All Features
Association for Manufacturing Excellence
(AME: Rolling Meadows, IL) -- The Association for  Manufacturing Excellence (AME), providing for the exchange of knowledge  in organizational excellence, is hosting a one-day seminar, “Learn by Doing,”  an introduction to training within industry (TWI), on Aug. 24, 2011, at Flexware Innovation Inc…
NIST
DNA, a molecule famous for storing the genetic blueprints for all living things, can do other things as well. In a paper due to be published in the Journal of American Chemical Society, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) describe how tailored single strands of…
Boothroyd Dewhurst Inc.
(Boothroyd  Dewhurst: Wakefield, RI) -- Savvy  manufacturers are able to root out troublesome costs and problems from their  products earlier and earlier in a life cycle that starts even before a computer  model is created—and ends with finished automobiles, appliances, and other  goods. What’s…
MoreSteam.com
(MoreSteam: Columbus, OH) -- On  Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011, BPE Consulting Group, a subsidiary of BOK  Financial, and MoreSteam.com, a global provider of online lean Six Sigma training and blended learning technology, will co-sponsor a one-day continuous improvement conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for…
Visual Workplace Inc.
(Visual  Workplace: Byron Center, MI) -- Visual Workplace Inc. has made available a new training DVD, Lean Healthcare.  Using fun, engaging examples in actual health care  environments, this 40-minute training video highlights the eight wastes found  in most health care processes and systems, and…
ECi Software Solutions
(ECi: Fort Worth, TX) -- eCommerce Industries Inc. (ECi), a  leader in industry-specific business-management software, has announced the  release of v. 8.0 of ECi M1, its premier enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for discrete  manufacturing that   provides total integration and automation…
FDA
(FDA: Silver Spring, MD) -- The FDA has announced that it  will open a public docket to begin receiving public comments on the Institute  of Medicine’s (IOM) report on the 510(k) program, the most common pathway to  market for lower-risk medical devices.
The FDA commissioned the report  in…
Mahr Inc.
(Mahr  Federal: Providence, RI) -- Mahr Federal Inc., designer, manufacturer, and  marketer of dimensional measuring technology, has issued a new catalog in both  print and online editions, covering the full range of its dimensional metrology  products and systems. The full-color print edition…
Mark R. Hamel
First, the introduction. This post was earnestly written by my friend, Jeff Fuchs. He’s the director of the Maryland World Class Consortia, a lean nonprofit assistance organization in the mid-Atlantic. He’s also president of Neovista Consulting, which works with large and small organizations on…
Mike Richman
From the minute I arrived on site, I knew that this would be a Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference unlike any other. First of all, it was in Phoenix… in July. So, the 100-plus-degree temperature wasn’t unexpected; the humidity, on the other hand, was a bit of a surprise. The evening preceding…
Mahr Inc.
(Mahr  Federal: Providence, RI) -- Mahr Federal Inc., designer, manufacturer, and marketer of dimensional measuring technology, will be featuring the new version of its successful MMQ 400  Formtester series, the MarForm MMQ 400-2, at Quality Expo 2011, Sept. 20–22, 2011, at  McCormick Place North,…
Stewart Anderson
There has been a lot of press in  recent years about the importance of the “learning organization.” While many  authors have explored the idea of a learning organization from the perspective  of how learning can be enabled and shared, the economic impact of learning, and  its resulting effect on…
NASA
The United States will send a new generation of explorers to the moon aboard NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle, or CEV. Making its first flights early in the next decade, Orion is part of the Constellation Program to send human explorers back to the moon, and then on to Mars and other…
Davis Balestracci
Finally, the medical industry is putting aside its “We’re medicine; we’re different” mindset and taking a more practical look at quality improvement. Bravo! Although an element of physician culture remains convinced that improvement is all about outcomes and double-blind clinical trials, the…
APICS--The Association for Operations Management
(APICS:  Chicago, IL) -- APICS The Association for Operations Management, a global leader in  supply-chain and operations management education, certification, and  affiliation, has released the third edition of APICS  Operations Management Body of Knowledge (OMBOK) Framework, which defines  the…
LMI Technologies Inc.
(LMI  Technologies: Vancouver, Canada) -- LMI Technologies Inc., part of the Vision Group of AUGUSTA 
Technologie AG, is a global research, development, and manufacturing 
organization specializing in 3-D measurement sensors. LMI Technologies will be  exhibiting at this year’s Forest Products…
ARC Advisory Group
(ARC Advisory Group: Boston) -- The 3-D laser scanning market,  including hardware, software, and services, is rather dynamic, and major  segments are experiencing rapid product innovation. The market contains exceptional growth opportunities as older  mechanical methods are replaced and improved…
Kistler
(Kistler: Novi, MI) -- Kistler, a  global supplier of precision sensors, systems, and instrumentation for the  dynamic measurement of pressure, force, torque, and acceleration, has announced  the North American launch of the Corrsys-Datron RV-4 wheel vector sensing  system, designed to offer…
More than ever, businesses need  ways to improve their operations to better gain, serve, and retain customers  while reducing costs and improving margins. Implementing management systems and  attaining third-party accredited certification can help businesses achieve  success on all of these fronts…
CRC Press
(CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- Dr. Michael Nelson has  written one of the first books to focus on physician engagement in creating a  lean culture, Sustaining Lean in Healthcare: Developing and Engaging  Physician Leadership (CRC Press, 2011).
The book begins with the basics of lean (including…
Donald J. Wheeler
In part one we found that the skewness and kurtosis parameters characterize the tails of a probability model rather than the central portion, and that because of this, probability models with the same shape parameters will only be similar in overall shape, not identical. However, since software…
FDA
(FDA: Silver Spring, MD) -- The  U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued draft guidance that clarifies  when changes or modifications to a previously cleared 510(k) device require a  new premarket submission.
The 510(k) process is the most  common review path to market for lower-risk…
ISO
(ISO: Geneva) -- Evidence that publication of ISO  50001 was eagerly awaited is borne out by the number of organizations worldwide  claiming to be the first in their country or sector to have adopted the new international standard from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) on…
Aerotech Inc.
(Aerotech: Pittsburgh, PA) --  Aerotech Inc. is a designer and manufacturer of motion control, positioning tables/stages, and positioning systems. Its APR series rotary stages employ precision-machined and ground stage  parts coupled with high-precision angular contact bearings and an Aerotech…
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Berkeley Lab scientists and their  colleagues have discovered a new relation among electric and magnetic fields  and differences in temperature, which may lead to more efficient thermoelectric  devices that convert heat into electricity or electricity into heat.
“In the search for new sources of…