All Features
Donald J. Wheeler
Data mining is the foundation for the current fad of “big data.” Today’s software makes it possible to look for all kinds of relationships among the variables contained in a database. But owning a pick and shovel will not do you much good if you do not know the difference between gold and iron…
Ryan E. Day
Factory and industrial inspections are the backbones of robust quality assurance programs. Inspection is also an integral part of machine system installation and maintenance, as well as in-situ repairs and retrofits. This is why highly competent individuals who understand the metrology methods of…
Mike Figliuolo
Legislative and regulatory changes can cause massive upheaval for your strategic plan. Elections happen all the time. New rules and regulations are proposed, implemented, or repealed on a daily basis. Court cases can change an entire industry landscape.
To stay on top of all these changes and to…
Jeff Dewar
‘There’s nothing we can do about it.”
In a customer service situation, those words are equivalent to “buzz off” (or worse).
Here’s what customer service managers, from healthcare to telecommunications, from utilities to gyms, should have tattooed on the inside of their eyelids: Because employees…
Mark Miller, Lucas Conley
Recently, General Electric—the last remaining member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s original 1896 index—was removed from the world’s most prestigious equity benchmark. News of the venerable brand’s dismissal from the Dow, the index of 30 large, publicly traded U.S. brands reflecting the…
Quy Huy
Innovation is the No. 1 priority of today’s CEOs. They correctly perceive that the fast-turning treadmill of disruption topples organizations that stand still. The only sure-fire way to stay on top is to consistently introduce products and services that provide unique, superior value and defy…
Glenn S. Wolfgang
Flow quality management (Flow QM) is a logistical alternative to handling product in lots for the purpose of assessing and mitigating defects. It features a streamlined, automated acceptance sampling methodology, is built on empirical metrics, and facilitates timely, meaningful performance…
Thomas Andresen Gosselin
Whoever coined the phrase “it’s a small world” clearly doesn’t work in supply chain management. The earth maintains a relatively constant size of roughly 196,900,000 square miles of surface area, but in the last decade or so, the scope and complexity of global supply chains have expanded…
Leonard L. Berry, D. Kirk Hamilton
We spend much of our time in buildings, and they can have a profound effect on our well-being, for better or for worse. As long ago as 1943, Winston Churchill told Britain’s House of Commons that “we shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.”
Research is showing that effective…
Steven Brand
While manufacturers have traditionally been hesitant to invest in their operations due to cost, a recent National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) survey of more than 500 manufacturers reveals that 65 percent plan to increase capital spending during the coming years. Where is the money going to…
Harry Hertz
I recently read a blog post by Mary Jo Asmus titled “Eight Unexpected Ways to Continue to Develop Yourself As a Leader.“ Some ways were more obvious (to me) than others, and I will quickly summarize all of them below. However, my main takeaway was to reflect on how I continue to learn. And I would…
AssurX
Proposed in 2012 and now in effect, the general data protection regulation (GDPR) is the newest landmark of data protection legislation. GDPR compliance legislation is designed to better protect personal data of individuals in the European Union (EU) by making companies more accountable for how…
William A. Levinson
Quality and manufacturing practitioners are most familiar with the effect of variation on product quality, and this is still the focus of the quality management and Six Sigma bodies of knowledge. Other forms of variation are, however, equally important—in terms of their ability to cause what…
John R. Stoker
I have had the opportunity to coach a number of different leaders. Sometimes I’m asked to observe how a leader interacts with team members and then provide him with feedback about the effect of his behavior on the team. When I observe a lack of engagement during a leader’s meeting, I interview team…
Pamela Waterman
Anyone involved in 3D printing/additive manufacturing (AM) knows about STL file formats. Problem is—and no offense meant—STL is dumb. It’s just a large text file, generally written in ASCII programming language, defining the surface of a closed solid using a zillion triangles. For every tiny…
Andrew Nobleman
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has campuses in Maryland, Colorado, South Carolina, and Hawaii. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Hawaiian campus? How do I get a job at NIST?”
Perhaps calling it a “campus” is a bit of an exaggeration. Ensconced within the U.S. Navy’s…
Jesse Lyn Stoner
Often in coaching, managers work on changing their behaviors. But there’s another area you need to pay attention to also—other’s perceptions of you. Otherwise you can end up in a situation where people don’t notice you’ve changed—where you’ve become a butterfly, but others still see a caterpillar…
Vanessa Burrows, Suzanne Junod, John Swann
During the early 20th century, Americans were inundated with ineffective and dangerous drugs, as well as adulterated and deceptively packaged foods.
A cosmetic eyelash and eyebrow dye called Lash Lure, for example, which promised women that it would help them “radiate personality,” in fact…
Michael Gaunce
What do you think of when you think work holding? A vise, hydraulic clamps, vacuum plates, toe clamps, magnets, glue? Absolutely, but this is only half of the equation. What about the interface between these components and the machine tool? This is equally important, if not more so because it…
Marc Le Menestrel
Let’s say a store has been selling large snow shovels for $15. The morning after a major snowstorm, the store raises its price to $20. Is this acceptable?
A large majority of business people in my seminars answer that yes, it is acceptable to raise the price of shovels after a storm. They invoke…
Jeffrey Phillips
Ihave been thinking a lot lately about innovation and how we may have emphasized one component at the expense of another. Here I’m talking about something that should appear obvious—the focus of innovation in building new things. We are constantly reminded that innovation is about building new…
Prime Technologies
(Prime Technologies: West Chester, PA) -- Prime Technologies, developer of ProCalV5 calibration management software, has released DeviceSync, a web-enabled application designed to provide a rapid and secure method for data transfer with documenting calibrators. Calibration assignments and results…
Nikon Metrology Inc.
A recent interview with Tadashi Nakayama, Nikon’s corporate vice president, provides insight into the strategy of the firm’s Industrial Metrology Business Unit, of which he is deputy general manager. In particular, he explained the company’s strategic focus on Quality 4.0, where digital, automated…
Vijay Eswaran
Leadership is not about telling people what to do. A true leader is one who knows how to serve. Servant leadership means different things to different people, but the philosophy closest to my heart, one that I learned at an early age from my father is of “service above self.” I watched him work…
Craig Knight
When I am too hot at work, I like to open a window, retrieve an ice lolly from the kitchen, and kick off my shoes. But for many people, this is not an option. Finding the right temperature can make a big difference to how happy—and productive—we are at work. It can also be the cause of some serious…
