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Quality Digest
Northwestern Memorial Hospital, which has implemented an aggressive Six Sigma program, recently received one of the nation’s top awards for quality health care. The hospital, located in Chicago, received the 2005 National Quality Health Care Award from the National Committee for Quality Health Care…
Quality Digest
WCBF will host a Design for Six Sigma conference June 9–10 in Las Vegas. The conference will feature workshops and user case studies for beginners and more advanced Six Sigma practitioners; specific tracks focused on design for product development, and design for transactional processes and…
Quality Digest
After two years of steady increases, customer satisfaction with goods and services purchased and consumed in the United States has taken a dramatic downturn, according to the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index. The ACSI for the fourth quarter of 2004 was 73.6, down from 74.3, the largest…
Quality Digest
Excellus BlueCross BlueShield recently received Case Management Accreditation from URAC, a Washington, D.C.-based health care accreditation agency that establishes quality standards for the health care industry. URAC’s standards require insurers to establish a process to assess, plan and implement…
Quality Digest
Eastman Kodak Co. recently acquired OREX, a provider of nondestructive test equipment for specialty medical facilities. OREX has 84 employees, is headquartered in Yokneam, Israel, and is now part of Kodak’s Health Group’s Non-Destructive Testing group, which produces KODAK INDUSTREX digital systems…
Quality Digest
The National Committee for Quality Assurance recently released a draft of its new Quality Plus standard. Comments on the draft are due by April 18. The standard, compliance to which is voluntary, identifies organizations that have adopted innovative practices or that promote quality care. It…
Quality Digest
Most experts don’t see an end to the offshoring trend, but with an estimated half of all offshoring operations falling short of expectations, companies considering sending their operations overseas have to consider the risks—not merely the rewards—of doing so. The findings come from a report, “…
Quality Digest
PowerSteering has acquired Breakthrough Management Group Inc.’s software assets. The two companies have entered into an agreement in which BMG will offer its project tracking software along with the complete suite of PowerSteering software. BMG will continue to provide Six Sigma solutions worldwide…
Many customers come to Hobson & Motzer seeking a solution for what others have claimed is impossible. Established in 1912 and based in Durham, Connecticut, Hobson & Motzer engineers manufacturing processes and designs tooling to produce seemingly impossible parts for companies worldwide.…
Quality Digest
Blue Mountain Quality Resources Inc. recently added several new metrology-related training seminars to its schedule.Physical Metrology will be held April 28–29 in Northbrook, Illinois. It will provide a fundamental understanding of physical measurement disciplines and is designed for both beginners…
Quality Digest
FARO Technologies Inc. recently received $1.7 million in FARO Laser Tracker orders from Airbus S.A.S. The orders consist of seven units for Airbus UK’s A380 wing assembly plant and five units for Airbus France’s A380 fuselage assembly plant.The Laser Tracker is a portable, 3-D measurement system…
Quality Digest
Effective Training Inc. recently added a new Web-based course to its list of geometric dimensioning and tolerancing services. “The Fundamentals of GD&T” features 28 student-focused lessons covering the basic rules, concepts and definitions GD&T, along with audio narration, instant lesson…
Quality Digest
Device features on computer chips as small as 40 nm can now be measured reliably thanks to a new test structure developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The new test structures are the product of NIST’s more than four-year effort to provide standard “rulers” for measuring…
Quality Digest
Hexagon Metrology North America plans to move its North American headquarters from Rhode Island to Connecticut. The company will build a 115,000 square foot, state-of-the art building that will also house manufacturing facilities for Hexagon’s Brown & Sharpe product line. In addition, the…
Quality Digest
Johnson Controls Metrology Services’ new calibration lab was recently completed and received ISO 17025 accreditation. The 5000 square-foot facility, in Louisville, Kentucky, has dedicated workstations for each of the laboratories’ accredited disciplines, allowing for increased productivity and…
Quality Digest
Mark W. Hurwitz, president and chief executive officer of the American National Standards Institute, will retire from the organization at the end of the year. Hurwitz, 64, was appointed to the post in 1999. He cited his desire to spend more time with his family, and their plans to move from the…
Denise Robitaille
It’s logical to expect the purchasing process to fall under the purview of the purchasing department. However, the reality is that in most organizations there are people from different departments who generate purchase orders and sign contracts. Not all procurement is done by the purchasing…
Quality Digest
The International Electrotechnical Committee recently published a standard that limits the radio waves emitted by mobile phones. Limits on specific absorption rate (SAR)—the rate at which radio frequency energy is absorbed by the human body—are set by organizations like the International Commission…
Quality Digest
Device features on computer chips as small as 40 nm can now be reliably measured, thanks to a new test structure developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The new test structures are the product of NIST’s more than four-year effort to provide standard “rulers” for measuring…
Quality Digest
The National Institute of Standards and Technology and the American National Standards Institute will co-sponsor a public forum on U.S. standards next month.The event is designed to engage stakeholders in a dialogue about the United States Standards Strategy document and invite public comment. It…
Quality Digest
Racal Instruments Inc. recently released newWave, a software toolset designed to facilitate compliance to the new signal definition standard, IEEE 1641. Developed to assist software and test developers use and implement the new standard, newWave enables signal definition exports into ATML, C++ and…
Quality Digest
It was 25 years ago that Philip Crosby’s watershed book, Quality is Free, was published—a landmark that Philip Crosby Associates will celebrate all year long. At a time when peers such as Deming, Ishikawa and Juran were focusing on the highly technical aspects of quality measurement and control,…
Quality Digest
The largest North American trade show dedicated to innovation in manufacturing opens this week in Chicago. National Manufacturing Week features a Manufacturing Town Hall panel discussion with top government and trade officials, the National Association of Manufacturers’ 2005 Annual Survey and the…
Quality Digest
The National Committee for Quality Assurance and the American Board of Internal Medicine will offer a new program to physicians seeking to maintain their ABIM certification and the opportunity to more easily earn a new distinction: recognition from NCQA and its partners. The agreement will allow…
Quality Digest
Canada’s National Quality Institute will host an April networking event focusing on mental health and addiction in the workplace. The event, titled “Working Toward Mental Health and Excellence at Work in Canada,” will be held April 12 in Toronto. It will include a town hall-style panel and keynote…
