All News
Is customer service a lost art, or are today’s customers harder to please?
On the one hand, moments of tear-your-hair-out frustration are commonplace—from shopping in stores where sales associates are nowhere to be found, to dealing with salespeople unable to help locate a sought-after item, to…
Is it possible to apply the principle of first time right (FTR) in a sales context? This two-part article looks at what happens when companies do just that. Part one defined FTR in sales, and outlined some of the obvious advantages. Part two looks at FTR in sales’ effect on revenue, profits, and…
First time right (FTR), or doing things right the first time, is an important concept in quality. Some experts even consider FTR the very definition of quality. This two-part article summarizes an experiment in which FTR was applied to sales. Is it possible to sell something right the first time?…
(ThedaCare: Appleton, WI) — John S. Toussaint, M.D., and Roger A. Gerard, Ph.D., have earned the prestigious Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award for their book, On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry (Lean Enterprise Institute Inc., 2010).…
(General Tools: New York) -- The new series of USB Humidity and Temperature Data Loggers (HT10/20/50) from General Tools & Instruments (General) makes long-term, unattended monitoring of myriad environments easier and less costly. Each unit in General’s HT Series enables users to keep an eye on…
(USON: Houston) Quality engineers can now obtain the USON Pressure Decay Leak Test Calculator—the first in a family of automated Uson NDT Test Calculators—to generate nearly instantaneous answers to “what if” modeling of pressure-decay leak testing variables and exact returns on investment from new…
(Xcentric: Chesterfield, MI) -- Xcentric Mold and Engineering Inc., a leader in custom plastic-injection molding, has launched the company’s proprietary Process Engine, which delivers quality, reliability, and repeatability for companies looking to cost-effectively manufacture products in the…
Top executives in Europe and the U.S. say global political and economic risk, and government regulation are their most pressing concerns, while Asian CEOs name innovation as their top challenge, closely followed by human capital—attracting, retaining, and rewarding talent. So finds The Conference…
(AIA: Ann Arbor, MI) -- The Vision Show, North America’s largest vision and imaging trade show and conference, will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, at the Hynes Convention Center, May 8-10, 2012. AIA, the world’s largest trade association promoting vision and imaging industries, founded The…
(Productivity Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- How do you take talented engineers and surround them with the elements needed to create brilliant designs that lead to market-changing products? A lean production preparation process (3P) is how.
Written from an operations perspective, The Lean 3P Advantage…
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is hosting a free public workshop on best practices in federal conformity-assessment activities Wed., April 11, 2012, at NIST’s Gaithersburg, Maryland, site. Conformity assessment determines whether a process,…
(Kistler: Novi, MI) -- Kistler, a global supplier of precision sensors, systems, and instrumentation for the dynamic measurement of pressure, force, torque, and acceleration, has introduced the Type 9211BE miniature quartz force sensor with single-wire technology, designed for high-reliability…
(Chromasens GmbH: Ann Arbor, MI) -- The improved performance of modern camera systems has increased their value as image-capturing solutions. However, a central issue is often overlooked, as Markus Schnitzlein, managing director of Chromasens GmbH, emphasizes, “In addition to a high-quality camera…
(BSI: London) -- The 2012 Business Continuity Management Survey, “Planning for the Worst” published this month by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) examines how prepared organizations were for unexpected and damaging disruptions to their day-to-day operations over the past year.
During 2011…
(Jossey-Bass: Cross Point, IN) -- At the top of every organization chart lies a myth: that a senior management team makes a company’s critical decisions. The reality is that critical decisions are typically made by the boss and a small group of confidants, a “team with no name,” outside of formal…
During the the mid-1980s, two great schools of investigation were put up against each other. Each were immensely popular, and still are today, with fans firmly seated in one methodology or the other. One school was led by a disheveled, cigar-smoking character. The other had a lady more akin to your…
I am 100-percent certain that on the day they asked me to manage at Minitab, they did not tell me I would have to do so much process work. They didn’t clearly articulate that as a manager, I’d spend a considerable part of my time discussing how we develop software rather than actually developing…
It turns out you can be too thin—especially if you’re a nanoscale battery. Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); the University of Maryland, College Park; and Sandia National Laboratories built a series of nanowire batteries to demonstrate that the thickness of…
(Lenox: Trevose, PA) -- Lenox Instrument Co.’s Micro Borescope delivers a clear, bright image ideal for close-range inspection of medical devices like coronary stents; tubing; micromolded, machined, and cast parts; and electronic and mechanical assemblies—particularly where access is limited and…
(Toshiba Imaging: Irvine, CA) -- Toshiba Imaging, a leader in high-definition color video imaging, is working with ISee3D Inc. on an advanced 3-D microscope digital video system using a single Toshiba IK-HD1, three-chip CCD high-definition camera. ISee3D is a Canadian company that develops…
(Mettler-Toledo: Greifensee, Switzerland) -- Mettler-Toledo, a leader in the research and development of products and services in the precision instrument industry, has launched the SmartCal reference substance, designed to verify and document moisture analyzer performance.
SmartCal is a new…
Exquisite home décor begins with products that epitomize attention to detail and artistic subtleties that are often hard to manufacture in volume without looking mass-produced. For more than 55 years, Baldwin Hardware, part of the Stanley Black & Decker’s Hardware and Home Improvements (Stanley…
(ISO: Geneva) -- An open competition has been launched to design the poster for World Standards Day based on the theme “Less Waste, Better Results—Standards Increase Efficiency.” Poster submissions will be accepted through May 9, 2012. World Standards Day, held annually on October 14, celebrates…
In the manufacturing and assembly world, tightening, controlling, or measuring torque fasteners is imperative for production efficiency. An inadequately torqued fastener can vibrate or work loose; conversely, if the tension is too high, the fastener can snap or strip its threads. Faced with these…
In my March 7, 2012, column, “An Elegantly Simple but Counterintuitive Approach to Analysis,” I suggested the necessity to formally assess the stability of the process producing any data—a step not usually taught in most academic statistics courses. This is done by plotting the data in their…
