All Features
Phil Coy
Let’s take a look at takt time and cycle time in the enterprise resource planning software, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. Elsewhere I’ve noted the common misunderstanding in lean terminology between takt time and cycle time. At first it seemed confusing in AX as well. Hopefully, this can bring some…
Kevin Meyer
For the past couple weeks, I’ve been digging into employee handbooks because a startup I’m involved with has grown to the point of needing one. Few perhaps realize how that document, usually given to you on your first day and then mostly forgotten, shapes culture and thereby fundamental…
Jim Benson
‘Those people in IT, I don’t know why we have them around.” Richard, a department head for a major healthcare firm, stared at me across the table. “They have projects that are six months late! Projects they told us would take only a few months to do! We’d be better off if we just outsourced the…
Thomas R. Cutler
How materials are transported throughout a production system can affect not only a company’s lean implementation but also on product quality itself. In many industries the material handling system helps ensure that part damage—cosmetic or functional—doesn’t occur while a part or subassembly makes…
Michael Rapaport
In many ways, supply chain management (SCM) systems close the loop on quality management processes. By including SCM integration in your quality management software stack, your company can tie product life-cycle management (PLM) systems together with manufacturing operations management (MOM)…
Matthew Littlefield
There’s been a noticeable shift during the past five years in how the quality software market is perceived. The definition of what Enterprise Quality Management Software (EQMS) encompasses has shifted, and the benefits of creating a closed-loop quality environment have been validated.
For those…
Bruce Hamilton
In 1966, a freshman at a college in Maine attended a speech given by Floyd McKissick, newly appointed head of the Congress of Racial Equality, better known as CORE. In the packed auditorium there were no more than a half-dozen African-Americans that came to hear the “radical” new leader whose…
Ryan E. Day
After so many decades of quality assessment, process-improvement initiation, statistical analysis, and general discussion, one would think the question, “What is quality?” has been answered and closed. One would be wrong.
When defining quality...
There is certainly no shortage of material and…
Brenda Percy
Organizations today operate at speeds faster than ever before, and small to midsized businesses (SMEs) are no exception. Software solutions for quality management systems (QMS) are all too often overlooked by owners and managers of SMEs due to preconceptions about cost and ROI.
The fact is,…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
This past November, three winners of the 2013 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality awards were announced, one in education and two in healthcare. Quality Digest Daily is fortunate that one of the winners, Sutter Davis Hospital (SDH) is practically in our back yard. This gave us an opportunity to meet…
Carly Barry
I had the opportunity to speak with a great group of students from the New Jersey Governor’s School of Engineering and Technology—a summer program for high-achieving high school students. Students in the program complete a set of challenging courses while working in small groups on real-world…
Matthew E. May
“Business and human endeavors are systems... we tend to focus on snapshots of isolated parts of the system, and wonder why our deepest problems never get solved.”—Peter Senge
Senge had it right. I have never, ever seen a systemic issue truly resolved with an isolated, tactical solution. Every year…
Annette Franz
It was Mark Twain who said, “Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.” This has become my favorite saying, both with regards to customer experience and to life in general.
I’ve used this quote recently with my kids, and it's an important code to live by. It speaks to honesty,…
Harry Hertz
The results are in for the annual Best Places to Work in the Federal Government. The overall survey results are not surprising based on history, the current environment, and where many organizations—both government and business—have been challenged during recent years in the area of workforce…
Michael Rapaport
Editor’s note: Here’s part one.
Sound quality management systems touch every level of your organization, from conception to post-market monitoring. Not surprisingly, manufacturing operations management (MOM) systems benefit from quality management system (QMS) integration. In an ideal scenario,…
Michael Causey
Let’s start with what most everyone agrees on: The Unique Device Identification (UDI) program is a swell idea. It gets a little trickier after that.
In extensive comments, the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed), Boston Scientific, and Merck, among more than a dozen other…
Mike Figliuolo
Leadership is inherently about communication. Your ability to communicate well with your team, your boss, your co-workers, and anyone else around you can make or break your career as a leader.
Given the importance we place on communications, it always helps to have a few tools and techniques that…
Christine Schaefer
A few months ago, my family received a personal reminder of the importance of quality in the skilled-nursing profession. It was delivered as my elderly father was transitioning from a hospital to a nursing home.
With the advancement of his dementia and a few other vexing conditions, my father’s…
Michael Rapaport
In all likelihood, your company has already encountered difficulties harmonizing quality management systems (QMS) with product life cycle management (PLM) systems. Synergies between engineering, manufacturing, supply chain management, and service will not materialize on their own—even in a closed-…
Umberto Tunesi
Editor’s note: Read part one here.
Both management system consultants and auditors face a dilemma when they analyze, at least technically, companies’ organizational charts. It’s not only in small or medium-size companies that managers wear more than one hat, making it difficult for auditors to…
Davis Balestracci
Twenty-five years ago, I learned a wonderfully simple model summarizing the four stages of a change process, whether personal or organizational.
• Awareness • Breakthrough in knowledge • Choosing a breakthrough in thinking • Demonstrating a consistent breakthrough in behavior
Here’s the point:…
Dennis Payton
Some of the shortest descriptions in the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) CFR 21 Part 820—“Quality System Regulation” are found in Section 820.30 and Section 820.40, totaling about a page of information about design and document controls. However short, these two sections outline some of the…
Arun Hariharan
Experience teaches us that most quality problems can be preempted, or at least prevented from recurring, if you make it a habit to ask seven simple questions: what, where, who, how much, when, why, and how.
What: Ask what are you trying to achieve, or what is the desired outcome (of your business…
Jack Dunigan
Ours was a great idea. As residents and business owners in the Caribbean, we had identified a niche market and determined to fill it. We formed a business partnership for a small manufacturing company. For a short time it went OK. Then we processed our first large order and delivered the product…
Elizabeth Gasiorowski Denis
Among the hardships faced today by many workers are families and communities linked to a declining number of good jobs, dwindling incomes, and the soaring cost of living. Many families are existing in a state of almost constant financial stress. Way too many parents are spending way too many…
