All Features
Dan Nelson
The game of billiards offers a useful analogy to explain risk-based thinking and “risk to quality” (i.e., the risk to achieving quality objectives). Like any game, billiards involves navigating risk. Survival in an open global marketplace, like billiards, is also a game of risk.
The association…
Michelle LaBrosse
In their 2009 study, “Managing Cross-Cultural Differences,” Frank Anbari and his collaborators looked at different project management (PM) practices across the globe and noted that project managers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia ranked as the most “individualistic” in…
Steve Moore
A rough draft of this column had been sitting in the “drafts” folder on my computer for several weeks. Rip Stauffer’s recent commentary, “Is Six Sigma Dead?” prompted me to dust it off and finish it.
In my not-so-humble opinion, Six Sigma is not dead but “management commitment” sure is—or maybe…
Clara Asmail
Additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D printing, provides cost-effective solutions to vexing industrial problems. The series of tests and evaluations against requirements can often be thought of as experiments. Those experiments could be considered R&D from the point of view of tax law. Wait. What…
Jennifer Hart Yim
With supply-chain industry leaders lamenting a growing talent gap, tapping the millennial generation may be key to filling that gap. But how, exactly? A closer look at the generational characteristics emerging from the influence of digital technology and pervasive interconnectedness allows us to…
Davis Balestracci
I have evolved to using fewer, simpler tools in my consulting and have never been more effective, as I commented upon in my last column. It made me ponder the relevance of much of what I learned in my master’s statistics program. Thinking of the most basic concepts, I decided to look up what the…
Mike Richman
The life of a man, especially a man like Quality Digest founder Don Dewar, is punctuated by a series of events that shape not only him, but those he touches as he moves through his life.
From his birth in Canada in 1928, to his emigration to the United States in his early twenties, through his…
Brenda Percy
When it comes to choosing quality management system (QMS) software for your organization, there is much to consider. Every QMS has nuances that may cause you to wonder what software will provide the most value and prove to be truly effective. Keep in mind there are basic quality management…
Nikon Metrology Inc.
Kiekert AG, the global leader for automobile door lock systems, now uses digital cross scanners by Nikon Metrology to test the positions and dimensions of sealing lips on door and rear compartment locks. Tactile inspection methods are unable to correctly measure these touch-sensitive and complex…
Masashi Sato
In the manufacturing industry, it is ideal to ensure high manufacturing accuracy without the need for inspection. In fact, however, the inspection and the measurement processes are performed for various reasons, such as to secure the product traceability, to visualize the quality of production,…
GE has introduced a metrology package for highly efficient, extremely precise 3D metrology performed with computed tomography (CT). The company states the enormous efficiency benefits, the use of industrial CT for nondestructive failure and structure analysis, and 3D metrology (especially for…
Annette Franz
I kicked off 2015 in a big way. Isn’t that what a new year is all about? Every year is a new year to get it right—on a personal or professional level and on an organizational improvement level, i.e., employee and customer experience.
For me it was about elevating my customer-experience thinking…
The purpose of this article is to point out a problem when using percentages for subgroups over time, or for members in a larger group, where the size of the denominator varies and probabilities are being estimated. Also to introduce a solution: adjusted p-chart scores (APC), a new way to score or…
Russell Harley
Is there truly a leadership crisis? The short answer is it’s fiction, even though a number of articles differ from this point of view—including these at Forbes and the World Economic Forum. If you want to know why this crisis should be considered fictional in my opinion, read on.
One reason for…
Minett Media
Will Bacon, advanced delivery program manager at Trelleborg Sealing Solutions, answers questions on how specialized delivery services can enhance customers’ businesses by better managing inventoried items.
What is ABC inventory management? ABC analysis, or selective inventory control, is a…
Gallup
C suites and strategy teams around the world spend a great deal of time on their companies’ mission statements. A mission is one of the key elements of employee engagement, and having a sense of purpose is crucial to individual well-being. Unfortunately, many companies, especially those in…
Mary McAtee
One of the positive peripheral results from the flurry of reactions to the movie The Interview, was a media focus on cyber-terrorism. The recognition of cyber-attacks has been slow to evolve but is gaining traction.
In the United States’ last major threat-assessment document, prepared during the…
Owen Faris, Jeffrey Shuren
At the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), clinical trials are the foundation for our decisions to approve the most important medical devices—products that have the potential to save or sustain life, but also present the greatest risk to patients.
During the past year, we saw…
Ron Rode
The upcoming 2015 Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference (CMSC) will be held “beachside” this year in Hollywood, Florida, from July 20–24. Not only will you be able to swim in the beautiful Atlantic Ocean just steps away from the hotel, you will also be able to “swim” your way through the vast,…
Bruce Hamilton
For a few years—back in the early ‘80s—I fell prey to information automation fascination. I managed an IT department transitioning from a basic accounting system managed by an external service bureau to a batch inventory-control system to an order-processing and manufacturing-control system running…
Denise Robitaille
ISO 9001 continues to wend its way through the revision process, and as it does so there have been lots of discussions and prognostications over the impending changes. All the wringing of hands and ongoing debate will not hurry the process or change the outcome.
The standard is still on track to…
Chip Bell
Disclaimer: I love John Coltrane, Billie Holliday, and Count Basie. Great jazz, to me, ranks right up there with Einstein’s theory of relativity and Newton’s laws of motion in terms of insightful genius. Smooth jazz with a glass of wine and a roaring fire can be the catalyst for a special evening…
Alan Nicol
What relationship do the various functions and personnel in your organization have with your quality group? Is it collaborative, adversarial, or one of total domination? It can be a slippery slope that runs from successful to disastrous. Is your organization climbing or slipping?
Each time we make…
Ultrasonic thickness gauging is a widely used nondestructive test technique for measuring the thickness of a material from one side. It's fast, reliable, and versatile, and unlike a micrometer or a caliper it requires access to only one side of the test piece. The first commercial ultrasonic gauges…
Michael Causey
Scholars still debate how long it took to build the Great Wall of China, but it’s generally agreed it was built in stages between the 5th century B.C. and the 16th century A.D. The Great Pyramid of Giza took about 20 years to construct, according to ancient historians, but it must be remembered…
