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First, let it be known that all charts for count-based data are charts for individual values. Regardless of whether we are working with a count or a rate, we obtain one value per time period and want to plot a point every time we get a value. This need to plot the current data is why the specialty…
Imagine you have the opportunity to serve as the proverbial fly on the wall for various organizations across different sectors to observe the process of strategy creation.
When asked to share what you observed, I'm confident you will highlight a confusing morass of discussions, political debates,…
Surveys show that anywhere from two-thirds to three-quarters of all employers intend to have a hybrid workforce after the pandemic as part of their return to office plan. Employees would come in one to three days weekly to work on collaborative tasks with their teams. The rest of the time, they…
After more than a year of being pummeled by pandemic-related supply chain shortages, computer maker HP had some good news to report during its third-quarter earnings call last month. Revenue is up 7 percent over the prior-year period, even though it fell short of projections.
The problem isn’t…
(Silicon Designs Inc.: Kirkland, WA) -- Silicon Designs Inc., announces the immediate availability of stock quantities of its industry best-selling single axis Model 2210 series. These low-noise, low-cost MEMS capacitive accelerometer modules offer accurate and repeatable measurements across a…
(Nanoscribe: Karlsruhe, Germany) -- Nanoscribe, a BICO company, announces the launch of the Quantum X shape, a high-precision 3D printer for rapid prototyping and wafer-scale batch production. With the Quantum X shape, high-precision 3D printing becomes significantly more efficient in terms of…
This article contends that we should replace “quality” with “value” to address an enormous array of previously unaddressed risks and opportunities. Poor quality is only one of the Toyota Production System’s seven wastes, and it is rarely the most costly one because it is also the only waste to draw…
Stress is a natural physical and mental reaction to life experiences. In fact, for short periods of time, it is actually valuable to us. The hormones our brains release during stressful moments were designed to protect us by preparing us to react quickly in dangerous situations.
Unfortunately,…
Just a little over a year ago we lost Hajime Oba, one of the great pioneers of Toyota Production System (TPS) learning in the United States. In 1992, he was the founding manager of the Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC), a nonprofit affiliate of Toyota Motors of North America (TMNA),…
(Schreiner ProTech: Blauvelt, NY) – Schreiner ProTech, a Germany-based global leader in developing and manufacturing innovative functional labels with value-added benefits for the automotive and engineering-based industries, will play a key role in a new laser marking system from Primera, a…
Did you know that 7.6 million people quit their jobs during the months of April and May of 2021? Reports of loneliness at work are as high as ever. Divorce rates are up 34 percent from last year. To say people have been a little stressed would be an understatement.
Let’s dig a little deeper into…
Necessity is the mother of invention. And few things are more necessary to the success of an organization than customers. Leave that thought on the page, and we will return to it shortly.
Napoleon knew that a military force’s success directly correlated to the food it was provided. He offered a…
(DMSC: Rochester, NY) -- Software company Elysium has announced support for QIF 3.0 (Quality Information Framework) in the latest product update of its 3DxSUITE EX9, available Aug. 1, 2021. This newest update offers primary support of QIF 3.0 with bi-directional translation and validation of the…
Like it or not, work-from-home (WFH) is here to stay. This is not just a perk that employers might offer, but a requirement on which many employees, current and future, are demanding. According to several surveys, between 30 and 50 percent of employees surveyed said they would leave their jobs if…
Read any article on automated warehouse vehicles, and it’s pretty easy to see there is a lot of hype. Although automation in automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs)—my specialty—have come a long way, they are not replacing all warehouse workers.
In an interview with…
(FARO: Lake Mary, FL) -- 3D metrology provider FARO recently announced the signing of an agreement to outsource its manufacturing to Sanmina Corp., a U.S.-based Fortune 500 electronic manufacturing services (EMS) provider.
“As the next step in our business transformation, we plan to transition FARO…
At Greenlight Guru, we collectively have hundreds of years of experience in medical device quality management. We’ve all seen some great successes during our time in the industry—high-quality medical devices that improved the quality of life for countless people around the world. But we’ve also…
Ningbo-Zhousan may not exactly be a household name, but find something in your house made in China, and it’s quite likely it was delivered from there. Ningbo-Zhousan, which overlooks the East China Sea some 200 km south of Shanghai, is China’s second-busiest port, handling the equivalent of some 29…
The manufacturing skills gap has been a topic of discussion for several years. According to a 2021 Deloitte study, it is estimated that by 2030, there will be 2.1 million manufacturing jobs that will need to be filled. Finding employees who are trained, skilled workers is becoming more critical in…
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an independent, nongovernmental, international organization that develops standards to ensure the quality, safety, and efficiency of products, services, and systems. As technology continues to rapidly develop, new standards are drafted and…
Elon Musk announced a humanoid robot designed to help with those repetitive, boring tasks people hate doing. Musk suggested it could run to the grocery store for you, but presumably it would handle any number of tasks involving manual labor.
Predictably, social media immediately filled with…
(SME: Southfield, MI) -- The Southeast is experiencing exceptional growth in areas critical to the economy, such as aerospace, automotive, advanced materials, and workforce development—making the region a hotbed for advanced manufacturing. SOUTHTEC is designed to give manufacturers the means to…
There are many control chart rules to detect special causes (i.e., out-of-control conditions). Although most of these rules are clear, the one that seems to befuddle most people is the rule about trends. Is it six points (including the first point), six points (excluding the first point), or seven…
Manufacturing is stepping up investment as the U.S. economy recovers from the challenges of 2020. Nearly 40 percent of manufacturers have increased CapEx spending, with less than 7 percent planning to spend less, the National Association of Manufacturers reports.
With that investment, factories…
(ShopFloorConnect: Acton, MA) – ShopFloorConnect will unveil new capabilities in preventive maintenance at PackExpo in Las Vegas, Sept. 27–29, 2021, that further improve machine productivity with maintenance alerts based on actual machine run times or cycles.
The production monitoring software’s…
