All Features
Donald J. Wheeler
Many practitioners have been taught to describe a process using sigma levels. Yet these levels are commonly misinterpreted. This article will help you to understand the problem and learn more appropriate ways of describing your process.
In the days before handheld calculators and personal…
Vick Vaishnavi, Quality Digest
Octave, a new company from Hexagon, is one of the latest additions in a string of improvements and innovations. This company will unite several Hexagon departments and functions, increase the efficiency of Hexagon’s digital communication, and provide support for vital infrastructure. Vick Vaishnavi…
Mike Figliuolo
One of the most exciting aspects of building a high-performing team is recruiting the people for it. There’s nothing better than finding that really talented person who wants to come work with you.
As you think about doing this recruiting and finding the right people, first you must understand how…
Scott Ginsberg
Quality leaders know that an audit rarely fails because a company lacks documentation. It fails because the information exists somewhere but can’t be retrieved, verified, or executed consistently when it matters. For decades, preparing for an audit meant assembling binders, tracking down…
NIST
In honor of the 125th anniversary of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, anonymous donors commissioned a piece of music to honor NIST and its contributions to science and industry. A nonprofit organization paid to have the piece recorded.
This musical gift is an exciting and moving…
ISO
What do a construction van, a last-mile delivery truck, and a 40-tonne semi have in common? They’re all fleet vehicles, critical assets that keep modern transport moving and supply chains functioning. Whether you operate a family-run business or manage a global enterprise, an efficient fleet is no…
Gabriel Popkin
You’ve probably heard that time is relative. It sounds like a banal cliche, akin to “time flies when you’re having fun.”
But it’s no mere cliche: Time is relative. Though it’s not noticeable in daily life, time passes slightly more slowly when you’re moving vs. when you’re standing still. It also…
Jennifer Chu
By now, ChatGPT, Claude, and other large language models (LLMs) have accumulated so much human knowledge that they’re far from simple answer generators; they can also express abstract concepts, such as certain tones, personalities, biases, and moods. However, it’s not obvious exactly how these…
Ben Kitson
Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology recently found that manufacturing process selection influences product design outcomes, yet is still often guided by experience rather than structured evaluation of alternatives. Understanding the differences between chemical etching and other…
Global Shop Solutions
Picture this: It’s Monday morning. Coffee in hand. The schedule is full. Shipping is stacked. Your biggest jobs are lined up like dominos, ready to fall into place.
Then, the floor supervisor walks into your office with that look. “We can’t start Job 2471.”
You blink. “Why not?”
“Missing parts.”…
Angela O’Sullivan
Regulated manufacturers today face a paradox. As products become more complex and regulatory oversight more stringent, the volume of quality data required to demonstrate compliance has increased dramatically. At the same time, many organizations continue to rely on fragmented systems—documents…
Kate Zabriskie
Most of us become managers because we excelled at our previous jobs, not because we had a grand vision for leadership. One day we’re individual contributors, and the next we’re juggling endless meetings, urgent emails, and last-minute crises while trying to develop our teams in whatever slivers of…
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
In response to the societal challenge of the growing electricity demand from AI data centers, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is launching the Next-Generation Data Centers Institute (NGDCI). This internal ORNL institute will unite the laboratory’s unique expertise and facilities spanning…
Sabine Terrasi
The mountain of old textiles continues to grow in Germany every year. Less than 1% of this enters a closed recycling loop. Reasons for this include so-called “fast fashion,” which leads to an increasing amount of low-quality textiles, as well as the wide variety of materials, which makes efficient…
IDS Imaging Development Systems
Production companies are under enormous pressure today. Customers are demanding more variants, delivery times are shrinking, error rates must not increase, and traditional visual inspections quickly reach their limits.
Visual quality control is becoming one of the biggest challenges for…
Etienne Nichols
In the medical device industry, compliance isn’t a pop quiz. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given you all the answers to the test in the form of a regulation: 21 CFR Part 820. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to ace the test. But you now have all the resources you need to pass.
What…
Adam Zewe
A broken motor in an automated machine can bring production on a busy factory floor to a halt. If engineers can’t find a replacement part they may have to order one from a distributor hundreds of miles away, leading to costly production delays.
It would be easier, faster, and cheaper to make a new…
Mike Figliuolo
It’s nauseating to hear someone soft-shoe dancing around an issue because they’re afraid of hurting someone’s feelings.
They do so because they might receive negative feedback in a 360 review that they were abrupt or too direct in delivering feedback on that issue. So rather than going the direct…
Ryan Pembroke
Walk into any machine shop today and you’ll hear about the same pressure points: tighter deadlines, rising part complexity, a stubborn skills shortage, and customers expecting “digital-ready” suppliers that can turn work around without delay. It’s no surprise then that artificial intelligence has…
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Kairos Power have entered into a $27 million strategic partnership to accelerate the technology needed to deploy a new generation of advanced nuclear reactors and support U.S. nuclear energy goals.
Under the partnership…
Chip Bell
Delight your customer! Exceed your customers’ expectations! Provide value-added service! These have been mantras of customer service gurus for a long time. Such a focus on “giving more” has improved customer service quality in many organizations. It has also increased customer standards for what…
Adam Zewe
Studying gene expression in a cancer patient’s cells can help clinical biologists understand the cancer’s origin and predict the success of different treatments. But cells are complex and contain many layers, so how the biologist conducts measurements affects which data they can obtain. For…
Gleb Tsipursky
Transparency is not a luxury in today’s transformative projects—it’s a necessity. As organizations integrate generative AI (gen AI) into their operations, the importance of clear, consistent communication around project milestones and outcomes can’t be overstated.
Employees aren’t passive…
Chris Chuang
As manufacturing emerges from a period of contraction, the industry faces more than just empty roles. The average tenure of a manufacturing worker has dropped, but the complexity of the machinery hasn’t. While the industry sees signs of hope, we face a knowledge crisis far more dangerous than…
Mike Figliuolo
What’s the biggest risk facing the leaders of most entrepreneurial ventures? It’s not closing that first round of funding or landing a cornerstone customer. As with most things, it all comes back to people—and your ability to lead those who don’t have much practice following.
It’s easy to be…