All Features
Umberto Tunesi
I recently bought myself an almost-latest-version smartphone. It was intended to celebrate my 62nd birthday; replace my present, obsolete portable phone; and be reliable and not too expensive.
Well, its “Quick Reference Guide” consists of 34 pages, three of which are blank, five give generic,…
ISO
T he International Organization for Standardization (ISO) develops and publishes more than 19,200 voluntary international standards that bring benefits for businesses, governments, and society. But how do the standards contribute to the economic returns of countries and companies? What is the…
Umberto Tunesi
I wrote what follows with ISO 9001 and its derivatives in mind because these are the standards I’m most familiar with. Yet even before writing, I realized, at least from my experience, that the following points can be shared by most management system consultancy projects. Especially when the…
Miriam Boudreaux
Deciding how to control your documents can be difficult. ISO 9001, the quality management system (QMS) standard from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), requires you maintain accurate and up-to-date procedures, but doesn’t give a lot of guidance on how to get there. Between…
NIST
A new versatile measurement system devised by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) accurately and quickly measures the electric power output of solar energy devices, capabilities useful to researchers and manufacturers working to develop and make next-generation…
ISO
Editor's note: The following interview with ANSI CEO, Joe Bhatia, first appeared in the June 2012 edition of ISO Focus+ magazine and is reproduced with the kind permission of ISO Central Secretariat.
On Sept. 17–22, 2012, the United States will play host to the world’s standardization community as…
Paul Naysmith
These days quality professionals have shifted away from actually writing procedures to helping others develop documentation to describe the businesses they are in. Although I live in hope, I still see many poor attempts at “procedures”—or at least failures in their facilitation.
I have a simple…
Stewart Anderson
The production and provision of any product or service requires many activities to be performed. The pattern of activities that a firm adopts to create and deliver value to customers is commonly called the value chain (or value stream). A key issue in competitive strategy is how to organize a value…
William A. Levinson
People often ask for examples of benefits from implementing ISO 9001-compliant quality management systems (QMS). Such examples are often difficult to provide, at least in terms of immediate results. The reason is that the effects of ISO 9001 and its automotive counterpart ISO/TS 16949 are largely…
Umberto Tunesi
Back in the early 1990s, there was a saying, loudly heralded by one global registrar: “Certify your company, and the export markets will open their doors to it.” Well, the actual wording was a bit more rude, to get the message across to small companies.
I guess this slogan still holds true,…
Stanley H. Salot Jr.
Editor’s notes: The HSF Mark was inadvertently truncated on the issue of Quality Digest Daily released on Tuesday, June 12th, 2012. The full and complete logo can be found below. Author Stan Salot will be the guest this week on Quality Digest Live, airing Friday, June 15, at 11 a.m. Pacific.
We…
NIST
The volume of oil and oil products moving through America’s pipelines, waterways, roads, and rails borders on the unimaginable.
“Look at it this way,” says John Wright, a project leader in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Physical Measurement Laboratory’s (PML) Fluid…
NIST
Two new advanced laboratory buildings for high-precision science and measurements have officially opened in Boulder, Colorado, providing upgraded facilities to support technology innovation and economic growth as well as the training of future scientists.
Federal, state, and local government…
ASQ
March 15, 2012, marked the 25th anniversary of the ISO 9000 series standards. Since the standards were released in 1987, they have gone through three revisions: 1994, 2000, and 2008. According to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), as of 2009, the total number of organizations…
Jim Tennermann
Everyone in the quality profession has heard the term “NIST traceable.” Having calibration traceability to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is desirable for most measurement devices. It is also enshrined as a requirement in some regulatory documents. Unfortunately, NIST…
To remain the valuable business system that it currently is, ISO 9001 needs to continue to evolve, ensuring that organizations of all sizes, complexities, and locations see a clear connection between their strategic objectives and their quality management system (QMS). It is not just about meeting…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is hosting a free public workshop on best practices in federal conformity-assessment activities Wed., April 11, 2012, at NIST’s Gaithersburg, Maryland, site. Conformity assessment determines whether a process,…
Christine Forcier
The global demand for medical devices has been steady in traditional markets despite the economic downturn and even increasing in some emerging markets. For medical device manufacturers seeking access to new markets, conformity with regulatory requirements is most often a prerequisite. Those who…
Tim Lozier
You’ve heard the phrase, “Get it off your plate—delegate!” It’s a nice phrase for those of us to justify passing off work, isn’t it? However, in an organization, delegation is a much more serious challenge. Market demand dictates that no deadlines can be missed; you miss a deadline, and it may…
Lisa Greenleaf
Editor's note: Lisa Greenleaf will be appearing on the May 4, 2012, episode of Quality Digest Live at 11 a.m. Pacific, 2 p.m. Eastern. That episode will be available on-demand beginning Monday, May 7, 2012.
For as long as cargo has been transported via road, there has been cargo theft. Whether from…
William A. Levinson
Compliance is an unfortunate word in connection with standards because it suggests something arduous, unpleasant, costly, and annoying that one must do to “get the certificate.”
It’s true that organizations must meet certain requirements to register to a standard like ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and the…
NIST
The great artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci once said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) research engineer Javier Atencia certainly believes in the wisdom of what da Vinci preached; he has a reputation for creating novel…
Jonathan Chowdhury
BusinessAssurance.com, the world’s first online management systems community, which is sponsored by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance Inc., brings to you an interview with Mike Toffel, a leading management systems expert and an associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business…
Dale Hallerberg
There are substantial changes in the third edition of IEC 60601-1, and understanding all aspects of them is the key to turning the standard into a benefit for medical-device manufacturers.
This article explains the philosophy behind the major changes in the standard, how these changes will affect…
NIST
An advance in sensor design by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Waterloo’s Institute of Quantum Computing (IQC) could unshackle a powerful, yet high-maintenance technique for exploring materials. The achievement could expand the…
