All Features
Scott Sandwith
No matter how much metrology experience you have gained as a practitioner, the 2019 Coordinate Metrology Society Conference (CMSC) is designed so every level of attendee can learn something new. CMSC provides the venue to explore new concepts, systems, interfaces, tools, and the opportunity to…
Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence
(Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence: North Kingstown, RI) -- Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division recently announced it has broken ground on the construction of a new expansion project on a 5-acre site in Novi, MI. Slated for completion in the Fall of 2019, the 88,000 sq. ft. building will…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have created a chip on which laser light interacts with a tiny cloud of atoms to serve as a miniature toolkit for measuring important quantities, such as length, with quantum precision. The design…
(SHINING 3D: Hangzhou, China) -- SHINING 3D has released its newest industrial-level metrology solution comprised of three products: the FreeTrak optical tracker, the Freescan Trak 3D scanner, and the FreeTrak Probe, which work in conjunction or separately to provide a truly comprehensive…
ZEISS Industrial Quality Solutions
(Carl Zeiss IMT: Maple Grove, MN) -- ZEISS is expanding the industrial metrology and quality assurance portfolio of its Industrial Quality & Research segment by acquiring GOM, a leading provider of hardware and software for automated 3D coordinate measuring technology. Both ZEISS and GOM have…
(Evatronix: Bielsko-Biala, Poland) -- Evatronix launched its eviXmatic automated quality inspection system in North America at the Rapid+ TCT Expo 2019, May 21–23, in Detroit, MI. eviXmatic is a four-axis solution integrating the eviXscan 3D scanner to perform full-field, noncontact part…
InnovMetric Software
(InnovMetric Software Inc.: Quebec, PQ) -- InnovMetric Software Inc., a leading provider of universal 3D metrology software solutions, has announced the launch of the 2019 release of the PolyWorks Metrology Suite. This latest major release delivers new object measurement scripts that open the door…

William A. Levinson
Anthony Chirico1 describes how narrow-limit gauging (NLG, aka compressed limit plans) can reduce enormously the required sample size, and therefore the inspection cost, of a traditional attribute sampling plan. The procedure consists of moving acceptance limits t standard deviations inside the…

Jon Terry
Lean solutions represent an evolved method of approaching how business is done. It’s all about transparency, about you and your colleagues being accountable and maximizing efficiency to bring the most value to your customers. At the team level, lean processes help guide teams and individuals to…

Nicola Olivetti
According to a report by PwC, industrial sectors worldwide plan to invest $900 billion in Industry 4.0 each year. Despite these growing technology investments, only a few technologies are significantly mature to drive measurable quality impacts. Digital visual management (DVM) is one of them, being…
Vision Engineering Ltd.
(Vision Engineering: Woking, UK) -- May 14, 2019, saw the launch of the LVC400, the first fully automated 3-axis video measurement system from Vision Engineering.
Ideal for measuring large components or multiple small components, quickly, easily, and accurately, LVC400 offers faster measurement,…

Jesse Allred
Lean manufacturing is a philosophy focused on maximizing productivity and eliminating waste while creating a quality product. One of the most powerful strategies in the lean toolbox is total productive maintenance (TPM), a system targeting continuous improvement through a holistic approach to…

Ryan E. Day
In the article, “ANSI’s Role in the Wide World of Standards,” (Quality Digest, March 12, 2019), we looked at where standards originate and how companies are involved in developing them. In this article, we’ll outline four points that can help your organization integrate standards into your…

Annette Franz
I have been doing a bit of speaking lately, either about journey mapping or with journey mapping as part of the talk, and I’ve learned a lot, or rather, confirmed a lot. Namely, you might think you’re journey mapping, you call it journey mapping, but it’s not really journey mapping. Here’s what…

Kevin Price
In the world of risk management, maintenance of mission-critical equipment drives priorities and budgets. It is the ultimate test of proactive maintenance and smart decision making. Managing assets that “cannot be allowed to fail” is more than an emotionally charged mandate that forces managers…

Venkat Viswanathan, Shashank Sripad, William Fredericks
As electric cars and trucks appear increasingly on U.S. highways, it raises the question: When will commercially viable electric vehicles take to the skies? There are a number of ambitious efforts to build electric-powered airplanes, including regional jets and planes that can cover longer…

Amadou Diallo
At James Lick High School the slate-gray Chromebooks are ubiquitous. Rolling cabinets stocked with dozens of the laptops sit in classrooms where teachers assign them to students for everything from researching hereditary DNA to writing essays. In this majority-Latino school of 1,100 students, 84…

Shobhendu Prabhakar
Someone recently asked me why quality failures and safety incidents continue to occur despite organizations communicating their quality and safety visions to the workforce, developing and implementing quality and safety management systems, and campaigning day in and day out about quality and safety…

Ryan E. Day
Brodie International provides liquid flow-meters and equipment for the petroleum and industrial markets. The company specializes in producing high-precision meters and valves that are used in the custody transfer of petroleum products.
The challenge
Brodie products involve components with complex…

Chris Woolston, Knowable Magazine
Companies spend millions of dollars and burn countless hours conducting performance reviews and devising checklists to assess their employees, and business scholars have studied the issue with great urgency and intensity. The results so far? By all available evidence, formal attempts to rate…
Zontec
(Zontec: Cincinnati)-- Zontec Inc., a worldwide leader in statistical process control (SPC) software that improves manufacturing quality, has announced the availability of Synergy 1000 and Synergy 1000+ v. 10.0.
The Synergy 1000 and Synergy 1000+ products are part of an entire suite of Zontec SPC…

Ronda Culbertson
The AS9100 family of standards has completed very important updates, raising the business management quality bar again for aerospace and defense suppliers and OEMs. The transition to the new standards caught quite a few organizations somewhat flat-footed; particularly with the emphases on risk…

Steven Brand
How do you know if your election vote is really counted? How do you know the person you’re chatting with online really is who they say they are? And how do you know if a product you purchase has really met quality standards?
These three scenarios may not seem like they have much in common, but…

Bill Laverty
Operations management plays an important role in the manufacturing process, but similar to a stage crew at a theater, operations managers do all their best work behind the scenes. The best operations managers strive to go unnoticed, and why shouldn’t they? A seamless supply-chain process should…

Harry Hertz
Recently I’ve seen some startling statistics from Gallup and Glassdoor about employee and customer engagement. I hope those statistics do not represent data from any organization you or I associate with. The actions of senior leaders, as well as setting the right focus on employees, can prevent…