All Features
Matthew E. May
Except... it’s not a bar. And it’s three economists, not one.
Three economists on a road trip to Maine after an academic conference in Boston wandered into a local shoe store looking to kill some time. Little did they know it would spark a nationwide trek in search of Main Street business lessons…
Knowledge at Wharton
Should a car be treated like a piece of software? That is essentially what Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, has done. The billionaire, who made his fortune by co-founding and selling PayPal, recently dropped a bombshell on the automotive industry: In the spirit of the “open source” movement, he…
Donald J. Wheeler
One of the common tools of quality assurance is acceptance sampling. Acceptance sampling uses the observed properties of a sample drawn from a lot or batch to make a decision about whether to accept or reject that lot or batch. Textbooks are full of complex descriptions of various acceptance…
Most of us, at one point or another, have been faced with making a decision to purchase a software application. Whether a simple application to manage your schedule or a more complex quality management software, the challenge is the same: How do you decide if a software application meets your…
Paul Naysmith
From where I sit, flying high in the air, I can see the deep royal blue of the Atlantic. White waves are cresting around an island below, outlining the green and brown blob that, without a map, is nameless and unknown to me. I’m on my way to one of the islands off the east coast of Canada, an…
MIT News
Plastic is becoming a major problem worldwide: In 2012, the United States alone produced roughly 32 million tons of plastic waste, while recycling only about 9 percent of its plastic, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
This is because of the growing use of “nonrecycled” plastics,…
John Keyser
I recently conducted a few exit interviews for clients, asking people about their reasons for leaving. What did they value about the organization? What advice would they offer that could benefit the organization? What would they like to see changed, if they were to come back? I asked these and…
Michael Causey
If someone out in there in the wild wonderful world of the web takes a potshot at your drug or device, the first thing to do is take a deep breath and think. Any crisis communications executive worth her salt will tell you it’s often best to let the attacker eat silence rather than draw more…
Jack Dunigan
If efficiency is the economic use of human, psychological, and material resources, what is effectiveness? Go ahead and think about it. I’ll wait…
Like many of you, I find the online Business Dictionary to be a useful resource. Here’s how they define effectiveness:
The degree to which objectives…
NIST
Particles of soot floating through the air and comets hurtling through space have at least one thing in common: 0.36. That, reports a research group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is the measure of how dense they will get under normal conditions, and it’s a value…
Akhilesh Gulati
By electing President Obama in 2008, the people of the United States opted for change. In the May 2014 elections in India, the people of India opted for change by nominating N. Modi for Prime Minister after a long run by the Congress Party. The recent surges in polls and a realignment of…
Nikon Metrology Inc.
A microfocus computed tomography (CT) system from Nikon Metrology is being used by BorgWarner Poland to improve research and development of turbochargers for passenger cars, light trucks, and commercial vehicles. The high-power (450 kV) X-ray equipment is able to penetrate the dense materials used…
Barry Young
What do you do when 20 ultra-rare violins from the 1730s show up in town, ready to be measured? Further, what exactly would you want to learn from these measurements? For many of us, the first thing that jumps to mind is, “Why do these particular instruments sound so much better than others of…
Rick Kerkstra
Burton Precision, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a machine tool distributor specializing in the application of metrology and 3D printing products. The company’s involvement in manufacturing crosses a breadth of industries with technologies that have a direct effect on successful product…
Ryan E. Day
“We don’t have any binder full of best practices for you. You are it. If you don’t want to change the world—go home.” —Brett Wheatly of Ford Motor Co., to the first candidates for coaches of the fledgling Consumer Experience Movement (CEM) program
When Chris Hunsicker, potential coach to Ford…
Mark Murphy
When you’re listening to someone give you criticism, delving more deeply into feelings is often a really bad move. It can make the criticism last longer and feel worse.
Neurologists know why. The older part of our brain, the brain stem, rules our most basic human drives (e.g., fight, flight, food…
Christine Schaefer
How is a company to decide whether to use the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, the ISO 9001 quality management system, or both? To explore some key distinctions between the comprehensive business model provided by the Baldrige framework and the quality management system provided by…
Umberto Tunesi
In my August 2013 column titled “Beethoven’s Fifth and ISO 9001:2015,” I commented on the ISO 9001 Committee Draft (CD). As is typical of me, I wasn’t soft. Now the interim draft international standard (DIS) is available for voting on by ISO members, and I’d like to offer my opinion about this…
Siemens PLM Software
Costan SpA is part of the multinational group Epta, a leader in high-quality equipment and services for retail refrigeration. Costan, a long-standing Italian brand, has been a synonym of top quality, excellent service, high technology and reliable commercial refrigeration products for more than 60…
Bruce Hamilton
One of my early lessons in leading change came at the age of 19, while working in a program known as VISTA, Volunteers in Service to America. The lesson was this: Leading change is a marathon not a sprint.
Sometimes you just have to pace yourself, give your mind and body a break, and do something…
Renishaw
A
dvanced ballbar training enables a shop to achieve better-than-new machine tool accuracy and extend machine life for unconventional silicon processing. Semiconductor industry suppliers now understand their machine tool’s performance better than OEM service technicians.
Ballbar testing is nothing…
Annette Franz
Have you ever wondered where all the customers have gone? Gosh, let’s hope not! But stick with me here. Is acquiring new customers becoming a challenge?
I thought I’d have a little fun—along with a lot of seriousness—and list some signs that you might watch for ahead of time to figure out when…
John Keyser
A friend of mine, a key leader with a major insurance company, regularly comes around her desk when one of her team members comes to speak with her. She feels that sitting side by side rather than across a desk leads to a better discussion. Why? Because she is putting that person at ease,…
William A. Levinson
The phrase “elephant in the living room” refers to a major problem that everybody knows is there, but nobody wants to acknowledge. Acknowledging and defining the problem is, of course, the first part of any closed-loop corrective action process. “Problem notification” and “problem identification”…
Patrick Runkel
You know what really gets on my nerves? A lot of things.
That slow, slinky way that cats walk by. Grrrr.
The rude, abrupt arrival of delivery persons in their obnoxiously loud trucks. (Why do they always pull up just as I'm settling down for a nap?) Grrrr.
Total strangers who reach…
