Many diversity and inclusion efforts in the workplace fall short of helping employees feel like they belong — and why this matters. (1 of 3)

Six ways to take full advantage of the benefits of relocation. (3 of 3)

Despite the great potential of relocating for work, geographic moves present several possible drawbacks. (2 of 3)

Research shows that negativity causes us to shut down, stop communicating, and cease being helpful to others. But thriving—the mental state in which people feel a sense of vitality and learning — blunts negativity’s toxic effects.

Now’s the time to get FOMO about having a mentor.

As some of us head back to the workplace, we’re going to confront something we haven’t in a while: other people. It’s going to tire you out. Here’s how to cope.

Few people have more insight than Nadella into how teams collaborate and innovate successfully.

Tsedal Neeley on Why We Need to Think of the Office as a Tool, with Very Specific Uses

Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines, leads a company that has been on the front lines of pandemic challenges.

What Does It Take to Be a Freelance Artist?

Emotions are running raw during the pandemic. How should we manage our difficult feelings, especially at work?

"There is no excuse. Creativity has to be at the forefront.” If not, one day you'll wake up and discover your competitors have the edge.

As we celebrate Halloween–a season for all things spooky–it's a good time to reflect on the “fear factor” that can haunt our workplaces. While ghosts and goblins are fun once a year, fear shouldn't be part of our day-to-day culture. Yet, in many organizations, fear holds people back from speaking up about problems, sharing new ideas, or admitting mistakes. Dr. W. Edwards Deming, a pioneer in quality and improvement, famously said: “Drive out fear so […]

The post Halloween, Dr. Deming, and Eliminating the Fear Factor at Work by Mark Graban appeared first at Lean Blog.

Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make the workplace better. Operational Excellence, Improvement, and Innovation Operational Excellence, Improvement, and Innovation Will AI Transform the Factory Floor? Want a business case approved? Just say you are implementing GenAI. Process optimization has remained focused on leveraging […]

The post Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: November 1, 2024 by Mark Graban appeared first at Lean Blog.

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #519 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Jarvis Gray, the Managing Director of The Quality Coaching Co. He offers more than 16 years of strategic planning, quality improvement, and operations leadership experience in the healthcare industry.  Through his firm, The Quality Coaching Co., Jarvis and his associates help healthcare organizations foster cultures of system-wide quality improvement by offering customized Lean Six […]

The post Achieving Healthcare Excellence: Insights from Jarvis Gray on Lean Six Sigma and Leadership by Mark Graban appeared first at Lean Blog.

I'm happy to be hosting and moderating this webinar that will be presented by Brent Loescher, a fellow instructor with me at TKMG Academy. A Lean practitioner at heart, Brent received his formal Toyota Production System training while working for Toyota Motor Sales in their North American Parts Operations. He helped develop a Lean program for the landscape maintenance industry, implementing and evolving continuous improvement programs across the country since 2009. This included co-leading a […]

The post Creating Leader Standard Work (LSW) Across a Distributed Business Model — Webinar Preview by Mark Graban appeared first at Lean Blog.

“Perfection isn’t a prerequisite for self-trust... It’s consistency in another form: knowing that I do my best, learn from my mistakes, practice honesty, and pull through most of the time. Understanding my version of ADHD has transformed my ability to trust myself.”

School refusal impacts up to 28% of children. It often stems from anxiety associated with ADHD and learning challenges. Follow this three-pronged approach to get your child back into the classroom without trauma.

Building positive working relationships with your employees is critical for enhancing engagement and productivity. As a company, we have realized that fostering these relationships from when the employees join the organization yields tremendous results. However, it is not as easy as it sounds. Forming these bonds takes time, dedication, and ...

They're motivated, they're eager to make a difference, and they bring a breath of fresh air to every team. I'm talking, of course, about college students and recent graduates. Young talent is a real asset for a company, which is why competition for these candidates is so high. To attract qualified young professionals, you need a solid university marketing plan. Understanding University Markting But what exactly is university marketing? To put it simply, "university marketing" refers to your means of ...

With states starting to lift lockdown restrictions amid fluctuating infection and hospitalization rates — and some localities even forced to pause reopenings in progress — the safety of heading back to the workplace is still very much in question. What will it take for the typical worker whose routine has shifted as a result of the pandemic to ...

Even before COVID-19 took the world by storm, giving everyone a "new normal," remote work was already on the rise. Prior to the global pandemic a study by Upwork from their Future Workplace Report found that 5x the number of hiring managers expect more of their team to work remotely in the next 10-years. Now, given the new state of the world, every company that can has been forced to rapidly adopt remote work as a means to continue business operations ...

One of the few silver linings of COVID-19 has been the very welcome, and long overdue, recognition given to workers who were once underappreciated in our society. Unfortunately, this increased appreciation has not always translated to adequate compensation or sufficient measures to keep workers safe, and many workers have had to fight for better protection and/or pay. Nevertheless, the pandemic has highlighted many important issues related to ...

Having visibility into a team's processes and projects is important to every manager. However, when you're managing a remote team, visibility becomes even more critical. How can you guide your staff on priorities and deadlines when you aren't sure what's actually going on behind the scenes? With remote workforces, simply getting work done isn't enough. Inefficient processes become more problematic as employees are no longer in the same room and communication becomes more difficult or delayed. Managers also need to see ...

Article by Christopher Cook As we begin to emerge from an unprecedentedly challenging time in global history, one of the best personal growth practices we should all pursue is cultivating a healthy amount of self-awareness in our everyday lives and our personal and professional pursuits. Put simply, without self-awareness, we are tricking ourselves into living out life through the perception of reality instead of reality itself. On the ...

Industry leaders come together to increase visibility and interest in modern manufacturing through interactive augmented reality experience.

Desktop 3D printers generate ultrafine particles (UFPs) while in operation. UFPs may pose a health concern since they are the size of nanoparticles and may be inhaled and penetrate deep into the human pulmonary system.

Whether you are working on an unmanned aerial vehicle or drone, a car, or an entirely new way to get around, such as a hoverboard, testing is a must. (Yes, hoverboards need testing too.) Physical evaluation testing is required in an increasing number of industries, including electronics.

The MD&M East, Atlantic Design & Manufacturing, EastPack, ATX East, PLASTEC East, and Quality Expo came to New York this week.

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.

Greg Kinsey, Industry Executive at Hitachi, reveals how creative uses of the DMAIC process with digital transformation are helping factories to unlock the next level of process improvement.

Testing potential improvements can get complicated when working with multiple suppliers in different steps of a process. Using a Monte Carlo Simulation can help illuminate the results you’d like to see.

Since they have achieved this cyber security status, EPM are currently ahead of the industry. Less than 30% of companies are where they need to be with cyber security compliance, according to their auditor.

Article by Michael Pietrzak John was born on Thanksgiving Day in 1954, but for him, life wasn't much to be thankful for. A birth defect caused John to wear painful leg braces, and his first-grade teacher told his parents he would never read, write, or amount to anything in life. (Dyslexia and speech impediments, both of which John had, weren't well understood in the '50s.) Accepting that he was worthless, John dropped out of school at age 14 and moved ...

In a world grappling with climate change, the push for sustainability has made electric vehicles (EVs) a popular choice. Some states are even phasing out gas engine vehicle sales by 2030/2035. However, considering the total impact of producing and operating EVs reveals a more complex picture.

Phenna Group has appointed Jon Harrison as the Group Head of Corporate Development.

EVs could represent 45 to 58 percent of all vehicles by 2030, with the lithium-ion battery market expected to grow over 30 percent annually. The question is whether battery quality can keep up with this surge.

Cortec has been ISO 9001 certified since 1994, demonstrating a continuous dedication to total quality and excellence.

The solar cells that have a conversion efficiency of 21 percent.

Since 2012, Dr. Fübi has served as CEO for RWE Technology.

The single most important thing manufacturing leaders can do to engage their employees is to share the ‘why’ behind their daily work, says Kathleen Skarvan, CEO at New Prague, MN-based Electromed—Quality’s 2021 Plant of the Year.

Ensuring stringent medical part quality is challenging, but with the right vision system, manufacturers can utilize powerful technology to help determine that the challenges are being met. 

As the industry continues to trend toward a more patient-centric approach, we see an increasing buzz around the development and utilization of wearable injectors, also known as on-body delivery systems (OBDS)—the next evolution in needle-based drug delivery products.

In the medical device industry, reliability is critical. Manufacturers conduct extensive testing to ensure devices meet required standards, such as 95/95 or 95/99 confidence and reliability, assessed using Minitab Statistical Software.

Automating testing and inspection requires careful consideration of tools, including robot type, end-of-arm tooling, and ancillary systems. While cobots are popular for quality tasks, their full collaborative capabilities may not be utilized in some applications, leading to higher costs without maximizing benefits.

In this article we survey key considerations when making a lens selection. Of course, your lensing professional will be happy to advise – but they’ll ask you some of these questions anyway, so it’s helpful to make notes relative to your planned application.

Discovering, evolving, and sometimes unsettling, artificial intelligence mirrors our human learning. Yet, as it integrates further, questions arise: Can it handle quality assurance? What's in the future? And crucially, how much control are we comfortable relinquishing to it?

In battery cell production, maintaining high quality and reducing material waste is crucial. Digital image processing and machine vision solutions enable reliable defect detection, ensuring the production of safe, high-quality battery cells for electric mobility.

Where rule-based machine vision has not been attempted or has reached its limits, there is a high potential for deep learning algorithms to support employees and drive forward automation.

The Thermo Scientific™ Niton™ Apollo™ handheld LIBS analyzer gives users confidence when engaging in Quality Control (QC) and Positive Material Identification (PMI).