All Features
Akhilesh Gulati
In the world of quality and lean, waste is the enemy. We hunt for it in cycle times, inventory buffers, and defects. But occasionally we encounter a form of waste so massive and literal that we fail to see it as a resource.
A recent redevelopment project at Denver’s National Western Center (NWC)…
Gary Howarth
In an emergency, knowing exactly where a first responder is can mean the difference between life and death. When a firefighter in a burning building fails to check in, how does the commander know where to look for them?
Public safety agencies face daily challenges in finding first responders…
AMPS Supply
Many warehouses consider peak season (November and December) as a finish line. Once peak season is over, demand stabilizes, pressure eases, and management immediately shifts its focus to the next planning cycle.
However, the period after peak season isn’t the epilogue but rather a transition that…
Manfred Kets de Vries
We often imagine the lives of our paleolithic ancestors as an unrelenting struggle. But the very existence of cave art suggests that at least some of them could focus on making meaning beyond necessity. So what drove them? Was it sacred ritual, primitive science, or early performance art? It might…
Quality Digest, Steve Ilmrud
Maintaining a skilled team from the bottom up is essential. But as skilled workers retire and take their knowledge with them, we rely more on a clear understanding of how digital and AI tools may be reshaping our approach to manufacturing quality, supply chains, and building a team. To provide some…
Chip Bell
Walk the aisles of any liquor store in the U.S., and brands named after people call for your notice—Johnnie Walker, Jose Cuervo, Captain Morgan, and Jim Beam. Perhaps the most revered name among them is Jack Daniel. Established in 1875, Jack Daniel’s Whiskey comes from the oldest distillery in the…
Dave Gilson
Creating a superhuman artificial intelligence could lead to two worst-case scenarios, says Charles Jones, a professor of economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business. In the first, the power to kill everyone—in, say, the form of an AI-engineered supervirus—could fall into the wrong hands. In…
ISO
Data are the backbone of our digital world. From healthcare to finance, and from government agencies to private businesses, organizations everywhere rely on vast amounts of data to function effectively.
It’s not just businesses that generate data. We all leave digital trails through our…
George Schuetz
Thickness is one of the most frequently measured dimensions, and one that’s very easy to understand. So, you might think that someone would come up with a one-style-fits-all measurement approach that’s good for just about every kind of thickness application. But it just isn’t so.
There are many…
X-Rite
The Pantone Color of the Year 2026, PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer, is described as an airy, billowy white that opens space for creativity, quiet reflection, and calm. A white that is both warm and cool, its serene presence symbolizes the need for clarity in a noisy world.
As soon as the choice was…
Paul Hanaphy
In the medical field, 3D technology is fast becoming indispensable. Whether used for educating patients ahead of surgeries or teaching students how to do these operations, anatomy models, both 3D printed and digital, offer an ideal solution for visualization ahead of time.
One of the main…
Ram Sriram
When you go to a medical appointment, does the doctor look at you while you talk? Or are they busy typing everything you say into a computer? If it’s the latter, you may find that will change soon, thanks to artificial intelligence.
Some doctors’ offices are using AI services to transcribe your…
Alex Shipps
Generative artificial intelligence models have left such an indelible imprint on digital content creation that it’s getting harder to recall what the internet was like before it. You can call on these AI tools for clever projects, such as videos and photos, but their flair for the creative hasn’t…
George Anastasopoulos
In recent months, through several of my professional activities, a recurring and increasingly concerning pattern has emerged: The use of AI to generate client responses to accreditation assessment findings (nonconformities) as well as participant essays, exercises, and examination answers from…
Chip Bell
The customer is not always right. We are all customers, and sometimes we’re dead wrong. Stew Leonard Jr., CEO of Stew Leonard’s grocery stores, enjoys saying, “The goal is to make the customer feel right.”
His sentiment means never dealing with a customer in a judgmental way, because you never…
Josh Peterson
As AI makes its way into every corner of work, quality management is no exception. That isn’t surprising: Quality teams are buried in documentation, training upkeep, investigations, and reporting, which are exactly the kinds of workflows AI can help streamline.
However, in regulated environments…
Susan Robertson
In some organizations, possibility feels like a luxury. Something you talk about at offsite sessions. Something you reference in mission statements. Something you save for after the real work is done.
But in visionary organizations, possibility is the work.
Visionary leaders understand that…
Harish Jose
I want to revisit the notion of information from a cybernetic viewpoint, drawing primarily from Gregory Bateson’s well-known formulation that information is the difference that makes a difference. This definition doesn’t merely redefine information. It quietly displaces information from where it’s…
Brian Gutierrez
Measurement, in its most basic form, is about comparing the thing you want to measure with a reference. To measure the length of a table, you compare it to a tape measure. To measure flour for a birthday cake, you compare it to a measuring cup. Better references mean better measurements.
If you’re…
Brian Brooks
The manufacturing world is undergoing a major shift. Supply chain shocks, reshoring, a busy merger and acquisition landscape, and other disruptions are prompting many manufacturers to rethink their operations with the hope of mitigating risk, building resilience, and gaining more control.
Although…
Mike King, Anusha Gangadhara
During a June 2025 webinar on pragmatic AI applications in healthcare quality management and regulatory affairs, live polling of quality and regulatory professionals revealed that approximately 80% of respondents were actively implementing AI solutions or seriously considering their use in quality…
Peter Chhim
During the last couple of decades working in quality, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen the same pattern play out: A strong launch. Tight focus. Great early results. People doing the right things for the right reasons. Controls are followed. Issues are surfaced quickly. Leaders are…
Quality Digest
In the first two episodes of The Quality Digest Roadshow, we looked at the evolution and use of dimensional measurement and measurement standards.
Distance is what most of us think about in regards to measurement. However, every day we use products that rely on another type of measurement—force. It…
Rebecca Okamoto
Jennifer had a problem. She was the program manager for the No. 2 business priority at a multibillion-dollar company, rolling out sustainability programs in manufacturing. But when she presented, she kept hearing: too complicated, too time-consuming, too costly. And she couldn’t figure it out.
She…
Dania Akram
Modern industrial and infrastructure environments are becoming larger, more complex, and more geographically dispersed. As facilities expand, internal audit teams face increasing pressure to deliver accurate, defensible findings within limited time frames. Traditional audit methods—largely…