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On August 29, 2005, I was starting my first semester teaching freshman environmental engineering majors at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. At the exact same time, Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi with 190 kph (120 mph) winds and a storm surge in excess of 6 meters (…
Software as a medical device (SaMD) is a growing sector in medical device technology. Through the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, SaMD has the power to influence health on a global scale as well as allow for personalization in medicine and life-saving therapies.
Medical device…
Third-party vendors are increasingly working with their own third parties (fourth and fifth parties), spreading your data across many different vendors. This can make your company an easy target for cybersecurity threats, especially if your organization is a hospital or part of the healthcare…
In today’s factories and warehouses, it’s not uncommon to see robots whizzing about, shuttling items or tools from one station to another. For the most part, robots navigate pretty easily across open layouts. But they have a much harder time winding through narrow spaces to carry out tasks such as…
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly ubiquitous in various industry sectors, establishing a common terminology for AI and examining its various applications is more important than ever. In the international standardization arena, much work is being undertaken by ISO/IEC’s joint…
(Helmel Engineering: Niagara Falls, NY) -- Helmel Engineering, a 46-year-old American manufacturer of coordinate measuring machines (CMM), has introduced a new CMM developed to take advantage of the capabilities of Renishaw’s PH20 Probe concept. The Microstar Model 320-185 is an evolution of the…
With the advent of the internet, cloud, and electronic workflows, what is the future of documented management systems? Do we continue with a structure of quality manual, processes, work instructions, and forms and checklists? How do we imagine the future of documented management systems?
For…
Editor’s note: This is episode two in the Respect for People series. Click here for episode one.
When we build any working system, we need to understand and appreciate how people naturally exchange information. They withhold some things, say some other things. Some of this is fear, some is…
Lean production is built on the explicit assumption that each step is operated predictably and capably. Predictable operation can only be achieved and maintained by using process behavior charts. But short production runs and multiple products make it hard to see how to use process behavior charts…
If you’re like many leaders, you are knee-deep in preparing strategies and tactics to drive success in the new fiscal year. And that prompted me, in the first part or this two-part series, to pose the question: “What if leaders brought the same thoughtfulness, rigor, and discipline that we apply to…
This is an exciting time of the year for the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, as we welcome our newest Baldrige Award recipients to the Baldrige family of role model organizations. We celebrate our award recipients and look forward to recognizing them at the 32nd Annual Quest for Excellence…
I recently wrote a column about loyalty, which got me thinking about trust. I wondered who is in my life that I trust, and who that I don’t trust. It didn’t take me long to realize that I trust everyone in my life because I shed those whom I don’t trust.
As I pondered trust, I recalled a woman I…
The company Grace Science was born through an inversion of the normal business sequence. Typically, if an entrepreneur launches a startup and it succeeds, the founders will create a nonprofit, declaring, “We want to give back.” In this case, the nonprofit spawned the startup.
The company’s…
No matter where you’re located, you might think that Schneider Electric is a native company. It’s an easy assumption to make. The €25.7-billion energy, automation, and software solutions company is officially headquartered in France, but its strategy is to localize to the markets it’s in—and it’s…
(Visual Workplace: Byron Center, MI) -- Visual Workplace Inc. now offers a complete line of high-performance vinyl floor symbols, ideal for the industrial workplace with heavy traffic. Floor symbols and decals create a SMART floor environment and direct behavior, adding visual organization to any…
(AMT: Sheffield, UK) -- Formnext 2019 opens today in Frankfurt where Advanced Manufacturing Technologies Ltd (AMT) will launch its proprietary Digital Manufacturing System (DMS). Visitors at Formnext will be the first to witness this innovative and comprehensive post processing system that…
It’s often difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when things change, but it usually happens faster than one imagines. Old technology gets replaced by new innovations; first by early adopters, and then, suddenly, by everyone. A century ago silent movies reigned, then talkies, and now 3D and virtual…
According to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every year 48 million people in the United States get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases. That means one in six people in the United States get sick from contaminated food every 12…
How will the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement affect greenhouse gas emissions? Quality Digest editor in chief Dirk Dusharme and Mike Richman, principal at Richman Business Media Consulting, point out that most manufacturers already recognize that waste, including waste of energy…
Productivity matters. It matters a lot. Yet it often seems that folks talk about productivity but don’t do anything about it. At least, it feels that way to me when I go outside of the MEP National Network, where we’re always focused on enhancing manufacturing productivity. And you could say that…
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced today that six organizations will be presented with the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Baldrige is the nation’s only presidential award for performance excellence, recognizing U.S. organizations and businesses that have shown an unceasing drive…
It’s the time of year when many leaders find themselves consumed by the business planning process. They scour through historical data, evaluate the current state, scan the environment, forecast the future, identify multiple scenarios that may present themselves, consider alternatives that will…
Let’s assume that you want to delegate a task that’s been sitting on your desk since forever. You know what needs to get done and have (finally) found (and trained) the right person to do it. Let’s call this person Sally.
You sit down with Sally to plan the process. The two of you review…
Measurement is often seen as nonvalue-added work. However, if we properly account for the expected costs involved in passing defects on to customers, then the increased value of the product can be clearly shown. This approach makes it possible to make rational, data-based decisions about when to…
When Scarlett hung up the phone, she was close to tears. Even more unexpectedly, so was the customer service representative on the other end. How did a seemingly simple inquiry end in two people so frustrated they were on the verge of a breakdown?
Scarlett had called to resolve a mistaken charge…
