Industry expert Robin Swain joins the North American management team of Jenoptik.

More than 1,000 stakeholders say outdated manufacturing standards and technologies constrain domestic production and delay time to market.

Those familiar with the animated comedy The Simpsons may recall that Homer has a once long-lost brother named Herb. While making a valiant effort to pull himself from the gutter, Herb invents a device that will translate a baby’s cries into intelligible language that will tell parents exactly what the baby wants or needs. 

While process improvement initiatives, including SPC and its use of control charts, sometimes get the greatest attention in manufacturing environments, the backbone of a quality improvement effort is often the quiet, unnoticed measurement devices that represent an organization’s commitment to consistency and accuracy.

Barry Schaffer seemed to trash talk Six Sigma in a recent blog. In May, he wrote a post on CMS Wire titled “Six Sigma Letting You Down?