Building on previous research, this note examines the results of a study of firms on the Fortune 1000 list from 1996 to 2004. The note brings those studies up to date by introducing more recent industry return data and extends the analysis to include a discussion of how profitability within and across industries may and does vary over time, as well as the implications of such a phenomenon. The note also details the impact of competition-specifically, the level of a given industry's concentration among its top firms-on profitability. Profitability in the study uses three metrics: return on equity (ROE), return on sales (ROS), and return on assets (ROA) to compare the firms on the Fortune 1000 list to uncover key findings.

This technical note describes a technique, F(X) Cascade, for determining the potential benefits of implementing a six-sigma improvement project. An integral part of the "define" stage in the DMAIC methodology is quantifying the sources of costs of defects and variability. The F(X) Cascade is one structured approach to this analysis.

For five weeks, Michael "Mac" Ling had been at the Lexington, Virginia, plant of Darden Motor Works (DMW), interviewing production supervisors, quality experts, maintenance supervisors, and repair personnel. He was investigating a puzzling problem: how dirt was infiltrating the paint on trucks assembled at the facility--and how to stop it. Small particles were causing a big, and expensive, problem. Nearly one out of three trucks had to be reworked owing to dirty paint, at a cost of a few dollars to a few hundred dollars per vehicle. The student must develop some hypotheses regarding the causes of the problems.