All Features
Angelo Lyall
The uncertainty that comes with change is a debilitating fear in many firms. Intimidated by the thought of straying from the tried and true, those who are hired to lead often fall short as they grow comfortable with mediocre, secure process methods. However, a key factor influencing the outcome of…
Barbara A. Cleary
A spate of cartoons and commentary throughout the summer has lampooned BP, Halliburton, Transocean, and Cameron International for their apparent inability to plan timely control measures that might have constrained the destruction after the blowout on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of…
Bill Kalmar
During the last couple of weeks we have been hearing the story of JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater, who became an overnight celebrity for his dramatic exit down a plane’s emergency slide. His stylish disembarkment while clutching a beer made worldwide headlines. Hollywood is already…
BSI
(BSI: Reston, VA) -- The British Standards Institution (BSI) announces its next webinar, “The Value of an Environmental Management System,” which will be held Sept. 9 at 1 p.m. EDT. Drawing from the analysis of auditors’ field observations, this one-hour, free webinar will examine the most…
(Aven Inc.: Ann Arbor, MI) -- Three new color cameras from Aven Inc. can upgrade any microscope with one-click image capture and storage capability. The scientific-grade imaging systems include software with extensive options for user-defined processing, measurement, and analysis. Two…
MasterControl Inc.
(MasterControl Inc: Salt Lake City) -- MasterControl Inc., a global provider of software solutions that enable regulated companies to get their products to market faster while reducing overall costs and increasing internal efficiency, has announced that its software solution suite is now available…
CRC Press
(CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- Like quality, social responsibility is an ideal, and ideals change. How do you continuously improve something that changes continuously? To start, you need a way to measure improvement efforts, and Social Responsibility: Failure Mode Effects and Analysis (CRC Press…
SPC Press Inc.
(SPC Press: Knoxville, TN) -- Reducing Production Costs: How to Convert Capability Indexes and Performance Indexes into Excess Costs of Production and Use, by Donald J. Wheeler (SPC Press, 2010), is written for everyone who is trying to do more with less. Using a proven methodology of reducing…
(Harvard SEAS: Cambridge, MA; University of Leeds: Leeds, UK) -- A collaborative team of applied scientists from Harvard University and the University of Leeds have demonstrated a new terahertz (THz) semiconductor laser that emits beams with a much smaller divergence than conventional THz laser…
Cognex Corp.
(Cognex Corp.: Natick, MA) -- Cognex Corp. has introduced the In-Sight 5605, a high-resolution, self-contained, flexible vision system for applications that require visualization of very small defects, even in a large field of view. The In-Sight 5605 offers the widest range of features and…
Alberto B. Ayulo
Every journey has a beginning, and mine began during a U.S. Air Force commander’s first week on the job. He called a staff meeting and told everyone that things had to change for the organization to succeed, and “lean” was the solution. Everyone in the room looked dazed and confused, wondering…
John David Kendrick
Complexity can be thought of as the level of difficulty in solving mathematically presented problems. Six Sigma practitioners and operations research professionals are often asked to predict the complexity of a hardware or software product by predicting (in man-hours or full-time equivalents) the…
American Customer Satisfaction Index ACSI
(ACSI: Ann Arbor, MI) -- Customer satisfaction with domestic automobiles has shown resilience despite an overall decline for the industry, according to a report released Aug. 17 by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Automobile satisfaction dipped 2.4 percent from an all-time industry…
Pointools Ltd.
(Pointools: Barnet, UK) -- A high-tech digital map created with laser-scanning technology is underway for the Flanders region of Belgium. Using Pointools’ 3-D mapping software, the Belgian surveying company, Teccon, has processed billions of individual measurements to create high-accuracy data…
(CENAM: Santiago de Queretaro, Mexico) -- The committee from Mexico’s national metrology center, Centro Nacional de Metrología (CENAM), invites researchers, professionals, and all personnel in the metrology field to participate Simposio Metrología, the 2010 Metrology Symposium, which takes place…
Visual Workplace Inc.
(QMI/Visual-Lean Institute: Byron Center, MI) -- Poka-yoke devices—i.e., visual guarantees for mistake-proofing products and processes—embed quality attributes so seamlessly into the work landscape that we often forget they are there. Yet these devices are what guarantee near-perfect quality for…
Verisurf Software Inc.
(Verisurf Software: Anaheim, CA) -- Verisurf Software Inc. is set to provide manufacturers with everything they need to make the transition to the 21st century and produce higher quality products in less time and at a lower cost. This means making the switch from hand gauges and 2-D paper drawings…
(IAPC: Buenos Aires, Argentina) -- Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Argentine Institute for Quality (Instituto Argentino para La Calidad—IAPC) invites you to the COINCAL 2010 International Quality Congress. COINCAL will take place Oct. 20–22 in Buenos Aires.
The event will be at Centro…
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
I would like to share with you a story about my mom, a woman who was very insecure about her background. She grew up in a blue collar family where neither her mother nor father finished eighth grade. Mom completed high school, but only with tutoring by my father. She would frequently say to me, “I…
Barbara Hemphill
Kathy is the office manager for a large corporation. The great news is that the company is growing and Kathy is looking for employees to handle all the new clients. The bad news is that she has no office space for these new employees to work in. The truth is, the office and storage areas are full…
(SOA: Schaumburg, IL) -- Findings from a new study commissioned by the Society of Actuaries (SOA) and completed by consultants with Milliman Inc. estimate that measurable medical errors cost the U.S. economy $19.5 billion in 2008. The report used claims data to provide an actuarially sound…
ETQ LLC
(EtQ: Farmindale, NY) -- EtQ LLC announces its production part approval process (PPAP) module as part of its latest release, Reliance 7.1. EtQ’s PPAP module provides a collaboration process to efficiently manage the flow of information between a vendor and a customer on product design.
PPAP allows…
NCQA
(NCQA: Washington) -- The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) recently released Quality Compass 2010: Commercial, the nation’s leading database of comparable information on clinical performance and patient experience for 404 commercial health plan products serving 94 million covered…
The League for Innovation in the Community College
(League for Innovation in the Community College: Phoenix) -- The League for Innovation in the Community College will hold its first STEMtech conference Oct. 31–Nov. 3 at Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Educators and industry leaders will join together for…
Institute for Supply Management
(Institute for Supply Management: Tempe, AZ) -- The third-annual Sustainability and Social Responsibility (SSR) Conference will take place Nov. 4–5 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, at the Disney's Yacht & Beach Club Resort. The event, presented by the Institute of Supply Management (ISM), covers…