All Features
NIST
A pair of experimental atomic clocks based on ytterbium atoms at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has set a new record for stability. The clocks act like 21st-century pendulums or metronomes that could swing back and forth with perfect timing for a period comparable to the…
Bruno Scibilia
The value of analyzing data is well established in industries like manufacturing and mining, but data-driven process and quality improvement is increasingly being adopted in service industries such as retail sales and healthcare, as well. Here I'll discuss how a simple data analysis may be used to…
Jim Clifton
Some of the smartest people I know often tell me, “Businesses aren’t going to start growing again until consumer demand comes back.” Really? So we should just sit around and wait until economic growth magically returns?
Growth doesn’t just happen, and it’s not necessarily driven by demand. Growth…
Christine Schaefer
Let’s say your organization has already begun using a Baldrige-based approach to self-assessment. For example, your senior leaders have completed the organizational profile, reviewed the guidelines that make up the scoring system of the Criteria for Performance Excellence, and developed responses…
Judy Fainor
Editor’s note: Judy Fainor will be a guest on Quality Digest Live this Friday, Sept. 20, 2013, at 11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern. Fainor will also present a webinar on this topic on Tuesday, September 24, at 11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern time. Register here..
As the chief architect for Sparta…
MIT News
Computer scientists at MIT and the National University of Ireland (NUI) at Maynooth have developed a mapping algorithm that creates dense, highly detailed 3D maps of indoor and outdoor environments in real time.
The researchers tested their algorithm on videos taken with a low-cost Kinect camera…
Joan Mattson, Keri Dawson
Increasing product recalls, regulatory fines, and penalties have made product-safety compliance a top priority for many manufacturers. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and other global and regional product-quality regulations have subjected consumer-product companies to…
Mike Richman
We are data-driven animals, and by “we” I mean all human beings, not just quality professionals. It starts from the moment we are born. The brains of babies are wired for exploration, surprise, inspection, analysis, and synthesis. The interpretation and use of conceptual information is what sets…
Scandia National Labratories
Sandia National Laboratories in California recently presented its annual Math and Science Awards to 22 young women from area high schools. The event celebrates the academic accomplishments of the recipients and their great potential as they prepare for the next phase of their lives.
“Science,…
American Customer Satisfaction Index ACSI
(ACSI: Ann Arbor, MI) -- Automakers are not pleasing customers as much as they did a year ago, although pent-up demand is pushing strong sales, according to a recent report by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Customer satisfaction with automobiles and light vehicles declines 1.2…
Alan Nicol
There seems to be doubt about the real potential of process improvement methods. This is a repeated theme in blog comments, emailed questions, and discussions about various process and business improvement methodologies. Can we really improve processes to an optimal level, or can a process only be…
Joel Smith
This weekend my 3-year-old son and I were playing with his marble run set, and he said to me, “The marbles start together, but they don’t finish together!”
It dawned on me that the phenomenon he was observing seems so obvious in the context of a marble run, and yet many practitioners fail to see…
NIST
The manufacturing workforce—so critical to manufacturing innovation—is the basic, yet decisive, building block for successfully implementing next-generation strategies. If manufacturers are to engineer innovation in their businesses, workforce-development investments must evolve from a one-off…
MIT News
Although factory labor rules are notoriously hard to enforce, a new study shows how some inspectors are able to uphold workplace standards.
The recent factory collapse in Bangladesh has renewed attention to the global issue of workplace standards. In many countries, similar problems have arisen…
Kevin Meyer
Regular readers know I’m not a big fan of Jack Welch, to put it mildly. My opinion is shared by many in the lean world, at least those who recognize that the second, oft-forgotten, pillar of lean is “respect for people”—a concept diametrically opposed to Welch's “leadership” methods.
Unfortunately…
The QA Pharm
Editor’s note: This is the third in a five-part series exploring issues that affect management’s ability to detect the warning signals of current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) compliance problems in the pharmaceutical industry.
In part one of this series, we considered the management…
Stericycle Inc.
According to the quarterly ExpertRECALL Index, 48 percent of all medical device recalls reported during the second quarter of 2013 had both U.S. and international components. In addition, the number of device recalls increased 30 percent from the last quarter, resulting in the highest number of…
Siemens PLM Software
In only eight years, Razor USA LLC has grown from an upstart company with a single product (the original Razor kick scooter) to an established earner with a lineup of more than 30 human- and electric-powered toys. The company’s successful diversification can be seen in its revenues. Sales in 2001…
William Fetter
The Internet was abuzz recently about the revelation that according to a high-school class experiment, Oreo Double Stuf cookies are, in fact, not double stuffed but only 1.86 percent stuffed. The original blog post by the math teacher was actually made on March 3, 2013, but not discovered as “news…
Ford Motor Co.
(Ford Motor Co.: Dearborn, MI) -- The new F-Series trucks are the latest vehicles to benefit from Ford Motor Co.’s new dirt-detection technology to ensure optimal paint and surface quality. The system uses high-resolution cameras and reflected light to digitally identify surface imperfections finer…
Umberto Tunesi
Stone Age men, so the story goes, got the wheel inspiration by observing trees rolling downhill. So they sliced trees and fit the rounds they got to their sleds, to move them faster and with less effort. In so doing, they also invented carts while expediting transportation.
But friction’s thermal…
MIT News
Scholars have long been interested in tracking “knowledge spillovers,” the way technical and intellectual advances spread among communities of researchers and innovators. A significant body of work has shown that distance matters when it comes to the dissemination of knowledge. Advances are more…
MIT News
MIT chemical engineers have discovered that arrays of billions of nanoscale sensors have unique properties that could help pharmaceutical companies produce drugs—especially those based on antibodies—more safely and efficiently.
Using these sensors, the researchers were able to characterize…
Jack Dunigan
Editor’s note: This continues Jack Dunigan’s series about unsung heroes in the workplace, and the 16 traits they all share.
What is the purpose in employing associates? They are brought on board to extend your reach, multiply your effectiveness, and divide your work. Then you train and teach, but…
Jack Dunigan
Editor’s note: This continues Jack Dunigan’s series about unsung heroes in the workplace, and the 16 traits they all share.
A few years ago it was my privilege to officiate at the memorial service of an old friend. The family did not want a traditional structured ceremony. They asked that time be…
