All Features
Ben Rennison, Chris Greer
The advancement of dimensional scanning technology has allowed massive amount of point cloud data to be obtained quickly. This data is used for analysis and reverse-engineering functions. Generally, once this data is collected, it will be polygonized into a mesh which allows for easier data…
Belinda Jones
Dedicated members of the PrecisionPath Consortium gathered recently near the UNC Charlotte campus for their fourth working meeting and Technology Innovation Workshop in Charlotte, NC. The Coordinate Metrology Society and UNC Charlotte pilot the industry-driven coalition to advance large-scale…
Michael O’Shea
Being able to be in two places at once has been a dream for many metrologists in the measurement services business. Taking a page from the field of artificial intelligence (AI), ATT Metrology developed an “Expert System” to perform a wide range of measurement tasks based on more than 20 years of…
Keith Bevan
With this year’s Coordinate Metrology Society Conference (CMSC) behind us and 2016 rapidly coming to a close, new ideas are moving into full swing for CMSC 2017 in Snowbird, UT. The Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS) is in the process of revamping the conference agenda and addressing requested new…
NIST
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released the Federal Laboratory Technology Transfer, Fiscal Year 2014, Summary Report to the President and Congress. Including both quantitative and qualitative measures of effectiveness, the report provides the most current…
Dan Silva
In today’s global supply chain, shipping a product across the world isn’t as simple as loading it onto a truck, train, or boat and signing a few papers. International shipments often involve coordination between counterparts in the countries of origin and destination, complete and accurate…
Annette Franz
Weology. What is it? If you guessed that it sounds like “the study of we,” you’re pretty close. The name of the concept stems from a Muhammad Ali poem, which simply goes like this: “Me... we.” Three unique letters rearranged into two powerful little words.
The concept itself, which is also the…
Andy Henderson
This is the third part in a series about my perspective of what the future has in store for various aspects of manufacturing. I approached each aspect by imagining what is possible using what we know to be technically possible today. In part one I covered cutting tools for machining and in part…
Mike Richman
Hard as it may be to believe, a close analysis of our extensive trove of behavioral data on the Quality Digest user group indicates that more than a handful of you don’t regularly watch our regular weekly web TV show, Quality Digest Live, which broadcasts from our studio in Northern California…
Chip Bell
We bought a new house in a real nice neighborhood. The house was perfect except for one important feature—it came with a yard! I do not like yard work, and my wife does not like yard work. I travel all the time, and she works long hours.
One Saturday morning, I got a big idea. “Why don’t we just…
Justin Novak
When the subject of inclusion comes up in management circles, I commonly hear platitudes like, “Everyone’s ideas are great.” Experience shows that such statements are patently false. Screen doors on a submarine—no redeeming qualities there; they just wouldn’t work out well. The problem with saying…
ASQ
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When flood waters ravaged portions of Colorado in September 2013—killing crops, inundating homes, and buckling many miles of roadways—countless federal, state, and municipal government workers sprang into action helping citizens. State and federal government agencies spent…
Davis Balestracci
Have you ever heard something like: “I’m committed to Dr. Deming’s approach [or Six Sigma or lean or TPS, it doesn’t matter], but executives don’t seem to listen anymore. All they do is keep interrupting my very clear explanations with, ‘Show me some results, then show me what to do.’ I was…
Gwendolyn Galsworth
In a visual workplace, information is converted into simple, universally understood visual devices and installed in the process of work itself, as close to the point of use as possible. The result transforms a formerly mute work environment into one that speaks, eloquently and precisely, about how…
Cole Cooper
A production part approval process (PPAP) is used by companies to establish confidence and rules in a production process. In a sense, it gives customers a view into their suppliers’ manufacturing capabilities.
A PPAP is required when there is a new part, engineering changes, tooling changes,…
Andy Henderson
In my last article about the future of cutting tools, I discussed a vision and road map that I created by imagining what a manufacturing ideal might look like using what we know to be technically possible today. Here, I’m going to describe a vision for a futuristic production management system…
The United State Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) estimates that $60 billion is lost annually from workplace injuries and illness. Using the administration’s $afety Pays Program calculator, 20 carpal tunnel syndrome injuries will cost a company $1,260,000 in direct and indirect…
Andy Henderson
Editor’s note: This is part one of a four-part series offering the author’s perspective on how different aspects of manufacturing may be affected in the future. Part two covers production management; in part three, inventory management; and in part four, product quality.
Some time ago, I made a…
Joel Bradbury
Healthcare professionals have a long history of caring for their patients and improving the quality of their services. During the Crimean War (1853–1856), British nurse Florence Nightingale realized that the mortality rate of soldiers was far too high. A visionary statistician as well as a…
NIST
Until recently, if a company wanted the best measurements in the world for the physical dimensions of one of its dimensional standards, it had to book time on the NIST Physical Measurement Laboratory’s (PML) Moore M48 coordinate measuring machine (CMM). Operating at NIST since 2000, this CMM—…
Bruce Hamilton
One of Shigeo Shingo’s popular status quo targets was engineers, whom he placed in three categories: table engineers, those who just sit around a table and talk about problems; catalog engineers, those who think the solution to every problem can be found in a catalog; and nyet engineers, those who…
Christian Wolcott
T he following is for mature quality audiences only. Is it unwise to take people who are new to lean on a tour of a Toyota facility running at top efficiency? Is the sight of a glossy, mature lean factory a kind of pornography for young engineers, new leaders, and even seasoned managers seeking to…
Sudeep Pasricha
American mining production increased earlier this decade as industry sought to reduce its reliance on other countries for key minerals, such as coal for energy and rare-earth metals for use in consumer electronics. But mining is dangerous—working underground carries risks of explosions, fires,…
Michael Causey
It’s time to get your compliance programs in order to meet some looming international regulatory compliance demands, experts including former Food and Drug Administration officials say. Having a firm grip on quality management processes—especially document management and change control—will be…
Donald J. Wheeler
Now we come to the sixth way to use a process behavior chart. Here we are going to look at how one group of workers used their average and range chart to improve their process. Their part had only one critical dimension, and this dimension had a standard deviation of only 15 microns. What kind of…
