All Features
Bill Kalmar
Have you ever had one of those days where confusion reigns and as each hour ensues, you find something new to dwell on that absolutely drives you nuts? Well, I just had one of those days. It started this morning as I was out for my daily five-mile run. As is my custom, I have my cell phone strapped…
Buehler
(Buehler: Lake Bluff, IL) -- By combining the industry’s most intuitive user interface, custom-designed optics, USB data communication, LED illumination, six turret positions, and an integrated digital camera, Buehler’s MicroMet 6000 Series establishes a new class of dead-weight micro-indentation…
Donald J. Wheeler
Whenever we present capability indexes the almost inevitable follow-up question is, “What is the fraction nonconforming?” What this question usually means is, “Tell me what these capability indexes mean in terms that I can understand.” These questions have resulted in multiple approaches to…
Cole-Parmer
(Cole-Parmer: Vernon Hills, IL) -- Cole-Parmer introduces their Compact Color Meters—ideal for checking painted surfaces, plastics, graphics, paper, textile, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics, plus food and agriculture. Meters containing a sapphire window offer extra protection for the color sensor.…
Wiley
(Wiley: Hoboken, NJ) -- Brand New: Solving the Innovation Paradox—How Great Brands Invent and Launch New Products, Services, and Business Models, by G. Michael Maddock, Luisa C. Uriarte, Paul B. Brown (Wiley, 2011) condenses decades of new-product-launch experience from the consulting firm Maddock…
Institute for Healthcare Improvement IHI
(IHI: Cambridge, MA) -- More than a decade of eye-opening mortality and morbidity studies have steadily increased awareness of the medical errors and defects in care that are heavily embedded in health care delivery. Work in this area, while robust, is far from complete and must be put on the front…
FDAnews
(FDAnews: Falls Church, VA) -- Register today for the Eighth Annual Medical Device Quality Congress, scheduled for June 8–9, 2011, in Bethesda, Maryland. This year the conference will feature more than 15 in-depth sessions headed up by leading quality experts, including sessions led by 10 officials…
Smarter Solutions Inc.
Teaching design of experiments (DOE) to students is not an easy task. It is difficult to simulate the entire effort within the constraints of a classroom. You can teach the analysis with software, but this is not enough to really gain an understanding of DOE. Smarter Solutions Inc. is offering…
NIST
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released a suite of green tea reference materials to help manufacturers evaluate the composition of their products and assure researchers of the accuracy of analytical methods for studying the human health effects of this popular…
Kinetic Systems
(Kinetic Systems: Boston) -- Kinetic Systems has designed a versatile, ultra-low-natural-frequency optical table isolation support system. Due to its unique Minus K negative-stiffness technology, the MK52 optical table isolation support system achieves low net vertical natural frequency without…
ZweigWhite
(ZweigWhite: Fayetteville, AR) -- In an era where creativity, reputation, and interconnectivity are highly desirable, more design firm leaders are turning to social media to strut their stuff, according to an informal online survey held by The Zweig Letter. According to the results, 75 percent…
Advanced Inspection Technologies Inc.
(Advanced Inspection Technologies: Melbourne, FL) -- The new Snakescope Video Borescope is portable and handheld, and can snake through areas as small as 5.5 mm (0.216 in.). This video borescope breaks the price barriers while offering a true, high-resolution image and advanced features. The…
The Beryl Institute
The Beryl Institute released a report highlighting results from its recent patient-experience benchmarking study, conducted in collaboration with Catalyst Healthcare Research, an independent marketing research firm. The report, which offers analysis and perspective on the study, can be…
Mayo Clinic
“We can do better” was the underlying takeaway message from the 15th annual Mayo Clinic Quality Conference. This year’s theme was “Creating and Paying for Value in Health Care.”
The conference, held May 3–4, 2011, in Rochester, Minnesota, drew about 1,000 people to hear national leaders in…
Mike Richman
Last month I wrote an article entitled “Being Comfortable in a World of Never-Ending Change.” Editor in Chief Dirk Dusharme and I also covered this story on the April 29th edition of Quality Digest Live (QDL). QDL, by the way, is our live video show wrap-up of the week’s top industry news and…
David L. Chandler
Photo: Greg Hren/RLE
Researchers at MIT have succeeded in making a fine thread that functions as a diode, a device at the heart of modern electronics. This feat—made possible by a new approach to a type of fiber manufacturing known as fiber drawing—could open up possibilities…
TÜV SÜD America
(TÜV SÜD: Peabody, MA) -- TÜV SÜD America Inc. announces that the ANSI Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Validation/Verification Accreditation Committee (GVAC) has approved its extension of scope of accreditation for GHG verification services.
Sector groups
TÜV SÜD America is now approved to perform project…
American National Standards Institute ANSI
(ANSI: New York) -- Nearly 200 representatives of industry, standards and conformance organizations, government, and consumer groups gathered in Washington, D.C.—and 70 more tuned in via teleconference—for the May 12, 2011, American National Standards Institute (ANSI) workshop, Standards Wars:…
AMA Service GmbH
(AMA Service: Wunstorf, Germany) -- The SENSOR+TEST trade fair, scheduled for June 7–9, 2011, in Nürnberg, Germany, is the world’s leading forum for sensors, measuring, and testing. From simple microsensors to complex test rigs, from ready-to-use components to individualized services, the SENSOR…
Douglas C. Fair
How do organizations confirm that supplier products comply with critical quality standards? For the most part, companies rely on inspectors to check incoming materials. Their results are compared with the company’s own quality standards and supplier-generated documents, such as certificates of…
Paton Professional
(Paton Professional: Chico, CA) -- With the economy still struggling, it’s increasingly clear that organizations need to get smarter with their resources or go out of business. Most modern businesses are required to comply with an astounding number of regulations, standards, and other rules,…
Cognex Corp.
(Cognex Corp.: Natick, MA) -- The high-performance, fixed-mount barcode reader, DataMan 500, from Cognex is now available for factory automation applications. DataMan 500 is the first ID reader to be powered by a proprietary vision chip, Cognex VSoC. The chip enables DataMan 500 to have unmatched…
Toyota Motor Sales
(Toyota Motor Sales: Torrance, CA) -- Toyota has received recommendations provided in a report from its independent North American Quality Advisory Panel, led by former Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater.
“We appreciate the panel’s efforts to help us further strengthen our processes, and we…
Robert Napoletano
The customer is always right. Everything we are taught about customer satisfaction is intended to keep us focused on this one principle, and we need to keep this in mind whenever we deal with the customer. Everybody’s business revolves around a customer base, whether we are a service company or…
Tom Pyzdek
Lean, Six Sigma, and quality provide a set of tools and a framework for achieving excellence in any process. Quality professionals are able to help organizations determine if customer requirements are properly defined and if the organization is meeting those requirements. Lean practitioners have a…
