All Features
CMSC
Story update 11/08/2010: Terry Crippen is no longer with ATT Metrology Services.
(ATT Metrology Services: Issaquah, Washington) -- ATT is pleased to announce that Terry Crippen has joined the company as vice president of business development as of March 2009. Crippen’s primary role will be to…
CMSC
(ROMER Inc.: Wixom, Michigan) -- ROMER Inc., a Hexagon Metrology company, announced today the rollout of the OMEGA portable measuring arm, their most economical tool for multipurpose noncontact measurement to date. The product was demonstrated in the Hexagon booth at the WESTEC 2009 Exhibition…
CMSC
(FARO Technologies Inc.: Lake Mary, Florida) -- FARO, the world’s leading provider of portable measurement and imaging systems, has announced that delivery of a new generation of 3-D laser scanners will begin in the second quarter of 2009. Two new models, the FARO Laser Scanner Photon 120 and…
Robert Clem
Hello readers, and welcome to the latest issue of CMSC World, which is packed with the latest news and features in the metrology arena.
Registration for CMSC 2009 in Louisville, Kentucky, is now open! As most of you know, this year is an historical landmark for the CMSC. In two months, the…
CMSC
From our distinguished white paper presentations to the Exhibition Hall packed with state-of-the-art 3D metrology technologies, the Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference always delivers a world class learning experience for our visitors each year. This five-day event is where metrologists,…
Chet Marchwinski
The current recession is the fifth in my working career. And it is beginning to feel like the worst. I can't imagine that any manager or improvement team member in any industry in any country isn't feeling a bit queasy at this point, as the world economy keeps recessing toward an unknown bottom.…
Steven Ouellette
A colleague of mine made an interesting point about how we teach and learn experimental design techniques, and I thought I'd explore the subject further. He observed that the order that we teach statistics is almost exactly opposite of how one would actually use them. So this month I will describe…
(NIST: Gaithersburg, Maryland) -- The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has received Congressional approval on its recovery plan to create jobs, strengthen the economy, and encourage innovation. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA…
Raissa Carey
BSI Management Systems America Inc. (BSI) recently achieved accreditation to ISO 14065 for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission verification services by the American National Standards Institute, placing the former amongst few recognized GHG emission verification and reduction assertions bodies in the…
Quality Digest
(Textron Inc.: Augusta, Georgia ) -- E-Z-GO, a Textron Inc. company (NYSE: TXT), has been awarded the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence. The international award recognizes companies that achieve world-class performance and promote lean operational concepts.
“More than five years ago, I…
Mike Micklewright
Question: How do Somalian pirates differ from some Wall Street CEOs?
Answer: A Somalian pirate takes hostages and demands money. A Wall Street CEO takes money and demands hostages.
Without the need, drive, pursuit, and focus on reducing waste; and because we had $1 billion to spend, Saturn…
John W. Stoneback
Is your toolholder showing wear in the areas indicated on the toolholder shown?
We’ve been asking this question for some time now, and we know the answer. Normally, close inspection of the tapered area will show a difference in finish at the threaded area a
Toolholder…
Bill Kalmar
M
ost of us, I suspect, have had a week that we would prefer relegating to our mental recycle bin. But every now and then we have a week that is truly remarkable. I recently had such a week that soundly confirmed my contention that customer service is rebounding and doing so in large leaps. (If…
Bill Kalmar
M
ost of us, I suspect, have had a week that we would prefer relegating to our mental recycle bin. But every now and then we have a week that is truly remarkable. I recently had such a week that soundly confirmed my contention that customer service is rebounding and doing so in large leaps. (If…
(FDA: Silver Spring, Maryland) -- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued a final rule that requires manufacturers of over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers and fever reducers to revise their labeling to include warnings about potential safety risks, such as internal bleeding and…
Sandford Liebesman
I've been auditing to ISO 9001 since 1992. A part of my auditing philosophy has been to add value to the audited organizations by suggesting opportunities for improvement. Following, I will describe the most effective “value adds.”
Continual improvement
Look at ISO 9001:2000 subclause 8.5.1--"…
(WFD Consulting: Boston, Massachusetts) -- WFD Consulting, an expert in work-life, talent management, workload, and overwork, recently released research findings that demonstrate how longer work hours and time spent on low-value work increase burnout and negatively affect employees and…
Tamar June
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has had many challenges and setbacks in the past few years. From budget cuts, to high-level departures, the agency has also faced fury from lawmakers on Capitol Hill over high-profile device, drug, and food recalls.
Off the record, current, and former…
Abiding by strict environmental rules can at times seem as much like a religion as a lifestyle. It’s often difficult and even conflicting to balance the intention to live “green” with the attractions of modern convenience. Moving into igloos or pit houses made of mud, is sustainable, yes, but not…
The approach of using a Wiki to document a quality management system (QMS) may seem overwhelmingly obvious in a year or so, yet we are far from that today. Chances are you've used Wikipedia on the web, but you may not appreciate the power that a Wiki can bring to virtually every facet of…
(FDA: Salt Lake City)—Utah-based life science companies are being implored to utilize a scientific approach to regulatory compliance, and to keep the lines of communication open with the Food and Drug Administration. FDA district director Tom Warwick recently spoke with hundreds of life-science…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, Maryland) -- The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced a three-phase plan to expedite development of key standards for a smart grid, a nationwide network that uses information technology to deliver electricity. The…
(Peavey Electronics Corp.: Meridian, Mississippi) -- Peavey Electronics Corp. has begun a companywide lean initiative that will maximize efficiency among its 33 facilities and strengthen the organization's position in the global marketplace.
Lean manufacturing is a philosophy of maximizing…
Steven Ouellette
One of the most frequent questions I get from Black Belts and Green Belts I train is about the characteristics of a good Six Sigma project, particularly a first project. Define, measure, analyze, improve, control (DMAIC) is a procedure that is useful for certain types of projects and terrible for…
(Avery Point Group: Atlanta) -- The recession and rapid slumping of sales are forcing many companies to reevaluate their priorities with regard to their continuous improvement initiatives. As a result, there’s a high demand for lean talent skill sets, according to a new study by The Avery Point…
