All Features
Ephy Torenberg
The evolving trends of automation are affecting quality management business processes for manufacturing organizations of all sizes. In this article, we’ll look at the business case for automation; consider the basic opportunities and challenges found at the start of a quality automation project;…
Dan Jacob
Developing high-quality products is more important today than ever before. Market visibility to product quality has never been higher, and competitive pressures continue to squeeze margins and time to market. Manufacturers must consistently deliver better, faster, cheaper. It’s easy to deliver on…
Thomas Kochan
More than 200 CEOs have said they will raise wages or give bonuses as a result of the large corporate income tax cut passed late last year by Congress.
Some view their plans as simply a public relations move, others as a response to tighter labor markets or worker pressures. Pretty much everyone…
Mike McDonald
Fear. Anxiety. Stress. Anger. Not exactly the emotions we’re hoping to invoke in our employees, right? Not exactly the key to motivational management, anyway.
Unfortunately, those are the emotions many people feel when it’s time to discuss their work metrics. Employees dread the idea of their…
Paul Foster
What sets the top 20 percent of innovation leaders apart from their competitors? According to LNS Research, one key difference is that a majority (52%) of the top tier has real-time visibility into manufacturing quality metrics, compared to just 9 percent of the competition.
Organizations collect…
Violet Masoud
Imagine going to work, motivated to meet all your goals and deadlines, only to find you need a different computer for each of the applications you use: Microsoft Word on the laptop in your office; the customer database solution on the tower PC in the conference room; and email on the desktop in…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
In our Feb. 23, 2018, episode of QDL, we considered if writing a novel makes you a better CEO, patents and innovation, and if should you blindly trust academic studies. Plus, we threw in cost of quality... just because.
“Five Things I Learned Writing a Novel That I Wished I Knew When I Was a CEO”…
Ryan E. Day
Manufacturing activities have strong ties to economic prosperity. Deloitte’s 2016 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index states, “Nations and companies are striving to advance to the next technology frontier and raise their economic well-being.” It’s no surprise that the manufacturing sector is…
Dan Chalk
Although many manufacturing organizations have held firm to traditional operational processes for generations, the time has come for transformational change. There is an ongoing shift in cultural expectations of how, when, and where work happens, and it is driven by consumer choice. Industry…
Stephen McCarthy
Cost of quality (CoQ) is certainly not a new topic. It was first described in 1956 by American quality control expert Armand V. Feigenbaum in a Harvard Business Review article. As you likely already know, CoQ consists of four categories: internal and external failures, and appraisal and prevention…
Knowledge at Wharton
When Tide and other detergent manufacturers developed colorful, convenient pods designed to be tossed into washing machines and dishwashers, they never expected teenagers would try to eat them. But what was dubbed the “Tide pod challenge” quickly went viral, with teens posting videos of themselves…
John Bell
I have written more than a 100 blog posts about leadership, strategy, and culture. Within that portfolio are several accounts of business reinvention and transformation. Yet it was only a few months ago that I composed my first post on another type of reinvention: personal reinvention. My own. …
AssurX
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
