All Features
Oscar Combs
One may ask, “What does a taco have to do with quality?” Ask Taco Bell’s president Greg Creed, and I’m sure he will tell you a lot. On Jan. 19, a lawsuit was filed against Taco Bell claiming the company’s beef is only 35 percent ground beef and 65 percent other ingredients, such as binders,…
Johns Hopkins University
Large wind farms are being built around the world as a cleaner way to generate electricity, but operators are still searching for the most efficient way to arrange the massive turbines that turn moving air into power.
To help steer wind-farm owners in the right direction, Charles Meneveau, a Johns…
Joan Voight
Now that reviewer websites such as Yelp have become more common, you probably take the typical approach of glancing over the comments about your business, looking for patterns of praise or complaints. And if you are wise, you are adjusting your business practices according to the overall feedback…
Bill Hathaway
While eating my lunch at the park last fall, I looked down at the wooden deck below me, and noticed that an ant had picked up a large crumb from my sandwich. The crumb was heavy, and the ant labored to move it. Unfortunately, the gap between the deck planks was too wide for the ant to cross…
Donald J. Wheeler
Last month’s column looked at how to fix some of the Problems with Gauge R&R Studies. This month I will show you how to learn more from your gauge repeatability and reproducibility (R&R) data with less effort. Rather than getting lost in a series of computations, the "evaluating the…
Claudia Jackson
Twitter is not at all what I expected. After a few months, I now use Twitter to improve my knowledge in health care quality, expand my professional network, and save time. Through Twitter, I’ve connected with an amazing variety of people, including health care providers, marketing pros, e-patients…
Bill Kalmar
It seems every day we view “breaking news” reports on television or read about a particular event in the paper that catches our attention. It might be acres of brush fires that level hundreds of homes, a new law that restricts the number of calories that can be consumed in school cafeterias, or…
Mark R. Hamel
My teenage education was (maybe) enhanced by substantial doses of Monty Python. Occasionally, I discover a lean metaphor somewhere within their body of work. One of my absolute favorite scenes is from the movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The three-minute scene goes by two names: “The…
Tracker Handbook by Javier Vera
The technology from which the laser tracker is drawn has a diversified beginning, from the laser instrumentation to the methods of capturing the beam. Unmistakably, it is the integration of all components, along with its portability, that makes the laser tracker an appealing measurement tool.
Many…
The worst U.S. environmental disaster in history and a leading automaker beset by recalls: Was 2010 a year that we’d all like to forget? As we launch into 2011, Process Excellence Network looks back at two of the top stories that shaped last year and the lessons learned for operational excellence…
I was a 30-year-old quality project manager on a continuous metal processing line. We coated metal for a broad range of consumer and industrial products. Just like many metal-processing facilities, particularly back then, we used a bunch of processes involving chemistry of varying evilness for a…
Umberto Tunesi
I am a chemical engineer by education and training. Therefore, some might expect me to work with numbers, but I don’t. Early in my career, after spending a few years in research and development (R&D) labs, I took a road that has led me to inspect and audit organizations for their continuous or…
Michael Blair
Every year the government struggles to prepare a new military budget in the face of serious challenges with mandated reductions in our national defense. At an Air Force conference in Denver, Colorado, in November 2010, the deputy chief management officer for the Air Force spoke about the Air Force’…
Christopher Sirola
Many years ago, I was flipping through stations on the radio and came across a talk show. I don’t remember the topic of discussion, but something the host said stuck with me.
“Scientists,” the host blustered (and I paraphrase), “are 95-percent confident of these results! Wow!”
The sound you’re now…
Sharbari Banerjee
A material’s internal structure or microstructure is defined as one that is viewed with either a metallurgical microscope at magnifications in the range of 25X up to 1000X or a scanning electron microscope (SEM) at higher magnifications. Features observed in microstructures include phases and…
William A. Levinson
Six Sigma has been credited with six- or even seven-figure returns in single projects, but it has not kept the manufacturing jobs of its principal exponents—Motorola, General Electric, and Maytag—in the United States. Henry Ford, on the other hand, proved that lean manufacturing can make almost any…
Barbara A. Cleary
A young man in PQ Systems' hometown survived a dramatic auto accident last summer in which police-captured video footage of his spectacular, airborne vehicle was broadcast throughout the nation. That was just the beginning of his problems, for during his hospitalization, his medical records were…
Mike Micklewright
A few years ago, I mentioned to Clare Crawford-Mason that we need to make quality cool again. Crawford-Mason is the lady who helped bring Deming into public consciousness with her production of the 1979 NBC White Paper “If Japan Can, Why Can’t We?”
Of course, the Deming Institute ain’t gonna make…
Michelle LaBrosse
It’s the start of a new year, and once again, I set goals for the year. These are different than “resolutions” because I fully intend on meeting them. Some of these goals are the same from year to year. Get in better shape, spend more time with my family, work smarter (not necessarily harder),…
Bob Cramblitt
The term “a measure of confidence” has always been considered a nebulous thing. But it becomes very real when applied to body armor testing at the U.S. Army’s Aberdeen Test Center (ATC) in Maryland. Using a FaroArm Quantum scanner and Geomagic Qualify 3-D inspection software, the Army has…
Sam Pfeifle
One of the topics that drew the most interest at the recently completed SPAR Europe conference, held at the RAI Conference Center in Amsterdam, was that of mobile scanning and mapping. What kind of accuracy can you expect? How fast can you drive? What’s the business case for collecting so much…
Nikon Metrology Inc.
Because damage inflicted on aircraft can affect structural integrity and radar signature, specific aircraft types are inspected to triage damage and define repair actions. To radically improve current manual damage-identification practices, metrology specialists from Maryland-based SURVICE…
Bill Kalmar
Another holiday season has come to an end. Somehow we survived Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve, but for some it wasn’t easy. Gas prices have risen for no apparent reason, but despite the increase, more than 90 percent of travelers opted to make that trip to Grandma’s home by automobile…
Digital Surveys Ltd.
Building information modelling (BIM) is one of the most fundamental changes to affect the global construction industry. The growing worldwide adoption and implementation of this technology allows for powerful data-based modeling, visualisation, analysis and simulation capabilities that are…
Larry Williams
Personal appearance is one of the few things that is completely within your control. It is also one of the things that employers expect you to handle without much discussion. Basically, if you can dress yourself, you should dress yourself well. Do you really need your employer to discuss this with…
