All Features
Brett Farmiloe
Struggling with underperforming team members while trying to maintain a positive work environment? To help navigate this delicate situation, we’ve turned to insights from CEOs and human resources managers.
We’ll explore six effective strategies HR leaders use to support and guide underperforming…
ISO
From small family-run companies to tech giants, the business world is changing at an unrelenting pace. Amid a constantly evolving economic landscape and sometimes dizzying technological advances, one thing remains constant: the need to maintain the highest level of quality.
Whether manufacturing a…
Donald J. Wheeler
Managers are commonly fed a diet of report-card data. These data have usually been aggregated into summaries, averages, and totals to characterize the big picture. As useful as such summaries can be, they can also be an obstacle to an effective analysis. Here, we’ll learn how to avoid this obstacle…
George Schuetz
Whether you’re a small machine shop or a large multimillion-dollar manufacturing giant, there’s no doubt you use dimensional gauges to maintain the standards for quality in your production.
The accuracy of these dimensional measuring instruments must be periodically checked to ensure that they’re…
Mike Figliuolo
We’re constantly seeking ways to both improve our business but save money at the same time. That can lead to the dangerous dynamic of “I’ll do it myself.”
Doing more with less can turn us into idiots. Our hubris and arrogance puts our idiocy into action. Sorry—I got a little ranty right out of the…
Stephen Dombroski
Thanksgiving dinner: the annual marathon of kitchen chaos, time crunches, and the occasional family squabble over cranberry sauce. For many, it’s the ultimate test of culinary coordination. But the truth is, organizing this feast has more in common with a modern production line than one might…
Gleb Tsipursky
In recent months, headlines have proclaimed that companies like Amazon are demanding that employees return to the office in droves, signaling the end of the flexible work era.
However, contrary to these attention-grabbing headlines, reliable and objective data from sources like the U.S. Bureau of…
George Thuo
Data breaches and cyberattacks are things that small to medium-size manufacturers think won’t happen to them. Yet, according to the Verizon 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report, 43% of all cyberattacks are conducted against small businesses.
If that doesn’t grab your attention, consider this…
Enoch Li, Derek Deasy
Leadership happens in groups, as does most work. Without followers, who and what are we leading? Given that, leaders must understand what groups need if they want to maximize performance. Although most leaders should be familiar with executive coaching on an individual basis, they might know less…
Mike Figliuolo
I recently went to Kings Island amusement park with the kids. Beyond experiencing the thrill of $9 sodas and wicked awesome roller coasters, I learned a few things about professional development while I was there.
Some of you love roller coasters, and some of you hate them. I used to hate them,…
Donald J. Wheeler
An engineer once told me, “I work on project teams that have an average half-life of two weeks, implementing solutions with an average half-life of two weeks.” Time after time, and in place after place, our improvement efforts often fall short of expectations and fade away. In this article, I will…
Chris Rush
While clinical trials are the gold standard for generating clinical data to use as evidence of your medical device’s safety and effectiveness, they are by no means the only way to gather clinical evidence.
Real-world data (RWD), which typically come from routine healthcare delivery or…
Mike Figliuolo
Leadership is perilous territory. People’s lives are at stake (sometimes literally). Although avoiding the following seven deadly sins won’t guarantee you’ll be a great leader, succumbing to them will guarantee you’ll have a significant learning moment. (Translation: You’ll fail miserably, but…
Stephanie Ojeda
In the highly regulated world of life sciences, data integrity isn’t optional; it’s essential. The ALCOA principles—attributable, legible, contemporaneous, original, and accurate—provide a foundational framework for ensuring data are reliable and trustworthy.
With the rise of digital…
Harish Jose
In this article, I look at the idea of “sweeping-in” in systems approach. Sweeping-in can be described as the process of opening up the inquiry of a system by expanding its boundaries. Philosopher and systems scientist C. West Churchman discussed this process in several works, including Thought and…
John Tschohl
Speed is one of the most strategic elements a company can use to attract and retain customers and drive its revenues.
What do I mean when I talk about speed? In this context, speed means dramatically reducing the amount of time needed to complete a task by altering factors such as empowerment,…
Adam Zewe
Despite their impressive capabilities, large language models (LLMs) are far from perfect. These artificial intelligence models sometimes “hallucinate” by generating incorrect or unsupported information in response to a query.
Due to this hallucination problem, an LLM’s responses are often verified…
Jones Loflin
Recently, while driving through North Dakota on a crisp fall evening, I found myself surrounded by the sights and sounds of harvest. Combines and trucks moved through golden cornfields, reaping the season’s bounty. I imagined the farmers, exhausted but satisfied, reflecting on the season’s…
James Chan
Facility and equipment maintenance is most effective when performed proactively and regularly. This kind of routine maintenance can take many forms, ranging from the most basic approaches to complicated strategies using sensors and data to trigger maintenance. Time-based maintenance (TBM) is a…
Gleb Tsipursky
The recent $22.1 million verdict in the case of Billesdon vs. Wells Fargo Securities has cast a spotlight on the increasing legal risks companies face when they ignore work-from-home (WFH) requests under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This landmark case underscores the critical need for…
Bruce Hamilton
For an organization to develop a sustainable, continuous improvement culture, it must, as we say at Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership, involve everybody, every day—i.e., process improvement must become an everyday part of everyone’s job. That’s the ideal.
The reality, however, according to…
Mark Graban
It’s a story I’ve heard too many times: An organization spends years, even decades, entrenched in a top-down, command-and-control culture. In this environment, employees are micromanaged, decision-making is reserved for those at the top, and when things go wrong, the finger-pointing begins. “Blame…
Mohammad Mahdi Zare
Remote work is now an essential part of the modern workplace, offering flexibility and convenience to millions of employees worldwide. However, with this shift to home offices and flexible workspaces comes a new set of security challenges. Remote workers face a unique set of risks, and businesses…
Joshua Zable
Everyone has their own favorite graph type or visual tool. I’m not ready to declare this my favorite yet, but this oldie but goodie has got to get more time and attention. That’s right: I’m talking about control charts with stages, also sometimes called before/after control charts.
If you’re not…
Mike Figliuolo
We’ve already talked about what a strategic plan is (and isn’t) in our discussion: “Strategic Planning Isn’t ‘Budget +10%.’” Hopefully, you’ve now got a direction mapped out and a list of initiatives to pursue, and you’re ready for a little tactical strategic advice. (Yes, that phrase is supposed…
