After outsourcing manufacturing to lower cost countries, many companies find new demands imposed on their quality management processes. As a result, many companies find their existing quality management systems to be no longer effective. This is especially true if their existing quality system is either paper-based or implemented using a...
Paper-based quality management systems are fairly common in mid-sized organizations. While such systems can successfully manage product and process quality, they significantly increase the risk of cGMP non-compliance at FDA-regulated organization. They also impede a manufacturer's ability to implement continuous improvement initiatives. Such paper-based systems also become a bottleneck for...
Spreadsheet-based quality management systems are fairly common in mid-sized organizations. While such systems can successfully manage product and process quality, they significantly increase the risk of cGMP non-compliance at FDA-regulated organization. They also impede a manufacturer's ability to implement continuous improvement initiatives. Such systems also become a bottleneck for companies...
Increased regulatory pressures, the latest customer mandates and internal quality initiatives are requiring companies to take a proactive and automated approach to their corrective action process. Regulatory compliance requires organizations to capture all corrective action issues and track their corrective action process to completion. About 30% to 50% of all...
Many quality directors have difficulty in getting capital budget approvals to acquire a badly needed Quality Management System QMS. The reason in most situations is that their justification approaches the system benefits from a bottom-up operational perspective - the new system will provide a mechanism to achieve key quality objectives...
After outsourcing manufacturing to lower-cost countries, many companies find new demands imposed on their quality management processes. And for many, their existing quality management systems prove to be no longer effective, especially if they are either a spreadsheet-based manual system or a PC-based point solution. So how exactly can a...
The need for enterprise quality management is amplified for companies in the technology industry. These companies have increasingly shifted manufacturing and assembly operations offshore to low cost countries or have outsourced these functions to a contract manufacturer. As a result, a large number of their deliveries to US based customers...
The underlying concepts of Six Sigma - process focus, customer focus, collaboration, data-driven management, and strategic planning for quality - are shared by other key quality management philosophies such as Malcolm Baldrige and ISO. Furthermore, the DMAIC model is common sense. The article depicts that whatever the scope, one can...
Many organizations are taking advantage of Quality Management methodologies (such as Six SigmaŽ) to improve productivity, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. These methodologies require employees to perform set tasks and adhere to structured processes, involving changes to work habits that can sometimes be disruptive to...
Most enterprise software projects require its champion to build a business case to justify the capital spend. In building a business case, the champion needs to capture all tangible benefits that the company would obtain from implementing the software and then place a defensible monetary value on these benefits in...
Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach to improving product and process quality. Ever since Jack Welch labeled Six Sigma as one of the most strategic initiatives undertaken by GE, it has seen its adoption increase dramatically across the world. Enterprise quality management systems play a key role in the...
This paper seeks to discover the current state-of-practice for quality initiatives in both the manufacturing and construction industries in the Midwestern United States. It provides a brief literature review of the current state-of-practice in both manufacturing and construction, and presents a statistical comparison of the two industries using a survey...
Implementing metric systems for organizational learning in a software development environment remains a challenge. Some researchers state that traditional quality management methods from the assembly line do not apply for knowledge workers, while other researchers point to problems of what specifics should be focused on when implementing metrics systems. In...
This paper reports on the study of the quality costing practices at four large successful multinational companies. All four companies use systematic quality initiatives; however, a formal Cost of Quality CoQ methodology was only employed at one of them. This is in agreement with the literature findings arguing that a...
International Network Services (INS') six sigma enterprise Project Management EPM Solution taps the true potential of quality management methodologies by providing a centralized, integrated application that leverages the industry-leading Microsoft Office EPM platform with the Six Sigma methodology to provide enhanced visibility and control of the project portfolio. This paper...
Quality Management QM systems have been developed and used by many in the construction industry to ensure right things are done and things are done right the first time. However, current quality systems are designed to monitor and control the "Production process" of a specific organization, with the QM data...
Quality cannot be ignored. Every successful manufacturing company in the Food, Beverage, and CPG industry knows and understands this basic truth. No manufacturing company can expect continued success without a firm grip on product quality. The companies that fail to maintain quality simply fail to stay in business. A company's...
Public firms that seek and successfully receive certification of quality management, type ISO 9000, experience positive announcement effects. This result is consistent with the notion that companies seeking to implement a quality management system may be reducing agency problems between managers and shareholders, a corporate governance and control goal that...
Total quality management TQM, ISO 9000, the Capability Maturity Model standards, and the consequent operational-performance indicators of organizations are of interest to researchers as well as the business community. An empirical study addressing these issues is presented in this article. The study, probably the first of its kind in the...
Since the early 1990s almost all states have moved some or all of their Medicaid beneficiaries to Medicaid Managed Care MMC. Critics have worried about quality since MMC's inception. Proponents argued that state Medicaid agencies, as large-scale purchasers of care, would pursue "value-based purchasing" and other strategies to stimulate quality...
