma in the services and transactional sectors. The 2nd annual Six Sigma in Services and Transactional Environments Summit will be held Oct. 20–21 in Scottsdale, Arizona. It is sponsored by WCBF, which reports that last year’s event sold out.…
Quality Digest
Henri Pierre Sallé was recently elected as board director of the International Accreditation Forum Inc. Sallé, who is president of KEMA Registered Quality Inc., has been the chairman of the Independent Association of Accredited Registrars since 2002. He has been the IAF’s Financial Oversight…
Quality Digest
The Optimize Clinical Trial Data Collection and Exchange conference will be held Oct. 24–25 at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. Kelly Vaillant, Amgen Corp. global head of clinical data management, will serve as the conference chairman. Valliant and Tim Dietlin, Campbell Alliance…
Quality Digest
Because of the great confusion about restricted access barrier systems (RABS), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering have released a definition paper to elucidate industry professionals on the topic.The paper includes key elements of RABS…
Quality Digest
American pharmaceutical companies have donated millions of dollars in cash and medicines to the Gulf Coast region for victims of Hurricane Katrina. The assistance is being sent to both public and private relief organizations. The donations include:
$2 million in cash and $4.5 million in…
Quality Digest
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America recently launched a new, more patient-friendly Web site. The new site includes stories of patients who are successfully fighting serious illnesses, provides information about the research and development of new medicines, details facts and…
Quality Digest
TÜV America recently announced its ability to offer medical device certifications to the new Japanese Pharmaceutical Affairs Law (PAL). Effective since April 1, PAL monitors how medical devices are marketed and regulated in Japan. It regulates and classifies medical devices by their level of risk.…
Quality Digest
The Association for Operations Management (APICS) has moved its 2005 conference from New Orleans to Kansas City, Missouri. The event will be held on the same dates (Oct. 16–18) as it was originally planned, but at the Kansas City Convention Center instead of at the Ernest P. Morial Convention…
Quality Digest
A new survey by the International Organization for Standardization finds that the service sectors are the largest users of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. The worldwide number of ISO 9001 certificates at the end of 2004 was 670,399, up 35 percent over 2003 and up 64 percent from 2000, the year before the…
Quality Digest
An average of 300,000 American service and professional jobs will be sent overseas by 2015, so the American National Standards Institute will host a conference to help organizations prepare to do business as the global business climate shifts. “Conference for Certification of Personnel:…
Quality Digest
TÜV America will offer a unique opportunity to test drive four luxury vehicles at two distinct events next month. All participants have to do is simply give their opinions. Test drivers will be asked to rate the general appear of the vehicle, its interior, seating position and other questions. The…
Quality Digest
Customer satisfaction with American-made automobiles increased slightly in the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index, but satisfaction with Japanese- and Korean-made cars increased even more, widening the customer satisfaction gap that U.S. automakers have been struggling mightily to close.…
Daniel S. Munson
The Empire State Building in New York City, with its 103 stories, 73 elevators, 2,500,000 feet of electrical cable and 6,500 windows, was built in 405 days. The framework rose at a rate of four-and-a-half stories per week. That’s nearly a floor a day. Most impressive was that the project came in…
Quality Digest
The use of Six Sigma has saved GW Plastics tens of thousands of dollars, and the company expects current projects to yield even larger savings, company officials report. The company started several Six Sigma projects 14 months ago with the goal of increasing weigh-count throughput and in-process…
Quality Digest
Instantis recently penned agreements with two consultancies to provide exclusive Six Sigma software. Instantis will be the exclusive strategic Six Sigma enterprise software partner of Air Academy Associates and Advanced Integrated Technologies’ enterprise performance improvement software partner.…
Quality Digest
Intentia recently launched a Theory of Constraints production planning solution for lean manufacturing applications. The solution is ideal for manufacturers with make-to-order environments where demand is volatile and different product lines share the same resources, creating bottlenecks. The…
Quality Digest
Pivotal Resources and Ideas@Work, a Belgium-based consultancy, have announced a strategic alliance that will expand Pivotal Resources’ services in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Initially, the alliance will focus on bringing Pivotal Resources’ open enrollment Six Sigma Green Belt, Black…
Quality Digest
The National Committee for Quality Assurance and U.S. News & World Report will rank U.S. health plans in the magazine’s Oct. 3 issue. The issue will hit newsstands on the same day NCQA will release its annual State of Health Care Quality report. Hundreds of commercial, Medicare and Medicaid…
Quality Digest
IQMS recently launched a new partnership with PlasticsGrid that will expand the company’s offerings in Europe. IQMS is the developer of EnterpriseIQ ERP software, a solution for repetitive, process and discrete manufacturing environments. The exclusive distribution partnership with PlasticsGrid…
Quality Digest
iGrafx recently integrated its business process analysis solutions into Adobe Systems’ LiveCycle Workflow platform. The integration of iGrafx’s BPA capabilities into Adobe’s process management software will help organizations improve operational efficiencies, comply with regulatory requirements,…
