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(Hexagon Metrology: North Kingstown, RI) -- Hexagon Metrology has announced the launch of the 7.10.7 SF, a new generation of shop-floor coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) specially designed to excel in harsh industrial environments. The new product line introduces significant advancements based…
The constant rapid changes in today’s business climate demands on-the-fly gear shifting for teams and business units. Few can afford to wait until next year’s three-day strategic off-site meeting, a model fast becoming a relic of more halcyon days.
So how do you quickly and nimbly get everyone on…
Metrologists are often faced with measurement processes that are repetitive and time-consuming. It’s not uncommon for a set of measurements to be taken repeatedly under different conditions and with different materials to maintain quality control. Afterward, the measurements must be formatted and…
Welcome to the winter edition of CMSC World. I want to touch on one of our biggest accomplishments of 2013—the Level-One Certification Program for Portable 3D Metrology. This program was requested and supported by many CMSC members. With your help and the tireless work of the Coordinate Metrology…
Innovative technologies, mobility, and flexibility in measurement technology are playing a major role for more and more companies. In addition to fixed coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) or traditional measurement arms, optical systems are increasingly becoming established in measurement…
Recently, I’ve run into posts, articles, and discussions concerning findings that employee morale doesn’t equate to productivity. They are an excellent example of how easily we can mislead ourselves with data.
By way of background, apparently some of the research groups and “better management”…
(PQ Systems: Dayton, OH) -- PQ Systems, developer of quality control solutions, has launched native language web pages for Mexico, Brazil, Germany, and China.
“The quality industry continues to evolve in these markets and we’re excited to be able to support their efforts,” says Beth Savage,…
An engineering manager who I worked with 25 years ago challenged me one day. “You know, Bruce, if all employees were engineers, you wouldn’t need mistake-proofing,” he said. At the time, I was too stunned by his comment to even respond. But happily, the memory provides good fodder for another…
In part one, I shared a case study of how a small bicycle-chain manufacturing company in India used Six Sigma’s DMAIC approach to reverse declining productivity. After completing the define, measure, and analysis phases, the team had identified the important factors in the bushing creation process…
PowerPoint is the devil’s instrument, and when you use it, you risk becoming a musician in his demonic orchestra. All of us are required to give presentations in some form or fashion at various points in our careers. If you’d like to succeed in those efforts, there are three things you should never…
O
ne can just imagine the frustration that Greece’s vice president and foreign minister, Evangelos Venizelos, must feel every time he notifies European Central Bank (ECB) officials about Greece’s economic progress or lack thereof.
At a recent ECB review meeting, Venizelos, a burly looking…
Every once in a while we hear of a company that claims to have a self-certification to ISO 9001—or some other management system standard. The company “certifies” that its organization conforms to the requirements of ISO 9001. It sounds pretty good until you start to ask what this self-…
Using data analysis and statistics to improve business quality has a long history. But it often seems like most of that history involves huge operations. After all, Six Sigma originated with Motorola, and was embraced by thousands of other businesses after it was adopted by a little-known outfit…
Does your right hand know what your left hand is doing and why it is doing it? When assisting businesses and CEOs in improvement efforts, one of my first questions is, “What is your vision for this company?” After hearing their definition, I will ask department heads, associates, and assistants the…
Leaders need near-perfect communication skills, and knowing a person’s communication style can make the difference between getting your message out and getting it heard.
Here are four communication styles and tips to effectively communicate with people who’ve made these styles their own.
The…
Searching for a job is tough, and the hiring process in the United States makes matters far tougher and more emotionally fraught than it needs to be. That is the central assertion of MIT’s Ofer Sharone in a new book based on his in-depth study of U.S. and Israeli white-collar labor markets, which…
Editor’s note: This article continues the series exploring structured innovation using the TRIZ methodology, a problem solving, analysis, and forecasting tool derived from studying patterns of invention found in global patent data.
Belinda started the My Executive Council (MEC) meeting on an upbeat…
The various improvement approaches are, in essence, all pretty much the same. Any competent practitioner would neither want to be called a “guru” nor have any problems dealing with another competent practitioner of another improvement philosophy.
In my opinion, any approach should also involve the…
Like so many other business software applications, calibration management software has evolved from simple beginnings as a digital index-card system that reminded operators when their instrument and tool calibrations were due. During the past 25 years, these systems have matured and are more…
Does your kanban Ready column look like a junk drawer? Do you have tasks in the Ready column from six months ago that say “Urgent!” (and have since the day they were created)? Guess what? You’re learning something about your work.
We have a lot of urgent tasks that strangely don’t get done and no…
The recently released book, Value Stream Mapping, by Karen Martin and Mike Osterling (McGraw-Hill, 2013), necessarily emphasizes using a tool, in this case the value stream map, to unlock enterprisewide performance improvement. As good lean practitioners, however, Martin and Osterling understand…
Piezoelectrics—materials that can change mechanical stress to electricity and back again—are everywhere in modern life: computer hard drives, loud speakers, medical ultrasound, sonar. Although piezoelectrics are a widely used technology, there are major gaps in our understanding of how they work…
(CMSC: Benbrook, TX) -- The Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS), the membership association for measurement professionals, has opened registration for the 2014 Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference (CMSC) to be held July 21–25, 2014, at the Embassy Suites in North Charleston, South Carolina. This…
The next time you drive over a bone-jarring pothole, remember this: Since 2008, 73 million tax dollars have been invested in monitoring and inspection technologies for the nation’s aging infrastructure. Here’s the good part: They’re making a difference.
The innovative technologies include: • Tiny…
Selection of key subcontractors on a program can often make the difference between program success and failure. One approach that I have used to ensure the selected subcontractor is a good choice is a best-value assessment (BVA) process. It starts with a request for proposal (RFP) that is sent to…
