All Features
Barry Young
What do you do when 20 ultra-rare violins from the 1730s show up in town, ready to be measured? Further, what exactly would you want to learn from these measurements? For many of us, the first thing that jumps to mind is, “Why do these particular instruments sound so much better than others of…
Rick Kerkstra
Burton Precision, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a machine tool distributor specializing in the application of metrology and 3D printing products. The company’s involvement in manufacturing crosses a breadth of industries with technologies that have a direct effect on successful product…
Ryan E. Day
“We don’t have any binder full of best practices for you. You are it. If you don’t want to change the world—go home.” —Brett Wheatly of Ford Motor Co., to the first candidates for coaches of the fledgling Consumer Experience Movement (CEM) program
When Chris Hunsicker, potential coach to Ford…
Hermann Ries
In the world of quality management systems (QMS), the nature of the relationship between risk management and preventive actions is often confused and misunderstood. Indeed, some believe that a thorough risk assessment process replaces the need for preventive action.
In fact, risk management and…
Mark Murphy
When you’re listening to someone give you criticism, delving more deeply into feelings is often a really bad move. It can make the criticism last longer and feel worse.
Neurologists know why. The older part of our brain, the brain stem, rules our most basic human drives (e.g., fight, flight, food…
Christine Schaefer
How is a company to decide whether to use the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, the ISO 9001 quality management system, or both? To explore some key distinctions between the comprehensive business model provided by the Baldrige framework and the quality management system provided by…
American Customer Satisfaction Index ACSI
(ACSI: Ann Arbor, MI) -- Americans ate out an average of four meals per week in 2013, according to data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). This is a 60-percent increase since the end of the Great Recession. Consumers are more likely to spend on dining out as the economy improves…
Umberto Tunesi
In my August 2013 column titled “Beethoven’s Fifth and ISO 9001:2015,” I commented on the ISO 9001 Committee Draft (CD). As is typical of me, I wasn’t soft. Now the interim draft international standard (DIS) is available for voting on by ISO members, and I’d like to offer my opinion about this…
Siemens PLM Software
Costan SpA is part of the multinational group Epta, a leader in high-quality equipment and services for retail refrigeration. Costan, a long-standing Italian brand, has been a synonym of top quality, excellent service, high technology and reliable commercial refrigeration products for more than 60…
Bruce Hamilton
One of my early lessons in leading change came at the age of 19, while working in a program known as VISTA, Volunteers in Service to America. The lesson was this: Leading change is a marathon not a sprint.
Sometimes you just have to pace yourself, give your mind and body a break, and do something…
Renishaw
A
dvanced ballbar training enables a shop to achieve better-than-new machine tool accuracy and extend machine life for unconventional silicon processing. Semiconductor industry suppliers now understand their machine tool’s performance better than OEM service technicians.
Ballbar testing is nothing…
Annette Franz
Have you ever wondered where all the customers have gone? Gosh, let’s hope not! But stick with me here. Is acquiring new customers becoming a challenge?
I thought I’d have a little fun—along with a lot of seriousness—and list some signs that you might watch for ahead of time to figure out when…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker recently reappointed Rulon Stacey as chair of the Baldrige Program’s Board of Overseers. She also appointed three new members to three-year terms and reappointed another member to a second term on the advisory board.
Stacey is…
Jim Benson
Sometimes work is terrifying. We’re asked to do something that we know, or at least strongly suspect, won’t work. Maybe we’re asked to do several things, some of which are are simple, but one or two make us uncomfortable. We might even place a hard estimate on a task (“It’ll take six hours!”), but…
John Keyser
A friend of mine, a key leader with a major insurance company, regularly comes around her desk when one of her team members comes to speak with her. She feels that sitting side by side rather than across a desk leads to a better discussion. Why? Because she is putting that person at ease,…
William A. Levinson
The phrase “elephant in the living room” refers to a major problem that everybody knows is there, but nobody wants to acknowledge. Acknowledging and defining the problem is, of course, the first part of any closed-loop corrective action process. “Problem notification” and “problem identification”…
NSF International
(NSF: Ann Arbor, MI) --Sustainable Minds has partnered with NSF Sustainability, a division of global public health organization NSF International, to provide life cycle assessment (LCA) verification and report certification for Sustainable Minds Transparency Reports.
Sustainable Minds (SM), a…
Jesse Lyn Stoner
During a break in the meeting, Dan pulled me aside and whispered, “No more ‘p’ words, please.”
“What are ‘p’ words?” I asked.
“You know,” he replied, “Words like process, perspective, and paradigm.”
Dan is results-driven. There were way too many “p” words in this meeting for his comfort: planning…
Patrick Runkel
You know what really gets on my nerves? A lot of things.
That slow, slinky way that cats walk by. Grrrr.
The rude, abrupt arrival of delivery persons in their obnoxiously loud trucks. (Why do they always pull up just as I'm settling down for a nap?) Grrrr.
Total strangers who reach…
Michelle LaBrosse
How often have you heard someone say they were good at “multitasking?” You may have even seen this listed as a desired skill in a job posting. Although multitasking may seem to allow for greater productivity and efficiency, the reality is that this approach to work doesn’t allow you to become…
Nikon Metrology Inc.
Founded in 1968 and headquartered in Istanbul, TOFAS (Türk Otomobil Fabrikası A.S.) manufactures cars, taxis, and vans in Turkey for international sale. Products are offered under several brands, including Fiat (which jointly owns the company), Peugeot, Citroen, and Opel. The TOFAS-built Fiat…
AAFP
For the 11th consecutive year, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has released complementary reports that assess the U.S. healthcare system’s performance in the areas of healthcare quality, access, and disparities in care.
The two reports—the 2013 National Healthcare Quality Report and…
Tron Jordheim
There are plenty of places to rent tools and equipment in any town, anywhere. When people need to rent a post-hole auger or a trencher, many go to the local family-owned equipment rental shop—mostly because of past experience. It's not a sparkling clean place. In fact, it looks a bit like a…
Key Technology
At Pasta Montana, the focus on quality permeates every activity at every step of the manufacturing process. One shining example of this dedication is the company’s recent decision to be the first pasta manufacturer in the United States to install a digital sorter that ejects foreign material (FM)…
Matthew E. May
One of my all-time favorite quotes is from UK-based urban designer Ben Hamilton-Baillie, a master of designing shared space intersections: “If we observed first, designed second, we wouldn’t need most of the things we build.”
The Japanese phrase for what Hamilton-Baillie is talking about is "…