Tue, 03/17/2020 - 12:03
The Chinese character for “crisis” means danger and opportunity. The coronavirus, aka Covid-19, outbreak has already wreaked havoc in the global economy, curtailed international and even domestic travel, and caused roughly 7,146 fatalities to date…
Wed, 02/26/2020 - 12:03
Almost half of Americans work in low-wage jobs despite the nation’s low unemployment rate. Aimee Picchi, writing for CBS News, cites a Brookings study that says “44 percent of U.S. workers are employed in low-wage jobs that pay median annual wages…
Wed, 01/15/2020 - 12:03
The Automotive Industry Action Group’s (AIAG’s) and German Association of the Automotive Industry’s (VDA’s) new Failure Mode and Effects Analysis Handbook (AIAG, 2019) offers significant advances over FMEA as practiced 15 or 20 years ago.1 The…
Mon, 11/25/2019 - 12:03
How will the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement affect greenhouse gas emissions? Quality Digest editor in chief Dirk Dusharme and Mike Richman, principal at Richman Business Media Consulting, point out that most manufacturers already…
Mon, 08/12/2019 - 12:03
The martial arts rank, Shodan, for a first-degree black belt, does not mean “expert”; it means “first step.” ISO 9001:2015 is similarly a valuable and vital first step toward world-class performance, but it is only that—a first step. It covers only…
Wed, 05/22/2019 - 12:03
Anthony Chirico1 describes how narrow-limit gauging (NLG, aka compressed limit plans) can reduce enormously the required sample size, and therefore the inspection cost, of a traditional attribute sampling plan. The procedure consists of moving…
Tue, 02/26/2019 - 12:03
The Pareto principle calls for focus on the vital few rather than the trivial many. While none of ISO 9001’s clauses are trivial—a nonconformance for any of them requires corrective action—ISO 9001 users can avoid most nonconformances by focusing on…
Mon, 12/17/2018 - 12:03
The U.S. government’s Fourth National Climate Assessment warns that climate change “creates new risks and exacerbates existing vulnerabilities in communities across the United States, presenting growing challenges to human health and safety, quality…
Thu, 11/08/2018 - 12:02
Chad Kymal1 gave an excellent overview of the ISO 45001 occupational health and safety (OHS) standard that was released in March 2018. I purchased a copy of the standard, and it provides an excellent framework, modeled on Annex SL, which defines the…
Mon, 08/13/2018 - 12:03
ISO 9004:2018—“Quality of an organization—Guidance to achieve sustained success” expands considerably on the former (2009) revision. It introduces the important concept of “quality of an organization” (Clause 4.1), which makes excellent sense. If…