All Features
Dirk Dusharme
Do we have another automotive cheating scandal? Could helping our economy be as easy as just paying our vendors faster? Last week’s Quality Digest Live contained answers to those questions and a discussion between myself and my co-host, Quality Digest publisher Mike Richman. During the show, we…
Jean-Noel Barrot
Operating a small business, the backbone of the U.S. economy, has always been tough. But small businesses have been disproportionately hurt by the Great Recession, losing 40 percent more jobs than the rest of the private sector combined. Interestingly, as my research with Harvard’s Ramana Nanda…
Stefan Geib
While the fallout of the United Kingdom’s decision to exit the European Union has sent shockwaves throughout the political and economic world, Brexit is merely a footnote in the global supply chain risk story. According to the latest risk index from the Chartered Institute of Procurement &…
Daniel Blake, Caterina Moschieri
Pulling out of a country is an expensive proposition for a multinational firm, but it is sometimes required for the corporate bottom line. If the host country changes laws or even expropriates a subsidiary, it is often time to leave or divest.
Divestiture—pulling out assets or closing down part…
Anna Nagurney
When we talk about supply chains, we may conjure up images of manufacturing plants, warehouses, trucks, and shipping docks. There is another, truly unique supply chain for a product vitally important to healthcare and life, and it is very volatile at the moment: the blood supply chain.
Human…
Ruth P. Stevens
Business marketers have much to gain from retention marketing. Business customers tend to be fewer in number, and each is more valuable—meaning you can’t afford to lose even one. But how do you keep your customers active and buying from you, vs. the competition? How do you prevent defection?
Let’s…
DNV GL
According the International Organization of Standardization (ISO), there are more than 300,000 certifications to ISO 14001 in 171 countries around the world, making it the most relied-upon symbol of environmental stewardship and sustainable business practice. True to its core tenant of continual…
Penelope B. Prime
Chinese goods seem to be everywhere these days. Consider this: At the Olympics in Rio this summer, Chinese companies supplied the mascot dolls; much of the sports equipment; the security surveillance system; and the uniforms for the volunteers, technical personnel, and even the torch-bearers.
Do…
Kyle Pheland, Belinda Jones
Change is inevitable in every organization. Planned or not, forces inside and outside the enterprise can sometimes encumber a workforce and lead to nonvalue-added processes. Growing spurts, major technology implementations, or even small supply-chain organizational projects can present more issues…
Michael A. Witt
Editor’s note: This is part two of a two-part series. Read part one here.
While globalization has benefited humanity in many ways, its continued progress is in serious doubt. As I wrote previously, the two leading political science theories, liberalism and realism, both predict that globalization…
Martin Green
I think curiosity is at the root of all scientific careers. That, and insecurity. In my formative years, I felt compelled to assign a rational explanation to everything. I didn’t know it then, but I was practicing to be a scientist—and having lots of fun.
I remember entertaining numerous…
Michael A. Witt
For most of the past 25 years, globalization was seen as an unstoppable force, as sure to advance as the sun rises in the east. But increasingly, it looks more vulnerable than inexorable. Causes for concern are easy to find. For instance, the last set of World Trade Organization negotiations over…
Kara Baskin
Care.com co-founder Donna Levin played a key part in that company’s growth, and the passion was personal. Levin’s work plans were curtailed when her son was 11 weeks old and had a seizure following a difficult pregnancy. Tests were inconclusive. Her daycare situation evaporated; she and her…
Dan Jacob
Disruption is a funny thing. You see it coming—kind of—but it’s hard to tell what it means. Back in the day, would you have foreseen the shift from taxis to Uber? Would you have predicted that HVAC units would be offered as a service rather than purchased as a product? These disruptive changes and…
Sponsored Content
Manufacturers often hold suppliers to a rigid quality process that dictates tight controls on all raw materials. Nonconforming material can potentially halt the production line, wasting time and money. Unfortunately, material mix-ups are a reality in critical manufacturing…
Kevin Meyer
“Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence—only in constant improvement and constant change.”—Tom Peters
The plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle is the core component of continuous improvement programs. You may have heard it called the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle—and they are very similar—but I…
Robert Napoletano
ASQ has recently offered a new certification, Certified Supplier Quality Professional, specifically for those quality professionals dealing with suppliers. Who are these professionals? Most often the “who” depends on the size of the company.
Sometimes, in a smaller company, it’s the quality…
Dan Silva
In today’s global supply chain, shipping a product across the world isn’t as simple as loading it onto a truck, train, or boat and signing a few papers. International shipments often involve coordination between counterparts in the countries of origin and destination, complete and accurate…
Andy Henderson
This is the third part in a series about my perspective of what the future has in store for various aspects of manufacturing. I approached each aspect by imagining what is possible using what we know to be technically possible today. In part one I covered cutting tools for machining and in part…
Cole Cooper
A production part approval process (PPAP) is used by companies to establish confidence and rules in a production process. In a sense, it gives customers a view into their suppliers’ manufacturing capabilities.
A PPAP is required when there is a new part, engineering changes, tooling changes,…
Ryan E. Day
Handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzers are proven analytical tools commonly used for the fast, easy, accurate, and nondestructive identification and analysis of metals and alloys. Common applications include metal alloy identification for quality control, scrap sorting and positive material…
Donald Hillger
This year, 2016, marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Metric Association (USMA). Our mission is to help the United States complete its transition to the metric system. Although we’ve always expected that the adoption of the metric system here was just around the corner, all…
Brian Lagas
Embracing sustainable and green principles is more than simply “a good thing to do.” Manufacturers are realizing the many practical short- and long-term financial benefits to implementing environmentally conscious improvements. Such practices helps organizations become more efficient, competitive…
Andrew Maynard
In 2014, more than 32,000 people were killed in car crashes in the United States. In 2012, more than 2 million Americans visited the emergency room as a result of car crashes. An estimated 94 percent of the crashes that caused these injuries and fatalities are attributable to human choice or error…
Thomas R. Cutler
Manufacturers’ waste-reduction initiatives are rarely as effective as they could be. When reducing waste, inventory is often the main target. But how do you right-size inventory in an environment of constant variability? In a word: kanban.
Electronic kanban signals keep product moving throughout…