Actio Corporation provides expertise on Six Sigma secrets to managing a manufacturing supply chain

Russell McCann, successful 30-year software innovator and co-Founder of Actio Corporation, will provide expertise on manufacturing and supply chain Six Sigma best practices at the American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition.

PORTSMOUTH, NH February 20, 2008 – Actio Corporation, the leading provider of chemical management software announced today that Russell McCann, Actio President, CEO and co-Founder, will speak at the AIHCE conference later this year. McCann will speak on Six Sigma initiatives in manufacturing.

McCann will present Fortune 500 case studies showing how manufacturers use software solutions to manage Six Sigma initiatives in an era of global environmental compliance regulation and international supply chains.

McCann has over 30-years of executive leadership expertise in software and high technology. McCann sold his first software company to Adobe Systems in 1987 – under auspicious timing in terms of product development and market readiness.

McCann has since turned his attention to the ultimate challenge: can software help environmental causes, while also encouraging manufacturing innovation, globally harmonized systems, regulation, and international supply chains?

McCann will focus his AIHCE presentation on lean manufacturing in today’s industrial landscape. He will focus on major manufacturing companies in the aerospace and building supplies sectors. These particular companies recently implemented software to modernize and streamline internal processes while automating chemical-inventory tracking and reporting.

“In business, some process improvements are obvious,” said McCann, speaking from Actio Headquarters outside of Boston, MA. “For instance, if a scientist is creating a new product, and the product contains a chemical that is banned or is restricted in some countries, then it’s best to identify the issues at the request stage. This averts a scenario where the enterprise spends millions of dollars developing an unusable product.

“While these sorts of process improvements can be done manually – with traditional paper-based systems – process efficiency and accuracy are compromised,” said McCann. “Critical information is inevitably ‘siloed’ at individual locations rather than being shared across an enterprise. In some cases, data is not shared within a single facility.

“This type of scenario presents an ideal environment for a Six Sigma program. A Six Sigma initiative that includes Actio modules will reduce cost, improve control processes, and rationalize materials management.”

Six Sigma approaches focus on setting process improvement goals, designing metrics for measuring progress, then implementing improvements. Instances in McCann’s multiple Fortune 500 company case studies were defined using Six Sigma Kaizen Events.

McCann will show how Six Sigma initiatives are available on tap: secure, on-demand, permissions-based, up-to-date chemical data – spanning the entire supply chain – and data that is stored, updated and retrieved from a central data repository.

Actio Corporation was created by Russell McCann and 30-year EH&S industry expert Kal Kawar. The Actio solution drives manufacturers’ efforts to maintain sustainable and efficient processes and supply chains. It links seamlessly with existing ERP software such as SAP or Oracle. Actio’s secure, automated software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution creates a single source of accurate substance data – as well as provides a collaborative infrastructure for suppliers, internal stakeholders and customers – so companies and supply chains can quickly adapt to ever-changing global market conditions and compliance mandates. For an abstract of the presentation please go to: http://www.aiha.org/abs08/08abindex.htm.

About Actio Corporation
Since 1996, Actio has been helping companies and millions of their employees, in a wide range of industries, cost-effectively manage the complexities surrounding the use of chemicals in the global workplace. Actio is a leading provider of chemical management solutions delivered as SaaS (software as a service). Our chemical management portfolio manages all phases of the chemical life cycle, enabling corporations to utilize Six Sigma or a “best practices” approach for chemical management. Actio solutions track raw material chemical composition for compliance with global regulations including: REACH, RoHS, WEEE. For more information about Actio Corporation, visit www.actio.net.

MSDS VAULT, ACTIO REGULATOR and INTELLIGENTEXT are registered trademarks of Actio Corporation. MSDSXCHANGE, ACTIO GATEKEEPER, MSDS VAULT LABELMAKER and MATERIAL DISCLOSURE.COM are trademarks of Actio Corporation 2008. All Rights Reserved.

Contact:

Kathleen Hurley, Director of Corporate Communications

khurley@actio.net or 603-433-2300 x35

Actio Corporation, www.actio.net, @actiocorp on Twitter