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I was speaking last week with, Jen, a senior manager at a large manufacturer, and she commented to me, “I know it’s important for me to get to the floor, but the time involved for me and my staff to regularly visit two dozen different departments makes this seem like an impossible task.” She was…
(R&R: Grand Haven, MI) -- R&R Vision Fixtures’ new Quick Slide Plate in conjunction with its Quick Load Corner enables users to extend the reach of travel on their vision systems, making it possible to hold and stabilize parts while enabling complete access and viewing circumference around…
This June will you be wishing the Magna Carta a very happy birthday? An 800-year-old document might not necessarily warrant a lovely slice of cake, but I’m sure someone somewhere will be celebrating this anniversary. No doubt many readers will be wondering why I want to discuss the Magna Carta,…
A brand promise is an agreement between a company and its customers. Yet Gallup finds that companies are largely failing to make good on their agreements. Only half of the almost 18 million customers Gallup has surveyed strongly believe that the companies they do business with always deliver on…
Perhaps the biggest mistake business leaders make is to assume that people are resources like any other. The truth is that people are resources unlike any other. At the heart of many business disasters is the misunderstanding that people and man-hours are one and the same.
A close friend of mine…
(Humantech: Ann Arbor, MI) -- Humantech, experts in workplace improvement, has earned a platinum-level certification to NSF Protocol P391—“General Sustainability Assessment Criteria for Services and Service Providers” from NSF Sustainability, a division of global independent public-health…
There is a famous (and often misquoted) line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” which reads, “Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.”
Odyssey Teams Inc. of Chico, California, is collaborating with the Water Works Program of Pyrmont, Australia, to…
I recently came across the TED Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie where she discusses the “danger of a single story.” From growing up as a kid in Nigeria to studying in the United States into adulthood, she describes how she and others, having only heard a single story about a certain situation,…
(Creaform: Lévis, Québec) -- Creaform, a global leader in portable 3D measurement solutions and 3D engineering services and software, has released VXmodel, its 3D scan data post-treatment software module, fully integrated in VXelements 4.0. It provides the simplest and fastest path from scans to…
In the past couple of weeks, I have stumbled onto three things that triggered this column. Two of them came from academic-type healthcare journals, one of which shall remain nameless. This type of journal is still trying to make a formal case for improvement. Article after article belabors the…
We’ve all heard and seen commercials that claim “Customer service is No. 1 with us” or “We treat our customers like we want to be treated.” If these statements rang true, you’d think we’d hear more about contented consumers and their positive customer experiences.
The American Customer…
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 1 in 6 U.S. citizens are affected by foodborne illness each year; the Public Health Agency of Canada estimates the figure at 1 in 8 Canadians. Both agencies state that illness can stem from either contaminated products or allergies relating to…
(CMS: Hollywood, FL) -- The Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS) has announced the agenda of its popular, next-generation Measurement Zone providing both educational and competitive programs at the upcoming Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference (CMSC).
Located in the CMSC exhibition hall, the…
(ZEISS: Maple Grove, MN) -- The NEX series of instruments from ZEISS Industrial Metrology integrate additional measurement analysis with new detectors. SURFCOM NEX 100 offers a single hybrid detector to measure surface texture and contour at the same time. RONDCOM NEX Rs offers best-in-class…
Last week I attended the American Society for Quality’s World Conference on Quality and Improvement in Nashville, TN. The ASQ conference is a great opportunity to see how quality professionals are tackling problems in every industry, from beverage distribution to banking services.
Given my…
Editor’s note: Quality Digest will present Richard DeRisio’s webinar, “Effective Strategies for Complaint Handling” on May 19, 2015, at 2 p.m. Eastern, 11 a.m. Pacific. DeRisio will be a guest on Quality Digest Live on Friday, May 15, also at 2 p.m. Eastern, 11 a.m. Pacific, to preview the webinar…
Whitney Blackburn began her career as an art director for a visual communications company, where she built a reputation for intuitive design and creative leadership. Equipped with a passion for intelligent marketing and a deep curiosity for all things outside her comfort zone, Blackburn has spent…
We learned in science class that we should use the scientific method to evaluate hypotheses. Yet somehow, once we enter industry we throw that early learning out the window and fall prey to several pitfalls in experimentation and data interpretation.
In the first two pitfalls that we discussed…
(PQ Systems: Dayton, OH) -- PQ Systems announces the release of SQCpack 7, a comprehensive update to their best-selling statistical process control (SPC) solution that helps organizations utilize the power of data analysis to improve quality.
SQCpack 7 is an easy and scalable application that…
Strengthening communication between caregivers and patients should be a top priority for reducing healthcare costs and improving patient experience, according to a new poll of U.S. healthcare quality improvement professionals conducted by ASQ, the world’s largest network of quality resources and…
Strategic planning requires you to understand the competitive landscape in which you’re operating. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to get your arms around the complex market dynamics you face. A great tool you can use to assess the environment is SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for strengths,…
Physician alignment is vital to driving the changes necessary in our shifting healthcare environment. On the hospital side, physicians are the frontline experts needed to increase quality and decrease cost. It’s impossible for a hospital system to take on important projects like fall prevention,…
(ANSI: Washington D.C.) -- The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) calls on the standardization community to participate in newly released survey intended to gauge interest in a mentoring program for emerging standards professionals. The short survey was created by the ANSI Joint Task…
The ability to make predictions has always been rewarded. Statistician Donald J. Wheeler says that “prediction is the essence of business.” With growing bodies of data and good analytical models, our predictions are getting better.
The statistical models and algorithms behind prediction can be…
(TÜV SÜD AG: Munich) — The revised ISO 9001 standard, scheduled for publication in late 2015, will bring a host of changes for organizations. The new standard, for example, no longer includes the clause requiring top management to appoint a quality management representative (QMR). However, this…
