Bill Kalmar
June 21 marked the beginning of summer, also known as the summer solstice. As a major celestial event, the summer solstice results in the longest day and the shortest night of the year. From here on...
Minitab LLC
A $1 billion annual budget may sound ample, but a few years ago, the costs of services ranging from law enforcement to cleaning county buildings had squeezed the government of Erie County, New York...
Joseph A. De Feo and Matthew Pachniuk
The emergence of green technology and increased environmental awareness has prompted a paradigm shift in the way companies think about the design of their products. Because robust designs mean...
Laurel Thoennes @ Quality Digest
In his book Data Sanity: A Quantum Leap to Unprecedented Results (Medical Group Management Association, 2009) author Davis Balestracci passionately teaches a new way of thinking about improvement...
Steven Ouellette
One of the most useful diagnostic tools for understanding what is going on in a process is the statistical process control chart (SPC). This is also a frequently misunderstood tool, and these...
Dale Hershfield
Twitter is the latest new thing. Want to follow John McCain or Al Gore throughout their day? Easy. Just sign up to receive their tweets. While their tweets may provide insights, or just...
Denise Robitaille
"The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor: he took my measure anew every time he saw me, whilst all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me.”
—George...
Laurel Thoennes @ Quality Digest
“You can put your clothes back on,” the doctor says as he walks out. Before you know it, he’s back and you’re still hopping around the cold floor, aiming for your pant leg and with your sweater on...
Denis Leonard, Ph.D. and William Murphy, Ph.D.
You know the fable, the Emperor who glorified in himself and considered no one to be above him. Having been told that the clothing he would be wearing could only be seen by someone wise, he...
Craig Cochran
When I first got into quality, I really hated verifying the effectiveness of actions taken to correct a problem. After all, I was young and inexperienced. All of the people whose actions I was...
Barbara A. Cleary
Specific techniques for data collection, fundamental to accurate analysis, are sometimes overlooked in the need to see outcomes or trends in data. The lowly check sheet represents a critical tool in...
Mark Symonds
It’s no secret to anyone, anywhere, that we’re experiencing a global business challenge, especially in manufacturing.
One could argue that for too long, manufacturers in the United States have...
Geoff Bilau
Geoff Bilau, senior writer for the International Association for Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) Group, was awarded first place for his paper by the American National Standards Institute (...
Steve Daum
With several generations of statistical process control (SPC) technology under our belts, it may be time to rethink how we apply SPC in the 21st century. Basic techniques have been practiced since...
James Odom
Charles Kettering, the famous inventor, once said: “A problem well stated is a problem half solved.” This implies that a good portion of problem solving should be devoted to a thorough understanding...
Scott Alamanach
Don’t miss the author’s follow-up to this article, “Going Low Profile in Afghanistan.”
--Editor
Profitable manufacturing requires efficiency, and this principle guides most (if not all) of our...
FARO
Laser line scanning is ideal for non-contact measurement applications - including inspection, cloud- to-CAD comparison, rapid prototyping, reverse engineering, and 3-D modeling. Laser line probes...
David Millar
The moment for action in the United States on climate change has arrived in earnest. With the election of President Obama and increased majorities of Democrats in Congress, there is unprecedented...
H. James Harrington
During the 1980s using flowcharts was the “in thing” to do. Today, technology has provided us with a much more effective and useful tool: simulation modeling. If a picture is worth a thousand words...
Mahr Federal
(Mahr Federal: Providence, Rhode Island) -- Tapers play an important role in orthopaedic devices. Most hip and knee implants use tapers because they provide good alignment and can be "locked...
