All Features
Sana Kazilbash
The 3MF Consortium recently announced its latest volumetric design extension for encoding geometrical shapes and spatially diverse properties through a volume-based description. The organization, which seeks to advance a universal specification for 3D printing, is currently calling for public…
(Alluxa: Santa Rosa, CA) -- Alluxa, a global leader in high-performance optical coatings and filters and thin-film deposition technologies, has introduced a groundbreaking capability in extending spectral optical-coating performance. The SIRRUS plasma physical vapor deposition (PVD) platform now…
Michael Naber
The automotive industry is a critical part of the global economy, and the quality of the products it produces is essential for its success. Consumers demand high-quality vehicles that meet their needs, and companies in this industry must ensure that their products meet rigorous safety and…
Jennifer Helgeson, Maria Dillard
In September 2018, a North Carolina city’s long road to recovery from Hurricane Matthew two years earlier became even longer. Lumberton, a small but diverse city of 21,000 people, 96 km (60 miles) inland from the coast, unfortunately found itself in Hurricane Florence’s sights. The Lumber River,…
Theodoros Evgeniou, Caroline Zimmerman
This isn’t a new story: A novel technology disrupts society, bringing with it many benefits but also major risks and costs. We saw it during the Industrial Revolution, which vastly improved the average living standard but also led to poor labor conditions and environmental degradation, all within a…
(ETQ: Burlington, MA) -- ETQ, a leading quality management system (QMS) provider, has announced a major new release of its cloud-native Reliance QMS to enable organizations to more easily identify, analyze, and resolve quality issues. The company also launched Lab Investigation, an application for…
Quality Digest
(Access Control Group: Chandler, AZ) -- Chaotic work environments, distracted workers, and equipment zooming through facilities such as distribution centers, manufacturing facilities, construction sites, or ports can cause collision risks.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the…
(Princeton Infrared Technologies: Monmouth Junction, NJ) -- Princeton Infrared Technologies (PIRT), specialists in indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) imaging technology and affordable shortwave-infrared (SWIR) linescan cameras, visible-SWIR science cameras, and 1- and 2D imaging arrays, has…
Derek Hills
The importance of medical device cybersecurity is growing exponentially. As more devices become connected to the internet, threats to public safety mount. Cybercriminals, formerly interested in stealing financial or medical records, have begun to essentially hold healthcare providers hostage by…
Silke von Gemmingen
Lettuce is a valuable crop in Europe and the United States. But labor shortages make it difficult to harvest; finding sufficient seasonal labor to meet harvesting commitments is one of the sector’s biggest challenges. Moreover, with wages rising faster than producer prices, margins are tight.
In…
Quality Digest
(Vision Engineering: New Milford, CT) -- Vision Engineering announced the launch of Makrolite 4K, its first 4K-resolution microscope to complement the company’s range of digital inspection systems.
The Makrolite 4K was launched at Productronica 2021 in Munich and made its North American debut at…
Quality Digest
(LRQA: London) -- LRQA and ELEVATE are joining forces to meet the fast-growing need for transparency and assurance around environmental, social, and governance standards (ESG). LRQA, a leading global provider of digitally-enabled assurance services, including environmental conformity assessments,…
Donald J. Wheeler
Most of the world’s data are obtained as byproducts of operations. These observational data track what happens over time and have a structure that requires a different approach to analysis than that used for experimental data. An understanding of this approach will reveal how Shewhart’s generic,…
Sachin Waikar
‘Diversity means lots of things,” says Amir Goldberg, an associate professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “These days, it evokes the idea of race or gender, but it’s also about how people think.”
Beyond their demographic differences, people working in a group…
(Mitutoyo: Aurora, IL) -- Mitutoyo America Corp. has released MCOSMOS v. 5.0, the newest version of its advanced metrology suite for coordinate measuring machines. This software, known as a standard throughout the world, offers support in 37 separate locations and in 12 different languages.
What…
Quality Digest
(Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence: North Kingstown, RI) -- Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, which provides engineering, production and quality technology and services to the world’s biggest and most innovative manufacturing leaders around the world, has announced a revolutionary…
Gleb Tsipursky
A tall, thin man in his late 50s approached me after my closing keynote for a manufacturing association conference on how leaders can avoid business disasters. He looked distraught and agitated. I hoped he wasn’t angry with something I said.
Mark introduced himself and asked me to tell him more…
Ben Bensaou
For many organizations, the biggest challenge of innovation isn’t coming up with good ideas—it’s making sure those good ideas are noticed and acted upon. This is a particular challenge for multinationals, such as global pharmaceutical and health company Bayer, which have thousands of staff spread…
Quality Digest
(Vision Research: Wayne, NJ) -- Vision Research, a leading manufacturer of digital high-speed imaging systems, brings extreme throughput to machine vision applications with the introduction of the Phantom S991 machine vision camera. The Phantom S991 employs CoaXPress-over-Fiber technology to…
Quality Digest
(Pall Corp.: Port Washington, NY) -- Pall Corp., a leader in filtration, separation, and purification technology, and a Danaher operating company, launched the Supralon hydraulic and lube oil-filter element range, a direct upgrade for Pall’s Coralon, Ultipor, and Red1000 series filters. Supralon…
Lisa Anderson
Global supply-chain disruptions are rampant. Manufacturers and business owners now routinely deal with triple and quadruple lead times, widespread shortages, escalating prices, and transportation delays. Every link in the supply chain is out of alignment. Think of the imbalance as a sixth-grader on…
Tahira Reid, James Gibert
People interact with machines in countless ways every day. In some cases, they actively control a device, like driving a car or using an app on a smartphone. Sometimes people passively interact with a device, like being imaged by an MRI machine. And sometimes they interact with machines without…
Mike MacPherson
For managers seeking to boost employee engagement, this is something that can only be earned, not enforced. If the past two years have shown us anything, it’s that genuine employee enthusiasm, motivation, and drive at work come from a passion for the work. No amount of free lunches, ping-pong…
Emily Newton
Welding technology has progressed over the years, thanks to innovations that improve accuracy and overall productivity. Some advances have been in welding automation handled by advanced robots. Other breakthroughs rely on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine vision for better defect detection.…
Daniel de Wolff
Most successful entrepreneurs know that simply inventing a smart or disruptive technology isn’t enough to make customers come running. Among other things, business development involves connecting with the right people in the corporate hierarchy. Yet aspiring entrepreneurs often underestimate the…
