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ECM Global Measurement Solutions
In greater Downeast Maine, boat builder Hodgdon Yachts plans for the construction of the 100-ft racing yacht called “New3” (also known as “New Cubed”). Set to be constructed and finished toward the end of the year, the vessel will be shipped to Australia for its first race. As Tim Hacket, the…
Jim Benson
We are all cursed with “surprises” at work. We come in, sit down, get ready for the day. We select a task to start on, and about halfway through, it explodes on us. The seemingly simple task now has 30 subtasks all lined up, ready to destroy our day.
This is stressful. Since we’re likely already…
Davis Balestracci
I’ve mentioned that design of experiments (DOE) is one of the few things worth salvaging from typical statistical training, and I thought I’d talk a bit more about DOE in the next couple of columns. The needed discipline for a good design is similar when using rapid-cycle plan-do-study-act (PDSA…
Mark Esser
Depending on whom you ask, May (or August or April—it would be great if someone were to standardize this, but we’re going with May) is National Inventor’s Month. Lots of people have dreams of being a famous inventor. Even I’ve had “ideas” for inventions before.
For instance, during the 1990s,…
Brooke Pierce
The healthcare industry is in a state of constant change, and with change comes opportunity. With the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), healthcare providers are, or will be, paid differently for their services. No longer can they…
When Marissa Meyer became Yahoo’s CEO in July 2012, employees and shareholders saw the glamorous ex-Googler, former vice president of product search and teacher of programming, as their savior. She made some big bets on everything from blogging to digital magazines, buying Tumblr, a blogging…
Taran March @ Quality Digest
They sound like words and have a mysterious dignity rolling off the tongue. Their meanings seem both apparent and elusive. If an alien delegation landed on Earth, words like these might feature in their formal greetings. They are the most expensively researched neologisms in use around the globe.…
Jeffrey Phillips
I find that I’ve become increasingly irritated with the narrow interpretations and self-serving definitions of what is, or is not, innovation. One of the most common scapegoats for innovation is brainstorming. No other activity is more frequently miscast, and often blamed, for failed innovation.…
Grant Ramaley
The Quality System Regulation (QSR) 21 CFR Part 820, aka FDA current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) for Medical Devices, is what regulatory professionals should be referencing in their quality system procedures. Part 820 embodies all the major parts of the FDA quality system that are shared…
Mike Micklewright
Quiz time: What significance does the yin and the yang have in discussing standardized training? I suggest that you pause and guess (and then read on for the answer).
OK, we all get it, standards are a part of our lives in the business world, and they are gaining more and more focus as companies…
Richard Gates
Put your hands together. Now move them back and forth to rub them against each other. Feel that heat? That’s from friction. No matter if it’s between siblings or the gears of an engine, we usually think of friction as a bad thing, and often it is. Friction can cause things to heat up, wear down,…
Tonianne DeMaria
“It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.” —John Steinbeck
In Personal Kanban (Modus Cooperandi Press, 2011), Jim Benson and I discuss how workflow should be optimized for throughput, not capacity. Work…
Lisa Lang
Most of the time when I’m consulting, the problem that my clients think they have is not the real problem. That makes sense, because if people understood their real problem, they would just fix it. The fact that the problem still exists is a likely indicator that the real issue hasn’t been…
Harish Jose
Today I’d like to talk about kaizen—specifically, the order for kaizen. The term has come to mean “continuous improvement,” but kaizen originally translates from Japanese as “change for better.” To help clarify this useful concept, I’ll present three different views for approaching kaizen: Taiichi…
Antoine Tirard, Claire Harbour
Resurrecting your career after a long break isn’t easy. Stories of those who went through the transition can teach us how to better navigate a way back to work.
No one wants to have to choose between staying on her career path and tending to urgent personal needs, but that’s the situation faced by…
Jennifer Lauren Lee
When a team of researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML) first tested a new kind of pressure sensor two years ago, initial results showed it was faster and had higher resolution than the centuries-old mercury-based method for…
Jeffrey Eves
Sponsored Content
There are many paths for organizations to become good, sustainable, low-footprint citizens of the business world. Production processes can be redesigned to be more efficient, corporate campuses can be located so as to reduce employees’ dependence on fossil fuels, and buildings…
NIST
Recently on the Taking Measure blog, we asked Tara Lovestead, a recipient of the 2016 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a few questions about her life and work. She was recognized for her extensive application of new methods to rapidly and inexpensively detect…
Helena Lui
There’s an old saying that “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Every project manager knows that she has to create a realistic project budget before the project begins. This step is not optional because when you’re midway through your project and realize you’ve run out of money, you’re in big…
Jeffrey Phillips
It’s the natural order of economics that when an opportunity becomes available, everything rushes in to fill the vacuum. As the market becomes crowded, various offerings must differentiate themselves from the others to demonstrate value. So it’s almost inevitable that innovation will grow to…
Donald J. Wheeler
Experimental designs that result in orthogonal data structures allow us to get the most out of both our analysis and our research budget. As a result, designed experiments have been used for everything from basic research to process optimization. These multiple roles make it crucial to understand…
Lawrence Yu
If we used a time machine to transport a pharmaceutical scientist from the 1960s into a current pharmaceutical production plant, it might be surprising to learn that he would already be familiar with most of the processes and production techniques being used. That’s because not much has changed in…
Eric Gasper
An upcoming audit can be one of the more stressful times of the year for a quality team. Whether you are pursuing a new certification or retaining your current one, audit preparation can be a daunting challenge to even the most diligent organization. Although standards such as ISO/IEC 17025, ISO/…
Knowledge at Wharton
Time was, layoffs were seen as an emergency strategy, the last resort in a downturn or crisis. Today, however, layoffs are a standard tool for doing business. As the economy continues to heal and job indicators improve, a number of firms have announced a fresh wave of layoffs—Nordstrom, Sprint,…
Donald S. Holmes, A. Erhan Mergen
Regression analysis is used in a variety of manufacturing applications. An example of such an application would be to learn the effect of process variables on output quality variables. This allows the process control people to monitor those key variables and keep the output variables at the…
