All News
According to a new report from The Conference Board, the proportion of employees who work predominantly from home or from another remote location has, during the last decade, more than tripled in many industries, while nearly doubling nationwide among all full-time (nonself-employed) U.S. workers…
I write this as I am sitting in the Jury Assembly Room (JAIL for short) on the 17th floor of the Richard J. Daley Center in downtown Chicago, waiting for something to happen.
I estimate that there are another 130 poor souls who probably have a million things to do and are waiting just like I am in…
(Productivity Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- There is a secret inside health care, and it’s this: We can do health care for a lot less money. The only way to do that is to do it a lot better. We know it’s possible because it is happening now. In pockets and branches across health care, people are…
(Cognex: Natick, MA) -- Cognex Corp., a global leader in industrial ID, has added liquid lens optics for the DataMan 300 series of fixed-mount barcode readers. The new accessory allows any DataMan 300 reader to be easily upgraded from fixed focus to autofocus. Liquid lens variable autofocus…
(Capture 3D: Farmington Hills, MI) -- The ATOS ScanBox from Capture 3D, manufacturer and provider of the services of 3-D industrial measurement solutions, is an innovative optical measuring system for 3-D coordinate measurement that offers a comparable investment volume to traditional coordinate…
(IMEC: Peoria, IL) -- The Illinois Manufacturing Extension Center (IMEC) is launching a lean Six Sigma Green Belt training series beginning on June 8, 2012, in southern Illinois. The series is designed to help small and midsized manufacturers learn how to integrate concepts of lean and Six Sigma to…
They come trendily dressed, grinning and baring their teeth. They are equipped with the latest electronic tools. And they are forever hypnotizing you into believing that they come in peace.
I’m one of them. I know these aliens from inside their world.
They tell you that you have problems, but do…
For the better part of five decades, commercial access to space has been limited by the high cost of flight operations. However, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has rewritten the rules by adopting a new business model and cutting-edge technologies to enhance reliability and reduce the…
(TÜV SÜD: Peabody, MA) -- TÜV SÜD America now provides Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Chain of Custody (CoC) certification in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Formed in 1993, the FSC is an independent, nonprofit organization tasked with promoting responsible and sustainable foresting…
(Setra Systems: Boxborough, MA) -- With more than 20 years of successful field-proven experience, Bios International Corp. (Bios), a designer and manufacturer of flow calibration products equipment and solutions for primary gas flow measurement, and a recently acquired division of Mesa Laboratories…
(Taylor Hobson: West Chicago, IL) -- Taylor Hobson, a global leader in ultraprecision measurement instrumentation, plans to unveil the latest addition to its line of autocollimators at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) at Chicago’s McCormick Place, Sept. 10–15, 2012.
Used…
(ISO: Geneva) -- The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Committee on Conformity Assessment (ISO/CASCO) has developed a new standard and a technical specification that will help build confidence between partners in business-to-business dealings and provide support for trade…
(Mitutoyo, Aurora, IL) -- Mitutoyo America, developer and manufacturer precision measuring instruments and inspection solutions, has launched version 10.0 of its QVPAK suite of vision measurement software. Now provided as standard with all Mitutoyo Quick Vision 3-D computer numerical controlled (…
(Jossey-Bass: San Francisco) -- Planned serendipity is not an abstract, magical notion. It’s a practical skill. Get Lucky: How to Put Planned Serendipity to Work for You and Your Business, by Thor Muller and Lane Becker (Jossey-Bass, 2012), is the indispensable resource for anyone who wants to…
(Battenberg: Marburg, Germany) -- Manufacturing products of consistently high quality at every production site throughout the world is an ideal to which all OEMs aspire, but in practice, there tends to be major regional differences in quality.
Using a mobile robotic measuring module, it is now…
I couldn’t wait to get to the Guinness brewery after landing in Dublin. Yes, I was eager to taste a pint nearly fresh off the line, but I was also curious to see if there would be any indication that the brewery was home to arguably one of the most important developments in the field of statistics…
There are three fundamentally different systems for eliciting collective intelligence in a large organization: the triangle, the box, or the circle. Each of these systems has a different underlying structure, promotes a different attitude in people, requires different leadership competencies, and…
Last year I wrote a column titled “My Toyota Dilemma,” what I considered a nice little story about how I, an avid fan of the Toyota quality principles, didn’t actually own a Toyota, and how ironic that was. However, Quality Digest fans, I can now declare that I am—well, really my wife is—a proud…
(Kistler: Amherst, NY) -- Kistler, a manufacturer and worldwide supplier of precision sensors, accelerometers and associated electronics, and analysis software for the dynamic measurement of pressure, force, torque, and acceleration, has announced the availability of its piezoelectric accelerometer…
(Quality Digest: Chico, CA) -- Juran Institute has announced that CEO Joseph A. De Feo has been inducted into the 2012 Connecticut Business Hall of Fame. For nearly 25 years, De Feo, who is also a Quality Digest Daily columnist, has helped business leaders increase sales, reduce costs, and improve…
(Jossey-Bass: San Francisco) -- Written to help readers understand the reasons why leaders and teams get along—or don’t—when they communicate in a group, Reading the Room, by David Kantor (Jossey-Bass, 2012), will serve as the leader’s go-to resource for insight and perspective in leading teams.…
Although the many logistical aspects of product assembly make the welding stage of manufacturing inherently challenging, assembling products in high-mix environments is particularly demanding, since several different product models are processed every day. Many part numbers and part scenarios…
Story update 5/31/2012: Joel Smith and his wife Silvana are the proud parents of a new baby girl, Juliana Garcia Smith, born May 23, 2012.
My wife and I have been expecting a baby girl soon—very soon, in fact, as in “Will this be published before the baby is born?” soon. The due date given was May…
Travelers coming through New York’s three airports—La Guardia, JFK, and Newark—might soon feel the need to double check that they aren’t walking through the set of a science fiction movie. That’s because the airports are introducing some high-tech help in the form of “Ava”—a life-sized, computer-…
At the ASQ World Conference held in Anaheim last week, I ran into my old friend Jack Revelle, author of many SPC books and videos. He said clients were constantly asking him to take Six Sigma and “dumb it down.” Surprisingly, despite everything the Six Sigma community knows about the voice of the…
