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Thinking about what life has brought to me thus far, I remember just how tentative and uncertain everything seemed when I first began my career. What would I do? Where would I do it? What was really required to succeed? Fortunately, I found mentors very early on who were—and are—deeply invested in…
For suppliers, one question comes up again and again in their distributor relationships: Should you treat your distributors like employees, or should you treat them more like customers? The answer isn’t always clear.
Distributors seem like employees because they sell and deliver a supplier’s…
A post by Jeff DeGraff prompted me to write this. His post was titled, “What Are You Willing to Give Up for Innovation?” although on a closer read he’s not really suggesting that you give up anything. However, most executives believe that “doing” innovation involves a ratio of tradeoffs, …
(MIT News: Cambridge, MA) -- Today’s 3D printers, in which devices rather like inkjet-printer nozzles deposit materials in layers to build up physical objects, are a great tool for designers building prototypes or small companies with limited product runs.
But they take a long time to produce…
It’s a fact that air gauges are typically not in use approximately 90 percent (or more) of the time they’re in your shop or QC department. Because these gauges function by using clean and dry compressed air in a highly controlled flow, this relatively expensive commodity can cost your operation…
Here we are in 2015, all one year older and one year smarter… well, hopefully. Before we forget all those ambitious New Year’s resolutions (which we’ll renegotiate in February), let’s take one final look at the key trends that kept U.S. manufacturing in the news in 2014.
Technology
Technological…
(Frost & Sullivan: Mountain View, CA) -- Smart packaging has become an active field of research in various industries as the need to track goods through the supply chain escalates. Significant work is underway among various stakeholders to identify and commercialize smart packaging…
At the end of part one, aspiring statisticians Woodrow “Woody” Stem and August “Russell” Leaf, creators of the famed Stem-and-Leaf plot, were in bad shape. They had beaten each other statsless after an argument about the challenge given to them by their mentor, Dr. Histeaux Graham. That challenge…
Evolutionary biologist Stephen J. Gould is best known for his history of punctuated equilibrium, a revision to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Punctuated equilibrium holds that new species evolve suddenly over brief periods of time, followed by longer periods during which there is no genetic…
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- NIST is soliciting applications from eligible public school districts and accredited private educational institutions in the United States and its territories, nominating middle school science teachers to participate in the 2015 NIST Summer Institute Program. The two-…
(ECM: Topsfield, MA) -- ECM Global Measurement Solutions has introduced a completely redesigned metrology services website. Significantly restructured and customized for easy navigation and application support, the new East Coast Metrology (ECM) site offers users the ability to research available…
In November 2014, Quality Digest Daily published the first in a series about companywide lean cultures and how a lean journey affects people and companies. Jonesboro, Arkansas-based Hytrol Conveyors, a designer and manufacturer of advanced conveyor systems, allowed an in-depth examination of why…
In part one of this two-part column, we discussed the uses and occasional misapplications of the rolling action item list (RAIL). Now, let’s discuss some good practices and optional features that can help us make better use of this tool and become more efficient. The first and most important…
What resolutions are you making in the New Year to improve your supply chain? Here are a few of mine.
To remember that supply chains should be built backward from the customer
One way to do this is to use a perfect order metric as a key way of measuring the supply chain organization. The question…
Let’s talk about the rolling action item list (RAIL). It’s an essential tool for many organizations and project leaders. Unfortunately, it is a highly dysfunctional tool for many.
Let’s look at some mistakes that undermine the RAIL’s utility and some good practices that make it more useful. Get…
(AMETEK: Bognor Regis, West Sussex, UK) -- AMETEK Solartron Metrology, a leader in linear measurement and dimensional gauging, has introduced a Bluetooth-enabled interface controller for wireless communication with the Orbit 3 network.
The wireless interface module (WIM) allows communication…
My November 2014 post, which I titled “Gratitude, for Gratitude,” generated a large number of responses. Interestingly, most were private, commenting on both the nature of gratitude but especially on my daily routine. I had detailed my regular set of activities in the morning, including meditation…
Last month a New Delhi taxi driver allegedly committed a sexual assault on a woman rider. Reacting to the public outcry that followed, the Delhi government decided to ban Uber, the taxi company that contracted the taxi driver.
This startling news reminds me of some companies’ reactions to quality…
(Stratasys: Eden Prairie, MN) -- Additive manufacturing is changing the way we plan, design, and produce products. By augmenting traditional manufacturing processes with 3D-printed production tools, molds, and final parts, additive manufacturing can accelerate delivery times while significantly…
Tom’s board spun out from under his feet as he attempted to surf the large wave. As he plunged backward into the roiling surf, he was frustrated once again by the lack of stability from his traditional Hawaiian-style surfboard.
A few days later as he was walking along the beach, he came across a…
Whenever the original data pile up against a barrier or a boundary value, the histogram tends to be skewed and non-normal in shape. In 1967 Irving W. Burr computed the appropriate bias correction factors for non-normal probability models. These bias correction factors allow us to evaluate the…
Those of us in the media get into our careers for various reasons and in many different ways, but one thing that we all have in common is our love of a good story. Finding the narrative, discovering the angle, figuring out why we (and you) should care—these are the things that keep us coming back…
(ISO:Geneva) -- What’s good for the environment is often good for business, and efficient energy consumption is a perfect example. Now businesses can improve their energy performance even more with the addition of three new ISO standards to complete their range of energy management efforts.…
In my last column I wrote about the seven perspectives that pollute customers and culture. These perspectives rule the design of our organizations. They are inherent to our work cultures and thinking. They put us on autopilot as we toil in our everyday work. The first step to change that is to…
Why are so few companies values-driven? Even when they start down that path, why do they wind up dead-ended?
A 2012 study shows “employees want their organizations to display honesty and integrity in business activities,” and “when leaders behave consistently with the core values, they earn…
