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In an outbreak that has now run for more than 28 months, at least 279 people across 41 states have fallen ill with multidrug-resistant Salmonella infections linked to raw turkey products. Federal investigators are still trying to determine the cause. In response to food company recalls, more than …
Knowledge of kaizen theory, principles, tools, and experience in application are of course very important in leading successful kaizen events that drive real bottom-line results. However, equally important are the facilitation skills of the person who is leading the event and the team.
Leading a…
Boeing has been rife with issues lately. While the recent Ethiopian Airlines crash has dominated headlines and elicited an FBI investigation into the company, another federal body has stated it will be keeping a closer eye on Boeing’s safety shortfalls.
Boeing is now in hot water with the U.S. Air…
It’s human nature to resist change, and the life sciences industry is not exempt from a change-averse mindset. The proof: Life science organizations (LSOs) lag far behind counterparts in other sectors in implementing digital technologies that are designed to streamline business and manufacturing…
Established businesses rely on so-called best practices to retain their market share by limiting risk, but what happens when an established practice isn’t actually the best way to solve a problem?
This philosophy lies at the core of our company, Code & Theory, and defines how we engage and…
Recently, I was listening to the CFO of a large industrial firm who complained nonstop about her CEO. At the start of his tenure, the CEO regularly interacted with his top team but now seemed to spend most of his time brooding in his office. In meetings, he would often lose focus, have fits of…
A clear constant in the portable metrology market is “change and integration.” Almost every new product launch couples existing concepts and wraps them with tools that enable integration into hybrid metrology-guided systems. These deliver value by deploying the strengths of the technologies in a…
A 35-year commitment is an impressive achievement, whether it be to a job, a marriage, or even a sports franchise. (New York Mets, why do you so consistently forsake my love?) When it comes to an all-volunteer organization working within an extremely complex and fast-changing technical field, that…
Shepherding the implementation of any new program takes strong leadership. Building a strong, legally defensible certification program calls for a herculean kind of dedication. Randy Gruver was just the guy for the job.
More than 10 years ago, a group of interested measurement professionals and…
Achieving Smart Factory initiatives requires a seismic shift toward data-driven processes, sensors, and advanced metrology solutions. Large-scale manufacturers bear the load of crushing backlogs and internal pressures to eke out more productivity. What are the roadblocks? Will existing measurement…
A 154-page report by Moreu and LaFave in 2012 explains unique problems railroad bridge engineers must contend with. The gross weight of cars went from 200,000 pounds to 263,000 pounds in the 1970s, and to 286,000 pounds in 1991. The ratio of live to dead loads are much greater for railroads than…
History indicates that major technological changes can take about half a century to go from the first lab drawings to society. Alan Turing first proposed the Turing machine, laying the foundations of computation, in 1936; the first general-purpose “Turing-complete” system was built in 1945, and “…
Your own voice will likely become the most significant focus for food retailers and restaurants in the immediate future. Voice searches are increasingly becoming the norm. A recent study suggests that more than 50 percent of all online searches will be voice-activated by 2020.
To a lesser extent,…
If you have worked in the quality field for anytime at all, you have probably heard of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award—it’s the highest level of national recognition for performance excellence that a U.S. organization can receive. The award focuses on performance in five key areas and…
What are you looking to measure? This is one of the central questions for a metrologist (a measurement scientist) and is usually answered before measurements can proceed. It is impossible to make sense of the results without knowing the measurand—the actual physical dimension or other property of…
Ever since sportswriter Henry Chadwick popularized the box score in the 19th century, baseball fans have had a love affair with statistics. Many can recite records like Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, Rickey Henderson’s 130 stolen bases, or Barry Bonds’ 73 home runs in one season. But have…
If your manufacturing organization is going to grow, you know you need an inspection solution beyond the capabilities of micrometers and calipers. You know you need to gather more data in a faster and more reliable manner. It’s time to invest in a 3D inspection solution like a coordinate measuring…
Parking lot. We use it in the meeting-management world to mean agenda items that are tabled for later discussion. These are generally posted on a sheet of flip-chart paper, taped on the meeting wall, and then placed on the agenda of the next meeting so they are not forgotten as topics for…
Have you ever found yourself in the midst of a business problem that you’re not sure how to solve? This five-step problem solving process is a great place to begin working through any business issue.
At one point I worked with a financial services firm, and we had this really cool program that did…
Managers have a profound effect on employee engagement. This is something we have known for quite a few years. According to a 2015 Gallup poll, managers account for at least a 70-percent variance in employee engagement scores. When employees and managers have a healthy, respectful, and honest…
When a customer asks to see your layered process audit (LPA) documentation, will you be ready? For many manufacturers, the answer is no.
Instead of having proof of an effective audit process, many companies are left scrambling for data that show low audit compliance and few actual results.…
According to the International Labor Organization, around the world every day 7,600 people die from work-related accidents or diseases—that’s more than 2.78 million people every year. To address the issue, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed a standard, ISO 45001…
I discovered my affinity for attractive instruments while working a job before coming to NIST. My boss at the time had a love affair with the common hose clamp—the one with the worm gear.
Whenever we had to fasten a component to an apparatus he said, “Why don’t you use a hose clamp?” With every…
In the wake of the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes of Boeing 737 Max planes, people are thinking about how much of their air travel is handled by software and automated systems—as opposed to the friendly pilots sitting in the cockpit.
Older commercial airliners, such as the Beechcraft 1900…
In the wake of the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes of Boeing 737 Max planes, people are thinking about how much of their air travel is handled by software and automated systems—as opposed to the friendly pilots sitting in the cockpit.
Older commercial airliners, such as the Beechcraft 1900…