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Zetec
Ultrasonic testing has uses in many industries, from aerospace to hydrocarbon exploration. By providing an efficient and accurate method for testing material for flaws, and thus paving a way for smarter, more targeted maintenance plans, ultrasonic testing can save companies time and money.…
Annette Franz
The terms “customer-centric” and “customer-centricity” get thrown around a lot; oftentimes, it’s quite clear that they’re being used out of turn. I believe “customer-centric” is often confused with “customer focus,” but the two are very different.
Let’s look at some definitions.
Customer focus …
Donald J. Wheeler
Inspection sounds simple. Screen out the bad stuff and ship the good stuff. However, measurement error will always create problems of misclassification where good stuff is rejected, and bad stuff gets shipped. While guard-bands and tightened inspection have been offered as a way to remedy the…
Tinglong Dai, Christopher Tang, Ho-Yin Mak
More than 50 million Americans have received at least one dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna Covid-19 vaccine. So far, Americans have been largely brand-agnostic, but that’s about to change as the Johnson & Johnson vaccine rolls out.
The vaccine has been hailed as a game changer. It requires…
Joseph Near, David Darais, Kaitlin Boeckl
Does your organization want to aggregate and analyze data to learn trends, but in a way that protects privacy? Or perhaps you are already using differential privacy tools, but want to expand (or share) your knowledge? In either case, NIST’s blog series on differential privacy is for you.
Why are…
Anne Trafton
Engineers at MIT and Imperial College London have developed a new way to generate tough, functional materials using a mixture of bacteria and yeast similar to the “kombucha mother” used to ferment tea.
Using this mixture, also called a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast), the…
Scott A. Hindle
A quick Google search returns many instances of the saying, “A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.” The doubt implied by this saying extends to manufacturing plants: If you measure a product on two (supposedly identical) devices, and one measurement is in…
Silke von Gemmingen
Spacecraft are developed on Earth, tested, fully assembled, and transported in one piece by a launch vehicle to their respective places of operation. Each component must be designed to withstand the high loads of the launch phase. In most cases, in addition to complex test procedures, this leads to…
Mark Schmit
The Covid-19 pandemic has asked much of manufacturing executives. They’ve had to make decisions about staffing and operations in the face of tremendous health and economic uncertainty—and then adjust or even change decisions based on myriad shifting and evolving factors.
They’ve had to retool to…
Anne Trafton
In the era of social distancing, using robots for some healthcare interactions is a promising way to reduce in-person contact between healthcare workers and sick patients. However, a key question that needs to be answered is how patients will react to a robot entering the exam room.
Researchers…
Johns Hopkins University
Since they came into use in 1938, electron microscopes have played a pivotal role in a host of scientific advances, including the discovery of new proteins and therapeutics as well as contributions made to the electronics revolution. But the field of electron microscopy must incorporate the latest…
Ryan E. Day
In an article published by Quality Digest, Julias DeSilva addresses recent declines in ISO certification and poses the question, “Does quality matter anymore?” His conclusion is that even if you don’t get certified, you will still gain from a well-implemented management system. But what do…
Yves Doz
There is no getting around the hype surrounding agile, the organizational concept originally codified by software developers in 2001. Powered by the demands of a fast-changing consumer landscape in recent years, agile’s reach has stretched beyond software development and now extends to customer…
Quality Digest
Digital transformation is the integration of technology into all areas of a business, which fundamentally changes how organizations operate and deliver value to their customers. But what does success look like in a digital transformation? Project is on time and budget? Stakeholders are engaged…
Theodore Kinni
There is no shortage of advice regarding the art and craft of business strategy. Yet, in 2019, when the consulting firm Strategy& surveyed 6,000 executives, only 37 percent said their companies had well-defined strategies, and only 35 percent believed that their strategies would lead to success…
Clare Naden
It’s been about a year since the Covid-19 pandemic turned our world upside down, and that includes the world in which we work. Certainty has hung up its hat, normality looks unlikely to return, and unpredictability is here to stay for the long term. How can organizations manage in this context, and…
Sébastien Breteau
It’s been about one year since the Covid-19 impact intensified from a seemingly isolated health scare to a worldwide, ubiquitous tragedy that has upended daily life as we know it. Ever since consumers first faced widespread product shortages of essential items during the early days of the pandemic…
Mike Figliuolo
In the first article of this series, we discussed the specific and measurable aspects of SMART goals. Here in part 2, we’re talking about the last three characteristics: achievable, relevant, and time bound.
Achievable
Another characteristic of a good goal is that it is achievable. If a goal is…
Bryan Christiansen
If somebody asked you for a list of your company’s assets, would you be able to provide it? What about the exact location, condition, and utilization of each asset?
Organizations with a large number of physical assets can answer those questions only if they have the right asset inventory…
Nate Burke
During the past year, we have seen more businesses make the digital switch and take services online than ever before. For many, an ecommerce offering was a means for survival during an incredibly volatile and unpredictable time. For others, an online focus has been slowly developing for some time…
Knowledge at Wharton
It’s a commonly held belief, one that gets played out daily in organizations around the world: Employees who receive performance feedback are much more likely to improve their performance than those who don’t get feedback. But research tells us that it’s simply not true.
Typically, performance…
William A. Levinson
Traditional statistical methods for computing the process performance index (Ppk) and control limits for process-control purposes assume that measurements are available for all items or parts. If, however, the critical-to-quality (CTQ) characteristic is something undesirable, such as a trace…
Jim Benson
Respect is an abused word. Weak minds use it as a placeholder for fear. Weak egos will demand it up front. Weak hearts will use it to attach themselves to people of bluster, wishing they could be so outspoken.
We could do with a few more conversations about respect.
We can see here, sadly, that…
Adam Conner-Simons
Laser cutting is an essential part of many industries, from car manufacturing to construction. However, the process isn’t always easy or efficient. Cutting huge sheets of metal requires time and expertise, and even the most careful users can still produce huge amounts of leftover material that go…
Denis Bergeron
From the earliest days of radioactivity research, radiation and cancer therapy have gone together like peas and carrots. But Zach Levine covered peas and carrots in an earlier blog post, so I will focus on radiation and cancer therapy.
Shortly after Wilhelm Röntgen discovered the high-energy…
