All Features
Bill Kalmar
As we approach the 10th anniversary of the event that changed our nation’s psyche forever, the “9-11 attack,” all of us have memories and recollections of where we were on that fateful day. For me, I was in my office at a local university. Shortly after 8:45 a.m. one of my associates came by my…
Donald J. Wheeler
The simplicity of the process behavior chart can be deceptive. This is because the simplicity of the charts is based on a completely different concept of data analysis than that which is used for the analysis of experimental data. When someone does not understand the conceptual basis for process…
U.S. Department of Energy
What if electricity and heat could be generated simultaneously? Think about energy generation on a small scale, like your household. Imagine if the same source that powered your lights and turned on your television would also heat your water and home. This two-for-one type of energy generation…
Bruce Hamilton
In April 1989, the first Shingo Prize for Manufacturing Excellence had just been awarded at Utah State University. Shigeo Shingo was on hand at this auspicious event to receive an honorary doctoral degree from the university and also to bestow his name on the prize. I had the honor of meeting…
Steve Moore
The quote “Baseball been berry, berry good to me” comes from one of my favorite Saturday Night Live skits from the late 1970s. Garrett Morris played Chico Escuela, a retired Hispanic baseball player who knew very little English. His pat answer for most questions—“Baseball been berry, berry good…
NIST
It’s not often that someone can claim that going from a positive to a negative is a step forward, but that’s the case for a team of scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and private industry.
In a recent paper titled, “Expanding the Capabilities of Microfluidic…
Mark R. Hamel
To avoid confusion, the term “headhunter” in this article does not refer to those who take the severed head of others as some sort of trophy (that practice, as far as I know, is defunct); nor does it refer to finding, at a price, qualified candidates for employment. Rather, we’re talking about…
Quality Digest
This month we’re challenging readers to create quality poems in the three-line haiku format. The first line should be five syllables, the second line seven syllables, and the third line five syllables for a total of 17:
Standards are key here:
Format is five-seven-five
Or QC…
Paul Naysmith
The human mind is currently the most intelligent device you will ever own. However, have you ever noticed how it has a filtering system? For example, do you remember the uneventful drive to the office this morning? I have no idea why the brain “forgets” these things, but in an instant you will…
Les Schnoll
According to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year about 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from food-borne diseases. Hardly a day goes by where there isn’t another recall of food contaminated with a variety of microorganisms…
Nikon Metrology Inc.
The EU’s co-funded COMET project, which seeks to improve the efficiency of European industrial manufacturing, is creating a revolutionary solution that enables robots to perform high-end machining. Robots of any brand fitted with the COMET plug-and-produce controller unit successfully respond to…
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
The expression “beauty’s only skin-deep” has often been applied to the chemistry of materials because so much action takes place at the surface. However, for many of the materials in today’s high technologies, such as semiconductors and superconductors, once a device is fabricated, it is the…
Craig W. Alexander
I was recently in a local big-box retail store. My family had run another errand, and I was waiting for them inside the entrance of the store. It was a busy Saturday afternoon, and it was raining very hard outside. People were hurrying into the entry area to get out of the rain, and there was a lot…
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
The stench rising off the dead bodies was overpowering. It was so thick you could taste it. Sandy pulled a dust-mask respirator over his face, but the smell still penetrated. To speed up the decomposition process, he quickly shoveled manure over the decaying flesh. The manure cut the odor…
Bruce Hamilton
I was listening to Alan Robinson present recently at the Lean Systems Summit about the power of “small ideas.” Alan wondered aloud why so many organizations continue to pursue the few million-dollar ideas while small ideas account for more than 75 percent of the innovation outcome.
I reflected…
Bruce McDuffee
“Please tell me how to map this chamber!” This is a plea we hear at every Vaisala current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) seminar. The question deals with environmentally controlled chambers, everything from small refrigerators or freezers, to walk-in chambers or even large warehouses…
Steven Wachs
In order to maximize profitability while complying with government regulations regarding net package contents, food manufacturers and packagers must achieve an optimal balance. Consistent overfilling to minimize risk is inefficient and sacrifices profitability, while aggressive filling…
Stewart Anderson
Few would argue with the proposition that a firm’s well-being depends upon its ability to innovate. Firms that lack the capacity to develop new and improved offerings which satisfy customer needs, together with improved means for realizing and providing those offerings, are not likely to remain…
The QA Pharm
The cover of Fortune magazine popped off the newsstand shelf last week [Aug. 15, 2011] with the article, “What Happened at Pfizer: The Inside Story of Revenge, Betrayal, and Power at the Top of the World’s Largest Drug Company.”
Amidst the story that recounted epic boardroom intrigue, one…
MIT News
A new way to analyze how coatings of tiny particles alter the properties of transparent plastic could help researchers create lightweight windows with nearly the strength of glass. The same method could also lead to high-strength, scratch-resistant coatings that could be applied to many…
UC Davis
Scientists can now look deeper into new materials to study their structure and behavior, thanks to work by an international group of researchers led by University of California, Davis, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The team’s work has been published Aug. 14, 2011, in the…
Mark R. Hamel
Regular tiered meetings are a staple of any company’s lean management system. The quick stand-up meetings represent part of the daily accountability process which, when combined with leader standard work and visual controls, provide the foundation for sustaining gains, rigorously practicing…
Davis Balestracci
Any improvement effort ultimately faces the issue of standardizing processes, in many cases under the intense pressure of an impending certification audit. Ask yourself: Is your rationale for standardization merely to pass the audit, or is it a serious effort to improve quality? If it’s the former…
Let’s say you’re a facility maintenance manager whose duties include issuing asset preventive-maintenance tickets, ensuring performance of work orders to OSHA standards, fielding emergency equipment breakdowns, minimizing downtime, and measuring all associated costs. Managing a facility’s…
Cathy Crawford
As of July 3, 2011, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has increased authority to use administrative detention as an enforcement tool. For this reason, companies that manufacture, prepare, pack, or hold food should ensure strong record-keeping practices.
Under the current criteria of the…
