According to a recent Thomas report, reshoring interest has increased more than 50 percent since 2020. We talk to Tony Uphoff, President and CEO of Thomas, about why.
Project-based manufacturing and processes come with a unique set of headaches not usually experienced by make-to-stock manufacturers. We discuss those issues and some solutions with Matt Mong, VP of Market Innovation at Adeaca.
There's no need to choose between reducing costs and delighting customers. Best-in-class manufacturers are integrating QMS features into their MES solutions. We talk to Jason Spera, CEO and co-founder of Aegis Software.
How can a BOM be more than the sum of a product's parts? How this came to pass, the problems it causes, and what to do about it. Scott Heide of Engineering Intent explains.
Rob Bellinger of Olympus Corp. walks us through their demo lab in San Jose, California. We look at the LEXT OLS5100 3D Laser Scanning Microscope, MX63 Semiconductor Inspection Microscope, and the DSX1000 Digital Microscope available to see onsite!
We talk to Robert Bellinger of Olympus about the LEXT OLS5100 Laser Scanning Microscope.
Built for failure analysis and material engineering research, the OLS5100 laser microscope combines exceptional measurement accuracy and optical performance with smart tools that make the microscope easy to use. Precisely measure shape and surface roughness at the submicron level quickly and efficiently to simplify your workflow with data you can trust.
While automation may be replacing jobs, it is also creating new jobs. However, new skills are needed for today's manufacturing workers. Saar Yoskovitz, CEO of Augury, explains.
Job losses caused by the pandemic continue to affect millions, especially for those employed in retail and hospitality, two sectors essentially shut down during the Covid-19 crisis. One solution for getting people back into the work force is apprenticeship programs. Funding new apprenticeships provides jobs, generates long-term gains in skills, productivity, and earnings.
We interview Nicholas Wyman, CEO of IWSI America
Dept. of Labor apprentice programs: Apprenticeship.gov
Legacy ERP systems don't often play well for engineer-to-order manufacturers. Andrew Schutte, general manager, at Smooth Logics, tells us how integrating SolidWorks with ERP addresses the problem.
COUNTERPART-ERP solution
You might think that buyers' and sellers' expectations for an ecommerce platform would be the same regardless of whether it was for B2B or B2C. But that isn’t true. What a business needs from an ecommerce platform is not always the same as what a consumer needs.
To deliver the best B2B ecommerce experience for business clients, a platform must be designed with business in mind. We speak with Yoav Kutner, co-founder of Oro Inc.
We talked with Robert Bellinger of Olympus Corporation of America about ergonomics. Avoid neck and back pain by adjusting your seating position and your Olympus microscope for long-term use.
We talk with tookmaker and metrologist Nobby Assman, one of the winners of Zeiss's 2020 Measuring Hero Championship in the category Outstanding Application—Smallest Measured Component. How do you measure something really small? Really carefully.
Assman Verspaningstechniek website: http://www.verspaningstechniek.nl/over-assmann
Zeiss Measuring Hero Challenge: https://www.zeiss.com/metrology/campaigns/measuringhero.html
We talk to Artem Kroupenev, VP of Strategy at Augury, about lights-out manufacturing—fully automated factories that require no human presence onsite. Can your factory really run unattended? How close are we?
One of the more interesting measurement technologies we cover is 3D measurement. We talk about careers in 3D metrology with Matt Ilardo from Brookhaven National Laboratory and Keith Bevan from the National Physical Laboratory in the United Kingdom. From manufacturing to field work to R&D, 3D metrology offers exciting job opportunities to tech-minded individuals.
If you are a woman with an interest in technology...
We'll talk with Rina Molari-Korgel, a woman who has spent years as a 3D portable metrology specialist not only within manufacturing settings, but in some very interesting field settings as well.
Tech Corner looks at the Covid-19 Employee Management System, an app from Ergonomics International, that companies can use to track compliance with Covid-19 safety measures. Monitors employee health, workstation safety, touch-point sanitizing, and more.
OSHA Document: "Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19"
We talk to Stanley Chao about the problems of fake personal protective equipment (PPE) hitting the market. Where is it from? Does all the blame rest with China? What you can do?
Article: This Time, It’s Not All China’s Fault
Book: Selling to China: A Guide for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
As Quality Digest’s Ryan Day writes in his article “Embracing Work-From-Home: Insights for employers” the recent shelter-in-place orders have made work-from-home the new normal, and some organizations are struggling with the transition to working as a remote team. But there are companies that have been doing so for quite some time, and we can benefit from their experience.
Here are some tips that you can find in Ryan’s article and his interview with Eric Doster, CEO of Dozuki, and Jennifer Dennard, COO of Range. They have been working within remote teams for years.
We look at several interesting articles on Covid-19 that Quality Digest has run in the past few weeks.
"Tracking Covid-19" series by Don Wheeler, Al Phadt, and Kathryn Whyte.
A look at Covid-19 using a semilog chart.
"Break the Curve and Keep It Broken" by Bill Levinson
A mathy look at R-naught and the impact of various mitigations on Covid-19
"Four Ways Companies Can Support Their Workers During the Coronavirus Crisis" by Paula Caligiuri and Helen De Cieri from The Conversation.
Four research-backed ways companies can promote employees' health and well-being during this crisis.
IAF CertSearch
Over the years there have been many attempts to create a database of companies registered to ISO management systems. All of them eventually gave up on the effort.
Well, the database is back and is now spearheaded by the International Accreditation Forum. We talk to Grant Ramaley, Director of Regulatory Affairs for Aseptico Inc., and Nigel Johnston, Founder & CEO of QualityTrade.com, Developer for IAF CertSearch.
IAF CertSearch - global certification database
Intro video
Youtube channel
IAF (International Accreditation Forum)
Digital manufacturing helps mitigate supply chain disruptions
How has Covid-19 impacted the supply chain, particularly if you do business in China? How can digital manufacturing help mitigate supply chain issues? We talk to Jennifer Grant of HAIZOL, a contract manufacturer based in China, to find out.
How to make the digital transformation
Digital platforms hold the promise of providing a single source of truth for collecting, analyzing, and sharing data across the organization. Sounds easy, but…. We talk to Nicole Radziwill, senior VP of quality and strategy at Ultranauts.
Webinar: Making Digital Transformation Work for You
On-demand recording from March 17, 2020 webinar
Book: Connected, Intelligent, Automated: The Definitive Guide to Digital Transformation and Quality 4.0, by Nicole Radziwill
Is ISO 9001 certification worth it?
Is there value in ISO 9001 certification? It depends. In some cases, you have to get certain certifications either because your customer requires it or because it helps you meet some regulatory requirement. Some people see value strictly for marketing purposes. And for others, along with all that, is the value that the process itself brings to the company. We talk to Nimit Patel, president of Hydraulic Manifolds USA, to get some answers straight from someone who has gone through the journey.
Sometimes in the pressure to show results—financial, production, quality improvements or whatever—we look for quick fixes rather than long-term strategies. And while these might look great and give stakeholders instant gratification, they may undermine what a company is trying to accomplish in the long term.
We talk to Greg Milano, author of Curing Corporate Short-Termism: Future Growth vs. Current Earnings.
Are lean programs and government agencies odd bedfellows? Not really. Both private and public sector organization often must do more with less. We talk with Tracy O'Rourke of GoLeanSixSigma.com about how lean gives taxpayers more bang for their buck.
Also, Russell Morrison of CMSC talks about technical-paper presentation at the annual Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference.
Attend CMSC conference this July 20-24, 2020, in New Orleans.
Want to present at the CMSC? CMSC Call for Papers
