All Features
George Anastasopoulos
In July 2008, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament agreed to provide a legal framework that creates one monopoly in each member state of the European Union (EU) for the provision of accreditation services across Europe.
This action could be understood (but even then that’s…
Mike Roberts
Many companies struggle with the best way to think about and incorporate the cost of quality into operations. In this post we’ll examine some recent research highlighting how many companies fail to use reductions in the cost of quality as a driver for competitive advantage and revenue growth.…
Umberto Tunesi
Despite the efforts and misfortunes of Copernicus, Galileo, and other famous astronomers to convince us that the world is not the center of the universe, the quality “solar system” remains stubbornly geocentric—that is, top-management-centric.
I don’t mean this is necessarily bad, but it does…
Quality Transformation With David Schwinn
Ron Behrens, an old friend and colleague, recently replied to my invitation to share examples of the intelligent use of statistics, such as that used in our Six Sigma projects. I asked for stories, some data, and some statistical analyses. With his response, he noted that I had probably already…
Alan’s Apothegms with Alan L. Austin
I’ve had a varied and interesting career, having lived and worked in the Middle East and West Africa. Specifically, we were in northern Nigeria, a region that suffers from corruption and poverty and the ever-present threat of violence from criminals and terrorists alike. I still check the online…
Patrick Stone
It’s clear that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should have more compounding pharmacy oversight, but how long will it take them to make other important decisions on public health?
The recent news is troubling.
For example, a shipment of tainted steroid from a Massachusetts-based compounding…
Kyle Toppazzini
In lean Six Sigma, the concept of voice of the customer (VOC) is paramount. VOC takes into account the customer’s wants and needs. But I believe this concept falls short in taking into account the wants, needs, and concerns of all aspects of an enterprise. We may not get the support we need to be…
Marc Tian
Gauging fixtures are a staple in many metrology labs and assembly lines. They offer a fast, easy, and inexpensive way to determine if a measured part passes tolerances. Two popular tools that are found in many fixtures are HEIDENHAIN length gauges and linear variable differential transformers (…
Ron Kaufman
Generally, companies try to stay on their best behavior all year long. But during this holiday season—with decked halls, crowded malls, shrinking bank accounts, and frayed nerves—providing great service is even more critical than usual. Much like Santa, customers have their own “naughty or nice…
Gallup
It’s better to have a terrible manager than a good-enough one,” says Raad Al-Saady, managing director for more than 7,000 employees at Abdul Latif Jameel (ALJ), one of the biggest companies in the Middle East. “Leaders are very quick to make decisions on bad or ineffective leaders.” But managers…
Underwriters Laboratories UL
Underwriters Laboratories (UL), a global safety science company, has released its annual global survey on manufacturers’ and consumers’ perceptions of products, whether they are making and selling them or buying and consuming them. Here are some of the key findings from this report.
Optimism gives…
Gerard Pearce, Phil Jamison
The vital supply chain networks used by companies are expanding and evolving at an unprecedented pace. At the same time, companies face enormous pressures to improve supply chain efficiency, reduce costs, and mitigate the risks involved in supplier compliance with organizational policies, codes of…
Timothy F. Bednarz
Great leaders are passionate. They possess an absolute love for what they do. In an April 2010 interview with Stephen Fry of Time magazine, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, observed, “I don’t think of my life as a career... I do stuff. I respond to stuff. That’s not a career—it’s a life!”
Starbucks’ CEO…
Steve Moore
More than 30 years ago, I became aware of the power of statistical process control (SPC) and what we used to call control charts (now called process behavior charts). As technical director of the company where I was employed at the time, I promoted the idea of SPC, got upper management “support,”…
LRQA Business Assurance
CEOs and managing directors worldwide are increasingly recognizing the link between certified management systems and the success and survival of organizations. This senior engagement is not only unlocking the intrinsic value of certified management systems but is delivering a clear return on…
William A. Levinson
The New York metropolitan area took longer than other regions to recover from Hurricane Sandy, due largely to the logistical difficulty of getting things into and out of cities in general. Problems included, for example, gasoline rationing because of delivery interruptions. Intelligent businesses…
NIST
The first public workshop devoted to reviewing and refining the suggested design for a new National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI), an initiative proposed by President Obama, will be held Jan. 16, 2013, at the Davidson Center for Space Exploration in Huntsville, Alabama.
“Blueprint…
Greater demands on resources and tighter controls on cost affect more than just manufacturing processes. Management is under greater pressure to deliver better margins, greater revenue, and increased cash flow to support product research and improve shareholder value.
These demands affect all…
Ford Motor Co. has 65 major plants and facilities on six continents. How does a big company like Ford ensure all the stakeholders are invested in making sure excellence is a habit, not a series of one-off events? Achieving excellence is not something we do once and then pat ourselves on the back;…
Kyle Toppazzini
The three value concepts of my new lean Six Sigma model are based on the Chinese terms shin, gunaxi, and zhi. The third term, zhi, means to know or understand. Confucius believed that for most people, learning was ongoing. One of the philosophies of Confucianism is that everything a person learns…
Patrick Runkel
Whenever something suddenly fell apart, my grandfather used to exclaim, “Down goes the meathouse!” I don’t know where that expression came from—as a child I often pictured a flabby house of raw meat caving in on itself. This was decades before Lady Gaga made wearing raw meat dresses... uh...…
MIT News
The device doesn’t look like much: a caterpillar-sized assembly of metal rings and strips resembling something you might find buried in a home-workshop drawer. But the technology behind it, and the long-range possibilities it represents, are quite remarkable.
The little device is called a “milli-…
If you work for an organization involved with meeting the requirements of a quality system standard, specification, or government regulation, sooner or later you will be on the receiving end of a quality system audit.
The auditor might be one who works for: • Your organization (an internal auditor…
Margaret A. Hamburg
Every year, millions of products regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) flood into the United States from 150 countries. Ensuring these products are safe and effective can be daunting task. It was heartening for me to sign two cooperative arrangements with some of our international…
Jim Frost
Previously, I’ve written about how to use Minitab to identify the distribution of your continuous data. That post prompted several questions about how to use and identify discrete distributions. If you are a quality improvement analyst who works with counts of defects or pass/fail inspections, you…
