All Features
Kevin Meyer
Most of us have learned that being busy does not mean you’re being productive, and that multitasking leads to being less productive—although I still see that being harped on as a “skill” on resumes and profiles. Leading organizations manage by clearly defined objectives rather than arbitrary and…
The QA Pharm
Weekly CGMP Quiz 1: Part 210 & 211 Subpart A General Provisions. Use with your team for training credit!
This is the first of eleven quizzes on CGMPs that will appear weekly on QA Pharm. Try it yourself, and use it as a discussion tool for your staff groups. Also, each quiz will have one…
Marposs
(Marposs: Auburn Hills, MI) -- Marposs has announced the availability of its new data management software—C-THRU4.0, designed to collect and process data from multiple machine tools equipped with Artis machine monitoring systems via a central hub. This information can be accessed remotely, via an…
Dustin Poppendieck
On August 29, 2005, I was starting my first semester teaching freshman environmental engineering majors at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. At the exact same time, Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi with 190 kph (120 mph) winds and a storm surge in excess of 6 meters (…
Heather Thompson
Software as a medical device (SaMD) is a growing sector in medical device technology. Through the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, SaMD has the power to influence health on a global scale as well as allow for personalization in medicine and life-saving therapies.
Medical device…
Matt Kunkel
Third-party vendors are increasingly working with their own third parties (fourth and fifth parties), spreading your data across many different vendors. This can make your company an easy target for cybersecurity threats, especially if your organization is a hospital or part of the healthcare…
Jennifer Chu
In today’s factories and warehouses, it’s not uncommon to see robots whizzing about, shuttling items or tools from one station to another. For the most part, robots navigate pretty easily across open layouts. But they have a much harder time winding through narrow spaces to carry out tasks such as…
ISO
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly ubiquitous in various industry sectors, establishing a common terminology for AI and examining its various applications is more important than ever. In the international standardization arena, much work is being undertaken by ISO/IEC’s joint…
Helmel Engineering
(Helmel Engineering: Niagara Falls, NY) -- Helmel Engineering, a 46-year-old American manufacturer of coordinate measuring machines (CMM), has introduced a new CMM developed to take advantage of the capabilities of Renishaw’s PH20 Probe concept. The Microstar Model 320-185 is an evolution of the…
Chad Kymal
With the advent of the internet, cloud, and electronic workflows, what is the future of documented management systems? Do we continue with a structure of quality manual, processes, work instructions, and forms and checklists? How do we imagine the future of documented management systems?
For…
Jim Benson
Editor’s note: This is episode two in the Respect for People series. Click here for episode one.
When we build any working system, we need to understand and appreciate how people naturally exchange information. They withhold some things, say some other things. Some of this is fear, some is…
Donald J. Wheeler
Lean production is built on the explicit assumption that each step is operated predictably and capably. Predictable operation can only be achieved and maintained by using process behavior charts. But short production runs and multiple products make it hard to see how to use process behavior charts…
Julie Winkle Giulioni
If you’re like many leaders, you are knee-deep in preparing strategies and tactics to drive success in the new fiscal year. And that prompted me, in the first part or this two-part series, to pose the question: “What if leaders brought the same thoughtfulness, rigor, and discipline that we apply to…
Robert Fangmeyer
This is an exciting time of the year for the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, as we welcome our newest Baldrige Award recipients to the Baldrige family of role model organizations. We celebrate our award recipients and look forward to recognizing them at the 32nd Annual Quest for Excellence…
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
I recently wrote a column about loyalty, which got me thinking about trust. I wondered who is in my life that I trust, and who that I don’t trust. It didn’t take me long to realize that I trust everyone in my life because I shed those whom I don’t trust.
As I pondered trust, I recalled a woman I…
The company Grace Science was born through an inversion of the normal business sequence. Typically, if an entrepreneur launches a startup and it succeeds, the founders will create a nonprofit, declaring, “We want to give back.” In this case, the nonprofit spawned the startup.
The company’s…
Larry Emond
No matter where you’re located, you might think that Schneider Electric is a native company. It’s an easy assumption to make. The €25.7-billion energy, automation, and software solutions company is officially headquartered in France, but its strategy is to localize to the markets it’s in—and it’s…
Additive Manufacturing Technologies
(AMT: Sheffield, UK) -- Formnext 2019 opens today in Frankfurt where Advanced Manufacturing Technologies Ltd (AMT) will launch its proprietary Digital Manufacturing System (DMS). Visitors at Formnext will be the first to witness this innovative and comprehensive post processing system that…
Visual Workplace Inc.
(Visual Workplace: Byron Center, MI) -- Visual Workplace Inc. now offers a complete line of high-performance vinyl floor symbols, ideal for the industrial workplace with heavy traffic. Floor symbols and decals create a SMART floor environment and direct behavior, adding visual organization to any…
Brian Charles
It’s often difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when things change, but it usually happens faster than one imagines. Old technology gets replaced by new innovations; first by early adopters, and then, suddenly, by everyone. A century ago silent movies reigned, then talkies, and now 3D and virtual…
Dileep Thatte
According to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every year 48 million people in the United States get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases. That means one in six people in the United States get sick from contaminated food every 12…
William A. Levinson
How will the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement affect greenhouse gas emissions? Quality Digest editor in chief Dirk Dusharme and Mike Richman, principal at Richman Business Media Consulting, point out that most manufacturers already recognize that waste, including waste of energy…
Ken Voytek
Productivity matters. It matters a lot. Yet it often seems that folks talk about productivity but don’t do anything about it. At least, it feels that way to me when I go outside of the MEP National Network, where we’re always focused on enhancing manufacturing productivity. And you could say that…
NIST
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced today that six organizations will be presented with the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Baldrige is the nation’s only presidential award for performance excellence, recognizing U.S. organizations and businesses that have shown an unceasing drive…
Julie Winkle Giulioni
It’s the time of year when many leaders find themselves consumed by the business planning process. They scour through historical data, evaluate the current state, scan the environment, forecast the future, identify multiple scenarios that may present themselves, consider alternatives that will…
