All Features
Paul Naysmith
Sales professionals, according to some circles at least, aren’t all that different from us quality professionals. I once believed they were two-faced liars, because they’d sell their mother to get that precious sales commission. However, as a systems thinker, I like to get my facts straight before…
Mike Richman
This has been a fun week for us at Quality Digest, as we’ve had a chance to support World Metrology Week and one of our long-standing partners, the Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS). As many of you know, the CMS is the organization behind the annual Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference (CMSC…
Thomas R. Cutler, Rich McGrath
Editor’s note: This is the second article of a multipart series about the role of quality in education and its effect on workforce development. In part one of the series, the role of accountability was detailed and profiled.
The well-established quality control mechanisms and processes used in…
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
I bought a lottery ticket. I hope to win. That would be so cool, wouldn’t it?
Do I think I’ll win? No. I fully understand the odds are against me. Then why did I buy one? I bought it because I’ve been thinking about hope and whether or not it is a powerful motivator.
I recall my friend Brian, who…
The cold, stark landscape of Antarctica is home to penguins, ice, high winds, and two antennae owned by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the independent federal agency that supports and funds all fields of fundamental science and engineering in the United States. The severe conditions of the…
Wheelchairs, scooters, and power chairs help people with limited mobility lead independent lives. Equally important are the mechanisms that move or transport these devices in the home or in vehicles. Mechanical breakdowns or structural failures can have serious consequences and greatly limit the…
NIST
The volume of oil and oil products moving through America’s pipelines, waterways, roads, and rails borders on the unimaginable.
“Look at it this way,” says John Wright, a project leader in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Physical Measurement Laboratory’s (PML) Fluid…
Timothy F. Bednarz
Depths of personal commitment allowed the great leaders to execute well in all aspects of their business, as well as to overcome any barriers and adversities they encountered.
Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, noted, “I think I overcame every single one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer…
Exact Metrology
Any data captured in the scanning process is not perfect. Data accuracy depends on the accuracy of the scanning equipment as well as the conditions under which the measurements are made. To properly report measured data, the error associated with the measurement should be taken into account…
Dawn Keller
I remember a time in my career when I mistakenly thought I knew statistics—really knew statistics. It was before I met Yanling Zuo, Michelle Paret, Eduardo Santiago, and a whole host of other statistical experts. I was a quality engineer, and I’d been applying statistics for years. I assumed that…
Quality Transformation With David Schwinn
As my wife, Carole, was recently preparing to begin another chapter in our forthcoming book, The Transformational Workplace, she found out that one of the people we interviewed on my sabbatical last year had just won the International Children’s Peace Prize. Her name is Michaela (Chaeli) Mycroft.…
Lista
Many manufacturing facilities have opted to follow the path toward a “5S” workplace as an element of lean manufacturing. Implementing 5S programs involves small teams working together to get materials closer to operations, right at workers’ fingertips and organized and labeled to facilitate…
Belinda Jones
At the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, the highlight of its Egyptian galleries is an elaborate and complete funerary assemblage from the tomb of a 2,300-year-old noblewoman named Meret-it-es. The initial room layout of the Egyptian galleries revealed the space would be…
Belinda Jones
SolarReserve’s first-generation solar power plant is a welcome sign of green progress. Once the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project is completed in 2013, it will generate roughly 480,000 megawatt hours per year of clean, renewable electricity to power 75,000 homes during peak electricity periods.…
Forrest Breyfogle—New Paradigms
I will first describe how long-lasting business metrics can be created at the business level and then illustrate the 30,000-foot-level scorecard tracking of these measurements, where an individuals control chart is used to determine process stability. Then I will show how to make a prediction…
Konica Minolta Sensing Americas Inc.
The Frederic Remington Museum is dedicated to displaying, observing, and preserving the works of Frederic Remington. Most famous for his bronze sculptures of cowboys, American Indians, and U.S. Calvary, original Remington pieces are considered prized collector’s items.
The Frederic Remington…
Jeff Dewar
Editor’s note: This is the fourth of a four-part video interview with Juran Institute’s CEO Joseph DeFeo, and hosted by Quality Digest’s CEO, Jeff Dewar. View part one here, part two here, and part three here.
“Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly, I can!’ Then get busy…
Thomas R. Cutler, Rich McGrath
Editor’s note: In this first part of a multipart series on quality in education, we will provide an overview of the current state of quality education issues. In addition, a few of the lean practices that are now being adopted by education thought leaders will be shared.
Schools and businesses are…
Ron Kaufman
Spirit Airlines recently flew into a big public relations disaster. Sticking to a no-refunds policy, the airline refused to refund the airfare of a passenger who had to cancel his trip after finding out he has terminal cancer. Then social media took off with Spirit’s reputation at its mercy. The…
Katie Gignac
Any company that truly lives its quality management system will tell you that you must innovate to get ahead. Employees at GNP Co., the chicken processor formerly known as Gold’n Plump, live by a commitment to quality, innovation, and continuous improvement— all hallmarks of a culture built on the…
William A. Levinson
The ISO 14001 environmental management systems (EMS) standard and the new ISO 50001 energy management systems (EnMS) standard are complementary, synergistic, and mutually supporting systems for improving stakeholder value. ISO 50001’s proposed reference to greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction is, however…
Umberto Tunesi
Last night on the Italian National Geographic channel, I watched a reconstruction of the November 2011 American Airlines flight No. 587, in which 265 people lost their lives. At the time the cause seemed almost natural and unavoidable: The AA’s Airbus got caught by the turbulence that a JAL 747…
Jay Arthur—The KnowWare Man
Yogi Berra once said, “If people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, how are you going to stop them?” I have found the same is true of statistical process control (SPC).
As the author of the QI Macros SPC Software for Excel, I get emails every week asking, “What’s the right chart to use for my…
Having been involved in quality and process control for quite a few years now, I tend to read any article regarding a quality issue or new ideas for quality or process improvement. Last week, Washington state’s Tri-City Herald published an article by Annette Cary about tanks at a vitrification…
Taran March @ Quality Digest
I’m wondering when we humans started assuming that commerce must be perfect? After all, the adage “let the buyer beware” has been in circulation since folks ran around saying it in Latin. A kind of passivity seems to have crept into transactions. Except for the act of opening one’s wallet, buying…
