All Features
Sandford Liebesman
I've been auditing to ISO 9001 since 1992. A part of my auditing philosophy has been to add value to the audited organizations by suggesting opportunities for improvement. Following, I will describe the most effective “value adds.”
Continual improvement
Look at ISO 9001:2000 subclause 8.5.1--"…
(WFD Consulting: Boston, Massachusetts) -- WFD Consulting, an expert in work-life, talent management, workload, and overwork, recently released research findings that demonstrate how longer work hours and time spent on low-value work increase burnout and negatively affect employees and…
Tamar June
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has had many challenges and setbacks in the past few years. From budget cuts, to high-level departures, the agency has also faced fury from lawmakers on Capitol Hill over high-profile device, drug, and food recalls.
Off the record, current, and former…
Abiding by strict environmental rules can at times seem as much like a religion as a lifestyle. It’s often difficult and even conflicting to balance the intention to live “green” with the attractions of modern convenience. Moving into igloos or pit houses made of mud, is sustainable, yes, but not…
The approach of using a Wiki to document a quality management system (QMS) may seem overwhelmingly obvious in a year or so, yet we are far from that today. Chances are you've used Wikipedia on the web, but you may not appreciate the power that a Wiki can bring to virtually every facet of…
(FDA: Salt Lake City)—Utah-based life science companies are being implored to utilize a scientific approach to regulatory compliance, and to keep the lines of communication open with the Food and Drug Administration. FDA district director Tom Warwick recently spoke with hundreds of life-science…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, Maryland) -- The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced a three-phase plan to expedite development of key standards for a smart grid, a nationwide network that uses information technology to deliver electricity. The…
(Peavey Electronics Corp.: Meridian, Mississippi) -- Peavey Electronics Corp. has begun a companywide lean initiative that will maximize efficiency among its 33 facilities and strengthen the organization's position in the global marketplace.
Lean manufacturing is a philosophy of maximizing…
Steven Ouellette
One of the most frequent questions I get from Black Belts and Green Belts I train is about the characteristics of a good Six Sigma project, particularly a first project. Define, measure, analyze, improve, control (DMAIC) is a procedure that is useful for certain types of projects and terrible for…
(Avery Point Group: Atlanta) -- The recession and rapid slumping of sales are forcing many companies to reevaluate their priorities with regard to their continuous improvement initiatives. As a result, there’s a high demand for lean talent skill sets, according to a new study by The Avery Point…
Akhilesh Gulati
Those best adapted to particular conditions will succeed in the long run. This idea was invented by Herbert Spencer in Principles of Biology (University Press of the Pacific, 2002) to describe Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection of living species.
By the early 1900s, this insight was…
American National Standards Institute ANSI
(ANSI: New York) -- The International Organization of Standardization (ISO) has approved the creation of a new technical committee (TC) to address the development of standards related to combating fraud.
ISO/TC 247--“Fraud countermeasures and controls,” was proposed by the American National…
(TÜVRheinland: Newtown, Connecticut) -- TÜVRheinland of North America’s electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and telecommunications product testing lab in Rochester, New York, has been approved for electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic susceptibility testing for products imported into…
Michael Casey
S
ince 1979, an automotive-parts manufacturer had one premier product that is used by automakers such as General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Honda, Mercedes, and Daimler-Chrysler. For competitive reasons, this business didn’t want to share their name for this article.
Overview
In May 2008, the…
Bill Kalmar
Since the year 2000, we have either been mesmerized, entertained, or in my case, irritated by a TV program called “Survivor.” Contestants on this show are isolated in the wilderness and compete against each other for cash and other prizes. The program utilizes a progressive elimination gimmick,…
(IATA: Montreal) – At the March 2, 2009, International Air Transport Association (IATA) World Cargo Symposium in Bangkok, Thailand, IATA called on the cargo supply chain to battle the current air cargo crisis by improving security, delivering a better product, and boosting efficiency.
“The…
Mark Albert
Many shops have implemented computerized systems to gather data for production reporting, quality control, statistical process control (SPC), and tool management. Stephen Birman, president of High Tech Research Inc. of Deerfield, Illinois, believes one knowledge-based system that integrates all of…
Patrick Sweeney
A work instruction is a tool provided to help someone do a job correctly. This simple statement implies that the purpose of the work instruction is quality and that the target user is the worker. Unfortunately, in many workplaces, today’s work instructions have little connection with this…
(CMS: Louisville, Kentucky) -- The Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS) will host its 25th Annual Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference (CMSC) on July 20–24, at the Louisville Marriott Downtown in Louisville, Kentucky. Each year, the CMS community convenes to learn about emerging technology and…
Mike Micklewright
Question: How is the octuplets mom similar to an American CEO?
Answer: She outsourced the main process, she made more inventory than she can properly care for, and she expects bail-outs for her wasteful actions.
Saturn was my real first job and it pains me to learn that after just 24 years,…
Philip Colet
P
roduct information and label code verification are important parts of the packaging and quality control process for manufacturers and consumers in the food and beverage industry. Machine vision is increasingly being used to help improve the accuracy of the inspection process in these…
(ASTM: West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania) -- A recent annual report submitted to ASTM International (formerly the American Society for Testing and Materials) by the Jordan Institution for Standards and Metrology (JISM) indicates that a number of ASTM standards have been adopted and referenced by JISM…
(Aegis Corp.: Lafayette, Colorado) -- Recent deployment of manufacturing process intelligence software “Discoverant,” from Aegis Analytical Corp., enables life science manufacturers to apply the updated principles and approaches for process validation outlined in the United States Food and Drug…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, Maryland) -- In a tour de force of measurement science, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed and issued for sale a new test material for calibrating quality control equipment used extensively by the polymer (plastics) industry…
Thomas R. Cutler
Story update 6/03/2011: The first two paragraphs following the subhead "ISO 22000 users" were changed.
Regulatory and standards compliance is a requirement that meets with regular resistance from CFOs and CEOs who must justify the expense. Brand protection from recalls and costly litigation is…
