The circular economy is emerging as a new way for organizations to approach sustainability and environmental protection. In contrast to production models focused on receiving, making, and discarding, circularity emphasizes reusing or curtailing raw materials like energy and water. The International Organization for Standardization is developing circularity-specific standards … [Read more...] about Towards a Circular Economy
Advances in Smart Manufacturing Change Management
Some manufacturers encounter difficulties dealing with the changes during the planning process and what happens on the shop floor. These difficulties compound when the changes are spread across locations, disciplines, or departments. This paper discusses productive steps to minimize manufacturers' challenges of change processes. Specifically, the report recommends that … [Read more...] about Advances in Smart Manufacturing Change Management
Why a Plan for Every Part Is Essential to Lean Transformations
Several organizations miss a vital component of a lean handling system known as PFEP, "A Plan for Every Part." While some companies assume that a lean transformation in their operations should focus on labor, PFEP focuses more on inventory. The PFEP seeks accurate and regulated inventory reductions for every purchased component to make any company's material handling operation … [Read more...] about Why a Plan for Every Part Is Essential to Lean Transformations
How Do Remote Audits and ISO Certification Work?
Nowadays, ISO certification and auditing are essential for organizations to use. Auditing allows for formal accreditation and together, implementing them is the best practice to achieve approval.Remote auditing is now critical with the digital revolution expanding into multiple industrial sectors. Day by day, the significance of remote audits grows as they help manage … [Read more...] about How Do Remote Audits and ISO Certification Work?
Quality vs. Inflation and the Deficit
Quality professionals may have more tools to address inflation than previously believed, specifically by removing waste within their organizations. For manufacturers, eliminating waste from supply chains can lower prices, raise wages, and boost profits since waste contributes to inflation. Waste begets poorer quality as organizations spend more on unproductive labor, energy, … [Read more...] about Quality vs. Inflation and the Deficit
5 Worst Consequences Of Poor Customer Service And How To Avoid Them
Devastating effects in business can be caused by inadequate customer service. Customers may choose competitors, resulting in revenue drops and increased costs. In this article, the top five consequences of poor customer service will be discussed with examples on how to negate them. When customers are treated poorly, they may defect to the competition. This causes … [Read more...] about 5 Worst Consequences Of Poor Customer Service And How To Avoid Them
OHS Research Needs to Focus on Why Incidents Don’t Happen
When it comes to understanding the safety of workplaces, traditional questioning in occupational health and safety research may not suffice. Investigations in occupational health and safety usually only focus on incidents that occur, but disregard what keeps them from happening. Ron Gantt says that hazards aren’t just thrown into the workplace. He’s a director at the … [Read more...] about OHS Research Needs to Focus on Why Incidents Don’t Happen
Final Prototype of your New Hardware Product: When Will You Get There?
All the time, developers of new hardware products have a tendency to overestimate their progress thus far in relation to being at the “finish line,” or showing their products in the market. They additionally typically believe the most difficult thing to do is find a prototype that works and looks like the finished product. This is, however, usually incorrect, as it takes a … [Read more...] about Final Prototype of your New Hardware Product: When Will You Get There?
ISO to Develop Design Specification for New Version of ISO 9001
The ISO technical committee, who develops, manages, and updates ISO 9000, is now developing a similar set of design standards for a potential future revision of ISO 9001. TG5 has been assigned to develop these design standards by the ISO/TC 176/SC2 Strategic Planning and Operations Task Group (SPOTG). In April, SPOTG met to review a report from ISO/TC 176/SC2/TG 5 where … [Read more...] about ISO to Develop Design Specification for New Version of ISO 9001
What is an Internal Auditor?
Planning on finding an internal auditor? Listen to the following advice. An internal auditor who deals in quality management assesses your organization’s business activity to make sure you consistently meet compliance and your best performance. The internal auditor evaluates procedures surrounding quality and risk management, as well as internal control, when performing … [Read more...] about What is an Internal Auditor?
Research Reveals Employee Engagement is Key to Both EHS and ESG Performance
In the health and safety of occupations, employees are faced with the culture and engagement dilemmas of the workplace. According to Technologies LLC’s research, environment, social, and corporate governance performance (ESG) are likely to be majorly impacted. The research report identified that bolstering EGS and EHS performances slows EGS progress when employees are … [Read more...] about Research Reveals Employee Engagement is Key to Both EHS and ESG Performance
A fresh look at computer vision for industrial quality control
Computer vision (CV) is a branch of artificial intelligence concerned with developing technology to process visual information and extract relevant features for recognition, understanding, and interpretation. These technologies include image acquisition, processing, pattern recognition, machine learning, knowledge representation, and natural language processing. While early … [Read more...] about A fresh look at computer vision for industrial quality control
Boosting business performance through knowledge management
ISO 9001 Clause 7.1.5 requires maintaining organizational knowledge. One form of this maintenance can include effective knowledge management (EKM), which seeks to highlight what knowledge is so organizations can solve problems better. EKM includes access to relevant facts and expertise; a common language used to describe facts, concepts, issues, and concerns; the ability to … [Read more...] about Boosting business performance through knowledge management
A Pragmatic Approach to Sustainability
For many companies, sustainability can still seem like an add-on instead of a core business priority. Although sustainability requires significant changes in processes, strategies, technologies, and culture, companies can still adopt a more pragmatic model of sustainability based on data. Practical sustainability is also a strategic differentiator today. This article covers … [Read more...] about A Pragmatic Approach to Sustainability
The benefits of process discovery automation and how it helps achieve process excellence
An automated process discovery system can help your organization discover ways to improve workflow and reduce costs throughout an organization's business processes. This automation helps businesses make better decisions and take advantage of new opportunities. Rather than using a manual process, companies can collect data from audits, transactions, messages, and other sources … [Read more...] about The benefits of process discovery automation and how it helps achieve process excellence
An empirical study into the reasons for failure of sustaining operational excellence initiatives in organizations
A survey of 106 experts involved in implementing operational excellence (OPEX) initiatives such as Lean, Six Sigma, and Agile found that 15% of companies studied did not adopt any type of OPEX. For those that did adopt OPEX methods, roughly 75% chose Six Sigma, fewer than 50% adopted Lean initiatives, and fewer than 5% used Kaizen. This study, published in The TQM Journal, is … [Read more...] about An empirical study into the reasons for failure of sustaining operational excellence initiatives in organizations
How to Conduct Remote Supplier Quality Audits in a QMS
Since the Covid pandemic, regulators and notified bodies have been doing more remote audits to conduct routine inspections. In fact, it helped the FDA exceed domestic inspections in FY2021 by more than double the number projected. As a result, the FDA and EMA have released guidance on what to expect during a remote audit. However, remote audits … [Read more...] about How to Conduct Remote Supplier Quality Audits in a QMS
Quality and Compliance of Imported Products
To run a successful business, you want to make and distribute products that are at the right quality standard and that comply with the regulations of the countries of sale. I guess nobody will argue with that. But what do “Quality and Compliance” mean, in practice? They are often separated under different functions inside the same company. Why? Let’s … [Read more...] about Quality and Compliance of Imported Products
Understanding the context of your process
Context, the first lens of the 6CON process development framework, provides the development team with critical information against which they can readily make informed decisions. Context, by itself, does not eliminate the failure modes we have mentioned, but it is the foundation for the rest of the work to come, reducing the likelihood of the failure modes. The components … [Read more...] about Understanding the context of your process
Risk Management Rarely Gets to the Root Cause
Large corporations typically have internal risk management functions. Many are staffed by individuals with advanced degrees—even Ph.D.s—in areas such as mathematics, statistics, actuarial science, etc. The role of these folks is to identify areas of financial risk and forestall or reduce the threat they pose to their employer’s profitability. Supply chain risk is evaluated and … [Read more...] about Risk Management Rarely Gets to the Root Cause