All News
(Wiley: Hoboken, NJ) -- Wiley-Blackwell, the scientific, technical, medical and scholarly publishing business of the global publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc. announced a strategic alliance with CECity Inc. to provide physicians and other health care professionals with new, customized quality…
(ISO 9000 Conference: Pittsburgh) -- The committee for the world’s leading conference on quality management systems (QMS) is looking for proposals for the 20th annual International ISO 9000 Conference to be held at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando, Florida, Feb. 28–March 1, 2012, with…
A lab, though it may seem quiet and insulated, can be as full of background noise as a crowded train station when you’re trying to catch announcements. Our brains can filter out the noise and focus on the message up to a certain point, but turning up the volume on the loudspeaker—improving the…
I don’t know how I missed this gem, but on March 24, 2011, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent a Warning Letter to Jonathan’s Sprouts Inc. informing the company that it was (among other things) marketing its organic mung bean, alfalfa, and broccoli sprouts as drugs. The FDA said it has…
I greatly believe in training. I have been fortunate to work in businesses that also believed in having trained and qualified professionals in their organization. I have personally and professionally benefited from that philosophy, and I have gained new knowledge as a result.
Since graduating from…
We ran a contest recently asking readers to reshape some of the words they use every day, and the results were both surprising and funny. The game was based on a favorite word-wrangling exercise developed by those brains at Mensa, the long-running cabal for the intelligentsia. To play, you take a…
(OSRAM: Munich, Germany) -- A fast laser diode of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors provides light for the new 3-D camera from the Swedish manufacturer FOTONIC. The component has been developed specially for 3-D cameras like the FOTONIC C70. It facilitates range finding for moving objects with good…
(ISO 9000 Conference: Pittsburgh) -- Because the International Lean and Six Sigma Conference is created by practitioners for practitioners, it has become one of the most popular lean Six Sigma conferences in the world. Scheduled for Feb 26–March 1, 2011, in Orlando, Florida, the conference will run…
Many appliance, big box, and other stores recommend the purchase of extended warranties to go with consumer electronics. They are available for automobiles as well, but they are rarely if ever cost effective. The bathtub curve (figure 1), a model for failure or hazard rates in reliability…
(PPT Vision: Bloomington, MN) -- PPT VISION now extends a full, one-year guarantee on its complete line of machine vision camera installations, including hardware, software, and accessories, as well as the overall performance in meeting the application requirements.
“PPT VISION is the first…
(Hexagon Metrology: Cobham, Surrey, UK) -- m&h Inprocess Messtechnik GmbH has launched the RWP38.41 radio-wave probe and the RWT35.50 radio wave tool-measuring system.
The new radio-wave probe and tool measuring system can be used together; a single receiver can communicate…
(LATAB: Vällingby, Sweden) -- LATAB, the Swedish manufacturer of LED lighting systems for industrial image processing, is expanding its range of ring lights, dome, and coaxial lights by adding RGB models.
Each of the individual light channels (red, green, and blue) can be controlled separately…
(SGS: Geneva) -- SGS, a leading inspection, verification, testing, and certification company, has completed construction of an inspection and laboratory facility in Carson, California. Strategically located 30 minutes south of Los Angeles and adjacent to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach…
(Thomson Reuters: Ann Arbor, MI) -- Thomson Reuters has released its third annual study identifying the 10 top U.S. health systems based on quality of care, efficiency, and patient satisfaction.
The top 10 are:
• Advocate Health Care*—Oak Brook, Illinois
• Cape Cod Healthcare—Hyannis,…
(ISO: Geneva) -- With already a wide-ranging portfolio of more than 18,600 international standards covering everything from screw sizes to social responsibility, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) continues to diversify its scope with the recent addition and expansion of five…
Often a firm is confronted with the key question of whether the quality of its products and services should be improved. For many readers, the question may even seem illogical: How could it not be beneficial for a firm to improve the quality of its products and services?
On closer analysis, however…
Have you ever had one of those days where confusion reigns and as each hour ensues, you find something new to dwell on that absolutely drives you nuts? Well, I just had one of those days. It started this morning as I was out for my daily five-mile run. As is my custom, I have my cell phone strapped…
(Buehler: Lake Bluff, IL) -- By combining the industry’s most intuitive user interface, custom-designed optics, USB data communication, LED illumination, six turret positions, and an integrated digital camera, Buehler’s MicroMet 6000 Series establishes a new class of dead-weight micro-indentation…
Whenever we present capability indexes the almost inevitable follow-up question is, “What is the fraction nonconforming?” What this question usually means is, “Tell me what these capability indexes mean in terms that I can understand.” These questions have resulted in multiple approaches to…
(Cole-Parmer: Vernon Hills, IL) -- Cole-Parmer introduces their Compact Color Meters—ideal for checking painted surfaces, plastics, graphics, paper, textile, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics, plus food and agriculture. Meters containing a sapphire window offer extra protection for the color sensor.…
(Wiley: Hoboken, NJ) -- Brand New: Solving the Innovation Paradox—How Great Brands Invent and Launch New Products, Services, and Business Models, by G. Michael Maddock, Luisa C. Uriarte, Paul B. Brown (Wiley, 2011) condenses decades of new-product-launch experience from the consulting firm Maddock…
(IHI: Cambridge, MA) -- More than a decade of eye-opening mortality and morbidity studies have steadily increased awareness of the medical errors and defects in care that are heavily embedded in health care delivery. Work in this area, while robust, is far from complete and must be put on the front…
(FDAnews: Falls Church, VA) -- Register today for the Eighth Annual Medical Device Quality Congress, scheduled for June 8–9, 2011, in Bethesda, Maryland. This year the conference will feature more than 15 in-depth sessions headed up by leading quality experts, including sessions led by 10 officials…
Teaching design of experiments (DOE) to students is not an easy task. It is difficult to simulate the entire effort within the constraints of a classroom. You can teach the analysis with software, but this is not enough to really gain an understanding of DOE. Smarter Solutions Inc. is offering…
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released a suite of green tea reference materials to help manufacturers evaluate the composition of their products and assure researchers of the accuracy of analytical methods for studying the human health effects of this popular…
