All Features
William A. Levinson
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is supporting strikes by fast-food workers who want $15 an hour. According to Workers’ World, “Most earn the federal minimum hourly wage of $7.25 or close to it. They are demanding that McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Yum Brand, and their other…
Rick Haynes
Measurement system analysis of uncertainty is one topic in lean Six Sigma training that is too often ignored or under-taught. I believe that it is under-taught because most instructors have never used or understood it. Therefore, this column will dive deep into what it is and why you should learn…
Bruce Hamilton
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Egg-Grading Manual, “Checks [aka “cracks’”] are an unavoidable problem in the marketing of eggs because eggs cannot be assembled, graded, packed, transported, and merchandized without some breakage.” Unavoidable. That’s the standard, I guess. The…
Tommaso Sgobba
During the past two years, almost at regular intervals, we hear news about the failure of a Russian rocket launch. A few weeks ago, on July 2, 2013, a three-stage Proton-M took off from Baikonour Cosmodrome. The rocket started veering off course right after leaving the pad, deviating from the…
Renishaw
Conroe Machine is doing what most machine shops only dream of: hard-turning a family of parts around the clock in an unmanned cell that operates a “self-controlled” process. The company is proof that the dream is achievable for any shop ready to use the talents of today’s automation experts to…
Donald J. Wheeler
Last month’s column, “Beware the Tukey Control Chart,” generated several questions of a fundamental nature that deserve expanded answers. These questions and their answers will be considered here.
Interquartile ranges
The Tukey control chart uses the interquartile range or IQR to characterize…
Michael Causey
School bells have sounded the death knell of summer across the land. But as we’ve noted before, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) didn’t take much time off to enjoy surf and sand. The agency capped a busy season last week by issuing a new guidance aimed at investigational review boards (…
Umberto Tunesi
I’m a fan of logistics, and as many kids do, I love water, too. I’m fascinated by how rivers move, how underwater streams move, how winds move. I’m fascinated by any kind of stream, even intangible, process-based ones.
I do understand the necessity of dams, of course, but I don’t agree that they…
Matthew Barsalou
It seems like every few years somebody, somewhere around the world asks, “What is quality?” or “What does quality mean?” I recently had the opportunity to make my own attempt at addressing this question when it was asked by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Qualität (German Society for Quality).…
Gallup
It’s wrong to intentionally make a promise you can’t keep. But it seems that too many companies are making this mistake, and it’s hurting their customer relationships. When Gallup surveyed more than four million customers, it found that one in five actively disengaged customers feel that the…
Creaform Inc.
When coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) first came on the scene in the 1960s and 1970s, parts and work pieces were measured by well-trained inspectors in clean rooms and labs far from the shop-floor hubbub. In these controlled environments, cantilever-style (and eventually, bridge, gantry, and…
Karl Stephan
The April 17, 2013, fertilizer-plant explosion in West, Texas, that killed 15 and demolished a good part of the town was only the most recent of a number of accidents involving hazardous chemicals that have happened in Texas over the years. Home to a large number of refining and petrochemical…
NIST
Played out on a computer over hundreds of generations, a survival-of-the-fittest programming method adapted by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers has spawned, of all things, the design for a more efficient rooftop air-conditioning system.
The evolutionary tack…
Ryan E. Day
‘This 3/8-in. corded drill/driver features a 4.5-amp motor that offers up to 1,500 rpm for powerful drilling and driving in a variety of materials. The variable-speed trigger helps you match the speed to the application, while the lock-on feature enables continuous drilling and helps to reduce…
Stacey Jarrett Wagner
In March 2013, a Manufacturing Leadership Council survey was conducted by Frost & Sullivan with 226 manufacturers. The survey’s intent was to understand manufacturers’ current workforce strategies, ask about future strategies, and observe key trends. Specifically, the authors wanted to know…
NIST
A pair of experimental atomic clocks based on ytterbium atoms at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has set a new record for stability. The clocks act like 21st-century pendulums or metronomes that could swing back and forth with perfect timing for a period comparable to the…
Bruno Scibilia
The value of analyzing data is well established in industries like manufacturing and mining, but data-driven process and quality improvement is increasingly being adopted in service industries such as retail sales and healthcare, as well. Here I'll discuss how a simple data analysis may be used to…
Jim Clifton
Some of the smartest people I know often tell me, “Businesses aren’t going to start growing again until consumer demand comes back.” Really? So we should just sit around and wait until economic growth magically returns?
Growth doesn’t just happen, and it’s not necessarily driven by demand. Growth…
Christine Schaefer
Let’s say your organization has already begun using a Baldrige-based approach to self-assessment. For example, your senior leaders have completed the organizational profile, reviewed the guidelines that make up the scoring system of the Criteria for Performance Excellence, and developed responses…
Judy Fainor
Editor’s note: Judy Fainor will be a guest on Quality Digest Live this Friday, Sept. 20, 2013, at 11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern. Fainor will also present a webinar on this topic on Tuesday, September 24, at 11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern time. Register here..
As the chief architect for Sparta…
MIT News
Computer scientists at MIT and the National University of Ireland (NUI) at Maynooth have developed a mapping algorithm that creates dense, highly detailed 3D maps of indoor and outdoor environments in real time.
The researchers tested their algorithm on videos taken with a low-cost Kinect camera…
Joan Mattson, Keri Dawson
Increasing product recalls, regulatory fines, and penalties have made product-safety compliance a top priority for many manufacturers. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and other global and regional product-quality regulations have subjected consumer-product companies to…
Mike Richman
We are data-driven animals, and by “we” I mean all human beings, not just quality professionals. It starts from the moment we are born. The brains of babies are wired for exploration, surprise, inspection, analysis, and synthesis. The interpretation and use of conceptual information is what sets…
Scandia National Labratories
Sandia National Laboratories in California recently presented its annual Math and Science Awards to 22 young women from area high schools. The event celebrates the academic accomplishments of the recipients and their great potential as they prepare for the next phase of their lives.
“Science,…
Alan Nicol
There seems to be doubt about the real potential of process improvement methods. This is a repeated theme in blog comments, emailed questions, and discussions about various process and business improvement methodologies. Can we really improve processes to an optimal level, or can a process only be…
