The problem would go away only to return every few months. The manufacturing mystery continued for about seven months, with each failure costing $26 in raw material alone.

Additive manufacturing continues to grow. The number of applications are on the rise, along with additive research. At this time last year, Paul Brackman was the only person working in the Zeiss Knoxville lab—today, he’s one of four full-time Zeiss staff at the lab, along with a team working in additive software applications at the Minneapolis headquarters, and a dedicated hardware team in Germany working on additive.

The importance of auditing should not be overlooked. As longtime Quality columnist Jim Smith writes, “It’s rare that managers, or even most quality auditors, discuss how closely tied the findings of manufacturing audits are to the long-term ability of their companies to compete in this highly competitive market.”

In these strange times, every industry around the globe has been affected by the coronavirus. And manufacturing is no different.

When your production is set to in-crease tenfold, it’s time to expand.

Decisions are required all the time, both small and large. How to run a business? What to do about customer complaints? What should you have for lunch?

Wilbur and Orville Wright began experimenting with the idea of flight in 1899, and their first aircraft famously took flight in 1903. “It was the Wrights' genius and vision to see that humans would have to fly their machines, that the problems of flight could not be solved from the ground,” according to the National Park Service.

Spend time on any manufacturing floor and you will realize that relationships between suppliers and partners are critical. Rather than considering them as an entity outside of your organization, suppliers should be treated as trusted partners.

Once the gift-giving ends, it’s time for the quality equipment spending to take off. January is typically when quality professionals start filling their quality wish list.

If you’re not sure how to inspect components for E-mobility applications, there are a range of tools at the ready. As the world of electric vehicles continues to expand, technologies such as computed tomography, coordinate measuring machines, and microscopes all provide part of the puzzle.