All Features
MIT News
April’s factory collapse in Bangladesh, which killed more than 700 people, has renewed public debate over working conditions in the developing world: How can dangerous and debilitating factory work be improved?
For more than a decade, MIT political scientist Richard Locke has studied that…
Tom Kadala
Imagine for a moment that a friend followed you with a webcam and recorded every moment of your typical work day. What could you learn from so much data? Probably not much, unless you matched each video frame with a related task. Once you did, however, you could pinpoint areas for improvement by…
Matthew E. May
One of my favorite insights comes from Harvard’s David Garvin: “Learning will always remain something of an art, but even the best artists can improve their technique.” I like it because it quite subtly highlights two different yet intertwined activities, learning and training.
Most companies…
Jack Dunigan
Editor’s note: This continues Jack Dunigan’s series about unsung heroes in the workplace, and the 16 traits they all share.
You’ve encountered them, those insecure types who have a point to prove, weight to throw around, and a chip on a shoulder they are just hoping someone will knock off.…
Denise Robitaille
Editor’s note: Denise Robitaille is a member of the U.S. TAG to ISO/TC 176, the committee responsible for updating the ISO 9000 family of standards. She will be reporting on the revision progress to ISO 9001, which will be completed in 2015. Read other articles in the series here.
By now most…
NIST
The market for miniature, hybrid machines known as MEMS, which are microelectromechanical systems, is diversified, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has introduced a long-awaited measurement tool that will help designers, manufacturers, and customers see eye-to-eye on…
Thomas R. Cutler
Lift trucks are one of the most important transport vehicles for goods at almost all companies. Automating the functions of a manned lift truck to positioning, monitoring, tracking, and identification enables fewer accidents, less material damage, higher productivity, and best-practice standard…
jeffdewar
The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program includes employee empowerment as an integral part of its criteria. The word “empower,” or one of its derivatives, appears seven times in the criteria in reference to workforce development, yet it remains one of the most elusive elements to embrace.
In…
Harry Hertz
I always find the annual Baldrige Quest for Excellence Conference to be more than a mere gathering of people to discuss topics of common interest. It is an energy-rich experience. The 25th anniversary event was all that and more because of the combination of celebratory gala, Baldrige Award…
Donald J. Wheeler
You may occasionally encounter charts with two-sigma limits. The origins of this practice are not clear, and no real justification of this practice has been given in the literature. In this article, I will consider the theoretical and practical consequences of using two-sigma limits on a process…
NVision Inc.
NVision Inc. recently volunteered its 3D laser-scanning services to help Sarasota sculptor Greg Marra create an exact replica of the rifle that former Navy Seal Chris Kyle used while in the military.
Christopher Scott “Chris” Kyle is widely considered to have been the most lethal sniper in U.S.…
IBM
Scientists from IBM have created a mobile maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) prototype designed to help manufacturers and companies that supply and maintain high-value machinery in sectors such as aerospace, oil and gas, and shipping.
The mobile system, using a combination of augmented…
Patrick Runkel
“Shall I compare thee to a standard normal distribution?
Thou art more symmetric and more bell-shaped…”
—Melvin Shakespeare (William’s lesser-known statistician brother)
The Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that symmetry was one of the primary elements of the universal ideal of beauty. More…
Lean Math With Mark Hamel
The seminal book on lean, The Machine That Changed the World (Free Press, reprint 2007), spent many words, tables, and figures on the subject of productivity—as well as, of course, quality. Why?
Productivity is one of the critical few measures that reflects the “leanness” of a process, value…
Mehul Shah
Although quality is an enterprisewide issue, many companies struggle to define how it fits into overall corporate strategy. The 2012–2013 LNS Research Quality Management Survey put this into perspective when it asked executives what their top quality challenge was. More than 50 percent marked off…
FARO
The free SCENECT app from FARO for 3D scanning has now been available from the FARO App Center for several months. This professional software is based on the SCENE platform, which is used for FARO 3D laser scanners. IT expert Philipp Biermann provides some tips for achieving the optimum scanning…
Matthew J. Savage
When you work within a continuous improvement culture, it might seem that one does not want to look back. After all, as systems improve, old data may no longer be relevant for the current process, and keeping it around—like keeping old love letters—may someday get you into trouble.
Knowing when…
Tripp Babbitt
OK, brace yourself for a shocking disclosure that will revolutionize service businesses everywhere. Are you ready? The role of support areas such as human resources, IT, finance, and of course, management is to... wait for it... support the core business. And by core business I’m talking about…
Kimberly Egan
FDA’s latest Annual Meat Report is out. It analyzes food-borne bacteria in retail meat, particularly Salmonella, Campylobacter, Enterococcus, and E. coli. Salmonella causes typhoid. Campylobacter causes spontaneous abortions in animals and opportunistic infections in humans. Enterococcus can cause…
Jack Dunigan
Editor’s note: This continues Jack Dunigan’s series about unsung heroes in the workplace, and the 16 traits they all share.
I had ordered a meal and let the conversation around the table carry away the wait. When the order arrived, it was a different server who placed my plate in front of me. It…
Bruce Hamilton
A few years ago, after I gave a speech about lean at a meeting of the Transformer Association (like the kind on the telephone poles providing electricity to your home), my then 6-year old son, Ben, asked me if I’d met Megatron.
His question caused me to chuckle at the images we assign to our…
Tom Kadala
When Tom Donilon, the National Security Advisor for President Obama, was asked what were the two most pressing issues that kept him up at night, he cited terrorist attacks and the U.S. declining national competitiveness. The backdrop of 600,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs at a time when…
Robert Allen, Kathleen Bellemare
Training is extremely important to the future of manufacturing in the United States, yet in many states it has fallen by the wayside. At Connecticut Spring & Stamping (CSS), the situation had become so desperate that to meet its capacity and continue to grow, the company has had to replace…
Kevin E. O’Connor
Team leaders have a perennial dilemma: How can we educate, engage, and develop our group in a substantial way that helps the team become better? “Team-building” is often seen as the fun add-on to a meeting devoted to science, sales figures, and quarterly goals.
A ropes course, horseback riding, a…
TÜV Rheinland of North America
The inspection team at TÜV Rheinland Industrial Solutions (TRIS) in North America is accustomed to using computed radiography to assess structural integrity of welds and castings for pipes, tanks, pressure vessels, and bridges. Occasionally the team gets to apply “industrial” radiography on…
