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ometimes it’s necessary for a person to offer up views that seem to be an affront. Because these views often challenge the status quo, people’s reactions can be mixed. Some will consider the person a heretic for expressing them, and others will wonder why anyone would say such a thing. The…
Many medical devices today perform at least one function by using wireless technology to support health care delivery. In telemedicine, for example, a wireless device can enable real-time monitoring of patients from a distance. Data from a patient-worn or implanted medical device goes directly to…
This article is about how augmented reality (AR) techniques can change the way we use measurement equipment. Three applications are presented to demonstrate how much easier, faster, and more intuitive an inspection task gets through gesture control (GC) and presenting information on the inspected…
This article is about how augmented reality (AR) techniques can change the way we use measurement equipment. Three applications are presented to demonstrate how much easier, faster, and more intuitive an inspection task gets through gesture control (GC) and presenting information on the inspected…
This article is about how augmented reality (AR) techniques can change the way we use measurement equipment. Three applications are presented to demonstrate how much easier, faster, and more intuitive an inspection task gets through gesture control (GC) and presenting information on the inspected…
Location, location, location! Last month, a diverse assortment of metrologists, scientists, engineers, quality control specialists, manufacturers, educators, and students streamed into the 2013 Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference (CMSC). This annual event was staged at the beautiful Sheraton…
In the last couple of columns, I’ve been discussing work in process (WIP), the size of tasks, how we complete certain types of tasks, and who or what might interrupt us. Perhaps it’s time to understand the consumers of our tasks: our customers.
Whenever we do something, even if it’s simply…
A few years ago when I was a young lad, a friend of mine introduced me to a newfangled gizmo called Pong. We temporarily disconnected his Betamax from his 27-in. big-screen TV (a new color model) and connected up the game. I was hooked. I couldn't get enough of moving a white rectangle up and down…
Caring bosses who help employees with their personal and work problems shouldn’t expect gratitude, loyalty, and commitment in return, new research has warned. According to a study by Switzerland-based business school, IMD, most managers believe offering emotional support will benefit their company…
In my line of work, I visit many wiring harness shops that produce harnesses for many different industries. One of the common issues I’ve noticed in shops that use crimp force monitors (CFMs) is that they are usually turned off, regardless of the brand, because engineers and operators aren’t using…
This article provides a review of three proven quality assurance tips that are applicable for software, manufacturing, and service organizations. They provide guidance to senior management, as well as engineers and technical staff, for selecting and implementing quality improvement projects.
When…
MIT professor emeritus Rodney Brooks gained fame during the 1990s for co-founding iRobot, an MIT spin-off that brought the Roomba and other innovative, helpful robots to the world. He’s since moved on to robots that are bigger, but no less revolutionary.
Brooks’ newest startup, Rethink Robotics,…
I opened a fortune cookie yesterday, which read “Understanding little is better than misunderstanding a lot.” Seems to me that we lean wannabes misunderstand a lot—maybe not everyone, but I regretfully include myself in that group.
There is so much to know about the Toyota Production System (TPS…
In a world where appetizers often are more important than the meals themselves, repeated information and news can become boring. That is, what appears to be new attracts more than what actually is new.
Effective reporting likewise suffers from this tendency.
As an obstinate ISO 9001, ISO 14001,…
Imagine the power of your company and how much more productive each of your employees would be if every employee could leverage the collective knowledge of everybody else. This collective knowledge would stay with your company, and you’d be able to continually update it even if individuals left. I…
Without data, a company would never survive today. With a little data, it might have a fighting chance, depending on the quality and timing of the information. But what happens when a company has access to too much data?
Ironically, the company could go out of business even with the best…
I recently had an opportunity to learn about quality in industry in a Soviet Bloc nation, the former German Democratic Republic, better known as East Germany. I was invited to dinner with a family that included somebody who worked in a cotton mill during the final decades of East Germany.
I had…
Editor’s note: This continues Jack Dunigan’s series about unsung heroes in the workplace, and the 16 traits they all share.
Many potential employers put this requirement directly in their help-wanted ads: “Must be a self-starter.” This is, apparently, an all-too-unusual trait.
Perhaps more than…
(August 2013) - NVision, the leader in non-contact optical scanning, announced that its technology consulting philosophy has been successful in saving time and money for companies in need of 3D scanning.
"Unfortunately, most companies just want to focus on selling their scanning equipment or their…
Purchasing a used car can be stressful due to all the factors that must be considered. Websites such as www.cars.com provide a wealth of information, but how do you navigate through it all to find the best deal?
Once you narrow your choice down to a particular car model, the data from cars.com…
Statistician George Box said, “Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful.” Clarifying what he meant, Box went on to say, “Remember that all models are wrong; the practical question is how wrong do they have to be to not be useful?” I think he had a point that’s worth thinking about a…
Twenty-six percent of the world’s adult population was employed full time for an employer in 2012, down slightly from 27 percent a year ago. This decline reverses the upward trend in Gallup’s Payroll to Population (P2P) measure since the height of the global recession in 2009.
Gallup’s P2P metric…
(FFD Inc.) -- FFD Inc. announces the release of Sequence Enterprise Work Instruction Software v3.0. “This new version of Sequence is specifically focused on the operational needs of manufacturing companies that not only need to securely validate and capture information about how their products are…
For medical devices, the term “interoperability” refers to the ability of various devices to interact, and for electronic health record systems to talk to each other using a common vocabulary. It is similar to the concept of “plug and play” computer attachments such as a web cam or mouse, which…
Asset management is not a new practice. Managing assets to meet organizational or social objectives has existed since humans first began building infrastructures, whether private or public. The effort and resources involved inevitably generated the need to preserve and maintain such…