Obama Appoints Don Berwick in Charge of Medicare and Medicaid

President Obama appointed Donald Berwick as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services through a method called a recess appointment during Congress’ week-long July 4th break.
Dr. Berwick was one of the nine original judges for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. He is the founder of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). Under [...] Read more »

The BP Gulf Disaster and the Role of Six Sigma

The Quality Council of Alberta(QCA) has long advised its membership against the use of Six Sigma preferring instead to use a more balanced Lean or Lean Six Sigma approach to Continuous Improvement (see: The QCA on Six Sigma and Lean). The BP Gulf disaster is providing good preliminary evidence as to why.
BP’s quality safety record [...] Read more »

City of Calgary Water Services, First Lean Six Sigma Graduates

The City of Calgary Water Resources graduated its first class of QCA Certified Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belts last month.
A blended approach was used to deliver the training, using a combination of on-line training from Moresteam University and in-classroom instruction provided by Converge Consulting Group Inc. Examinations and certification were provided independently through the QCA making this the only Lean [...] Read more »

Fall Deming Seminar Scheduled

The fall 2010 Deming Seminar has been scheduled by the Deming Institute. Novel Approaches to System Change Across Business, Education, and Healthcare – Transformation will be held October 29-31, 2010 in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the University of Michigan.
The 2010 Fall Conference of The W. Edwards Deming Institute®, is designed to foster a better understanding of The Deming [...] Read more »

Latest Health Quality Council of Alberta Report Is Just Bad Science

The Health Quality Council of Alberta report: The Urban and Regional Emergency Department Patient Experience Report 2009, represents a significant step backward for the Quality movement in Alberta.
This, because the methodology is so flawed, none of the facts or statistics offered can, or should, be taken as reliable indicators of anything, let alone the performance of Alberta’s health care [...] Read more »

The New Economics Seminar

This is third seminar on The New Economics sponsored by the people at Improvement Associates in concert with Ronald Moen. The workshop takes its title from one of Dr. Deming’s books which makes sense as Ron worked with Dr. Deming at over 70 of his famous workshops. The workshop will be held at:

RADISSON HOTEL
EDMONTON [...] Read more »

16th Annual International Deming Research Seminar

22-23 February 2010
New York City
The Research Seminar will bring together people from around the world, and from a variety of specialties, to enhance and extend management thinking.
Presenters will show how to use Deming’s ideas to manage ethical behavior in organizations, provide evidence in legal cases, integrate organizational culture, and to change marketing efforts.
Others will link [...] Read more »

QCA Teams Up With MoreSteam for Lean Six Sigma Training

The Quality Council of Alberta has teamed up with MoreSteam University to provide web-based e-Learning on Lean and Lean Six Sigma. More Steam University is the e-Learning provider to the American Society for Quality (ASQ) among others (see Other Users of the MoreSteam LSS Training). This training is being offerred at  discounts to members of [...] Read more »

Peter Scholtes

When the history books are written on the quality movement and the application of systems thinking in management, it will be impossible to ignore the work and extraordinary contribution of Peter Scholtes. Among many other accomplishments, he was a recipient of the Deming Medal (2006) and the Ishikawa Medal (2000) from the American Society for [...] Read more »