Jon Speer
If you’re a medical device company manufacturing Class II or Class III devices, you can expect to have the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) turning up for an inspection. It’s what happens...
Kevin Hill
Analytical balance scales are a part of many laboratories. If you use them regularly, you need to keep the analytical scales well-maintained. They are extremely sensitive, and factors like dust,...
Sriram Chandrasekaran
Imagine you’re a fossil hunter. You spend months in the heat of Arizona digging up bones only to find that what you’ve uncovered is from a previously discovered dinosaur.
That’s how the search for...
Rupa Mahanti
We are currently living in the digital age and are drowning in an ocean of data. Organizations have a large number of data entities and data elements, and a large volume of data corresponding to the...
Joe Plata
Do layered process audits drive real improvement in your organization? Or are they just another hoop to jump through for customers like General Motors and Fiat Chrysler?
A layered process audit (LPA...
Joyce Yeung
Additive manufacturing (AM, aka 3D printing) is increasingly accepted as an end-product manufacturing method, rather than just for prototyping. However, ensuring the final quality of parts for use in...
Gwendolyn Galsworth
Let’s talk about the 5S audit, a mechanism many companies use as their major means to stimulate employee creativity and trigger continuous improvement.
There are three fundamentals of the 5S...
Jody Muelaner
The seven basic tools of quality are a standard set of graphical methods for improving quality. They can help with understanding variation and determining the root cause of errors in processes. The...
Manfred Kets de Vries
Recently, I spoke to a CEO who had commissioned a survey on his organization’s health. To his great surprise—and that of his executive team—more than 80 percent of the respondents said that they were...
Maria Guadalupe
When the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics was announced, it was an exceptional moment because in addition to celebrating contributions to economic science, a methodology was also recognized. The...
Lisa Cohen
A recent study showing that data entry is one the most redundant and hated workplace tasks raises questions about why, in the age of artificial intelligence, data mining, and smart technologies, this...
Jackie Mader
Walk into any K-5 classroom in Illinois’ Rockford Public Schools, and there’s one thing you’re guaranteed to see: kids playing with Legos. Although it may look like unstructured free time, kids in...
Gleb Tsipursky
Perhaps the worst quality failure of modern times is Boeing’s 737 Max disaster.
Due to the grounding of its 737 Max airplane following two deadly crashes that killed 346 people, Boeing lost $5...
Naphtali Hoff
OK. So we’ve planned our work, and put systems in place to keep our people informed and rowing in the right direction. The next step—step three—toward increased productivity is to roll...
Donald J. Wheeler
Lean production is built on the explicit assumption that each step is operated predictably and capably. Predictable operation can only be achieved and maintained by using process behavior charts....
Sheng Lin-Gibson
Biopharmaceuticals, also known as biological drugs or biologics, are manufactured from living organisms, or contain living organisms that have been genetically engineered to prevent or treat diseases...
Naphtali Hoff
Now that we have planned in part one what we want to see accomplished, step two, toward increased productivity, is to share information effectively. We must involve others to ensure that everyone is...
Ian Hesketh
Most people are familiar with presenteeism, where employees spend many more hours at the workplace than necessary—out of a sense of duty or to impress the boss or whatever. Presenteeism damages...
William A. Levinson
Almost half of Americans work in low-wage jobs despite the nation’s low unemployment rate. Aimee Picchi, writing for CBS News, cites a Brookings study that says “44 percent of U.S. workers are...
Casandra Robinson
Perhaps for as many as 40,000 years, people have been protecting their feet with some type of covering, initially using animal hides and fur. Today, footwear has become high-tech, sophisticated, and...
