All Features
William A. Levinson
The ongoing relevance of the quality profession requires evolution and adaptation to meet the needs of the 21st century. Remember, the quality profession originated with the need for inspection to prevent poor quality from reaching customers; this was before it evolved to include metrology,…
Mike Figliuolo
Everyone has goals these days. The one that causes more disconnects than any other is a sales goal. It’s a number to hit (either units or dollars or both—the better ones are actually measured in profit dollars rather than revenue dollars). They’re problematic because by their very nature they get a…
Marian Merritt
Cybersecurity is a fast-growing field with a constant need for skilled professionals. But unlike other professions—like medicine or aviation—there’s no clear-cut pathway to qualifying for cybersecurity positions. For employers and job seekers alike, this can make the journey to building a team (or…
Rachel Byfleet
In an eco-friendly plot twist that would make Captain Planet proud, the European Union has rolled out the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), a blueprint that’s got big companies talking about more than just profits. Imagine a world where every major company’s reports don’t just…
Patrick Willemson
As sustainability and transparency become increasingly vital to global business practices, the European Union has introduced the Digital Product Passport (DPP)—an initiative that will reshape the manufacturing landscape worldwide.
For manufacturers in the U.S. and other regions, understanding the…
Yushiro Kato, Quality Digest
The state of American manufacturing is in dire need of improvement. For decades, the U.S. economy has been transforming into a service-based model while the manufacturing power we associate with the American postwar capacity of the 1950s and ’60s has dispersed offshore.
This slow degradation of U.…
Anthony Hardy
In a competitive manufacturing industry, meeting high standards is crucial to quality, sustainability, and safety. While it can be challenging to earn customer trust and establish a positive brand reputation, third-party certifications to standards such as IATF 16949: Automotive Quality Management…
Zach Winn
At the heart of the energy transition is a metal transition. Wind farms, solar panels, and electric cars require many times more copper, zinc, and nickel than their gas-powered alternatives. They also require more exotic metals with unique properties, known as rare earth elements, which are…
Abheek Chatterjee
Manufacturing is critical to our way of life. Without it, we wouldn’t have the supplies, food, clothing, electronics, and other things we use every day. However, manufacturing also produces waste that often ends up in landfills or oceans.
Looking at natural ecosystems provides a different…
ISO
The clock is ticking. Our planet is heating up, and with every passing day the stakes rise. Wildfires, floods, and storms are no longer distant headlines; they’re unfolding right on our doorstep. Humanity stands at a crucial turning point. But amidst the climate crisis, a powerful ally emerges from…
Johan Sjöberg
As dairies scramble to meet sustainability targets ahead of the first year of responding to the European Union Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the significant losses in push-out processes have been identified as low-hanging fruit by many companies.
From 2025, listed companies in the…
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are using advanced manufacturing techniques to revitalize the domestic production of very large metal parts that weigh at least 10,000 lb each and are necessary for a variety of industries, including clean energy.
Across…
David L. Chandler
Industrial electrochemical processes that use electrodes to produce fuels and chemical products are hampered by the formation of bubbles that block parts of the electrode surface, reducing the area available for the active reaction. Such blockage reduces the performance of the electrodes by…
Mike Figliuolo
This ain’t your daddy’s or mommy’s business world anymore. I’m sure you’ve figured that out already. First of all, people use cell phones. I keep reminding my father.
“Dad, turn on your cell phone when you’re not home.”
“Why? Then it will ring. I’m retired, and I don’t want to be bothered by…
Karel Cool
The biggest sustainability challenge today isn’t a lack of enthusiasm. We observe many more business leaders every day who are eager to engage in sustainability efforts, driven by factors such as government regulations, societal expectations, stakeholder demands, or their own aspirations.
The real…
James Chan
Asset maintenance isn’t just about fixing things when they break. It’s a complex mix of strategies, both proactive and reactive. Finding the most cost-effective blend makes all the difference in the success of your maintenance program and your business as a whole.
Whether your team is scrambling…
John Tschohl
I’ve been speaking and writing about customer service since January 1980, and there is only a handful of companies that have been relentless and kept their focus on incredible customer service. The pandemic gave most firms an excuse to say, “To hell with the customer.”
Costco is one of the few…
FABTECH
With FABTECH 2024 in Orlando, Florida, fast approaching (Oct. 15–17), many in the steel industry are expected to attend. Some will be part of the manufacturing side of the iron and steel sector, some will be involved in fabrication, and others part of steel service centers.
So, how is the industry…
ISO
ISO and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) have unveiled the world’s first international guidelines to help businesses and organizations expedite their contributions to the U.N.’s sustainable development goals (SDGs).
New guidelines for urgent action
The ISO/UNDP guidelines for…
Lawrence Bernard
A unique manufacturing program for large metal parts holds promise to help revitalize American manufacturing and return clean-energy manufacturing technologies to the United States. The approach could greatly reduce waiting times for critical components and enable economic growth in the…
David Satterwhite, Mark Hembree
The world of remote work spawned by the pandemic posed several new and unprecedented challenges as employers and employees alike reconfigured relationships and adopted new expectations for each other.
For most people who were able to do so, skipping the commute and working from home was preferable…
Andrew Paul Laurent
Roads are the backbone of our society and economy, taking people and goods across distances long and short. They are a staple of the built environment, taking up nearly 2.8 million lane-miles (or 4.6 million lane-kilometers) of the United States’ surface area.
These same roads have a considerable…
Adam Zewe
Identifying one faulty turbine in a wind farm, which can involve looking at hundreds of signals and millions of data points, is akin to finding a needle in a haystack.
Engineers often streamline this complex problem using deep-learning models that can detect anomalies in measurements taken…
Mike Figliuolo
In case you missed it, the apocalypse happened a few weeks ago. The end of days. The reckoning. It was a time to take a step back and reflect on all you’ve accomplished or failed to accomplish in your life. Even though the world was not torn asunder by explosions, the reflection on what life means…
Touradj Ebrahimi
For the last 30 years, the JPEG image format has been a staple for the internet’s billions of users. While the technologies used to display images have evolved tremendously during the past few decades, the JPEG format is still used everywhere. This is a great example of what can happen when a new…
