All Features
Akhilesh Gulati
When we step into a complex organization—whether in manufacturing, healthcare, or finance—we often find ourselves navigating a sea of competing truths. Everyone seems certain they see the problem clearly. Yet somehow, solving it feels harder than it should.
Why?
Often, it’s not the facts that…
Creaform
In the casting industry, efficiency is key to producing high-quality parts while minimizing rework, and comprehensive data play a vital role in optimizing each manufacturing step. Traditionally, foundries have relied on conventional inspection techniques to ensure dimensional measurement. But the…
Annette Aquino
To meet the precise requirements associated with semiconductor manufacturing, integrated circuit (IC) packaging and assembly providers must navigate complex quality certification processes, such as those for the well-known ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 standards. Another important certification for…
ISO
Occupational health and safety (OHS) is often brushed aside as a checkbox exercise—something assigned to compliance officers or forgotten in day-to-day operations. But this mindset comes at a cost. Every year, millions of people suffer injuries, illnesses, or worse, simply because their workplace…
Stephen Graham, Quality Digest
Uploading something “to the cloud” has become common enough that most people are acutely aware of the storage advantages of cloud services—whether in their personal or professional lives—as well as how they might benefit administrators in any business. What might surprise people is the additional…
Quality Digest, David Mihal
What happens when a powerhouse company like Hexagon joins forces with an elite innovator like Geomagic Software? Well, here’s a hint: There’s magic right there in the name. Now that talk of acquisition has became reality, Quality Digest is here with more details on what to expect as the two…
Harry Hertz
A little enjoyment is always important. I recently read a blog post titled 15 Facts That Will Make You Laugh.
A few of those facts were:• There is a Welsh town with a 58-letter name:Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.• You used to be able to send children by mail in the U.S…
Troy Harrison
Salespeople are getting older. Buyers are getting younger. You have a disconnect.
In raw terms, the average age of a professional business-to-business (B2B) salesperson in the United States is 47.1 years old. Fifteen years ago that number was 42. So, the sales profession is graying. Meanwhile, the…
Dr. Scott Davis
Imagine what life would be like without GPS, something you use all the time without thinking about where it came from.
NIST’s atomic clock research helped bring us GPS, which has had more than $1 trillion dollars in economic impact.
This is just one of the many scientific breakthroughs to come out…
JoAnna Wendel
A common lithium salt has revealed new possibilities for manufacturing cheaper, longer-lasting battery materials.
The discovery centers on sublimation, a commonly known process whereby, under the right conditions, a solid turns directly into a vapor. Sublimation is what creates the tail of a comet…
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Robert Hettich
Robert “Bob” Hettich has spent much of his career at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) demonstrating how high-performance analytical measurements, in particular mass spectrometry, can yield remarkable insights into the mysteries of tiny microbes and their effect…
Mike Figliuolo
We humans love to complicate things. The more crap we hang off of a product, the better we think it is. The more engineering that goes into it, the more we can sell, right?
Wrong.
Simplicity wins. Every time. (iPod, anyone?)
As an entrepreneur, I get to hang out with other entrepreneurs (and we…
Colin Strachan
Most industrial leaders strive to be more proactive and data-driven. But getting there can feel overwhelming, especially if your teams spend much of the day firefighting.
Maintenance maturity depends on the quality of your data, how effectively you use them, and the processes and culture that…
Donald J. Wheeler
Define, measure, analyze, improve, control, goes the mantra used to carry out improvement projects in many companies. In various books, these steps get slightly different interpretations. But the overall outline is still characterized by DMAIC. This article will show a proven way to simplify and…
Harry Hertz
In an earlier blog, I introduced you to Arnie Weimerskirch, a former vice president of corporate quality at Honeywell and the former chair of the Baldrige Judges Panel. I recently had lunch with him and learned how he got involved with the Baldrige Program and how it influenced his career. I think…
Prerna Sudera
Ensuring that automotive components meet the highest quality standards is critical to vehicle safety and performance. Metals and protective coatings used in automotive manufacturing must withstand extreme conditions such as mechanical stresses, corrosion, and wear during a vehicle’s lifespan. Here…
Mike Figliuolo
Nobody likes change. I know if you do anything that changes my routine in the morning, my whole day is whacked. We all hate change. Heck, most of us hate getting change at the grocery store because of all those coins.
As a leader, though, your job is to get others to want to change.
Getting other…
Jones Loflin
A question I’m getting asked a lot these days is, “What’s a quick way for me to improve my ability to focus?” I have several suggestions. One of the new ones I’m working on is connected to a principle from lean management. It’s called the 3S’s—Sweep, Sort, Standardize. See if it doesn’t have…
ISO
Imagine you’re stuck in traffic during rush hour, frustrated and late, when suddenly the lights ahead adapt to the flow of traffic, easing the congestion in no time. This is the promise of intelligent transportation systems (ITS), an interconnected network of technologies designed to optimize the…
Harish Jose
In this article, I’m looking at the brilliant philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s “The Beetle in the Box” analogy.
Wittgenstein rose to fame with his first book, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, in which he proposed the idea of a picture theory for words. Very loosely put, words correspond to objects…
CIH Equipment
Industrial hygiene equipment plays a critical role in ensuring workplace safety by monitoring airborne contaminants, noise levels, and other hazardous conditions. However, accurate readings depend on regular industrial hygiene equipment calibration to maintain precision and compliance with…
Cadrex
The semiconductor manufacturing industry is undergoing rapid transformation driven by technological advancements, increased demand for AI and electric vehicle (EV) chips, and geopolitical shifts. Needless to say, the semiconductor industry and the companies that fabricate the equipment used in the…
Creaform
For more than 90 years, EKATO Rühr- und Mischtechnik GmbH has specialized in process analysis, engineering, scale-up manufacturing, and assembly of agitator technologies, continually developing solutions to meet the needs of process-oriented industries. Supporting procedures such as homogenizing,…
Adam Grant
Nano Tools for Leaders—a collaboration between Wharton Executive Education and Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management—are fast, effective tools that you can learn and start using in less than 15 minutes, with the potential to significantly improve your success and the engagement and…
Christine Schaefer
‘Every organization has countless opportunities for improvement, but only a few points—what we call constraints or bottlenecks—govern the pace and performance of the entire system,” says Rami Goldratt, who gave the closing keynote presentation at the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s 36th…
