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(PGMA: Cleveland) -- Portable generators are vital to the building trades, acting as a convenient, easy-to-move source of spot power on job sites. But, like any tool, safe and proper use is critical to a safe outcome. With portable generators, that means never operating a generator indoors or in…
When is a product “good enough” to accept? This is the classic challenge of quality. High customer expectations demand that suspect products be thoroughly scrutinized and a high standard set for their release. Customers expect this, and quality staff strive to achieve it.
The other side of the tug…
Industrial engineers design, develop, test, and evaluate integrated systems for managing industrial production processes. Functions include quality control, human work factors, inventory control, logistics and material flow, cost analysis, and production coordination. These and other facets are…
(ASM: Suwanee, GA) -- With its ASM Factory Equipment Center, ASM is now offering a powerful, integrated software-based solution for companywide asset and maintenance management. You can plan, control, execute, support, and document the maintenance and repairs of all ASM and non-ASM machines,…
(Mahr: Providence, RI) -- Mahr, a global manufacturer of precision measurement equipment used for dimensional metrology, introduces its MarForm MMQ 500, which extends Mahr’s benchtop form-tester portfolio with new levels of speed and flexibility. The MMQ 500 features optimized machine design and…
(Wall Colmonoy: Madison Heights, MI) -- Wall Colmonoy introduces high-quality ColWear Plates that are ideally suited for high-demand industrial fans due to its wear protection, as well as resource and energy efficiencies.
ColWear Plates are used in the manufacture and repair of industrial fans to…
As the parent of two teens, I’ve become quite accustomed to the Eye Roll. This ocular straining happens most often when I request that a previously agreed upon task be completed by said teen. Me: “Hey, it’s time to empty the trash. Trash pick up is tomorrow.” Teen: “Ugh,” with a healthy helping of…
In 2019, I wrote about a marketing phenomenon that I kept hearing about, that customers are in control, that they have all the power. I never felt like that was right.
In that post, I wrote: “So, when you see those headlines about customer control and customer power, what are they really talking…
(Exact Metrology: Cincinnati) -- Exact Metrology, a comprehensive 3D metrology service provider and hardware sales company, sells Raytech Measuring Systems.
These are shop-floor dimensional measuring machines like the single-axis and the three-axis table for industrial manufacturers. The company…
(Optical Gaging Products: Rochester, NY) -- Cygnus Manufacturing Co. (CMC) is a leading manufacturer and supplier of high-precision products and components for the medical device, transportation, energy, and aerospace industries. CMC provides full-service manufacturing from prototype through…
Like business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce, business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce allows customers to purchase parts and supplies via an online portal. The difference is that in B2B e-commerce, both the customers and suppliers are businesses, and the customers may or may not be the end users of the…
It’s a new year, with a new president and new opportunities to boost modern apprenticeship programs in the United States that can help get people back to work and stimulate the economy.
Getting people into apprenticeships has never been more vital, as job losses caused by the pandemic continue to…
At the tender age of 21, living in a universe with far too many parallels to present day, I took a job—which turned out to be more than a job—to support myself in college by working as a caregiver, cook, driver, and constant companion to a man who as a young adult had been infected by the awful…
(Interfacial: Prescott, WI) -- Interfacial Consultants (Interfacial), a Wisconsin-based innovator in advanced materials, has recently released two disruptive, highly filled masterbatch technologies, to be distributed by its sister company Nagase Specialty Materials (NSM).
These novel, proprietary…
(Brunson Instrument Co.: Kansas City, MO) -- Completing a 21-year career at Brunson Instrument Co., general manager Richard Powell will retire later this year. The company has initiated a vigorous search for Powell’s replacement, and he will continue in his current capacity until the position is…
Stakeholder engagement is one of the more critical aspects of leadership, whether you’re a team leader or a member of a cross-functional team trying to lead team members to focus on quality. Stakeholders can be anyone from your colleagues to suppliers to business partners, and your relationship…
Quality managers have a problem. The success of their quality program hinges on one thing. It’s not KPIs, and it’s not methodology. It isn’t even employee engagement or customer satisfaction. The one thing a quality manager needs most is leadership buy-in.
Quality programs fail because they do…
There is a type of error that occurs when conducting statistical testing: to work very hard to correctly answer the wrong question. This error occurs during the formation of the experiment.
Despite creating a perfect null and alternative hypothesis, sometimes we are simply investigating the wrong…
Alexander Hamilton, one of the United States’ founding fathers, famously called energy the most important characteristic of the executive branch of government. “A feeble Executive implies a feeble execution of the government,” he said in the Federalist Papers. “A feeble execution is but another…
(AAT3D: Indianapolis) -- Andretti Autosport has announced that Applied Automation Technologies (AAT3D) will serve as the team’s official metrology solution. AAT3D began in 1987 as a CAD-based dimensional measurement software and developed into a global leader of software solutions for metrology,…
Negotiators, even professional ones, make surprisingly many wrong decisions that doom negotiations that should have succeeded. Many of these mistakes relate to overestimating how well they can read the feelings and thoughts of other parties in the negotiation, as well as the extent to which the…
Manufacturing robotics is to some extent following a similar path of advances to those in machining and fixed automation systems. Though the ROI is most easily measured in efficiency and cost savings, manufacturers are looking for robotic technology to help them resolve a pain point in their…
Globalization of trade and decades-long innovation in supply chain networks have resulted in significant benefits for all stakeholders—greater efficiencies, lower costs, and greater access to markets, to name just a few. Yet Covid-19 has exposed vulnerabilities in global supply chains. Dispersed…
Globalization of trade and decades-long innovation in supply chain networks have resulted in significant benefits for all stakeholders—greater efficiencies, lower costs, and greater access to markets, to name just a few. Yet Covid-19 has exposed vulnerabilities in global supply chains. Dispersed…
Globalization of trade and decades-long innovation in supply chain networks have resulted in significant benefits for all stakeholders—greater efficiencies, lower costs, and greater access to markets, to name just a few. Yet Covid-19 has exposed vulnerabilities in global supply chains. Dispersed…
