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(UC Davis: Davis, CA) -- Engineers at the University of California, Davis are preparing to conduct the first rigorous tests of how the steel columns that secure skyscrapers to their foundations stand up during earthquakes, research that could make the towering structures safer and perhaps less…
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- In fire experiments conducted in uniformly furnished but vacant Chicago-area townhouses, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers uncovered temperature and heat-flow conditions that can seriously damage facepiece lenses on standard…
Organizations need a systematic approach for risk containment when quality, delivery, and design product and service issues occur. Such a system should also help them to recover quickly from errant decisions made by executives, operations personnel, and the quality department.
This article…
On the face of it, today’s supply-chain risks don’t seem too different from any other time in history. We are faced with natural and man-made disasters, frequent dissolution of supply-chain partners and suppliers, constantly changing regulations, counterfeiting, and the long-standing question…
The ISO 9001 requirements pertaining to preventive action would get a lot more attention if people grasped the very simple fact that this is all about managing risk—which is really about managing the consequences of change. Whenever we change something, even for the better, there are…
(CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- Historically important trade routes for goods of all kinds for more than 3,000 years, the Silk Road has once again come to prominence. Managing Supply Chains on the Silk Road: Strategy, Performance, and Risk (CRC Press, 2011) presents emerging supply chain…
(Productivity Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- Most business readers have heard of the lean principles developed for factories—a set of tools and ideas that have enabled companies to dramatically boost quality by reducing waste and errors—producing more while using less. Yet until now, few have…
Japanese vehicle manufacturer, Toyota, is well-known for developing the principles of lean manufacturing. Research published in the International Journal of Technology Management suggests that the lean approach might also be beneficial to medical procedures, making hospitals more efficient and…
A few weeks ago, my eyes filled with tears as our daughter, Lisa, told those whom we call the Macaronis, that she was struggling to decide between her current occupational choices (yes, she’s that talented and in demand); what she really wanted to do was work more closely with my wife, Carole,…
(Kistler: Novi, MI) -- Kistler, a global supplier of precision sensors, systems, and instrumentation for the dynamic measurement of pressure, force, torque and acceleration, has introduced the Type 4021B industrial melt pressure measuring chain. The chain is expressly designed for the…
(Dept. of Commerce: Washington, D.C.) -- During a recent speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson laid out his vision for how the Department of Commerce can best partner with the business community to support the president’s jobs agenda. Bryson outlined his…
(Newport: Stratford, CT) -- Oriel, a Newport Corp. brand, and an innovative supplier of products for the making and measuring of light, now offers the Sol-UV Solar Simulator, an advanced solar simulator for photobiological applications such as testing over-the-counter sunscreen products’ sun…
(AMT: McLean, VA) -- October U.S. manufacturing technology orders totaled $463.32 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. Manufacturing…
(The Conference Board: New York) -- The Conference Board, the global business research and membership organization, has launched The Conference Board Human Capital Exchange, a web portal designed to be the “first stop” resource for all human capital professionals around the world seeking the…
Last article, I wrote about the importance of correctly classifying variables as part of the research design process, and discussed the benefits of the hugely useful, but oft-neglected, blocked variables. As part of my ongoing crusade against poor experimental designs, and the people who love…
(Wiley: Hoboken, NJ) -- What makes the world’s most successful individuals so good at their jobs? What do they do that others don’t? Maribeth Kuzmeski answers those questions in The Connectors: How the World’s Most Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients for Life (Wiley,…
Lean training and programs are more popular than ever. Implementing lean strategies is all the rage, but has your CEO really seen the lean light? Use these 10 signs as a gauge to find out.
10. He initiated a brand new lean department.
His thinking: Lean is something new. We don’t want to taint…
(Kistler: Novi, MI) Kistler, a global supplier of precision sensors, systems, and instrumentation for the dynamic measurement of pressure, force, torque, and acceleration, has introduced the Type 4550A KiTorq rotor torque flange measuring unit.
Featuring an accuracy class of 0.05, the…
(Leica Microsystems: Heerbrugg, Switzerland) -- Digital microscopes by Leica Microsystems are successfully established as analytical instruments in applications such as pharmaceutics, materials research, and electronics production. Industrial quality control, which makes immense demands of…
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced that it is accepting proposals for funding for a broad range of potential research projects and related activities that support the institute’s measurement science and engineering programs. The…
(Booz & Co.: New York) -- For business next year, the only sure thing is uncertainty, according to Booz & Co. in a recent advisory to its clients. The consulting firm’s annual “Industry Perspectives” predicts that industries in 2012 will face challenges ranging from price wars to the…
It’s all too easy to make mistakes involving statistics. Statistical software can remove a lot of the difficulty surrounding statistical calculation, reducing the risk of mathematical errors, but correctly interpreting the results of an analysis can be even more challenging.
A few years ago,…
A frequent refrain of top managers is, “We need to do a better job of holding people accountable.” Accountability seems to be the mantra for organizational get-well programs these days. One can agree with this in part, and yet there is an aspect of accountability that feels like a cop out.
The…
(ANSI: Washington, D.C.) -- “In this global, knowledge-intensive and consumer-oriented economy, the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing has never been more important... A new era of manufacturing excellence offers hope for good jobs, new innovations, and a higher standard of living.”…
(McGraw-Hill: New York) -- McGraw-Hill has announced the release of two new books of particular interest to quality professionals. The first focuses on how lean and theory of constraints work together in the supply chain. The second describes which quality tool to use, and when.
Lean supply…
