Quality articles from April 2002

Quality archives from April 2002

Whither productivity? (From The Editor).(productivity outlook)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... Experts agree that the wellspring of a healthy economy is productivity growth. It's what fueled the economic boom of the late 1990s. Measured in output per hours worked, U.S. productivity grew at a galloping 2.6% annualized rate from 1995 to...

Wringability and gage blocks: wringability can be used to test the integrity of the surface condition of a gage block. (Training Trends).
April 1, 2002... Wringing gage blocks is the process of assembling gage blocks together end-to-end to achieve a specific measurement. Not everyone uses gage blocks in wrung combinations, but wringability can provide a test of the integrity of the surface...

Coming events. (Industry News).
April 1, 2002... May * International Dimensional Workshop, Knoxville, TN, May 6-9, Oak Ridge Metrology Center, (865) 574-4261. * Automated Manufacturing Exposition & Conference, Greenville, SC, May 7-9. Technical Expositions & Conferences Inc., (800)...

NAM survey predicts increase in spending. (Industry News).(National Association of Manufacturers)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... A survey of members of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) forecasts that after four consecutive quarters of decline in capital spending, gradual recovery will begin the first half of this year and continue into the second half. ...

Juran Institute Inc. (Wilton, CT) and Ideation International (Southfield, MI) have formed an alliance to provide a new service, Innovative Design for Six Sigma. (Business News).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Juran Institute Inc. (Wilton, CT) and Ideation International (Southfield, MI) have formed an alliance to provide a new service, Innovative Design for Six Sigma. The service consists of training, coaching and certifying Six Sigma Black Belts in...

SPX Air Gage. (Business News).(offers Quick Response Repair Service)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... SPX Air Gage (Livonia, MI) has unveiled Quick Response Repair Service. This new way of handling repairs allows the company to separate all aspects of the repair process from normal manufacturing operations and shorten the response time to...

LECO Corp. (St. Joseph, MI) has partnered with eMarket Capital Inc. (King of Prussia, PA) to provide web-based financial solutions. (Business News).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... LECO Corp. (St. Joseph, MI) has partnered with eMarket Capital Inc. (King of Prussia, PA) to provide Web-based financial solutions for customers purchasing LECO's analytical instrumentation and metallographic equipment. For more information,...

CogniTens Ltd. (Business News).(receives 2001 Photonics Circle of Excellence Award)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... CogniTens Ltd. (Ramat Hasharon, Israel) has received the 2001 Photonics Circle of Excellence Award, which honors the 25 most techni-cally innovative products of the year. The award was given in recognition of the company's Optigo 100E 3-D...

Faro Technologies Inc. (Business News).(European patent application is approved)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Faro Technologies Inc. (Lake Mary, FL) has received European Patent Office approval of a European Patent Application that covers portable coordinate measurement machines having seven axes with three degrees of freedom at the probe end. A...

Customer service key to keeping clients. (Industry News).(tips for improvement)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Customer service is key when looking to gain and maintain customers. If a company fails to provide the customer service a client feels he or she deserves, the client will seek business elsewhere. David Dee, customer service expert and...

Society of Manufacturing Engineers. (Association News).(elects executive committee and board of directors)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The Society of Manufacturing Engineers has elected and installed the executive committee and board of directors. The new members began their terms on Jan. 1. Officers on the executive committee are: Marcus B. Crotts, president; David G,...

The Association for Manufacturing Technology. (Association News).(elects officers and directors)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The Association for Manufacturing Technology has elected its 2001-2002 officers and directors. The officers are: John J. Winch, chairman; Lawrence J. Rhoades, first vice chairman; R.J. Weskamp, second vice chairman and treasurer; and Roger H....

American Society for Quality. (Association News).(offering two new Six Sigma e-learning courses)
April 1, 2002... The American Society for Quality (ASQ) is offering two new Six Sigma e-learning courses. Online Six Sigma Black Belt Certification Review and Online Six Sigma Green Belt are available in the ASQ e-learning center at www.asq.org/ ed/e-learn/.

Shingo Prize awarded. (Industry News).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing has announced the recipients of its 14th annual business awards. A record number of plants have earned what is considered by some to be the Nobel prize of manufacturing. "We're very...

Digging for root causes. (Sophronia's Solutions).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Everyone who has faced a production problem with a need to solve the problem by using production data can relate to the notion of a brain teaser. The brain teasers presented here are based on real-world situations that are encountered by...

Two testers in one. (Quality Innovations).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Today, test, measurement and inspection tools operate closer to production, which requires that they be more flexible, more portable and more rugged. Instron Corp.'s newest tool--a handheld mechanical tester that combines the functions of...

A look at environmental testing: putting a product through intense stress can reveal latent defects and extend the useful life of a product. (Measurement, Test And Inspection)(Cover Story).
April 1, 2002... They are called environmental chambers, but torture chambers might be a more accurate name. Here, in these small, rectangular boxes, products are subjected to extreme heat or cold. In other chambers products are violently shaken or battered...

Six Sigma software generates improvements; with a variety of software packages to choose from, companies embarking on the Six Sigma journey should have less trouble reaching their destination. (Software & Analysis).
April 1, 2002... While many companies have just begun exploring the possibilities of Six Sigma, its benefits and its challenges, some companies have been working for years to improve their offerings to help others achieve the Six Sigma goal of 3.4 defects per...

Gaging improves automatic grinder control; automatic gaging lets manufacturers produce short runs quickly and take measurements on the fly. (Controlling The Manufacturing Process).
April 1, 2002... In the world of part production, companies are faced with smaller part runs, tighter tolerances and shorter cycle times. Whether it's for making bearings or ball joints, camshafts or connecting rods, dedicated machines are few and far between....

ISO 9001: 2000 upgrade: the race is on: with the deadline just 20 months away, there is no time to waste for converting current certifications to the ISO 9001: 2000 standard. Here's a guide to clearing some of the hurdles. (Management).
April 1, 2002... December 2003 may seem far in the future. But for companies currently certified to the ISO 9001: 1994 standard, time is running out to upgrade to the new version, ISO 9001: 2000. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the...

Eddy-current testing chops false rejects. (Case Studies).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... At Delphi Automotive's Chassis Div. plant (Sandusky, OH), the inspection of automotive wheel spindle bearings used to be a slow and costly process. "We had people sitting in booths for three shifts around the clock, checking 100% of the parts,"...

Point clouds speed reverse engineering. (Case Studies).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... At Jerry Fain Models (Bedford, TX), the problem was time. The company provides prototyping, modeling and reverse engineering services for a variety of manufacturing markets. Critical to the business is the ability to accurately measure...

SPC produces big savings at Steelcase. (Case Studies).(statistical process control)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... How much paint is enough? At Steelcase Inc. (Grand Rapids, MI), a leading office furniture manufacturer, engineering specifications dictate a minimum millage, or paint thickness, that is needed to meet customer requirements. Steelcase has...

Digital camera for material analysis. (New Products).(advertisement)
April 1, 2002... The AxioCam MRc digital color camera uses a 12-bit digitization process for improved image and color quality for use in materials analysis. A 36-bit color depth allows for a large number of resolvable graduations. A range of variable exposure...

Noncontact thread detection. (New Products).(Kaman Instrumentation's KD-2440 Thread Detection System)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2002... The KD-2440 Thread Detection System detects UNC, UNF, ISO coarse and ISO fine threads via inductive technology that measures without touching the object. The Thread Detection System operates by the insertion of the sensor into a tapped hole....

APQP software. (New Products).(APQP Advantage)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2002... The APQP Advantage is an integrated package of software and services built on Powerway Suite 2000. It streamlines document creation, control consistency and distribution to enable suppliers to meet increasingly rigorous Advanced Product Quality...

Force gage. (New Products).(Wagner Instruments' Force One FDI series gage)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2002... The Force One FDI series gage is designed to attach seven interchangeable force cell modules in capacities from 2 to 200 pounds while maintaining an accuracy of [+ or -] 3%. It features selectable peak sampling rates of 100 per second and 1,000...

Evaluate the value of training: training can improve productivity and profitability. (Quality Online).(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... "In a company valued by its owners for its ability to generate cash, training is often seen as an expensive waste of capital," wrote one respondent to Quality Online's training survey. According to a recent American Management Association...