All Features
Mike Micklewright
It’s pretty obvious that in so many companies, based on their actions and behaviors, CEOs and other top managers just don’t get ISO 9001 and all the derivative standards. The following 10 signs are written in no particular order. You’ll need to be the judge as to which ones are most prevalent…
Miriam Boudreaux
The ISO 9001 standard’s requirements with regard to suppliers are very short and concise but carry a lot of punch. These requirements can be very deceiving and in fact are often misinterpreted and carried out poorly or partially. By implementing the clause correctly, an organization will get the…
Makino
Many U.S. manufacturers have struggled to grow in the face of global competition and economic uncertainty. These factors have challenged the industry, put pressure on prices, and forced many shops out of business.
MacKay Manufacturing of Spokane, Washington, had a history of steady growth…
Resistance to the National Animal Identification Scheme (NAIS) has been strong. This six-year-old USDA policy initiative to reduce the catastrophic effects to the livestock and meat industry from a major animal disease outbreak has received so much negative reaction from so many and now seems…
Davis Balestracci
Remember my previous article on the quality pyramid where the very top element emphasizes the concept of “process?” One of the most powerful points to get across in any quality improvement effort is that your current processes are perfectly designed to get the results they are already getting.…
Chris Hardee
As moviegoers, we have all seen a wide range of animation—from early Disney features, such as “Snow White,” to Japanese anime, and Pixar’s “Toy Story,” to an assortment of recent blockbusters that seamlessly integrate animation with real actors. With each release, the movie magic gets more amazing…
Donald J. Wheeler
Following my article on Leptokurtophobics (Do You Have Leptokurtophobia?) it was almost inevitable that we should hear from one. We were fortunate to have someone as articulate as Forrest Breyfogle III to write the response. However, rather than offering a critique of the points raised in my…
Fluke Corp.
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n process manufacturing, temperature uniformity is essential. Technicians rely on monitoring of all kinds, from fixed mount sensors to hand-held thermal imagers to track the condition of product and critical equipment. That’s because temperature measurement and control is one of the single…
Lonnie Wilson
Five things to lean my company? In two days? That's pretty quick. Why so quickly?
I can think of two reasons. First, people expect things to be done better and faster each day; and it appears we’re getting decent at doing just that. Lean has made huge strides toward contributing to that “…
FARO
Rocky Mountain Hydro Electric Plant is a pumped storage facility located in the Appalachian mountains of Northwest Georgia, approximately 62 miles from Chattanooga, Tennessee. The facility is co-owned by Oglethorpe Power Corporation (75%) and Georgia Power (25%), with all operations and…
Mark Graban
A couple of Sundays ago, I read this New York Times article about Apple's "App Store" for the iPhone and iPod Touch (I've been a pretty happy iPhone user for the past three months after switching over from BlackBerry).
I'm going to try to use this example to teach about two concepts that can be…
H. James Harrington
In Miguel de Cervantes' The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha, Don Quixote dreams of being a brave knight who rides a great steed to fight for what is right. That dream turned into a vision where he and his squire, Sancho Panza, were fighting dragons and saving fair damsels in distress.…
If ever there was an industry in which time compression is the name of the game, it’s Formula 1 Grand Prix motor racing.
Scuderia Toro Rosso, owned by the Red Bull Co., is among the Formula 1 teams looking for new and better ways to compress development and production times, while increasing…
Bill Kalmar
The band “Chicago” sang those words about "time" decades ago. The second line “Does anybody really care?” seems to sum up what is still in vogue today, especially in the workplace. Just as with vacations where workers are reluctant to leave for fear that someone will discover that their job is…
Developing and refining the advanced processes for its manufacturing and assembly operation is no small task for Irvine, California-based Coast Composites Inc. The company makes large, precise tooling for the aerospace industry. The scale and accuracy requirements of their product creates quality…
Thomas J. Duesterberg Ph.D.
In the worst economic climate since the 1930s, and at a time of intensified political change, manufacturers are experiencing difficulties in articulating a clear and strong message about the health of their sector and how policy change might affect it. What follows are 10 summary points intended…
Minitab LLC
Story update 8/27/2009: An error was spotted and corrected by author in paragraph starting with "The population mean for a six-sided die..."
Mark Twain famously quipped that there were three ways to avoid telling the truth: lies, damned lies, and statistics. The joke works because statistics…
Michelle Paret, Eston Martz
Story update 8/27/2009: An error was spotted and corrected by author in paragraph starting with "The population mean for a six-sided die..."
Mark Twain famously quipped that there were three ways to avoid telling the truth: lies, damned lies, and statistics. The joke works because statistics…
Denise Robitaille
The final draft of the revised ISO 9004 standard is out for ballot. This means that it will hopefully be available before the end of this year. It’s radically different from the last version. For one thing, the title has changed. It’s now: “Managing for the sustained success of an organization—A…
Miriam Boudreaux
Even after many years of hearing the words ISO 9000 and seeing many organizations achieve registration to ISO 9001, there are still companies who are skeptical when it comes to going for ISO 9001 registration. For some, a misconception about the objectives of the ISO 9001 standard or a lack of…
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
The sweet strains of a Puccini aria cut through the Saturday night clatter of the busy Italian restaurant in New York City, but it wasn’t coming from the aging voice of the Sicilian baritone, who was hired to belt out favorites such as “Funiculi-Funicula.” It was a soprano whose crystal-clear…
Forrest Breyfogle—New Paradigms
Story update 8/24/2009: The original graphics for this story were missing key data due to errors in converting them. We have fixed the problem.
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n “Do You Have Leptokurtophobia?” Don Wheeler stated, “‘But the software suggests transforming the data!’ Such advice is simply another piece of…
International Electrotechnical Commission IEC
To come to the brow of a hill and see on the horizon a line of giant wind turbines, their arms turning majestically, never fails to take one’s breath away. These are awesome structures, imposing in their size, their grandeur—and their simplicity.
World wind power capacity
Wind turbines are…
Brenda Bence
All you have to do is look around you to know that brands are powerful. In fact, most people are so loyal to certain brands that they stick with them for life. If brand-name products can evoke that kind of loyalty, why can't people? Well, they can!
The truth is that we all have a personal brand…
Davis Balestracci
Why do major change initiatives fail? It seems obvious: major change will not happen easily for a long list of reasons. However, if you feel your organization is overmanaged and underled with tendencies toward an inwardly focused culture, paralyzing bureaucracy, parochial politics, a low level of…
