All Features
Thomas R. Cutler
Magline is a leading manufacturer of route distribution solutions. Back in 1947, the company was founded to “make things out of magnesium” because such products offered unrivaled strength and lightness. Magline’s first product was a modular magnesium hand truck that caught on rapidly. That was a…
Ryan E. Day
Have you heard the one about the robot that hops a train down to the brewery? It may not seem likely that robots, beer, and high-speed trains have much in common, but the industrial quest to coax more output from no more input (translate that to efficiency) can make for some unlikely bunkmates.…
Jim Benson
There are many techniques to visualize your work. Obviously, our most popular is Personal Kanban. The way the human brain is constructed, we’re very sensitive to the content of visual information, and we quickly assimilate it. Just walking down the street, we’re exposed to different buildings with…
Knowledge at Wharton
The future of retailing is in upheaval, and the country’s malls top the list of potential collateral damage. Tenants are pulling out as chains scale back and retailers continue to struggle with how to adapt to the rise of e-commerce and other changes in shopping behavior, and to better target a…
Davis Balestracci
Good data collection requires eight questions to be addressed. The first four involve designing the collection.
Most of these issues were discussed in my last column. To summarize:1. Why collect the data? • Is there a clear objective for this collection?
2. What method(s) will be used for the…
Matthew E. May
The more strategy development work I do with organizations, the more I’m becoming aware of a prevalent pattern, one that I find counterproductive, even detrimental. It concerns the starting point for their strategy work: In nearly every case, they begin with convergent thinking, the polar opposite…
Larry Spears
If you’ve been in the life science industry for awhile, you know it never gets easier but instead more complicated year after year. For example, unique device identification (UDI) requirements, combination product rules, and updated electronic medical device reporting (eMDR) requirements add to…
Jack Dunigan
The concept of leading from behind appears in the news fairly often. The term has found expression via academia, in an idea put forth by Linda Hill of the Harvard Business School. She claims it originated from a reading of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, in which he likened leaders to shepherds…
Matthew Barsalou
I see a weakness in management models. It’s not the models themselves that are the problem, but rather their application in smaller organizations. Those of us with either business experience or a business-related degree can be expected to have an understanding of at least a few management models,…
Annette Franz
A couple weeks ago, I participated in a webinar with Kyle Antcliff of Intradiem. We talked about the employee experience, employee journey mapping, and solutions that drive or affect workforce efficiency. During the presentation, a lot of employee experience terms were used, and I attempted to…
Alan Nicol
There are a great many risk management tools available, in a variety of forms. Most of us are familiar with failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) for design risk management, or some other form of risk matrix for project risk planning.
But what do we use for real-time decision making? Our…
Rob Harrison
Organizations face multiple challenges when selecting a vendor and planning the implementation of enterprise quality management system (EQMS) software. The potential for failure (assuming that all the functional and nonfunctional, usability, deployment model, and support requirements are…
Bob Emiliani
In a recent article in the Dec. 28, 2014, issue of The Wall Street Journal, “Colleges Need a Business Productivity Audit,” authors Frank Mussano and Robert Iosue argue that colleges should be audited, as business are, “to identify unprofitable practices.”
Audits are the answer to structural…
Kelly Kuchinski
Nestlé USA has officially announced its plans to replace the artificial flavors and colors in its chocolate candy products with natural ingredients. This decision will affect more than 250 chocolate bars across 10 brands. The first three modified candy bars—Baby Ruth, Butterfinger, and Crunch—will…
Larry Maggiano
Creating quality coordinate measuring machine (CMM) measurement programs takes time, and production cycles are often delayed while waiting for the measurement programs to be created. But software that works directly from model-based definitions can drastically decrease that time.
The move from 2D…
Jim Benson
Modern business drowns in overhead it can’t even see. I’ve seen companies spend hours denying an expense request on a $20 book. I’ve seen teams spin for weeks planning projects that change dramatically in the first week due to a simple implementation lesson. I’ve seen people overworked and…
Alexandra Brown
Hospital leaders are feeling increasing pressure to find ways to thrive in our changing healthcare system. A C-suite that is removed from daily hospital operations is a liability in this era of process improvement and hands-on progress.
Here are four characteristics hospital leaders need to move…
Jack Dunigan
When I was last in Africa, I found a book in the library of the home I stayed in about the early days of safari hunting. The industry is tightly regulated these days and was, to a certain degree, even during the early part of the 20th century. The hunters and guides were a hardy and courageous lot…
William A. Levinson
Two recent “Consumer Watchdog” articles in the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Times Leader, as well as reports of General Motors’ ignition switch problem, give the perception that GM’s position on ISO/TS 16949 is “Do as we say, not as we do.” If a major automaker that requires its suppliers to meet…
Thomas R. Cutler
Much has been written about the different styles of management between the genders. Although there are still few women in top leadership, particularly in manufacturing, learning from them, even anecdotally, can provide insight into the current state of leadership and a future where more women are…
Jeffrey Phillips
After posting “Don't rock the boat innovation,” I was asked by a few folks a very interesting question. It was: What does it take to be a good innovator in a corporation?
It’s fairly easy to be an innovator in a small company or as an entrepreneur. In fact, you need to rock the boat in small…
The QA Pharm
At the risk of sounding like a pharmaceutical quality assurance heretic, standard operating procedures (SOPs) often don’t work as intended. In fact, they can do more harm than good by giving a false sense of security: “We must be OK; we have procedures for that.”
Having procedures is certainly…
Bill Kalmar
D uring the last year or so we’ve been subjected to automotive recalls and government mismanagement. There’s a distinct difference in how these incidents are handled. In the corporate world, people who have been responsible for misconduct or malfeasance are, in general, summarily fired. In…
Bill Reilly
I have heard people say that geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) is a black art, and I agree—it can almost seem that way sometimes. My experiences in coordinate metrology throughout the past 20 years demonstrate a widespread lack of understanding, confusion, and even resentment for…
Mary McAtee
In almost everything in quality there are multiple facets of responsibility. The same applies when we talk about cybersecurity and threat assessment.
The last time I spoke about this topic I addressed our responsibility for protecting our own organization’s intellectual property and security.…
