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Recent FDA warning letters indicate that many drug manufacturers do not have their manufacturing in a state of current good manufacturing practices (CGMPs) control. During the first half of 2017, the FDA cited adulterated products and insanitary conditions as the two most common violations in drug…
Noah Askin
Music lovers will likely know Spotify, a music streaming service that has become famous for curating tunes based on its users’ preferences. Back in 2013, Spotify had a personalized news feed called Discover that gathered together artists, album reviews, new releases, recommendations, and playlists…
Jessica Groopman
There’s much ado about blockchain, and still plenty ado about the internet of things (IoT). But are these two technology phenomena complementary? Both suffer from significant barriers such as scale, market fragmentation, costs, and regulatory issues. But if the past is prologue, technological…
Gordon Styles
Within the advanced manufacturing industry there will always be a race to reduce speed and cost while maintaining quality. To this end, the industry’s landscape continues to quickly change as new technologies enter the market, new strategies are adopted, and consumer preferences evolve. Below are…
Wendy Wood
Employers have a stake in their staff’s health. It’s not just a matter of keeping health insurance premiums in check which is a consideration in countries without universal healthcare. It’s also about maximizing employee engagement and productivity, and even happiness.
Promoting health habits is…
Julia Russell
Retailers and brands convened in New York recently to experience the National Retail Federation’s Retail’s Big Show, and one of the biggest topics on attendees’ minds was technology. From automation to personalization to social marketing, the growing importance of technology in the shopping…
Jesse Lyn Stoner
All relationships depend on a foundation of trust. There is a direct relationship between employee trust and performance. Customer trust is a key factor in decisions on purchases. And in our personal lives, friendships are built on trust and one of the biggest causes of destroyed marriage is lack…
Elliot Begoun
They are ubiquitous today, those bag-salad kits you find in the produce section of most grocery stores. But they are a recent innovation, one that truly disrupted a category. Since 1995, Taylor Farms has been doing just that: disrupting the produce department with bagged salads, salad kits, fresh-…
Laura Small
Before you drag out that dusty old treadmill, how about challenging yourself with something you can live with, some good habits that will dramatically improve your life? Here are some for work that you might consider implementing:
1. Schedule 20 minutes of solitude every day. And if that feels…
Mike Richman
It was Groundhog Day last Friday, and fortunately neither Dirk nor I saw our shadows. Early springs for everyone! Take a gander at what we showed you instead:
“Millions, Billions, Trillions: How to Make Sense of Numbers in the News” If you’re number-challenged (like moi), you’ll enjoy this piece…
Fred Schenkelberg
MTBF use and thinking is still rampant. It affects how our peers and colleagues approach solving problems, and there is a full range of problems that come from using the “mean time between failure” (MTBF) metric.
So, how do you spot the signs of MTBF thinking even when MTBF is not mentioned? Let’…
Jun Nakamuro
The sad truth is that the word “engagement” is not very engaging. It’s one of those fluffy, ambiguous terms that have become all too familiar around the business world, like “empowerment” and “respect.” What does engagement really mean, and how do you, as a leader, engage your workforce? The…
Harish Jose
It’s not easy to find topics to write about, and even if I find good topics, it has to pass my threshold level. As I was meditating on this, I started to think about procrastination and ambiguity. So my column today is about the importance of “fuzzy concepts.” I am using the term in a loose sense…
Michael Lynn
Some journalists and other social commentators have in recent years called for the abolition of restaurant tipping, primarily because they argue that it hurts workers. Several restaurateurs have even replaced tipping at their restaurants with automatic service charges or inclusive pricing.…
Mike Figliuolo
When you set goals, there’s commonly two types: quantitative and qualitative. By setting both types of goals for your organization, you can achieve a balance of results driven by people focusing on the behaviors that matter.
Quantitative goals and driver metrics
When you set quantitative goals,…
Eric Stoop
With only a handful of aerospace original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) as potential customers, aerospace suppliers have to hustle to make sure they’re selected. Stand out for the right reasons, and you could solidify 20 years worth of business. Make the wrong impression, and you could miss out…
Annet Aris
After an initial phase of euphoria about how the digital world improves our daily life with virtual assistants, among other gadgets and services, slowly but surely, we're coming firmly back to earth. Post-honeymoon, the breakneck speed of digital development has created an increasing number of…
Eric Cooper
You’re in the market to build a new house. Would you tell the builder what you’re looking for, or would you just tell him to build “something?” If the latter, what’s the likelihood that the house you end up with is going to be what you want? Documenting your requirements should be obvious, right…
Bruce Bolger
HighlightsThe New Focus on People Overview of ISO 9001:2015 Standards and the ISO 10018 Certification How This Microsite Helps Quality Management, Auditors, and Solution Providers Articles ResourcesOther Articles In This Series
This Month's Featured ArticleAccumold Starts With the Why
Can the…
Robert Means
Manufacturing is an industry in flux. Characterized by increasing pressure from global competitors, the impact of new technologies, Industry 4.0, and the “smart factory,” the face of manufacturing is changing drastically for the better. In a recent manufacturing outlook survey from the National…
Ryan E. Day
When your public motto is “staying on the cutting edge of technology,” you’ve set a bar for yourself. Thomas Paquin set that bar when he founded Laser Specialists Inc. (LSI) in 1986. Paquin’s untimely death in 1993 left the company with questionable leadership and direction. In 2004, Nick and Jon…
Steven Brand
The global aerospace and defense (A&D) industry grew by 2.4 percent and generated about $674 billion in 2016, according to a Deloitte 2017 study. California alone was responsible for generating $62 billion a year in revenue in 2014, according to a 2014 California Aerospace Industry Economic…
Mike Richman
During last Friday’s episode of Quality Digest Live, we looked at the far-reaching implications of a prospective merger, previewed our latest webinar with DNV, considered the importance of fun at work, and inspected some interesting stereo microscopes from Vision Engineering. Here’s a closer look…
Earl Van As
Competitive forces are intensifying in the B2B supply chain, increasing customer expectations for service and pricing, and creating more pressure for businesses to maintain an edge. Instead of being reactive to today’s increasingly low margins, decision makers should take advantage of the risks…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
Those of us who care about communication accuracy in the workplace—which should be all of us—cringe at the idea of using something like Facebook or Twitter to communicate with co-workers. We look at how those platforms in particular get abused outside of business and can’t imagine a corporate world…