Explore every episode of the podcast Quality Podcast

Aleigha Schulke, application engineer at ANCA, describes the appeal of working in manufacturing, how to recruit the next generation, and the surprising travel benefits of working in manufacturing, including business trips to Germany and Australia. Image Source: ANCA

Nicholas Blake of Advex AI explains how synthetic examples can be used to help improve training models, what machine vision offers, and how AI inspection can cut training time down from years to hours. Image courtesy of Advex AI

Rodrigo Perez of MxD is here to explain this – along with the interesting elements of a career in manufacturing. Perez is a manufacturing systems integration engineer at MxD, the digital manufacturing institute and National Center for Cybersecurity in Manufacturing. Here he shares advice on recruiting the next generation to manufacturing, what someone new to the industry should know, and how digital twins can help your organization. Image courtesy of MxD

Alyssa Rodriguez, PhD, director of the Alaska Manufacturing Extension Partnership Center, talks manufacturing, labor, and more in Alaska. Image courtesy of Alaska Manufacturing Extension Partnership Center.

Dustin Smith, metrology & software training lead at Assurance Technologies Inc., shares common questions he receives in his GD&T course, why he still takes training courses regularly, and why he believes everyone - from sales to engineering and from production to quality – should have a base level knowledge of GD&T. Image courtesy of ATI

Paul Lang, chief global strategy officer for the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) and executive director for ASNT Certification Services LLC (ASNT CS), shares his thoughts on trends and liquid penetrant testing. Image courtesy of ASNT

In some industries, artificial intelligence seems cause for optimism – not alarm – according to a recent report done by Idera that looks at the impact of AI on Quality. Judy Bossi, VP of Product Management at Idera, explains how AI is reshaping the future of QA, common barriers to AI adoption, and what’s needed to move forward with new technology. Image courtesy of Idera

Former Boeing engineer Jim Doxey explains a previous motto at the company, why people (and teamwork) are the most important part of a quality system, and offers advice for manufacturers looking to avoid quality woes. He also shares his thoughts on a 30+ career working in manufacturing and Silicon Valley companies such as Facebook, Google and Dropbox.

Harshala Patil explains how she got involved in quality, the importance of quality across industries, and what drew her into the manufacturing world. Patil is a Senior Quality and Reliability Engineer for the world’s second-largest semiconductor technology company, consistently ranked as a Top 10 global brand. As a Quality project leader, she brings expert experience in electrical and microelectronics engineering, with a career focus on process integration and quality reliability engineering management in the advanced semiconductor manufacturing industry; designs, executes, and analyzes process flow experiments; and collaborates with fab engineering teams to mitigate risk and ensure quality standards.

Daniel Zrymiak profiles some recognizable threats to quality culture, based on actual experience. The quality function of an organization must constantly monitor the operations and discussions for the evident presence of these and other threats to success, and be prepared to take appropriate and commensurate actions.Watch the video of this podcast here.

Instead of telling people what to do, learn how to guide them to the best decisions. People Centric Leadership can change the way your organization operates. Lisa Weis, President, EngageExcellence, LLC; PCL Lead, AME Management Team, has taught a course on this subject many times and says it can change the way you lead, work, and parent. Instead of telling someone they can’t do something, you can get your staff (or children) to think differently about their decisions and consequences.

Tim McMahon has more than 25 years of leadership experience implementing lean manufacturing. Here he explains why kaizen is a valuable tool that probably not enough companies take advantage of. If you want to be able to look at your process, if you want to uncover what pains you, these are the kinds of things that Kaizen allows you to do. And he recently wrote an article for Quality on Kaizen.

John Martin and Christine Bernat explain. John is the AM Research Director, America Makes, and Christine is the Associate Director, Standards Facilitation, American National Standards Institute. They describe how the latest standardization roadmap is affecting industry, trends with additive standards, and how doing the wrong type of inspection can cause you to miss out on the benefits of additive.

How much do you know about fatigue testing? Jarid Robinson, a product coordinator materials testing of Shimadzu Scientific Instruments, explains fatigue testing trends today, what quality professionals should know about using this type of equipment, and clears up some common misconceptions about the technology. For more on the subject, read this article on the subject: Adapting to Modern Demands in Fatigue Testing.

A ETQ survey found that 73% of respondents had a product recall in their company in the past five years, with costs reaching $99.9M in the U.S. alone for each recall. ETQ recently released findings from its formal survey of more than 750 manufacturing firms across the U.S. and Europe to understand the state of quality in manufacturing.  Vick Vaishnavi, CEO of ETQ, a Hexagon company, talks with Quality to explain the results, from recalls to AI.

The Coordinate Metrology Society just wrapped up its 40th conference. Justin Novak talks about what’s next for the society, the future (and past) of electric vehicles, and how to do well at your next CMSC 5K.

Chris Cantrell, senior managing director, standards and engineering services, at ASME, explains how standards can help companies get ahead, innovate, and access a broader market base. For more on the subject, look for Chris’s column: The X Factor: Why Companies that Invest in Standardization Can Realize Their Growth Goals.

Michelle Bangert, Managing Editor of Quality, talks with Matt Noonan. He's the Quality Manager of Pratt & Whitney Measurement Systems, Inc.

How did you get started in quality? And how do we bring more people to the field? Claire Hopkins was only familiar with quality assurance as a career path because her father worked in the industry for most of his career, but says her first full time job in quality seven years ago was more by chance than anything else.

Michelle Bangert, Managing Editor of Quality, talks with Greg Weaver of Weaver NDT about additive manufacturing inspection.

Michelle Bangert, Managing Editor of Quality, sat down with Senior QA Auditor, Paul Mignon, about his session at The Quality Show South.

Quality spoke with David Dechow of Machine Vision Source following his recent presentation at The Quality Show South about vision solutions for quality applications and integration that drives application success with current and emerging technologies.

It all started with her niece’s Stanley cup. This lead Dr. Rochelle Cook into research on delighters and expectations for customization today. At The Quality Show South, Dr. Cook of California State University Dominguez Hills explained how kaizen is connected to mass customization practices.

Ed Goffin of Pleora Technologies explains what’s happening with today’s AI manufacturing applications – and what to look for in the future.

Justin Wise has had a long and varied career, including seven military deployments. He has two bachelor’s degrees and is finishing up a master’s degree in quality this year at California State University at Dominguez Hills. Quality has been a constant through it all. Here he offers his perspective on quality as well as how to say hello in Cahuilla. Related Article: Meet the 2024 Quality Rookie of the Year: Justin Wise

Quality sat down with Jay Arthur, president and CEO of KnowWare International, to follow up on his participation in a recent Quality article and delve further into Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, or FMEA.

Quality is gearing up for the Quality Show South in Nashville, TN, in early May. We've got a lot on tap, but nothing more exciting than our learning theater sessions. Editorial Director Darryl Seland and Managing editor Michelle Bangert of Quality sat down to talk about it.

Andrew Hanuszek of Evident explains what quality professionals need to know about using XRF, the role of automation, and how it aligns with today’s trends.

As the AI landscape for manufacturers continues to evolve, it is important to get a handle on AI responsibly and what that looks like. Justin Newell, CEO of INFORM North America, explains the importance of ethical AI practices and how manufacturers can take advantage of this technology.

Dr. Milton Krivokuca, our 2024 Quality Professional of the Year, shares stories of his round-the-world quality lectures, how he got interested in Quality 4.0, and how a quality career might lead to bringing ANOVA tests to your doctor. He also offers advice for his fellow quality professionals – such as get out there and meet others in the industry. He will also be speaking at The Quality Show South in Nashville May 1 at 2:45 p.m.

In their upcoming session at The Quality Show South, Sophronia Ward, PhD and Mark Nash CSSMB, will discuss the best ways to use data, how to use software without letting it use you, and other ways to improve your manufacturing processes.They will kick off the learning theaters at The Quality Show South at 10:30 a.m. on May 1.

Paul Critchley, president of New England Lean Consulting, explains what Lean and Continuous Improvement is truly all about, how to leverage it, and how to incorporate it into your culture to realize increased growth and success. Paul will be speaking at The Quality Show South May 2 at 12:30 p.m.

Micropsi CEO Gary Jackson and Matt Jones, VP of US Sales and Operations, explain that while AI and machine learning can seem like magic, there’s a lot more to do than that. Learn how manufacturers can benefit from automating tasks that previously may have seemed impossible to automate.

Quality spoke with Praveen Gupta about how to expect excellence, strive for defect free manufacturing, and link the CAPA process, FMEA model and eventually innovation. Gupta has been in the field of quality for about 40 years, a Fellow of ASQ since 1996, an early practitioner of Six Sigma and ISO 9001 systems since 1987, a past member of US Tag/TC-176 (for ISO 9001), and current member of US Tag/TC-279 for developing Innovation Management standards. Praveen received the Quality Professional of the Year Award in 2016. He will be speaking at The Quality Show South Thursday, May 2 at 11:30 a.m.

How our 2024 Plant of the Year focuses on customer service, friendly engineers, and a strong work culture to make it the top choice for customers around the globe. Rob Glassburn, VP of operations at 3D Engineering Solutions, explains the company’s environment and goals. To hear more from our Plant of the Year, visit The Quality Show South this May. Rob will be speaking Wednesday, May 1 at 1 p.m. View the agenda here.

Dale Norwood of Norwood NDT Consulting describes how he blew the whistle on an NDT company in the 1990s after seeing falsified inspections.Dale will be speaking at The Quality Show South May 1 at 3:30 p.m.

Learn more about the varied applications for advanced 3D scanning from Michael Raphael, CEO & President, Direct Dimensions Inc. He will be speaking at The Quality Show South coming up this May in Nashville. His session is called Advanced 3D Scanning Systems for Part Modeling and Inspection.His session will take place Wednesday, May 1 at 2 p.m.

Quality sat down with Jim Spichiger, program manager, Amazon Custom Service, and immediate past chair of the ASQ Inspection Division, to discuss his upcoming Quality Show South presentation.

Stefan Friedrich of New Scale Robotics explains why quality is often one of the later steps to automate. Adopting a robot or cobot can be intimidating but it doesn’t need to be. Here he describes what quality professionals need to know. Hint: it’s not programming.

Dan Zrymiak, an ASQ Fellow and recipient of ASQ’s Feigenbaum and Crosby Medals, has almost three decades of experience in international quality and risk management. Here he shares his expertise on culture, leadership and values.Read more from Dan Zrymiak here.

Donald Booth of the American Institute of Nondestructive Testing now offers a range of NDT training options for others in the industry. Listen now to how training has changed over the years and how to get the most out of your classroom and on-the-job training.

While companies may think automation is too cost-prohibitive or complicated, Martin Buena-Franco, automation products manager at The Raymond Corporation, says that is not the case. Here he dispels these myths and others and explains how automation could benefit your manufacturing process.

Eric Hayler offers some ideas for low-cost lean ideas to benefit your manufacturing processes.

Learn how Mississippi State University strives to be a hands-on bachelor’s degree for students who want to enter any area of industry – and how your company can get involved. Lara Threet, program coordinator and instructor, industrial technology at MSU, explains how the program works, how she got involved in engineering, and the career she almost pursued instead.

Heather Wade of the ASQ Measurement Division explains calibration myths and misnomers while at The Quality Show this year.

QMS may just be “the invisible force that every organization needs to ensure a robust ESG framework and benchmarkable ESG disclosure,” says Indika Edussuriya, global technical manager, ESG & Sustainability Report Assurance, TÜV Rheinland Group.

John Vandenbemden of the ASQ Inspection Division offers his take on audits, inspections, and quality.

Debra Dahlin is the second-generation owner and president of Reed Switch Developments Corp. (RSD). Under her leadership, RSD has grown steadily, despite a series of recessions, a global pandemic, and a major pivot from primarily standard parts into small-to-medium volume custom ones. Quality met with RSD at The Quality Show to learn what's new with the company.

Toni Bailey describes how training has evolved. She explains how people learn by doing, why assuming that people have computer skills might not be correct, and why managers might need training on training.Related Article: Focus on the Training Quality

Andy Zosel of Zebra Technologies discusses the implications of today’s technologies at The Quality Show 2023.