All Features
Eric Gasper
An upcoming audit can be one of the more stressful times of the year for a quality team. Whether you are pursuing a new certification or retaining your current one, audit preparation can be a daunting challenge to even the most diligent organization. Although standards such as ISO/IEC 17025, ISO/…
Knowledge at Wharton
Time was, layoffs were seen as an emergency strategy, the last resort in a downturn or crisis. Today, however, layoffs are a standard tool for doing business. As the economy continues to heal and job indicators improve, a number of firms have announced a fresh wave of layoffs—Nordstrom, Sprint,…
Donald S. Holmes, A. Erhan Mergen
Regression analysis is used in a variety of manufacturing applications. An example of such an application would be to learn the effect of process variables on output quality variables. This allows the process control people to monitor those key variables and keep the output variables at the…
Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence
(Hexagon: North Kingstown, RI) -- Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence has unveiled a new model of its versatile GLOBAL coordinate measuring machine (CMM) designed in collaboration with internationally renowned design house Pininfarina. This best-in-class machine is tailored specifically to offer…
Ryan E. Day
Ihave never been accused of being an early adopter of cutting-edge technology. On the other hand, I don’t dance the Luddite jig, either. True to my own type, I hung on to my old M-1A tank, aka a Motorola flip phone, for as long as I could, but was pleased as punch when circumstances led me to…
Norman A. Paradis
The last few months have witnessed the unraveling of the remarkable life sciences company Theranos, culminating in the news that federal regulators may ban Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes from the blood-testing industry for at least two years. The company is also facing a federal criminal…
Kevin Meyer
During the past few years I’ve been working hard on cultivating positive habits. New habits can be powerful. But habits can also create barriers that limit our perspective, which can hinder kaizen, creativity, and even our knowledge of ourselves. We’ve all found ourselves in the proverbial “rut”…
ECM Global Measurement Solutions
(ECM: Topsfield, MA) -- East Coast Metrology has announced the official launch of its new division dedicated to 3D surveying and building information modeling (BIM) services.
Metrology instruments are no longer just for metrology labs and manufacturing plants. As the quality control industry…
Fred Schenkelberg
What if all failures occurred truly randomly? Well, for one thing the math would be easier.
The exponential distribution would be the only time to failure distribution—we wouldn’t need Weibull or other complex multi-parameter models. Knowing the failure rate for an hour would be all we would need…
William A. Levinson
All process activities can be broken down into one of five categories: waiting, handling and setup, inspection, transportation, and transformation. Of these, only transformation of the product adds value.
A figure in Frederick Winslow Taylor’s 1911 book, Shop Management makes it clear that, while…
Frank Lafleur
Sponsored Content
Among the many test and measurement tools available to the shop-floor professional, the videoscope (also known as a video borescope) is one of the most practical, with great portability and ease of use. Videoscopes allow users to inspect for flaws, faults, or deformations in…
Tab Wilkins
Recently I came across the PriceWaterhouseCoopers U.S. CEO Survey and watched several videos about leadership challenges for manufacturers. The speakers talked about new and old trends they’re focused on as company leaders, as well as several trends that could apply to small and medium-sized…
Bruce Hamilton
Today’s article is inspired by the politically-charged gobbledygook we call presidential primaries. This battle of principles turned battle of wills reminds me that the role of the change agent can be as much theater as science. In a public forum, at least, the positions of the opponents are…
Annette Franz
I have written many times about the importance of the employee experience, both on its own in terms of retention and performance, and with regard to the effect of the employee experience on the customer experience.
Sadly, many companies still aren’t focusing on the employee experience. IDC’s 2015…
ISO
(ISO: Geneva) -- Vape and vapor products represent a technical and economic novelty. The electronic cigarette devices and their consumables, called e-liquids, are recognized as a genuinely disruptive innovation, having reached mass markets in many countries in just a few years. The use of…
Greg Fox
People say that I overthink everything. I’ve given this assertion considerable thought, and I don’t believe that it’s true. After all, how can any one person possibly overthink every possible thing in just one lifetime?
For example, suppose I live 85 years. That’s 2,680,560,000 seconds (85 years…
A self-made leader doesn’t make much. I first wrote that statement in my book, Leadership Gold (Thomas Nelson, 2008). Eight years later, I still believe it. After all, I’m not a self-made man; it took a lot of people investing in me to get me where I am today.
You may wonder who helped me. Well,…
(CADENAS: Augsburg, Germany) -- Since 2012, the 3D CAD models engineering app from CADENAS has served engineers and purchasers as a download service and calculation tool for 3D data. Due to the growing popularity and the increasing download figures in Google Play and the iTunes Store, the…
Rachel E. Sherman, Robert M. Califf
Across the clinical research enterprise, there is a growing awareness of serious shortfalls in the current model for generating the scientific evidence that supports medical product evaluation and clinical care decisions. As a result the FDA seeks to modernize methods and satisfy expectations…
Paul Voss
Not long ago, most Americans could safely ignore congressional deliberations about Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authority, leaving the details to industry experts and lobbyists. But this time, we may need to fasten our seatbelts and actually read the card in the seat pocket.
A bill under…
Beth Savage
The 2016 Masters Tournament is in the history books. Jordan Spieth had what some are calling an epic meltdown on the final nine holes of the tournament, and in a come-from-behind victory, Danny Willett earned the green jacket. The tournament is touted as a tradition unlike any other. Edge-of-your…
Becky Blalock
When asked about the thing most managers dread about their job, the No. 1 response is giving constructive feedback. Yet this is the most important task for any leader.
As someone who came out of college and was leading a team at 22 years old, I wish I’d had some guidance on how to make feedback…
(IRMA: Washington, D.C.) -- On April 5, 2016, the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) has released the second and revised draft of the “Standard for Responsible Mining” for a 60-day review and public comment period ahead of the first-ever global certification program for industrial-…
Etalon AG
(Etalon: Braunschweig, Germany) -- Absolute Multiline Technology is a worldwide unique measurement system for monitoring the geometric accuracy of machine tools by means of high-precision length measurements: An absolute distance interferometer measuring with submicrometer resolution serves as the…
Naveen Khajanchi
Adam Grant, a professor of psychology at Wharton, admitted how wrong he was to pass up on the opportunity to invest in an online startup selling glasses. Because the company didn’t have a functioning website the day before its launch, and because other competitors were already operating in the…
