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Web Exclusives
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Beyond Headcount Reduction
Just about every day the business news is filled with stories of companies eliminating staff, cutting hours, reducing overtime, freezing salaries and benefits, and cutting back on services. While these near-term actions may seem appropriate given the economic downturn, they create ramifications over the long-term.
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 | A New Look At Vision Measurement
Multisensor measurement systems are capable of collecting geometric data from 3-D parts using various combinations of measurement technologies. For the most part, such systems are based on vision systems made more versatile by the addition of tactile probes as well as lasers, white light and other devices.
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 | The Perfect Swing
A tutorial tool offers recreational golfers the possibility to analyze and improve their swing using advanced vision technologies.
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Document Collaboration and Control
Companies are awakening to the fact that in order to stave off any issues associated with production processes and procedures, systematic, enterprisewide controls must be put in place. Tightly integrated, comprehensive systems work to control document access and revisions across the enterprise from within a single, centralized department.
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 | Case Studies: A Dynamic Duo
Specialized software enables a PC and motion controller to interface for a pipe-testing application, precluding the need for a programmable logic controller (PLC).
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 | White Light in Focus
Almost all multisensor measurement systems today are equipped with cameras and tactile probes. Beyond these, operators choose from a range of additional sensors. Right now, white light probes are surpassing lasers as the most frequently selected add-on to many multisensor systems.
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 | Case Studies: Trading Up
A manufacturer of gas turbine and aerospace components found that is was time to replace its coordinate measuring machine (CMM) with a larger machine having a higher degree of accuracy and better software.
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 | Off-Topic: Forensics Meets 3-D Laser Scanning
After seeing first-hand how the Leica Geosystems ScanStation 2 can be deployed to quickly measure and model extensive indoor and outdoor mass casualty mock crime scenes, the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Forensic Services (BFS) purchased two of the high-speed, high-definition 3-D laser scanning systems.
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 | The Father of the Articulating Arm
The Romer articulating arm was introduced more than 35 years ago. In the mid-1970s, a California technology company called Eaton Leonard Corp. designed an arm-shaped instrument for tube inspection that could capture the shape of a 3-D object such as an exhaust pipe.
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Driving Automobile Innovation
Piezoelectric ceramic components made of lead zirconate titanates (PZT) have enabled many recent technological innovations in the automobile industry. PZT components can be found throughout many state-of-the-art vehicles, enhancing safety, performance, energy-efficiency and comfort.
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Standardized Safety
The list of national and international standards seems never ending and ever changing. As a result, standards and regulations continue to create significant challenges for Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) members in identifying, understanding and applying the requirements of the many standards.
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 | Case Studies: Astounding Time Savings
Toshiba GE Turbine Components has reduced the time required to inspect and measure steam turbine blades from 280 minutes to 45 minutes through use of the Maxos noncontact measurement system from NVision Inc.
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 | Off-Topic: GigE Vision Goes Underwater
One of the main roles of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) is to ensure sustainability and a harvestable surplus of fish and wildlife resources for the 49th state. The ADF&G began experimenting with underwater video technology for scallop stock assessment in 1999.
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 | Precise Laser Beam Analysis
High-resolution wavefront sensors help improve the alignment of the optical systems involving lasers; control and predict the shape of laser beams; measure collimation of the beam and detect the tiniest aberrations caused by optical elements in the optical setup, thus protecting sensitive components of laser chains.
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Off-Topic: A Structurally Safe Summer Olympics
Software commonly used for data acquisition, instrument control and industrial automation was an element in structural health monitoring systems used to measure stability, reliability and livability of venues built for the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing, China.
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 | The Dual-Sensor Approach
A new approach has been developed that is conceptually very simple: to combine the strengths of two different measuring principles without allowing the restrictions to accumulate. Solutions applying this concept are being called “dual sensors,” because two existing sensors—each using different measurement principles—are combined and the signal outputs evaluated together.
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 | Case Studies: A 23-Year CAM Partnership
Wanders Metaalproducten B.V. has manufactured fireplaces, stoves and storage units for 40 years. After purchasing a computer numerical control (CNC) punch in 1986, which was programmed manually, they purchased a CNC laser two years later and decided to purchase a single computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) system to drive the two.
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 | Off-Topic: CT Goes Jurassic
North Star’s X-View ISG Inspection Services Group was contacted with an exciting and unusual request. The Science Museum of Minnesota wanted X-ray images of a fossilized Jurassic-period crocodile skull that had been discovered on a ranch in Wyoming.
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 | The Entitlement Trap
Many organizations use the concept of entitlement to guide them when setting project goals. Entitlement may be preventing those organizations from achieving breakthrough results, in turn missing potential savings from improvement projects.
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 | Off-Topic: Digital Sensors Uncover Earthquake Victims
The May 12, 2008, earthquake in Sichuan, China, left nearly 70,000 dead, more than 18,000 missing and more than 374,000 injured. Digital airborne sensors were used in the rescue effort, sending image data to relief workers, who used it to locate people in need of aid.
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Quality Manufacturing in India: A Quiet Revolution
As globalization has swept the world in the past decade, the conventional wisdom says that China is becoming the world’s factory while India is where you go for services. India has historically been associated with shoddy products, unreliable delivery and uncertain pricing. But some things have changed—and changed drastically.
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Case Studies: Modeling an Optimized Enterprise
To drive its optimization efforts, Seagate, manufacturer of storage solutions, adopted enterprise-modeling software that supports model-driven Six Sigma and Lean by combining business process modeling and statistical analysis to help improve business processes.
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 | Case Studies: DOE Eliminates Defects
Tier 1 automotive supplier Johnson Controls Inc. produced 6 defects out of 10,000 units fabricated each week, resulting in a Sigma level of 5.1. The company wanted to achieve higher quality levels and contacted Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), requesting a design of experiments (DOE) study to determine root causes of torque failures and areas of improvement.
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 | Off-Topic: NDT Technology Unlocks the Secrets of Prehistoric Life
For many, nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques have always been associated with applications involving safety inspection for quality driven industries such as aerospace, automotive, energy and oil, electronics, and manufacturing. Now, thanks to the Leonardo Dinosaur Project, that scope has been expanded into a new scientific era of digital NDT research.
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Dispelling the Myths of ISO 9001
ISO 9001 is very simply a total quality/business management system based on the very simple continual improvement methodologies of plan, do, check and act. Most companies producing quality products or providing a quality service and continually improving on these processes to satisfy their customers are already in compliance with the requirements of ISO 9001.
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 | Applying Eddy Current
Monitoring interactions in a running engine presents a genuine challenge; enormous pressures and temperatures are present, along with multiple moving parts—making the integration of sensors almost impossible.
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 | Case Studies: Materials Testing 101
When engineer and scientist Mike LaCourt, an instructor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan Technological University, needed materials testing machines that were easy to use and allowed new students to work independently, he turned to Tinius Olsen.
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 | Off Topic: Analyzing a Martian Mineral
Inspired by data sent from NASA robots on Mars, Dr. Ronald Peterson, professor of geology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, has observed a new mineral species on Earth, and predicts that it also exists on Mars. Integral to Peterson’s work was an X-ray diffractometer, which provided the necessary speed and flexibility for such sensitive analysis.
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 | Little Lessons From the Big Boys
Once a product leaves the assembly line, even the tiniest quality problem can quickly escalate into a big headache for manufacturing engineers. The key is to address quality issues on the plant floor and to build quality into every product. Unfortunately, that’s often easier said than done, even at world-class manufacturers.
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China: Overcoming the Quality Challenge
It is one of today’s biggest issues: Quality in Chinese manufacturing. Tainted toothpaste, lead in toys and poisoned pet food have brought the issue front and center, and it is creating a downward spiral of panic and over-reaction.
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 | Off Topic: 45-Year-Old Sensor Used in Apollo Missions
As part of its 60th anniversary celebration in 2007, Endevco, a provider of sensing solutions for vibration, shock and pressure applications, created several contests to mark the important milestone. One such competition called on customers to find and submit the “World’s Oldest Functioning Endevco Sensor.”
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 | Case Studies: Defect Management, and So Much More
A manufacturer of products for the professional audio market implemented data aggregating software, transforming itself from a batch and queue system of assembly to a continuous flow process with a constant examination of quality and a focus on improving it.
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 | Case Studies: Die Casting Cuts Costs
A provider of test and measurement devices for telecommunications, optical and wireless systems has replaced traditionally machined RF shields with precision die cast parts in its handheld cable and antenna analyzers, reducing the unit cost of about a dozen different shields.
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Poka-Yoke for Quality
Shigeo Shingo introduced the concept of poka-yoke (pronounced POH-kah YOH-kay) in 1961, when he was an industrial engineer at Toyota Motor Corp. The initial term was baka-yoke, which means fool proofing.
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 | Case Studies: Reducing RFID Label Design Time
Kamen, Germany-based Sentronik GmbH has reduced the time required to develop radio frequency identification (RFID) labels from 7 to 10 days to 2 to 3 days by simulating the labels with Flomerics’ MicroStripes electromagnetic simulation software.
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 | Case Studies: Data Loggers Help Compress Energy Costs
Concerned about its own facility’s excessive energy usage, a New York-based metal products manufacturer paired up with Power Concepts LLC, a Manhattan-based consulting engineering firm, to conduct an energy feasibility study at the company’s production facility.
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 | Off Topic: The Test of Time
It is rare today to find a product that can truly withstand the test of time. Yet in one Florida testing lab, Tinius Olsen has been a constant presence for nearly 54 years.
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Monitoring Temperature and Humidity
Monitoring temperature and/or humidity conditions is an essential ingredient of a wide range of quality assurance applications. There are many common methodological errors, however, in ways that this task is approached that either compromise quality standards or add unnecessary time and expense to the monitoring task.
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Six Sigma for Leaders
It’s been more than 10 years since GE’s aggressive adoption of Six Sigma launched a renaissance of quality methods, and some 20 years since Motorola first began minting Black Belts and concentrating on defects. And yet, despite hundreds of documented successes and thousands of committed Six Sigma practitioners, criticism of and skepticism about Six Sigma remains as strong, and probably stronger, than ever.
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 | Off Topic: Scoping a Civil War Artifact
When Jay and Carol Jones of Granville, MA-based Noble & Cooley Drum Co. learned that one of the firm’s Civil War-era military drums had surfaced, they wanted a closer look. So they called Instrument Technology Inc. (ITI) of Westfield, MA.
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 | Case Studies: CMMs Mow Down Quality Bottleneck
Richardson Manufacturing (Springfield, IL) is in the heart of earth-moving country, and their primary customers are the makers of enormous machines that push, haul and scrape dirt. During their 50-year history, Richardson has become a fully integrated engineering and production metalworking company. They accept CAD drawings from customers, then manage the parts from prototyping through production, and along the way make whatever fixtures are required to build them.
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 | Freightliner Customizes Quality
Freightliner Customizes Quality The Quality Magazine 2007 Plant of the Year, Freightliner’s Mt. Holly, NC, Truck Manufacturing Plant, is loud—bring earplugs—and busy, producing about 80 trucks per day, with plans to produce twice that in the coming years. The plant is constantly in motion, with 1,200 employees weaving throughout the shop floor, along with robots, automated carts and, of course, various parts on their way to becoming a truck.
View a slideshow of Freightliner’s Mt. Holly, NC, Truck Manufacturing Plant
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 | Alloy Identification
Positive Material Identification (PMI) refers to the identification and analysis of various metal alloys based on their chemical composition in nondestructive testing (NDT). Because specifications for materials used in industry are increasingly more specific, the need for PMI testing has been steadily increasing for the past several years.
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AMTMA Enjoys Positive Meeting
Nearly half of the current membership of the American Measuring Tool Manufacturers Association (AMTMA) gathered for a three-day meeting March 14 to 16. The annual meeting had several firsts—its first end user as a member, its first meeting under the leadership of the members themselves and its first in-depth look at the market in which their measurement tools are used.
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WESTEC Draws Positive Crowd
While L.A. Lakers’ star Kobe Bryant was putting together a consecutive series of 50-point games and attracting thousands to the Staples Center to watch him simply shoot warm-up baskets, thousands more were checking out the latest in measurement and manufacturing equipment next door at the L.A. Convention Center.
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Colin Powell Discusses Leadership
The 8th Annual Six Sigma Summit, held in Miami January 22 to 25, offered attendees workshops, a variety of tracks and networking opportunities, and the chance to meet a former Secretary of State.
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ISO 9000 Conference Celebrates 15 Years
Customer satisfaction and financial performance are undoubtedly key areas to focus on for a successful business, but attaining these goals is sometimes difficult. The 2007 International Conference on ISO 9000 addressed these issues and offered a current and comprehensive technical program, as well as networking opportunities for attendees. The conference and workshops, February 25 to 28, were held at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, Orlando, FL.
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