All Features
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
I was less than two minutes into my sales presentation when the business owner sitting behind his desk gruffly said, “Get out of here.” I figured someone must have walked into his office, and he didn’t want us to be interrupted. I turned around to see who it was. There was no one.
He then…
Bill Kalmar
As a frequent columnist for Quality Digest Daily and several other publications, I have learned that there are certain topics that are out of bounds. These are topics that elicit heated debate, comments from riled readers, and the occasional canceling of a subscription. I recently read there…
Tim Lozier
’Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the shop
Santa’s quality manager feared that all production would stop
The FMEA showed high risk, nonconformances were a fright
But Santa knew better—his QMS would help on this magical night.
I really enjoy the holiday season. I love the…
James Brewton
Lean Six Sigma has proven itself as an effective strategy for business success in both private and public sectors. The methodology has helped enterprise leaders recognize business processes as engines that drive performance excellence and help to deliver value. Lean Six Sigma offers a…
Diane Ciotta
A traveler attempting to book a ticket by phone became frustrated after choosing from a menu of endless options, then waiting on hold for 20 minutes before eventually being transferred twice—the second time to a dial tone. When she called back, the first live person she connected with got an…
Michelle LaBrosse
The holiday season is like a magnifying glass that enlarges both the best and the worst in us. This time of year induces joy, caring, and generosity, but it can also magnify stress, anxiety, and heighten conflict at home and in the office.
The holidays can be stressful. You see it in people…
CMSC
(CMSC: Benbrook, TX) -- The Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS), the membership association for measurement professionals, has announced a call for papers for the 2012 Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference (CMSC). The 28th annual event will be held at The Roosevelt New Orleans in New Orleans,…
Nikon Metrology Inc.
(Nikon Metrology: Brighton, MI) -- Focus 10, Nikon Metrology’s point-cloud software that streamlines the digital inspection process, offers a completely new user interface and now provides support for handheld laser scanning and tactile probing. Users gain productivity through the new intuitive…
CRC Press
(CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- Risk Monetization: Converting Threats and Opportunities into Impact on Project Value, by Glenn R. Koller (CRC Press, 2011), addresses the organizational, political, cultural, and technical issues related to implementing a successful risk assessment, management, and…
Juran
(Juran Institute: Southbury, CT) -- Joseph A. De Feo, president and CEO of Juran Institute Inc., one of the world’s leading authorities on transformational change systems and breakthrough management principles, will facilitate a one-day workshop on lean Six Sigma.
DUring this workshop, De Feo…
(ERI: Santa Barbara, CA) -- Earthquakes are only one of the subjects being discussed at the “Fundamentals of Random Vibration and Shock Testing” course led by mechanical engineer expert Wayne Tustin. The course will be held at ANCO Engineers Inc. in Boulder, Colorado, July 9–11, 2012, from 8 a.m.…
Ed Perkins
Much has been written and discussed about “risk” being the future of “quality.” But what does this really mean, and how does it work?
Definitions of quality
Let’s us look at common working definitions of quality: zero defects, customer satisfaction, control of process variance, reliability,…
Tim Hyden
It sometimes seems that few people can accurately define risk management, let alone apply it in their organization. Yet, a risk management plan can help an organization identify and correct hazards and substandard work practices before bad things happen. Risk management is by far one of the…
Ross School of Business - University of Michigan
Cisco Systems Inc., headquartered in San Jose, California, runs one of the most complex supply chains in the global information technology industry. The company relies on more than 1,000 suppliers, four contract manufacturers, and 50,000 purchased parts. It also outsources assembly. In October…
The Conference Board
(The Conference Board: New York) -- Despite the potentially crippling impact of security events on corporate performance, many executives report that their security function is not well coordinated with enterprise risk management (ERM) or a similar risk function, The Conference Board reports.…
UC Davis
(UC Davis: Davis, CA) -- Engineers at the University of California, Davis are preparing to conduct the first rigorous tests of how the steel columns that secure skyscrapers to their foundations stand up during earthquakes, research that could make the towering structures safer and perhaps less…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- In fire experiments conducted in uniformly furnished but vacant Chicago-area townhouses, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers uncovered temperature and heat-flow conditions that can seriously damage facepiece lenses on standard…
Forrest Breyfogle—New Paradigms
Organizations need a systematic approach for risk containment when quality, delivery, and design product and service issues occur. Such a system should also help them to recover quickly from errant decisions made by executives, operations personnel, and the quality department.
This article…
Kirk Wehby
On the face of it, today’s supply-chain risks don’t seem too different from any other time in history. We are faced with natural and man-made disasters, frequent dissolution of supply-chain partners and suppliers, constantly changing regulations, counterfeiting, and the long-standing question…
Denise Robitaille
The ISO 9001 requirements pertaining to preventive action would get a lot more attention if people grasped the very simple fact that this is all about managing risk—which is really about managing the consequences of change. Whenever we change something, even for the better, there are…
CRC Press
(CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- Historically important trade routes for goods of all kinds for more than 3,000 years, the Silk Road has once again come to prominence. Managing Supply Chains on the Silk Road: Strategy, Performance, and Risk (CRC Press, 2011) presents emerging supply chain…
Productivity Press
(Productivity Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- Most business readers have heard of the lean principles developed for factories—a set of tools and ideas that have enabled companies to dramatically boost quality by reducing waste and errors—producing more while using less. Yet until now, few have…
News-Medical.Net
Japanese vehicle manufacturer, Toyota, is well-known for developing the principles of lean manufacturing. Research published in the International Journal of Technology Management suggests that the lean approach might also be beneficial to medical procedures, making hospitals more efficient and…
Quality Transformation With David Schwinn
A few weeks ago, my eyes filled with tears as our daughter, Lisa, told those whom we call the Macaronis, that she was struggling to decide between her current occupational choices (yes, she’s that talented and in demand); what she really wanted to do was work more closely with my wife, Carole,…
Kistler
(Kistler: Novi, MI) -- Kistler, a global supplier of precision sensors, systems, and instrumentation for the dynamic measurement of pressure, force, torque and acceleration, has introduced the Type 4021B industrial melt pressure measuring chain. The chain is expressly designed for the…
