Quality Magazine

Check out the March 2020 edition of Quality: 2020 Quality Plant of the Year, 3D printing, medical device manufacturing, demystifying the digital in quality management, and much more!

2020 Quality Plant of the Year: Woodward's Rock Cut Campus

Rock Solid Quality: Quality is only second to safety

Michelle Bangert

March 2, 2020

No Comments

When your production is set to in-crease tenfold, it’s time to expand.

Production Leak Testing: Where to Start?

In leak testing, there is no one method that works best for every situation.

Gene Grilli

March 15, 2020

5 Comments

Production leak testing can mean a lot of different things, and if you are not familiar with this branch of nondestructive testing, the choices of methodologies and techniques can seem a bit daunting.

Digitally Transform Your Quality Compliance

Keep up to date with changing requirements while keeping the business operating profitably and in compliance.

John Dancoe

March 15, 2020

8 Comments

Have you ever noticed how many manufacturing companies include the word “quality” in their taglines?

Demystifying the Digital in Quality Management

Initial efforts at digital transformation uncover just how dependent many manufacturers are on manual updates to reports, spreadsheets, and schedules.

Louis Columbus

March 15, 2020

5 Comments

Increasingly, manufacturers are looking at the potential of digital transformation to improve their competitiveness. The benefits in quality management are particularly compelling—offering the ability to optimize product quality and customers’ experiences by streamlining audits and reporting, improving batch and process manufacturing workflows, and synchronizing production centers to improve perfect order performance.

Adopting a Data-Centered Approach to Compliance via Software Platforms

The future of quality lies in data intelligence, and reliable software platforms can help companies be ready.

Bryant Headley

March 10, 2020

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A fundamental shift is taking place in the way companies are approaching regulatory compliance. A lack of structured data is proving to be a substantial liability—as ill-prepared companies are learning the hard way—which is leading more organizations to move away from conventional document-centric methodologies and toward a data-centered model of compliance.

What Is a Digital Microscope?

A digital microscope can perform the same tasks as an optical microscope, but it comes with extra benefits.

Robert Bellinger

March 10, 2020

One Comment

If you’ve ever worked in a lab, you know an optical microscope uses an eyepiece and objective to magnify a small object. But as technology continues to advance, digital microscopes are becoming more popular.

Manufacturing Medical

Medical devices warrant high levels of traceability in order to obtain, track and analyze data.

Genevieve Diesing

March 2, 2020

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Medical devices can present unique challenges for manufacturers. Consequences for malfunctioning equipment can be dire. Because of this, medical device manufacturers must work hard to ensure that their products never fail.

Materials Testing Systems in Regulated Environments: What You Need to Know

In the current environment, non-compliance is not an option.

Jim Ritchey

March 8, 2020

2 Comments

Anyone involved in medical device manufacturing knows that their industry is highly regulated. Almost every medical device manufacturer or pharmaceutical supplier uses materials testing systems in their quality control and research laboratories or outsources their testing to approved third-party laboratories.

How 3D Printing is Changing the Medical Device Field

Being able to manufacture these devices to conform to a patient’s anatomy is a game changer.

Rahul Alreja

March 2, 2020

2 Comments

Medical device implants have become increasingly more complex over time as technology has progressed into providing a new way of construction by the means of 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing.

Modular Fixturing for Clay Model Making Today

Emerging autonomous vehicle companies have joined forces with automakers worldwide in designing new vehicles utilizing modular fixturing.

Linda Marino

March 2, 2020

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Have you had a chance to see the film “Tomorrowland”? It’s a fun glimpse into the future and in many ways we are already there. The story includes a bunch of kids ready to see things very differently when they travel into the future and guess what, modular fixturing appears in the last few minutes of the film featuring a current automotive design studio.

What it Feels Like to Practice Six Sigma

I captured the flag!

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Ian R Lazarus

March 15, 2020

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It was summer camp and I was 12 years old. The game was called “Capture the Flag.” The goal is for one of two teams to capture the enemy’s flag, and return it to their base. Our battlefield was spread over a huge forest with rolling hills.

Simple vs. Complex

Darryl Seland

March 15, 2020

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By definition, the words simple and complex are antonyms. Complex is complicated, simple is not complicated—literally exact opposites. And as the old saying goes, opposites attract, and the list of subject matter in which simple and complex are joined at the hip is quite substantial.

A Paradigm Shift in Internal Audits

How the power of teamwork strengthens the internal audit process.

Marie Lawton

March 15, 2020

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To drive change in any business process you must first assess your existing program. Is it inclusive? Is the program delivering results? How can it be improved and how can success be measured?

Quality Audits: You're Kidding Me!

The auditor determined that it was not precise enough.

Hill Cox

March 15, 2020

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Our industry is fraught with tales of quality audits from hell and other less than desirable places, usually the result of standards written by folks who know a little but expand it to encompass a lot.

Common Sense Management Can Reduce Employee Turnover

Why employees leave.

Jim L. Smith

March 15, 2020

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According to some studies, employee turnover can cost an organization about 33% of an employee’s total compensation, including wages and benefits. It also affects employee morale.

Deep Learning Expands into Assembly, Packaging, Kitting Inspection

Unlike traditional machine vision solutions, deep learning machine vision tools are not programmed explicitly.

John Petry

March 3, 2020

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Machine vision quality assurance systems have excelled at automating the location, identification, and inspection of manufactured components through computational image analysis.

Time-of-Flight Forges Ahead

Time-of-flight technology presents a new set of opportunities for those developing 3D imaging systems.

Jenson Chang

March 3, 2020

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Three-dimensional (3D) imaging applications are used in many different industries ranging from both industrial pick and place, palletization/depalletization, warehouse, robotics and metrology applications to consumer-based products such as drones, safety and security, and patient monitoring applications.

Deciphering Lens Specifications and Choosing the Proper Lens

In the past, cameras were once the limiting component for performance in and imaging system. Today, lenses have become the critical component in many applications.

Lisa Tsang

March 2, 2020

No Comments

Imaging and machine vision are becoming more integrated into our daily lives. From autonomous vehicles to advanced medical diagnostics, camera and lens systems are now commonplace.

Developing a finished product where there are so many moving parts outside your control is not only challenging but risky too. Join us to learn some of the ways leading companies are tackling this problem firsthand and how your organization can protect your products and consumers as well.

In this webinar, you’ll learn how innovative systems use measurement and instrument functionality data to improve production rates, enhance accuracy and quality, and provide critical, real-time information about the condition and status of production machines.