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.

A two-person bobsled team enlists an all-star roster of manufacturers to reverse engineer handmade blades, creating exact replicas made from a standardized material.

A manufacturer and supplier of load cells and torque and pressure sensors solved fluctuations in clamping pressure during manufacture in part through the use of a pressure-recording film.

By switching computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software, a manufacturer of assembled sheet metal products was able to get more out of its punch press.

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.

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.

Trek Bicycle Corp. needed a way to quickly and reliably monitor weights in the OCLV carbon molding area. There was no effective system in place to monitor weights, and Trek was looking to automate this function.

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.

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.

A 23-year-old mainframe-based management system is replaced with an integrated manufacturing, inventory tracking and financial consolidation system.