All Features
Bruce Hamilton
Here’s a personal reflection from my distant past that might describe a current state for some of you.
When I began working in manufacturing during the pre-lean era, the quoted lead time for my company’s products averaged 12 to 16 weeks. By the 1980s, however, many customers began to routinely…
Humantech
(Humantech: Ann Arbor, MI) -- Humantech has announced the 2016 schedule of its popular series of ergonomics seminars with three different course offerings located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Applied Industrial Ergonomics, a two-day seminar, focuses on practical approaches to improving problem jobs,…
Manufacturing Extension Partnership MEP
Whether it’s for performance management or for risk, it’s important to know who your suppliers are and have a close business relationship with them.
It’s a given you should already have a strong relationship with your key suppliers, but how often does your supplier request the following items? •…
Peter Dizikes
Want to encourage innovation? A new study co-authored by an MIT professor finds that little-known state laws called “constituency statutes” have significant effects on the quantity and quality of innovative business actions.
The statutes, which allow companies to prioritize the interests of “…
Sensor Products Inc.
(Sensor Products Inc.: Madison, NJ) -- National Engineers Week, which was held Feb. 16–22, 2015, was the perfect time to excite a child’s interest in engineering and science. Jeffrey Stark, CEO of Sensor Products Inc., has written a brief, colorful book called Pressureman, which is primarily…
Evan Hackel
I had a call from one of my clients, a franchise brand. I can’t mention the company’s name here, but you know them. They have branded walk-in locations in hundreds of cities and towns across America—probably near where you live.
The call explained that the company had a very specific problem it…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) --The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (BPEP) at NIST released data this week that document the scope of services provided to U.S. organizations in every sector and nearly every state through the national network of Baldrige-based nonprofit programs that form the…
Paula Oddy
Sponsored Content
As an auditor of quality management systems, I can tell you from firsthand experience that most auditees dislike corrective actions. Corrections are tied to findings of nonconformance; understandably, people generally want to emerge from an audit without any significant findings…
Annette Franz
When I go to customer experience conferences, B2B companies are underrepresented, both in attendees and speakers. When clients look for benchmark data, B2B reports are few and far between.
These are just two examples of why I want to revisit a question I posed in a post I wrote two years ago: If…
Exact Metrology
(Exact Metrology: Cincinnati) -- On Jan. 28, 2016, Exact Metrology achieved AS9100 certification for its Cincinnati facility, where 3D and CT scanning services and equipment sales are provided to industries across North America.
“In achieving this prestigious certification, our team has great…
SUHNER
(SUHNER: Rome, GA) -- With a redesigned pneumatic drive, the LRC 20 from SUHNER now offers a set of hand tools that can grind, mill, and polish places that previously could be accessed only with great difficulty (e.g., leading edges and corners of impellers, insides of narrow pipes). This new…
Donald J. Wheeler
Here we look at a simple example to discover the commonalties of various data analysis techniques widely used in industry today. Careful consideration of the following may result in insights that were not part of your introductory class in statistics.
Our example uses the gate oxide thicknesses…
Diane Lee
Like many of you, I venture out on Saturday mornings to get groceries and gas. Until my college years, I never thought much about whether or not I paid the right amount at the pump, if the supermarket scale was correct, or if packaged foods actually contained the amount of product stated on the…
Mario Moussa, Derek Newberry, Madeline Boyer
Twisting your features into a mask of pain, you dig your heels into the soft grass. A rope tears into your palms. A clear, tiny voice speaks to you amid the many confused thoughts swirling in your head: “So-o-o-o... what am I learning from this experience?”
Well, if you’re like many who have done…
Joel Smith
For the majority of my career with Minitab, I’ve had the opportunity to speak somewhat regularly at conferences and other events. I thought some of my talks were pretty good, and some were not so good (based on ratings, audiences didn't always agree with my opinion at either extreme—but that's a…
Gilles Hilary
In 2013, the U.S. Air Force realized that more than 20 percent of the nuclear officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base had cheated on their certification exam. Many other officers knew about the problem but didn’t report it. The root cause for this dangerous behavior was a culture of fear that led…
CRC Press
(CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL) -- Case Studies in Strategic Planning shows you how to do systematic strategic planning in real-life cases, regardless of your level of expertise. The simplified version of this methodology and its analysis tools, based on fundamentals, is easily understood and…
Peter Marks
Part of the vision of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) is to strengthen the center as the preeminent regulatory organization for biologics. One way CBER is achieving this is through the work of the Office of Compliance and Biologics Quality (OCBQ) and the Office of Vaccines…
Exact Metrology
EVCO Plastics is an injection molding company that produces parts for myriad industries, including powered sports equipment, lawn and garden devices, agricultural and construction machinery, and medical and packaging machinery. Owing to the volume of work, coupled with the challenges of collecting…
Timothy Lozier
There’s been a shift in how companies view quality and compliance, and as a result, businesses are looking for a more comprehensive method for measuring operational efficiency. Risk management processes are proving to be an effective option for this. ISO 9001:2015 now promotes risk-based thinking…
Arun Hariharan
A horrific accident on Dec. 16, 2015, claimed the life of an airline service engineer: He was sucked into the live engine of an aircraft. The engineer had been standing on the ground supervising the aircraft being pushed in reverse from its parking bay.
“No one knew what happened,” said an Air…
MSI-Viking Gage
(MSI-Viking Gage: Duncan, SC) -- The first Metrology Solutions Expo is the show metrology professionals have been waiting for. Presented by Mahr Federal, Mitutoyo America, and The L.S. Starrett Co., and hosted by MSI-Viking Gage, the Metrology Solutions Expo will take place May 4–5, 2016, at the…
Michigan Metrology
(Michigan Metrology: Livonia, MI) -- Michigan Metrology, experts in solving problems related to surface roughness, wear, texture and finish, will be hosting a metrology and tribology short course on May 4–5, 2016, in Livonia, Michigan.
Leading the two-day course will be Michigan Metrology’s Don…
PQ Systems
(PQ Systems: Dayton, OH) -- A powerful dashboard feature that provides a high-level overview for managers, technicians, and auditors is the crown jewel in the newest release of GAGEpack from PQ Systems. Its improved user experience streamlines the gauge management process.
GAGEpack is a powerful…
American Customer Satisfaction Index ACSI
Two years removed from its all-time high, customer satisfaction with the retail trade sector fell for a second consecutive year, sliding 2.6 percent to an ACSI score of 74.8. Despite the decline for 2015, the overall score for retail stands almost exactly at its long-term average (74.6).
A closer…
