The Software Selection Guide highlights products from various companies that distribute to test, inspection and measurement markets. Products ranging from CMM programming and simulation to ISO software are highlighted.
The comprehensive listing of service companies includes those that specialize in calibration services and management services, as well as measurement, test and inspection services.
In my June column, I related that Praveen Gupta’s new book, Business Innovation in the 21st Century, contends that innovation is a process that can be understood and, hence, taught and refined to improve the results of innovation. This is an important concept, because if true, it means that the United States has a means by which it can maintain its innovative and competitive edge in the global market. However, like most ideas, it is critical to see “learned innovation” in practice to determine whether it can be accomplished.
Who hasn’t wondered if he is earning a fair wage? Or, if the newly hired, recent college graduate is making as much as-or more than-he is? Short of outright asking your colleagues the size of their paychecks, there are few places to find the earning potential of the quality professional.
When I was a young manufacturing manager I was used to showing up to work in the morning and asking the third-shift lead, “How many cases did you run last night?” I started asking different questions after going through Deming and TQM training. I learned to ask, “How did things run on third shift? What problems did you deal with? Did the changes we made yesterday help?” Deming was right. When we started focusing on the process, the product-the number of quality cases produced-started to really improve for the first time.
Nothing provokes heated discussion like uncertainty. We see it in the global warming-now relabeled as climate change-debate and scores of other issues. We demand precise yet simple answers to complex matters, as politicians know only too well. And if we can find someone else to blame, that’s even better.
In dimensional measurement, we use numbers rather than fear to make a point. But sometimes the irrational does creep in. For example: “I paid a gazillion dollars for that thing and you’re telling me it’s not accurate enough to measure these parts,” or “we can put a man on the moon but we can’t measure this better than ...”
What geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) is depends on one’s discipline. To the designer it is a way to describe the design intent of individual parts. To someone in production it is the language of modern print reading. To someone working in metrology it is a guide to the inspection of parts. To management it is a concurrent engineering tool that provides clear communication across the enterprise.
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