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Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) regulations help protect the public from the toxicity and pollution associated with consumer products and electronics. Beyond public health and safety concerns, the cost of noncompliance, including fines, product recalls, and decreased…
As manufacturing becomes increasingly oblivious of where one country stops and another begins, the responsibilities of quality managers have extended beyond the safely measurable and into the loosely regulated wilds of global competition. Quality control now requires a sense of how different…
Recently I was contacted by a reader asking me if I would suggest some exercises that he could use to think more creatively. That request has inspired me to write about some fun ways that you, too, can exercise your creative mind.
The purpose of these exercises is to condition your mind to…
A well-designed product equally elevates form and function. It is pleasing to look at, easy to use, and solves a common problem. Here, five design professors answer the following question: What’s the best-designed product of all time, and why? Their responses vary from cheap, everyday products to…
Imagine that a satellite is launched into space and communications are intermittent. This happens because the satellite is wobbling, which causes connection problems in the receiver. The cause of the wobbling is identified: It is the result of not using a calibration provider with a low enough…
What is enterprise quality? Simply put, it is a system where there is one quality manual, and a core of common processes, work instructions, and forms and checklists for a multisite environment. Why is this a good idea? Because it saves money.
Figure 1 illustrates how enterprise quality takes…
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Particles of metal in children’s medicine. Adulterated baby formula. Spontaneously combusting smartphones. When scandal is only a tweet away, companies can’t hide from quality failures.
High-profile quality problems like these can not only harm consumers, but also lead to huge…
(PR Web: Washington, D.C.) -- In a move to further their goal of disability inclusion, User1st, a web accessibility company, will work with members of the nonprofit organization, Dreamscape Foundation. Staff members who possess some form of disability from the Dreamscape Foundation will assist…
(Wiley: Hoboken, NJ) -- Illuminating Statistical Analysis Using Scenarios and Simulations, by Jeffrey E. Kottemann (Wiley, 2017), presents the basic concepts of statistics and statistical inference using the dual mechanisms of scenarios and simulations. It features an integrated approach of…
The tide of popular opinion seems to have turned against multitasking. Recent articles scoff at the notion that people could satisfactorily complete more than one activity at a time, labeling it a myth and a fallacy. This purist pushback in the press mirrors common resentment among professionals…
The complexity, connectivity, and pace of business today demand that employees and leaders understand their work like never before.
This goes beyond “corporate speak’ and buzzword vocabulary; everyone in today’s organizations must have a working knowledge of the strategy and how that translates…
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My wife and I purchased a new car this year. The employee handling the closing paperwork gave a compelling presentation concerning the extended warranty, which we also purchased. His presentation included a litany of high-tech components and even higher-tech systems that could…
(Ford Motor Co.: Dearborn, MI) -- As manufacturing continues to become greener, Ford Motor Co. is going further to shrink its environmental footprint by sharing even more leading sustainability practices with its suppliers around the globe.
The Partnership for A Cleaner Environment (PACE) is part…
A recent question from a statistician in Germany led me to the realization that the F-test of analysis of variance (ANOVA) fame is in serious need of an update.
What the F-ratio does
The F-ratio, created by Sir Ronald Fisher around 1925, is a generalization of Student’s t-test for comparing two…
Logan (a/k/a the Wolverine for the uninitiated) isn’t just a badass comic book character. He’s a leader who can teach us all about sacrifice, perseverance, and how to productively channel anger.
Have you seen Logan yet? If not, go. Now. I’ll wait. It’s required watching if you are a reader of my…
Everyone is looking to do more with less these days. When you compare the cost of postal mail—about a dollar a piece—to the cost of email —about a penny a piece—any B2B marketer is going to prefer using email as the medium for staying in touch with current customers and inquirers. No brainer,…
For as long as humans have been humans (and for perhaps a million years before then, give or take), we’ve been tool users and toolmakers. Short of the occasional Ned Ludd supporter, most of us enthusiastically adopt new technologies to make our lives easier, more productive, or just more fun.…
The measurement of people’s efficiency has a long history in manufacturing industries. Design and production engineers calculate the time required to manufacture a product or batch of products. Each time the product is made, the “actual time” is measured and recorded. The efficiency of the…
The notion of a successful distributed team seems like a wonderful yet unobtainable dream.
But stop and think: How often are your nondistributed teams successful? When have they been successful, and why? It’s never because of your plan, or because you hired the best people. It’s not because you…
The largest problems facing businesses isn’t competition, globalization, or access to capital. It is something else, something embedded in the fabric of organizations as their most important asset. Human capital, the people who make organizations work, is one of the largest single issues being…
In a startup’s early days, innovation is the name of the game. But once companies gain size and recognition, they go into maintenance mode, unwilling to let new approaches take hold. When the CEOs of these larger corporations do seek innovation or change, they expect a seamless execution.
Here’s…
Believe it or not, I love to grocery shop. Besides getting to pick all my favorite foods, I love the challenge of getting the best deals—and a challenge it can sometimes be. Without a doubt, I have found that the best tool available to enable price and value comparison is unit pricing—you know,…
(MIT Sloan School of Management: Cambridge, MA) -- At the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW) held in Portland, Oregon, MIT Sloan professor Thomas W. Malone presented a new research paper highlighting the potential of web-based contests to address…
Two years ago, the marketing research division of Florida-based TR Cutler Inc. interviewed CEOs of privately held manufacturing operations in North America and reported that their top fear was a lack of communication with employees due to the inability to motivate or inspire the workforce. That…
If you’re in the medical device industry, you may think that design controls are a confusing imposition on your processes. But they’re a necessary part of your requirements as a medical device developer, and I’ve noticed that this area tends to be rife with misconceptions, confusion, and generally…