American Society for Quality Releases Quarterly Index

The American Society for Quality released this week a massive survey which indicates a customer satisfaction for services has been in constant decline over the past decade.  While some consumer goods such as soft drinks, food, and beer recieved high marks, other goods such as airlines, resaurants and cellular service are seeing rapidly declining customer satisfaction ratings.  The study, which covers an wide variety of service related goods and services, also highlights some industries with significant satisfaction increases.  Yahoo Finance Reports:

The life insurance industry realized the greatest gain over the last 10 years, with an increase of 2.7% in customer perceived quality. This is likely the result of a well-defined process of interacting with customers after the initial policy sale.

Hotels have one of the highest perceived-quality scores for the service industry, showing gains in both perceived quality and value over the last decade. During that time, several hotel chains have implemented major quality improvement efforts. For example, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, which registered a 7.1% gain, implemented Six Sigma extensively throughout the organization.

Read More: The American Society for Quality Debuts Quarterly Quality Index With 10-Year Analysis

DSS Systems Ltd. Brings Six Sigma to Middle East

In what some analysts are calling a major step towards the globalization of Six Sigma, DSS Systems and Software Limited has attained exclusive rights for marketing the training, consulting, and implementation services of Six Sigma in the Middle East and Indian IT industry.  With a growing number of multinationals who have already implemented Six Sigma now requiring their foreign subsidiaries to follow suit, DSS Ltd. expects what is already significant demand for the process to precipitously increase over the next five years.  The Times of India Reports:

The company’s confidence stems from the fact that a number of multinational companies like GE and Motorola, which have embraced Six Sigma, are insisting that their suppliers, associates and subsidiaries do so too. This is in addition to the direct drivers of SS in the country like it resulting in cost-effectiveness and improvement in quality. Application of SS, which started in the manufacturing sector, followed by banking and insurance sectors, is now into the third wave, where SS is being embraced by technology and IT.