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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.…
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.…
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…
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…
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:…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
The National Quality Institute will present the Canada Awards for Excellence on Oct. 20 in Toronto. The event will include a Performance Excellence Summit during the day and the awards will be presented at a gala dinner in the evening. Paul Martin, Canada’s prime minister, will deliver the keynote…
The ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) is developing an accreditation program to support the Sustainable Forestry Board’s Sustainable Forest Initiative. The program is a comprehensive set of principles, objectives and performance measures developed by professional foresters,…
What is calibration anyway? Many people do a field comparison check of two meters, and call them “calibrated” if they give the same reading. This isn’t calibration. It’s simply a field check. It can show you if there’s a problem, but it can’t show you which meter is right. If both meters are out…
The 2005 Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference logged record attendance figures and earned raves from attendees about the show’s 3-D metrology-only focus. This year’s show, which was held in late July at the Hyatt Regency in Austin, Texas, showed a 10-percent increase in attendance vs. that of…
Mitutoyo America Corp. appointed Crotts & Saunders Engineering as the company’s exclusive distributor for its coordinate measuring machines in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Crotts & Saunders Engineering has served the manufacturing and dimensional metrology needs of discrete…
Geodetic Systems Inc. recently launched V-STARS/E4X, an entry-level digital photogrammetry system with a wide range of applications. V-STARS/E4X is designed for applications that don’t require the highest level of accuracy or expandability provided by other Geodetic Systems camera systems. V-STARS/…
COMET North America Inc. recently hosted the grand opening of its service and repair center at its headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. The new facility features the highest-quality test, repair and maintenance services for all COMET X-ray tubes, RF products and FEINFOCUS microfocus X-ray tubes.…
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…
The Princeton (New Jersey) Regional Chamber of Commerce recently named Gregory H. Olsen, Sensors Unlimited Inc.’s chairman of the board, as its Innovator of the Year 2005. The award will be formally presented to Olsen at the organization’s Leadership Awards Dinner on Nov. 30. Olsen was recently…
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…
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…