As you can see, and as I tend to do in these occasional column entries, I’m freely mixing metaphors above. My point, or points, as it were, are that, first, times are tough. Well… duh. OK, ... [Read More]

In today’s ultracompetitive manufacturing world, knowledge is power, especially when it comes to the industry’s most advanced measurement and inspection systems. ... [Read More]

Here at Quality Digest, we get a lot of mail: Some of it’s critical, some of it’s praiseworthy, some of it’s cantankerous, and some of it’s challenging. All of it is insightful. And then, ... [Read More]

Well, well, well… 2009 is upon us. That sure happened fast. What happened to 2008? For that matter, what happened to 2007, or 1995, or 1978? It’s true what those Nationwide Insurance ads say: “Life comes at you fast.” (See how well advertising works?) Not very many of us are mourning the end of 2008. It was a tough 12 months: numerous food and product safety recalls, soaring (then ... [Read More]

Cummins Inc. designs, manufactures, distributes, and services engines and related technologies, including fuel systems, controls, air handling, filtration, emission solutions, and electrical power generation systems. Cummins serves customers in more than 160 countries through its network of 550 company-owned and independent distributor facilities and more than 5,000 dealer locations. ... [Read More]

Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series looking at how companies can share best practices such as Six Sigma across the supply chain. The second part of this series, focusing on PACCAR supplier Cummins Engine Co., will appear in an upcoming issue of Quality Digest . Few U.S. manufacturers embrace the challenges and opportunities of quality improvement in quite the ... [Read More]

I woke up yesterday morning at 6 a.m., downed a glass of juice, showered, got dressed, grabbed my briefcase, and ran out the door. I arrived at the office at 7 a.m. Waiting for me were nearly 50 e-mails; a couple of them were junk, but most were from actual humans to actual, little ol’ me. When did I get so popular? Soon thereafter the phone started ringing--advertisers, subscribers, ... [Read More]

Click here for a complete version of the salary survey along with all charts.   Surveys in general, and salary surveys in particular, lend support to Mark Twain’s observation that “there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.” In other words, when dealing with large sets of respondents broken down into numerous categories and subcategories, the granularity is ... [Read More]

As Dirk Dusharme mentioned recently in this space (“A Bold Step Forward,” June 2008), we at Quality Digest have been working like mad these last few months to launch a major redesign of our web site, conveniently located at www.qualitydigest.com. The primary upgrade involves the addition of streaming video, most of which we script, shoot, and edit ourselves. Early last month, the new ... [Read More]

Dr. Tomas Gonzalez, senior vice president and chief quality officer for Valley Baptist Health System of Harlingen, Texas, is a busy man. Not only does he direct quality process improvement at ... [Read More]