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The aerospace standard AS9100 Revision D was originally planned to be released in April 2014. Many of us close to the standard expected it to be released in May 2016 after the April International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG) meeting in Singapore. However, this was not the case; the IAQG decided…
(Thermonics: Mansfield, MA) -- A standard line of -40°C and -60°C portable, low-temperature chillers has been introduced by Thermonics Corp., the thermal products segment of inTEST Corp. These 12 air- and water-cooled fluid chillers build on the recently introduced family of -80°C units. With…
It’s amazing that, in this day and age, some manufacturers have not yet heard of “lean.” How are they surviving in today’s competitive market without it? The issue is that, in many ways, the customer sets pricing. If manufacturers want to be profitable, they must find ways to become more efficient…
(Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence: North Kingstown, RI) -- Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence North America has announced the launch of its Integrated Solutions strategic business unit, dedicated to smart factory systems for advanced manufacturing.
This highly-specialized team will develop…
Should every company be striving for the type of strategic advantage that has become the hallmark of Amazon, Google, and Facebook? For sure, in the tech world, it’s hard to imagine success without quick and continuous technology improvement. What about your world?
Whether you sell information or…
One of the big themes in the current presidential race is how decades of free trade have dealt a heavy blow to the U.S. worker as millions of jobs were shipped overseas to take advantage of cheap labor.
That’s even turned some pro free-trade Republicans into protectionists. As a result, the…
One of the big themes in the current presidential race is how decades of free trade have dealt a heavy blow to the U.S. worker as millions of jobs were shipped overseas to take advantage of cheap labor.
That’s even turned some pro free-trade Republicans into protectionists. As a result, the…
(Kreon: Limoges, France) -- At the recent Control tradeshow in Stuttgart, Germany, Kreon Technologies unveiled the Ace Skyline: a Kreon scanning arm with the powerful integrated 3D scanner Skyline that can be used for any application (e.g., 3D inspection, CAD comparison, reverse engineering, rapid…
May 8 was Mother's Day. In today's article I will be writing about somebody who has been called "The Mother of Modern Management" and "America's First Lady of Engineering." Many of this woman's concepts and ideas lend themselves really well to the Toyota Production System.
Lillian Moller Gilbreth…
Trivia question of the day: What do toilet paper, sugar, coffee, cheese, ice cream, and sugar have in common? Two things, actually. Their prices are up, and their packaging units are down.
A can of coffee is now likely to be only 11 ounces, diminished from a full pound several years ago. Likewise…
I recently read an HBR blog by Sunnie Giles that reported the results of a study of 195 leaders representing 30 global organizations. The leaders were asked to identify the most important competencies for leadership. The study reminded me of a complementary article in Forbes, written by Glen…
(Fowler: Newton, MA) -- Fowler High Precision rolled out it’s newest addition to its fleet of Mobile Tech Centers (MTCs) and 3D Mobile Tech Vans. Mobile Tech Center number three hit the road on May 10, 2016, departing from Fowler headquarters in Newton, Massachusetts, on its way to the West Coast…
For as long as we have had automobiles, we have had traffic accidents. Even the vehicles that we depend on to take care of us in the event of an accident—ambulances—get into accidents nearly every day. Because ambulances are basically a small emergency room on wheels, the occupants in the back are…
(Business Wire: London) According to the latest market study released by Technavio, the smart machines market in the Americas is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 15 percent during the forecast period.
This research report, titled “Smart Machines Market in…
The Pareto chart is a graphic representation of the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle. If you’re a quality improvement specialist, you know that the chart is named after the early 20th-century economist Vilfredo Pareto, who discovered that roughly 20 percent of the population in Italy…
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- Thirty-four organizations from a wide range of sectors have submitted applications for the 2016 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Demonstrating the relevance and value of the Baldrige Excellence Framework to organizations of multiple sizes and sectors, the 2016…
There can be little argument that consumers are growing more suspicious of business. They question its motives, and increasingly, its marketing, which recently has been said to be manipulative. Consumers are ever more aware of the Internet pop-ups and exaggerated claims they receive in a targeted…
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PLZ Aeroscience is North America’s largest custom aerosol manufacturer and packager. It produces its own private-brand products and custom formulations, and provides contract filling for other customers. PLZ has been in business for more than 100 years and during the last six…
Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from the book, Management Lessons From Taiichi Ohno: What Every Leader Can Learn From the Man who Invented the Toyota Production System, by Takehiko Harada (McGraw-Hill Education, 2015).
The phrase, “kaizen equals getting closer to the final process” was hardly…
In an earlier article, we discussed a pair of concepts—interoperability and connectivity—that are essential prerequisites for creating a successful national system for evidence generation (or “EvGen”). Here, we take a look at how we would apply these constructs as we go about building such a…
In an earlier article, we discussed a pair of concepts—interoperability and connectivity—that are essential prerequisites for creating a successful national system for evidence generation (or “EvGen”). Here, we take a look at how we would apply these constructs as we go about building such a…
In 2013, the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence started asking questions related to an organization’s use of social media. An emphasis was placed on effective use of social media. In the early days of this criteria change, many users of the Criteria had limited engagement with social…
The map is not the territory.
—Alfred Korzybski
This column is a tribute primarily to Jamshid Gharajedaghi, a long-time teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend. My wife Carole and I recently visited him while in Philadelphia doing a presentation for the International Society for Performance…
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The portable measuring arm, or portable arm coordinate measuring machine (CMM) has become an important quality control tool at many manufacturing companies. With the flexibility to be used nearly anywhere on a manufacturing floor, from in-process checks to large-scale assembly to…
Colonel Paul M. A. Linebarger’s authoritative Psychological Warfare (Infantry Journal Press, 1948) defines propaganda as any planned communication with the purpose to influence behavior, but this definition is actually too narrow. Propaganda consists of any action or communication, whether…
