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NIST
Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker has announced that three U.S. organizations will receive the 2013 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation's highest presidential honor for performance excellence through innovation, improvement, and visionary leadership. All of this year's winners are…
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
When I was studying abnormal psychology in college, I read a case study of an unusual mental illness. It was so fascinating that I thought it would be the perfect vehicle for a novel. Thus my idea for a story was born, but it would be eight years before I felt I had acquired the writing skill to…
Tim McMahon
V alue-stream mapping is a useful tool for grasping the current situation and for planning improvements. Recently, a reader who watched “The Secrets to Creating an Effective Value Stream Map” webinar asked when is it OK to skip the current-state map.
A value-stream map is a visual depiction of…
Olympus
(Olympus: Center Valley, PA) -- As an advanced micro-imaging software system designed to turn Olympus industrial microscopes into high-performance analysis tools, OLYMPUS Stream allows users to seamlessly acquire, process, and measure images, then create valuable data and reports. With the release…
Sonal Sinha
It’s been more than one year since the conflict minerals rule, Section 1502 of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, was adopted. With just six months left for the first compliance reporting deadline, I’m prompted to ask: How are companies doing?
According to a survey conducted in June and July 2013, by…
Quality Transformation With David Schwinn
I just finished participating in a delightful design charrette. I’m sharing this with you because design can be a very powerful tool in the Six Sigma arsenal, and this little charrette both reminded me of and taught me a few important lessons about the design process.
Lansing Community College,…
Gallup
As the cost of healthcare continues to rise, U.S. companies are grappling with how to address it most effectively. These businesses could learn a great deal from U.S. cities with the highest well-being.
The largest U.S. employers could reap about $22 billion in annual savings if their employees…
Knowledge at Wharton
In his State of the Union address in February 2012, President Obama called on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $9 an hour. “Even with the tax relief we’ve put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line,” he said…
Thomas R. Cutler
R ecently more than 194 manufacturing IT managers and directors were asked to identify what would facilitate collaboration and productivity improvements across their organizations. More than 150 people completed a multiple-choice email survey, which contained both open-ended and multiple-choice…
Bruce Hamilton
I’ve always felt the need to accentuate the positive, something I think I picked up from my mother. In tense situations she would always interject, “Isn’t it a beautiful day?” This usually generated laughter and reduced tensions. Although this seems like an admirable quality, I discovered one day…
Ron Hicks
As we all look forward to 2014, I ask you to keep the new CMS certification program in mind, whether you are a beginner or veteran metrologist. Our certification committee is working hard to build a program that is beneficial to our membership, as well as future members of our organization.
This…
Untitled Document
Although 80 percent of Accurex’s business lies in the industrial application of precision metrology and scanning, the company always enjoys the occasional cultural heritage project. When the Accurex team was called upon to scan the Sphinx of Hatshepsut, it was ready for the…
Mike Roberts
Editor’s note: A webinar on this topic will held on Nov. 19, 2013, at 11 a.m. Pacific, 2 p.m. Eastern. Register here.
And previewing the webinar, Matthew Littlefield will be a guest on Quality Digest Live this Friday, Nov. 15, 2013, at 11 a.m. Pacific, 2 p.m. Eastern.
Unless you’ve been hiding…
Lean Math With Mark Hamel
Weighted average cycle time (Tcwa), also known as “average weighted cycle time,” provides a representative average cycle time (Tc) within a mixed model environment. Varied models or services in a given cell, line, or work area often have varied work contents due to different steps, duration of…
Patrick Runkel
Nala, our 6-year-old golden retriever, loves her dogma. That’s her sitting in front of church on Sunday morning. But she’s not crazy about her catechism. For example, she doesn’t always dutifully follow the “lay down” commandment.
What factors may be influencing her response? We’re…
Delcam
(Delcam: Windsor, Ontario, Canada) -- Delcam has released the 2013 R2 version of its PowerINSPECT metrology software, which offers faster programming and inspection, plus even easier-to-read reports. It includes a new method for automated inspection of part edges, improved display of deviations,…
Christine Schaefer
S teven Pearlstein, a business columnist for The Washington Post, and others, have written about business leaders’ excessive and shortsighted focus on stock values for shareholders. What about the role of corporate governance boards? Aren’t board members obliged to view company management and…
Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence
(Hexagon Metrology: North Kingstown, RI) -- Hexagon Metrology has announced the commercial availability of ROMER measuring arm packages equipped with PC-DMIS Touch Portable, a revolutionary measurement software. Utilizing high-resolution Multi-Touch display technology on a tablet PC, users…
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…
