All Features
Steve DeWitt
A problem shows up, and the fix usually arrives five minutes later.
“We need more training.”
“We need a better system.”
“We need another person.”
“We need a new checklist.”
Sometimes one of those answers is exactly right. Too often it’s not. The organization has named a solution before even…
Quality Digest
(Fluor: Irving, TX) -- Fluor Corp. has announced that its joint venture with JGC Corp. has been selected to deliver engineering, procurement, fabrication, construction, and commissioning for Phase 2 of LNG Canada’s liquified natural gas (LNG) export facility in Kitimat, British Columbia.
The joint…
Mike Figliuolo
People pitch ideas all the time. Most of those pitches never get heard. Why? Because they don’t consider the audience.
I get ideas pitched to me all the time. My inbox is flooded by emails from PR professionals asking me to carry guest blog posts, do book reviews, share their infographics, and…
Quality Digest
(GARDCO: Columbia, MD) -- Paul N. Gardner Co. (GARDCO), worldwide distributors, producers, and designers of quality physical and inspection instruments for the paint, coatings, and related industries, announces its new Articulating Video Borescope inspection camera.
The new camera includes a two-…
Quality Digest
(Key Technology: Walla Walla, WA) -- Key Technology, a member of the Duravant family of operating companies, introduces new enhancements for its COMPASS belt-fed optical sorter. Delivering precise, repeatable removal of foreign material and product defects, COMPASS helps processors ensure product…
Konstantin Saifoulline
It’s one of the most dangerous sentences you can hear on a factory floor: “The drawing is updated, and we’re good to go.”
It sounds like the finish line. We fixed it! Nothing else to do here.
I’ve watched this play out countless times in different hardware teams. A part caused a headache on the…
Quality Digest
(InnovMetric: Québec City, QC) – InnovMetric has unveiled MasterKey by PolyWorks, its new customer success program that brings together the essential services that customers rely on to maximize the value of their PolyWorks software.
The launch of MasterKey by PolyWorks marks a natural evolution of…
Ron Cowen
Four years ago, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researcher Cyrus Daugherty developed an algorithm to virtually unroll the tightly wrapped layers of a cylindrical lithium-ion battery. Daugherty’s software transformed X-ray images of the battery, taken at different angles, into…
William A. Levinson
Leadership responsibility is included in ISO 9001:2026, Clause 5.1.1, to promote quality culture and ethical behavior. A strong argument could be made for adding safety as well.
Ethics has a very wide range of applications, including the need to avoid conflicts of interest (like recommending a…
Quality Digest
(Renishaw: West Dundee, IL) -- Renishaw has announced the launch of its new XC100 environmental compensator. It builds on Renishaw’s proven XC-80 technology to deliver real-time automatic wavelength correction, with an improved 0.4 ppm linear laser measurement accuracy.
The XC100 compensator…
Quality Digest
(Amada Weld Tech: Monrovia, CA) -- Amada Weld Tech, a leading manufacturer of welding, marking, cutting, sealing, and bonding equipment and systems, will highlight its advanced, application-focused technologies for medical device manufacturing at the MD&M Midwest exhibition in Minneapolis, on…
Megan Wallin-Kerth, Greg Hutchins
Given that AI has been this century’s biggest disruptor for nearly every industry in the world, it has been met with justifiable levels of angst, anger, questioning, and skepticism. It’s as if our world has essentially been turned into a version of Jurassic Park, where, instead of dinosaurs, we…
Quality Digest
(NewTek: Pennsauken, NJ) -- NewTek GE series spring-loaded LVDTs provide high-precision displacement measurement for structural health monitoring. These sensors assess the integrity and performance of buildings, bridges, and other civil engineering structures throughout construction and their…
Santoshi Muriki
As food companies stand up digital traceability platforms to meet FSMA 204 requirements—now due by July 2028 after the compliance date extension—a quieter problem is showing up behind the deadline itself.
Most of these platforms are being deployed alongside existing quality management systems (QMS…
Neeta Verma
ISO 9001:2026, the sixth edition of the quality management systems standard, was published on Sept. 16, 2026, replacing ISO 9001:2015. ISO lists the new edition as Edition 6, 2026-09. ISO/TC 176 confirmed that the Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) was approved ahead of publication.
However…
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(ORNL: Oak Ridge, TN) -- As much as 15.2 terawatt-hours of electricity could be generated annually at nonpowered dams—enough to supply more than 1.4 million homes, according to an updated assessment of hydropower technical potential across the nation compiled by researchers at the U.S. Department…
Silke von Gemmingen
Highly reflective metallic surfaces are among the most challenging inspection targets in machine vision. Reflections obscure details; defects often become visible only from certain angles, and the quality of manual visual inspections fluctuates throughout the workday.
The Austrian company Danube…
Quality Digest
(Kennametal: Pittsburgh) -- Kennametal has announced a breakthrough in additive manufacturing that enables the rapid production of custom carbide hole-finishing tools with advanced features such as optimized cooling channels and complex geometries.
The new technology, KAF82 TM, is the first…
Quality Digest
(GageList: Spring, TX) -- GageList, the cloud-based calibration management platform, has launched Clarity AI, making GageList the first calibration management platform to read incoming calibration certificates with AI and draft the gauge records for human review. Clarity was previewed at the NCSLI…
Harish Jose
In my earlier writing, I’ve leaned on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s ladder. This is the closing move of his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, where once you have climbed through the propositions you discard them because they have “served their purpose.” I’ve used this language game often enough that I want…
Bill Fisher, Ryan Galluzzo
As AI matures, enterprises and customers are rapidly deploying agents seeking to unlock the next level of automation and productivity. Agentic AI shows potential to handle a multitude of use cases, from buying personal items on Amazon to customer service applications to enterprise security and…
Quality Digest
(Hexagon: North Kingstown, RI) -- Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence business area has announced new research showing a gap between how manufacturers describe their operations and what’s actually happening on the production floor. Most manufacturers consider themselves connected, but responses…
Quality Digest
(Relay: Raleigh, N.C.) -- Relay, the system of action for physical operations, announced it has raised $36 million in new funding, bringing total capital raised to over $90 million. Relay’s latest funding round, which was significantly oversubscribed, represents a powerful alignment among industry…
Winnie Jiang, Nicolas Bastoli, Henrike Gueth
When former United States secretary of state Madeleine Albright said, “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other,” that quip captured a widespread expectation that women who reach the top should pull others up behind them. Yet it’s not uncommon for junior female employees…
Quality Digest
(Datanomix: Nashua, NH) -- A programmer finishes a setup, the toolpath is proven, the print is attached, the setup sheet is written, and the NC program is generated. Then the files often move through a network drive, an email, or a USB stick, and nobody can say for certain which revision is running…