All Features
Mike Richman
Last month I wrote an article entitled “Being Comfortable in a World of Never-Ending Change.” Editor in Chief Dirk Dusharme and I also covered this story on the April 29th edition of Quality Digest Live (QDL). QDL, by the way, is our live video show wrap-up of the week’s top industry news and…
David L. Chandler
Photo: Greg Hren/RLE
Researchers at MIT have succeeded in making a fine thread that functions as a diode, a device at the heart of modern electronics. This feat—made possible by a new approach to a type of fiber manufacturing known as fiber drawing—could open up possibilities…
Douglas C. Fair
How do organizations confirm that supplier products comply with critical quality standards? For the most part, companies rely on inspectors to check incoming materials. Their results are compared with the company’s own quality standards and supplier-generated documents, such as certificates of…
Robert Napoletano
The customer is always right. Everything we are taught about customer satisfaction is intended to keep us focused on this one principle, and we need to keep this in mind whenever we deal with the customer. Everybody’s business revolves around a customer base, whether we are a service company or…
Daniel Brown
Reverse engineering and 3-D scanning are often considered synonyms. But 3-D scanning is also an efficient way to compare as-built physical objects to theoretical digital 3-D models (i.e., CAD models), and thus an essential asset to every quality control (QC) department’s tool box. Today’s 3-D…
Tom Pyzdek
Lean, Six Sigma, and quality provide a set of tools and a framework for achieving excellence in any process. Quality professionals are able to help organizations determine if customer requirements are properly defined and if the organization is meeting those requirements. Lean practitioners have a…
Mark R. Hamel
Among other things, an effective lean management system drives process adherence and process performance. The daily accountability portion of the system includes brief tiered meetings with the stakeholders.
At the tier I level, the core meeting participants are pretty much the natural work team…
Tripp Babbitt
Caveat emptor or “let the buyer beware” is a long-used phrase familiar to consumers. Your ability to get good service is proportional to your knowledge. Certain industries have poor reputations that make customers wary, but they remain reliant on the vendor to be honest with them. The predictable…
University of Michigan
Want to convince someone to do something? A new University of Michigan (U-M) study has some intriguing insights drawn from how we speak.
The study, presented May 14, 2011 at the annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, examines how various speech characteristics…
Knowledge at Wharton
Barry Salzberg, CEO of Deloitte, has spent his entire 34-year career in one place, climbing the corporate ladder. From his first unsupportive manager at the New York-based professional services firm to the mentors who helped pull him up through the ranks, Salzberg learned to lead and be led,…
Only months away from opening as the first research, development, and innovation center of its kind, the Automotive Centre of Excellence (ACE) is taking shape on the Oshawa campus of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT).
ACE will offer a full range of testing facilities…
Bruce Hamilton
About six years ago I was meeting with a clinical team to kick off an early improvement effort at their hospital. We began with a reflection on the problems with traditional business management practices. To break the ice, I played a short clip from an I Love Lucy episode that has now become a…
Henry Zumbrun
From the tightening of nuts on automobiles and airplanes to the connections on wind generators and other structures, the accurate measurement of torque may be essential for safety and the financial future of many companies in North America. Unfortunately, unlike other countries such as Germany…
Bill Kalmar
For discussion: We were intrigued with the idea that well-meaning parents and kids get so over-involved in sports that they lose site of what most likely was their original goal--family unity. How do you feel this translates to the work/family balance? Click the ADD COMMENT link beneath this…
Ryan E. Day
For those of us frustrated by the prevalence of mediocrity and apathy in the management theater, there may yet be hope. The Avery Point Group’s annual employment study found a sharp increase in demand for lean and Six Sigma skills this year. That would seem to indicate companies and businesses…
Fraunhofer Institute
Is someone sitting upright in the passenger seat of the car or is that passenger bending over? Did someone enter the hazard zone in front of an industrial machine? Stretch and pressure sensors have a wide range of applications. Researchers have now developed sensors capable of expanding, in…
David L. Chandler
It seems like a no-brainer: Remanufacturing products rather than making new ones from scratch—widely done with everything from retread tires to refilled inkjet cartridges to remanufactured engines—should save a lot of energy, right?
Not so fast, says a new study by researchers at the Massachusetts…
The QA Pharm
Can you imagine the stream of firms that venture into their respective FDA district offices to give presentations on their warning letter response and to offer their assurance that they truly “get it?” You can be sure these firms had several dry runs and dress rehearsals to hone their material…
Michelle LaBrosse
Sometimes you have to be completely silent in order to hear opportunity’s knock. Turn off the news reporting the disaster of the moment, quiet your mind from the everyday worries and problems, tune out the negative comments of co-workers and friends, and just… listen. Do you hear the soft knocking…
William A. Levinson
The cause-and-effect diagram is one of the seven basic quality improvement tools, and this article will illustrate its synergy with the affinity diagram. The article will then discuss how modern computer technology can enhance both techniques to create keyword-searchable quality records that…
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
“I hate you! I’m going to kill you tonight after you fall asleep,” screamed 9-year-old Jerry to his foster mother. It was hard to believe such hateful words could come from this adorable child with big blue eyes and an impish face.
Dee loves Jerry (I have changed their names to protect their…
John Flaig
In the article, “Four Control Chart Myths from Foolish Experts,” by Davis Balestracci (Quality Digest Daily, March 30, 2011) the following comments were made regarding what Balestracci considers statistical process control (SPC) myths:
“Myth No. 4: Three standard deviation limits are too…
Association For Manufacturing Technology AMT
March U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $511.15 million, according to the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association (AMTDA), and the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT). This total, as reported by companies participating in the U.S. Manufacturing Technology…
David Schwinn
As we continue our sabbatical journey, more opportunities for the improvement of management practices continue to appear. This month, the overriding theme that I have observed is the lack of front-line performance that seems to be a result of the system. I have been reminded of the many times we as…
Denise Robitaille
The headline’s question seemed a bit far-fetched to me when it was originally posed. The answer provided another delightful illustration of the myriad analogies we find in our everyday lives that relate so effortlessly to our work as quality professionals. The comparison demonstrated the complexity…