Eric Maass

The supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If you invite your suppliers into the profitability equation, you can facilitate success for everyone in the supply chain.

Medical device companies must comply with FDA requirements to address quality issues through a complex and sometimes inefficient process called CAPA. One such company applied Six Sigma to the CAPA process to significantly reduce rework loops, reduce cycle time and reduce time to resolve rejections.

Planning is always easier if you know what the future will bring. You may not be able to “see” the future, but with yield modeling you can predict future yield and prioritize opportunities for improvement.

A high-tech company was exploring the use of haptics to provide gentle haptic vibration with wearable devices (Figure 1) for future customers, including tweens (children around 11 or 12 years old). Haptics involve how users perceive tactile feedback from a device. Mobile devices typically provide haptic sensations and responses using vibrations of various frequencies, amplitude, […]

Gaining support to implement and sustain a continuous improvement program is an oft-voiced concern of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) practitioners. These concerns reflect frustration in both senses of the term –  feeling frustrated personally and encountering attitudes that frustrate the effectiveness of the program. Three sets of skills and methods have shown success in gaining […]

The precision of a measurement system is commonly assessed using a gage repeatability and reproducibility (GR&R) study. In Part 1, this article describes available GR&R metrics. Part 2 covers their applicability to two broad cases of comparative study.   Measurement system analysis has been a major part of process characterizations and improvements, with key guidance […]