All Features
George Schuetz
Whether you’re a small machine shop or a large multimillion-dollar manufacturing giant, there’s no doubt you use dimensional gauges to maintain the standards for quality in your production.
The accuracy of these dimensional measuring instruments must be periodically checked to ensure that they’re…
Mike Figliuolo
We’re constantly seeking ways to both improve our business but save money at the same time. That can lead to the dangerous dynamic of “I’ll do it myself.”
Doing more with less can turn us into idiots. Our hubris and arrogance puts our idiocy into action. Sorry—I got a little ranty right out of the…
George Thuo
Data breaches and cyberattacks are things that small to medium-size manufacturers think won’t happen to them. Yet, according to the Verizon 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report, 43% of all cyberattacks are conducted against small businesses.
If that doesn’t grab your attention, consider this…
Enoch Li, Derek Deasy
Leadership happens in groups, as does most work. Without followers, who and what are we leading? Given that, leaders must understand what groups need if they want to maximize performance. Although most leaders should be familiar with executive coaching on an individual basis, they might know less…
Courtney Kinkade
At a time when Americans already owe more than $1.6 trillion in student loans, and the cost of college continues to rise, some young people are defying the traditional route of a four-year degree. Established professionals looking for a career change aren’t necessarily going back to college.…
Mike Figliuolo
I recently went to Kings Island amusement park with the kids. Beyond experiencing the thrill of $9 sodas and wicked awesome roller coasters, I learned a few things about professional development while I was there.
Some of you love roller coasters, and some of you hate them. I used to hate them,…
Donald J. Wheeler
An engineer once told me, “I work on project teams that have an average half-life of two weeks, implementing solutions with an average half-life of two weeks.” Time after time, and in place after place, our improvement efforts often fall short of expectations and fade away. In this article, I will…
Ronald Cowen
Even before Shamir Maldonado-Rivera graduated from the University of Puerto Rico in 2019 with an applied physics degree, she had already picked out her dream job working with semiconductors.
The only problem was that she lacked the hands-on experience.
Her university studies hadn’t given Maldonado…
Chris Rush
While clinical trials are the gold standard for generating clinical data to use as evidence of your medical device’s safety and effectiveness, they are by no means the only way to gather clinical evidence.
Real-world data (RWD), which typically come from routine healthcare delivery or…
Mike Figliuolo
Leadership is perilous territory. People’s lives are at stake (sometimes literally). Although avoiding the following seven deadly sins won’t guarantee you’ll be a great leader, succumbing to them will guarantee you’ll have a significant learning moment. (Translation: You’ll fail miserably, but…
Stephanie Ojeda
In the highly regulated world of life sciences, data integrity isn’t optional; it’s essential. The ALCOA principles—attributable, legible, contemporaneous, original, and accurate—provide a foundational framework for ensuring data are reliable and trustworthy.
With the rise of digital…
Harish Jose
In this article, I look at the idea of “sweeping-in” in systems approach. Sweeping-in can be described as the process of opening up the inquiry of a system by expanding its boundaries. Philosopher and systems scientist C. West Churchman discussed this process in several works, including Thought and…
Adam Zewe
Despite their impressive capabilities, large language models (LLMs) are far from perfect. These artificial intelligence models sometimes “hallucinate” by generating incorrect or unsupported information in response to a query.
Due to this hallucination problem, an LLM’s responses are often verified…
James Chan
Facility and equipment maintenance is most effective when performed proactively and regularly. This kind of routine maintenance can take many forms, ranging from the most basic approaches to complicated strategies using sensors and data to trigger maintenance. Time-based maintenance (TBM) is a…
Gleb Tsipursky
The recent $22.1 million verdict in the case of Billesdon vs. Wells Fargo Securities has cast a spotlight on the increasing legal risks companies face when they ignore work-from-home (WFH) requests under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This landmark case underscores the critical need for…
Bruce Hamilton
For an organization to develop a sustainable, continuous improvement culture, it must, as we say at Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership, involve everybody, every day—i.e., process improvement must become an everyday part of everyone’s job. That’s the ideal.
The reality, however, according to…
Mohammad Mahdi Zare
Remote work is now an essential part of the modern workplace, offering flexibility and convenience to millions of employees worldwide. However, with this shift to home offices and flexible workspaces comes a new set of security challenges. Remote workers face a unique set of risks, and businesses…
Joshua Zable
Everyone has their own favorite graph type or visual tool. I’m not ready to declare this my favorite yet, but this oldie but goodie has got to get more time and attention. That’s right: I’m talking about control charts with stages, also sometimes called before/after control charts.
If you’re not…
Mike Figliuolo
We’ve already talked about what a strategic plan is (and isn’t) in our discussion: “Strategic Planning Isn’t ‘Budget +10%.’” Hopefully, you’ve now got a direction mapped out and a list of initiatives to pursue, and you’re ready for a little tactical strategic advice. (Yes, that phrase is supposed…
Zach Winn
Most doctors go into medicine because they want to help patients. But today’s healthcare system requires that they spend hours each day on other work—searching through electronic health records (EHRs), documenting, coding and billing, gaining prior authorization, and evaluating services—that often…
Akhilesh Gulati
A few days after returning from a speaking engagement at the Innovate for Excellence Summit in Chicago last September, I spoke to Susan, an old classmate. We chatted for a while, and naturally the conversation drifted toward innovation—something we’re both passionate about. She asked me about my…
Mark Hembree
If you’re reading this, you probably read a lot. You’ve made your way through all our industry news, keeping tabs on trends in our feature stories and gleaning a greater understanding of your own business—at least we hope so.
And if you read this much, it may be that you do a fair amount of…
Harry Hertz
How do you treat signs when you’re driving your car? Are you a strict rule follower? Does a stop sign cause you to come to a full stop, or a rolling stop, or no stop at all if you see no traffic? What about that intersection you go through every day, where you never see a car approaching from any…
Scott Crow
W ithin the utility industry, regional entities increasingly focus on internal controls as a measuring stick for overall compliance performance.
Developing and executing rock-solid internal controls with an automated compliance management software solution can help maintain compliance, not only…
ISO
Modern-day security breaches, such as the SolarWinds or T-Mobile attacks, aren’t one-off events; they are prime examples of how someone can steal your organization’s credentials and use them to gain illegitimate privileged access to sensitive assets. Data breaches happen daily, and in too many…
