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Aircraft manufacturing is international, with a complex supply chain dividing work among numerous companies around the world. Globalized manufacturing and outsourcing brings challenges and opportunities for suppliers.
Technical challenges include improving the quality of complex components with…
(Fluke: Everett, WA) -- Users of the handheld DPC 743B/744 or the new DPC 753/754 documenting calibrators from Fluke, manufacturer, distributer, and service provider for electronic test tools and software, can now upgrade from DPCTrack2 software to the latest ProCalV5 release, which offers more…
(Adept Technology: Pleasanton, CA) -- Adept Technology Inc., designer, manufacturer, and provider of intelligent vision-guided robotics systems and autonomous mobile services, has announced a collaboration with Willow Garage, developer of hardware and open source software for personal robotics…
(Aerotech: Pittsburgh) -- The ABL1500 direct-drive linear air-bearing stage from Aerotech Inc., designer and manufacturer of precision motion control products, meets the needs of demanding scanning and inspection applications with fully active preload, high stiffness, and unsurpassed geometric…
(Wiley: Hoboken, NJ) -- “If your company depends on data—and it’s hard to imagine a company that doesn’t—you need a cloud strategy, today,” says Hunter Muller, author of On Top of the Cloud: How CIOs Leverage New Technologies to Drive Change and Build Value Across the Enterprise (Wiley, 2012). “…
Recent earthquake damage has exposed the vulnerability of existing structures to strong ground movement. At the Georgia Institute of Technology, researchers are analyzing shape-memory alloys for their potential use in constructing seismic-resistant structures.
“Shape-memory alloys exhibit unique…
When I first started learning about lean Six Sigma and familiarizing myself with all the different terminology and methodologies, I was a little overwhelmed and confused by all the abbreviations: FMEA, C&E matrix, Gage R&R, SIPOC... the list seemed endless. However, I really got tripped up…
(Avery Point Group: Alpharetta, GA) -- As the economy continues to heal, post-recession demand for continuous improvement talent persists strongly, according to the latest study of almost 7,100 recent Internet job postings reviewed by The Avery Point Group.
The executive search firm’s eighth…
Even though contact “drag” scanning and noncontact laser scanning are prevalent in our industry, there are many manufacturers who still use kinematic touch trigger probes. Questions often come up regarding when a probe should be replaced. Is there a best practice for troubleshooting?
Of course,…
“That’s so 27 seconds ago.” My daughter and I recently heard this catch phrase on a television commercial. We had a good laugh because there was some truth to it. We are living in a world of real-time updates, and it does not stop at news and social media. It extends to all facets of our lives.
In…
As we arrived in the lobby of the Westin in Grand Cayman, George Davidson was playing the love song from The Phantom of the Opera on the grand piano. Grand Cayman is one of our favorite winter retreats and Davidson has been a staple of what we enjoy about that warm and refreshing island since we…
(MESA International: Chandler, AZ) -- Every two years, Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA) International, a community of manufacturers, producers, industry leaders, and solution providers focused on improving operations management capabilities, and its research partner, Cambashi,…
(Productivity Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- As a society, we tend to reward problem solvers rather than those who prevent problems at their source. In other words, we focus on after-the-fact occurrences (“appraisal activities”) instead of trying to eliminate these occurrences (“preventing activities…
(Elcometer: Manchester, UK) -- As part of its continuing growth strategy Elcometer, a leader in equipment for the corrosion-inspection industry, has launched a comprehensive range of ultrasonic thickness gauges and flaw detectors.
The range includes both corrosion and precision thickness gauges…
During the early 2000s, people discovered how great pomegranate juice is. It’s filled with antioxidants that help us avoid colds and other maladies. Well, no one likes to be sick, so people started buying the juice by the case. Sure enough, they felt healthier. So they drank more and more until…
(AMT: McLean, VA) -- December 2011 U.S. manufacturing technology orders totaled $519.98 million according to The Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT) and the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association (AMTDA). This total, as reported by companies participating in the U.S.…
(nCode: Southfield, MI) -- nCode, the leading brand of durability, test, and analysis products offered by HBM, introduces with version 8 of its software suite significant new technologies for both physical test and computer-aided engineering (CAE) durability. nCode 8 includes nCode GlyphWorks, a…
(Wiley: Hoboken, NJ) -- Based on the work at the Stanford University’ Institute of Design and its Environments Collaborative Initiative, Make Space: How to Set the Stage for Creative Collaboration, by Scott Doorley and Scott Witthoft (Wiley, 2012), is a tool that shows how space can be…
I was three or four jokes into my routine, when I realized that one of the troublemakers my client warned me about was sitting dead center in the front row. With arms firmly crossed over his chest, and a frown deeply embedded in his face, he was glaring defiantly at me with eyes that said, “You’ll…
My monthly newsletter’s theme is “Integrating Lean and Quality.” I call it this because there seems to be somewhat of a common understanding and acceptance that lean and quality have no relationship to each other. 5S is an example of a process that transcends, or should transcend, this misdirected…
(ASQ: Milwaukee) -- More than half of the engineers polled in a recent survey from the American Society for Quality (ASQ) said the amount of studying needed to succeed and maintain high grades in science and math were the primary challenges they faced while pursuing an engineering degree.
While…
For one Connecticut manufacturer of close-tolerance, precision metal parts, a nearly 20-year commitment to lean manufacturing has naturally evolved into using self-directed work teams for the past two years to set the ambitious objectives of 100-percent on-time delivery and 100-percent quality.…
Editor's note: Lisa Greenleaf will be appearing on the May 4, 2012, episode of Quality Digest Live at 11 a.m. Pacific, 2 p.m. Eastern. That episode will be available on-demand beginning Monday, May 7, 2012.
For as long as cargo has been transported via road, there has been cargo theft. Whether from…
(Gartner: Stamford CT) -- Organizational politics are emerging as a challenge, and through 2016 they will prevent at least one-third of business process management (BPM) efforts progressing from one-off projects to enterprisewide adoption, according to Gartner Inc.
Gartner analysts revealed some…
(NIST: Washington) -- President Obama’s fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget for the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) submitted to Congress proposes an appropriations funding level of $857 million, an increase of $106.2 million from FY 2012.
More than half of…
