During a recent trip to the great state of Texas, I heard some down-home wisdom: “Before you season your food, why don’t you taste it first?” The person who uttered that question was not talking about food.

(McGraw-Hill: New York) -- Toyota. The name signifies greatness—world-class cars and game-changing business thinking. One key to the Toyota Motor Co.’s unprecedented success is its famous production system and its lesser-known product development program.

(Riegl: Orlando, FL) -- Riegl USA, developer and manufacturer of 3-D laser scanners, has released the fully automatic Multiple Time Around (MTA) zone-detection workflow for the LMS-Q680i scanner.

(PQ Systems: Dayton, OH) -- CHARTrunner Lean software from PQ Systems, provider of the simplest solutions to apply practical statistics to improve quality, is the perfect companion for your quality program. It can help visualize your improvement progress in real time.

(IHI: Cambridge, MA) -- The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has announced details of its 13th Annual International Summit on Improving Patient Care in the Office Practice & the Community.

(ANSI: New York) -- The U.S.

(SME: Dearborn, MI) -- Nanomanufacturing is no longer the next frontier. It’s in action today, and it is improving products and processes while saving manufacturers money along the way.

(Konica Minolta: Ramsey, NJ) -- Konica Minolta Sensing Americas Inc.

(TÜV SÜD: Peabody, MA) -- TÜV SÜD America Inc. will participate as a Gold Sponsor at the Global Food Safety Conference Feb.

(AIA: Ann Arbor, MI) -- AIA, the global industry trade group for vision and imaging companies, recently unveiled its vision for the future—a new brand identity emphasizing AIA’s commitment to advancing vision and imaging technology worldwide.