All Features
Laurel Thoennes @ Quality Digest
Automakers, suppliers, and tech companies are in a flurry to transform vehicles into connected devices and distribute the content to drivers and passengers. Corning Inc.’s transformation plans include using its Gorilla Glass to turn windshields into billboards.
What better way to tout Gorilla…
Bruce Hamilton
Here is an article I wrote 10 years ago, recently resurrected from the lost letter file. I can’t remember why I wrote it or for whom. Originally titled, “What is Kaizen?” the article still resonates with me as I hope it will with you.
My study of TPS has been guided by book learning, tacit…
Quality Transformation With David Schwinn
My wife, Carole, just gave me a shirt emblazoned with, “The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.” It reminded me of an important phenomenon that has been lately grabbing my attention.
Oxford Dictionaries, publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, has…
Pam Bethune
One of the newest parts of ISO 9001:2015 and related management standards are the concepts of context and interested parties. What do these mean, and how can you apply them to your organization?
What the standard says
When making sense of Clause 4.1—“Understanding the organization and its context…
Daniel Blake, Caterina Moschieri
Pulling out of a country is an expensive proposition for a multinational firm, but it is sometimes required for the corporate bottom line. If the host country changes laws or even expropriates a subsidiary, it is often time to leave or divest.
Divestiture—pulling out assets or closing down part…
Mary McAtee
Sponsored Content
Technical and commercial media sources are constantly discussing how design safety and security has not kept pace with quickly evolving technologies. Pundits are pointing to issues with everything from self-driving cars to new holiday toys that latch on to your home Wi-Fi and…
Julie Winkle Giulioni
It’s been nearly 50 years since Stanley Kubrick introduced HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) in the science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey. What appeared to be fantastic and futuristic at the time is quickly becoming commonplace as automated services and electronic butlers…
Jesse Lyn Stoner
Goal setting is powerful. No doubt about it. Research shows you are likely to perform at a higher level if you set smart goals. But how do you know what are the right goals to set?
Goals are milestones that mark the way on your journey. If you set the wrong goals, you will get sidetracked. Too…
Laura Gillenwater
I recently had the privilege of attending the Health Care Advisory Board’s National Meeting in St. Louis. One of the topics that really struck me was the last presentation about the importance of building a consumer-focused organization and increasing consumer loyalty.
We hear so much about the…
Anna Nagurney
When we talk about supply chains, we may conjure up images of manufacturing plants, warehouses, trucks, and shipping docks. There is another, truly unique supply chain for a product vitally important to healthcare and life, and it is very volatile at the moment: the blood supply chain.
Human…
Robin Materese
A catchphrase from a popular reality show goes: “One day you’re in. And the next day, you’re out.” For the purposes of the show, the host is referencing fashion. But the same could be said about science. With each new discovery or advance, an old theory or idea often becomes obsolete—or at least…
Tim Lozier
Sponsored Content
For quality management to be effective, a solid corrective action process is critical. ISO standards and general best-practice guides suggest—and even mandate—a set procedure and proper documentation for addressing and correcting issues.
In fact, 72 percent of quality…
Ryan E. Day
Is it just me, or does it seem like businesses are actually trying to outdo each other in poor customer experience? Now, I don’t want to be misunderstood, so let me be as clear as I can.
I’m not talking about run-of-the-mill poor customer service like big box stores running skeleton crews as…
Tim Lozier
When it comes to quality management, it’s not just about the requirements. As companies register to ISO 9001:2015, we see an additional shift. Not only are management system requirements changing to build an improved framework for the standard, but we also see an emphasis on an overall mindset…
Andy Henderson
This is the fourth part in a series about my perspective of what the future has in store for various aspects of manufacturing. I approached each aspect by imagining what is possible using what we know to be technically possible today. In part one I covered cutting tools for machining, in part two…
Harish Jose
As our new year unfolds, I wanted to write an article to remind myself of three pieces of advice. They are from Epictetus (55–135 AD), Marcus Aurelius (121–180 AD), and George Pólya (1887–1985). Epictetus and Aurelius are two famous Stoic philosophers of the past, and Pólya is a famous Hungarian…
Ruth P. Stevens
Business marketers have much to gain from retention marketing. Business customers tend to be fewer in number, and each is more valuable—meaning you can’t afford to lose even one. But how do you keep your customers active and buying from you, vs. the competition? How do you prevent defection?
Let’s…
Anil Gaba
Whether predicting demand for a product or forecasting spot prices for a resource or currency, we invariably seek out subjective opinions—expert viewpoints—to assist in the information-gathering process in order to make informed decisions. If forecasters are too closely linked, less information can…
Shoshana Burgett
D
uring the past year, I have interviewed many customers across a variety of manufacturing industries to learn more about their industry concerns, the design and manufacturing challenges they face, and the technologies that excite them. Here are some manufacturing and business trends to follow over…
Thomas R. Cutler
Two words no manufacturing organization wants to hear: product recalls. By their very nature, product recalls are unpredictable events.
The cost to a company transcends potentially expensive litigation and settlements. Product recalls and the effects that product failures have on companies that…
Jerry W. Thomas
The many “truisms” of customer loyalty lore are mostly a set of mythologies to deceive the gullible and exploit the innocent. Let us explore these mythologies and then talk about best practices for customer satisfaction and customer loyalty research.
The mythologies
Rising customer satisfaction…
Mike Figliuolo
I
enjoy the holidays because they offer time to reflect. The work world slows down for a few weeks, and you can think about what went well during the past year, what didn’t go well, how you want to grow, and what you can do to improve yourself for the year ahead. I’d like to offer a list of…
Paul Lachance
When it comes to asset management and facility management, everyone within an organization is affected by breakdowns and downtime. That means employees from the CFO to the environmental health and safety (EHS) director to the plant engineer should be involved in maintenance.
In the manufacturing…
Mike Richman
We were back to a full complement of hosts on this week’s episode of QDL, as I returned from vacation to an action-package show with lots of interesting content.
In case you missed it, this past Friday’ Quality Digest Live looked at:
“Amazon Patents Flying Warehouse”
Dirk Dusharme reports that…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
You’re going to see a bit of a departure in some Quality Digest coverage this year. Certainly on our webcast, Quality Digest Live, but even in our online editorial coverage. It is spurred in no small part by the incoming administration’s approach to dealing with U.S. manufacturing and the…
