All Features
New River Kinematics
(New River Kinematics: Williamsburg, VA) — Beginning September 2013, SpatialAnalyzer (SA), the portable metrology solution for large-scale manufacturers, is coming to a city near you. Attend a free SA user seminar at one of 16 cities around the United States and learn more about how SA can help you…
Creaform Inc.
(Creaform: Lévis, Québec, Canada) -- Creaform, developer, manufacturer, and provider of portable 3-D measurement solutions and 3D engineering services, has announced its financial results for the first half of 2013. The company reports sales growth of 41 percent over 2012.
“We are extremely happy…
Brunson
(Brunson: Kansas City, MO) -- Brunson Instrument Co. has unveiled their newly redesigned website with detailed product descriptions and photos, featured videos, company news and more. The company also rolled out their new mobile website application at m.brunson.us. The websites cater to alignment,…
Basis Software Inc.
(Basis Software: Redmond, WA) -- Basis Software Inc., designer, marketer, and supplier of 3D laser scanning systems and products, released the “IR” version of the Surphaser 100HSX, their latest phase-shift, hemispherical laser scanner at the 2013 Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference (CSMC) held…
Verisurf Software Inc.
(Verisurf: Anaheim, CA) -- Verisurf Software Inc., developer of metrology software, has released the 7th generation of its Verisurf X software. With model-based geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) inspection technology at its core, the all-new computer-aided inspection, reverse…
Automated Precision Inc.
(API: Rockville, MD) -- Automated Precision Inc. presented the North American debut of the Omnitrac 2, the world’s first completely wireless laser tracker, at the Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference (CMSC) held last month in San Diego.
In addition demonstrating the Omnitrac 2’s Absolute…
Tripp Babbitt
S
ometimes it’s necessary for a person to offer up views that seem to be an affront. Because these views often challenge the status quo, people’s reactions can be mixed. Some will consider the person a heretic for expressing them, and others will wonder why anyone would say such a thing. The…
Bakul Patel
Many medical devices today perform at least one function by using wireless technology to support health care delivery. In telemedicine, for example, a wireless device can enable real-time monitoring of patients from a distance. Data from a patient-worn or implanted medical device goes directly to…
Erik Klaas, Arun Chhabra, Pia Böttcher
This article is about how augmented reality (AR) techniques can change the way we use measurement equipment. Three applications are presented to demonstrate how much easier, faster, and more intuitive an inspection task gets through gesture control (GC) and presenting information on the inspected…
Belinda Jones
Location, location, location! Last month, a diverse assortment of metrologists, scientists, engineers, quality control specialists, manufacturers, educators, and students streamed into the 2013 Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference (CMSC). This annual event was staged at the beautiful Sheraton…
Jim Benson
In the last couple of columns, I’ve been discussing work in process (WIP), the size of tasks, how we complete certain types of tasks, and who or what might interrupt us. Perhaps it’s time to understand the consumers of our tasks: our customers.
Whenever we do something, even if it’s simply…
Kevin Meyer
A few years ago when I was a young lad, a friend of mine introduced me to a newfangled gizmo called Pong. We temporarily disconnected his Betamax from his 27-in. big-screen TV (a new color model) and connected up the game. I was hooked. I couldn't get enough of moving a white rectangle up and down…
IMD
Caring bosses who help employees with their personal and work problems shouldn’t expect gratitude, loyalty, and commitment in return, new research has warned. According to a study by Switzerland-based business school, IMD, most managers believe offering emotional support will benefit their company…
Gustavo Garcia-Cota
In my line of work, I visit many wiring harness shops that produce harnesses for many different industries. One of the common issues I’ve noticed in shops that use crimp force monitors (CFMs) is that they are usually turned off, regardless of the brand, because engineers and operators aren’t using…
Daniel Crowley
This article provides a review of three proven quality assurance tips that are applicable for software, manufacturing, and service organizations. They provide guidance to senior management, as well as engineers and technical staff, for selecting and implementing quality improvement projects.
When…
MIT News
MIT professor emeritus Rodney Brooks gained fame during the 1990s for co-founding iRobot, an MIT spin-off that brought the Roomba and other innovative, helpful robots to the world. He’s since moved on to robots that are bigger, but no less revolutionary.
Brooks’ newest startup, Rethink Robotics,…
Bruce Hamilton
I opened a fortune cookie yesterday, which read “Understanding little is better than misunderstanding a lot.” Seems to me that we lean wannabes misunderstand a lot—maybe not everyone, but I regretfully include myself in that group.
There is so much to know about the Toyota Production System (TPS…
Umberto Tunesi
In a world where appetizers often are more important than the meals themselves, repeated information and news can become boring. That is, what appears to be new attracts more than what actually is new.
Effective reporting likewise suffers from this tendency.
As an obstinate ISO 9001, ISO 14001,…
Arun Hariharan
Imagine the power of your company and how much more productive each of your employees would be if every employee could leverage the collective knowledge of everybody else. This collective knowledge would stay with your company, and you’d be able to continually update it even if individuals left. I…
Tom Kadala
Without data, a company would never survive today. With a little data, it might have a fighting chance, depending on the quality and timing of the information. But what happens when a company has access to too much data?
Ironically, the company could go out of business even with the best…
Matthew Barsalou
I recently had an opportunity to learn about quality in industry in a Soviet Bloc nation, the former German Democratic Republic, better known as East Germany. I was invited to dinner with a family that included somebody who worked in a cotton mill during the final decades of East Germany.
I had…
Jack Dunigan
Editor’s note: This continues Jack Dunigan’s series about unsung heroes in the workplace, and the 16 traits they all share.
Many potential employers put this requirement directly in their help-wanted ads: “Must be a self-starter.” This is, apparently, an all-too-unusual trait.
Perhaps more than…
NVision Inc.
(August 2013) - NVision, the leader in non-contact optical scanning, announced that its technology consulting philosophy has been successful in saving time and money for companies in need of 3D scanning.
"Unfortunately, most companies just want to focus on selling their scanning equipment or their…
Jim Colton
Purchasing a used car can be stressful due to all the factors that must be considered. Websites such as www.cars.com provide a wealth of information, but how do you navigate through it all to find the best deal?
Once you narrow your choice down to a particular car model, the data from cars.com…
Neil Mason
Statistician George Box said, “Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful.” Clarifying what he meant, Box went on to say, “Remember that all models are wrong; the practical question is how wrong do they have to be to not be useful?” I think he had a point that’s worth thinking about a…
