All Features

Brookhaven National Laboratory
A team of scientists working at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Brookhaven National Laboratory has designed an apparatus that can take simultaneous temperature and X-ray scattering measurements of a 3D printing process in real time, and…

Donald J. Wheeler
In past articles I have used graphs to provide perspective on how the Covid-19 pandemic is progressing around the world. In this article I shall update some of those graphs and use these historical data to make projections on what may be expected in the United States in the fall.
The worldwide…

Tom Taormina
Each article in this series presents new tools for increasing return on investment (ROI), enhancing customer satisfaction, creating process excellence, and driving risk from an ISO 9001:2015-based quality management system (QMS). They will help implementers evolve quality management to overall…

John Wenz, Knowable Magazine
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine.
You hear a mechanical buzz. You look up, and there it is, hovering in the sky—four whirring rotors. Over your shoulder, you catch sight of someone tracking the flight and manipulating controls.
Drones, little flying vehicles with varying…

William A. Levinson
Face masks and respirators may well offer the only way to return to an even remotely normal living and working style in the second half of 2020, which means they will play a vital role in any kind of economic recovery. This article’s purpose is to discuss what we know about respiratory protection,…

James Anderton
Injection mold making used to be a relatively simple business: machine the cavities and runners, polish, cross-drill for cooling, then shoot resin. Today, however, relentless pressure for lower part cost and higher productivity have led to bigger, faster machines with molds to match.
Multilayer…

Steven Forrest
The ongoing pandemic will likely change, if not completely alter, many aspects of our daily lives. One facet that will significantly change is the way we work. After months of being in lockdown, the massive shift to working from home has proven to be effective in helping employees stay productive.…

Andrew Peterson
Collaborative robots are increasingly attractive to manufacturers that require flexible solutions for their growing product mix but may not have the scale of work or capital resources needed to justify larger investments in automation systems.
These collaborative robots, commonly referred to as “…

Benjamin Kessler
The full economic impact of the pandemic has yet to be felt. However, it seems beyond dispute that Covid-19 and globalization don’t mix well. Of course, all economic activity is suffering in this worldwide recession—but the global breadth of business may experience an especially acute shrinking…

Farhana Ahmad
Despite juggling competing priorities, building resilient systems and processes within their organizations continues to be top of mind for business leaders today and is anticipated to be so for the foreseeable future. As such, the first logical step is to turn to existing methods and approaches…

Lolly Daskal
In a recent survey, only 3 percent said they have confidence in corporate executives.
The news was equally dismal for others: 3 percent reported having confidence in government officials, 5 percent in reporters and journalists, 8 percent in small business owners, and only 11 percent in ministers…

Bill Bernstein, Teodar Vernica
Step into the factory of the future. Alicia, an operations manager, sits at her workstation viewing a digitally enhanced video feed of the facility, using cameras installed in strategic locations. Wearing safety gear, a maintenance engineer named Bob checks his tablet for the next machine to fix.…

NASA
On June 24, 2020, engineers completed the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket’s structural testing campaign for the Artemis lunar missions by testing the liquid oxygen structural test article to find its point of failure.
“The Space Launch System and Marshall test team have done a tremendous job of…

Richard Fendler
Job satisfaction is important to most people, and yet this can be a fairly nebulous concept that is tricky to achieve and also tough to measure in a meaningful way.
Luckily a number of software platforms designed to manage employee recognition have emerged in recent years, as outlined in this…

Thomas R. Cutler
The old picking methods of paper, pick-to-light, and voice-picking are almost impossible when employees must practice social distancing, use PPE (personal protective equipment), and avoid contact that could potentially exacerbate the spread of Covid-19. One viable solution is pick-by-vision, which…

Betsy Mason, Knowable Magazine
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine.
Imagine a science textbook without images. No charts, no graphs, no illustrations or diagrams with arrows and labels. The science would be a lot harder to understand.
That's because humans are visual creatures by nature. People absorb…

Del Williams
Approximately 48 million people in the United States (one in six) get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die each year from foodborne diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Consequently, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is transforming the nation’s…

Rajesh Midha
Digital experiences surround us in all aspects of our lives. Today, as consumers of products and services, we can accomplish most of our tasks digitally. This digital ecosystem has been carefully crafted by brands that have spent millions of dollars to create experiences to build and grow…

Jason Chester
For manufacturers—as for all of us—the past few months have been a blur of fast adaptations and long periods of waiting. At the start of the pandemic, many manufacturers did what they have always done in the face of disruption: adapt and find the fastest workaround for the challenge at hand.…

Carson MacPherson-Krutsky
Since the days of painting on cave walls, people have been representing information through figures and images. Nowadays, data visualization experts know that presenting information visually helps people better understand complicated data. The problem is that data visualizations can also leave you…

Denrie Caila Perez
With most industries shifting to remote work due to the Covid-19 pandemic, companies are looking at how they can innovate the work-from-home experience. Toyota’s Ann Harbor, Michigan, research and development team was set to complete the automaker’s newest generation of the Sienna in March 2020.…

Tara García Mathewson
In October 2019, I shared the news that the classroom connectivity gap in U.S. schools is effectively closed. More than 99 percent of schools nationwide have access to speedy and reliable internet, making online learning an option for their students.
Only now it doesn’t matter. School buildings…

Michael Klein
When I look at the business leaders I admire most, they have all uniquely defined what leadership means to their teams.
I, for one, am a big fan of positive disruption—bringing together a diverse team with a wildly varying range of opinions and experiences while creating an environment that…

Antoine Tirard, Claire Harbour
As clients clamor for speedy results and headhunters increasingly rely on the latest data analytic tools, there is a danger of dull, predictable candidates being churned out for results that serve but do not shine.
At a recent panel on careers, a prominent headhunter said: “Search consultants,…

Matthew Martin
For more than 50 years, the benchmark for accuracy in measuring solid objects, whether machined, molded, die cast, welded, or forged, was the coordinate measuring machine (CMM). Typically using a solid, granite-base table along with a vertical, horizontal, gantry, or bridge-mounted arm and touch…