All News
Think working in an environmentally green building leads to greater satisfaction in the workplace? Think again.
People working in buildings certified under LEED’s green building standard appear no more satisfied with the quality of their indoor workplace environments than those toiling in…
The biography Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West (Simon & Schuster, 1997) is one of the great stories in American history. When Merriwether Lewis and William Clark departed St. Louis in May 1804, on what was called the Corps of Discovery…
The 2015 version of ISO 9001 is still more than a year away from publication, but ISO/TC 176, the technical committee responsible for the standard, has been hard at work on the revision since 2012. Registrants to the current version, ISO 9001:2008, are wondering about changes to the language and…
Last week a friend shared with me a snippet from an employee meeting. All “lean transformation” activities were to stop in order to put every effort into catching up on late shipments.
My friend’s comment, between many expressions of frustration and disappointment, was that the company’s…
Have you ever had people completely misinterpret your company’s growth strategy or vision statement? They start negative rumors about your plans, and then you struggle to correct their misinformation.
For example, say you’re launching some new technology strategy and word gets around that this…
We’ve got a real problem on our hands in America. A gap is growing between manufacturing workers set to retire in the next 10 to 15 years and the workers needed to fill their vacancies. Despite the exciting and innovative things happening in the manufacturing industry, Millennials’ outdated…
In my last column, I considered two of the most common questions faced by a statistical educator and the deeper questions that need to be addressed. I encouraged people to consider their everyday reality for the necessary context. Predictably, some become frustrated by my lack of concise answers…
The magic word in industrial manufacturing these days is 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing. But the shift from mold-based component concepts to additive geometric freedom is not just a fad; it’s a major trend. The advantages are striking: faster processing times, lower-cost…
Crises are hard enough in any business. In my business, a crisis advisory practice, I see a number of ways a crisis can become a catastrophe with little effort. Unfortunately, some of the behaviors that increase the odds for failure are considered by many to be “leadership.”
1. Be overly…
Scheduled for launch in 2018, the James Webb Space Telescope Observatory (JWST) will operate 1.5 million kms above the Earth. Its mission is ambitious: examining every phase of cosmic history “from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang to the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets to the…
A couple of recent events have given me an opportunity to showcase a great American manufacturer.
First, the events:
1. The 2014 Massachusetts Advance Manufacturing Summit, held April 29, 2014, at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, featured keynote speaker Harry Moser, a national…
(Phillips Precision: Boylston, MA) -- Phillips Precision unveiled a new 12-in. docking rail as part of the Inspection Arsenal Loc-N-Load CMM fixture system at Quality Expo in Dallas. The new rail is designed to fit smaller coordinate measuring machines (CMM) while also satisfying users of larger…
This is the third installment of a six-part series on common business challenges and the quality management system (QMS) tools that can help alleviate those challenges. We’ve discussed corrective action in Part 1 and document control in Part 2, and the ways in which organizations are finding value…
(L.S. Starrett Co.: Athol, MA) -- The L.S. Starrett Co. has developed a new line of AccuPlug bore gages. The AccuPlug consists of interchangeable indicators, handles, plugs, extensions and depth stops for a custom built bore gage built specifically for your application needs.
The AccuPlug line is…
It’s time to become small minded. Visionaries are big thinkers. Planners may make big plans but they think small. They take the grand scheme and turn it into smaller steps.
Planners are comprehensive thinkers whose skill sets include the ability to break schemes and visions into increments, and…
In late 2010 an R&D lab at one of the world’s largest microprocessor manufacturers was tasked with identifying solutions to improve the effectiveness of a wireless power transfer system. This article summarizes the thought process and methods used in generating the associated problem model and…
It used to be that restaurant goers who were impressed by a particularly attentive waiter or waitress could praise that person to the manager or leave a generous tip. This kind of transaction is still available in many places of business, but increasingly the feedback loop has become more tangled…
If betting wasn’t allowed on horse racing, the Kentucky Derby, which this year saw California Chrome gallop to the finish line, would likely be a little-known event of interest just to a small group of horse racing enthusiasts. But like the Tour de France, the World Cup, and the Masters Tournament…
To keep hospitalized patients safer, University of Arizona (UA) researchers are working on new technology that involves a small, wearable sensor that measures a patient’s activity, heart rate, wakefulness, and other biometrics—data that can predict a fall before it happens.
More than 500,000…
Ihave been traveling a bit lately and, as a result, have had the chance to catch up on some long-overdue reading. The book I just finished is The Four Agreements (Amber-Allen Publishing, 2011 reprint) by Don Miguel Ruiz, a shaman who writes about how those agreements can help you achieve personal…
Do you find yourself trying to solve the same problems over and over again? Do you treat the symptom but not the source of problems? Do you get unintended consequences from “solutions” in your organization?
In the book, Idealized Design (FT Press, 2006), author Russell Ackoff discusses four ways…
Editor’s note: Read part one of this series here.
The Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati (MSDGC) serves 800,000 customers and has approximately 600 employees who work at facilities located throughout Ohio’s Hamilton County. When the MSD Wastewater Treatment Division decided to…
While many companies are perfectly satisfied with the performance of their outsourced predictive maintenance (PdM) programs, some don’t get the desired results for the time and money spent. Others recognize that they have a pool of in-house talent that could do the job given enough time and…
Last month I, along with millions of other people around the world, celebrated Easter. For myself, a religious observance, for others a celebration of seasonal renewal. I think for most people, Easter is a time that elicits reflection on what matters most in the world. The state of the global…
A few years ago I wrote about the difficulties that can ensue when you’re trying to get started on a lean Six Sigma or quality improvement initiative. What can be especially difficult is having many potential projects and you aren’t sure which one will give the most bang for your buck.
When it…
