For those of you who were lucky enough to be in Florida this January, you may already be aware of this. For those of you who are not AIA members, or who spent the majority of winter under a foot of snow, I have some news to share.
There is an old Chinese proverb, “there is no wave without wind,” which today can be interpreted as: There is no Chinese economic boom without a complex, expanding global marketplace.
Since the 1950s expectations for quality have been increasing because of domestic and global competition. In the 1980s Motorola envisioned quality requirements for the year 2000 and realized virtual perfection would be the norm. Competitive benchmarking and requirements for virtual perfection led to development of the new methodology called Six Sigma.
Hexagon Metrology (North Kingstown, RI) addresses the need for eliminating operator subjective issues in their new release of the Brown & Sharpe Optiv line of multisensor measurement systems.
No matter the size of the company, quality is critical. The companies listed in the Quality Leadership 100 run the gamut from small manufacturers-such as the number 1 company Advanced Instrument Development Inc. with 27 employees to the more than 7,000 employees at Toyota Motor Manufacturing, the company taking second-place honors this year.
Best-in-class manufacturing companies faced with quality and compliance regulations have turned those mandates into a competitive advantage-and technology plays a key role.
Hardness testing is an important part of quality and many factors need to be considered for this type of test, as seemingly small factors-thickness, size, location-can have a big impact.
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