All News
I travel too much. Invariably, though, it enriches me. I typically return with some unusual experience or a new story with which to regale my colleagues. One day, while sitting in another aluminum tube with wings, I struck up a conversation with the person next to me, an engaging, interesting…
One of the most demanding problems lean manufacturing faces in discrete manufacturing is control of first operations, where raw material may be cut into multiple parts. First operations such as laser or CNC Punch Press processes dictate what parts are available to subsequent operations, thereby…
(ACSI: Ann Arbor, Michigan) -- Customer satisfaction continues on a bumpy path without momentum or trend in the second quarter, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. After a small uptick last quarter, ACSI slips 0.1 percent to 75.1 on a 100-point scale. The ACSI second quarter…
(ISO: Geneva) -- The International Organization for Standardization and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) have agreed on an implementation plan to ensure a smooth transition of accredited certification to ISO 9001:2008, the latest version of the standard for quality management systems (…
(NCQA: Washington) -- The National Committee for Quality Assurance has unveiled for public comment the first set of quality measures to assess disease management clinical outcomes. When finalized, the 12 measures, covering five chronic disease areas, will allow employers, health plans, consumers,…
(WCBF: Chicago) -- WCBF has recently announced the shortlist of finalists for the 2008 Global Six Sigma & Business Improvement Awards program. A total of 40 entries from 12 categories have been selected by the independent judging panel to go forward to the final stages of the judging process…
(IAIDQ: Lutz, Florida) -- Registration is open for The International Association for Information and Data Quality (IAIDQ) 2008 Information & Data Quality (IDQ) Conference to be held September 22–25, at The Marriot Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas. All interested in state-of-the-art information…
(IBM: Armonk, New York) -- A new IBM consulting offering can help clients lower their environmental impact, increase efficiency, and reduce costs by applying lean Six Sigma principles to energy and water usage throughout their operations.
“There’s a fundamental truth to understanding and…
(ISO: Geneva, Switzerland) -- The U.S. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences awarded the prestigious Emmy Award for Excellence to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the International Electrotechnical Commission (…
(NIST: Gaithersburg, Maryland) -- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is asking for public review and comment on a major revision to its security certification and accreditation guidelines for federal information systems. A substantial rewrite of the original document,…
(DDI: Bridgeville, Pennsylvania) -- Confidence in leaders is at an eight-year-low, according to the Global Leadership Forecast 2008|2009, a biannual study conducted by Development Dimensions International (DDI), a global human resources consulting firm.
According to the report, HR confidence…
(KEMA-Registered Quality Inc.: Chalfont, Pennsylvania) – In a new phase of strategic brand development in accordance with KEMA corporate, KEMA—Registered Quality Inc. (KRQ) has developed and released their new web site with a refreshed logo.
Along with information regarding standards and…
(Boeing: Salt Lake City) -- The Boeing Co. fabrication manufacturing facility in Salt Lake City, has been awarded an ISO 14001 environmental management system certification from Det Norske Veritas, an accredited certification body of quality, environmental, and safety management systems. ISO 14001…
(FDA: Rockville, Maryland) -- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to implement several improved policies and procedures strengthening its management advisory committees. The improvements include stricter limits on financial conflicts of interest for committee members, improved voting…
(FDA: Rockville, Maryland) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final regulation that makes early phase 1 clinical drug development safe and efficient by enabling a phased approach to complying with current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) statutes and FDA investigational…
(ASPEX: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) -- Following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent decision to join European and Australian authorities in the inspection of overseas drug manufacturing facilities, the pharmaceutical industry is re-examining its approach to quality control. In response…
In the Six Sigma world, we give a lot of lip service to the importance of the customer; we even have an official name for it—voice of the customer, or VOC. The problem is that many businesses don’t really have a good system for giving the customer what they ask for, much less one for listening to…
A mortgage lender in Kansas implemented a customer relationship management (CRM) solution and experienced a 304 percent return on investment (ROI) over three years. Would a similar investment make sense for your organization? Upgrading or changing your CRM system can be a big decision, and many…
(ANSI: New York) -- A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that falls among the elderly, long known as a common source of injury for this population, can be reduced through a program of adjusting treatment, assessing risk, and educating patients. Whether aimed at…
(NCQA: Washington) -- The National Committee for Quality Assurance’s Physician and Hospital Quality (PHQ) program recently earned an important endorsement from a respected coalition of employer, consumer, and labor organizations. The Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project, a group supported by more…
(ISO: Geneva) -- The two ISO and IEC technical boards have given the go-ahead to publish ISO/IEC DIS 29500, “Information technology—Office Open XML formats,” as an ISO/IEC international standard after appeals by four national standards bodies against the approval of the document failed to garner…
(The Joint Commission: Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois) -- The Joint Commission’s revised standards, rationales, and elements of performance for 2009 are now available online. The standards will take effect January 1, 2009, giving all health care organizations time to become familiar with the new…
Poor records and poor management of good records can trigger needless costs, penalties, and public embarrassment for Food and Drug Administration-regulated companies. As if managing your own records isn’t challenging enough, FDA holds you equally responsible for ensuring the quality of records…
As with any lean implementation in a traditional environment, culture change is the most difficult obstacle to success. A company can hire consultants, develop work teams, and begin lean initiatives, but if it only talks the talk, the initiative soon becomes just talk.
Early in 2007, we hosted a…
There’s an amazing amount of information available about what uncertainty is and how to specify it. If I understood it completely, I would become a consultant and stop writing this column. In spite of that, this column may shed some light on this increasingly popular, and misunderstood, topic.…
