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One of the big themes in the current presidential race is how decades of free trade have dealt a heavy blow to the U.S. worker as millions of jobs were shipped overseas to take advantage of cheap labor.
That’s even turned some pro free-trade Republicans into protectionists. As a result, the…
(Kreon: Limoges, France) -- At the recent Control tradeshow in Stuttgart, Germany, Kreon Technologies unveiled the Ace Skyline: a Kreon scanning arm with the powerful integrated 3D scanner Skyline that can be used for any application (e.g., 3D inspection, CAD comparison, reverse engineering, rapid…
May 8 was Mother's Day. In today's article I will be writing about somebody who has been called "The Mother of Modern Management" and "America's First Lady of Engineering." Many of this woman's concepts and ideas lend themselves really well to the Toyota Production System.
Lillian Moller Gilbreth…
Trivia question of the day: What do toilet paper, sugar, coffee, cheese, ice cream, and sugar have in common? Two things, actually. Their prices are up, and their packaging units are down.
A can of coffee is now likely to be only 11 ounces, diminished from a full pound several years ago. Likewise…
I recently read an HBR blog by Sunnie Giles that reported the results of a study of 195 leaders representing 30 global organizations. The leaders were asked to identify the most important competencies for leadership. The study reminded me of a complementary article in Forbes, written by Glen…
(Fowler: Newton, MA) -- Fowler High Precision rolled out it’s newest addition to its fleet of Mobile Tech Centers (MTCs) and 3D Mobile Tech Vans. Mobile Tech Center number three hit the road on May 10, 2016, departing from Fowler headquarters in Newton, Massachusetts, on its way to the West Coast…
For as long as we have had automobiles, we have had traffic accidents. Even the vehicles that we depend on to take care of us in the event of an accident—ambulances—get into accidents nearly every day. Because ambulances are basically a small emergency room on wheels, the occupants in the back are…
(Business Wire: London) According to the latest market study released by Technavio, the smart machines market in the Americas is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 15 percent during the forecast period.
This research report, titled “Smart Machines Market in…
The Pareto chart is a graphic representation of the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle. If you’re a quality improvement specialist, you know that the chart is named after the early 20th-century economist Vilfredo Pareto, who discovered that roughly 20 percent of the population in Italy…
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- Thirty-four organizations from a wide range of sectors have submitted applications for the 2016 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Demonstrating the relevance and value of the Baldrige Excellence Framework to organizations of multiple sizes and sectors, the 2016…
There can be little argument that consumers are growing more suspicious of business. They question its motives, and increasingly, its marketing, which recently has been said to be manipulative. Consumers are ever more aware of the Internet pop-ups and exaggerated claims they receive in a targeted…
Sponsored Content
PLZ Aeroscience is North America’s largest custom aerosol manufacturer and packager. It produces its own private-brand products and custom formulations, and provides contract filling for other customers. PLZ has been in business for more than 100 years and during the last six…
Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from the book, Management Lessons From Taiichi Ohno: What Every Leader Can Learn From the Man who Invented the Toyota Production System, by Takehiko Harada (McGraw-Hill Education, 2015).
The phrase, “kaizen equals getting closer to the final process” was hardly…
In an earlier article, we discussed a pair of concepts—interoperability and connectivity—that are essential prerequisites for creating a successful national system for evidence generation (or “EvGen”). Here, we take a look at how we would apply these constructs as we go about building such a…
In an earlier article, we discussed a pair of concepts—interoperability and connectivity—that are essential prerequisites for creating a successful national system for evidence generation (or “EvGen”). Here, we take a look at how we would apply these constructs as we go about building such a…
In 2013, the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence started asking questions related to an organization’s use of social media. An emphasis was placed on effective use of social media. In the early days of this criteria change, many users of the Criteria had limited engagement with social…
The map is not the territory.
—Alfred Korzybski
This column is a tribute primarily to Jamshid Gharajedaghi, a long-time teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend. My wife Carole and I recently visited him while in Philadelphia doing a presentation for the International Society for Performance…
Sponsored Content
The portable measuring arm, or portable arm coordinate measuring machine (CMM) has become an important quality control tool at many manufacturing companies. With the flexibility to be used nearly anywhere on a manufacturing floor, from in-process checks to large-scale assembly to…
Colonel Paul M. A. Linebarger’s authoritative Psychological Warfare (Infantry Journal Press, 1948) defines propaganda as any planned communication with the purpose to influence behavior, but this definition is actually too narrow. Propaganda consists of any action or communication, whether…
Visual scheduling is a plain, two-dimensional format that maps out which products, parts, or subassemblies need to be produced, and when, in what quantity, and in what order. Nothing could be simpler.
In companies where schedules aren't published in a single, centralized location for all to see…
(CMS: Weatherford, TX) -- The Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS), in collaboration with University North Carolina, Charlotte, has announced that the PrecisionPath Consortium for Large-Scale Manufacturing will officially launch an industry-at-large survey on Monday, May 23, 2016, at its website.…
Superconducting (SC) magnetic and SC radiofrequency (SRF) devices designed for use in particle accelerators present challenging alignment problems. These devices are assembled and aligned at room temperature but operate at 2 Kelvin (K) to 4 Kelvin (K), with thermal offsets being large relative to…
On World Metrology Day this Friday, May 20, I ask that you pause a minute when you look at the alarm clock in morning, and then again as you set the thermostat or look at the weather report. World Metrology Day celebrates a link that binds humanity—the bond of a common measurement that is…
(FARO: Lake Mary, FL) -- The FARO Design ScanArm is a portable 3D scanning solution tailored for 3D modeling, reverse engineering, and CAD-based design applications across the product life cycle management (PLM) process.
As a limited-time promotional offer, the FARO Design ScanArm will be bundled…
(ACQUIP: Miami Beach, FL) -- ACQUIP, a leading provider of laser alignment, metrology and 3D scanning services, announce today the issuance of U.S Patent No. 20150354750 for the MAGIE, an adjustable magnetic mount for metrology equipment. This patent confirms ACQUIP’s efforts to deliver quality…
