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When you think of good customer service—particularly the barriers to it—two factors generally come to mind: timing and wording. Imagine walking into a store that sells soap and bodywash products and immediately being bombarded with, “May I help you?” “Looking for anything today?” or the dreaded, “…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the country’s chief agency for regulating the manufacture, marketing, and distribution of critical consumer goods including food, cosmetics, medical devices, biological products, and pharmaceuticals. The FDA provides direct oversight of the businesses…
(VersaBuilt: Boise, ID) -- VersaBuilt Robotics is revolutionizing the CNC machining industry with innovative and user-friendly automation solutions. The company stands out by making advanced automation accessible to all machinists and operators, regardless of their technical expertise.
What makes…
(NPL: Teddington, England) -- A new report by the National Physical Laboratory outlines the crucial needs and challenges that need addressing to boost the hydrogen economy and support the U.K. in reaching its net-zero goals.
The NPL report, “Measurement challenges in the hydrogen sector,”…
(Mahr: Providence, RI) -- Mahr, a leading provider of dimensional metrology solutions, announced a new solution for contour measurement. A space-optimized measuring station for the production environment, the MarSurf CD 140 AF contour measuring machine features a user-friendly design and advanced…
(ORNL: Oak Ridge, TN) -- The first materials scientists might have been early humans who, through trial-and-error experiments, discovered the first “cutting-edge” technologies. They found that the best arrowheads and other tools could be made from certain types of natural, structural materials,…
Most quality practitioners are familiar with the Taguchi loss function, which contends that the cost of any deviation from the nominal follows a quadratic model. This is in contrast to the traditional goalpost model, where anything inside the specification limits is good, and anything outside them…
Susan Strayer, a friend of mine, posed a question on social media the other day: “Can you sum up your expertise in 140 characters or less?” Great question. A few people took her up on the challenge. Being an overachiever, I did it in three words. Before I dive in, let me provide some context.
For…
Design controls are a set of quality practices and procedures used to ensure that a finished device meets its user needs, intended use, and specified requirements.
The requirement for medical device companies to use design controls is established in 21 CFR Part 820, as well as ISO 13485:2016.
The…
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- On the 270-day mark since President Biden’s executive order 14110, the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced new guidance and software to help improve the safety, security, and…
We ended the previous gaging article talking about the 10:1 rule as it applies to the performance of a gage.
The rule says that the gage should perform to a level better than 10% of the tolerance. Although this rule has mostly been replaced by the more scientific and standardized GR&R…
When conflicts in a team, no matter how minor, are left unresolved, they can eventually breed resentment. If unaddressed, this could lead to cynicism and distrust, as well as harm to individual and team performance. How should leaders deal with this?
The intuitive answer might involve…
(ETQ: Burlington, MA) -- ETQ, part of Hexagon, has announced the latest release of its ETQ Reliance NXG quality management system (QMS) software. It features a new Inspection Management app, a breakthrough solution that automates and streamlines the quality inspection process. Discrete and process…
(Teledyne FLIR: Richmond, B.C.) -- Teledyne FLIR IIS, a Teledyne Technologies company, has announced that its Dragonfly S USB 5MP modular and compact camera is now in full production.
The Dragonfly S 5MP is the first camera in the new Dragonfly S series to enter full production. Designed as an…
As businesses navigate the complexities of remote and hybrid work policies, leaders often face questions regarding the perceived fairness of these arrangements. Employees performing similar tasks may have different levels of flexibility, which can lead to concerns about favoritism and inequity.…
Up-to-date and accurate maps of the waterways are a prerequisite for safe and efficient shipping in Germany. Authorities such as the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, but also private harbor operators, are obliged to provide these maps in an up-to-date form at all times. Primarily, the…
(Hardy: San Diego) -- Hardy Process Solutions has announced a new line of accurate, rugged, and reliable drum scales that provide value and flexibility in size and capacity for use in a wide range of drum weighing applications. HIDS drum scales are built to be long-lasting and perform well in heavy…
(Bolb: Livermore, CA) -- Bolb, a leading UV LED solution provider, will release its SUVOS BioCleanse UVC module—a cost-effective and environment-friendly solution that extends the useful lifetime of metalworking fluids (MWF) and improves worker health and safety—at the IMTS exhibition in Chicago at…
Many people don’t realize just how long AI has been around in the healthcare industry—and are surprised to find out that it’s something that’s been relied on for 50 years already.
MYCIN, a computer-based model with machine learning capabilities, was developed by a team of researchers at Stanford…
The phrase “practice makes perfect” is usually reserved for humans, but it’s also a great maxim for robots newly deployed in unfamiliar environments.
Picture a robot arriving in a warehouse. It comes packaged with the skills it was trained on, like placing an object, and now it needs to pick items…
(Configit: Copenhagen, Denmark) -- Configit, the global leader in Configuration Life Cycle Management (CLM), will hold the Configuration Life Cycle Management Summit in Turin, Italy. “Live in Turin,” co-hosted by Coolshop, is set for Sept. 10–11, 2024.
This event will bring together global experts…
(Knowles: Itasca, IL) -- Knowles Corp., a market leader and global provider of advanced micro-acoustic microphones and speakers, audio solutions, and high-performance capacitors and RF products, announces the QAS Series, a new line of RC-type arc suppressor/snubber components that extend the…
(API: Rockville, MD) -- API, a leader in advanced metrology solutions, announces the launch of two new innovative products: the iScanMagic composite 3D scanner and the iScanLite 3D blue laser line scanner. These state-of-the-art scanners, along with API’s iScan3D, represent one of the most complete…
(Blum-Novotest: Grünkraut, Germany) -- Blum-Novotest, a leading supplier of innovative and high-quality measuring and testing technology, will present several product highlights for automating machining processes at IMTS 2024 in Chicago, Booth 134710, McCormick Place, East Building, Sept. 9–14,…
The objective of all improvement projects should be to improve the overall process. Everything else should be secondary to this objective. If you improve the efficiency of a support process, or even a portion of the core process, but at the same time lower the efficiency of the overall process,…