All Features
Andrew Reich
Looking for a new factory to work with in China can be daunting. With pressures from poor rice production on the rise and labor throughout China unstable, more China-based manufacturers are closing shop every day.
For these reasons I think it’s an opportune time to review the key aspects and goals…
Martin VanDerSchouw
All organizations can slot their activities into one of two categories: projects or new initiatives, and operations. Everything falls into one of those. To succeed, an organization must do both very well, and both must be supported by strong leadership, discipline, and visibility from top…
Michelle LaBrosse
I was recently watching the movie “When Harry Met Sally,” and there’s that funny scene where Harry tells Sally that she’s high maintenance:
Harry Burns: There are two kinds of women: high maintenance and low maintenance.
Sally Albright: Which one am I?
Harry: You’re the worst kind; you’…
NIST
With growing interest in using nanoparticles for everything from antibacterial socks to medical imaging to electronic devices, the need to understand the environmental, health, and safety risks of these particles also grows. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)…
Robert I. Sutton
Recently, I wrote a list of “12 Things Good Bosses Believe.” Now I want to delve into the ninth belief mentioned in that article: “Innovation is crucial to every team and organization. So my job is to encourage my people to generate and test all kinds of new ideas. But it is also my job to help…
During the past few years, I’ve found myself encountering more customers requiring gauge repeatability and reproducibility (GR&R) studies performed on thread gauges. When I say, “thread gauges,” I’m really referring to indicating thread gauges; you might refer to them as “snap gauges” or “tri-…
Bob Cramblitt
When the NASA Discovery space shuttle launches in November, there will be dozens of upgrades and safety modifications, but one thing will remain unchanged from every mission during the last five years: 3-D scanning and processing will be used to help ensure the safe return of astronauts to Earth…
Steven Ouellette
Last month I wrote about how the random sampling distribution (RSD) of various sample statistics are the basis for pretty much everything in statistics. If you understand RSDs, you understand a lot about why we do what we do in hypothesis testing, inferential statistics, and estimation of…
Laser Design Inc.
RavenWorks, a Maple Grove, Minnesota, company known for its automotive machining and testing business, is launching its own line of automotive parts. RavenWorks’ employees, who are hot-rod enthusiasts, saw a need in the market for replacement parts for vintage vehicles. They decided to carefully…
Taran March @ Quality Digest
Although it takes longer to say, “Do we really need a leap second?” than to allow one to come and go, the ongoing wrangle over these troublesome if fleeting moments has spanned a decade now. Most of the debate has occurred off the clock, at least as far as everyday living goes. Alarms continue to…
Miriam Boudreaux
If you have ever wondered what the difference was between a gap analysis, an internal audit, or a pre-assessment, you might not be alone. When trying to figure out whether your company meets the requirements of a standard, such as one the International Organization for Standardization (ISO),…
Tripp Babbitt
W. Edwards Deming did a great disservice. He left a prescription for what the United States should do to improve government, manufacturing, and service. The prescription is composed of his 14 Points and Seven Deadly Diseases (which later became his System of Profound Knowledge), and he learned…
J. LeRoy Ward
Organizations that struggle with outsourced projects which have gone bad or failed completely usually cite vendor management issues as the reason. It’s as if the vendor is always to blame, and the buyer is completely blameless. Rarely is this the case. Upon closer inspection, and in nine out of 10…
Donald J. Wheeler
In my August column, “How to Turn Capability Indexes Into Dollars,” I defined the effective cost of production and use and showed how it can be obtained directly from the capability and performance indexes. In this column, I will show how these indexes can be used to estimate the benefits to be…
Bill Kalmar
This is a story that, if columns in Quality Digest Daily had a rating, would be rated PG 13—not suitable for children and sensitive adults. As the story progresses, you will see why. You have been warned.
As you may have surmised from previous columns, I have been retired since 2003. Therefore…
Denise Robitaille
Trepanning is the process of drilling a hole in the skull. It was practiced as far back as 10,000 years ago. Archaeological artifacts lend credence to the lore that the process was used by some cultures to expel evil spirits. Apart from that occult-ish application, the process has been used for…
(Donnelly Custom Manufacturing: Alexandria, MI) -- Despite the more than 60 years since training within industry (TWI) was created in the United States to ramp up production of war materiel during World War II, implanting TWI skills in an organization still takes great planning and effort. Patrick…
The foundation of any laboratory’s reputation is built on confidence in its ability to provide correct and reliable data. ISO/IEC 17025, subclause 4.1.5 d, requires that your management system “have policies and procedures to avoid involvement in any activities that would diminish confidence in…
Jon Miller
Whether I am speaking about lean to an audience of one or 100, if the conversation goes on long enough the question inevitably arises: “What’s next for lean?” I always manage an answer, typically tying it to the theme of the discussion, speech, or intended teaching but never quite giving the same…
Clamp-on ultrasonic flow meters are widely used throughout industrial processes in many industries because their noninvasive nature confers inherent advantages over other flow-meter technologies. Material compatibility, contamination, and corrosion risk factors are eliminated. Process integrity is…
Mike Micklewright
“To effect the economies, to bring in the power, to cut out the waste, and thus to fully realize the wage motive, we must have big business – which does not, however, necessarily mean centralized business. We are decentralizing.”
--Henry Ford “Today and Tomorrow”, 1926
Is your…
Melanoma is one of the less common types of skin cancer, but it accounts for the majority of skin cancer deaths (about 75%). The five-year survival rate for early-stage melanoma is high (98%), but the rate drops precipitously if the cancer is detected late or there is recurrence.
So a great…
Taran March @ Quality Digest
One of the more intense information wildfires to sweep through media channels recently is the news that multitasking does more harm than good. Or does it? This fire seems to burn both ways.
In his new book, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Minds (W. W. Norton & Co., 2010),…
Abdullah Telmesani Ph.D.
Achieving higher levels of ethical conduct is a balancing act. For corporations, ethical attitude and sustainable success are achieved by striking a balance between the bottom line and the interests of employees and the community. Employees’ ethical behavior and success, on the other hand, are…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
Story update 8/26/2010: We incorrectly stated that Dr. Richard A. Spritz was from the University of Colorado in Boulder. He is actually at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver.
Researchers at the University of Calgary, University of Colorado, and University of San…
