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WASHINGTON, D.C.-Vice President Dick Cheney and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez presented three U.S. organizations with the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest honor for organizational performance excellence. 

The 2006 Baldrige Award recipients are:  Premier Inc., San Diego, service; MESA Products Inc., Tulsa, OK, small business; and North Mississippi Medical Center, Tupelo, MS, health care.

TEMPE, AZ-Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in February following a decline in January, while the overall economy grew for the 64th consecutive month, according to the nation’s supply executives in the Manufacturing Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Report On Business.

AKRON, OH-As part of a major investment in its North American plants, British packaging giant Rexam has awarded an exclusive five-year contract to Applied Vision for complete inspection systems services.

ANN ARBOR, MI-The Automated Imaging Association (AIA) announced its board of directors for 2007-2008 at its annual Business Conference in Orlando, FL. John Merva, vice president of sales and marketing at CCS America Inc., has been elected president.

ANN ARBOR, MI-David Dechow, president of Aptúra Machine Vision Solutions, is the recipient of the 2007 Automated Imaging Achievement (AIA) Award. The award, which was presented to Dechow by the AIA in February at the annual AIA Business Conference in Orlando, FL, honors industry leaders for outstanding contributions in industrial and scientific imaging.

ATI Industrial Automation, an engineering-based developer of robotic peripheral equipment, has broken ground on a new plant expansion. The new facility will double its capacity.

Delcam has consolidated its structure in North America to create a single sales organization for its Power Solution and FeatureCAM product lines. Glenn McMinn has been appointed president of Delcam North America. In this new position, he will be responsible for coordinating the activities and overall management of the combined North American sales and support teams.

SGS, an inspection, verification, testing and certification company, has released the Six Sigma Standard, which is comprised of 65 objectively verifiable Six Sigma program indicators. Conforming to requirements of the standard drives organizations to develop and maintain a Six Sigma program that is effective, sustainable and transparent.

In response to the overwhelming demand for Mitutoyo replacement products, Carbide Probes Inc. has added a complete line of Mitutoyo replacement contracers and surface testers to their product line. The company offers replacement contact points and surface testers for all popular indicators, including Mitutoyo, Renishaw, Zeiss and Mahr, and is also repairing customers’ existing products.

NASA has presented its highest honor for quality and technical performance, the George M. Low Award, to two companies committed to innovative management, process quality and customer service. The awards, containing a medallion alloyed with material flown to the moon on Apollo 11, were presented in February at NASA’s fourth annual Project Management Challenge Conference in Galveston, TX.