Tag Archives: Quality

Health care waste in the US estimated at $750 billion

A report released by the Institute for Medicine in September 2012, titled “Best Health Care at lower Cost:The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America” , suggests that the US health care system had 30% of wasted expense or … Continue reading

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The direct to consumer farmers market sales

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (May 21, 2012) describes the move by farmers to sell direct to the consumer in farmers markets – now accounting for 2 % of US farm sales. Since retail prices are often four times the price … Continue reading

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Bringing manufacturing back to the US — and associated profitability

An Accenture report titled “Manufacturing’s Secret Shift” reports a survey that shows that 49 % of respondents faced delivery time issues and 46 % faced quality issues associated with outsourced manufacturing.  In addition, 73 % faced material cost increases and … Continue reading

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Creston Electronics and US manufacturing

An article in Forbes (Dec 5, 2011) describes Creston Electronics, a N.J. based company that creates over 1,500 complex electronic products in small volumes with low errors. The company’s founder claims that his strategy was to bring outsourced work in … Continue reading

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Chinese oversight of US sources of apple juice in the global supply chain

An article in the wall street journal (Nov 4,2011) states that 72 % of US apple juice is sourced from China, and is part of over $3.2 billion in food imports. But concerns about food quality has caused the US … Continue reading

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Federal response to vital Medicine shortages in US hospitals

A New York Times article (Oct 31, 2011) describes Federal attempts to ease shoratges of sterile injectables that constutue 74 % of drug shortages.  The government blames market concentration – 90 % of the medicines are bought by five hospital … Continue reading

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How should retailers deal with the new “frugal consumer”

A Wall Street Journal article (Oct 4, 2011) describes the emergence of the frugal consumer who buys what they need, focus on promotion purchases, avoid premium products, clip coupons and combine shopping trips to save on gas.  The impact of … Continue reading

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Measuring Hospital compliance with routines

A New York Times article (Sept 14, 2011) summarizes a report (http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/249296-joint-commission-report-on-quality-and-safety.html) that measures compliance to established protocols to treat diseases like heart attack and pneumonia.  The interesting outcome is that several reputed large hospitals did not make the list … Continue reading

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Managing an air traffic control tower from afar

An article in WIRED magazine (http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/08/st_flybywire/) describes technology used in Sweden that can provide a 360 degree hid-def screen view of aircraft and detailed data around a control tower. The benefit is that a air traffic controller can be located … Continue reading

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A new report on Apple’s China Supply Chain and associated pollution

A recent report (http://www.ipe.org.cn/Upload/Report-IT-V-Apple-II.pdf, published August 31, 2011) questions whether decisions made by Apple’s suppliers continue to have a negative environmental impact.  The report identifies suppliers who release hazardous chemicals into the river or environment, the speed of ramp up … Continue reading

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