All Features
Miriam Boudreaux
When a quality management system (QMS) is implemented, results are evident immediately: reduction in warranty cost, reduction in rework, reduction in scrap, higher profit margins, etc. Would you agree that ISO 9001 and other quality initiatives such as lean, Six Sigma, and 5S can significantly…
Michelle LaBrosse
We live in a world where we are often pressured to take shortcuts to save time and cut costs as much as possible. However, the wrong shortcut could end up costing a lot more. Here’s an anecdote to think about:
Let’s say you are running a project and the goal is to upgrade a road to a remote…
Jennifer Simcox
One of the key additions to the R5 version of the telecommunications quality management system standard, TL 9000, is the addition of a risk management requirement. While the requirement is only a single sentence, it is followed by a bulleted note that adds guidance as to the intent. Managing risks…
Denis Leonard
So much is written in the field of business and management about leadership, strategy, dynamic change, Six Sigma, and improving our skills and abilities. But let’s face facts—in the majority of cases we by no means measure up to these levels of achievement. Do you ever read these books and journal…
GKS Global Services
Litigating in the aftermath of accidents is big business in the United States today. The costs of the lawsuit system are estimated to be several billion dollars a year. With such large sums of money riding on the outcomes of lawsuits every year, tools are…
Stewart Anderson
The latest Toyota recall, announced just last week, has sent analysts and pundits alike scurrying for explanations about what is wrong with one of the world’s largest automakers. The recall, ostensibly for sticking accelerator pedals, affects some 2.3 million vehicles in Canada and the United…
Michael Raphael
3-D digitizing technologies have been utilized in the industrial world for the last 20 years but are increasingly used in many other fields. One of the exciting, but unanticipated, uses of 3-D measurement tools has been their adoption by museums for sculpture conservation, research, and…
At a time when the world banking system is still fragile and most global companies are cutting costs in customer service, one UK company is investing seriously in its customers.
In an article that appeared in the Times on Jan. 16, in London, Andrew Higgins, CEO of Tesco Personal Finance,…
Jon Miller
Editor's note: At the time this interview was published by Gemba Research LLC, Toyota hadn't announced a fix to the sticky accelerator issue that caused the company to recall approximately 2.3 million select vehicles. On Feb. 1, the company announced that its engineers have developed a solution…
Denise Robitaille
The new revision to ISO 9004 came off the press in the last quarter of 2009. It is significantly different from its predecessor. ISO 9004:2009 embodies the quality management principle relating to continual improvement. The technical experts made bold strides in their quest to address market…
Stephen J. Marshall
Printed circuite board (PCB) manufacturing is moving rapidly up the technology ladder. Keeping internal processes current (and compliant) with new requirements, without disrupting existing customer demands, presents ongoing risks. To minimize potential failures, it is necessary to identify and…
Bill Kalmar
Every now and then I like to relax in my comfortable Lazy Boy chair and contemplate what’s going on in the world and how it affects my life. Being retired gives people that option. Obviously it is beyond me to change any of the following thoughts, but perhaps there is someone reading this who has…
Donald J. Wheeler
In my column of Jan. 7, “The Right and Wrong Ways of Computing Limits,” I looked at the problems in computing limits for average charts. This column will consider the right and wrong ways of computing limits for charts for individual values. As before, a data set will be given that you can use to…
Raissa Carey
As in any good relationship, open communication is vital and Toyota Motor Corp., which recently suspended production and sales of eight models suspected of having sticky accelerator pedal problems, now has the perfect chance to show the world how healthy a relationship it has with its customers…
Tom Pyzdek
While we work to improve quality and efficiency, our leaders manage our organizations into oblivion. Literally. Something is terribly wrong. Leaders of major corporations in virtually all industries do things that cause them to, either accidentally or deliberately, destroy billions of dollars in…
Denis Leonard
A key aspect of quality management is the importance we place on employees, i.e., valuing people. We spend a significant amount of time and money officially sending this message to our team, espousing this pillar of quality. Yet, while doing this, we often directly contradict this by sending a…
Jane Martinsons
With or without health care reform, health care quality professionals know that change is already a new reality for U.S. health care, transforming the industry, their own organizations, and their professional roles on what seems a daily basis.
“With all the changes that we’re facing in health…
Jennifer Sprance
The molecular diagnostics industry is a relatively new territory that offers much promise for early disease detection and personalized patient care. When analyzing samples at the molecular level, there are serious consequences for errors, and tests must be highly accurate and precise. For example…
Steve Moore
The purpose of this article is to give you an appreciation of the Quincunx as an educational tool for teaching some of the theory behind the tools and concepts of so-called modern quality management. The Quincunx is often seen in the possession of organizations practicing in-house education of…
Florence Stone
Problem solving can take up a lot of managerial time. So it makes sense for you to resolve problems before they develop, let alone grow to affect the bottom line. As a manager, you practice preventive management for just this reason. You understand how problems often can be identified in their…
Dan Adams
If you’re like most business-to-business (B2B) suppliers, you’re probably making certain predictable mistakes that can greatly affect your ability to compete. Unless your company has smarter employees, some inherent unassailable advantage, or a markedly different approach to satisfying customers,…
Konica Minolta Sensing Americas Inc.
Alfred Kärcher GmbH & Co. KG is a global leader in the field of cleaning technology. Their innovative cleaning products are manufactured in Baden-Württemberg, continuously improved, efficiently marketed and have provided the company with continuous, organic growth. Today, almost 60 years after…
Reishauer AG is a company with a long tradition in the gear industry. Reishauer’s products range from tooth profile grinding machines, to diamond and CBN tools, which the company exports to industrial states throughout the world. Teeth on gears with a diameter of 150 mm to 1,000 mm are given their…
Bill Kalmar
Most of us, I suspect are familiar with the phrase, “Dog Days of Summer,” meaning the hottest, most sultry days of summer, typically early July through early September. Sometimes the time frame is defined as a dull lack of progress.
To the best of my knowledge, there is not a similar event in…
Dong-Yea Sheu
This article describes a novel, integrated micromanufacturing process utilizing a combination of wire electro discharge grinding (WEDG) technology and one-pulse electro discharge (OPED) to fabricate microspherical stylus tips for microcoordinate measuring machines (μCMM). With an optimal selection…
