All News
We tied up last year in a neat little bow, talking about how stories define ourselves and our work; waste is waste, no matter your political leanings; and putting numbers from the news in context.
“The Gift of Being Small” This article by Quality Digest’s Taran March wonderfully illustrates how we…
A few years ago I wrote about a Facebook exchange between two friends of mine that upset me because one of my friends resorted to name-calling instead of addressing the other friend’s arguments. In retrospect, that was mild. More recently I’ve been shocked by some disturbingly excessive name-…
It’s no wonder people are scared of process. When we have a large project or goal, we assume that the process to complete that work must be equally large. That is daunting. We’d rather just do it.
When we have taken the time to build a process for a large project, we’ve all witnessed what a large…
I still love to hold and read physical books (as opposed to audible or Kindle). I don’t know how many books I added to my library this year, but it was a lot. I thought I’d share some good ones that I’d recommend you add to your reading list for 2019.
These books are not customer experience books…
Back in January 2009, I wrote an article for Quality Digest titled “ISO 9001 Documentation Is Like a Box of Chocolates.” Here we are, almost 10 years later, all of the ISO 9001 and related standards have been updated, yet companies still misunderstand what to document, how to document, or why to…
I tend to be a holiday slacker, but this year I’m really sitting it out. No fingering handmade crafts at pop-up fairs, no high-calorie marathons with my oven, not even a sprig of holly on my door. I’m hibernating, waiting for spring, waiting for the ashes, in what used to be my town, to feed the…
The control chart is at the heart of the very definition of quality. It is central to building, maintaining, and predicting quality into the future. However, control charts today, more often than not, are misused and misunderstood. The aim of this article is to show not only how control charts are…
The control chart is at the heart of the very definition of quality. It is central to building, maintaining, and predicting quality into the future. However, control charts today, more often than not, are misused and misunderstood. The aim of this article is to show not only how control charts are…
Psychology is an important element in organizational excellence for managers. In particular, the ability to face one’s fears, develop resilience, and adapt to change fosters success for a manager as well as for the company and all its employees.
Developing your people really is where the rubber…
When graduate student Atis Degro got an email about a George Mason University course in resilience last year, he had to look up what that meant.
He was also curious about the credential being offered for successfully completing the course: not a conventional degree or a certificate, but a “badge…
An industry, and even more so any individual company, is only as strong as its pipeline of incoming talent. This week on QDL we looked at this topic from a few different angles. Here’s what we covered at greater length:
“Ripped From the Headlines: Worker Shortage” A recent article on the Bloomberg…
The U.S. government’s Fourth National Climate Assessment warns that climate change “creates new risks and exacerbates existing vulnerabilities in communities across the United States, presenting growing challenges to human health and safety, quality of life, and the rate of economic growth.” The…
This is part three of a three-part series. Read about good metrics in part one and bad metrics in part two.
Have you ever had occasion to dread a metric reviewed month after month, where the metric defies logic, and any action taken does not seem to reflect in the metric? It is most likely a bad…
Annalise Suzuki, director of technology and engagement at software provider Elysium Inc., spoke to Quality Digest about the importance of model-based definitions (MBD) for data quality, validation, and engineering change management. With the increase of digital 3D models in the manufacturing…
(NSF International: Ann Arbor, MI) -- Whether in daily operations or at a special event, organizations are looking for more ways to implement sustainable practices and reduce the waste they create. Recently, using our expertise in materials management and waste reduction, NSF International worked…
(NPL: Middlesex, UK) -- Following the recent decision taken by measurement scientists from around the world to redefine the International System of Measurement (SI) units, on the 20th of each month we will be looking at one of the seven SI base units.
You’ll be able to find out where the unit is…
(NIST: Gaithersberg, MD) -- Lasers play roles in many manufacturing processes, from welding car parts to crafting engine components with 3D printers.* To control these tasks, manufacturers must ensure that their lasers fire at the correct power.
But to date, there has been no way to precisely…
(CMSC: Weatherford, TX) -- Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS) has issued a call for technical papers for the 35th annual Coordinate Metrology Society Conference (CMSC) to be held July 22–26, 2018, in Orlando, Florida. The CMSC provides an inclusive knowledge platform for subject matter experts from…
(InnovMetric: Quebec, QC, Canada) -- InnovMetric Software, the leading provider of universal 3D metrology software solutions, today announced the launch of the PolyWorks Collaborative Suite. This new software solution provides a complete and efficient digital data storage solution to manage all 3D…
By any test, and certainly any measure, 2018 was a banner year for the Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS) and its keystone event, the Coordinate Metrology Society Conference (CMSC).
From the group’s founding in 1984 until today, the CMS has made a concerted and successful effort to support the…
(Hexagon: North Kingstown, RI) -- Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division has launched the new 360° FMC-Tracker, a flexible measurement cell powered by the “absolute accuracy” of the Leica Absolute Tracker AT960 and the Leica T-Scan 5 laser scanner. The solution debuted in September at the…
(FARO: Lake Mary, FL) -- FARO, the world’s most trusted source for 3D measurement and imaging solutions for public safety, and STORMBEE, a pioneer in Mobile UAV technology, have partnered to offer an integrated, cost-effective airborne 3D scanning solution specifically designed to quickly gather…
(Creaform: Levis, Canada) -- Creaform, a worldwide leader in portable and automated 3D measurement solutions, inaugurated its new European demonstration and benchmark center for its 3D scanning coordinate measurement machine (CMM), the CUBE-R. Offered as an off-the-shelf, fully integrated automated…
Modern super-precision turning centers must provide accuracy in the lower range of diamond-turning machines (cylindricity of less than 1–2 μm) and high productivity. Traditionally, diamond-turning machines have not been able to provide this because of their design limitations. However, high…
Since their invention more than 100 years ago, airplanes have been moved through the air by the spinning surfaces of propellers or turbines. But watching science fiction movies like the Star Wars, Star Trek, and the Back to the Future series, I imagined that the propulsion systems of the future…
