Quality Evening with Dr Deming

Quality Companion Dashboard

Monitor improvement projects on a quality dashboard ...

... "The new Quality Companion Dashboard aggregates the essential details of your quality improvement projects and summarizes them for you on a single screen ... " ...

Via Minitab: Whats New in Quality Companion 2.4

In Memory of Juran Quality

The quality industry loses a leader whose legacy will endure and evolve. ...

... "Dr. Juran had many notable accomplishments in his life. His major contribution to society was in the field of quality management. " ...

Via Quality Mag: Dr. Joseph M. Juran Passing

Wisconsin Next-Gen Manufacturing Plan

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle will focus strategy on manufacturing industry with initiatives that promote lean manufacturing and innovation, continuing to position Wisconsin as a leader in manufacturing. Increased funding will enable small- and midsized manufacturers to use the lean manufacturing services of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. ...

... "Launch a Next Generation Manufacturing Plan to make manufacturers leaner and help them produce and export the highest-quality products made by the most skilled workers; " ...

Via Wisonsin Governor Jim Doyle: Strategy to Foster Innovation and Strengthen the Economy

Six Sigma Black Belt Certification Course Starts February

Forsyth Tech offers Six Sigma Black Belt certification starting in February. ...

... "the college's corporate and continuing education is offering a Six Sigma Black Belt Certification Program. Successful completion of this 105-hour program provides a black-belt certification from Forsyth Tech and QMA Inc. " ...

Via Winston-Salem Journal: Business Calendar

Six Sigma Improves Education Quality

University professors use Six Sigma techniques to improve the math placement process so that first-year math course assignments better match student's abilities. Their efforts have been recognized with an award. ...

... "Math professors Carl Lee and James Angelos presented the Six Sigma project at the National Quality Education Conference in St. Louis held Nov. 10 through 13. Judges evaluated projects using a set of criteria that included analyzing the project's alignment with organizational goals, solution development and implementation, team effectiveness, and the communication and application of project findings. " ...

Via Central Michigan University: Six Sigma Project

Six Sigma Project Tools Upgraded

Minitab has upgraded its Quality Companion tool, a Six Sigma DMAIC process enabler, and is offering web seminars to educate its user base and prospective users. ...

... "Quality Companion by Minitab provides the organization, tools and guidance for completing Six Sigma and other quality improvement projects. " ...

Via Minitab: Quality Companion Tools Overview

Lear Lean Manufacturing Implementation Drives Operational Efficiency Gains

Lear Corporation's lean manufacturing processes have driven productivity and operational efficiency for the company. Lear's lean implementation concentrates on the work environment, quality, the layout, and the flow of materials. ...

... "Tony Coomer, the company's vice president of Advanced Manufacturing and Continuous Improvement-Seating Systems, said lean manufacturing techniques have been deployed throughout the company's global manufacturing network.

Lear employees are trained on LMS during a three-week workshop. The training is conducted at all Lear plants by a lean manufacturing leader and employees receive LMS certification upon successful understanding of LMS principles and validation of model line projects which deploy LMS.

Product design is another key element in Lear's Lean Manufacturing System. Product design teams rely on LMS principles to ensure products can be manufactured in a lean environment. Approximately two thirds of product costs are locked into the initial design of the product, Coomer noted, so any effort to reduce cost after the initial design stage can only influence the remaining one third of the product's overall cost. At one facility, for example, product design teams incorporating design for lean principles in a model year change realigned workstations, changed production flows and made other assembly line changes to boost productivity.

Plant layout also plays an important role in Lear's approach to lean manufacturing. Lear uses Value Stream Mapping (VSM) to understand work flow and identify waste. In addition, extended VSM allows Lear to eliminate waste from the entire value stream -- from supplier to customer. VSM encompasses items such as freight costs, inventory controls and production changes. " ...

Via Lear Corp: Lean Manufacturing System Hikes Productivity and Reduces Costs

Lean and SixSigma EQ Peas and Carrots

Lean can accelerate the progress seen in Six Sigma implementations and the methodologies complement one another. ...

... "It has become so obvious that the two go together in Serigraph's lean journey that it almost can be raised to the level of axiom - quality improvements can go only so far without lean - or total quality management is impossible without lean disciplines. " ...

Via Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Six Sigma, lean strategy

Healthcare Cost Efficiency Using Lean Six Sigma

Hospitals see Lean methods as answer to rising costs. ...

... "We have a process called Lean Six Sigma, she said. Basically we look at hospital processes to see where we can improve quality by becoming more efficient. " ...

Via Cumberland Times: Hospital Costs

Quality Role in Six Sigma Organization

Quality needs to be repositioned in a Six Sigma culture and organization model. Quality leader(s) can create a strategic view of quality in the business. The quality team has a role in operations to ensure focus on those variables that are critical to quality from a customer perspective. Don't ignore the opportunity to rethink the quality organization as Six Sigma is implemented. ...

... "Strategic quality work begins with an understanding of where the company and its products fit in the marketplace. The vice president of quality or the quality manager must join top management in setting the strategic direction of the company. " ...

Via Qualilty Mag: Quality Evolution

Performance Improvement Breakthrough Services By Milliken

Milliken & Company forms a dedicated business group to provide Performance Improvement Services to the manufacturing sector. The new group is called Milliken Performance Solutions and will serve customers from the company's Spartanburg, South Carolina headquarters. Milliken is one of the largest privately-held textile and chemical manufacturers in the world. ...

... "The formation of Milliken Performance Solutions will expand these services to support companies outside of Milliken's traditional base and will report to Craig Long, Vice President of Six Sigma and Quality. The Milliken Performance System is a daily management system that provides a systematic, step by step method of running any operation more effectively and efficiently. The system is in place at over 60 plants worldwide and can support both discrete and continuous process manufacturing plants. The system overcomes the limitations of conventional Lean Six Sigma programs by providing a more comprehensive approach that leads to dramatic breakthroughs in cost reduction, higher morale, increased customer satisfaction, and a cleaner safer environment. " ...

Via Milliken & Company: New Business Line Provides Performance Improvement Services

Reinvent Automotive Production Through Lean Manufacturing

Does the Chrysler sale offer opportunity to challenge Toyota for lean leadership? Will private capital have the patience for long-term methodologies, like kaizen and lean? We shall see. ...

... "And it is the chance of a lifetime for a car company to reinvent itself, to out-Toyota Toyota in lean manufacturing and vehicle quality. " ...

Via USATODAY: Chrysler Sale

Quality Execution System Integrates into ERP

Apriso Corporation improves the functionality of their FlexNet Quality application – with a Quality program capable of performing purely as an execution application, or as a Quality Execution System. ...

... "This application enhancement provides manufacturers a viable alternative to purchasing third party Quality Management Systems (QMS), which can often be challenging to integrate with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications because of overlapping business processes, incompatible quality plans and data collection activities. Apriso's FlexNet QES was designed instead to complement existing functionality within ERP systems provided by vendors such as SAP, Microsoft, Oracle or Infor Global Solutions. Few will argue the importance of an effective quality assurance program to achieve global manufacturing excellence - the challenge lies in how to effectively design, execute and administer such a program. One approach has been to purchase a third party QMS to provide planning, execution and reporting on overall product quality. The problem with this approach is that many existing quality management functions within ERP systems already perform most of these tasks, so any benefits from a QMS implementation are reduced through a duplication of efforts and data reconciliation issues.

Quality Execution Systems recognize that ERP applications are designed as centralized data repositories, providing a global view of corporate performance, customer interactions, and order status while supporting Quality Assurance (QA) planning efforts best performed at the corporate level. Best-in-class manufacturers have demonstrated that quality execution is best performed as an embedded process - not as loosely linked activities - within production, maintenance and warehouse operations. " ...

Via Apriso: Quality Execution System

Project Portfolio Management: SixSigma Lean Initiatives

Brambles selects Instantis EnterpriseTrack software to manage its Six Sigma, Lean, and IT project portfolios. Per Julie Brignac, Brambles Vice President ...

... "EnterpriseTrack allows us to easily configure multiple strategic project portfolios, each tailored to meet our specific needs. EnterpriseTrack is being deployed globally within the company's Quality organizations initially. We were able to communicate our requirements to the Instantis services team, and they had us up and running relatively quickly, added Brignac. " ...

Via Instantis: Achieve Performance Excellence