All Features
Christine Schaefer
Being a Baldrige examiner: What is the experience like? Some have compared the work—especially during the final phase of an evaluation—to being in a rigorous MBA program. Others may find it’s like being part of a dispersed but highly engaged task force, as teams collaborate online and on the phone…
Peter Holtmann
The auditing profession is changing. Auditors are getting older. Technology is changing the way auditors work. Companies now work 24/7 around the globe, speaking different languages and integrating different cultures, forcing auditors to adapt to a new work reality. How is all this affecting the…
Quality Digest
Below are the scrambled names of 10 notable figures in the history of the quality profession. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to decode each of these names. Send your answers to us at qdcontest1@qualitydigest.com. Of those submitting correct answers, one name will be chosen at…
Ryan E. Day
No, they don't manufacture faucets, they don't run a major American airline, and they are not an elite special ops military unit. Headquartered in Taiwan, Delta Products Corp. is a global leader in switching power supply solutions, thermal management solutions, and DC brushless fans. Delta also…
Quality Transformation With David Schwinn
I teach management and leadership. Recently, the topic in one of my classes was change and stress. I asked my students, who are nearly all employed and range in age from 19 to 55, what caused them the greatest stress in the workplace. Among the various responses were several related to how they…
Fred Schenkelberg
The planning of environmental or reliability testing becomes a question of sample size at some point. It’s probably the most common question I hear as a reliability engineer: How many samples do we need?
Also, when evaluating supplier-run test results, we need to understand the implications of…
Automated Precision Inc.
All machine tools need maintenance, adjustment, and calibration over time. For precision multi-axis machines, scheduled service including machine conditions, performance, and calibration are necessary to maintain machine performance, thereby reducing scrap or rework. Regular calibration is also a…
Harry Hertz
Having recently bought some furniture at a big box store, I couldn’t help seeing these three dreaded words were boldly printed on the outside of the carton: “Some Assembly Required.”
As I opened the box, I wondered what I’d find. Would there be lengthy assembly instructions and lots of different…
Annette Franz
There’s a well-known quote by Henry Ford that goes like this, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” It’s fair to note that some don’t believe he actually said that, but let’s go with it.
Ford is often cited when naysayers tell us that customers don’t know…
Quy Huy
Middle managers could take the lead in a changing corporate world, if they would only recognize that their primary value is emotional, not functional. Once again, middle managers appear to be on the wrong side of history.
We constantly hear that millennials—already the most-represented generation…
Davis Balestracci
“It is impossible to tell how widespread data torturing is. Like other forms of torture, it leaves no incriminating marks when done skillfully. And like other forms of torture, it may be difficult to prove even when there is incriminating evidence.” —J. L. Mills
When will academics, Six Sigma…
Steve Daum
In daily conversations, I field questions from plant managers, quality managers, engineers, supervisors, and plant production workers about the challenges of applying statistical process control (SPC) methods. Following are the five most prevalent and costly mistakes I witness in the application…
Craig Cochran
ISO 9001 might be the most confusing document in business history. I first became aware of the standard in the late 1980s when my manager handed it to me and said, “See if you can figure this thing out. Our plant has to get certified.”
I took the document back to my desk and attempted to read it…
Scott Berkun
The first industrial revolution may have been the most dramatic we will ever have. This is an unpopular notion because we suffer from what Tom Standage called “chronocentrism,” which is the belief that the present is the most amazing time ever in history, and our inventions will transform the…
Bill Remy
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal reported that quarterly profits and revenue at big U.S. companies are poised to decline for the first time since the 2008 recession, as some industrial firms warn of a pullback in spending.
The authors point out that industrial companies are being…
Jeffrey Eves
Sponsored Content
In 1996, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) first released the ISO 14000 family of standards, which provided tools for organizations wanting to manage their environmental responsibilities. In the years since, ISO 14001—“Environmental management systems—…
Leo Sadovy
Having a mentor is the No. 1 factor in increasing the steepness of your personal learning curve. So says my oldest, Garik, a Park Scholar at North Carolina State University (class of 2012), during a discussion he recently had with the incoming Park Scholar class of 2019.
To accept the value of…
Arun Hariharan
During my years of experience helping companies with quality, I’ve observed that in some, any conversation and initiatives related to quality seem to revolve around operations. In manufacturing companies, this tends to be the actual production plant or factory; in service companies, it’s their…
Mary Ann Pacelli
As a manufacturer, you don’t want workers; you want company ambassadors. Workers are individuals who show up and get their tasks done. Company ambassadors are a team of employees who are enthusiastic about their careers, and they are inspired and empowered to proactively help your business grow.…
Giles Hutchins
Much of today’s organizational management mindset—whether corporate, nonprofit, government institution, or startup—is rooted in a flawed logic about how the world works.
“We have been, and still are, in the grips of a flawed view of reality—a flawed paradigm, a flawed worldview—and it…
The QA Pharm
Historically, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cited the Supreme Court decisions of United States v. Dotterweich (1943) and United States v. Park (1975) as Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) legal cases that establish that the manager of a corporation can be prosecuted under the…
Ryan E. Day
The words “plastic,” “polymers,” and “environmental responsibility” rarely bump consonants in the same sentence, but public sentiment and keen competition can nudge a company into exploring all kinds of plastic substitutes. Of course, a $160 price tag on a barrel of oil is also rather compelling.…
Jack Dunigan
Delegation. If you’ve been in leadership for very long, you’ve undoubtedly had a class or two on the subject, read a couple of books about it, and encountered effective delegators as well as ineffective ones.
I have as well. Your experience might be different, but most of the classes and books I…
John Bell
Leadership doesn’t begin when you step up on the first rung of the management ladder. One direct report doesn’t make you a leader; nor does 10. Yet, the moment you have direct reports, you are expected to lead. When you fail to demonstrate traits critical to successful leadership, the expectations…
TÜV SÜD America
As we near the end of 2015, the pilot phase of the International Medical Device Regulators Forum’s (IMDRF) Medical Device Single Audit Program (MDSAP) is approaching its third and final year. In this article, we’ll provide a review of the pilot study’s progress since its inception two years ago,…
