All Features
Ken Albala
Trade wars have an interesting way of revealing cultural stereotypes.
Countries often propose tariffs not on the most valuable items in their trading relationships—since that would be painful to them as well—but rather on products iconic of national character. A good example of this came in the…
Thomas Andresen Gosselin
Whoever coined the phrase “it’s a small world” clearly doesn’t work in supply chain management. The earth maintains a relatively constant size of roughly 196,900,000 square miles of surface area, but in the last decade or so, the scope and complexity of global supply chains have expanded…
Tom Kevan
MELD Manufacturing has commercialized a metal production process that promises to enable 3D printing to carve out a greater role in the manufacturing sector.
Until recently, manufacturers’ efforts to apply 3D printing in large-scale production areas have been thwarted by inherent limitations of…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
In our July 6, 2018, episode of QDL, we discuss distributed manufacturing, and distributed management.
“Brother Moonshine, Sister Solution”
If want to spur innovation, try moonshine.
“3D Printing Finds a Custom Foothold in Manufacturing”
3D printing is leading to some pretty interesting…
Sharona Hoffman
On June 12, 2018, the American Medical Association announced that drug shortages pose an urgent public health crisis. This crisis should be of concern to all Americans.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines a drug shortage as a “period of time when the demand or projected demand for a…
Ryan E. Day
Business partnerships are nothing new. Partnerships that result in leaner manufacturing processes, more consistent quality, and lower manufacturing costs—that is worth talking about.
With global competition so fierce, manufacturers must always be keen to spot areas of muda (waste). Even seemingly…
Tim Lozier
Quality management systems (QMS) have become strategic components that touch more and more of the business today. With new versions of QMS standards, and the enrollment of all people in the quality management effort, the need for cohesion from one system to the next is becoming critical.
Let’s…
Guy Courtin
The digital age is well underway, and that accounts for every aspect of business. A 2016 Boston Consulting Group (BCG) survey says that companies that digitally transform their supply chains will be leaders in their industries.
With 10-percent better product availability and 24-percent faster…
Mike Richman
During the June 1, 2018, episode of QDL, we presented a special look at the parameters of relations between the United States and China, from the shifting perspectives of culture, trade, and history. Dirk and I, along with Quality Digest CEO Jeff Dewar, offered up our thoughts on what it all means…
jeffdewar
What a week. On April 30, 2018, there were top-level delegations from two disciplines: In Beijing the Chinese hosted a cabinet-level delegation of U.S. trade representatives; and in Seattle, the ASQ hosted the Sino-U.S. Quality Summit, the first of its global summit series as part of its annual…
Qing Shan Ding
Tensions are escalating between China and the United States over trade. The Chinese government has announced retaliatory measures on a range of U.S. products, including cars and some American agriculture products after the United States listed 1,333 Chinese products to be hit by punitive tariffs of…
Ryan E. Day
With the threat of a trade war between China and the United States looming, business relations between Asia and the West have not been this hot a topic since the Japanese Economic Miracle that was birthed shortly after WW II. Today, it is China’s turn on center stage as its soaring economic growth…
Mike Richman
In part one of this article, we discussed the origins of the United States and China, and how their relationship began to emerge.
Many people might point to the United States as the ultimate example of a laissez-faire, free market, unfettered capitalist system. Some would also say that China…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
In part one we saw that China has made great strides in terms of product quality, notably in the tech sector. But it still has a long way to go in other products. Driven by the growing middle class, who like all middle class buyers want value for their money, and by the Chinese government’s desire…
Ken Voytek
Without manufacturing, the room where you make dinner would be rather stark and barren. There’d be no pots, no pans, no stoves, no spatulas, no appliances—big or small. There’d be no way to prepare the meals that give you and your family sustenance. With no counter, there wouldn’t even be a place…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Japanese products were synonymous with cheaply made. Anyone over the age of 50 probably remembers cheap Japanese transistor radios when they were a kid. We all believed, in the day, that the more transistors a radio had, the better. That wasn’t necessarily true, but try…
Mike Richman
In June of 1950, W. Edwards Deming began offering training to the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) on the precepts of statistical process control.
At almost exactly the same time, Communist North Korea invaded and nearly overwhelmed their southern neighbors, who were immediately…
Tom Middleton
Markets and manufacturing practices continue to evolve, and companies now outsource to an increasing number of global manufacturing and supply partners. As companies have pursued this broadened supply chain strategy, the ability to manage both business and quality risks has become more challenging…
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…
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—…
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,…
Protolabs
Technology giant HP has developed and launched multi-jet fusion (MJF), an industrial-grade 3D printing technology that quickly and accurately produces functional prototypes and end-use parts for a variety of applications. Protolabs served as one of several test sites for this additive manufacturing…
Mike Richman
On the Apr. 20 episode of QDL, we brought you interviews on manufacturing’s digital transformation and the primacy of photogrammetry for large-volume, close-tolerance metrology, plus news about logistical efficiencies and worker motivations (or lack thereof). Here’s a closer look at the show:
“…
Rob Matheson
Carrying your smartphone around everywhere has become a way of life. In doing so, you produce a surprising amount of data about your role in the economy—where you shop, work, travel, and generally hang out.
Thasos Group, founded at MIT in 2011, has developed a platform that leverages those data,…
Richard Harpster
The AIAG-VDA FMEA Handbook committee and everyone who responded to the request for comment on the proposed AIAG-VDA failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) manual must be applauded for their efforts. Harmonizing the VDA and AIAG FMEA methods is not an easy task. According to industry sources,…
