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When the Japanese word kaizen entered the language of quality improvement via Masaaki Imai’s seminal book, Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success, (McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 1986), the author defined kaizen as “ongoing improvement involving everyone.” In a 2011 video posted on YouTube, Imai…
(IBM: Armonk, NY) -- IBM has created the Services Innovation Lab (SIL), a new global lab that will initially comprise about 200 technology experts hand-picked from around the company. The lab will accelerate the expansion of real-time analytics and software automation in both IBM’s technology…
Most of us, I’m confident, have some rather significant events in our lives that bring joy and excitement. It could be marriage, the birth of a child, perhaps a first grandchild, a new home, or retirement. Somewhere in all those events many of us will celebrate our 50th high-school reunion. That…
(InfinityQS: Chantilly, VA) -- InfinityQS International, a provider of real-time quality control software solutions, has announced that Steve Wise, vice president of statistical methods and Six Sigma Black Belt, will host a live webinar, “Box Plots and Pareto Charts for Quality Control,”…
(Banner Engineering: Minneapolis, MN) -- Banner Engineering Corp. has introduced a new version of its TM18 EZ-BEAM compact photoelectric sensor for use in heavy-duty environments. The TM18 offers nickel-plated, die-cast zinc metal housing, as well as completely epoxy-encapsulated electronics.…
(NSF: Ann Arbor, MI) -- NSF International, a global independent
public-health organization with 66 years of experience, including 25
years of pharmaceutical expertise through its NSF Health Sciences
Division, is launching NSF Reference Standards, which will produce
reference standards that…
(Taylor and Francis: New York) -- Whether it’s because of a lack of understanding, poor planning, or myriad other things, 50 to 60 percent of the IT effort in most companies can be considered waste. Explaining how to introduce lean principles to your IT functions to reduce and even eliminate…
Duke University electrical engineers have developed a man-made material that they say literally allows them to manipulate light at will.
They say that the results of their latest proof-of-concept experiments could lead to the replacement of electrical components with those based on optical…
(Fischer Technology: Windsor, CT) -- Fischer Technology’s DUALSCOPE FMP100 touch-screen coating-thickness measurement instrument harmonizes the flexibility and capabilities of PC-based lab instruments with the manageability of compact portable units. The unit has a Windows CE operating system…
(AME: Rolling Meadows, IL) -- The Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME), providing for the exchange of knowledge in organizational excellence, is hosting a one-day seminar, “Learn by Doing,” an introduction to training within industry (TWI), on Aug. 24, 2011, at Flexware Innovation Inc…
DNA, a molecule famous for storing the genetic blueprints for all living things, can do other things as well. In a paper due to be published in the Journal of American Chemical Society, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) describe how tailored single strands of…
(Boothroyd Dewhurst: Wakefield, RI) -- Savvy manufacturers are able to root out troublesome costs and problems from their products earlier and earlier in a life cycle that starts even before a computer model is created—and ends with finished automobiles, appliances, and other goods. What’s…
(MoreSteam: Columbus, OH) -- On Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011, BPE Consulting Group, a subsidiary of BOK Financial, and MoreSteam.com, a global provider of online lean Six Sigma training and blended learning technology, will co-sponsor a one-day continuous improvement conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for…
(Visual Workplace: Byron Center, MI) -- Visual Workplace Inc. has made available a new training DVD, Lean Healthcare. Using fun, engaging examples in actual health care environments, this 40-minute training video highlights the eight wastes found in most health care processes and systems, and…
(ECi: Fort Worth, TX) -- eCommerce Industries Inc. (ECi), a leader in industry-specific business-management software, has announced the release of v. 8.0 of ECi M1, its premier enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for discrete manufacturing that provides total integration and automation…
(FDA: Silver Spring, MD) -- The FDA has announced that it will open a public docket to begin receiving public comments on the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) report on the 510(k) program, the most common pathway to market for lower-risk medical devices.
The FDA commissioned the report in…
(Mahr Federal: Providence, RI) -- Mahr Federal Inc., designer, manufacturer, and marketer of dimensional measuring technology, has issued a new catalog in both print and online editions, covering the full range of its dimensional metrology products and systems. The full-color print edition…
First, the introduction. This post was earnestly written by my friend, Jeff Fuchs. He’s the director of the Maryland World Class Consortia, a lean nonprofit assistance organization in the mid-Atlantic. He’s also president of Neovista Consulting, which works with large and small organizations on…
From the minute I arrived on site, I knew that this would be a Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference unlike any other. First of all, it was in Phoenix… in July. So, the 100-plus-degree temperature wasn’t unexpected; the humidity, on the other hand, was a bit of a surprise. The evening preceding…
(Mahr Federal: Providence, RI) -- Mahr Federal Inc., designer, manufacturer, and marketer of dimensional measuring technology, will be featuring the new version of its successful MMQ 400 Formtester series, the MarForm MMQ 400-2, at Quality Expo 2011, Sept. 20–22, 2011, at McCormick Place North,…
There has been a lot of press in recent years about the importance of the “learning organization.” While many authors have explored the idea of a learning organization from the perspective of how learning can be enabled and shared, the economic impact of learning, and its resulting effect on…
The United States will send a new generation of explorers to the moon aboard NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle, or CEV. Making its first flights early in the next decade, Orion is part of the Constellation Program to send human explorers back to the moon, and then on to Mars and other…
Finally, the medical industry is putting aside its “We’re medicine; we’re different” mindset and taking a more practical look at quality improvement. Bravo! Although an element of physician culture remains convinced that improvement is all about outcomes and double-blind clinical trials, the…
(APICS: Chicago, IL) -- APICS The Association for Operations Management, a global leader in supply-chain and operations management education, certification, and affiliation, has released the third edition of APICS Operations Management Body of Knowledge (OMBOK) Framework, which defines the…
(LMI Technologies: Vancouver, Canada) -- LMI Technologies Inc., part of the Vision Group of AUGUSTA
Technologie AG, is a global research, development, and manufacturing
organization specializing in 3-D measurement sensors. LMI Technologies will be exhibiting at this year’s Forest Products…
