All Features
Iowa State University
(ISU: Ames, IA) -- It’s not easy to make machines that convert wind to electricity. Just consider the turbine blades that spin in the wind: a single blade can be 40 to 50 meters long and 10,000 to 15,000 pounds. It has to be built within millimeters of specifications. It has to be built to…
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
“Writing is not a job; it’s a hobby!” thundered my father when I told him my plans for college. “You need to get a profession: Medicine, law, engineering, or accounting.”
I cheerlessly acquiesced and enrolled in a pre-med program, but at the end of my first year, after struggling through…
BSI
(BSI: Reston, VA) -- BSI, a provider of regulatory and quality management reviews and product certification for medical devices, recently launched the CE-Dedicated FastTrack. This new CE marking program is designed to help medical device manufacturers get their products quickly and safely to…
WENZEL Group
(Xspect Solutions Inc.: Wixcom, MI) -- Wenzel Geartec will be introducing a unique new hybrid gear measuring machine at the Gear Expo (www.gearexpo.com/About-Gear-Expo.html) in Indianapolis, Indiana, Sept. 15–18, 2009.
“Wenzel has developed this machine to specifically meet the demand of the…
WCBF
(WCBF: Chicago) -- WCBF offers an exclusive invitation to join a complimentary Lean Six Sigma Webinar on Sept. 17 at 10 a.m., EDT, presented by Norman Bodek and Lee Campbell. The event comes to you from the forthcoming 4th Annual Global Lean, Six Sigma, and Business Improvement Summit, Oct. 13–16…
Veeco Instruments Inc.
(Veeco: Plainview, NY) -- Veeco Instruments Inc. announces its Optium ADS-800 Series Advanced Dicing System, delivering high-productivity dicing solutions for a broad range of demanding applications, including high-brightness light emitting diodes (HB-LED), solar cells, optics, and…
Chip Bell
Ray Bell was a math teacher, turned credit manager of a farm equipment company in my rural southern Georgia hometown. He was also my dad. I knew he kept a very detailed ledger book that had information on every customer he gave a loan. He could tell you how often a farmer came into the tractor…
Mark Gabriel
An 82-year-old, family-owned Wilkes County furniture manufacturer with 152 employees is getting financial aid to sharpen its competitive edge.
The North Carolina Division of Workforce Development approved Key City Furniture’s application for a $25,000 federal grant to fund lean manufacturing…
Paul Gay
Wireless communications have well and truly arrived in the industrial arena and considerable effort is now being put into integration and the writing of standards. In this article, the author considers the many benefits and a few drawbacks of this cost effective technology.
Wireless…
Keyence Corp.
(KEYENCE Corp.: Woodcliff Lake, NJ) -- The new KEYENCE VHX-600 Generation II Digital Microscope now features the world’s first 16-bit imaging resolution. This resolution increase makes subtle color differences visible, and optimizes areas that were previously too dark or bright. The brightness…
FDA
(FDA: Rockville, MD) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a new way to head off potential cases of foodborne illness—the Reportable Food Registry (RFR). Food industry officials must use this electronic portal to alert the FDA quickly when they find their products might sicken or kill…
Delcam
(Delcam: Birmingham, UK) -- CAD/CAM developer, Delcam, has established a dedicated health care division to provide a greater focus on this increasingly important part of its business. The new division will help companies across the medical, dental, and associated industries to apply Delcam’s…
Six Sigma Integration Inc.
(Six Sigma Integration Inc.: Rehoboth, MA) -- Six Sigma Integration Inc. announces the release of Measuring and Improving Performance: Information Technology Applications in Lean Systems (CRC Press, 2009). Advanced sales of the book have already begun.
Author, James William Martin, explains how…
American National Standards Institute ANSI
(ANSI: New York) -- Just three weeks remain before the U.S. Celebration of World Standards Day (WSD). An exhibition, reception, and dinner marking the occasion will be held Oct. 7 focusing on the theme "Standards for Environmental Stewardship."
From reducing greenhouse gas emissions and…
Microdynamics Inc.
(MicroDynamics Inc.: Woodstock, GA) -- MicroDynamics Inc., a provider of cell volume measurement in the flexographic printing industry, will be at booth No. 4670 at Quality Expo in Chicago on Sept. 22–24, demonstrating the highly versatile, lightweight MicroQC, an instrument that is extremely…
Thomas R. Cutler
Innovative vehicle-mounted, hand-held, and wearable mobile computers must be dependable, tough, and reliable. Wireless computers extend corporate networks to mobile workers in demanding conditions and only rugged mobile computers drive down costs and improve customer satisfaction. These are…
Sean M. Dozier
Do you really need to read another story about how project management and statistics helped some organization save money and meet their goals? Why are you even looking for case studies? Did your boss ask you to do some research to see if “this stuff” works? Well, let’s see... Yes! It works. Now…
Mike Micklewright
It’s pretty obvious that in so many companies, based on their actions and behaviors, CEOs and other top managers just don’t get ISO 9001 and all the derivative standards. The following 10 signs are written in no particular order. You’ll need to be the judge as to which ones are most prevalent…
Miriam Boudreaux
The ISO 9001 standard’s requirements with regard to suppliers are very short and concise but carry a lot of punch. These requirements can be very deceiving and in fact are often misinterpreted and carried out poorly or partially. By implementing the clause correctly, an organization will get the…
ASTM International
(ASTM: West Conshohocken, PA) -- Four of the biggest names in standards have joined forces to develop an unprecedented resource for medical device standards and related information.
Medical professionals can now access more than 1,300 medical device standards from one single database developed…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Baldrige National Quality Program recently published “blinded” (anonymous) scoring data on 1,033 applicants for the Baldrige National Quality Award during the years 1990–2006. The data, posted at www.…
CSCMP
(CSCMP: Lombard, IL) --The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) has released two new research books, one on supply chain costing and the other on supply chain management process standards.
The Handbook of Supply Chain Costing gives practitioners tools to expand cost…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- A chemist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has demonstrated a relatively simple, inexpensive method for detecting and measuring elusive hazards such as concealed explosives and toxins, invisible spoilage in food, or pesticides…
Society of Manufacturing Engineers
(SME: Dearborn, MI) -- Going green has gone from the feel-good movement of the moment to something that is becoming largely demanded within industry.
According to a recent IndustryWeek article, larger OEMs and retail giants such as Wal-Mart are requiring that their suppliers and their supply…
Makino
Many U.S. manufacturers have struggled to grow in the face of global competition and economic uncertainty. These factors have challenged the industry, put pressure on prices, and forced many shops out of business.
MacKay Manufacturing of Spokane, Washington, had a history of steady growth…
