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Anyone who has performed ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis knows that you need to check the residual plots to validate your model. Have you ever wondered why? There are mathematical reasons, of course, but I’m going to focus on the conceptual ones.
The bottom line is that randomness…
(InspectionXpert: Raleigh, NC) -- InspectionXpert Corp. has released InspectionXpert for PDF 2012 and InspectionXpert OnDemand 2012. InspectionXpert for PDF and InspectionXpert OnDemand work with PDF/TIFF files created from any source, including scanned drawings, to quickly and accurately turn…
(APQC: Houston, TX) -- During the course of three months, the Advanced Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) ran a voice-of-the-customer survey to find out what process management topics interest you the most and what you needed to help show increased stakeholder value, decreased cycle time,…
(ANSI: Washington, DC) -- Clean, potable water is a basic life necessity many of us take for granted. Yet around the world, 783 million people have no regular access to safe drinking water, and 2.5 billion people live without proper sanitation.
To examine the ways in which international…
(Georgia Tech: Atlanta) -- Learn about the evolution of lean from the factory floor to human development at Georgia Tech’s annual Lean Consortium. This year’s event, “Respect for the People,” will be held May 10, 2012, 10 a.m.–3 p.m. EDT at the Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway. This seminar focuses…
(Laser Design: Minneapolis, MN) -- Laser Design Inc., the leading supplier of 3D laser scanners for more than 25 years, has released its inspection-grade 3-D scanning system, the SURVEYOR Auto Gage 3D.
“The SURVEYOR Auto Gage 3D scanning system was developed to provide a totally automated,…
(AMT: McLean, VA) -- February U.S. manufacturing technology orders totaled $444.06 million, according to AMT, The Association for Manufacturing Technology. This total, as reported by companies participating in the United States Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) program, was up 9.3 percent…
Physicists at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU), have demonstrated a novel “superradiant” laser design, which has the potential to be 100 to 1,000 times more stable than the best conventional visible…
During the 1940s, it was commonplace for boys, during their formative years, to spend their days girl-free. In fact, my pals and I zealously maintained girl-free territories so that our game playing, bike rides, and hours of comic book reading were devoid of girls. We even had a clubhouse that was…
(Toyota USA: Torrance, CA) -- Toyota Technical Center (TTC), a division of Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing, North America (TEMA), has announced that the company will hire approximately 150 engineers, technicians, advanced researchers, and scientists by the end of 2012. The hiring…
(The Joint Commission: Oakbrook Terrace, IL) -- The Joint Commission enterprise has launched a health care-associated infections (HAI) electronic portal that provides a wealth of HAI resources. The “HAI Portal” is a joint effort of The Joint Commission enterprise, which includes the Joint…
(Steinbichler: Plymouth, MI) -- Steinbichler, a global supplier of optical measuring and sensor technology, will present two new products at the CONTROL 2012 trade fair (hall 5 stand 5304) held May 8–11, 2012. The STEINBICHLER ABIS optimizer, is the world’s first portable surface-testing system…
(Instron: Norwood, MA) -- Instron, a leading provider of testing equipment solutions designed to evaluate mechanical properties of materials and components, has launched BioBox, a controlled air environment ideally designed for testing of large or long medical devices at body temperature. The…
(IRCA: London) -- IRCA and RABQSA today announced a change to the Bilateral Agreement on the mutual acceptance of training courses and examinations for auditor certification.
The IRCA-RABQSA agreement has been in place since 2006 based on the equivalence of outcome of each organization’s training…
(FARO: Lake Mary, FL) -- FARO Technologies, the world’s most trusted source for 3-D measurement technology, has announced that CEO Jay Freeland will appear on CNBC’s Street Signs on Friday, April 13, at 2 p.m. EDT to provide insight into manufacturing and manufacturing technology. Freeland has…
(Robert Half: Menlo Park, CA) -- The biggest roadblocks to organizational breakthroughs are a shortage of fresh thinking and too much red tape, according to executives interviewed for a recent Robert Half survey. More than one-third (35 percent) of chief financial officers (CFOs) said a lack of new…
Problem-solving tools are powerful things. But not so powerful that they are immune to human error. Few things are.
Analogously, this is one reason why our school teachers strongly encouraged proofreading. You know—critically reading what you just wrote to ensure that it is clear, well-organized,…
Argonne researchers are working with two industrial partners to create nanofluids that improve the cooling of power electronics in hybrid electric vehicles.
These new coolants can lessen the need for heat exchangers, which could result in smaller cooling systems and lighter vehicles.
“Fluids…
I am no longer surprised by the number of people who say, “I’m working on my Green Belt/Black Belt certification, but I’m not sure how to apply Six Sigma to [health care, telecom, hotels, food, transportation]—insert your service industry here. They just can’t seem to figure out how to translate…
The older I get, the more I realize that the basic things we believe in and live by do not change. The world keeps moving faster and faster. We need to run and work harder just to keep up. We get sidetracked by many new ways to use our time. Technology is moving so fast that before you can learn…
(Siemens: Plano, TX) -- Siemens PLM Software, a business unit of the Siemens Industry Automation Division and a developer of product life-cycle management (PLM) software and services, has released Parasolid software, its 3-D geometric modeling component for computer-aided design, manufacturing, and…
(Goodrich ISR Systems: Princeton, NJ) -- Goodrich ISR Systems’ suite of high-resolution, near-infrared (NIR) and shortwave infrared (SWIR) line-scan and area cameras have been designed to meet the needs of a many different markets and offer superior image quality.
For military and defense…
The title of this column reflects what has been my guiding philosophy ever since my first managerial position. And I truly believe that the statement is accurate. This observation led me to muse recently about what makes employees not just good, but exceptional—the types of employees we all want as…
Everyone in the quality profession has heard the term “NIST traceable.” Having calibration traceability to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is desirable for most measurement devices. It is also enshrined as a requirement in some regulatory documents. Unfortunately, NIST…
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- The 2012 Quest for Excellence Conference is the definitive showcase of best practices from the recipients of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest honor for performance excellence and innovation. This year’s conference will be held April 16–18…
