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Information to add to your understanding

Below is a collection of links and resources to add to your understanding of manufacturing quality control, statistical process control, manufacturing automation, process control and more. These links have been selected by DataNet experts as quality sources of information for our visitors. Please check back, as this section is frequently updated. If you have ideas or information to add to this section, please contact This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Industry articles

(01.2008) The Hidden Costs of Poor Quality
Written by Gerald Lee and published in the December 07 issue of Quality Digest, this article discusses some of the obvious and less obvious opportunities lost due to poor quality, as well as an obscure and misunderstood cost that offers the turnaround opportunity of significant savings: the safety margin. Read the article at:
http://www.qualitydigest.com/dec07/articles/06_article.shtml

(12.2007) Calculating ROI for Automation Projects
This whitepaper, authored by Douglas C. White from Emerson Process Management, offers an excellent tutorial for calculating return-on-investment to gain funding for automation programs. Download the PDF here:
http://www.emersonprocess.com/solutions/consulting/advancedautomation/publications.asp

(08.2007) Are You Capable? Measurements, Part 3
Published in the August issue of Quality Digest, Steven Ouellette continues exploring ways to measure the effect of sigma...
http://qualitydigest.com/IQedit/QDarticle_text.lasso?articleid=12272

(06.2007) What is Business Performance Excellence?
Many companies strive to be the best in their market. Most never succeed. Many of the ones that do, do so only temporarily, and subsequently lose their position through misunderstanding how they got there and what is needed to stay there. Very few, as Jim Collins has stated, are capable of going from "Good to Great."
http://www.roi-ally.com/BPE_vol1.htm

(05.2007) NIST Standards Work Enhances Shop-floor Productivity
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) engineers, together with colleagues from industry and other standards organizations have completed a five-part series of standards designed to evaluate the accuracy — and thus usability — of manufacturing measurements. The standards, the last of which was published last month by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), describe ways measurement personnel can communicate, evaluate and respond to uncertainties in manufactured part measurements.
http://www.reliableplant.com/article.asp?articleid=5828

Seven Basic Quality Tools
This article goes over the most fundamental quality control tools that include Histograms, Pareto chart, control charts, scatter diagram.
http://www.asq.org/learn-about-quality/seven-basic-quality-tools/overview/overview.html

(11.2006) Manufacturers Find Business Intelligence Elusive
Real-time data is the key to greater operations visibility.
Today as manufacturers seek real-time business information and ERP systems start to push downward into the plant, the need for better production reporting, quality and logistics data is expanding.
http://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=12842&SectionID=32

Industry associations

The American Society for Quality
www.asq.org

The Automotive Industry Action Group
www.aiag.org

Industry publications

Quality Magazine
www.qualitymag.com

Quality Digest
www.qualitydigest.com

Managing Automation
www.managingautomation.com

Industry Week
http://www.industryweek.com/

iSix Sigma
www.isixsigma.com

SPC links, advanced concepts and more

www.integral-concepts.com
www.sixsigmafirst.com

Food and Drug Administration links

Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is reserved for rules of the Food and Drug Administration
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/index.html

FDA Manuals, Regulatory Publications, and Reports
http://www.fda.gov/opacom/7pubs.html