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In response to inquiries from Six Sigma professionals, the International Society of Six Sigma Professionals and Six Sigma Global Registry have started developing a standard for Six Sigma certification.The agencies are seeking input from Six Sigma professionals to develop a survey that will help…
For years, customers and auditors have been preaching to suppliers the need for the FMEA (failure mode and effects analysis) to be a “living” document. There are probably several interpretations of what it means to have a living FMEA, but one thing is for sure—the FMEA must be updated whenever real…
When we discuss or mention Six Sigma, we almost always hear about getting defect rates down to 3.4 ppm. Consider a light bulb. How would you like to have a defect rate of 3.4 ppm only to find out that the bulb lasted just 20 hours before it burned out? This isn’t good, even though the Cpk was 1.50…
Aceva Technologies Inc. recently predicted that 2005 will see Six Sigma expand across enterprises and be accepted as the gold standard in process improvement. The prediction is part of Aceva’s annual business trend report. “2005 will be the year where Six Sigma will become a standard of measure in…
The Baldrige National Quality Program recently released its criteria for performance excellence in three areas: education, health care and business. The criteria are the basis for evaluation for the Malcolm R. Baldrige National Quality Award, and represent a common language for communication among…
The National Committee for Quality Assurance has announced that 39 health plans have committed to participate in NCQA’s Quality Plus program. Collectively, the plans cover 11.5 million Americans. Quality Plus standards focus on the depth, accuracy and interactivity of the information health plans…
The National Quality Institute and John F. Thomas Management Consulting have formed a strategic alliance to implement quality programs in Canada. The goal of the joint effort is to firmly establish Canada as a global leader in product and service excellence. An increasing number of Canadian…
TÜV America’s Product Safety Division has been recently renamed as Product Safety Services. Formerly known as Machinery, Information Technology and Consumer Products, the department will continue to provide electrical and mechanical safety evaluations for products in the United States (NRTL),…
Northrop Grumman Corp. recently received three more CMMI Level 5 ratings, the highest possible rating for benchmarking commercial and defense industry best practices for management and engineering. The ratings apply to three businesses within Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems sector: the…
Many well-known business gurus will be speakers at the upcoming Outsourcing Summit, which will be held in San Diego next month. The conference will feature keynote addresses from Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, who will speak on “The Art and Practice of Change Insurgency;” Abe…
For years, many companies have expended countless dollars and painful hours to comply with the various requirements of ISO 9001. Now, some of these companies are being asked to meet the provisions of Carnegie Mellon’s Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMi). In its former guise as CMM,…
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The concept of establishing goals and flowing them throughout an organization isn’t new in business or in quality management system standards. In ISO 9001:1994, the establishment of goals was done via the quality policy, following a review of effectiveness in meeting these management goals. QS-9000…
A consortium of worldwide standards developers plan to open an office in Beijing in an effort to convince Chinese manufacturers to use U.S. and Canadian technical standards. The consortium, led by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, will also advocate the development of Chinese standards…
The Minnesota Department of Human Services, which operates the state’s Medicaid program, will apply quality standards to five major areas of the plan. Administrators will use standards from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) to satisfy federal and state managed-care requirements in…
In an effort to highlight the importance of international standards, the American National Standards Institute recently published the first in a series of short articles about the many different existing standards. The first highlighted standard is related to wood machinery safety and the…
National Quality Assurance USA has recently been accredited to perform registrations to AS9120, the new aerospace standard. NQA received the accreditation in December 2004 from the ANSI-RAB NAP, now known as ANAB. AS9120 specifically applies to aerospace subcontractors that receive outsourced…
I was channel surfing the other day, looking for some local news that would tell me why I had woken up to a power outage that had lasted the better part of the morning. I don’t usually watch TV during the day, so I had no idea what stations carried noon time news broadcasts. As I was flipping…
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Technology Administration and the Big Three automakers recently formed a partnership to improve the manufacturing competitiveness of the U.S. automotive industry. The partnership, called the United States Alliance for Technology and Engineering for Automotive…
One current and one former employee of 3M Co. recently filed suit against the company, alleging that its implementation of Six Sigma discriminates against older workers. The lawsuit, filed by Clifford Whitaker, 60, and Michael Mucci, 55, alleges that 3M favors Six Sigma training among its younger…
TÜV America recently added EAC 37 auditing services for clients in the education industry already undergoing ISO 9001 registration.TÜV was accredited by the ANSI-RAB NAP (now known as ANAB) to evaluate compliance to EAC 37 on Dec. 7, 2004, and will now apply its Insight Auditing services to the…
The American Society for Quality will offer courses examining quality management and improvement for people working in the service industry. ASQ has offered courses for service industry professionals in the past, but the focus was on applying quality tools and processes commonly used in the…
The National Electrical Manufacturers Association recently released a significant update of its Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine standard. DICOM establishes a single language for exchanging medical digital images and related patient information, and allows the interoperability of…
A new partnership between Brooks Software and AssurX Inc. will allow the companies to target discrete manufacturers with a customized and fully-integrated quality management solution. Under the terms of the agreement, Brooks Software will resell AssurX’s CATSWeb non-conformance CAPA software, and…
A new partnership between Brooks Software and AssurX Inc. will allow the companies to target discrete manufacturers with a customized and fully-integrated quality management solution. Under the terms of the agreement, Brooks Software will resell AssurX’s CATSWeb non-conformance CAPA software, and…
