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NIST
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released a new forensic DNA reference material, RM 8043, that includes degraded DNA as well as mixtures of high-quality DNA from multiple individuals. This material will help crime labs verify that their methods produce accurate results…
Mike Melzer
If you ask 10 different manufacturers to identify their toughest problem, odds are at least five of them will say, “We can’t get parts through the shop floor fast enough.”
When you think about it, that answer shouldn’t come as a surprise. Today’s manufacturing customers demand increasingly shorter…
Joe Schaeppi
Across manufacturing floors, pharmaceutical labs, and industrial supply chains, AI is moving from experiment to infrastructure. Systems now monitor equipment before it fails, flag quality defects faster than inspectors, and recommend production schedules that once required entire planning teams.…
Greg Rankin
As mining operations push toward lower-grade deposits and tighter economic margins, the reliability of analytical measurement has become central to operational decision-making.
From representative sampling to traceable calibration standards and certified reference materials, the systems used to…
Harish Jose
I am exploring what I think is a fundamental question in epistemology: What does it mean to say something is true? I want to approach this through the lens of cybernetic constructivism. I’ll start with a question about pi, which feels fitting given that I wrote this on March 14.
What is pi? For…
Dmitriy Osnach
In precision machining there’s a particularly deceptive failure mode. Everything looks fine. The toolpath is clean, cutting is stable, the part’s almost finished. And then you discover that you took off too much somewhere. Or the opposite—you left a small island of stock that now must be removed by…
Global Shop Solutions
It’s 3:42 p.m. on a Wednesday, and your phone lights up. Your customer isn’t calling to chat.
They’re calling because a shipment promised for Friday just slipped to next Tuesday. Their line is going to stop. Their people are going to stand around. Their customers are going to scream. And in about…
Maria DiBari, Paige Orme
Right now, as tensions rise around Iran and the Persian Gulf, the headlines are doing what they always do: tracking missiles, drones, and the defense companies building them. That matters, obviously. But it’s not the whole story.
That’s because modern conflict isn’t constrained by weapons the way…
Mike DeCapua
Buffalo Metrology Inc. (BMI) was recently tasked with reverse engineering an 8 ft outside-diameter clarifier cover used in the mixing/agitation industry. The goal was to inspect the fracture on the tapered face of this component as part of a possible new cover fabrication.
Clarifier agitators are…
Donald J. Wheeler
Many practitioners have been taught to describe a process using sigma levels. Yet these levels are commonly misinterpreted. This article will help you to understand the problem and learn more appropriate ways of describing your process.
In the days before handheld calculators and personal…
Vick Vaishnavi, Quality Digest
Octave, a new company from Hexagon, is one of the latest additions in a string of improvements and innovations. This company will unite several Hexagon departments and functions, increase the efficiency of Hexagon’s digital communication, and provide support for vital infrastructure. Vick Vaishnavi…
Mike Figliuolo
One of the most exciting aspects of building a high-performing team is recruiting the people for it. There’s nothing better than finding that really talented person who wants to come work with you.
As you think about doing this recruiting and finding the right people, first you must understand how…
Scott Ginsberg
Quality leaders know that an audit rarely fails because a company lacks documentation. It fails because the information exists somewhere but can’t be retrieved, verified, or executed consistently when it matters. For decades, preparing for an audit meant assembling binders, tracking down…
NIST
In honor of the 125th anniversary of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, anonymous donors commissioned a piece of music to honor NIST and its contributions to science and industry. A nonprofit organization paid to have the piece recorded.
This musical gift is an exciting and moving…
ISO
What do a construction van, a last-mile delivery truck, and a 40-tonne semi have in common? They’re all fleet vehicles, critical assets that keep modern transport moving and supply chains functioning. Whether you operate a family-run business or manage a global enterprise, an efficient fleet is no…
Gabriel Popkin
You’ve probably heard that time is relative. It sounds like a banal cliche, akin to “time flies when you’re having fun.”
But it’s no mere cliche: Time is relative. Though it’s not noticeable in daily life, time passes slightly more slowly when you’re moving vs. when you’re standing still. It also…
Jennifer Chu
By now, ChatGPT, Claude, and other large language models (LLMs) have accumulated so much human knowledge that they’re far from simple answer generators; they can also express abstract concepts, such as certain tones, personalities, biases, and moods. However, it’s not obvious exactly how these…
Ben Kitson
Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology recently found that manufacturing process selection influences product design outcomes, yet is still often guided by experience rather than structured evaluation of alternatives. Understanding the differences between chemical etching and other…
Global Shop Solutions
Picture this: It’s Monday morning. Coffee in hand. The schedule is full. Shipping is stacked. Your biggest jobs are lined up like dominos, ready to fall into place.
Then, the floor supervisor walks into your office with that look. “We can’t start Job 2471.”
You blink. “Why not?”
“Missing parts.”…
Angela O’Sullivan
Regulated manufacturers today face a paradox. As products become more complex and regulatory oversight more stringent, the volume of quality data required to demonstrate compliance has increased dramatically. At the same time, many organizations continue to rely on fragmented systems—documents…
Kate Zabriskie
Most of us become managers because we excelled at our previous jobs, not because we had a grand vision for leadership. One day we’re individual contributors, and the next we’re juggling endless meetings, urgent emails, and last-minute crises while trying to develop our teams in whatever slivers of…
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
In response to the societal challenge of the growing electricity demand from AI data centers, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is launching the Next-Generation Data Centers Institute (NGDCI). This internal ORNL institute will unite the laboratory’s unique expertise and facilities spanning…
Sabine Terrasi
The mountain of old textiles continues to grow in Germany every year. Less than 1% of this enters a closed recycling loop. Reasons for this include so-called “fast fashion,” which leads to an increasing amount of low-quality textiles, as well as the wide variety of materials, which makes efficient…
IDS Imaging Development Systems
Production companies are under enormous pressure today. Customers are demanding more variants, delivery times are shrinking, error rates must not increase, and traditional visual inspections quickly reach their limits.
Visual quality control is becoming one of the biggest challenges for…
Etienne Nichols
In the medical device industry, compliance isn’t a pop quiz. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given you all the answers to the test in the form of a regulation: 21 CFR Part 820. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to ace the test. But you now have all the resources you need to pass.
What…