All Features
Stephanie Ojeda
Global-scale events have tested the bounds of supply chain systems. The coronavirus, for example, made it clear how critical an efficient supply chain is for continuity and survival. It’s a real-world example of how important it is to have an enterprisewide system that uses a quality management…
Joe Curcillo
Let’s start with the argument every aspiring leader loves to have, even if they don’t say it out loud: Specialist or generalist? Depth or breadth? That’s the fork in the road every ambitious leader eventually hits. And the farther up the ladder you go, the more that question lingers.
You’ve…
William A. Levinson
I recently needed to have a hot water expansion tank installed in my house. The first plumber who came to mind is widely advertised on local radio. The company’s online reviews suggest that they do good work, but one added that they are expensive—and it’s probably because they have radio ads…
Bruce Hamilton
I took a walk-jog this morning, something I’ve been doing pretty regularly since early June. Some days are better than others, and today started out sluggish. But as I turned the corner of my street, my neighbor drove by, rolled down his window, and gave me a friendly wave.
Almost like getting a…
Donald J. Wheeler
The engineer came into the statistician’s office and asked, “How can I compare a couple of averages? I have 50 values from each machine and want to compare the machines.”
The statistician answered, “That’s easy. We can use a two-sample t-test.”
“How would that work?” asked the engineer.
“We…
Jennifer King
Although patient safety is paramount in healthcare settings, about 1 in 10 patients is harmed in healthcare, and more than 3 million deaths occur due to unsafe care, says the World Health Organization (WHO). The reality is hospitals and healthcare facilities face numerous challenges in managing…
Akhilesh Gulati
Complacency won’t show up on a control chart. But its damage is real. Can AI and systems thinking help us detect it and respond before trust is lost?
As customer expectations evolve, one question remains: Are customers still at the core of your company’s operations?
Back in 1999, a simple but…
Darren Metherell, Quality Digest
Quality Digest attended the 2025 Hexagon Live event in Las Vegas in June—and with that came the opportunity to speak with the great minds, creators, innovators, and sales teams of Hexagon. Darren Metherell, head of sales at Hexagon, followed up with the QD team after this event to speak more about…
Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence
Did you know that shutdowns, turnarounds, and outages (STOs) can consume up to 50% of a plant’s annual maintenance budget? That’s according to a report by the Boston Consulting Group.
STOs are among the most complex and high-stakes events in industrial operations. They’re costly, especially when…
Patrick Willemson
The European Union has taken a leading role in shaping a variety of data and AI regulations. One of its most recent initiatives, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), extends this regulatory momentum into the manufacturing sector. Under this new regulation, manufacturers and…
George Thuo
These are new times for manufacturers. Global pandemics. Worldwide supply-chain disruptions. Steep price increases for parts and materials. Increasingly competitive global markets.
Manufacturers are can-do people, but doing becomes harder in today’s “do more with less” manufacturing environment.…
Bryan Christiansen
Facility teams are constantly balancing urgent repairs, preventive tasks, asset tracking, and compliance, all while ensuring smooth day-to-day operations. But when processes are manual, fragmented, or unclear, even simple tasks can spiral into delays, miscommunication, and wasted time.
The…
Amy Knue
Health systems across the country are unknowingly paying multiple times for the same medical equipment—once to own it, and again to rent it. The issue isn’t always an increase in clinical demand; it’s often availability and visibility to medical device inventory. The cost of these unnecessary…
Etienne Nichols
The corrective and preventive action (CAPA) process is one of the most important elements within a medtech company’s quality management system (QMS). The goal of the CAPA system is to identify, address, and prevent systemic issues that could compromise product safety, regulatory compliance, and the…
Kate Zabriskie
Ever had that moment when a project seemed crystal clear during a meeting, only to find out weeks later that everyone had completely different interpretations? It’s like playing a grown-up version of the “telephone” game where what starts as “We need this done by the end of the week” ends up being…
Mike Figliuolo
Most days we walk through life unaware of the conversations occurring around us. And then there are those times you overhear a conversation that stops you dead in your tracks. You have to hit rewind in your brain and ask, “Did they actually just say that?”
Ever have one of those moments? Clearly,…
Stephanie Ojeda
Many companies are still clinging to paper-based and unconnected electronic processes, despite the clear disadvantages. Without modern tools like QMS software, these organizations risk compromising product quality, falling behind in compliance, and ultimately losing competitive ground.
In contrast…
Mike Figliuolo
I love passionate people—people who throw themselves into their work with every last bit of energy they have. To them, everything about their work is important. It’s serious business, and they drive hard to form the world in an image they’re proud of.
However, with passion comes peril. If…
Adam Zewe
The advanced semiconductor material gallium nitride (GaN) will likely be key for the next generation of high-speed communication systems and the power electronics needed for state-of-the-art data centers.
Unfortunately, the high cost of GaN and the specialization required to incorporate this…
Maartje van Krieken
The storm isn’t coming: It’s already here, and many leaders are realizing they’re sailing without instruments. The current business climate is a storm of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Strategic plans become outdated overnight. Decision-making feels like a risk. And yet…
Prasant Prusty, Arundhathy Shabu
A global food safety and quality certification, BRCGS (British Retail Consortium Global Standards) initially focused on food safety but now comprises various sectors such as packaging, consumer products, and retail. It aims to ensure that businesses maintain high standards of safety and quality…
Gleb Tsipursky
The world has shifted in remarkable ways, and flexible work is an undeniable force reshaping professional life. But do remote and hybrid arrangements help the environment or lead to unintended consequences? A new study by Mark Ma at the University of Pittsburgh, Betty Xing at Baylor University, and…
Jeff Dewar, Steven Garner, Quality Digest
Tom Taormina, CMC, esteemed quality consultant and long-time contributor to Quality Digest, has passed away. He is survived by his wife, Midge, and their three children. Recently, Taormina was working with Quality Digest and a consortium of others to design a certified training program for quality…
Peter Chhim
For decades, Six Sigma has been the gold standard in process improvement—a proven methodology for reducing defects, improving yield, and driving measurable operational gains. It delivered tremendous value in manufacturing, healthcare, and financial services. But in today’s shifting business…
Scott Ginsberg
When quality failures go public, it’s not just your product on the line—it’s also your reputation, compliance status, and workforce morale.
From product recalls to OSHA citations, recent manufacturing disasters reveal a brutal truth: The real cost of outdated documentation isn’t just inefficiency—…