(ANSI: New York) -- During the last 24 months, U.S. businesses have created more than 3.9 million jobs, indicating that the economy is continuing a steady course of recovery.

(API: Rockland, MD) -- Earlier this month, API Services announced its acquisition of R&C Service Solutions Inc., a full-service, machine-tool support service company located in Arizona. R&C is now operating as API Services: Southwest Division.

(Newport: Bozeman, MT) -- ILX Lightwave, a Newport Corp.

(AICON: Braunschweig, Germany) -- The newly developed software platform BendingStudio has been introduced by AICON. BendingStudio connects all data and processes around the production of bended parts, from production process planning to manufacturing to quality control.

(AQSENSE: Girona, Spain) -- AQSENSE, developer of 3-D machine vision technologies has a 3-D Shape Analysis Library, SAL3D, a library for cloud-points acquisition and manipulation, w

(Mettler-Toledo: Greifensee, Switzerland) -- Mettler-Toledo has announced an upcoming free webinar with special guest presenter Dr. Roy Helmy, global lead for analytical chemistry at Merck.

(Productivity Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- Instead of building new hospitals that import old systems and problems, the time has come to reexamine many of our ideas about what a hospital should be. Can a building foster continuous improvement?

In work, as in life, we learn from trial and error: I was having Problem A, so I implemented Solution A, and it didn’t work. Then I tried Solution B and it did. Next time I’ll know to use Solution B first thing.

I will not be accused of burying the lead here, and say right up front: Your value stream is wrong. And it always will be. This is a good thing because as we work from day to day, the steps we take to complete our work can subtly or even violently change.

Is customer service a lost art, or are today’s customers harder to please?