Prioritize Manufacturing Process Control Improvements

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As a quality professional, you’re constantly being asked to fix problems. Instead of reacting to problems, what if you could provide solutions that truly enhance quality control in manufacturing operations? Wouldn’t it be great to quickly and easily compare the performance of each of your parts, lines, processes, and sites—at a glance—and determine where to … Continued

The Top 10 SPC Mistakes: Part 1

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Me: As you think about your organization’s manufacturing quality efforts—what you’ve overcome and what you hope to accomplish in the future—there is something you need to know. You: What? Who? Me? Me: Yes, you. No matter how long you’ve been playing this game, and I know many of you have been playing it as long as I have, … Continued

Fully-Automated Data Collection is a Snap: Data Collection Series #3

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In the first two blogs of our Data Collection series, we looked at manual and semi-automated data collection. Specifically, we discussed how InfinityQS® Enact®—a comprehensive quality intelligence solution—provides a data collection software solution that makes both manual and semi-automated data collection easy and helps users focus on what’s important for them to do their jobs. For this, our third … Continued

Manual Data Collection Made Easy: Data Collection Series #1

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Data collection is an essential part of your daily routine in manufacturing. It’s the engine that drives your quality improvement efforts, whether they are continuous improvement, Six Sigma, Lean, statistical process control (SPC), or anything else. From the data you collect you can discover things about your operation that you might never know from walking … Continued

Operators Play a Critical Role in Your Quality Initiatives: Quality Pro Series #3

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Welcome back to the blog series written specifically for you, the quality professional. In the first blog of this series, we talked about how you can apply your statistical process control (SPC) analysis holistically across your plant and your enterprise to truly enjoy the great benefits that SPC can provide. And in blog two we discussed data collection–specifically, how shop floor … Continued

Nothing to Fear

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Audits are an inevitable part of manufacturing. When it’s time to prepare for an audit, it’s all hands on deck to locate, compile, and present the necessary documentation. The process can takes entire teams out of their workflow, disrupting production. No wonder most quality managers cringe at the thought of preparing for the next one.Want … Continued

The Modern Assembly Line and Quality Management: 100 Years Later

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It has been just over 100 years since Henry Ford introduced the modern assembly line and forever changed the course of manufacturing. The combination of interchangeable parts and time-efficient processes created a system that eventually sold 15 million Model T Fords and made the automobile one of the centerpieces of American culture. Over a century … Continued

Use Acceptance Sampling to Improve Manufacturing Process and Product Quality

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How do manufacturing organizations confirm that supplier products comply with critical quality standards? For the most part, manufacturers rely on inspectors to check incoming materials. Those results are compared with the company’s own quality standards and supplier-generated documents such as Certificates of Analysis (COAs). Based on results, inspectors either accept or reject a shipment. However, most … Continued

The Benefits of Statistical Process Control: Part One

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No matter what line of business you are in—from retail to hospitality to technology to finance—it’s imperative to prevent business problems before they occur. That can mean something as simple as avoiding the loss of one of your customers to poor customer service or as critical as preventing a botched manufacturing job on one of … Continued