Newly developed ‘Laboratory Lean Six Sigma Practices’ program provides remarkable productivity, quality increases

•  Lab management process improvements will help solve more crimes, take more criminals off the streets, increase public safety Executive Director Timothy D. Kupferschmid tells forensics lab directors

BALTIMORE (Sept. 15, 2010) — Sorenson Forensics today announced it has developed a management program that dramatically increases the efficiency and productivity of its laboratory operations while maintaining the reliability and accuracy of its forensic DNA laboratory services. Executive Director Timothy D. Kupferschmid presented Sorenson Forensics’ newly designed Laboratory Lean/Six Sigma Practices consulting program during a session at the 38th annualsymposium of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors in Baltimore.

“We developed this laboratory management program for our own organization, now we would like to share it with other public forensic laboratories,” said Kupferschmid. “Adopting Laboratory Lean/Six Sigma Practices brings remarkable efficiency gains without hiring additional staff or buying more equipment, and we customize the management process for each lab.”

“We can cut a lab’s turnaround time in half, significantly reduce its backlog by increasing its output, and reduce errors,” said Kupferschmid. “The net result is good for everything we do as professionals: more crimes are solved, more criminals are taken off the streets, and the public is safer.”

Sorenson Forensics is an internationally accredited forensics DNA laboratory that is an industry leader in obtaining DNA profiles from crime scene evidence that previously yielded only unusable data. Founded in 2006, the Salt Lake City-based organization has gained a reputation for solving high-profile “cold cases” and works with more than 100 law enforcement agencies across the country. Kupferschmid has over 20 years of forensic DNA experience. He was laboratory director of the Maine State Police crime laboratory, forensic technical director for Myriad Genetics, and has served on the board of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors.

The innovative new lab management program produces casework faster while improving accuracy, said Kupferschmid. “We use principles from Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma Engineering and apply them to forensic science laboratories. Lean eliminates anything unnecessary to producing customer results. Six Sigma improves quality of results by finding and removing causes of errors and variability in processes.”

Sorenson Forensics has an international reputation for crime lab expertise, winning the contract to set up western Africa’s first forensic DNA lab in Senegal in 2008. In 2010, Sorenson Forensics was hired to train the scientist-police officers who established the first law enforcement DNA laboratory in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Sorenson Forensics also offers laboratory validation, case review, expert witness testimony, contract casework, evidence screening along with forensic DNA testing.

About Sorenson Forensics

Sorenson Forensics (www.sorensonforensics.com) is a leading provider of advanced forensic DNA services and offers industry-best casework assistance to federal, state and local crime laboratories, assists officers of the court in individual criminal cases, and offers comprehensive forensic DNA services to private industry clients. Sorenson Forensics provides services, such as STR and Y-STR analysis; mitochondrial DNA sequencing; comprehensive biology screening; full serology testing, including blood, semen and other body fluid identification; DNA case consultation; expert testimony, validation services and laboratory optimization services. The Sorenson Forensics team consists of individuals internationally recognized for their extensive public and private crime lab experience and for their rigor in the exacting requirements of forensics casework. Sorenson Forensics has established an extraordinary record for helping to crack difficult-to-resolve cases, including previously unsolved “cold cases.”