Regular calibrations are a necessity in today’s manufacturing environments. Without it, operators have no guarantee that any of their measurements are correct. Improper measurements can drive a company out of business, which may be one of the reasons calibration software was the number one planned software purchase on Quality’s 7th Annual Capital Spending Survey. Companies would be wise to use calibration software and eventually use a system that integrates with other software systems. Not only can it help the business, it can help employees perform this crucial task.

ISO may have driven manufacturers into document control, but today’s systems have a lot more going for them than 10 years ago. After customers see the extent of what document control can accomplish today, “A lot of light bulbs go off,” says Roger Shugart, chief operating officer of Cebos Ltd. (Brighton, MI).

Experts say that document control is almost a given in today’s manufacturing plants. Whether it is as basic as Excel spreadsheets or a full-blown document control system, most companies have some type of document control system in place. What they may not realize is how much more document control has to offer.

 

Transducers convert energy from one form to another in order to measure a physical quantity or for information transfer. This broad definition includes microphones, thermometers and position and pressure sensors.

Companies know ISO standards may be good for them, but they may need motivation to get certified. Manufacturing sectors have adopted ISO 9000 for three reasons: the value of the standard, the sales and marketing advantage, and company requirements.

While cost has gone down, machine vision performance has gone up, so says Marcel Singleton, founder and director of business development, The Value Engineering Alliance (Cambridge, MA). “If it can be done by machine vision, it can be done faster and better,” Singleton says.

Vision has come a long way since 1984, when Singleton began working in Analog Devices' industrial automation division's machine vision product groups. A vision system went for $30,000 to $40,000,

Consider the magnification, resolution, contrast and measurement when buying a microscope.

Effective training encourages employees to take responsibility for their careers.