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.

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.

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.

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.

ROCHESTER, NY - As the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) approaches the three-year anniversary of its launch, imaging technology from Eastman Kodak Company continues to enable the orbiter to explore the red planet as never before.

A look at both of these technologies shows their applications tending to diverge rather than compete as technology develops.

When a manufacturer of gearboxes encountered an unacceptable failure rate, its ball bearing supplier identified that the problem lay in insufficient training, and subsequently developed a training program to rectify the situation.

Using a newly purchased calibration system, a company dropped its average time per calibration from two hours to 30 minutes-a 75% time reduction.

The Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at Brooklyn College is using laser scanning technology to develop a new research area in the study of ancient cylinder seal impressions and clay tablets bearing cuneiform inscriptions, an early form of writing.

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.