(Marposs: Auburn Hills, MI) -- Marposs, a leader in measurement, inspection, and test technologies, has announced its NVH Gear Tester for identifying potential gear defects at the component level prior to gear box assembly. The NVH gear tester, which works on the single-flank testing principle of one master gear meshing with the component under inspection, is able to detect macro-geometry (e.g., nicks, runout) and micro-geometry (gear-mesh excitation, ghost orders) defects that cause gear whine and noise phenomena.

With electrification of the automotive industry, many hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and full electric vehicle (EV) drivetrains are facing challenges such as increased NVH requirements in high-speed e-Drives. And, although the number of gear wheels is significantly reduced in electric vehicles due to the use of one- or two-speed reducers instead of the classic manual, automatic, or twin-clutch gearboxes, these gear wheels are loaded with torque and rpm not previously found in high-volume production.

With hybrids and EVs, the noise from an internal combustion engine (ICE) is intermittent or nonexistent, so that transmission makes the most dominant vehicle noise. Noise, therefore, becomes not only a mechanical issue for the performance of the transmission, but also a comfort issue for the driver.

(EASE: Mission Viejo, CA) -- Ease Inc., a leading provider in plant floor audits and insights software for manufacturers, has announced the 2021 Champions for Quality Award winners. In this fourth year of the awards there were a record number of nominations from across multiple countries and continents.

Often quality professionals don’t get much attention until something goes wrong: a rise in defects, scrap or re-work, a major quality escape or customer complaint. The Champions for Quality Awards aim to recognize the people who are behind building a culture of quality and building long-lasting quality processes which positively impact the bottom line.

The Champions for Quality Awards combine public award nominations from manufacturers around the world with insight-driven awards from the EASE plant floor audit platform. The awards recognize individuals, specific manufacturing facilities, and entire organizations across a range of categories.

I just received and read the “2021 ASQE Insights on Excellence Executive Brief.” The brief examines how quality initiatives are progressing in the digital era, based on the views and experiences of 542 executives and quality professionals from global enterprises. Here we go again, I thought.

Yes, technology drives change, change drives new quality issues, and new quality issues drive quality professionals to come up with new quality performance metrics and enhancements. I’ve read these same platitudes for years. We believe that systemic issues of quality can be solved with new programs, new spreadsheets, or new ways to calculate quality performance. Obviously, some of the solutions hit the root cause of a specific issue. But the systemic factor, which has always been present and is at the heart of all matters of quality as technology drives change, is management.

Management in most companies is the root cause of not keeping up with technology or the market, or the generational changes needed as younger employees are hired. It’s all about culture and behaviors. As an example, let’s compare and contrast safety and quality.

Organizations will need to pivot their corporate culture if they wish to survive and thrive in the world of virtual collaboration after the pandemic. The most important changes will stem from the wide-scale and permanent shift to hybrid and fully remote modes of working.

Between 65 percent to 75 percent of employers intend to have a mainly hybrid schedule, with a minority of staff fully remote. This is being led by large companies that announced a permanent switch. Combining hybrid and fully remote work largely matches what employees want.