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(CMSC: Weatherford, TX) -- The Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS) has announced the final schedule of events for its annual Coordinate Metrology Society Conference (CMSC) to be held July 25–29, 2016, at the Embassy Suites by Hilton in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The conference is world-renowned for…
Design controls and risk management processes should be tools to ensure that medical devices are designed, developed, and manufactured to be safe and effective, and to address indications for use, too.
All too often, however, design controls and risk management are viewed as a pile of “stuff”…
“Honest feedback is hard to take, especially from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.”
—Franklin P. Jones
I once found myself needing to find new employment. The situation that I was leaving had been complex, to say the least, and I worried that perceptions of failure would dog…
The HORNE Healthcare team has been blogging recently about the necessary business model changes we think are inevitable to healthcare transformation. We’ve focused on the macro level, urging healthcare organizations to take action. Although I believe our advice is sound for large systems, I am…
Best described as “a museum of art being built,” the Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry in Rock Tavern, NY, has helped artists develop and produce their work for nearly 50 years. Large-scale Frank Stella statues adorn the exterior of the premises, which is otherwise unassuming in all but scale. The…
Approaching the end of the school year means focusing on graduation rates, dropout rates, and other data suggesting trends for students. Opportunities for considering statistics abound, but one must examine the way that these statistics are actually used by asking the right questions about the…
(LaserLinc: Dayton, OH) -- LaserLinc Inc., a United States manufacturer of technology for precision measurement of diameter, ovality, wall thickness, concentricity, eccentricity, and inside diameter, is pleased to introduce the TLAser1240 scanning laser micrometer, a new single-axis diameter gauge…
Many moons ago, when I was just getting started on my lean journey, I visited a large automotive supplier to benchmark pull systems. My own factory had started a pilot kanban between two work centers and I was hoping to gain some insight from a more experienced source.
To my disappointment, when…
(Marposs: Auburn Hills, MI) -- Marposs will introduce its latest generation Optoquick flexible, precision shop-floor shaft measuring system at IMTS 2016 in booths E-5516 and S-8719. The Optoquick system utilizes non-contact optical scanning to provide rapid and accurate measurements while the part…
How do you determine the “worst case” scenario for a process? Is it by assuming the worst case for each process task or step? No. The reason is that the probability of every step having its worst case at the same time is practically zero. What we’re looking for is a value that will occur a very…
(DeFelsko: Ogdensburg, NY) -- DeFelsko has introduced the new PosiTector SHD Shore Hardness Durometer for measuring the indentation hardness of non-metallic materials such as polymers, elastomers, and rubbers. In the corrosion industry, durometers are commonly used to ensure proper curing of…
In a recent post, I examined the differences in productivity across small and large manufacturing firms, and noted that there were differences across manufacturers in terms of size. But it’s also clear from the literature that productivity differs across companies even in the same industry.
Why…
(MCMA: Ann Arbor, MI) -- The Motion Control and Motor Association (MCMA), the global trade association for the motion control and motor industry, recently announced that online registration is open for the annual Technical Conference (TechCon), which will be held October 11–13, 2016, in New…
A couple weeks ago, I wrote a post about emotionally unavailable customers. Hat tip to James Lawther for inspiring me to actually flip the tables here and think about emotionally challenged employees, instead.
The question I posed in response to his comment on that post was: Why do we transform…
An improved titanium alloy—stronger than any commercial titanium alloy currently on the market—gets its strength from the novel way atoms are arranged to form a special nanostructure. For the first time, researchers have been able to see this alignment and then manipulate it to make the strongest…
(Sunnen: St. Louis, MO) -- Sunnen’s new SVL-2115 automated lapping machine brings increased productivity and part consistency to what is traditionally a manual process. Based on the same machine platform as the SV-2100 honing system, the SVL-2115 provides single-setup processing of hydraulic…
(Delcam: Birmingham, UK) -- Delcam, an Autodesk company since 2014, continues to improve its software to help companies whenever they need to increase productivity, reduce lead times, or improve quality and consistency.
Visitors to IMTS, held in Chicago Sept. 12–17, 2016, will see at booth E-3222…
How competitive is American manufacturing? By the year 2020, the United States is projected to take the top spot in the Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index (GMCI), a multiyear research platform from Deloitte and the Council on Competitiveness.
The 2016 GMCI surveyed more than 500 of the…
A fault tree analysis (FTA) is a logical, graphical diagram that starts with an unwanted, undesirable, or anomalous state of a system. The diagram then lays out the many possible faults, and combinations of faults, within the subsystems, components, assemblies, software, and parts comprising the…
Ihave studied systems dynamics modeling for three decades. What I’ve experienced first-hand is that when you establish several key core values, you can create an entire self-replicating system for your organization.
I experimented with this idea first with Cheetah Learning, where our three core…
ISO 9001:2015, Clause 4.2—“Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties” requires the organization to determine the “requirements of these interested parties that are relevant to the quality management system.” When customers block an organization’s content, it is a sure sign…
More than 313 million global work-related accidents occur each year, according to the International Labour Organization, with a high percentage of those accidents resulting in significant time away from work. Each accident bears a personal and financial cost for the worker and the employer. Yet,…
The tragic shooting in Orlando brought dozens of victims to emergency rooms. Even now, several of those people are still clinging to life. Many across the nation are praying for them and the other victims. Without quick response and high-quality emergency medical care, many more than the 49 already…
Standard operating procedures, or SOPs, are critical to quality assurance. Frequently, in an operation with many associates, each one does his or her job as well as possible (because no one wants to do a bad job). Some people, however, will do tasks differently than others—and usually they think…
Humans spend a lot of time creating things, and these activities drive a huge amount of our lives, economically and personally. We’re always in a fight to keep our creations from breaking down. Houses, roads, cars. Power lines and bridges. Solar cells and computers. Batteries. People.
Then there…
