All Features
Automated Precision Inc.
(API: Rockville, MD) -- Automated Precision Inc. (API) announced that it has opened a new services facility in Plano, Texas, to accommodate growing demand for contract services in the area’s manufacturing industries. The new location will allow API to strengthen its ability to provide affordable…
Creaform Inc.
(Creaform: Lévis, PQ) -- Creaform, a worldwide leader in accurate portable 3D measurement solutions and engineering services, has launched the CUBE-R, a new generation of complete turnkey automated dimensional inspection solution. The new optical 3D measuring machine capitalizes on the MetraSCAN 3D…
Mike Richman
One of the foundations of our modern, technology-based society comes from established and commonly agreed-upon measurements. On May 20 each year, we acknowledge this fact by celebrating World Metrology Day, which is the perfect opportunity to consider the central importance of the science of…
Doug Surrett
The importance of supply chain solutions relative to a company’s efforts to maintain and improve quality are almost impossible to underplay. When enacting quality improvement programs, any company would do well to examine its supply chain model and processes as a fundamental means of improving…
MIT Sloan School of Management
Traditional corporate hierarchies tend to rely on static design. There’s the CEO at the top, followed by directors and managers. Red tape and inefficient processes can bog down decisions.
Dynamic work design is a more effective method of managing workflow, especially intellectual work, says MIT…
Knowledge at Wharton
Volatile markets, challenging consumer demands, and the technological disruptions resulting from digitization and Industry 4.0 are producing unprecedented rates of change. In response, companies have worked to increase organizational agility, hoping to foster innovation and shorten go-to-market…
Ryan E. Day
You run a manufacturing business, so you know how it goes. The cost of doing business and manufacturing product never decreases. You know that your revenue must increase just to keep up. You also know that merely maintaining your revenue status quo will only ensure you get your lunch eaten by…
Bruce Hamilton
Last month I joined Eric Buhrens, CEO at Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), to host a leadership team from Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center. They were on a study mission to many of Boston’s fine hospitals and were winding up their week with a visit to LEI. Early in the discussion, one of our guests…
Paul Foster
Equipment downtime gets expensive fast in automotive and aerospace manufacturing, a risk many companies try to mitigate by storing spare parts onsite. A machine breaks down, haul out the parts, and hopefully you’re back in business with minimal disruption.
The problem is, manufacturers get so…
Manufacturing Day 2018 to Focus on Biggest Problem Manufacturers Face: A Shortage of Skilled Workers
Manufacturing Institute
(Manufacturing Institute: Washington, D.C.) -- The National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) Manufacturing Institute has announced that Manufacturing Day (MFG) 2018 will occur on Friday, October 5, with a record-breaking turnout expected. This year, MFG Day will focus on one of the biggest…
Taran March @ Quality Digest
Supply chains’ last-mile delivery has become the new Pony Express. Like that famous but short-lived courier service, the global supply chain is focused on completing the final segment between supplier and customer—which in reality is anywhere between six and nine miles, according to a recent study—…
Fran Webber
Much like your attic, garage or basement, the NIST archives are home to quite a number of arcane objects of unclear origin and purpose. We periodically collect these victims of misplaced paperwork and present them in a series we call “Unidentified Museum Objects.” We invite you to put on your…
Grant Nadell
Boeing is demanding its suppliers reduce their prices by 10 percent, according to a February 2018 article published in Bloomberg Businessweek. It’s a hard pill for many to swallow, given that that these cuts are on top of the roughly 15-percent cuts demanded in 2012, when the company launched its…
Mike Richman
On the May 4 episode of QDL, we discovered that love is a key component to winning a Baldrige Award, learned how to be more efficient at work, and discussed how great art helps us to really see our processes. Here is an up-close look:
“Undersecretary of Commerce and NIST Director Walter Copan…
Ryan E. Day
Unily is a leading digital workplace platform designed by BrightStarr to improve engagement, productivity, and efficiency for global enterprises. Unily is also a SaaS solution. That is, it’s served up via the cloud. Meaning that—with more than a million users, including the likes of Shell, Hershey’…
Mark Rosenthal
A couple of weeks ago I posed the question, “Are you overproducing improvements?” and compared a typical improvement “blitz” with a large monument machine that produces in large batches.
I’d like to dive a little deeper into some of the paradoxes and implications of 1:1 flow of anything,…
Harish Jose
I have been writing about kaizen a lot recently. It is a simple idea: change for the better. Generally, kaizen stands for small incremental improvements. Here I’m going to look at what is the best kind of kaizen.
The twist in the dumpling
A few posts back, I talked about the order for kaizen,…
AuditComply
(AuditComply: Belfast, Ireland) -- AuditComply has announced the ongoing use of its AuditComply platform by KDD, a Kuwait-based company. Specializing in the production and distribution of 125 dairy products, KDD is committed to quality and excellence in all that it does. KDD’s strong focus on…
Willie L. Carter
Becoming a process-focused organization requires a sustained effort, and for most industrial and service organizations that is a difficult task. Failure to improve the performance of your processes leads to a failure to improve the organization and results in improperly managing the business.
All…
Terry Onica
The new automotive quality management system (QMS), IATF 16949:2016, was released in October 2016, and it officially went into effect on Jan. 1, 2017, along with revisions to IATF Rules for Achieving and Maintaining IATF Recognition, Fifth Edition. Starting Oct. 1, 2017, all automotive QMS audits…
Fred Schenkelberg
Mean time between failures (MTBF) is a symptom of a bigger problem. It’s possibly a lack of interest in reliability (which I doubt is the case). Or it’s a bit of fear of reliability.
Many shy away from the statistics involved. Some simply don’t want to know the currently unknown. It could be the…
Donald J. Wheeler
In The Music Man, the con man Prof. Harold Hill sells band instruments and uniforms and then tells the kids that they can play music if they will “just think about the notes and then play them.” In many ways this “think system” is similar to what you are asked to do with the define, measure,…
Trevor Throness
Your company’s core values define the behaviors you treasure and demand above all others. Investing time in defining them increases the likelihood they come to life and become part of everyone’s daily behaviors.
Lots of time is wasted by executives crafting bland, committee-driven “values…
BSI
Organizations worldwide recognize the need to provide a safe and healthy working environment, reduce the likelihood of accidents, and demonstrate they are actively managing risks. ISO 45001 will provide an internationally accepted framework that will help protect employees as well as protect the…
Christopher Martin
A couple months back I stopped at a local fast-food place for a quick kid’s meal (not for me) after picking up one of my little ones from school. Inside, we were greeted by an employee in an otherwise empty dining area, and no line. As we approached the counter, he asked how we were and if we were…
