Quality inspection has always depended on people who know what they are looking at. That remains true as automated visual inspection becomes faster and more widely deployed. The strongest systems don’t try to remove expert judgment completely.

Quality teams throughout the food manufacturing industry face increasingly difficult obstacles and risks while keeping our food safe.

I’ve written many times about how air gauging allows you to measure many jobs faster, more conveniently, and more accurately than other gauging methods.

Most manufacturing engineers have experienced some version of the same problem: A production process successfully completes validation. The production part approval process (PPAP) is approved.

Imagine running a race where every second counts and your competition is constantly breathing down your neck. That’s the magic (or madness) of cycle time.

Operations leaders usually have more maintenance data than they can use.

3D printing has matured from a speculative sci-fi fantasy into a practical tool.

Ask anyone who’s bought a handheld 3D scanner with optical tracking system in the last few years about what sold them, and you’ll hear about speed. More points per second. Larger scanning areas. Faster data capture.

The vision system scanned the part and logged a pass. The SPC chart stayed inside its control limits. The line kept moving.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects are among the most significant technology investments an organization will ever make. They support everything from finance and procurement to inventory management, customer service, and workforce planning.