I must admit, right up front, that this is not a totally unbiased review. I first became aware of Davis Balestracci in 1998, when I received the American Society for Quality (ASQ) Statistics Division Special Publication, Data “Sanity”: Statistical Thinking Applied to Everyday Data. At the time, I was still working in the Navy’s Total Quality Leadership (TQL) schoolhouse, having spearheaded the statistical process control course we taught to Navy Quality Advisors (TQL’s “Black Belts”).

The Dental Trade Alliance learned from its members in February 2018 that the Canadian Health Ministry (“Health Canada”) had contacted the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) and the British Standards Institution (BSI). Health Canada had ordered these certification bodies to stop issuing ISO 13485 certificates, which had been granted under the purview of the Canadian Medical Devices Conformity Assessment System (CMDCAS), with any expiration dates beyond Dec. 31, 2018.

In “Data Snooping Part 1” (Quality Digest, Aug. 6, 2018) we discovered the basis for the first caveat of data snooping. Here we discover three additional caveats of data snooping.

Last month we discovered:

Mary Parker Follett, a pioneering business consultant, was asked to help a troubled window shade company. The company’s thinking was narrow and limited. When asked to define their business, they said, “We produce window shades.”

She asked them “What business are you really in from your customer’s point of view?” In other words, why do people buy window shades?

If you want to keep stretching and improving, you’d better get comfortable with the discomfort of change. People have been saying that for decades, yet each time we successfully adjust to new business developments—or personal developments, for that matter—what’s the first thing we tend to want to do? If you’re like me, you probably take a deep breath, enjoy a few fleeting moments of self-congratulation, and whisper to yourself, “I’m sure glad that’s over.”

The way we traditionally define what it means to be brave can be our greatest obstacle. Simply shifting our focus can be the gateway to powerful results.

What are you intrinsically motivated to do? Isn’t it wonderful? You don’t need a good reason or reward to do what you are doing when you’re intrinsically motivated. You are in a state of flow where time flies, and you have no idea where it went. “In the zone,” you generate positive energy and creativity. Abundant research proves the glory of intrinsic motivation.

‘We’ve got this,” you say to yourself. “Our organization has a robust compliance program. We can point to myriad ways that we have adhered to all the expected requirements. We’ve dedicated ample resources, and we have implemented a host of internal controls and program initiatives. If we ever have to defend our efforts to uphold a standard of conduct, we’ve done the best that we can do.”

But have you really?

Virtual reality (VR), sometimes referred to as augmented reality (AR), is shaking things up across all industries, including manufacturing. Although the technology is currently being employed mainly by large manufacturers, like additive manufacturing and the cobots before it, growing acceptance of the technology is likely to cause prices to drop, allowing small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) to take advantage of its powers as well. So what do you need to know about VR before it comes your way?

The underground storage shelves of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Museum are filled with loads of charmingly weird objects accrued throughout more than a century of scientific work. However, the original purpose of quite a few of these objects is lost in time. They are mysteries. Mysteries wrapped in riddles wrapped in... a thin layer of dust.

Welcome back to Unidentified Museum Objects, NIST’s ongoing quest to identify its basement-dwelling enigmas.