All Features
NIST
Sometimes the chain of measurement traceability—the unbroken series of links between a calibrated instrument and the official NIST standard—can get pretty long. But 250 million kilometers is remarkable, even for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
That’s the current distance…
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
My title this month is a funny metaphor for a common opinion I saw written on a bathroom wall. The gist of the graffiti was that the first mouse must die springing the trap before the second one gets the prize.
After observing big failures, it’s human nature to be a little wary of trying new…
Colleen Coyle
At creative werks (cw), a manufacturing and co-packing business in Illinois, production is nonstop. Lines run 24/7 and data constantly accumulate. Accuracy and timeliness are crucial, but without an automated quality control system, the quality team relied on manual auditing for weight checking,…
Pinpoint Laser Systems
(Pinpoint: Peabody, MA) -- Pinpoint Laser Systems, designer and manufacturer of measuring and alignment tools and solutions, is exhibiting this week, Sept. 10–15, at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) held at McCormick Place in Chicago.
Pinpoint’s booth (No. E-4769) is featuring…
Siemens PLM Software
(Siemens: Plano, TX) -- Siemens PLM Software, will release in October 2012 the latest version of NX software, the company’s integrated computer-aided design, manufacturing, and engineering analysis (CAD/CAM/CAE) solution. NX 8.5 includes customer-driven enhancements and new capabilities that…
LVMC
(LVMC: Chester, UK) -- The Large Volume Metrology Conference and Exhibition 2012 (LVMC) is accepting submissions for presentations for this year’s show, which is being held Nov. 28–29 at the Chester Racecourse in Chester, United Kingdom. The LVMC is the only European event dedicated solely to the…
Institute of Medicine
America’s healthcare system has become too complex and costly to continue business as usual, according to the report, “Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America” from the Institute of Medicine.
Inefficiencies, an overwhelming amount of data, and other…
Alan’s Apothegms with Alan L. Austin
My mother started teaching piano when she was in her teens. She still does as a matter of fact, even though she is about to celebrate her 91st birthday.
When I was a boy she thought I should learn to play. Don’t get me wrong; I love the piano. I grew up listening to my mother play classical pieces…
Mark R. Hamel
In many ways, visual controls are a 24/7 mirror of leadership’s competency and credibility. That’s pretty scary if you think about it. It’s like voluntarily living in a fishbowl, not that everyone truly understands the gravity of that.
It reminds me of the Spider-Man quote (allegedly borrowed from…
Timothy F. Bednarz
The saying, “The devil is in the details” is true in all organizational and business environments. Often when leaders take the time to empower their employees and teams to handle minor details and problems, major problems are avoided or at least minimized.
The process of transformation and change…
Patrick Stone
During a debate with then-President Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan famously asked Americans if they were better off than they were four years previously. It worked for Reagan, so we’re going to try a variation of it here.
Is the Food and Drug administration (FDA) better off than it was four or five…
Kyle Toppazzini
Another transformation initiative has been announced in your organization and you think to yourself, “How much change are we expected to undertake?” In a lean Six Sigma engagement, it is imperative to take into consideration the number of ongoing and past change initiatives. This article explains…
Umberto Tunesi
I recently bought myself an almost-latest-version smartphone. It was intended to celebrate my 62nd birthday; replace my present, obsolete portable phone; and be reliable and not too expensive.
Well, its “Quick Reference Guide” consists of 34 pages, three of which are blank, five give generic,…
Teledyne DALSA
(Teledyne: Waterloo, Ontario) -- Teledyne DALSA, developer and manufacturer of machine vision technology, is continuing its advanced CMOS sensor deployment by launching the Piranha4 8k color CMOS line-scan camera with 8k resolution and a 7 µm × 7 µm pixel size for optimized optical design. The…
Mike Micklewright
After recently returning to the world of process improvement consulting, I began to ponder where U.S. manufacturing stands with regard to worldwide competitiveness after so many decades of highs and lows. Globally, we have U.S. manufacturing to thank for leading the way out of the great recession,…
NIST
Twelve U.S. organizations have reached the next step on the road to possibly achieving a silver anniversary Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The Baldrige Award is the nation’s highest recognition for organizational performance excellence. The Baldrige panel of judges has selected one…
Donald J. Wheeler
There are two key aspects of the normal distribution that make it the central probability model in statistics. However, students seldom hear about these important aspects, and as a result they end up making many unnecessary mistakes. Read on to learn what it means when we say the normal…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
“Quality is not free, but it has a pretty darn good ROI.”
So said James Rooney, chair of the American Society for Quality (ASQ), and keynote speaker at this year’s National Conference of Standards Laboratories International (NCSLI) conference in Sacramento, California. The comment got a good round…
Olympus
(Olympus) -- Olympus will put its expertise in industrial microscopes, videoscopes, and imaging devices on full display in Booth E-5291 at IMTS 2012 from September 10-15. In-booth talks from a variety of speakers will review topics in non-destructive testing, including visual inspection and motion…
ISO
T he International Organization for Standardization (ISO) develops and publishes more than 19,200 voluntary international standards that bring benefits for businesses, governments, and society. But how do the standards contribute to the economic returns of countries and companies? What is the…
NIST
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced nearly $2 million in Phase I and Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards to 12 U.S. businesses. These awards provide funding to help companies develop technologies that could lead to commercial and public…
Carly Barry
I recently had the chance to talk to Brett Warland, global director of process improvement at PolyOne Corp. The word “global” is often present in the titles of many organizations’ process improvement programs and employee job titles that deal with quality. This can convey not only an international…
ASQ
(ASQ: Milwaukee) -- Through the use of quality improvement initiatives, the city of Milwaukee is improving services and increasing efficiencies citywide.
From boosting the number of children immunized from 45 percent to 78 percent, to reducing the number of worker compensation claims from 3,097 to…
Matthew Littlefield
I’ve written before about General Motors (GM) and its closed-loop quality management strengths in the product life-cycle management space, specifically with dimensional planning and validation. I believe the automaker has strong quality management capabilities and was surprised to hear the recent…
Knowledge at Wharton
Everyone knows that pension plans, both public and private, are in trouble. But on closer examination, this isn’t the apocalypse many people think it is. Most pensions will pay most beneficiaries most of what they are owed, and government pension-protection agencies have various techniques for…
