All Features
SURVICE Metrology was recently awarded a U.S. government research grant to improve upon the current methods used to measure and repair damage to composite materials associated with next-generation aircraft. The problem is that current ways of measuring and repairing damage (as a result of…
CMSC
Technology is changing the face of aerospace manufacturing and quality assurance. No place is that change more welcome and dramatic than at Vought Aircraft Industries Inc. in Hawthorne, California.
According to Paul Evans, quality assurance lead, changes in processes and systems at his…
Robert Clem
Hello readers, and welcome to the latest issue of CMSC World, which is packed with the latest news and features in the metrology arena.
Registration for CMSC 2009 in Louisville, Kentucky, is now open! As most of you know, this year is an historical landmark for the CMSC. In two months, the…
Chet Marchwinski
The current recession is the fifth in my working career. And it is beginning to feel like the worst. I can't imagine that any manager or improvement team member in any industry in any country isn't feeling a bit queasy at this point, as the world economy keeps recessing toward an unknown bottom.…
Steven Ouellette
A colleague of mine made an interesting point about how we teach and learn experimental design techniques, and I thought I'd explore the subject further. He observed that the order that we teach statistics is almost exactly opposite of how one would actually use them. So this month I will describe…
Mike Micklewright
Question: How do Somalian pirates differ from some Wall Street CEOs?
Answer: A Somalian pirate takes hostages and demands money. A Wall Street CEO takes money and demands hostages.
Without the need, drive, pursuit, and focus on reducing waste; and because we had $1 billion to spend, Saturn…
John W. Stoneback
Is your toolholder showing wear in the areas indicated on the toolholder shown?
We’ve been asking this question for some time now, and we know the answer. Normally, close inspection of the tapered area will show a difference in finish at the threaded area a
Toolholder…
Bill Kalmar
M
ost of us, I suspect, have had a week that we would prefer relegating to our mental recycle bin. But every now and then we have a week that is truly remarkable. I recently had such a week that soundly confirmed my contention that customer service is rebounding and doing so in large leaps. (If…
Bill Kalmar
M
ost of us, I suspect, have had a week that we would prefer relegating to our mental recycle bin. But every now and then we have a week that is truly remarkable. I recently had such a week that soundly confirmed my contention that customer service is rebounding and doing so in large leaps. (If…
Sandford Liebesman
I've been auditing to ISO 9001 since 1992. A part of my auditing philosophy has been to add value to the audited organizations by suggesting opportunities for improvement. Following, I will describe the most effective “value adds.”
Continual improvement
Look at ISO 9001:2000 subclause 8.5.1--"…
Tamar June
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has had many challenges and setbacks in the past few years. From budget cuts, to high-level departures, the agency has also faced fury from lawmakers on Capitol Hill over high-profile device, drug, and food recalls.
Off the record, current, and former…
Abiding by strict environmental rules can at times seem as much like a religion as a lifestyle. It’s often difficult and even conflicting to balance the intention to live “green” with the attractions of modern convenience. Moving into igloos or pit houses made of mud, is sustainable, yes, but not…
The approach of using a Wiki to document a quality management system (QMS) may seem overwhelmingly obvious in a year or so, yet we are far from that today. Chances are you've used Wikipedia on the web, but you may not appreciate the power that a Wiki can bring to virtually every facet of…
Steven Ouellette
One of the most frequent questions I get from Black Belts and Green Belts I train is about the characteristics of a good Six Sigma project, particularly a first project. Define, measure, analyze, improve, control (DMAIC) is a procedure that is useful for certain types of projects and terrible for…
Akhilesh Gulati
Those best adapted to particular conditions will succeed in the long run. This idea was invented by Herbert Spencer in Principles of Biology (University Press of the Pacific, 2002) to describe Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection of living species.
By the early 1900s, this insight was…
Michael Casey
S
ince 1979, an automotive-parts manufacturer had one premier product that is used by automakers such as General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Honda, Mercedes, and Daimler-Chrysler. For competitive reasons, this business didn’t want to share their name for this article.
Overview
In May 2008, the…
Bill Kalmar
Since the year 2000, we have either been mesmerized, entertained, or in my case, irritated by a TV program called “Survivor.” Contestants on this show are isolated in the wilderness and compete against each other for cash and other prizes. The program utilizes a progressive elimination gimmick,…
Mark Albert
Many shops have implemented computerized systems to gather data for production reporting, quality control, statistical process control (SPC), and tool management. Stephen Birman, president of High Tech Research Inc. of Deerfield, Illinois, believes one knowledge-based system that integrates all of…
Patrick Sweeney
A work instruction is a tool provided to help someone do a job correctly. This simple statement implies that the purpose of the work instruction is quality and that the target user is the worker. Unfortunately, in many workplaces, today’s work instructions have little connection with this…
Mike Micklewright
Question: How is the octuplets mom similar to an American CEO?
Answer: She outsourced the main process, she made more inventory than she can properly care for, and she expects bail-outs for her wasteful actions.
Saturn was my real first job and it pains me to learn that after just 24 years,…
Philip Colet
P
roduct information and label code verification are important parts of the packaging and quality control process for manufacturers and consumers in the food and beverage industry. Machine vision is increasingly being used to help improve the accuracy of the inspection process in these…
Thomas R. Cutler
Story update 6/03/2011: The first two paragraphs following the subhead "ISO 22000 users" were changed.
Regulatory and standards compliance is a requirement that meets with regular resistance from CFOs and CEOs who must justify the expense. Brand protection from recalls and costly litigation is…
Thomas R. Cutler
Story update 6/03/2011: The first two paragraphs following the subhead "ISO 22000 users" were changed.
Regulatory and standards compliance is a requirement that meets with regular resistance from CFOs and CEOs who must justify the expense. Brand protection from recalls and costly litigation is…
Criteria changes and lean Six Sigma
In these difficult economic times, organizations are looking at all possible means to operate profitably. As demand for products and services drops and customers expect the lowest possible price, organizations are feeling urgent pressure to cut costs as a…
Steven Ouellette
Many people go through a point in their lives where they question the beliefs they hold most dear. Then there are those who question the entire basis for statistical process control (SPC) once they have learned the statistical basis for them. I can’t help you with the former, but I have something…