All Features
Paul Naysmith
If you're reading this article, especially in the United Kingdom, it’s possible that you are a member of the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI). As I currently understand it, the average member is in her mid-50s, and therefore you may be looking not so far into the future to your retirement. You…
Tracker Handbook by Art Kietlinski
During the past 30 years I’ve had the opportunity to measure quite a few manufactured parts, machine tools, fabrications, and large vessels. I’ve also reviewed hundreds of metrology surveys done by technicians. Unfortunately, on more than one occasion I’ve seen data that were scaled incorrectly…
MIT News
When a supply chain is firing on all cylinders—moving products, information, and money on schedule—it goes largely unnoticed, at least to the average consumer. You expect to find the supplies you need at the grocery store, and to receive your latest Amazon order within five business days.
But…
This is one of the first questions that executives always ask me. Because it is a broad question, the answer is often challenging. I usually respond with a few examples that have been gathered in Juran Institute’s 20-year benchmarking practice database, such as Company A is this, and Company B is…
Angelo Lyall
It seems the most popular way to improve a process these days is by applying the glorious "Lean Toolkit." Many companies focus on learning and implementing process improvement practices introduced by Toyota without realizing the same success that Toyota achieved. How can it be that so many firms…
Bruce Hamilton
In my last blog post, “Everybody Everyday” I made the case for regular practice of new perspectives, behaviors, and practices. All new learners begin by just “going through the motions” and gradually become proficient through regular practice. I’ve personally gone to sleep many nights pondering…
Sam Pfeifle
The web is buzzing about Nokia’s Ovi Maps—and rightly so. The new 3-D interface the company has debuted, which allows you to take amazing 3-D fly-throughs of some of the world’s most beautiful cities, is a revelation. If you haven’t played with it yet, do so now by clicking here and wasting a…
Chris Koehn
Air gauging relies on a law of physics that states flow and pressure are directly proportionate to clearance and react inversely to each other. As clearance increases, air flow also increases, and air pressure decreases proportionately. As clearance decreases, air flow also…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
Donald J. Wheeler has been awarded the Deming Medal by the American Society for Quality (ASQ) for “the propagation of Dr. Deming’s ideas throughout the world through his numerous books and seminars on quality management and statistical quality improvement.” Here he answers some questions for…
Mark R. Hamel
Every once in awhile people will ask me to (discretely) evaluate a kaizen event team’s effectiveness. I don’t necessarily relish doing that when it is intended for the purpose of team comparisons, but it’s not an unfair request from senior leaders.
Someday, I should probably try to pull the…
Donald J. Wheeler
One-hundred-percent inspection is commonly used to avoid shipping nonconforming product. Each of the items produced is measured and judged to be either conforming or nonconforming. The conforming items get shipped, and the nonconforming items get set aside for use as factory-authorized replacement…
Tripp Babbitt
My first job was in industrial distribution, and with distribution came learning to count inventory. An annual inventory tax was levied, so an accurate count was important. I was given a computer list of items to count. An important lesson I learned was that to get an accurate count, there was a…
As robots and their control systems become more powerful and flexible, robotics are moving from heavy industrial applications into producing consumer products we all use in our daily lives. Fickle consumers demand products in new forms, which plays to the strength of robotics’ inherent…
Mark Patton
The U.S. Army aims to make ill-fitting uniforms and protective gear things of the past when it completes a body-measurement survey next year.
Supply officials ran into difficulty acquiring the correct sizes of chemical gear and body armor for troops at the beginning of the Iraq and Afghanistan…
Arun Hariharan
In part one of this article, I explained the technique of root cause analysis (RCA) in an easy-to-understand manner with simple examples. In part two, we looked at some critical success factors to get maximum results from your RCA. In part three, the conclusion to this article, we’ll take a look…
Ryan E. Day
Let me begin by saying that I have a great deal of respect for Mike Micklewright’s achievements and contributions in the realms of business, training, and writing. I feel the need, however, to explore the nature of his reasoning in reference to his “Croc of the Month” article published in Quality…
American Sentinel University
Critical care units at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, New York, were faced with a formidable task. They had applied to receive the Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence, a distinction given only to the top intensive care units in the United States. One of the components on…
Mary F. McDonald
Every human being, over time, yearns to put his life in order—to have his expectations met, and to use filters to help him know how a situation will resolve itself. Consequently, we subconsciously strive to put new information into existing categories, based on previous patterns and preset concepts…
Georgia Institute of Technology
We couldn’t pass this story up. Sure, this toy isn’t anywhere near as accurate as a Steinbichler or Capture3D or Breukmann or any of the others, but it is really cool.--Editors
Leave it to an iPhone app developer to turn a tool that cost hundreds of dollars a year ago into something that can be…
Arun Hariharan
In part one of this article, the technique of root cause analysis (RCA) was explained using simple examples. Part two contains a detailed list of critical success factors to get maximum results from your RCA. These are based on lessons learned from experience, including mistakes made. Because RCA…
Jim Benson
There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking. —Alfred Korzybski
Over the last several years, I’ve studied a lot of processes and watched communities grow around them. I’ve been a member of many of these communities.…
Art Petty
When we focus on not failing, fear rents most of the space in our minds, and we see monsters in need of slaying everywhere we turn. We lose track of the original vision that propelled our actions, and the sheer act of working becomes at best a passionless exercise and at worst, drudgery.
Sadly,…
Michelle LaBrosse
Are you proactive or reactive in your work and personal life? Think about your career. Do you jump on tasks as they pop up, putting out fires as you go? Now consider your weekend. Do you wait until plans come to you, or do you make plans to ensure that you are having the kind of free time that…
Mike Richman
Welcome to Quality Digest Daily 2.0! This new format represents a significant re-imaging of our flagship brand (the industry’s only daily newsletter), which we first launched nearly two years ago. I hope you notice that we’ve added more video content to the newsletter as well as greater editorial…
Minitab LLC
Ford Motor Co. is one of the largest automakers in the United States, producing millions of automobiles each year at 70 plants worldwide. According to J. D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Survey, Ford has received more top rankings than any other automaker since 2007. It’s no surprise that…
