All Features
Andrew Paul Laurent
Roads are the backbone of our society and economy, taking people and goods across distances long and short. They are a staple of the built environment, taking up nearly 2.8 million lane-miles (or 4.6 million lane-kilometers) of the United States’ surface area.
These same roads have a considerable…
Adam Zewe
Identifying one faulty turbine in a wind farm, which can involve looking at hundreds of signals and millions of data points, is akin to finding a needle in a haystack.
Engineers often streamline this complex problem using deep-learning models that can detect anomalies in measurements taken…
Seb Murray
Last year, the corporate world adopted a new term: flattening. This refers to how tech companies, which rapidly hired droves of middle managers during the pandemic boom, are now eliminating this layer through widespread job cuts.
Recent research by Mustafa Dogan, Alexandre Jacquillat, and Wharton’…
Quality Digest
(Siemens Digital Industries Software: Plano, TX) -- Siemens has introduced the Virtual Product Expert (VPE), a support program for its CNC machine tool users, machine builders, dealers, and importers. Through the VPE program, customers can now interact directly with a SINUMERIK CNC product expert…
NIST
‘There is a tremendous opportunity for women to influence the manufacturing industry in a positive way,” says Lisa Dach, strategic business advisor at the Northwest Industrial Resource Center (NWIRC), part of the Pennsylvania MEP and the MEP National Network. “Women in leadership improve the…
ISO
In a world where change is the only constant, organizations can no longer afford to be complacent. Keeping up with the pace of technological change is tough, and all business leaders must learn to adapt. It’s no longer enough to react to disruption. To get ahead of the competition, organizations…
Quality Digest
(PG&O: Santa Ana, CA) -- Precision Glass & Optics, a leader in the optical manufacturing industry for nearly 40 years, announces its improved capability to produce high-volume, high-quality optical components that operate from 0.2 μm to 15 μm.
PG&O’s PR Hoffman 5400 double-sided…
Anne Trafton
(MIT: Cambridge, MA) -- A tiny battery designed by MIT engineers could enable the deployment of cell-sized, autonomous robots for drug delivery within the human body, as well as other applications such as locating leaks in gas pipelines.
The new battery, which is 0.1 mm long and 0.002 mm thick—…
Megan Wallin-Kerth
When you think of good customer service—particularly the barriers to it—two factors generally come to mind: timing and wording. Imagine walking into a store that sells soap and bodywash products and immediately being bombarded with, “May I help you?” “Looking for anything today?” or the dreaded, “…
James Chan
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the country’s chief agency for regulating the manufacture, marketing, and distribution of critical consumer goods including food, cosmetics, medical devices, biological products, and pharmaceuticals. The FDA provides direct oversight of the businesses…
Quality Digest
(VersaBuilt: Boise, ID) -- VersaBuilt Robotics is revolutionizing the CNC machining industry with innovative and user-friendly automation solutions. The company stands out by making advanced automation accessible to all machinists and operators, regardless of their technical expertise.
What makes…
National Physical Laboratory
(NPL: Teddington, England) -- A new report by the National Physical Laboratory outlines the crucial needs and challenges that need addressing to boost the hydrogen economy and support the U.K. in reaching its net-zero goals.
The NPL report, “Measurement challenges in the hydrogen sector,”…
Quality Digest
(Mahr: Providence, RI) -- Mahr, a leading provider of dimensional metrology solutions, announced a new solution for contour measurement. A space-optimized measuring station for the production environment, the MarSurf CD 140 AF contour measuring machine features a user-friendly design and advanced…
Quality Digest
(ORNL: Oak Ridge, TN) -- The first materials scientists might have been early humans who, through trial-and-error experiments, discovered the first “cutting-edge” technologies. They found that the best arrowheads and other tools could be made from certain types of natural, structural materials,…
William A. Levinson
Most quality practitioners are familiar with the Taguchi loss function, which contends that the cost of any deviation from the nominal follows a quadratic model. This is in contrast to the traditional goalpost model, where anything inside the specification limits is good, and anything outside them…
Mike Figliuolo
Susan Strayer, a friend of mine, posed a question on social media the other day: “Can you sum up your expertise in 140 characters or less?” Great question. A few people took her up on the challenge. Being an overachiever, I did it in three words. Before I dive in, let me provide some context.
For…
Etienne Nichols
Design controls are a set of quality practices and procedures used to ensure that a finished device meets its user needs, intended use, and specified requirements.
The requirement for medical device companies to use design controls is established in 21 CFR Part 820, as well as ISO 13485:2016.
The…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- On the 270-day mark since President Biden’s executive order 14110, the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced new guidance and software to help improve the safety, security, and…
George Schuetz
We ended the previous gaging article talking about the 10:1 rule as it applies to the performance of a gage.
The rule says that the gage should perform to a level better than 10% of the tolerance. Although this rule has mostly been replaced by the more scientific and standardized GR&R…
Nadav Klein
When conflicts in a team, no matter how minor, are left unresolved, they can eventually breed resentment. If unaddressed, this could lead to cynicism and distrust, as well as harm to individual and team performance. How should leaders deal with this?
The intuitive answer might involve…
Quality Digest
(ETQ: Burlington, MA) -- ETQ, part of Hexagon, has announced the latest release of its ETQ Reliance NXG quality management system (QMS) software. It features a new Inspection Management app, a breakthrough solution that automates and streamlines the quality inspection process. Discrete and process…
Quality Digest
(Teledyne FLIR: Richmond, B.C.) -- Teledyne FLIR IIS, a Teledyne Technologies company, has announced that its Dragonfly S USB 5MP modular and compact camera is now in full production.
The Dragonfly S 5MP is the first camera in the new Dragonfly S series to enter full production. Designed as an…
Gleb Tsipursky
As businesses navigate the complexities of remote and hybrid work policies, leaders often face questions regarding the perceived fairness of these arrangements. Employees performing similar tasks may have different levels of flexibility, which can lead to concerns about favoritism and inequity.…
Sabine Terrasi
Up-to-date and accurate maps of the waterways are a prerequisite for safe and efficient shipping in Germany. Authorities such as the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, but also private harbor operators, are obliged to provide these maps in an up-to-date form at all times. Primarily, the…
Quality Digest
(Hardy: San Diego) -- Hardy Process Solutions has announced a new line of accurate, rugged, and reliable drum scales that provide value and flexibility in size and capacity for use in a wide range of drum weighing applications. HIDS drum scales are built to be long-lasting and perform well in heavy…
