All Features
Kevin Meyer
Awhile ago I discussed the value created by writing by hand. By writing on whiteboards or scribbling in a notebook, ownership, learning, and understanding is created. Similarly, truly understanding numbers creates ownership, learning, and understanding—thereby creating the potential for action.
I’…
Juran
(Juran Global: Southington, CT) -- Juran Global, a leading business excellence and quality management consulting firm, has launched a simple and powerful mobile app, Quality Essentials, for professionals tasked with improving business performance and achieving operational excellence. The app…
Bob Emiliani
There are many ways to improve your thinking skills. One way is by practicing critical thinking. Teachers require their students, from elementary school on through college and graduate school, to do research to gather information, analyze the validity of data, determine the strengths and…
Jim Colton
How many samples do you need to be 95-percent confident that at least 95 percent—or even 99 percent—of your product is good? The answer depends on the type of response variable you are using—categorical or continuous.
The type of response will dictate whether you’ll use: 1. Attribute sampling:…
Arun Hariharan
The chairman of a large company once ridiculed ISO 9001, saying, “Even the municipal office of this city is ISO 9001-certified, and we all know how bad the municipality is. I don’t believe ISO 9001 can do my business any good.”
The chairman had similar uncharitable things to say about other…
Renishaw
(Renishaw: Gloucestershire, UK) -- Renishaw will be demonstrating its new line of modular metrology fixtures for use on coordinate measuring machines (CMMs), Equator gauging systems, and multisensor inspection systems, at the upcoming Quality Show. Applying its 40 years of industrial metrology…
Bruce Hamilton
A favorite Twilight Zone episode that played during Labor Day weekend put me in mind of the stressful “push production” environment that many organizations still endure today.
In a technical sense, push production refers to launching orders into production before customer requirements are known…
Barry Johnson
The adage “if you aren’t moving forward, you’re falling behind” is true more often than not. Regardless of the type of business, all organizations need to improve to survive. The last words uttered by managers in failing organizations are, “We’ve always done it this way.”
The key to long-term…
Donald J. Wheeler
The best analysis is the simplest analysis that provides the needed insight. Of course this requires enough knowledge to strike a balance between the needed simplicity and unnecessary complexity. In parts one and two of this series we looked at the properties of Weibull and gamma probability…
Ryan E. Day
Sponsored Content
I can tell you all about the California coast, its cultural and economic dynamics, my favorite hideaway beaches and eateries, and I can attest to the wisdom of never turning your back to the surf. I know these things because I've lived in The Golden State most of my life, but I'…
American Customer Satisfaction Index ACSI
Customer satisfaction with personal computers is down for a third straight year, according to new data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The ACSI Household Appliance and Electronics Report 2015 includes desktops, laptops, and tablet computers, as well as household appliances,…
Andrew Hughes
So much has been written about the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) that separating the wheat from the chaff is becoming an ever more gargantuan task. The problem is complicated by the fact that the IoT in consumer markets is hyped beyond comprehension. Although the potential benefits are real…
Exact Metrology
(Exact Metrology: Brookfield, WI) -- On Sept. 16, 2015, for approximately three hours, Exact Metrology technicians performed a 3D scan of the huge South Lion that guards the entrance to the world-famous Chicago Art Institute. The subsequent STL file is being used by Chicago-based Met-L-Flo to…
Tim Healey
Visual management is increasingly common in offices implementing lean. Yet even though signs, large LCD displays, whiteboards, and charts dominate the wall space, these tools often become part of the wallpaper. After just a few months, many offices revert back to meetings and management to provide…
Jack Dunigan
It seemed like a good idea at the time and an incredibly generous act on the part of the company. When Gravity Payments founder and CEO Dan Price announced that he would raise everyone’s minimum wage to $50,000 a year with $10,000 a year increases until everyone’s minimum was at $70K in 2017, it…
5ME
(5ME: Cincinnati, OH) -- 5ME’s new dashboards feature allows users to create a one-screen view of machine tool performance data pertinent to their job functions. The program builds on the data-capturing capability of the company’s Freedom eLOG software suite and combines multiple graphics, called…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- For the first time in its history, the Baldrige Foundation has been accepted in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). The CFC is the official workplace-giving campaign of the federal government. The mission of the CFC is to promote and support philanthropy through a…
Brian Lagas
Embracing sustainable and green principles is not just a trend. Cultivating such practices helps organizations become more efficient, competitive, and profitable. It’s more than simply a good thing to do. Manufacturers are realizing the many short- and long-term financial benefits from…
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
I have had friends and relatives who worried all the time. About all sorts of things. Most of which never came to pass. The problem for me was that all the exposure to their negative thinking was contagious. And, then I’d find myself worrying about things, too.
On occasion, I’ve had some serious…
Eston Martz
Whatever industry you’re in, you’re going to need to buy supplies. If you’re a printer, you’ll need to purchase inks, various types of printing equipment, and paper. If you’re in manufacturing, you’ll need to obtain parts that you don’t make yourself. But how do you know you’re making the right…
Kelly Graves
Three months ago I sat in a meeting with seven talented executives whom I’ve worked with on and off for five years. For the past two, there have been major undercurrents of friction between them during executive meetings. After attending a few of these, I noticed people were on their best “fake…
CMSC
(CMS: Weatherford, TX) -- The Executive Board of the Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS), the eminent membership association for measurement professionals, has changed the name of its Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference (CMSC). The new name of the event is the Coordinate Metrology Society…
U.S. Department of Commerce
(U.S. Dept. of Commerce: Washington, D.C.) -- During the recent White House Apprenticeship Summit, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced the first-ever effort to document the return on investment for U.S. employers using registered apprenticeships. The Joyce Foundation, JPMorgan…
Thomas R. Cutler
Established in 1982, the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) is a nonprofit association with a diverse group of stakeholders—including retailers, suppliers of all sizes, automakers, manufacturers, service providers, academia, and the government—working collaboratively to streamline industry…
Nero Haralalka
Double-digit productivity improvements resulting from workflow redesigns and new-capital equipment investments always get a lot of attention. But over time the returns from many smaller, more methodical changes and investments can rival more highly visible projects. Total productivity maintenance…
