All Features
NIST
(National Institute of Standards and Technology: Gaithersburg, MD) -- Nine U.S. organizations have been selected to receive site visits this summer, proceeding to the final phase of a significantly revised process for applicant assessments for the annual Baldrige Award. The award identifies…
Stephanie Ojeda
Customer complaints are a fact of life in any industry. Even though manufacturers would prefer not to receive complaints, they do come with a silver lining. Managed effectively, they play an important role in improving your products and processes over time—that is, for companies that take a…
Andreas Janz, Horacio Falcão
Failing to identify faults seems to be a prevalent issue nowadays, considering recent reports of quality control problems at Boeing and numerous recalls by car manufacturers, to name a few. Yet, excessive fault-finding occurs when the ability to pinpoint faults—a beneficial behavior—is taken too…
Jones Loflin
I was driving along listening to the audio book Trust, by Henry Cloud (Faith Words, 2023). When the person reading the book made the comment, “Trustworthy leaders make their teams care less,” I almost had to pull over. Hearing that made me question exactly what they were talking about.
However,…
Quality Digest
(CIMdata: Ann Arbor, MI) -- CIMdata, a leading global PLM strategic management consulting and research firm, has released the 2024 CIMdata CAM Market Analysis Report (MAR), the 32nd annual study of the global computer-aided machining (CAM) market. CIMdata estimates that, based on end-user payments…
Mike Figliuolo
Congratulations! You’ve arrived. You’ve earned that nice cushy office where you can shut the door and no one can hear you listening to the greatest American Idol video ever on YouTube (or looking for a video card to send to your mom on Mother’s Day).
Yep, the office is fantastic. But if you want…
Creaform
When it comes to aircraft, poorly documented dents can lead to more significant problems, potentially compromising structural integrity or performance. Dents can trap moisture and lead to corrosion. The stress they generate can initiate fatigue cracks. Their effects on the structure can also affect…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- In response to stakeholder feedback received, U.S. government (USG) departments and agencies worked to generate a draft Implementation Road Map. The road map sets forth actions and outcomes for the USG to increase investment in prestandards development activities for…
Quality Digest
(FABTECH: Orlando, FL) -- North America’s largest metal forming, fabricating, welding, and finishing event, FABTECH 2024, is making its first visit to Orlando, Florida, as it kicks off its three-day run at the Orange County Convention Center in one of America’s fastest growing manufacturing centers…
James Chan
Thoughtful planning is the cornerstone of an effective preventive maintenance program. Your maintenance plan is the framework for everything from building a maintenance schedule and automating inventory management to streamlining work order management and improving interdepartmental communication…
Lawrence Goodman
Here are just a few potential advantages of 3D drug printing—a new system for manufacturing drugs and treatments onsite at pharmacies, healthcare facilities, and other remote locations: chocolate-flavored pills for children who hate taking medicine; several drugs combined into one daily pill for…
Quality Digest
(GelSight: Waltham, MA) -- GelSight, a pioneer in tactile intelligence technology, announces a new partnership with PRAGMA, a leader in nondestructive evaluation (NDE) 4.0 technologies, to provide integrated solutions to the nondestructive testing (NDT) market. The joint solution incorporates…
Quality Digest
(AIMS Metrology: Dayton, OH) -- Automation, advanced data analytics, growing demand for in-process measuring, and increasing focus on precision manufacturing are reshaping metrology’s role in manufacturing. These industry trends prompted AIMS Metrology to expand its product offering and launch…
Quality Digest
(IDS: Stoneham, MA) -- The uEye XS from IDS Imaging Development Systems weighs just 12 grams, and with its size of just 26.4 x 23 x 21.7 mm, fits into almost any application. Thanks to its autofocus and 5 MP CMOS sensor, it delivers consistently sharp images and videos from a distance of just 10 cm…
Adam Zewe
(MIT: Cambridge, MA) -- Imagine driving through a tunnel in an autonomous vehicle but, unbeknownst to you, a crash has stopped traffic up ahead. Normally, you’d need to rely on the car in front of you to know you should start braking. But what if your vehicle could see around the car ahead and…
Donald J. Wheeler
The four common capability and performance indexes collectively contain all of the summary information about process predictability, process conformity, and process aim that can be expressed numerically. As a result, any additional capability measures that your software may provide can only…
Adam Zewe
Someday, you may want your home robot to carry a load of dirty clothes downstairs and deposit them in the washing machine in the far-left corner of the basement. The robot will need to combine your instructions with its visual observations to determine what it should do to complete this task.
For…
Kate Zabriskie
‘I don’t like confrontation, but I’m tired of his abuse. He signed me up for another committee without asking.”
“I know I need to say something about her taking credit for my work, but how to start?”
“Another joy of adulting, I’ve got to have one of those thorny conversations. Not fun.”
Difficult…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has launched a collaborative project to adapt NIST’s digital identity guidelines to support public benefits programs such as those designed to help beneficiaries pay for food, housing…
Harish Jose
I have always been interested in the idea of autonomy in a social setting. In this article, I’m looking at autonomy in a social setting—such as an organization—from a cybernetics viewpoint. I’ll lean on the ideas of Heinz von Foerster and Stafford Beer.
Von Foerster came up with the notion of…
Mike Figliuolo
Are you giving your lowest-level employees the power to make crucial customer-relations decisions without supervision? If not, you’re making a huge mistake.
Within a four-hour period on Friday I witnessed both excellent leadership and an abject failure of it. These experiences occurred with the…
Quality Digest
(AW-Lake: Oak Creek, WI) -- AW-Lake, a flow instrumentation manufacturer, has added the HM-U Hydraulic System Flow Meter to its family of products designed for the hydraulic industry. This cost-effective and versatile turbine-style flow meter measures hydraulic fluids for precise regulation and…
Quality Digest
(Dürr: Southfield, MI) -- Paint shops must become “greener” to help vehicle manufacturers feel certain about meeting their ambitious climate targets.
Assessing a technology’s sustainability is a complex task. In a comprehensive life cycle analysis, the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics (…
Jones Loflin
I love gardening and growing fresh vegetables. Recently I had checked in on my Brussels sprouts seedlings and, well, they looked awful! The reason quickly became obvious to me: I had overwatered them.
I was so excited about growing Brussels sprouts this year, I didn’t want anything to happen to…
Harry Hertz
The Baldrige Executive Fellows is an annual cohort of executives learning about leading their organizations using the Baldrige Excellence Framework as a guide. As part of the collaborative experience, each executive fellow undertakes a capstone project of strategic significance to their…
