Taran March @ Quality Digest

Editorial director

Taran March is a retired editor for Quality Digest. A 35-year veteran of publishing, she has written and edited for newspapers, magazines, book publishers, and universities.

Wed, 04/05/2017 - 12:03

Overheard at a Users’ ConferenceQuality pros air their likes and dislikes about their profession

Wed, 06/14/2023 - 12:03

As part of last year’s Masters Summit, hosted by the quality software specialists at MasterControl, Jeff Dewar, Quality Digest’s publisher, approached a few attendees for some candid comments. Since most people there were quality professionals of…

Stepping Off the Cliff of SuccessQuality has become invisible. Because it’s everywhere.

Wed, 11/24/2021 - 12:02

In publishing, anniversary issues sit in the ambiguous space between news and marketing. News because, at 40 years and counting, it’s not every magazine that makes it to middle age in these times. Marketing because it’s all a bit brash, like asking…

Ergonomic Microscopes From Olympus Improve ProductivityDesigning good habits into laboratory work tools

Thu, 09/16/2021 - 12:03

You may work in a state-of-the-art lab, but do your ergonomic practices still linger in the 19th century? If you spend more than five hours a day at a microscope, leave work with blurred vision and a persistent downward tilt to your neck, then the…

Inspection and Compliance in One Reliable PackageThe Olympus CIX100 inspection system enables 21 CFR Part 11 compliance

Thu, 09/16/2021 - 12:01

In regulated industries, every step of the production process must be verified to some sort of guidance or standard. What this comes down to, practically speaking, is an enormous amount of time and effort spent on actions outside the sphere of…

Using Quality Tactics to Create Strategy: A Hypothetical Case From shop floor to C-suite, data are most valuable when they address the job-related issues of users

Wed, 09/30/2020 - 12:02

In order to best illustrate how enterprisewide SPC software can help address shop-floor problems and then funnel the captured data to the corporate level where strategic issues can be analyzed, here is a case study of a hypothetical manufacturing…

Quality Mastery on the Shop FloorData are much more than a byproduct of production

Mon, 09/28/2020 - 12:02

In the intro to this series we noted that, too often, quality tools and the data we glean from them are used only to solve immediate, mostly shop-floor problems. These gold nuggets of opportunity aren’t used in an equally valuable way to address a…

Wielding Traditional Tools in New WaysNext-gen SPC won’t be accomplished on paper

Tue, 06/23/2020 - 12:03

What is quality intelligence, exactly? It’s more than marketing spin. More, even, than the sum of its many control charts. It’s not collecting data simply to further go/no-go actions. And it doesn’t mean turning the cognitive wheel entirely over to…

Education, ImprovedLean Six Sigma has arrived on a few campuses. Will more follow?

Wed, 02/05/2020 - 12:01

At the University of California at San Diego, lean concepts have taken hold. Along with its process improvement curriculum, the university applies what it teaches through initiatives around campus. Projects both complex and simple tackle the snags,…

A Quality Solution for Holiday AngstThere’s no need to grin and bear it over the punchbowl

Tue, 12/24/2019 - 12:02

’Tis that time of year, when the elves at QD set down their chisels, hammers, and stone slates for a week. We’ll be grinning in sweaters and clutching beverages somewhere, like the rest of you. Then we’ll be back, bright and early at the crack of…

Designing for FailureIf at first you don’t succeed, make it a quality problem

Thu, 11/14/2019 - 12:03

So it seems the contentious wall along our southern border, variously known as the Trump wall or the Mexico-United States barrier, isn’t meeting requirements. Walls keep people in; walls keep people out. They serve as backdrops for graffiti. But…