We have all had to plan a trip to the airport. Sometimes it goes well and sometimes not so well. One of the problems we have is dealing with the variation in the trip time to the airport.

If you have been following my articles over the last few months, you have seen that even though statistical process control (SPC) charts are very powerful tools for examining a process, it turns out that there are a lot of ways to mess up SPC.

(Plex Systems: Auburn Hills, MI) -- Plex Systems Inc., provider of the No. 1-rated enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for manufacturers, recently announced enhanced configurable dashboard features that increase productivity and efficiency from the shop floor to the top floor.

(Baumer Group: Southington, CT) -- To increase the flexibility of machine vision systems and allow control over custom-designed LED illumination, Baumer has introduced advanced gigabit Ethernet (GigE) cameras outfitted with four independent input/output (I/O) ports located adjacent to the trigge

(Mahr Federal: Providence, RI) -- Mahr Federal has introduced the next generation of portable surface finish measuring instruments with the new MarSurf M 300.

(Olympus America: Center Valley, PA) -- The study of surface roughness, which can affect everything from the way a coating adheres to a pill to the way light travels through solar panels, is one of the fastest growing areas of industrial research and development.

 Story update 9/23/09: Reference to 9.5.2.f was changed to 8.5.2.f in second paragraph.

(Magnatag Visible Systems: Macedon, NY) -- Visual communications are important for successful lean manufacturing. Inventory, safety, quality, and productivity are key metrics in lean manufacturing.