All Features
Mehul Shah
Although quality is an enterprisewide issue, many companies struggle to define how it fits into overall corporate strategy. The 2012–2013 LNS Research Quality Management Survey put this into perspective when it asked executives what their top quality challenge was. More than 50 percent marked off…
(D. L. Newslow and Associates, Inc: Orlando, FL) -- Going to the Food Safety Supply Chain Conference in Chicago? This workshop is geared towards anyone wanting to learn more about FSMA, including, but not limited to: Food Safety Managers, Top Management, Supervisors, Quality Managers and Food…
FARO
The free SCENECT app from FARO for 3D scanning has now been available from the FARO App Center for several months. This professional software is based on the SCENE platform, which is used for FARO 3D laser scanners. IT expert Philipp Biermann provides some tips for achieving the optimum scanning…
Matthew J. Savage
When you work within a continuous improvement culture, it might seem that one does not want to look back. After all, as systems improve, old data may no longer be relevant for the current process, and keeping it around—like keeping old love letters—may someday get you into trouble.
Knowing when…
Tripp Babbitt
OK, brace yourself for a shocking disclosure that will revolutionize service businesses everywhere. Are you ready? The role of support areas such as human resources, IT, finance, and of course, management is to... wait for it... support the core business. And by core business I’m talking about…
Kimberly Egan
FDA’s latest Annual Meat Report is out. It analyzes food-borne bacteria in retail meat, particularly Salmonella, Campylobacter, Enterococcus, and E. coli. Salmonella causes typhoid. Campylobacter causes spontaneous abortions in animals and opportunistic infections in humans. Enterococcus can cause…
Jack Dunigan
What Do You Call Quietly Capable People Who Help You Succeed? Keepers
Resource-fullness Hire people who can solve problems, not create more
Accountability Failure is an event, not a way of life
Emotional and Psychological Security Emotionally secure people are not rare, but they are in demand…
Jack Dunigan
Editor’s note: This continues Jack Dunigan’s series about unsung heroes in the workplace, and the 16 traits they all share.
I had ordered a meal and let the conversation around the table carry away the wait. When the order arrived, it was a different server who placed my plate in front of me. It…
Bruce Hamilton
A few years ago, after I gave a speech about lean at a meeting of the Transformer Association (like the kind on the telephone poles providing electricity to your home), my then 6-year old son, Ben, asked me if I’d met Megatron.
His question caused me to chuckle at the images we assign to our…
Tom Kadala
When Tom Donilon, the National Security Advisor for President Obama, was asked what were the two most pressing issues that kept him up at night, he cited terrorist attacks and the U.S. declining national competitiveness. The backdrop of 600,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs at a time when…
Robert Allen, Kathleen Bellemare
Training is extremely important to the future of manufacturing in the United States, yet in many states it has fallen by the wayside. At Connecticut Spring & Stamping (CSS), the situation had become so desperate that to meet its capacity and continue to grow, the company has had to replace…
Kevin E. O’Connor
Team leaders have a perennial dilemma: How can we educate, engage, and develop our group in a substantial way that helps the team become better? “Team-building” is often seen as the fun add-on to a meeting devoted to science, sales figures, and quarterly goals.
A ropes course, horseback riding, a…
TÜV Rheinland of North America
The inspection team at TÜV Rheinland Industrial Solutions (TRIS) in North America is accustomed to using computed radiography to assess structural integrity of welds and castings for pipes, tanks, pressure vessels, and bridges. Occasionally the team gets to apply “industrial” radiography on…
(Quality Digest: Chico, CA) -- Innovation professionals now have a resource and organization whose vision is to prepare professionals and companies to use innovation science and methodologies to address global challenges. Quality Digest contributor H. James Harrington has been actively involved in…
Miriam Boudreaux
Have you ever been through an audit to an ISO standard? If you have, then you probably know about a set of questions that are frequently asked during audits against various ISO standards. No one can predict all of the questions that an auditor will ask, but you can bet that that following five…
William A. Levinson
An article in the April 2013 edition of Quality Progress titled “Back to Work” reports that Yahoo! now requires employees who previously telecommuted to report to a Yahoo! office, or even relocate so they will be able to do so.
“To become the absolute best place to work, communication and…
Morgan Palmer
Editor’s note: Quality Digest hosted Morgan Palmer’s webinar, “Defining and Building a Risk Management Strategy for Quality and Compliance Management Systems” on Tuesday, April 30, at 2 p.m. Eastern/11 a.m. Pacific.
When we look at the dynamics of commerce, from any industry, we see an increasing…
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
Overworked and stressed out? Look on the bright side. Some stress is good for you.
“You always think about stress as a really bad thing, but it’s not,” says Daniela Kaufer, associate professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. “Some amounts of stress are good to…
CMSC
(CMSC: San Diego, CA) --The Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS), the preeminent membership association for measurement professionals, has announced the launch of the industry’s first Level-One Certification for Portable 3D Metrology. The first examinations will be held at the 29th annual Coordinate…
Umberto Tunesi
There’s something not really in tune with the meaning we commonly give to the word “partnership.” That is, the commonly understood definition that partners must be balanced, on the same level, rather than one above or below the other.
Partnership is certainly not what Phaedrus was alluding to in…
(Quality Digest: Chico, CA) -- Quality Digest syndicated columnist Robert Wilson's books are on their way to libraries in need as part of the effort to restock facilities destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. The Annoying Ghost Kid has been shipped after being vetted by Indie Authors for Hurricane Sandy…
Jim Frost
In statistics, we use a variety of intervals to characterize the results. The most well-known of these are confidence intervals. However, confidence intervals are not always appropriate. Here we’ll take a look at the different types of intervals, their characteristics, and when you should use…
Stanford News Service
Homes and buildings chilled without air conditioners. Car interiors that don’t heat up in the summer sun. Tapping the frigid expanses of outer space to cool the planet. Science fiction, you say? Well, maybe not any more.
A team of researchers at Stanford has designed an entirely new form of…
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 fellow woodworking business owner has a unique and clever way of qualifying applicants for jobs. He brings them into the shop and offers to pay them for one week. During…
Lean Math With Mark Hamel
Container capacity (Cc) is one of the four basic variables within the generic kanban sizing calculation. However, Cc is often not treated as a variable but more as a constant, predetermined quantity, especially if the lean practitioner seeks to use existing supplier packaging, reusable dunnage, or…
