All Features
Jack Dunigan
It happens easily enough and usually innocently enough. You start a business or organization then endure what is often a long and expensive learning curve. Along the way you learn. You learn a lot. You discover the competencies and incompetencies of those working with you. You learn how to manage…
ZEISS Industrial Quality Solutions
Decanter centrifuges from Hiller GmbH, headquartered in Vilsbiburg, Germany, are in demand globally. These centrifuges separate solid and fluid materials, such as in the production of olive oil or wine, or for wastewater treatment. The multiton machines achieve high yields unmatched by competitors…
Leading2Lean
It’s no news that U.S. manufacturing has a workforce problem. However, a new survey conducted by Leading2Lean (L2L) offers some unexpected hope. The survey reveals that a new generation of workers could spur industrywide innovation.
The 2019 L2L Manufacturing Index, an annual measurement of the…
Ben Brumfield
For decades, Krishan Ahuja tamed jet noise, for which the National Academy of Engineering elected him as a new member this year. Today, Ahuja is an esteemed researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology, but he got his start more than 50 years ago as an engineering apprentice in Rolls Royce’s…
Michael D. Williams
As I spoke recently with colleagues at a conference in Florence, Italy, about healthcare innovation, a fundamental truth resurfaced in my mind: the U.S. healthcare industry is just that. An industry, an economic force, Big Business. It is a vehicle for returns on investment first and the success of…
Digital Metrology
(Digital Metrology Solutions: Columbus, IN) -- Digital Metrology Solutions, provider of measurement software, consulting and training, has released two new products for multi-band surface texture analysis. Bandify and Bandify3D instantly separate surface texture into wavelength bands and display…
Jody Muelaner
In a general sense, capability is the ability to do something. Within manufacturing, capability is given a much more specific definition. It is an expression of the accuracy of a process or equipment, in proportion to the required accuracy.
This can be applied to production processes, in which…
Gabriel Hawawini
Given the recent, renewed intensification of the shareholder vs. stakeholder debate, the concept of value creation has become more ambiguous. On whose behalf should organizations generate value? For owners, employees, upstream and downstream partners, or local communities immediately affected by…
Donald J. Wheeler
Recently I have had several questions about which bias correction factors to use when working with industrial data. Some books use one formula, other books use another, and the software may use a third formula. Which one is right? This article will help you find an answer.
Before we can…
ISO
Innovation isn’t just about having a few bright ideas. It’s about creating value and helping organizations continuously adapt and evolve. ISO is developing a new series of International Standards on innovation management, the third of which has just been published.
Innovation is an increasingly…
Nick Castellina
Manufacturers often have a love-hate relationship with technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI) and other solutions that have the potential to affect jobs. On one side, companies need every tool available to help bolster efficiency and cost-effectiveness. On the other, the workforce…
Annette Franz
You’re listening to customers. You’re combining their feedback with those bread crumbs of data that they leave with every transaction and interaction with your brand. You’ve developed customer personas to better understand who they are, what problems they are trying to solve, and what jobs they…
MoneySuperMarket
(MoneySuperMarket: Ewloe, Wales) -- With many workers spending up to 40 hours a week in an office, it should come as no surprise that the office environment is vitally important to 21 percent of people. Happy workers are up to 20-percent more productive—so making sure the office is a positive place…
Zara Brunner
Recently, I got the chance to travel to Youngstown, Ohio. As I came into town, it struck me that Youngstown was like many other cities across America, including my hometown of Buffalo, New York. In its heyday, Youngstown was a center of manufacturing and steel production—industries that employed…
Barnaby Lewis
Put in the terms of this article’s title, most of us would run a mile, whatever the proposition. But the popularity of online reviews, and the trust we place in persons unknown when making major decisions about where to stay, what to eat, and how to get the most from a trip, tells a different story…
David L. Chandler
As a cucumber plant grows, it sprouts tightly coiled tendrils that seek out supports to pull the plant upward. This ensures the plant receives as much sunlight exposure as possible. Now, researchers at MIT have found a way to imitate this coiling-and-pulling mechanism to produce contracting fibers…
Matt Minner
There is a lot of buzz these days in the manufacturing sector about robots—and how they can help manufacturers address some of the challenges they face in today’s market, such as increased productivity and the scarcity of skilled workers.
But what exactly do analysts and automation experts mean…
Tara García Mathewson
The majority of educational technology is designed for student use. And it’s almost always designed by adults, few of whom consult with kids before they start mass-producing their products and selling them to schools. The disconnect is not lost on Brandon Goon.
Goon, now 20, dropped out of his…
Wiley
(Wiley: Hoboken, NJ) -- The book, Statistical Process Control for the Food Industry: A Guide for Practitioners and Managers, by Sarina A. Lim and Jiju Antony (Wiley, 2019), provides managers, engineers, and practitioners with an overview of necessary and relevant tools of statistical process…
Mike Figliuolo
For a goal to be really relevant, it must tie to the broader purpose and goals of the entire organization. Your strategy is going to help drive that. Strategy consists of a desired future state and a definition of how you’re going to get there.
You should break that strategy down into smaller…
Edward Herceg
Those of us old enough to remember the “good old days” recall that grade school focused on learning the three R’s: readin’, ’ritin’, and ’rithmetic. In the world of sensors, there are also three Rs: repeatability, resolution, and response. Despite how important these sensor parameters are, there is…
Sunni Massey
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey: First Quarter 2019, found that 71.3 percent of the U.S. manufacturers surveyed cited the inability to attract and retain skilled workers as their top concern for the sixth consecutive survey. Analysts have called it a “…
Rob Matheson
In the Iron Man movies, Tony Stark uses a holographic computer to project 3D data into thin air, manipulate them with his hands, and find fixes to his superhero troubles. In the same vein, researchers from MIT and Brown University have now developed a system for interactive data analytics that runs…
Tim Mouw
Spending too much time and money on incorrect color? Even if you use the best color measurement tools available, your color will still fail without quality control. You may think you’re doing everything right, but if you (or worse, your customers) are rejecting a lot of products, then there’s more…
Alaina Love
‘I really don’t reach out to any of my colleagues when I’m struggling with a problem,” Alex confessed. “I’m the only woman at this level in the company and was chosen for this position over two men who were once my peers. I’m not about to ask for help and risk looking like I don’t know what I’m…