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How often do you stop to think about the ubiquitous “Made in China” label? If you’re a China lawyer, you should think about it almost every day.
To convince recalcitrant clients of the need for product liability protection for the products they are having made in China, I sometimes send them the…
Well, phew… I’m relieved. We have someone to blame. At least GM will be able to fire the engineer who allegedly lied under oath about a 2006 design change to fix the faulty switches on the Chevy Cobalts. Now we can all get on with our lives, right? And feel comfortable that the problem will never…
(Marposs Corp: Auburn Hills, MI) -- Marposs will be introducing the Artis CTM V6, a tool, machine, and process monitoring system, at Amerimold 2014, the conference and exhibition for mold manufacturing, running June 11–12, in Novi, Michigan.
The CTM system safeguards and optimizes complex…
Available time for changeovers per period (Ta∆), also called available time for (internal) setups, represents the time per a given period (e.g., day, shift, week) during which a machine, equipment, or resource can be changed over (i.e., from one product to another, prepared for a different medical…
Ugh, your process is producing some parts that don’t meet your customer’s specifications. Fortunately, after a little hard work, you find a way to improve the process.
However, you want to perform the appropriate statistical analysis to back up your findings and make it easier to explain the…
Let me start off by saying that I’m not one to judge... unless someone actually asks me to.
And so it was last month, when I was contacted by the Kansas City Business Marketing Association (KS BMA) to help judge entries in the 2014 BMA Fountain Awards. When Marketing Duty calls, we have no choice…
Have you ever seen a quality manual that didn't look exactly like the ISO 9001 standard? Not lately, probably. Nowadays, most quality manuals I see look like mirror images of an ISO standard or the American Petroleum Institute (API) Specification Q1 or Q2. I often wonder what value there is in a…
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, and has yet to be definitively found. But the lack of wreckage or even an idea as to what happened isn’t sufficient to stop the first lawyers from filing lawsuits. The lawyers are already seeking to identify component manufacturers and the…
Studebaker, producer of some of the most iconic cars in America, started making wagons for farmers, miners, and the military in 1852. Incorporated in 1868 under the name Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Co., it entered the automobile business in 1902 making electric vehicles. By 1904 it was…
I remember, years ago, watching my oldest child struggle to loosen a bolt. This was one of those all-too-few, brief, and shining child-rearing moments where I could easily and quickly share some trusty words of wisdom.
“Righty tighty, lefty loosey.”
I’m pretty sure my son’s response was somewhere…
In health care settings, clinical integration is a fairly new concept that means coordinating patient care across conditions, providers, settings, and time to achieve care that is safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, and patient-focused.
According to Becker’s Hospital Review, “clinical…
In August 2009, a 911 emergency call made from an out-of-control vehicle, speeding at more than 100 miles per hour, reported, “We’re in a Lexus... and we’re going north on 125 and our accelerator is stuck... there’s no brakes... we’re approaching the intersection... hold on... hold on and pray…
Management systems are sometimes misunderstood as nothing more than a heavy administrative burden providing limited business benefit. In fact, many organizations with management systems in place haven’t effectively defined the processes they actually employ at all. Perhaps it’s because they think…
Sean was looking forward to the MEC meeting. He'd seen a potential application for TRIZ in a medical setting and wanted to discuss this with the group.
His mother had been suffering from digestive problems and had needed an endoscopy that she dreaded. He was worried that, apart from the initial…
Why bother to plot your data? A simple shortcut is available that will allow you to do your analysis without the data getting in the way. How do you accomplish this breakthrough? Read on.
This marvelous advance in analysis is known as the “data-free graph.” As usual we begin with a collection of…
(ISSISSIPPI: Columbus, OH) -- The International Six Sigma Institute and Secret Society for Imperious Professionals of Process Improvement (ISSISSIPPI) has announced a free online big data analytical tool.
As CEOs everywhere have become enamored with all things big data, ISSISSIPPI recognized the…
This is the third and final post in a series on launching a successful startup.
In his book, Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup, Bill Aulet, managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, stresses the importance of searching for the holy grail of…
The student demographic profile of Jenks Public Schools has significantly changed since the Oklahoma district became a Baldrige Award winner in 2005. The pace and variety of population shifts that Jenks has experienced may resemble those in your own school system’s environment. What evidently hasn…
All companies depend on their suppliers. When handled well, the supply chain is a source of strength and even regarded as a value chain. Conversely, a poorly managed supply chain will manifest its weakest link quite easily. All too often, the fallout requires much more than cleanup on aisle three…
All too often, leaders seek to build support for an idea by talking—a lot. They go on and on about why the decision is a good one, detailing its benefits, the reasons others should support it, and the path forward. There’s passion and excitement behind the talk, and the leader lets it show through…
Editor’s note: This article discusses topics covered at greater length in episodes 19–23 of a new streaming video training series, Creating and Sustaining Lean Improvements—Integrating Principles, Culture, and Tools by the author and 360 Performance Circle, a sister company to Quality Digest.…
Have you ever wished your control charts were better? More effective and user-friendly? Easier to understand and act on? I’ll share some simple ways to make statistical process control (SPC) monitoring more effective in Minitab.
I worked for several years in a large manufacturing plant in which…
Ben Recht is looking for problems. He develops mathematical strategies to help researchers, from urban planners to online retailers, cut through blizzards of data to find what they're after.
He resists the "needle in the haystack" metaphor because, he says, the researchers, engineers, and…
Ever since people began handing down information from person to person and parent to child, there has been something called tribal knowledge. Most people can point to a specific skill they have or knowledge they possess that was transferred to them by an elder. This elder may have been a relative…
Here’s a little quiz: Imagine you’re going to your local grocery store to buy some milk. How would you like the store employees to interact with you?
• Choice A: They’re friendly, warm, and build personal rapport with me. I know we’ve got a relationship. • Choice B: They keep our interactions as…
