All Features
AIAG
After a period of uncertainly, the global automotive industry has emerged cautiously optimistic. The collapse that preceded the revival seemed exacerbated by reactive planning and increasingly shorter-term thinking. Therefore, sustaining this new period of growth will require the auto industry to…
Michelle LaBrosse
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the words “accelerated learning?” Perhaps you imagine a person zipping through a book at a rapid pace, soaking up every fact and concept at lightning speed. Or perhaps you think of a child genius who graduates from college at the ripe age of…
Craig W. Alexander
A few weeks ago I was returning from a business trip in the evening. I was tired after a long day at a conference followed by fighting traffic to the airport. Add a rental car shuttle train, security lines, and the general airport experience, and I just wanted to get home quickly.
I parked at off-…
Philip Hewitt
Aircraft manufacturing is international, with a complex supply chain dividing work among numerous companies around the world. Globalized manufacturing and outsourcing brings challenges and opportunities for suppliers.
Technical challenges include improving the quality of complex components with…
Georgia Institute of Technology
Recent earthquake damage has exposed the vulnerability of existing structures to strong ground movement. At the Georgia Institute of Technology, researchers are analyzing shape-memory alloys for their potential use in constructing seismic-resistant structures.
“Shape-memory alloys exhibit unique…
Carly Barry
When I first started learning about lean Six Sigma and familiarizing myself with all the different terminology and methodologies, I was a little overwhelmed and confused by all the abbreviations: FMEA, C&E matrix, Gage R&R, SIPOC... the list seemed endless. However, I really got tripped up…
Jason Jonassen
Even though contact “drag” scanning and noncontact laser scanning are prevalent in our industry, there are many manufacturers who still use kinematic touch trigger probes. Questions often come up regarding when a probe should be replaced. Is there a best practice for troubleshooting?
Of course,…
Quality Transformation With David Schwinn
As we arrived in the lobby of the Westin in Grand Cayman, George Davidson was playing the love song from The Phantom of the Opera on the grand piano. Grand Cayman is one of our favorite winter retreats and Davidson has been a staple of what we enjoy about that warm and refreshing island since we…
Jim Benson
During the early 2000s, people discovered how great pomegranate juice is. It’s filled with antioxidants that help us avoid colds and other maladies. Well, no one likes to be sick, so people started buying the juice by the case. Sure enough, they felt healthier. So they drank more and more until…
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
I was three or four jokes into my routine, when I realized that one of the troublemakers my client warned me about was sitting dead center in the front row. With arms firmly crossed over his chest, and a frown deeply embedded in his face, he was glaring defiantly at me with eyes that said, “You’ll…
Mike Micklewright
My monthly newsletter’s theme is “Integrating Lean and Quality.” I call it this because there seems to be somewhat of a common understanding and acceptance that lean and quality have no relationship to each other. 5S is an example of a process that transcends, or should transcend, this misdirected…
Connecticut Spring and Stamping
For one Connecticut manufacturer of close-tolerance, precision metal parts, a nearly 20-year commitment to lean manufacturing has naturally evolved into using self-directed work teams for the past two years to set the ambitious objectives of 100-percent on-time delivery and 100-percent quality.…
Lisa Greenleaf
Editor's note: Lisa Greenleaf will be appearing on the May 4, 2012, episode of Quality Digest Live at 11 a.m. Pacific, 2 p.m. Eastern. That episode will be available on-demand beginning Monday, May 7, 2012.
For as long as cargo has been transported via road, there has been cargo theft. Whether from…
University of Michigan
It was a thrilling ride for the team of students representing the University of Michigan’s solar car, Quantum, in the World Solar Challenge in Australia.
A 30-minute documentary, Racing with the Sun, that offers a vivid up-close look at the team’s dedication and determination in the Outback. The…
MIT News
Scott Stern doesn’t work in a laboratory or have a degree in the hard sciences. You’ll never find him using a genome sequencer or an MRI scanner. Yet he knows more about some aspects of science than almost any practicing scientist does.
That’s because Stern, an economist at the MIT Sloan School of…
William A. Levinson
Compliance is an unfortunate word in connection with standards because it suggests something arduous, unpleasant, costly, and annoying that one must do to “get the certificate.”
It’s true that organizations must meet certain requirements to register to a standard like ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and the…
Gallup
When it comes to project management, most organizations put their practices before their people. They place more emphasis on rational factors, i.e., the process itself, and less on emotional drivers that could lead to project excellence—like their employees’ engagement with the project and company…
Bruce Hamilton
Do you remember a post-hippie-era song called “Signs?” The song’s refrain came to mind recently during a workplace walkthrough.
“Sign, sign, everywhere a sign Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?”
—Five…
Mountz
During the assembly of parts using an electric torque screwdriver, there are many things to consider to achieve proper torque control. Is the joint hard or soft? What material is being used? Is the screw lubricated or treated with a locking patch? One factor that’s often overlooked is the RPM…
Oscar Combs
With companies being asked to produce more with fewer resources, managing risks is more critical than ever. Sometimes organizations become so accustomed to navigating around their inherent risks that they become complacent in identifying and anticipating them—until something catastrophic happens.…
Steven Ouellette
“It is what it is.” I’m hearing that a lot now. I’m OK with it if someone is using it as a shortcut to mean something like the Serenity Prayer. But more and more, I’m hearing people use it in a way that sounds like an expression of helplessness and futility.
As “it is what it is” permeates into…
MIT News
A team of MIT researchers has developed a way of making a high-temperature version of a kind of materials called photonic crystals, using metals such as tungsten or tantalum. The new materials—which can operate at temperatures up to 1,200°C—could find a wide variety of applications powering…
Jason W. Womack
Your plane hasn’t even left its gate, and you already feel defeated by another harried day of travel. You hit every red traffic light on the way to the airport; you waited, frustrated, in a slow-moving check-in line; and you went through the usual hassle (and occasional humiliation) required to…
NIST
The great artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci once said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) research engineer Javier Atencia certainly believes in the wisdom of what da Vinci preached; he has a reputation for creating novel…
Oscar Combs
This case study provides an overview of the design, development, implementation, and subsequent management of a total quality management (TQM) system developed for the international division of the largest drilling contractor in the world, which is based in Houston. The TQM system covered all…