All Features
H. James Harrington
Back in 1986 I documented a list of 13 fundamental truths that applied to all organizations. I ran across these statements recently when I was looking for some comments made by a past IBM president that I wanted to use in a new book I am writing. As I thought back over the past 25 years, I realized…
Davis Balestracci
My March 30, 2011 article ended with wisdom from Yogi Berra as a warning to the quality profession. Some prickly reactions to it got me thinking about the last 30 years or so of quality improvement.
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The 1980 NBC television show, “If Japan Can, Why Can’t We?” introduced the…
ASQ
(ASQ: Milwaukee) -- The International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) has awarded the American Society for Quality (ASQ)—the world’s largest network of quality resources and experts—the prestigious Authorized Provider status. IACET Authorized Providers are the only…
FasTest Inc.
(FasTest: Roseville, MN) -- FasTest Inc. announces the FasCal Manifold System for pressure calibration. The manifold supports connections of up to four different devices at the same time, accommodating a wide variety of fitting configurations. The stainless-steel system allows any FasCal connector—…
Duff and Macintosh Pty Ltd
(Duff and Macintosh: Hornsby, Australia) -- Duff and Macintosh Pty Ltd now supplies the laminar mass flow meters and mass flow controllers manufactured by Tuscon, Arizona-based Alicat Scientific.
Alicat’s mass flow meters and controllers can be used in a variety of measurement and control-based…
Marlin Steel Wire Products
(Marlin Steel Wire Products: Baltimore, MD) -- Eli Goldratt, author of The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement (North River Press, 1992), one of the most widely admired handbooks on manufacturing efficiency, was the honored speaker at a special meeting of the Regional Manufacturing Institute (…
ETQ LLC
(EtQ: Farmingdale, NY) -- EtQ LLC has announced the addition of new features and modules in the latest release of its quality management, FDA compliance, and environmental health and safety software, Reliance 8.0. Below is just a sampling of what EtQ’s newest version has to offer:
•…
Quality Transformation With David Schwinn
“Under-promise, over-deliver” is a phrase taught to me many years ago by my friend and colleague, PQ Systems’ owner Michael J. Cleary. It may have always been true. It may always be true. It is certainly true today.
I am in the middle of a sabbatical that requires me to buy and learn to use new…
University of Michigan
(University of Michigan: Ann Arbor, MI) -- With its sleek 2011 car, “Quantum,” now built and ready for testing, the nation’s No. 1 solar-car team is preparing to take on the world.
University of Michigan’s (U-M) reigning champions of the North American Solar Challenge will compete…
William A. Levinson
A normal distribution is far more common in statistical textbooks than it is in real-world processes, and untold grief results from the unquestioning assumption that all manufacturing processes follow the bell curve. The grief consists specifically of:
1. Out-of-control signals that send…
Larson Electronics MagnaLight
(Larson Electronics: Kemp, TX) -- Larson Electronics’ Magnalight has added the RL-8510W-1-UV365 handheld LED Ultraviolet Pistol-Grip Spotlight to its comprehensive line of specialty LED lights. The RL-8510W-1-UV365 produces UV light in the 365 nm range and combines a light weight…
SGS
(SGS: Rotterdam, Netherlands) -- SGS Nederland B.V. is organizing two free, 60-minute webinars. The first is titled “Advanced Ultrasonic Testing in Pre-Service and In-service Inspection of Nuclear Power Plants,” and the second is “Time of Flight Diffraction: Theory and Practice.” Hosted by Ton…
GOEPEL electronics
(GOEPEL: Jena, Germany) -- GOEPEL electronics LLC’s OptiCon X-Line 3D, an in-line 3-D X-ray inspection system, provides the powerful opportunity to detect voids within various layers of large-volume solder joints. In particular, in the areas of power electronics for wind power, solar…
CMSC
(CMS: Benbrook, TX) -- The Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS), the preeminent membership association for measurement professionals, has announced that Trevor Toman is the chair of the organization’s newly formed Academic subcommittee. Toman will serve as a liaison with key education institutions…
FARO
(FARO: Lake Mary, FL) -- FARO Technologies Inc., an innovative and leading global provider of portable measurement and imaging solutions, introduces the FARO Edge and V4 Laser Line Probe, the most advanced, state-of-the-art FaroArm system ever produced.
The FARO Edge is a portable measurement…
ISO
(ISO: Geneva, Switzerland) -- With all organizations susceptible to cyber-attacks, a new international standard on business continuity management processes from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has a huge potential to improve security measures taken against…
American National Standards Institute ANSI
(ANSI: Washington) -- The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) announces sponsorship opportunities for World Standards Week (WSW) 2011, to be held October 11–14 in Washington, DC.
WSW is an annual event that draws leaders from all industry sectors in recognition of the importance of…
CRC Press
(CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- A growing number of health care organizations are implementing project management principles to improve cost and service efficiencies. They are in desperate need of resources that clearly illustrate the project management needs of today’s health care professional…
TÜV Rheinland of North America
(TÜV Rheinland of North America: Newton, CT) -- TÜV Rheinland’s Industrial Services has introduced a new emergency rapid-response service called Containment Emergency Response Team (CERT). This specialized team has been assembled to quickly minimize original equipment manufacturers (OEM) production…
(Health 2.0 LLC: San Francisco) -- Health 2.0 is preparing for its fifth annual Health 2.0 Fall Conference in San Francisco, September 26–27, 2011. The keynote speaker will be Mark Smith, president and CEO of the California HealthCare Foundation. Smith is one of the smartest, funniest, and best-…
Chris Koehn
Air gauging has roots going back more than 70 years and is today a viable and highly reliable method for many industrial applications where a high volume of parts is produced, or where the precision of hard-to-access dimensions makes other measuring techniques impossible. This includes, in some…
Laurel Thoennes @ Quality Digest
“What makes a personal kanban any better than a to-do list?” asked Julie, crossing out a completed task on her “ta da!” list with exaggerated strokes.
“With personal kanban you visualize your work, it becomes tangible, you get kinesthetic feedback, it’s flexible, contextual, and it promotes…
The QA Pharm
A March 30, 2011, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Warning Letter to Ningbo Smart Pharmaceutical Co. revealed that it had reported conformance to specifications on certificates of analysis, when in fact no testing was done—among other issues.
The FDA rather understatedly informed Ningbo Smart, “…
Bruce Hamilton
Gary was a talented, creative welder with an idea that made perfect sense to him but was not supported by conventional measures. Gary was determined to implement his idea and pressed for a closer evaluation by his supervisor when the idea was not immediately accepted. This was Gary’s idea:
A…
Joelle K. Jay
High achievers, go-getters, type-A personalities—whatever you call them, one thing is certain: These people want to do it all, and they want to do it all… right now.
Although having many lofty and simultaneous goals is a good thing, doing too many things at once can make you feel overwhelmed and…
