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A listing in reverse chronological order of articles by:
In the push toward digital transformation, automated inspection, and AI-enabled quality systems, it’s easy to overlook the fundamentals that quietly hold everything together. Among them are two terms that are frequently confused, even by seasoned professionals: Calibration and Verification
These words live at the core of measurement assurance, and understanding the difference isn’t academic; it shapes risk decisions, audit outcomes, and ultimately, product quality and reliability.
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Dear friends, we are happy to release this interesting video to explain and illustrate the relationship between sigma level and process capability indices Cp and Cpk! Hemant Urdhwareshe, ASQ Fellow and Six Sigma Master Black Belt, explains this relationship with animations! We are sure, you will find this video interesting and useful!
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Progressive improvement beats delayed perfection. Mark Twain
In this article, I will outline how to evaluate an individual Design FMEA or Process FMEA against the FMEA Quality Objective for design improvements.
An essential part of FMEA procedure is for the FMEA team to recommend and implement actions to reduce risk to an acceptable level. For Design FMEAs, this includes actions to improve the product design. For Process FMEA, this includes actions to improve the design of the manufacturing or assembly process. Of course, there are other types of actions that can be recommended, such as test improvements; but this quality objective is focused on design improvements. [Read more…]
Dear friends, I am glad to release our technical video on the subject of ‘Sigma Level vs Defective Proportion and PPM’! In this video, I have tried to explain the definition of sigma level in the context of the relation between tolerance and standard deviation sigma. Sigma Level assessment is an essential step in Six Sigma projects. In this video, I have explained the logic of 1.5sigma shift as was developed in Motorola. The sigma level vs ppm calculations are explained and illustrated using an Excel screen recording. Hope you find this video interesting!
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In manufacturing, variation is the enemy of quality. Left unchecked, it erodes reliability, increases waste, and drives up costs. One of the simplest but most effective tools for controlling variation is Layered Process Auditing (LPA).
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Ongoing Reliability Testing (ORT) is a way to estimate reliability function, as a function of independent variables, primarily age. This is because reliability is “the probability of successful function to specified ages under specified conditions” [O’Connor et al.].
Think of planning ORT as a design of an experiment (DoE). A DoE objective is to quantify effects of factors (independent variables) on the dependent variable, the reliability function. (The reliability and failure rate functions contain the same information, because reliability = P[Life > t] = exp[–∫a(u)du], where a(u) denotes the failure rate function and the integral runs from 0 to t.)
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Dear friends, we are happy to release this video on Process Capability. this is our 93rd video! In this video, Hemant Urdhwareshe, Fellow of ASQ, explains the basic concepts of process capability indices Cp and Cpk with an illustrative example. Hemant has also explained how to validate whether the data is normally distributed with histogram and normal probability plotting. Hemant has further explained the interpretation of the results of study and suggested improvement actions.
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Dear friends, this is a quick overview of the Design for Relliability (DFR) strategy.
For details of the tools and techniques shown in the video, we are providing links to our videos Links to some related videos:
[Read more…]Of the many constructive soft skills, active listening is surely one of the most helpful in the design thinking process. More than just listening to collect information, active listening is a mindset that fosters empathy for the speaker. In business and engineering, it’s our customer that’s speaking. Active listening seeks to understand not only the other person’s words, but also their attitudes and motivations.
For many people, even the idea of “being a better listener” seems ludicrous. Once you’re listening, how can you listen better? It’s like swallowing better or breathing better. [But the truth is, you can.] Even the best listeners periodically fall into a handful of traps that obstruct their understanding of their employer’s, customer’s, and loved one’s words.
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Dear friends, we are happy to release our 91st technical video on XOR Gate occasionally used in Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). In this video, Hemant Urdhwareshe, Fellow of ASQ, explains the basic concept of XOR gate, the related probability calculation and an illustrative example.
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An Interview with James Blackwell, CTO and Co-founder of Roost Inc.
James Blackwell is a wireless industry veteran with over 25 years of leadership experience in the design and manufacturing of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi systems, including CSR and Ozmo Devices.
“Always remember, your focus determines your reality” – George Lucas
In this article, I will outline how to evaluate an FMEA against the FMEA Quality Objective for identifying special characteristics. Special characteristics are often not well understood by FMEA teams, and yet have potential to be highly useful in FMEA applications.
Dear friends, we are happy to release our 90th technical video! In this video, Hemant Urdhwareshe, Fellow of American Society for Quality (ASQ), explains the various functions in reliability mathematics. Hemant has explained Probability Density Function (PDF), Cumulative Failure Distribution Function (CDF), Reliability Function and the Hazard Function. Hemant has also briefly explained the mathematical derivations of these functions as well as their relationships. In addition, the video includes an application example of estimating B02 life when the hazard function is known. The video is little long, so viewers are requested to be patient and watch the complete video. This will be very useful in preparing for the Certified Reliability Engineer Exam conducted by ASQ.
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Many companies, especially for high-complexity products such as energy storage and robotics, are moving away from outsourced manufacturing to establish their own internal operations. In fact, Kearney’s 10th Annual Reshoring Index finds that reshoring has substantially increased during the past decade.
This paradigm shift, driven by the need for closer design and production integration, poses opportunities and challenges. This article delves into the essential steps and considerations to set up an effective internal manufacturing facility tailored for the hardware-based product industry.
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Dear friends, we are happy to release our 89th technical video. In this video, Hemant Urdhwareshe explains the basic idea behind Goodness of fit testes and how to perform Goodness of Fit test. Hemant illustrates this with an illustration of Goodness of Fit test for Normal Distribution using Microsoft Excel. Hemant is a Fellow of ASQ and is certified by ASQ as Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Quality Engineer (CQE), Quality Manager (CMQ/OE) and Reliability Engineer (CRE).
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