All Features
Jessica Groopman
There’s much ado about blockchain, and still plenty ado about the internet of things (IoT). But are these two technology phenomena complementary? Both suffer from significant barriers such as scale, market fragmentation, costs, and regulatory issues. But if the past is prologue, technological…
Gordon Styles
Within the advanced manufacturing industry there will always be a race to reduce speed and cost while maintaining quality. To this end, the industry’s landscape continues to quickly change as new technologies enter the market, new strategies are adopted, and consumer preferences evolve. Below are…
Wendy Wood
Employers have a stake in their staff’s health. It’s not just a matter of keeping health insurance premiums in check which is a consideration in countries without universal healthcare. It’s also about maximizing employee engagement and productivity, and even happiness.
Promoting health habits is…
Julia Russell
Retailers and brands convened in New York recently to experience the National Retail Federation’s Retail’s Big Show, and one of the biggest topics on attendees’ minds was technology. From automation to personalization to social marketing, the growing importance of technology in the shopping…
Ryan E. Day
As a journalist in the quality improvement field, I try to keep an eye on emerging technology that can help us do things better, faster, and more efficiently. Naturally, the internet of things (IoT) is cropping up more often. IoT is all about connected devices, that is, connected to the internet,…
Jesse Lyn Stoner
All relationships depend on a foundation of trust. There is a direct relationship between employee trust and performance. Customer trust is a key factor in decisions on purchases. And in our personal lives, friendships are built on trust and one of the biggest causes of destroyed marriage is lack…
Bill Kalmar
The other day I observed a person locking his car with a key. When’s the last time you saw that? What with remote lock and unlock and key fobs, keys are a thing of the past.
We have a new car, and it comes with a key fob. As you approach the car, one merely needs to press a button on the door,…
Nikon Metrology Inc.
(Nikon Metrology: Brighton, MI) -- Nikon Metrology has announced that ASF Metrology intends to acquire Nikon Metrology’s coordinate measuring machines (CMM) business. The closing of the transaction is expected to take place in about two months.
Nikon Metrology’s CMM activities, with offices in…
Elliot Begoun
They are ubiquitous today, those bag-salad kits you find in the produce section of most grocery stores. But they are a recent innovation, one that truly disrupted a category. Since 1995, Taylor Farms has been doing just that: disrupting the produce department with bagged salads, salad kits, fresh-…
Michael Armstrong, Kenneth Klassen
Patients often wait weeks or months for medical appointments. Canada’s Fraser Institute recently reported that Canadians typically wait 10 weeks to see specialists. Long wait times are one reason Canada ranks behind other developed countries in healthcare quality.
In the United States, waits are…
Laura Small
Before you drag out that dusty old treadmill, how about challenging yourself with something you can live with, some good habits that will dramatically improve your life? Here are some for work that you might consider implementing:
1. Schedule 20 minutes of solitude every day. And if that feels…
Mike Richman
It was Groundhog Day last Friday, and fortunately neither Dirk nor I saw our shadows. Early springs for everyone! Take a gander at what we showed you instead:
“Millions, Billions, Trillions: How to Make Sense of Numbers in the News” If you’re number-challenged (like moi), you’ll enjoy this piece…
Fred Schenkelberg
MTBF use and thinking is still rampant. It affects how our peers and colleagues approach solving problems, and there is a full range of problems that come from using the “mean time between failure” (MTBF) metric.
So, how do you spot the signs of MTBF thinking even when MTBF is not mentioned? Let’…
Martin R. Voelk
In just a few short months, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will take effect. The regulation, which replaces the EU’s 20-year-old Data Protection Directive, imposes new and more rigorous requirements on any entity that collects or maintains personal consumer data,…
Scott Gottlieb, Jeffrey Shuren
In recent days, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has committed to several new policies that will modernize the agency’s approach to regulation in the medical device system.
For instance, we announced our intention to propose an alternate approach to the traditional 510(k) clearance…
Donald J. Wheeler, James Beagle III
Whenever we make a measurement, we have to decide how many digits to record. Traditional answers for this question are often little more than guesswork glorified by time. And with digital readouts, are all the displayed digits real? This column provides a sound and practical answer to these…
Jun Nakamuro
The sad truth is that the word “engagement” is not very engaging. It’s one of those fluffy, ambiguous terms that have become all too familiar around the business world, like “empowerment” and “respect.” What does engagement really mean, and how do you, as a leader, engage your workforce? The…
Rob Matheson
Liquid-liquid separation and chemical extraction are key processes in drug manufacturing and many other industries, including oil and gas, fragrances, food, wastewater filtration, and biotechnology.
Three years ago, MIT spinout Zaiput Flow Technologies launched a novel continuous-flow liquid-…
Christopher Martin
My youngest son entered first grade this year with great excitement. As a high-functioning autistic, his obsession from an early age has been numbers and letters. He memorizes license plates at a glance, can count to the millions (and break down the digits), and tell you how many minutes he has…
Harish Jose
It’s not easy to find topics to write about, and even if I find good topics, it has to pass my threshold level. As I was meditating on this, I started to think about procrastination and ambiguity. So my column today is about the importance of “fuzzy concepts.” I am using the term in a loose sense…
Jennifer Lauren Lee
The “inconstant moon,” as Shakespeare called it in Romeo and Juliet, is more reliable than his pair of star-crossed lovers might have thought. Now researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) plan to make the Moon even more reliable with a new project to measure its…
Brian Rogers, Karel Cool, Christophe Angoulvant
Disruptive ventures arise from mobile device ubiquity, data-powered AI, and digital platforms that connect buyers and suppliers in new ways. They are reshaping industries such as transportation (e.g., Uber, Lyft, and Didi Chuxing), hospitality (e.g., Airbnb and FlipKey), payment services (e.g.,…
Sparta Systems Inc.
(Sparta Systems: Hamilton, NJ) -- A recent survey sponsored by Sparta Systems and conducted by Pharmaceutical Technology, found that while compliance remains the top objective in 2018 among 73 percent of pharmaceutical executives, performance-oriented objectives were nearly as critical for the…
Richard Harpster
Richard Harpster's op-ed is in response to a recent Quality Digest article and webinar discussing the benefits of the draft AIAG-VDA FMEA Handbook. As he points out at the end of this article, the AIAG has provided a means to solicit comments, pro or con, on the handbook. We encourage interested…
Michael Lynn
Some journalists and other social commentators have in recent years called for the abolition of restaurant tipping, primarily because they argue that it hurts workers. Several restaurateurs have even replaced tipping at their restaurants with automatic service charges or inclusive pricing.…
