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TraceGains
Under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), food manufacturers and processors who import food ingredients and raw materials will be required to implement a Foreign Supplier Verification Program, essentially mandating that foreign suppliers undergo the same rigor and scrutiny as domestic ones.…
TraceGains
Under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), food manufacturers and processors who import food ingredients and raw materials will be required to implement a Foreign Supplier Verification Program, essentially mandating that foreign suppliers undergo the same rigor and scrutiny as domestic ones.…
Michael Raphael
On Jan. 29, 2004, 11 people lost their lives and 50 were wounded in a suicide bombing on Egged Bus 19 in Jerusalem. Since that tragic incident, the remains of Bus 19 have travelled around the world as a reminder of the horrors of terrorism. First stopping at The Hague for the International Court of…
Michael Raphael
On Jan. 29, 2004, 11 people lost their lives and 50 were wounded in a suicide bombing on Egged Bus 19 in Jerusalem. Since that tragic incident, the remains of Bus 19 have travelled around the world as a reminder of the horrors of terrorism. First stopping at The Hague for the International Court of…
Jidoka is one of the core principles of the Toyota Production System, one that empowers production-line workers to take immediate action the moment a defect is detected. The worker who discovers the defect pulls a red cord, and the entire assembly line stops. Co-workers and the supervisor rush over…
Jidoka is one of the core principles of the Toyota Production System, one that empowers production-line workers to take immediate action the moment a defect is detected. The worker who discovers the defect pulls a red cord, and the entire assembly line stops. Co-workers and the supervisor rush over…
Siemens PLM Software
(Siemens Corp: Munich, Germany) -- Product life-cycle management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire life cycle of a product, from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal. Siemens PLM Software shares strategies for improving PLM at your company through the…
Siemens PLM Software
(Siemens Corp: Munich, Germany) -- Product life-cycle management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire life cycle of a product, from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal. Siemens PLM Software shares strategies for improving PLM at your company through the…
Bill Kalmar
A recent column of mine described how deleting the cheese on a burger resulted in our not receiving a $10 credit. It was an example of a breakdown in customer service. Suffice it to say that contacting corporate management resolved the situation. But the question remains: Why does such a minor…
MIT News
In recent years, many airplane manufacturers have started building their planes from advanced composite materials, which consist of high-strength fibers such as carbon or glass, embedded in a plastic or metal matrix. Such materials are stronger and more lightweight than aluminum, but they are…
Bill Kalmar
A recent column of mine described how deleting the cheese on a burger resulted in our not receiving a $10 credit. It was an example of a breakdown in customer service. Suffice it to say that contacting corporate management resolved the situation. But the question remains: Why does such a minor…
MIT News
In recent years, many airplane manufacturers have started building their planes from advanced composite materials, which consist of high-strength fibers such as carbon or glass, embedded in a plastic or metal matrix. Such materials are stronger and more lightweight than aluminum, but they are…
Tom Pyzdek
Story update 3/29/2011: We corrected an error in the next to last sentence. "p < 0.05" was changed to "p > 0.05."
One of the exercises I assign to students in my training involves creating two histograms from normally distributed random numbers. The results often look similar to those shown…
Tom Pyzdek
Story update 3/29/2011: We corrected an error in the next to last sentence. "p < 0.05" was changed to "p > 0.05."
One of the exercises I assign to students in my training involves creating two histograms from normally distributed random numbers. The results often look similar to those shown…
Johns Hopkins University
(JHU: Baltimore, MD) -- The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civil Society Studies have released a new manual to help statistical agencies around the world track the amount, type, and value of volunteer work in their countries.
The manual, drafted…
Johns Hopkins University
(JHU: Baltimore, MD) -- The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civil Society Studies have released a new manual to help statistical agencies around the world track the amount, type, and value of volunteer work in their countries.
The manual, drafted…
Mark R. Hamel
A colleague of mine recently shared a story about the renowned Chihiro Nakao, student of Taiichi Ohno and founder of the Shingijutsu, the consulting group that teaches Toyota Production System principles. According to the story, a client once asked Nakao if he granted any Black Belt certifications…
Mark R. Hamel
A colleague of mine recently shared a story about the renowned Chihiro Nakao, student of Taiichi Ohno and founder of the Shingijutsu, the consulting group that teaches Toyota Production System principles. According to the story, a client once asked Nakao if he granted any Black Belt certifications…
Miriam Boudreaux
Have you ever been audited and felt like the auditor’s findings were almost irrelevant in the context of your organization’s major challenges and goals? Did you sometimes feel like you've been handed a Mickey Mouse nonconformity given the issues your organization is confronting? But what is one…
Miriam Boudreaux
Have you ever been audited and felt like the auditor’s findings were almost irrelevant in the context of your organization’s major challenges and goals? Did you sometimes feel like you've been handed a Mickey Mouse nonconformity given the issues your organization is confronting? But what is one…
Stewart Anderson
An excellent article by Donald Wheeler on the economic cost of quality, “What Is the Zone of Economic Production?” gave me pause to consider the strategic implications of reducing the costs associated with poor quality. As Wheeler pointed out in his article, there is an economic zone of production…
Stewart Anderson
An excellent article by Donald Wheeler on the economic cost of quality, “What Is the Zone of Economic Production?” gave me pause to consider the strategic implications of reducing the costs associated with poor quality. As Wheeler pointed out in his article, there is an economic zone of production…
Bruce Hamilton
I was asked about 15 years ago to give a short presentation about poka-yoke to an association of engineering professors from different U.S. universities. I brought with me several devices that employees from my plant had developed, and I began to tell the story: The technique is not…
Steve Moore
During the late 1990s, Marilyn vos Savant, holder of the Guinness Book of Records’ highest recorded IQ of 228, received an avalanche of hostile responses, many from Ph.D.s in math and statistics, when she correctly solved the controversial “Monty Hall Problem.” This concerns whether a contestant on…
Bruce Hamilton
I was asked about 15 years ago to give a short presentation about poka-yoke to an association of engineering professors from different U.S. universities. I brought with me several devices that employees from my plant had developed, and I began to tell the story: The technique is not…
