All Features
Eric Weisbrod
In recent months, we’ve learned that manufacturing during a global health crisis puts organizations under immense pressure to maintain operational efficiency while upholding product quality and employee safety.
Initially, organizations focused simply on taking the steps required to survive. However…
Jon Speer
Risk can mean many different things depending on the situation. Flying on an airplane, biking on a busy road, driving in a car—all of these involve some level of risk.
Although risk is a variable we encounter in everyday life, it means something uniquely different to the medical device industry.…
Sébastien Breteau
In recent months, the widespread lockdowns of Covid-19 have exposed global supply chains to unprecedented shifts and volatility in consumer behavior, impacting innumerable organizations, industries, and consumer goods. While much of the supply-chain overhaul conversation has focused on drops in…
Sridhar Kota, Glenn Daehn
The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed glaring deficiencies in the U.S. manufacturing sector’s ability to provide necessary products—especially amidst a crisis. It’s been five months since the nation declared a national emergency, yet shortages of test kit components, pharmaceuticals, personal…
LauraLee Rose
The reality for small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) is that they are going to have to be good at training their workforce or they won’t make as much money. That’s a blunt assessment, but the need for proficiency in training will only increase, whether it’s retraining current employees for…
Jennifer Mallow
Covid-19 has led to a boom in telehealth, with some healthcare facilities seeing an increase in its use by as much as 8,000 percent. This shift happened quickly and unexpectedly, and has left many people asking whether telehealth is really as good as in-person care.
During the last decade, I’ve…
Eric Stoop
When it comes to quality management objectives, what many manufacturers don’t understand about cost of quality could hurt them.
A survey by LNS Research asked more than 500 manufacturing executives to identify their most important financial and quality management objectives. Across the board,…
Jennifer V. Miller
There’s no shortage of important work to do—both at home and in your job. So, the last thing you want tossed your way is unnecessary work. Nobody likes needless activity, right?
But this is easier said than avoided. I’m sure you can easily recall getting pulled into something that did not add…
Shobhendu Prabhakar
Although remote inspection has been a topic of discussion in the oil and gas industry in the past, it has recently been getting more attention during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many oil and gas operators, as well as engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractors and suppliers have come…
Paul Laughlin
During this month of thinking about thinking, it’s a good time to learn from fresh perspectives, like summer interns.
As a leader, it can often be helpful to adopt what Buddhism describes as a beginner’s mind or shoshin: seeking to let go of past knowledge, status, and assumptions to see things…
Manfred Kets de Vries
Effective organizations rely on teamwork, not least because it facilitates problem solving. Many leaders, however, are ambivalent about teams. They fear overt and covert conflict, uneven participation, tunnel vision, lack of accountability, and indifference to the interests of the organization as a…
ASQ
You already know that technological advances of the past decade have resulted in a new industrial revolution often referred to as the fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0. It’s a revolution driven by the exponential growth of disruptive technologies and the changes those technologies are…
Katie Myers
Freight trucks account for 23 percent of U.S. transportation. Transportation is the No. 1 source of greenhouse gas emissions in America. The country’s freight industry is in no position to ignore its impact on the environment and the greater good.
We can break down the trucking industry’s…
Harry Hertz
Rest? The new normal will be about activity, you say. Actually, I believe some rest will be necessary. After the frenzy of activity since March 2020 to establish new work patterns and new home life patterns, many of us—especially those with young families—have been left totally exhausted. So some…
Ron Cowen
NIST physicist Zachary Levine doesn’t cook that often, but when he does, it can easily turn into a science experiment.
Two years ago, after he and his wife had endured a week of under-baked cookies and chicken that took forever to roast, Levine wasn’t content to simply recalibrate his oven…
Kristopher Lee
ASM International is a nonprofit professional society focused on providing scientific, engineering, and technical knowledge to its members and the materials science community. In its education and experimentation labs, it regularly works with innovative inspection solutions that have the potential…
Shobhendu Prabhakar
The “mantra” for continuous improvement is to learn from our mistakes. Not only learn but also take necessary actions and come up with strategies to prevent the recurrence of the same or similar mistakes. It is true for humans as well as for businesses. In business, especially in the oil and gas…
Stewart Black, Patrick van Esch
Millions of Americans are unemployed and looking for work. Hiring continues, but there’s far more demand for jobs than supply.
As scholars of human resources and management, we believe artificial intelligence (AI) could be a boon for job seekers who need an edge in a tight labor market like today’…
Brookhaven National Laboratory
A team of scientists working at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Brookhaven National Laboratory has designed an apparatus that can take simultaneous temperature and X-ray scattering measurements of a 3D printing process in real time, and…
John Wenz, Knowable Magazine
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine.
You hear a mechanical buzz. You look up, and there it is, hovering in the sky—four whirring rotors. Over your shoulder, you catch sight of someone tracking the flight and manipulating controls.
Drones, little flying vehicles with varying…
James Anderton
Injection mold making used to be a relatively simple business: machine the cavities and runners, polish, cross-drill for cooling, then shoot resin. Today, however, relentless pressure for lower part cost and higher productivity have led to bigger, faster machines with molds to match.
Multilayer…
Steven Forrest
The ongoing pandemic will likely change, if not completely alter, many aspects of our daily lives. One facet that will significantly change is the way we work. After months of being in lockdown, the massive shift to working from home has proven to be effective in helping employees stay productive.…
Andrew Peterson
Collaborative robots are increasingly attractive to manufacturers that require flexible solutions for their growing product mix but may not have the scale of work or capital resources needed to justify larger investments in automation systems.
These collaborative robots, commonly referred to as “…
Benjamin Kessler
The full economic impact of the pandemic has yet to be felt. However, it seems beyond dispute that Covid-19 and globalization don’t mix well. Of course, all economic activity is suffering in this worldwide recession—but the global breadth of business may experience an especially acute shrinking…
Farhana Ahmad
Despite juggling competing priorities, building resilient systems and processes within their organizations continues to be top of mind for business leaders today and is anticipated to be so for the foreseeable future. As such, the first logical step is to turn to existing methods and approaches…
