All Features
DimEye Corp.
(DimEye Corp.: Houston) -- Global subsea equipment solutions specialist, Ashtead Technology has secured a global agreement with US photogrammetry and software firm, DimEye, for the provision of subsea 3D modeling services to the offshore oil and gas industry.
The collaboration will see Ashtead…
Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence
(Hexagon Metrology: North Kingstown, RI) -- Hexagon Metrology announced a new generation of external laser scanner for use with the new ROMER Absolute Arm. The Hexagon Probe Laser 20.8 (HP-L-20.8) replaces the successful CMS108 laser scanner, offering improved performance even on complex surfaces…
FARO
(FARO: Lake Mary, FL) -- FARO Technologies, Inc., known for its 3D measurement, imaging, and realization technology, has acquired The CAD Zone, Inc., a software provider in the law enforcement, accident, and crime-scene reconstruction market. CAD Zone’s point cloud software application will be…
InnovMetric Software
(InnovMetric: Québec, QC) -- “The best part of the new InnovMetric website is how it exemplifies our philosophy and follows the evolution of the company,” states a beaming Marc Soucy, President of InnovMetric Software, “the hard work has paid off by creating a much more user-friendly and…
ACQUIP
(ACQUIP: Miami Beach, FL) -- ACQUIP Rotating Equipment Solutions, the industry leader for laser alignment launched the new adjustable magnetic base mount kit that enables any measurement arm or laser tracker to be mounted on plates, parts and any other curved surface, which makes it the ideal tool…
Ron Rode
“So what’s the weather gonna do today?” I am sure that we have all been asked that after answering the first question (about what we do for a living) with: “Metrology.”
Metrology or meteorology? Both are studies of a particular science but are two words that are easily mistaken or misinterpreted…
API Services
(API: Rockville, MD) -- Automated Precision Inc. (API) has announced it has released the newest generation of its I-360 suite of handheld probing and scanning accessories to the Radian Laser Tracker.
All three models in the product family have been updated. New features include: • The wireless…
NASA
Thanks to NASA’s Kepler and Spitzer Space Telescopes, scientists have made the most precise measurement ever of the radius of a planet outside our solar system. The size of the exoplanet, dubbed Kepler-93b, is now known to an uncertainty of just 74 miles (119 km) on either side of the planetary…
Frost and Sullivan
(Frost & Sullivan: San Antonio) -- Rapid automation of automotive manufacturing plants is one of the key factors driving the demand for in-line metrology solutions in the automotive industry. Several powertrain and body-in-white manufacturers will replace traditional, manual measurement…
Bruce Hamilton
While I am an unabashed proponent of learning by doing, I have a list of books that have been essential to me over the years as a framework for experiential learning.
Most of these books were written before 1990, and one of the most insightful, Managerial Engineering (Productivity Press, 1983) by…
Jesse Lyn Stoner
Today begins my last week as executive director of the Berrett-Koehler Foundation. This is the second time I’ve done this with an organization—served as executive director during the startup phase—and I’ve learned many lessons along the way.
My involvement began two years ago when Steve Piersanti…
Mike Figliuolo
Repeat after me: “No.”
Try it again. This time with conviction: “NO.”
Strategy is inherently about saying no. It’s about the choices we make, and the ones we don’t make. I’ve seen plenty of strategies completely derailed due to an inability to say no to that incremental initiative that’s kind of…
Harry Hertz
‘It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage, than the creation of a new system.” This quote is not taken from the words of a modern-day CEO, although he or she might have said it, but from Niccolò Machiavelli in the…
Akhilesh Gulati
Editor’s note: This article continues the series exploring structured innovation using the TRIZ methodology, a problem solving, analysis, and forecasting tool derived from studying patterns of invention found in global patent data.
The TRIZ executive council group had taken a break during summer…
Davis Balestracci
In my last column, I showed the power of process-oriented thinking with a safety scenario. A simple run chart demonstrated that, despite meeting an aggressive 25-percent reduction goal (i.e., 45 accidents during the first year, and 32 the following year), the process that produced the 32 was no…
American National Standards Institute ANSI
(ANSI: Washington, DC) -- Registration is now open for the upcoming American National Standards Institute (ANSI) webinar, What is an American National Standard, anyway? Offered by ANSI free of charge, the webinar will take place on Wed., Sept. 17, 2014, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Eastern.
The webinar…
Michelle LaBrosse
Are you feeling stuck in your job? Although an all-out career change may be a good choice for some, you don’t need to make such a drastic move to breathe new life into your current position.
Developing skills in project management, even if you’re not a project manager, empowers you to make the…
MIT News
Materials that are firmly bonded together with epoxy and other tough adhesives are ubiquitous in modern life—from crowns on teeth to modern composites used in construction. Yet it has proved remarkably difficult to study how these bonds fracture and fail, and how to make them more resistant to…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has opened a competition to award new cooperative funding agreements for its Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) centers in 10 states. The competition is the first in a multiyear effort to update…
Matthew E. May
A new strategy requires that some conclusions be made about the old one. The old strategy must be reframed as a choice between at least two mutually exclusive choices, from which some initial possibilities can be considered through focused, facilitated brainstorming.
(Side rant to all the…
Gerry Sandusky
Standing on the football field in the fall of 2011, hours before a Baltimore Ravens game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, I reached out to shake the hand of former NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol and introduced myself. “Nice to meet you,” I said. “I’m Gerry Sandusky.”
He snatched his hand back…
Carly Barry
Via Christi Health, the largest provider of healthcare in Kansas, operates a Center for Clinical Excellence that’s made up of a team of quality practitioners; all have had lean and Six Sigma training. I recently had the opportunity to talk with the team about the types of projects they’re working…
Dimensional Metrology Standards Consortium DMSC
(DMSC: Burleson, TX) -- The Dimensional Metrology Standards Consortium (DMSC) will be conducting multivendor demonstrations of its quality information framework (QIF) during the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS 2014), Sept. 8–13, 2014, at Chicago’s McCormick Place. The QIF is a…
Arun Hariharan
Here is the story of two companies from the same industry. Let’s call them Company A and Company B. Both have a similar history, started in business at around the same time, are among the big players in the industry, and operate in the same markets. They even have approximately the same number of…
Automated Precision Inc.
(API: Rockville, MD) -- Automated Precision Inc. (API) has released the newest generation of its I-360 suite of handheld probing and scanning accessories to the Radian Laser Tracker.
Sensing robotics automation integration
All three models in the product family have been updated. New features…
