(AirLoc: Franklin, MA) — Coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) are subject to floor disturbances from nearby production equipment, such as stamping presses, and forklift traffic, which affect the measuring accuracy of these sensitive machines.

Just as many industry sectors have been experiencing this year, the machine tools industry has seen a slow period in consumption and distribution of manufacturing technology.

Almost everyone celebrates something during the winter solstice—Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc.—which inevitably includes gift exchanging. Following are some suggestions that run the gamut from technical to personal growth to just plain entertainment.

The Six Sigma journey of many organizations has morphed into “lean Six Sigma” during the past couple of years.

(API: Rockvile, MD) -- Automated Precision Inc. recently announced that its pioneering efforts in volumetric accuracy for large machine tools (VALMT) was recognized with a Defense Manufacturing Excellence Award presented by the National Center for Advanced Technologies (NCAT).

(ASTM: West Conshohocken, PA) --  ASTM International Committee E07 on nondestructive testing has recently approved three new standards on phased arrays, polymer matrix composites for aerospace applications, and digital imaging. The committee will be meeting in Plantation, Florida, on Jan.

(KnowWare International: Denver) -- The QI Macros SPC Software for Excel announces the addition of Levene's Test of variance in normal and non-normal data. One of the keys to Six Sigma in manufacturing and service industries is the reduction of variation.

On Dec. 4, a California-based consumer watchdog group announced that testing performed by them on the enormously popular Zhu Zhu Pets showed that levels of the heavy metal antimony were in excess of federal limits.

Story update 11/23/2010: A paragraph was added to the end of this case study to reflect the current state of the company's quality initiatives.