All Features
Brunson
(Brunson: Kansas City, MO) -- Brunson Instrument Co. has released its TetraLock product line for shipping worldwide. The original TetraLock set a new standard in lightweight industrial metrology stands with a prestressed tetrahedron design, a pyramid-like structure known for its ultimate stability…
FARO
(FARO: Lake Mary, FL) -- FARO Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: FARO), the world's most trusted source for 3D measurement, imaging, and realization technology, announced it has released the new FARO Laser Scanner Focus3D X 330.
Building on the success of the Focus3D, the new Focus3D X 330 surpasses…
Breuckmann
(Breuckmann: Meersburg, Germany) -- About 150 years ago, archaeologists in Cambodia made a spectacular discovery: the temple ruins of Angkor Wat. The temple was built during the 12th century by the ancient people of the Khmer under the reign of King Suryavarman II, but was deserted by its…
Eston Martz
A colleague of mine at Minitab, Cheryl Pammer, was recently featured in “A Statistician’s Journey,” a monthly feature that appears in the print and online versions of the American Statistical Association’s (ASA) AMSTAT News magazine.
Each month, the magazine asks ASA members to talk about the…
Jack Dunigan
In my last column, I posted the first two motivational triggers boomers respond to. If you’re just now checking in, you can read that column here. I’m not going to continue with the next three triggers here. Instead, I want to share a story that directly relates to the theme of motivating workers…
Nikon Metrology Inc.
(Nikon Metrology: Brighton, MI) -- CAMIO offers true multi-sensor capability, allowing best-practice selection of sensor technology for each task. By combining touch trigger, analog scanning, and 3D laser scanning sensors within the same inspection program, the right inspection results are obtained…
(Solutionix: Bristol, UK) -- Solutionix, the leading developer and manufacturer of structured-light 3D scanning solutions, announced that HJC, the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycle crash helmets, relied on a Solutionix Rexcan 3D scanner to provide the 3D digital data required to design and…
The NOvA (NuMI off-axis νe appearance) experiment is looking to answer fundamental questions about neutrinos and the role they play in the universe. NOvA will use two detectors, a near detector located underground at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, and a far detector located 810 km from Fermilab…
Creaform Inc.
Creaform Inc., developer of the Handyscan 3D laser scanner, was recently acquired for approximately $120 million by AMETEK Inc., a global manufacturer of electronic instruments and electro-mechanical devices.
Creaform was formed in 2002 in Lévis, Québec, Canada, near Québec City. In 2005, the…
API Services
(API: Newport News, VA) -- API Services, a subsidiary of metrology provider Automated Precision Inc. (API), announced this month that it has reached partnerships with two design and manufacturing leaders in the nuclear and energy industries. The partnerships are the result of ongoing growth in the…
Annette Franz
In March 2013, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced it was changing some of its carry-on restrictions; in addition to certain types of knives, TSA decided to allow passengers to bring golf clubs, hockey sticks, and plastic bats onto planes, all of which had been restricted…
Bill Kalmar
Like most of us, I like to occasionally receive a simple “thank you” for something I have done. I think during this holiday season we should turn the tables a bit and bestow a hearty thanks to a segment of our population that at times does not receive enough “thank yous.” I’m speaking of the men…
Quality Transformation With David Schwinn
Story update 12/06/2013: Wow did we mess up. When this story originally published we, the editors, introduced an error into the story regarding the Alaskan oil spill (which the author hadn't mentioned in his original) and didn't realize it. When readers pointed out the error we compounded the…
Dawn Bailey
In Baldrige’s 2013–2014 Criteria for Performance Excellence, innovation is defined as making meaningful, discontinuous change to products, processes, or organizational effectiveness in order to create new value for stakeholders. So you might not expect to find an example of such innovation in a…
Bayer
Editor’s note: This is a long article with lots of data… interesting data in our opinion. If the argument over the skills gap or STEM education interests you, this is worth reading.
This year’s Bayer Facts of Science Education survey, the 16th in the series, focuses on one of the major STEM (…
Gallup
Only one in eight workers worldwide are engaged at work, but according to Gallup’s 142-country study, “State of the Global Workplace,” engagement varies considerably, depending on the region and country in which these workers live, and their economic and social conditions.
The United States and…
Umberto Tunesi
I read in September about the demise of 100-year-old Eiji Toyoda, and of his commitment to implant lean-oriented visions into his family-owned Toyota industrial enterprise. At the time I was reading Josip Krulic’s book, Histoire de la Yougoslavie: de 1945 à Nos Jours (History of Yugoslavia From…
U.S. Department of Energy
In the race to combat global climate change, energy efficiency is the low-hanging fruit for reducing our carbon footprint. Featured this month on energy.gov are the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Labs and their accomplishments in energy efficiency. The National Labs are fundamentally…
Gottfried Giritzer
Every quality manager is familiar with internal audits, a systemic check of all company departments to verify that they are following established procedures. Most department heads are also familiar with internal audits. But there is often a big difference between how quality managers and department…
MIT News
Advances in materials are driving the proliferation of new technologies, from energy to smart phones and televisions to robotic surgery, MIT faculty and industry researchers said during MIT’s recent Materials Day Symposium, hosted by the Materials Processing Center.
Here are the highlights from…
Jack Dunigan
My father’s generation came through the Great Depression and World War II. Because those times were so uncertain, security was, and remained, a critical factor for this generation. It might even have been the most relevant, predominant one for them. But companies and parents are learning that…
Tripp Babbitt
In my last column, “Deming’s Challenge to Us, Part 1,” I sounded the alert that just being improvement people is not enough, and waiting for management to do something is a poor strategy. In this column, I’m focusing on our choices and options to move forward as change agents.
For a couple of…
(Extech Instruments: Nashua, NH) -- Known worldwide for its superior test and measurement tools, Extech Instruments has announced that its versatile TKG series of ultrasonic thickness gauges is now available.
The TKG Series, which includes the TKG250, TKG150 and TKG100 models, uses ultrasonic…
Akhilesh Gulati
Editor's note: This article continues the series exploring structured innovation using the TRIZ methodology, a problem-solving, analysis, and forecasting tool derived from studying patterns of invention found in global patent data.
Lessons about TRIZ learned at the monthly meetings of My Executive…
Tom Somodi
It’s astonishing how businesses and people are continually influenced by solution providers and consultants of change methodologies. These consultants somehow have the ability to convince others that if they want to obtain a desired change, then all they have to do is “execute this” or “buy into…
