Articles by Michelle Bangert

If ever there was a time for risk-based thinking, it would be now. During this strange season, the entire world seems to be shutting down as the pandemic disrupts lives and businesses.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, manufacturers continue to face new challenges. It’s the topic on everyone’s mind. How will COVID-19 affect us?

Is your manufacturing operation continuing during this outbreak? If so, you are not alone. Eighty-eight percent of our manufacturing survey respondents work at an essential business.

Robots in manufacturing is not a new idea. But today an increasing number of collaborative robots are joining the ranks, working alongside their human coworkers.

Artificial intelligence is here, and it is can improve quality in a number of ways. It can prevent bad parts from being made, discover trends, and monitor machine performance.

The aerospace industry wouldn’t function without first article inspection.

The problem would go away only to return every few months. The manufacturing mystery continued for about seven months, with each failure costing $26 in raw material alone.

Additive manufacturing continues to grow. The number of applications are on the rise, along with additive research. At this time last year, Paul Brackman was the only person working in the Zeiss Knoxville lab—today, he’s one of four full-time Zeiss staff at the lab, along with a team working in additive software applications at the Minneapolis headquarters, and a dedicated hardware team in Germany working on additive.

The importance of auditing should not be overlooked. As longtime Quality columnist Jim Smith writes, “It’s rare that managers, or even most quality auditors, discuss how closely tied the findings of manufacturing audits are to the long-term ability of their companies to compete in this highly competitive market.”