All Features
Olympus
(Olympus: Waltham, MA) -- The new Olympus LEXT OLS5000 3D laser confocal scanning microscope delivers precise imaging in a fast, easy-to-use system for research and development and quality control inspection in the automotive, electronic component, and semiconductor industries.
The OLS5000…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
Our Oct. 27, 2017, episode of QDL looked at Ford, autonomous cars, and changes to FDA compassionate use rules.
“Ford Plans $14B in Cost Cuts as Part of New CEO’s Strategy”
Ford Motor Co’'s new CEO plans to cut $14 billion in costs, drop some car models, and focus the company’s resources on…
Harish Jose
Today I will look at epistemology at the gemba. Epistemology is the part of philosophy that deals with the theory of knowledge. It tries to answer the questions, “How do we know things, and what are the limits of our knowledge?” I have been learning about epistemology for a while now, and I find…
Scott Berkun
While researching my new book, The Dance of the Possible (Berkun Media, 2017), I studied the history of some of the most misleading ideas that have been popularized about creative thinking. Like the myth of epiphany and the other creative myths of innovation, these sayings are misleading despite…
Bruce Hamilton
The first two books I ever read about lean were Zero Inventories (McGraw-Hill, 1983) by Robert Hall, and Japanese Manufacturing Techniques (Free Press, 1982) by Richard Schonberger. In 1985, these definitive academic works were among just a few sources of information about what was then referred…
Christopher Martin
Nearly two decades ago, rising from the ashes of the once-giant video game hardware manufacturer Sega, Microsoft debuted the Xbox and entered into the video game market with the intent of competing directly with Sony’s PlayStation brand. By 2006, Microsoft’s launch of the second-generation of Xbox…
Lily Elefteriadou
What self-driving cars want, and what people want from them, varies widely. Often these desires are at odds with each other. For instance, carmakers—and the designers of the software that will run autonomous vehicles—know that it’s safest if cars stay far away from each other. But traffic…
Jun Nakamuro
The world first became aware of the Toyota Production System (TPS) when Taiichi Ohno published a book about his groundbreaking efforts at Toyota. It was published in Japan in 1978. The Japanese version of his book wasn’t translated into English until 1988. Because 10 years had passed, this…
Sheronda Jeffries, Carmine Reda
Companies purchase lots of things. They purchase tangible goods, like raw materials and equipment, or intangible services, like calibration and transportation. And most companies have basic criteria that they use to qualify and select suppliers.
Many companies require their suppliers to obtain…
Douglas C. Fair
It’s not enough to collect the right data, ensure all your quality checks are done correctly and on time, and prioritize your quality improvement opportunities. You also need to be able to take advantage of those opportunities.
In “What’s Your Priority? Use SPC to Maximize Your Impact on Quality…
Barbara A. Cleary
Taking time off for vacation seems to be a diminishing phenomenon among U.S. workers. Each year, Americans fail to use 662 million vacation days, and with those days $236 billion in economic opportunity is lost, according to the U.S. Travel Association.
Aside from the economic impact, there are…
peel 3d
(peel 3d: Lévis, Québec, Canada) -- peel 3d has announced that it has launched an industry first: an affordable 3D scanner that offers the functionalities and performance level required by professionals.
“In today’s marketplace, many professionals—from designers to engineers to educational…
Chuck Cimalore
A culture of quality drives the policies, practices, and processes needed to accomplish an organization’s work. Building a culture of quality begins with embodying core values, guiding philosophies, behaviors, and attitudes that, combined, contribute to day-to-day operations. This culture builds…
Sam Golan
In today’s economy, almost all manufacturing organizations are part of a supply chain, either as a buyer or a supplier themselves. Quite often they are both.
Outsourcing in traditional as well as new industries is growing rapidly. Consider that Boeing’s outsourcing evaluation grew from 400,000…
Scott Gottlieb
The FDA has a long history of supporting patient access to investigational new treatments. This includes working with drug and device companies through the clinical trial process that may lead to FDA approval of the treatment. We also offer expanded access programs that provide investigational…
Mike Richman
We cover a wide range of topics on QDL most weeks, but our latest episode, from Friday, Oct. 20, 2017, provided a steady drumbeat of technological detail. Here’s what we chatted about:
“Energy Harvested from Evaporation Could Power Much of U.S., Says Study” Renewal sources of energy like solar…
Matthew Barsalou
Quality tools can serve many purposes in problem solving. They may be used to assist in decision making, selecting quality improvement projects, and in performing root cause analysis. They provide useful structure to brainstorming sessions, for communicating information, and for sharing ideas with…
Dane Warren
Sponsored Content
As businesses become increasingly dependent on an effective supplier network, more data must be shared with these suppliers to support business goals and delivery business value. This gives rise to the need for a more robust, next-generation approach to supplier assurance and…
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
“Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded—here and there, now and then—are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny…
Jeff Dewar
This photo shows the Milky Way (from the Latin via lactea), part of our galaxy as seen from Earth. It’s a barred spiral galaxy, essentially a flat disk of at least 100 billion stars. Our galaxy is just one of about 400 billion in the universe, only three of which can be seen by the naked eye.…
Elizabeth Gasiorowski Denis
Global freight transport is a key component in the trade of goods and materials, but new demands on the transport network are creating fresh challenges for data. Transport companies are endeavoring to meet those new demands, but are they successful? Discover how an adaptive, intelligent supply…
MIT Management Executive Education
Design thinking is an innovative problem-solving process rooted in a set of skills.
The approach has been around for decades, but it only started gaining traction outside of the design community after the 2008 Harvard Business Review article [subscription required] titled, “Design Thinking” by Tim…
Davis Balestracci
In my last column, I reflected back on my career to date and issued a challenge. Based on the relatively lukewarm response, let’s see whether I can engage a few more of you to join me on my quixotic journey.
“Trying to manage your career or your organization in a world changing as rapidly as ours…
Frank Defesche
Until recently, most quality departments were unable to select their own quality management system (QMS) software.
Think about it. From hardware sizing to system requirements, database types to installation, only IT had the expertise to procure and maintain on-premise QMS software. At many…
Ken Kingery
The first in-car measurements of exposure to pollutants that cause oxidative stress during rush-hour commutes has turned up potentially alarming results. The levels of some forms of harmful particulate matter inside car cabins was found to be twice as high as previously believed.
Most traffic…
