All Features
Craig Ross
It was painful to watch. The client I was providing coaching to was trying to lead a cross-functional meeting. She wasn’t having much success, and her experience isn’t that unusual. In similar situations, most companies struggle with “my function first” mentality from teammates. And it wrecks…
Taran March @ Quality Digest
The rutted road to Quality Digest’s office is a pretty good example of highway health across the country. Running to the city’s shuttered airport, it’s riddled with potholes and cracks that flourish along a timeline of repair and despair. Some are filled, some are returning to the empty state;…
Asimina Kiourti
Archaeology reveals that humans started wearing clothes some 170,000 years ago, very close to the second-to-last ice age. Even now, though, most modern humans wear clothes that are only barely different from those earliest garments. But that’s about to change as flexible electronics are…
Benjamin Kessler
The rise of the independent worker is arguably the biggest change to hit the global labor market in decades. Well more than 30 percent of the United States workforce reportedly lack “real jobs” working full-time for a conventional company, and that figure, some say, may top 40 percent by 2020. If…
Scot Larsen
The Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, tells us that 20 percent of inputs are responsible for 80 percent of results. Even when it’s not an exact 80/20 split, the idea that a few factors drive a large proportion of outcomes applies to many business processes and everyday situations.…
Manfred Kets de Vries
I find myself increasingly intimidated by people in the executive coaching world. They give me a sense of unease about my own abilities. Many in the profession claim to be able “to unlock clients’ dormant potential and to provide them with a sense of self-fulfillment.” As these coaches seem to…
Malvina Eydelman
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Breakthrough Devices Program is beginning to show important results for patients since it was established in late 2016 under the 21st Century Cures Act to help patients gain timely access to breakthrough technologies.
Consider Second Sight Medical…
Mike Richman
QDL always strives to bring you a look at the people and stories making the news in the world of quality. We succeeded admirably on the “people” side of things this week and threw in a fun story about the physics of the basketball to boot. Let’s take a closer look:
“Clarity First Book Review and…
Debashis Sarkar
The cheating at Kobe Steel shook not just Japan but the entire manufacturing world. As Kobe Steel CEO Hiroya Kawasaki revealed, about 500 companies had received its falsely certified products, which affected not only those companies but also its entire supply chain. However, the issue at Kobe was…
James Tehrani
People get overly tired. People get distracted; they get stressed and make poor decisions. People multitask when they shouldn’t. People lack training at times.
Our brains and bodies are machines, but they are imperfect ones. Even the most thorough and careful person will become an “err apparent”…
Pete Doyon, Bernd Jost
Automotive wire harnesses are a central component of modern vehicles. Against the backdrop of developments such as the connected car and autonomous driving, the highest possible quality is essential. Since quality assurance is a complex and largely manual manufacturing process, the use of a…
Ryan E. Day
Before transitioning to journalism, I worked in manufacturing, production, and high-volume auto repair for decades. When I finally swapped my blue collar for white, I figured my old body would appreciate the switch to something less physically demanding. And it did—for about six months. I learned…
Manfred Kets de Vries
According to the most recent report of the Economic Policy Institute, the average CEO-to-worker pay ratio in the United States has gone down from 286 to 1 (in 2015) to 271 to 1 (in 2016). This number may disappoint many top executives who were hoping to see it return to its peak of 383 to 1,…
Paulina Kuo
I am a scientist. I am often wrong, and that’s OK.
You may have heard about major errors in science and engineering that made the news headlines, like the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, aka “Galloping Gertie,” or the 1999 crash of the Mars Climate Orbiter. Or maybe you’ve seen the recent…
Davis Balestracci
Because of a growing movement in the health insurance industry toward not reimbursing hospitals for any expenses caused by a system-acquired infection, one health system made efforts to improve its infection rate starting in the last quarter of 2016. In June 2017, a year-over-year graph was…
AssurX
When a change management system is designed effectively, it defines how strategies, procedures, and technologies will be applied to address changes in the business environment.
Implementing a change management process for quality and compliance requires planning and preparation. Starting with a…
Tim Lozier
The concepts and frameworks behind quality management are evolving. As more companies adopt new technologies, and standards like ISO 9001:2015 begin to shift in focus, there is a concept that is arising out of Industry 4.0, the factory of the future, and the industrial internet of things (IIoT).…
Ryan E. Day
In part one of this article, we explored how Woodland Trade Co. (WTC) leveraged high-accuracy portable CMMs to help land tight-tolerance aerospace contracts, and even earn Boeing’s Supplier of the Year award. Here in part two, WTC’s QA manager William Shanks reveals the advanced technology that…
Knowledge at Wharton
Instead of the internet of things (IoT), perhaps we should call it the “data of things” or the “internet of data?” IoT will generate a staggering 400 zettabytes (or 400 trillion gigabytes) of data a year by 2018, according to the 2016 Cisco Visual Networking Index.
This is being driven by…
Kari Miller
Industry 4.0, also known as smart factory 4.0, is labeled as the fourth industrial revolution, yet many don’t understand it or how it will affect the things they do; quality management is no exception. The executives in your organization, however, are most certainly monitoring this paradigm-…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
In our March 16, 2018, episode of QDL, we looked at universal basic income, management status quo, ISO 10018, and how a community college is teaching cutting-edge metrology skills.
“Public Split on Basic Income for Workers Replaced by Robots”
Gallup asks Americans if they would support a universal…
Mike Richman
What is the primary element required by an organization—or an individual—when they begin to seek improved outcomes? It’s not dedication, or desire, or knowledge, or even skill. Rather, it’s critically important to begin by getting clear, perfectly clear, about what you’re doing and why. Only then…
Marlene Chism
One of the most valuable tools leaders have for driving results and improving performance is conversation. Your conversation can either grow your business or slow your business.
This article offers three examples of ineffective communication skills and what you can do to improve your…
Larry Silverberg
Some 20 years ago, my colleague Chau Tran and I developed a way to simulate the trajectories of millions of basketballs on the computer.
We went to the coaches and assistant coaches at North Carolina State University, where we are based, and told them we had this uncommon ability to study…
Jeff Dewar
On Feb. 25, 2018, an asteroid 30 ft in diameter flew past the Earth, closer than the moon is to us. The newly discovered asteroid, named “2018 DU,” is the 17th known asteroid to fly past Earth within one lunar distance (the distance between the Earth and the Moon, approximately 250,000 miles)…