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Jim Frost
If you combine tough economic times with a presidential election year, you get a heightened interest in how the economy is changing. Is it growing faster or slowing down? Unsurprisingly, there are many contradictory predictions about what will happen over the longer term. You’ll find countless TV…
Jim Frost
This is part two in a three-part series where we assess what information we can obtain from the various estimates of quarterly GDP growth using statistical analysis and a control chart. Read part one here, and part three here.
An I-MR chart comprises two plots, the individuals (I) chart on the top…
Dale Hallerberg
There are substantial changes in the third edition of IEC 60601-1, and understanding all aspects of them is the key to turning the standard into a benefit for medical-device manufacturers.
This article explains the philosophy behind the major changes in the standard, how these changes will affect…
Stewart Anderson
What is the economic rationale for pursuing lean production? Much of the lean literature is concerned with the nuts and bolts of lean, and the economics of lean are somewhat less publicized. This article attempts to redress that imbalance, albeit in a very condensed way.
Firms employ capital and…
Patrick Runkel
Meet Betty and Bart Bickerson, husband-and-wife quality analysts who work at different companies. Betty and Bart argue about everything. They argue whether grey is a color. They argue whether tomato is a fruit. They argue whether the chicken came before the egg, and whether the egg tastes better…
Tom Pyzdek
One of the cornerstones of quality and lean Six Sigma is data: “We insist on it.” “Don’t tell us what you think the situation is; let the data do the talking.” “In God we trust—all others bring data.” You get the idea.
An unfortunate side effect of this emphasis is the proliferation of useless…
Carly Barry
I found that training to run a marathon is a lot like completing a quality improvement project. I ran my first full marathon in November 2011, and as I was completing my training, I came across this quote about quality improvement from V. Daniel Hunt, quality management improvement author and CEO…
NIST
An advance in sensor design by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Waterloo’s Institute of Quantum Computing (IQC) could unshackle a powerful, yet high-maintenance technique for exploring materials. The achievement could expand the…
Donald J. Wheeler
I
n my February 1996 Quality Digest column I discussed an article out of USA Today. Since that article provides a great example of how we need to filter out the noise whenever we attempt to interpret data, I have updated it for my column today. “Teen Use Turns Upward” read the headline for a graph…
MIT News
The information age is also the age of information overload. Companies, governments, researchers, and private citizens are accumulating digital data at an unprecedented rate, and amid all those quintillions of bytes could be the answers to questions of vital human interest: What environmental…
James Brewton
Lean Six Sigma has proven itself as an effective strategy for business success in both private and public sectors. The methodology has helped enterprise leaders recognize business processes as engines that drive performance excellence and help to deliver value. Lean Six Sigma offers a…
Ed Perkins
Much has been written and discussed about “risk” being the future of “quality.” But what does this really mean, and how does it work?
Definitions of quality
Let’s us look at common working definitions of quality: zero defects, customer satisfaction, control of process variance, reliability,…
Denise Robitaille
The ISO 9001 requirements pertaining to preventive action would get a lot more attention if people grasped the very simple fact that this is all about managing risk—which is really about managing the consequences of change. Whenever we change something, even for the better, there are…
Eston Martz
It’s all too easy to make mistakes involving statistics. Statistical software can remove a lot of the difficulty surrounding statistical calculation, reducing the risk of mathematical errors, but correctly interpreting the results of an analysis can be even more challenging.
A few years ago,…
NIST
On Nov. 18, 2011, President Obama signed into law the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-55), which provides fiscal year (FY) 2012 funding for a number of government agencies, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
The act…
Jim Colton
Story update 12/13/2011: Additional information was added to the first paragraph pointing out the connection between FDA requirements and statistical tools.
According to a September 2010 interview of Rick Friedman, director of the manufacturing and product quality division at the Food and Drug…
Armed with a degree in organizational psychology, I started my career in operational improvement during the early 1970s with a nationally recognized Hartford, Connecticut-based insurance company. As part of the company's productivity services team, my job was to conduct stopwatch time studies…
ASQ
(ASQ: Milwaukee, WI) -- The results of ASQ’s 25th annual Salary Survey show strong average salaries for quality professionals in 2011 and fewer lay-offs as companies continue to see the value of quality and its positive impact on an organization.
The survey results also show that experience…
Donald J. Wheeler
Many times measurements are made using measurement increments which are too large for the job. Fortunately this problem is easily detected by ordinary, production-line process behavior charts. No special studies are necessary; no standard parts or batches are needed. You simply need to…
ISO
The latest edition of “The ISO Survey of Certifications—2010,” from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) underlines the global market relevance of ISO’s management system standards for quality, environment, medical devices, food safety, and information security. The survey…
The Property and Emergency Communications Divisions of the Houston Police Department (HPD) achieved certification to ISO 9001 in September 2011. The HPD pursued certification to this international standard from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in part because it establishes…
TÜV Rheinland of North America
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) introduced the ENERGY STAR program in 1992 to encourage the production and use of energy-efficient devices in more than 60 different product categories. Program results have been dramatic—a desktop computer that once consumed 30 watts in sleep mode…
ISO
Evidence that publication of ISO 50001 was eagerly awaited is borne out by the number of organizations worldwide claiming to be the first in their country or sector to have adopted the new ISO international standard on energy management. What’s more, several are already reporting significant…
ISO
A selection of center-page spreads from ISO Focus+, the magazine of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), filled with colorful graphic art conveying the benefits of international standards, provides the theme for the ISO 2012 calendar. Topics covered include motor vehicle…
FARO
In production plants across the globe, lean manufacturing techniques are being used to meet increasing demands placed on manufacturers. Originally developed as a methodology to make production processes highly efficient, lean techniques have been adopted by more than 72 percent of machine shops…