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After reviewing Mark Graban’s wonderful book, Measures of Success (Constancy, 2018), I started rereading Walter Shewhart’s books, Statistical Method From the Viewpoint of Quality Control (Dover reprint 1986, originally edited by W. Edwards. Deming), and Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured…
One of the undergraduate engineering courses that left a deep and lasting impression on me was a course on innovation and aesthetics in engineering taught by David Billington at Princeton University. So, when I read the story of a skyscraper in New York that had to undergo secret emergency repairs…
How do you develop domain knowledge in your analysts, so their data use, interpretation, and recommendations make sense? I’ve mentioned in a previous article, about the difficulties of offshoring analytics, how vital domain knowledge can be. Yet, I find most articles or speakers focus on the need…
(Zontec: Cincinnati, OH) -- Zontec Inc., global leader in statistical process control (SPC) software, is expanding its software purchase options to include e-commerce subscription software. Starting today, Synergy 100 and Synergy 100+ are available to purchase and download without long-term…
While I was facilitating a retreat for a group of 15 men, all in their late 30s and 40s, all high-level executives and all high achievers, an interesting topic arose. One of the men asked for help dealing with his wife, who was complaining he worked too much. He wanted help in getting her to…
Someone we know recently told us about a team-building event that proved anything but.
The chief executive who arranged it loved mountain biking. So he chose a venue to share his passion with his team. On the day, he shot around the track. Others with less experience took up to three hours longer…
Someone we know recently told us about a team-building event that proved anything but.
The chief executive who arranged it loved mountain biking. So he chose a venue to share his passion with his team. On the day, he shot around the track. Others with less experience took up to three hours longer…
(Vireo Health: Minneapolis) -- As America’s leading physician-led cannabis company, Vireo Health has long been dedicated to providing high-quality cannabis products and unrivaled patient care. Kyle Kingsley,a board-certified emergency medicine physician, founded Vireo Health after serving on the…
The martial arts rank, Shodan, for a first-degree black belt, does not mean “expert”; it means “first step.” ISO 9001:2015 is similarly a valuable and vital first step toward world-class performance, but it is only that—a first step. It covers only by implication many of the risks and opportunities…
Globalization of the medical device market as well as its supporting supply chains continues to increase year after year. This has forced regulatory bodies to grapple with finding a way to narrow the gap between international and domestic regulation. In spring 2018 the United States Food and Drug…
It happens easily enough and usually innocently enough. You start a business or organization then endure what is often a long and expensive learning curve. Along the way you learn. You learn a lot. You discover the competencies and incompetencies of those working with you. You learn how to manage…
Decanter centrifuges from Hiller GmbH, headquartered in Vilsbiburg, Germany, are in demand globally. These centrifuges separate solid and fluid materials, such as in the production of olive oil or wine, or for wastewater treatment. The multiton machines achieve high yields unmatched by competitors…
It’s no news that U.S. manufacturing has a workforce problem. However, a new survey conducted by Leading2Lean (L2L) offers some unexpected hope. The survey reveals that a new generation of workers could spur industrywide innovation.
The 2019 L2L Manufacturing Index, an annual measurement of the…
For decades, Krishan Ahuja tamed jet noise, for which the National Academy of Engineering elected him as a new member this year. Today, Ahuja is an esteemed researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology, but he got his start more than 50 years ago as an engineering apprentice in Rolls Royce’s…
As I spoke recently with colleagues at a conference in Florence, Italy, about healthcare innovation, a fundamental truth resurfaced in my mind: the U.S. healthcare industry is just that. An industry, an economic force, Big Business. It is a vehicle for returns on investment first and the success of…
(Digital Metrology Solutions: Columbus, IN) -- Digital Metrology Solutions, provider of measurement software, consulting and training, has released two new products for multi-band surface texture analysis. Bandify and Bandify3D instantly separate surface texture into wavelength bands and display…
In a general sense, capability is the ability to do something. Within manufacturing, capability is given a much more specific definition. It is an expression of the accuracy of a process or equipment, in proportion to the required accuracy.
This can be applied to production processes, in which…
Given the recent, renewed intensification of the shareholder vs. stakeholder debate, the concept of value creation has become more ambiguous. On whose behalf should organizations generate value? For owners, employees, upstream and downstream partners, or local communities immediately affected by…
Recently I have had several questions about which bias correction factors to use when working with industrial data. Some books use one formula, other books use another, and the software may use a third formula. Which one is right? This article will help you find an answer.
Before we can…
Innovation isn’t just about having a few bright ideas. It’s about creating value and helping organizations continuously adapt and evolve. ISO is developing a new series of International Standards on innovation management, the third of which has just been published.
Innovation is an increasingly…
Manufacturers often have a love-hate relationship with technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI) and other solutions that have the potential to affect jobs. On one side, companies need every tool available to help bolster efficiency and cost-effectiveness. On the other, the workforce…
You’re listening to customers. You’re combining their feedback with those bread crumbs of data that they leave with every transaction and interaction with your brand. You’ve developed customer personas to better understand who they are, what problems they are trying to solve, and what jobs they…
(MoneySuperMarket: Ewloe, Wales) -- With many workers spending up to 40 hours a week in an office, it should come as no surprise that the office environment is vitally important to 21 percent of people. Happy workers are up to 20-percent more productive—so making sure the office is a positive place…
Recently, I got the chance to travel to Youngstown, Ohio. As I came into town, it struck me that Youngstown was like many other cities across America, including my hometown of Buffalo, New York. In its heyday, Youngstown was a center of manufacturing and steel production—industries that employed…
Put in the terms of this article’s title, most of us would run a mile, whatever the proposition. But the popularity of online reviews, and the trust we place in persons unknown when making major decisions about where to stay, what to eat, and how to get the most from a trip, tells a different story…
