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In yet another Olympian feat of measurement, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently calibrated a tape that will be used to measure out the distance of this summer’s Olympic marathon—a distance of 26 miles and 385 yards—to 1 part in 1,000.
Measurement is a…
I am in the midst of teaching an online MBA course in statistical thinking. This is actually my second go-round, and I've heavily revised my inherited materials, which were well-meaning but had some obvious gaps.
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I insisted on using Brian Joiner’s Fourth Generation Management…
(ISO: Geneva) -- The website for the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has had a major face-lift.
“Simpler, faster, and better” access to information on ISO standards is the aim of the new edition of ISO’s website, which has been fully revised with customer focus and readability…
(The Conference Board: New York) -- Americans of all ages and income brackets have the highest job satisfaction levels since the beginning of the Great Recession. However, the majority continue to be unhappy at work, according to a report released by The Conference Board.
The report, based on a…
These days quality professionals have shifted away from actually writing procedures to helping others develop documentation to describe the businesses they are in. Although I live in hope, I still see many poor attempts at “procedures”—or at least failures in their facilitation.
I have a simple…
(ThedaCare: Appleton, WI) -- The ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value has published a new white paper, “Measuring Value: Linking Cost and Quality of Patient Outcomes to Drive Organization and Industry Improvements.” This health care value report illustrates the power of value metrics in improving…
(Teledyne DALSA: Waterloo, ON, Canada) -- Teledyne DALSA, designer and manufacturer of digital imaging solutions and machine vision technology, has expanded its Genie TS camera series with the addition of three new color models. The Genie TS uses Teledyne DALSA’s advanced CMOS imaging sensor…
(McGraw-Hill: New York) -- Social Marketology: Improve Your Social Media Processes and Get Customers to Stay Forever, by Ric Dragon (McGraw-Hill, 2012) is about developing a larger social media strategy and the steps for implementing this strategy.
Drawing from such process methodologies as lean…
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- For the first time in the 25-year history of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, high-performing organizations that are candidates for the award will be eligible for recognition of their best practices in six of the seven Baldrige Criteria categories, even if…
(SAE: Warrendale, PA) -- Employment prospects and salaries have improved for the majority of automotive engineers since the end of the global recessions, according to the 2012 SAE International Salary Study. The study also showed that where one works has a direct bearing on whether a salary…
(BYK-Gardner: Geretsried, Germany) -- BYK-Gardner, a manufacturer of instruments and system solutions for quality control of color, appearance, and physical properties of paints and plastics, has a new feature in its measurement data analysis software, smart-chart, which distributes digital master…
(Bloomsbury Publishing: London) -- Is your business as profitable as it could be? How can you rise above your competition, and stay there once you have? Most management tools only look at one part of the picture, but business performance excellence (BPE) is the complete model, integrating new…
(CMSC: Benbrook, TX) -- The Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS), the eminent membership association for industrial measurement professionals, is hosting the first CMSC Metrology Careers Fair on Thursday, July 19, 2012, from 10 a.m.–11:30 a.m., during the Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference (CMSC…
(Microscan: Renton, WA) -- Microscan, developer of precision data acquisition and control systems, has added the I-PAK SE2 stainless-steel enclosure to its Visionscape I-PAK machine vision inspection system. The I-PAK SE2 is designed to meet the specific needs of pharmaceutical manufacturers. As a…
Guest blog post for NIST by Patrick Gallagher, Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology, and the director of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
We’ve been hearing a lot about manufacturing, especially advanced manufacturing, these days. Things like U.S.…
(Maplesoft: Waterloo, ON) -- Maplesoft, a provider of high-performance software tools for engineering, science, and mathematics, has announced a new product that integrates MapleSim, the company’s physical modeling tool, with vehicle dynamics tools from VI-grade. The MapleSim Connector for VI-…
(Productivity Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- Healthcare Kaizen, by Mark Graban (Productivity Press, 2012), focuses on the principles and methods of daily continuous improvement, or kaizen, for health care professionals and organizations. Kaizen is a Japanese word that means “change for the better,” as…
(Atlas: Louisville, KY) -- Atlas Machine and Supply, headquartered at the Jefferson Riverport International in Louisville, Kentucky, has launched its nationwide laser-tracking metrology services for use in large-scale, on-site machining jobs for industry. The laser technology is especially…
T eams are created to tackle difficult issues and tough organizational problems. Invariably, the solutions that teams develop result in active transformations that disrupt the status quo and personal agendas—including, sometimes, removing people from their positions of power. Consequently, there is…
It has been said, “Teaching is the best form of learning.” When was the last time you put on your teaching hat to help someone else? When you take time to help others, you not only do them a favor but you also improve your own skills in the process of helping them with theirs.
Part of being a good…
To continually improve operations, satisfy customers, and successfully achieve universally recognized accreditations such as the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program (Nadcap), it is important to have a company culture that is focused on quality.
Too often, the quality…
Complex systems inhabit a “gray world” of partial failures: While a system may continue to operate as a whole, bits and pieces inevitably degrade. Over time, these small failures can add up to a single catastrophic failure, incapacitating the system.
“Think about your car,” says Olivier de Weck,…
There you are, in the middle of an internal or external audit, and the auditor asks you a question that you are truly not sure about. What do you do?
1. Hit the panic button. 2. Ask the audience for a hint. 3. Phone a friend.
Well, there isn’t a studio audience, and chances are the auditor didn’t…
(Hexagon Metrology: North Kingstown, RI) -- Hexagon Metrology Inc. will feature innovations in measurement automation at the International Manufacturing Technology Show 2012 (IMTS) being held at McCormick Place in Chicago from Sept. 10–15, 2012. In booth E-5202, Hexagon will exhibit a full…
(INUS: Seoul, South Korea) -- INUS Technology, a provider of technology and services in 3-D scanning and developer of Rapidform software, a well-known name in reverse engineering, inspection, and scan data processing, has announced a strategic agreement with Basis Software, developer of the…
