All Features
MFG.com
(MFG.com: Atlanta) -- More than one-third of North American manufacturers responding to MFG.com’s most recent MFGWatch survey say they’ve experienced a significant supply chain disruption in the past three months, and more than 70 percent indicate they plan to maintain or increase employment at…
Scott Paton
There’s been much ado about this brave new digital world. Newspapers, magazines, and books are fast becoming mere electrons flickering before our eyes on computer monitors, smart phones, and e-book readers. It’s an exciting time in human history—truly a revolution in how information is gathered,…
ISO
(ISO: Geneva) -- ISO has just launched a compilation on CD-ROM of its entire collection of Technical Product Specification (TPS) standards, which are essential to manufacturing on a global basis, and provide a common language for product and contract specification, and other communication along…
PQ Systems
(PQ Systems: Dayton, OH) -- Quality Gamebox makes learning quality concepts fun. This collection of quality simulations and experiments—such as Deming’s red bead experiment and the quincunx—is entertaining and educational. Each game uses colorful graphics, animation, and sound to…
Spectronics Corp.
(Spectronics Corp.: Westbury, NY) -- Spectronics Corp. has introduced the
OPTIMAX 450—a cordless, high-intensity blue light (450 nm) LED flashlight. It provides a safe, effective alternative to prolonged use of UV-A black light. Blue light is perfect for quick pre-inspection or screening of…
Mettler-Toledo
(Mettler-Toledo Inc.: Columbus, OH) -- METTLER-TOLEDO introduces the new G20 Compact Titrator, which combines simplicity and dependability in one instrument. The G20 Compact Titrator is especially designed for basic applications, and can be operated very simply due to the well-established, unique…
Mettler-Toledo
(Mettler-Toledo Inc.: Columbus, OH) -- METTLER-TOLEDO introduces the new G20 Compact Titrator, which combines simplicity and dependability in one instrument. The G20 Compact Titrator is especially designed for basic applications, and can be operated very simply due to the well-established, unique…
Capacitec
(Capacitec: Ayer, MA) -- Capacitec Inc., a designer and manufacturer of noncontact capacitive displacement, gap, and parallelism sensing technologies for scientific and industrial customers, has announced the successful application of noncontact gap sensor systems within aircraft assembly, slot…
ASQ
(ASQ: Milwaukee) -- As organizations continue to look for ways to eliminate waste and improve the bottom line to survive the current economy, lean and Six Sigma continue to be an important part of their business plan.
Professionals will have an opportunity to enhance their skills at the…
Tom Gaskell
If you are buying two or three complex assemblies per month from a contract manufacturer, it would be reasonable to check every one carefully; there’s a lot that could go wrong. However, if you are buying 100,000 simple subassemblies per month it makes no sense for you to 100-percent check them…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- Finally, an optical frequency comb that visibly lives up to its name. Scientists at the University of Konstanz in Germany and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States have built the first optical frequency comb—a tool for precisely…
Joby George
The FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) posted a notice of draft guidance that will require all medical device adverse-event reports to be submitted electronically. While the process of electronic submission of data is a more efficient and traceable means for reporting, it…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- Finally, an optical frequency comb that visibly lives up to its name.
Scientists at the University of Konstanz in Germany and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States have built the first optical frequency comb—a tool for…
Craig Cochran
Product certifications have exploded in recent years. Products ranging from pine lumber to children’s toys carry some sort of certification, and the organizations issuing certifications are as diverse as the products themselves. What are the practical values of these certifications? What are the…
Laurel Thoennes @ QD
Bruce Piasecki’s new book, The Surprising Solution: Creating Possibility in a Swift and Severe World (Sourcebooks, 2009) is about how to make better leaders, better products, and a better world. The Surprising Solution is about how to create possibility in our world of global consolidation and how…
CRC Press
(CRC Press: New York) -- Improving supply chain efficiency, especially in today’s unsettled business climate, requires that managers go beyond doing business as usual. They must apply inspiration and perspiration in a structured, collaborative, and measurable approach that blends project…
ASQ
(ASQ: Milwaukee) -- In today’s challenging economy, providing quality service can be a major competitive advantage—but it can be difficult to define and measure. The American Society for Quality (ASQ) invites business professionals to register for a free webinar that spotlights how service quality…
Edmund Optics
(Edmund Optics: Barrington, NJ) -- Edmund Optics (EO), a provider of optical components, recently announced that it greatly expanded its line of TECHSPEC imaging and machine vision lenses, adding more than 30 EO designed and manufactured lenses including TECHSPEC fixed focal length and…
General Electric GE
(GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies: Groby, England) -- The hand-held DPI 620 advanced multifunction calibrator from GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies now incorporates full HART capability, making it the only combined HART communicator and calibrator currently on the market. The…
(ANAB: Milwaukee) -- Randy A. Dougherty, vice president of the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB), has been elected chair of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF), the world association of national accreditation bodies for management systems, products, and personnel.
Dougherty…
LaserLinc Inc.
(LaserLinc: Fairborn, OH) -- LaserLinc Inc., a manufacturer of noncontact, precision measurement systems, announces the release of a new laser scan micrometer, the TLAser130s.
The TLAser130s is a compact, high-speed, single-axis model for wire, centerless ground parts, multistrand…
Jon Miller
I became aware of a truth about lean problem solving and kaizen yesterday while reading an article about 10 internet rules and laws, “Internet rules and laws: the top 10, from Godwin to Poe,” published on the Daily Telegraph’s web site (www.telegraph.co.uk).
4. Skitt’s Law…
Donald J. Wheeler
I
n the past there was only one criterion required to be a good supplier: you had to ship very few nonconforming items. If your proportion of nonconforming items took a turn for the worse then you would be “in trouble,” and you would stay in trouble until your fraction nonconforming dropped…
Jack Healy
Recently released labor market, manufacturing, and consumer data indicate an economy steadily emerging from the long recession. One of the most gratifying indications of this change was the Associated Industries of Massachusetts Business Confidence index showing a continued gain of 1.8 points in…
Camstar Systems Inc.
(Camstar Systems Inc.: Charlotte, NC) -- Camstar offers “The Next Generation CAPA System” again by popular demand.
Quality issues that are resolved through processes in a corrective and preventive action (CAPA) system can be the difference between organizations that succeed and those that…