All Features
Jonathan O’Hare
The execution of an inspection plan is critical for ensuring the continuous production of quality products. The purpose of this article is to explain how software tools can be used to maximize utilization of the inspection system within the main control loop once the inspection plan has been…
Mark Rosenthal
It was September 1901, in Dayton, Ohio, and Wilbur Wright was frustrated. The previous year, 1900, he had built and tested, with his brother Orville’s help, their first full-size glider. It was designed using the most up-to-date information about wing design available. His plan had been to “kite”…
Ryan E. Day
Sponsored Content
Founded in 1927 to produce aluminum splints—cutting edge at the time—Zimmer Biomet is a medical device company commanding second place in the entire world’s overall orthopedic market share. The organization’s stated purpose is to “Restore mobility, alleviate pain, and improve the…
Winnie Ip
You may have heard that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. Well, it turns out that’s just a myth. Researchers found that, on average, it takes people more than two months before a new behavior becomes automatic. So what does that have to do with your office ergonomics process? A lot, especially…
John Bell
Do Less Better is the name of my book (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). Do less better is also a culture and a strategy of organizations and their leaders. Do-less-better practitioners are fanatical about focus and simplification; herein lies the secret of their success. Yet, do less better isn’t…
Ellen Kominars
While Hank Matousek Sr. was perfectly content in his position as quality control manager at a bearing company during the late 1960s and early 1970s, he had no idea that his employer’s growing financial woes and a pending layoff would become his surprise catalysts to found Grind All Inc. Not…
Joel Smith
In parts one and two of “Gauging Gage,” we looked at the numbers of parts, operators, and replicates used in a gage repeatability and reproducibility (GR&R) study and how accurately we could estimate %Contribution based on the choice for each. In doing so, I hoped to provide you with valuable…
AssurX
A common pitfall in quality management system (QMS) process automation occurs with a poorly planned process automation strategy. Too often, the temptation is to automate all quality processes at once and streamline the entire eQMS process in one giant undertaking. However, real-world experience…
Rob Mitchum
People have touted the potential of big data and computation in medicine for what feels like decades, promising more effective and personalized treatments, new research discoveries, and smarter clinical predictions. But only recently have these technologies made it to the clinic, where they can…
Gwendolyn Galsworth
There is an enemy in your company, and it’s invisible. You can’t see it because it literally is not there. Yet its impact is massive on every level of the enterprise, from boardroom to marketing to operations to the field staff. And the only way we have even the smallest chance of destroying it is…
Ryan E. Day
During the 1950s, W. Edwards Deming championed quality management philosophies that helped Japan develop into a world-class industrial center. In 1954, Joseph M. Juran was invited to lecture by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers. His visit marked a turning point in Japan’s quality…
Ryan E. Day
Sponsored Content
Everyone in manufacturing has heard about the fantastic properties of composite materials, but if you’re not involved in satellite communications (SATCOM), you’ve probably never heard of Eclipse Composites. If you are into SATCOM and particularly SATCOM antennas, you know the…
Anna Nagurney
The American economy is underpinned by networks. Road networks carry traffic and freight; the internet and telecommunications networks carry our voices and digital information; the electricity grid is a network carrying energy; financial networks transfer money from bank accounts to merchants.…
Sameer Kadam, Mickey Shah
The importance of quality management cannot be overstated. It enables companies to increase efficiency, lower risks, achieve compliance, and build better and safer products. Yet many quality management teams struggle to communicate the value of their operations to other departments and executive…
Harish Jose
I have been reading a lot these days about Western philosophy. The most recent book, All Life is Problem Solving (Routledge, 2001), is by Karl Popper, one of the great philosophers of the 20th century. This is a collection of Popper’s writings. One of the great teachings from Popper is the concept…
Joel Smith
‘You take 10 parts and have three operators measure each two times.”
This standard approach to a gage repeatability and reproducibility (GR&R) experiment is so common, so accepted, so ubiquitous, that few people ever question whether it is effective. Obviously, one could look at whether three…
Patrick Nugent
Sponsored Content
Joe Gibbs Racing, a family business founded by former three-time Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs, is one of today’s most successful racing teams. In its 25-year history, it has earned four NASCAR Cup Series championships, five NASCAR XFINITY Series…
Nirmalya Kumar
Although many large companies are multinational, most of the top management teams (TMTs) in these companies are not. They tend to be dominated by executives with a connection to the home country of the company. Attention is paid to gender diversity, but cultural diversity is often ignored.
One…
Christopher Martin
In 1996, former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington formed Washington-based video-game development studio Valve Corp. Two years later, they released a PC game called Half-Life to universal critical acclaim; it was a watershed moment in gaming history, and nearly 20 years later the…
Jesse Lyn Stoner
Coaching is not just for problems. Coaching helps you avoid problems by providing space to think and be more intentional about your goals and actions. And coaching is especially helpful for getting clarity on where you want to go.
Working with a coach gives you: • Space for self-reflection •…
John Valachovic
So often business owners make decisions based on intuition, luck, or the Magic 8-Ball. As a small or midsized manufacturer, there are so many factors that can affect your company’s profitability, both inside and outside of your control. How do you make proactive decisions for the betterment of…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
In last week’s Quality Digest Live: design digital assistance instead of digital assistants, how to make better beer, and closed-loop manufacturing.
“How Digital Media Will Bring Out Our Best Selves in the Workplace”
To improve the workplace, maybe we need a fewer digital assistants and lot more…
Sandrine Tranchard
Depression and mental health conditions are on the rise globally. Affecting more than 300 million people of all ages across the world, depression causes immense suffering to people and their families, as well as placing a great economic cost on society. Its consequences and solutions were…
Kevin Meyer
Mindful observation takes effort and practice, but it’s valuable if you want to be a leader. It allows you to watch processes in action and look for small nuances and opportunities for improvement. For example, the wait staff at top-tier hotels do this every day. One waiter is always watching,…
Laurel Thoennes @ Quality Digest
Traffic crawled. Ahead of me was a pickup, its bumper thick with stickers. From the one most cracked and faded, I saw the word “welfare.” Just before the driver switched lanes, I made out the rest: “Work harder—there are millions on welfare depending on you.” That triggered a memory so vivid I no…
