All Features
Patrick Runkel
Muntasir Mamun and Mohammad Ujjal are riding across the United States on a bicycle built for two. As they pedal in sync from Seattle to New York, they’re not only gazing at our purple mountains’ majesty and amber waves of grain. They’re also keeping their eyes peeled for plastic soda bottles, glass…
Beamex
(Beamex: Marietta, GA) -- Beamex introduces a new modular calibration system, MCS200. It is a modular test and calibration system for workshops and laboratories. The MCS200 offers efficient and ergonomic possibilities for the maintenance of process instruments. The system can be tailor-made to fit…
Simpler Consulting LP
(Simpler Consulting: Corapolis, PA) -- Simpler Consulting, a global management consulting firm, has released a new book, Simpler Healthcare (CreateSpace, 2012). Witten by Simpler CEO Marc S. Hafer, the book details how six hospitals have applied lean health care concepts to transform operations,…
Apriso
(Apriso: Long Beach, CA) -- Apriso, developer and provider of manufacturing software solutions, now offers its FlexNet Quality application with visual Quality Defect Tracking (vQDT), which embeds visual imagery of products and components within FlexNet to more readily address quality defects and…
Nextec Laser Metrology
(Nextec: Eastlake, OH) -- Nextec Laser Metrology, a corporation serving the quality inspection market, has released WIZinspect, a 3D multiposition laser inspection solution that enables manufacturers to improve the quality control process with faster speed and higher precision while lowering cost…
Zontec
(Zontec: Cincinnati) -- Zontec Inc. a global developer of SPC software solutions, has released an update to its Synergy 1000 for its customers worldwide. “We believe that when companies begin using SPC software, they should be able to enjoy SPC in real time and enable their operators to receive…
Reis Robotics
(Reis Robotics: Obernburg, Germany) -- Reis Robotics, developer, manufacturer, and provider of robot technology and automation systems integration, has developed SafetyController, for generating software-driven Cartesian and axis-related safety areas for optimum operator-specific safety equipment.…
Matthew E. May
Have you heard any of the following lately?
“I’m OK with how things are.” “The timing for this isn’t quite right.” “Seems like a lot of pain for such little gain.” “We need more buy-in to do this.” “That may work elsewhere, but not here.” “We tried something like this before, and it didn’t work.”…
Geomagic
Olympic sports keeps pushing athletes to find new and nuanced ways to condition their bodies. The same is true with their equipment. Engineers continually look for new refinements that propel the competition to a new level.
Much of this latter challenge lies in the realm of biomechanics, or…
Tripp Babbitt
Too many service organizations use measures that disconnect them from customers. The result is predictable: higher costs and worse service.
In service organizations, the systemic relationship between purpose, measures, and method is often clouded. These measures have nothing to do with what…
AMACOM
(AMACOM: New York) -- Chinese companies are being driven both by domestic pressure from competing Chinese companies at home, and by the need to find new customers as their domestic markets become saturated.
Strengthened by a large, well-educated, low-wage workforce, extensive government support,…
Mettler-Toledo
(Mettler-Toledo: Columbus, OH) -- New high-resolution weigh modules from Mettler-Toledo offer surprisingly fast and simple solutions for 100-percent in-process control. They can be used to check completeness of parts, kits, or modules as well as quality of surfaces where material is added or…
Honeywell
(Honeywell: Morristown, NJ) -- Honeywell Sensing and Control, developer, manufacturer, and full service provider of switch and sensor solutions based in Golden Valley, Minnesota, is rounding out its SMART position sensor portfolio with the new Rotary Configuration that provides 360° noncontact…
ASQ
(ASQ: Milwaukee) -- The American Society for Quality (ASQ), a leading authority on quality in all fields, organizations, and industries, recently released the fourth edition of the “Pathways to Social Responsibility” report showcasing case studies from companies big and small making a positive…
ISO
(ISO: Geneva) -- Personnel certification has become an important element of verifying the competence of an increasingly mobile and global workforce, underscoring the value of industry-recognized credentials that can be carried across national borders. In response to this growing need, a new and…
Renishaw
(Renishaw: Hoffman Estates, IL) -- Renishaw, developer and manufacturer of precision technologies in measurement, motion control, spectroscopy, and precision machining, has a new RMI-Q multiple probe radio transmission system that uses a single radio receiver for tool setting probe and spindle-…
The Conference Board
Amid continued economic, financial, and political turmoil, several European Union countries are seeing improvement in a crucial measure of competitiveness. According to a new Executive Action Report from The Conference Board, the cost of labor per unit of output has fallen significantly in a number…
Bruce Hamilton
Referred to either as “work in process” or “work in progress” (I think they’re the same thing), WIP is one of those manufacturing concepts that’s designed to confuse.
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First, it’s not really “work” but the object of work. In fact, in a…
PCS Press
(PCS Press: Vancouver, WA) -- Every night in America, thousands of managers lie in bed awake, thinking about how they can make their companies more competitive. They stare at the ceiling, wondering if their teams can successfully face the challenges of the global economy. They know that competition…
NCQA
(NCQA: Washington, D.C.) -- The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recognized the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) as an accrediting entity for qualified health plan issuers participating in health insurance exchanges. NCQA’s Health Plan Accreditation (HPA) contains all…
American Management Association AMA
(AMA: New York) -- Join Aaron Dignan, author of Game Frame: Using Games as a Strategy for Success (Free Press, 2011) for an hour-long webinar August 29, 2012, from noon to 1 p.m. EDT. Playing games is one of the most popular activities in our culture, generating tens of billions of dollars in…
Robert Half International Inc.
(Robert Half: Menlo Park, CA) -- To fill management positions, companies are more likely to look for talent outside rather than within their own ranks, a new survey from Robert Half Management Resources suggests. Chief financial officers (CFOs) who were interviewed said that, on average, 38 percent…
Johns Hopkins University
(Johns Hopkins University: Baltimore) -- Two swimming strokes, one that pulls through the water like a boat paddle and another that whirls to the side like a propeller, are commonly used by athletes training for the Olympic Games. But elite swimmers and their coaches have long argued over which arm…
Donald J. Wheeler
Three years ago this month Quality Digest Daily published my column, “Do You Have Leptokurtophobia?” Based on the reaction to that column, it contained a message that was needed. In this column I would like to explain the symptoms of leptokurtophobia and the cure for this pandemic affliction.…
Davis Balestracci
“If Japan Can… Why Can’t We?” was an American television episode that aired on June 24, 1980, broadcast by NBC as part of its show, NBC White Paper. That episode is often credited with beginning the quality revolution and introducing the methods of W. Edwards Deming to American managers.
In the mid…