All Features
Michael A. Witt
Editor’s note: This is part two of a two-part series. Read part one here.
While globalization has benefited humanity in many ways, its continued progress is in serious doubt. As I wrote previously, the two leading political science theories, liberalism and realism, both predict that globalization…
Bruce Hamilton
While holiday shopping at one of my favorite food places, Johnson’s Popcorn, I came upon a scene reminiscent of our lean training video, Toast Kaizen. After I placed my order for 18 one-gallon buckets of caramel corn for friends and family, the Johnson’s kitchen shifted gears from mail-order sales…
Martin Green
I think curiosity is at the root of all scientific careers. That, and insecurity. In my formative years, I felt compelled to assign a rational explanation to everything. I didn’t know it then, but I was practicing to be a scientist—and having lots of fun.
I remember entertaining numerous…
Mark Rosenthal
One of my readers, Darren, commented with some great questions about the “Takt Time-Cycle Time” post on my blog. He wondered which system is more efficient, a fixed, rigid takt-based production line or a flexible one-piece flow?
In terms of designing a manual-based production line to meet a…
Joe Schlecht
According to the ISO/IEC Guide 99—“International vocabulary of metrology—Basic and general concepts and associated terms (VIM),” the traceability of a measurement result is demonstrated through a documented unbroken chain of calibrations, each contributing to the measurement uncertainty. This…
Harish Jose
The Forth Bridge is a famous railroad bridge in Scotland and is more than 125 years old. It needs painting to fend off rust. Albert Cherns, the late famous social scientist who founded the Department of Social Sciences at Loughborough University, identified the Forth Bridge principle as part of…
Mark Whitworth
For 17 years, ISO/TS 16949 was the leading standard for quality system requirements in the automotive industry. The technical specification was jointly developed by the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1999. In October 2016…
Last week, I planned to write about a leadership technique backed by research to improve workplace motivation, engagement, and productivity. But, given the recent political season, I found myself wondering if anything we’ve believed about leadership is true. Does humility matter? Should leaders…
NIST
Throwing a perfect strike in virtual bowling doesn’t require your gaming system to precisely track the position and orientation of your swinging arm. But if you’re operating a robotic forklift around a factory, manipulating a mechanical arm on an assembly line, or guiding a remote-controlled laser…
Chip Bell
It started out as a lackluster taxi ride from the airport to the hotel. But it turned regal and elegant the second I hailed the next taxi as I exited Charlotte Douglas Airport. The Crown Cab that pulled up was shiny and spotless. When the taxi driver raised the trunk to deposit my roller bag, I…
Jesse Lyn Stoner
Leadership is not necessarily about getting people to follow you. In fact, the test of leadership effectiveness is what happens when you’re not there. If everything depends on you and falls apart when you’re not there, obviously the effectiveness of your team is limited. You can’t be there all the…
The common and recurring view of the latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) research is that sentient and intelligent machines are just on the horizon. Machines understand verbal commands, distinguish pictures, drive cars, and play games better than we do. How much longer can it be…
Vijay Iyer
As the director of the structural heart team at Kaleida Health’s Gates Vascular Institute in Buffalo, New York, I perform minimally invasive, endovascular surgeries to repair structural defects of the heart. I specialize in valve replacements, clip procedures, and other structural heart treatments…
Michael A. Witt
For most of the past 25 years, globalization was seen as an unstoppable force, as sure to advance as the sun rises in the east. But increasingly, it looks more vulnerable than inexorable. Causes for concern are easy to find. For instance, the last set of World Trade Organization negotiations over…
Barbara A. Cleary
Statistics has gotten a bad rap. People love to quote Mark Twain (“There are lies, damn lies, and statistics,” alternatively attributed to Benjamin Disraeli), Vin Scully (“Statistics are used much like a drunk uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination”), or Stephen Leacock (“In ancient times…
Timothy Woodcome
Sponsored Content
If your organization has yet to make the transition from ISO 9001:2008 to ISO 9001:2015, you’re not alone. It’s estimated that less than 20 percent of the more than one million organizations certified globally have made the transition to the latest version of the standard (as of…
Steve Daum
Capability analysis is a set of calculations used to assess whether a system is able to meet a set of requirements. Customers, engineers, or managers usually set the requirements, which can be specifications, goals, aims, or standards.
The primary reason for doing a capability analysis is to…
From aerospace applications to simple one-off projects built at home, additive manufacturing (AM) has gained incredible interest in all industry facets. Its rapid expansion into production manufacturing is due to the technology's immense versatility and use.
With additive manufacturing, objects…
Jeffrey Phillips
I love innovation. I love all facets of it: the discovery of needs, creativity, unique solutions, and the realization of ideas as new products and services. But what concerns me sometimes is the way in which we attempt to implement innovation, because we are likely to constrain it at the time we…
Kara Baskin
Care.com co-founder Donna Levin played a key part in that company’s growth, and the passion was personal. Levin’s work plans were curtailed when her son was 11 weeks old and had a seizure following a difficult pregnancy. Tests were inconclusive. Her daycare situation evaporated; she and her…
Dan Jacob
Disruption is a funny thing. You see it coming—kind of—but it’s hard to tell what it means. Back in the day, would you have foreseen the shift from taxis to Uber? Would you have predicted that HVAC units would be offered as a service rather than purchased as a product? These disruptive changes and…
Siddharth Dhomkar, Jacob Henshaw
With the amount of data storage required for our daily lives growing, and available technology becoming saturated, we’re in desparate need of a new method of data storage.
The standard magnetic hard disk drive (HDD)—like what’s probably in your laptop computer—has reached its limit, holding a…
Michelle LaBrosse
When you’re knee-deep in the logistical details of managing a project team, it can be easy to lose sight of the big picture: your organization’s vision.
Here at Cheetah Learning, we use established and proven strategies to help us achieve our vision through our mission in each course we offer.…
Craig Schlenoff
Whether they’re behind the scenes assembling products or helping you parallel-park your car, robots are already playing a big role in our day-to-day lives, and their presence will only become more pervasive in the coming decades. But they aren’t good at everything—yet. For instance, robots in…
Welding is said to be more art than science. In part, this is a nod to the vital, skilled work that welders perform. It’s also recognition of the fact that the physics of the process is really, really difficult to understand.
I joined a NIST project on laser welding about two years ago. Before…
