All Features
Rich Tree
Following any tech transfer project, the subsequent startup of the manufacturing line is almost always full of challenges. The goal is to start up as soon as possible once the project is completed but also to achieve steady-state throughput as quickly as possible after the startup begins. This type…
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
High-power laser pulses focused to small spots to reach incredible intensities enable a variety of applications, ranging from scientific research to industry and medicine. At the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) Center, for instance, intensity is key to building particle accelerators…
Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence
Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, which supplies smart manufacturing technologies to giants from Volkswagen to Boeing, has unveiled HxGN Robotic Automation, pioneering robotic programming and control software that enables nonspecialist quality professionals to program industrial robots…
Tom Stacey
Europeans and other Western nations have dominated automotive excellence for more than a century. Whether it is the satisfying thud of the door closing on a Volkswagen from Wolfsburg, or the beauty of a Ferrari from Modena, these brands are iconic—and very lucrative for their manufacturers. When we…
Lesley Evans Ogden, Knowable Magazine
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine.
Back when she was in college, Alaina G. Levine used to envy fellow students who seemed to have their entire lives mapped out. A physics and astronomy student at the University of Arizona, her own direction felt unclear—while they, on the…
Shaina Warner, Anne Corning
Metrology is “the science of measurement, embracing both experimental and theoretical determinations at any level of uncertainty in any field of science and technology,” as defined by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM).
Display metrology means using a scientific approach to…
Art Petty
Imagine you have the opportunity to serve as the proverbial fly on the wall for various organizations across different sectors to observe the process of strategy creation.
When asked to share what you observed, I'm confident you will highlight a confusing morass of discussions, political debates,…
Jim Benson
Stress is a natural physical and mental reaction to life experiences. In fact, for short periods of time, it is actually valuable to us. The hormones our brains release during stressful moments were designed to protect us by preparing us to react quickly in dangerous situations.
Unfortunately,…
Bruce Hamilton
Just a little over a year ago we lost Hajime Oba, one of the great pioneers of Toyota Production System (TPS) learning in the United States. In 1992, he was the founding manager of the Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC), a nonprofit affiliate of Toyota Motors of North America (TMNA),…
Chip Bell
Necessity is the mother of invention. And few things are more necessary to the success of an organization than customers. Leave that thought on the page, and we will return to it shortly.
Napoleon knew that a military force’s success directly correlated to the food it was provided. He offered a…
John Hayes
Read any article on automated warehouse vehicles, and it’s pretty easy to see there is a lot of hype. Although automation in automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs)—my specialty—have come a long way, they are not replacing all warehouse workers.
In an interview with…
Sara Adams
At Greenlight Guru, we collectively have hundreds of years of experience in medical device quality management. We’ve all seen some great successes during our time in the industry—high-quality medical devices that improved the quality of life for countless people around the world. But we’ve also…
Torsten Schimanski
The manufacturing skills gap has been a topic of discussion for several years. According to a 2021 Deloitte study, it is estimated that by 2030, there will be 2.1 million manufacturing jobs that will need to be filled. Finding employees who are trained, skilled workers is becoming more critical in…
Eliot Dratch
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an independent, nongovernmental, international organization that develops standards to ensure the quality, safety, and efficiency of products, services, and systems. As technology continues to rapidly develop, new standards are drafted and…
Lauren Dunford
Manufacturing is stepping up investment as the U.S. economy recovers from the challenges of 2020. Nearly 40 percent of manufacturers have increased CapEx spending, with less than 7 percent planning to spend less, the National Association of Manufacturers reports.
With that investment, factories…
Matt Mong
During a recent interview with Dirk Dusharme, host of Quality Digest’s QDL, we discussed project-based manufacturing, the umbrella term that covers the types of manufacturing done on a project-driven schedule. Some refer to this as “engineer to order” (ETO), a niche in engineering-focused…
Taran March @ Quality Digest
You may work in a state-of-the-art lab, but do your ergonomic practices still linger in the 19th century? If you spend more than five hours a day at a microscope, leave work with blurred vision and a persistent downward tilt to your neck, then the answer is, sadly, yes. In that case it’s time you…
Ryan E. Day
Manufacturing is a very competitive business where high-quality products are expected. And some clients require extremely tight surface measurement tolerances, so being competitive means investing in tools that can satisfy customer requirements.
The confocal advantage
Submicron 3D observation and…
Taran March @ Quality Digest
In regulated industries, every step of the production process must be verified to some sort of guidance or standard. What this comes down to, practically speaking, is an enormous amount of time and effort spent on actions outside the sphere of production. Every day of production seems to create a…
Bryan Christiansen
A lot of thought goes into building reliable assets. Extensive testing is a part of the process that has to be done to estimate the durability of machines, materials, and components. The testing can be done destructively or nondestructively.
In this article, we take a deep dive into the various…
Joe Chew, Jeroen van Tilborg
The Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) Center at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has developed and tested an innovative optical system to precisely measure and control the position and pointing angle of high-power laser beams with unprecedented…
Jason Chester
The most popular phrase in manufacturing today is “digital transformation.” Every company now understands the immense value digital transformation can provide. It’s essential for overhauling efficiency, agility, and ultimately, the bottom line. Digital transformation represents the very essence of…
Ann Brady
Better buying power, greater efficiencies, and more innovative ideas are not just for big businesses. The publication of ISO 44003 is helping smaller players flex their collective muscle by making the most of strategic partnerships.
How many of us cooped up at home during the lockdowns and travel…
Jeffrey Heimgartner
During the Association for Advancing Automation (A3) Vision Week in June 2020, experts from Amazon Web Services and Elementary Robotics weighed in on the traditional challenges organizations face when using machine vision. They discussed how to incorporate the latest advances—including the cloud—to…
Sara Adams
Designing, developing, and getting your medical device approved and onto the market is a huge accomplishment—but it isn’t the end of your responsibilities.
For the European Union (EU) market, the European Commission (EC) requires manufacturers to perform ongoing postmarket surveillance (PMS)…
