All Features
MIT Sloan School of Management
Meritocracy—the idea that individuals should advance and be rewarded on the basis of their talent and hard work—is one of the most widely celebrated ideals in education, business, and government. It shapes how organizations recruit, evaluate, and promote, promising a fair system where the best rise…
Quality Digest
(Physik Instrumente: Auburn, MA) -- Physik Instrumente (PI), a leader in precision motion control, introduces the A-361 air-bearing XY-rotation stage, a compact nanopositioning platform engineered for ultrahigh precision and stability in demanding research and industrial applications.
The A-361 XY…
Nick Haase
Imagine this: A production line hums along smoothly. Operators clean and check equipment between cycles to spot problems before they snowball. No scrambling. No surprises. That’s what autonomous maintenance looks like.
It’s a concept born from the principles of total productive maintenance (TPM),…
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(ORNL: Oak Ridge, TN) -- The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been selected to lead three research collaborations with fusion industry partners as part of the 2025 cohort of the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy program, or INFUSE. The awarded projects will tap ORNL’…
Maartje van Krieken
Your market is shifting, your competitor just pulled ahead, and the one person who could execute the next move has resigned. You can’t get more data fast enough, yet the window to act is closing. In today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, this is the moment that defines…
Quality Digest
(Tektronix: Beaverton, OR) -- Tektronix announces its 7 Series DPO oscilloscope, the first in a new generation of ultrahigh-performance instruments. Engineered to deliver the industry’s lowest noise and highest ENOB, and designed to scale, the 7 Series launches with bandwidth up to 25 GHz.…
Kristin Burnham
Organizations are eager to benefit from generative artificial intelligence. But in the rush to deploy AI to meet business goals, some companies jump in without fully weighing whether it’s best to buy an existing model, purchase a model and enhance it with their own data, or build a custom AI…
Quality Digest
(Rockwell Automation: Milwaukee) -- Rockwell Automation Inc., a company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation, has announced expanded integration capabilities for its Connected Worker solution from Plex, by Rockwell Automation. These advancements allow the Connected Worker…
Quality Digest
Coming in November!
Quality Digest
Coming in October!
Quality Digest
Coming in October!
Global Shop Solutions
Small to midsize manufacturers are facing mounting pressure from unpredictable supply chain disruptions. From fluctuating customer demand to reshoring operations and diversifying suppliers, maintaining efficiency and protecting cash flow have never been more critical.
Global instability, shifting…
Quality Digest
(By Light: McLean, VA) -- By Light Professional IT Services has announced it has officially achieved Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Level 2, placing the company among a select group of defense and technology contractors nationwide. While By Light earned this certification for its…
Bruce Hamilton
In October 1989, my company hosted Total Improvement Process Week, one of the most productive experiences of my career. Our consultant was Ryuji Fukuda, a Deming Prize winner and author of Managerial Engineering (Productivity Inc., 1983), a book I still value for its emphasis on management’s role…
Quality Digest
(Advancion: Buffalo Grove, IL) -- Advancion Corp., a global leader in life science buffers and proprietary specialty ingredients, has released its 2024 Corporate Sustainability Report, available at advancionsciences.com/sustainability.
Now in its fourth year of comprehensive sustainability…
Quality Digest
(ZeroTouch: Tualatin, OR) -- ZeroTouch, part of the Sandvik Group, is announcing the grand opening of its new headquarters, a state-of-the-art center designed to accelerate innovation in industrial metrology automation.
The expansion underscores ZeroTouch’s contribution to Sandvik’s purpose of “…
Mike Figliuolo
It’s called “work” for a reason. Most days we’re able to “work” through it and find enjoyment in what we do. But occasionally we’re faced with a grind that saps our strength and threatens to derail us. Fortunately, there are simple techniques for working through that grind.
I love writing this…
Seb Murray
Promoting a “flat hierarchy” with fewer layers of managers might sound modern and progressive. It promises agility, equality, and empowerment. Yet, a new study co-authored by Wharton management professor Saerom (Ronnie) Lee suggests that while flat organizations may appeal to some candidates, they…
Quality Digest
(Digital Twin Consortium: Boston) -- Digital Twin Consortium has announced the addition of eight new test beds to its Digital Twin Test Bed Program, bringing the total to 16. Members can model, simulate, integrate, verify, deploy, and optimize digital twin solutions by utilizing unprecedented…
Quality Digest
(Onto Innovation: Wilmington, MA) -- Onto Innovation Inc. has introduced the Atlas G6 optical critical dimension (OCD) metrology system, designed to address the growing complexity of process control in advanced semiconductor nodes. As the industry transitions to second-generation gate-all-around (…
Harish Jose
In this article I’m looking at the notion of organizational purposes in light of cybernetic constructivism. The ideas here are inspired by giants like Stafford Beer, Spencer Brown, Ralph Stacey, Werner Ulrich, Russell Ackoff, and Erik Hollnagel.
The corporate world seems to be obsessed with…
Quality Digest
(4D Technology: Tucson, AZ) -- 4D Technology, an Onto Innovation subsidiary, announced that it has been officially approved as a FANUC collaborative robot (cobot) device supplier. This milestone coincides with the release of a new FANUC-certified plug-in that enables seamless integration between 4D…
Chris Chuang
The plant manager’s day started perfectly. The production schedule was optimized, the teams were aligned, and the shift was running smoothly. Then, a critical pump on Line 3 failed. The floor supervisor tried to radio for maintenance, but his call dropped in the plant’s notorious dead zone. By the…
Quality Digest
(Energy Fuels: Denver) -- Energy Fuels Inc., a leading U.S. producer of uranium, rare earth elements and other critical minerals, announced that high-purity neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide produced at its White Mesa Mill in Utah has been manufactured into commercial scale rare earth permanent…
Akhilesh Gulati
Quality initiatives rarely fail because of bad tools. They fail because people don’t adopt them.
Organizations spend months mapping processes, running kaizen events, or documenting corrective actions, only to watch the improvements unravel when employees quietly return to the “old way.” Leaders…