All Features
Meggitt
(Meggitt: San Juan Capistrano, CA) -- Meggitt Sensing Systems, a Meggitt group division, has announced the successful application of the Endevco 6634C vibration amplifier in meeting the rigorous demands of jet engine testing and aircraft auxiliary power unit vibration measurements.
The Endevco…
Mark R. Hamel
Isee the same cycle in so many places. What cycle? A five-step process for ensuring that ideas fail.
Step 1: Altruistic leaders encourage suggestions and ask associates for their continuous improvement ideas in an attempt to foment some daily kaizen. Step 2: Associates (not all of them), somewhat…
The case study in this article began several years ago with a troubling message delivered by a major customer to a key supplier in the instruments industry. An executive from the instrument supply company, whom I’ll call Steven, summarized the customer’s message.
“I was summoned for a meeting with…
Umberto Tunesi
In times when companies are fighting for every cent, value-adding is a big word. If we answer incorrectly the question posed in this column’s title, we could soon find ourselves fighting like David against Goliath. So we’d better consider our answer carefully—and more to the point, objectively.…
Johns Hopkins University
Computational medicine, a fast-growing method of using computer models and sophisticated software to figure out how disease develops—and how to thwart it—has begun to leap off the drawing board and land in the hands of doctors who treat patients for heart ailments, cancer, and other illnesses.…
Bill Lee
Consider for a moment the annoying, interruptive, often obnoxious nature of traditional marketing. Dinnertime phone calls from strangers in noisy telemarketing centers. Glossy pictures of the latest fashions worn by models who barely look human. Store shelves crowded with a head-spinning array when…
Susan Kelly
I’m a relative newcomer to government work, having joined the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about 18 months ago after decades of being a journalist. My job is to assign, write, and edit FDA consumer updates, which are news stories posted on www.fda.gov designed to give consumers important…
TÜV Rheinland of North America
(TÜV Rheinland: Aliquippa, PA) -- TÜV Rheinland Industrial Solutions Inc. and TÜV Rheinland AIA Services LLC are holding an open house for pressure equipment manufacturers that sell products in the United States and abroad. The seminar will educate attendees about regulatory requirements for…
(ShapeGrabber: Ottawa, Canada) -- ShapeGrabber, a pioneer in the development of 3D laser scanners for industrial measurement and modeling, has launched its fastest scanhead to date. The SG156 scanhead delivers a scanning speed gain of two to 10 times as compared to previous models, as well as a…
During the past two to three years, The Center for Excellence in Operations has been developing new, nonlinear approaches to improvement within the transactional improvement space. Nonlinear process improvement is not a replacement for lean Six Sigma and other project management tools. Rather it…
Akhilesh Gulati
Jerry, the president of a company that manufactured precision machine parts, noticed that the business environment had changed dramatically during the past four years. Although his company had done reasonably well in the aerospace industry, customers were taking longer to make buying decisions.…
Geomagic
(Geomagic: Morrisville, NC) -- Geomagic, a global company providing 3D technology for digital reality, showcased innovative, digitally designed facial prostheses, implants, and surgical guides at the International Congress on Maxillofacial Rehabilitation recently held in in Baltimore, Maryland.…
NIST
In yet another step toward the realization of a practical quantum computer, scientists working at Princeton and the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) have shown how a major hurdle in transferring information from one quantum bit, or qubit, to another might be overcome. Their so-called “quantum bus”…
Mike Roberts
Enterprise quality management software (EQMS) can play a vital role in both analyzing and reducing the cost of quality. Companies may use EQMS as a platform for cross-functional communication and collaboration, but also for automating, standardizing, and centralizing quality processes. The software…
Dimensional Metrology Standards Consortium DMSC
(DMSC: Arlington, TX) -- At the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) 2012 in Chicago, Dimensional Metrology Standards Consortium (DMSC) Inc., a standards developing body for dimensional metrology, successfully demonstrated the exchange of quality data via the emerging Quality…
Renishaw
(Renishaw: New Mills UK) -- Renishaw’s new SFP1 probe option for the REVO five-axis measurement system is the first to allow surface finish inspection to be fully integrated within coordinate measurement routines.
With a measurement capability of 6.3 Ra to 0.05 Ra, the SFP1 surface finish probe…
Bill Kalmar
Well, it’s finally happened. The late-night unsolicited phone calls, the lawn signs, the brochures that clogged our mailboxes, and the interminable television and radio commercials have come to an end. Whether you are mourning or celebrating your voting choices last week, one thing is clear: We…
Pinpoint Laser Systems
Many manufacturing facilities use equipment that contain rollers, idlers, press drums, and web-handling systems, and their alignment has a major effect on their efficacy.
There may be many rollers over which material passes as it proceeds through a specific manufacturing process. For example, in a…
Kyle Cahoon
Integration is a broad term used in quality circles to describe anything from manually merging data output from two different systems, such as material requirements planning (MRP) and statistical process control (SPC), to commanding programmable logic controllers (PLCs) from quality data input.…
Davis Balestracci
Remember the early days of TQM? When I present to healthcare audiences, all I have to do is mention “lab turnaround time” to get a collective groan and smile. That was always one of the initial forays into what was called total quality management (TQM) or continuous quality improvement (CQI).
Most…
Miriam Boudreaux
Have you ever wondered how most politicians are made? Where do they come from? It’s as if they live in a different dimension than the rest of us. They are definitely different from average quality folk. In fact, good quality professionals are the antithesis of most politicians. Explore with me, if…
Denise Robitaille
In order to assess how well you have served your customers, you must first understand their needs and expectations. It’s impossible to gather meaningful data if you aren’t asking the right questions.
Before you can begin to ask the questions, you must first identify who your customers are.…
Belinda Jones
The CMS Certification Committee broke new ground this year during the Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference in July 2012. Attendees, both experts and novices, were encouraged to test their general knowledge of portable 3D metrology and contribute to the success of the first, level-one personnel…
Automated Precision Inc.
(API: Rockville, MD) -- Automated Precision Inc. (API) will bring together some of the world’s leading metrology experts and quality managers in early 2013 for a two-day user group conference and workshop called “Metrology: Beyond Measurement.”
The event, which will take place Feb. 28–March 1,…
Robb McIvor
The Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS) sends its support to our members and vendors who were affected by super storm Sandy. Families and businesses will need aid and support during the coming months to put their lives back together. You can help by donating money to the American Red Cross at www.…
