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Founded in 1854 as the Waterbury Clock Co., Timex Group USA is, and has been, America’s leading watchmaker for more than a century. The company’s watches are sold in more than 80 countries worldwide and manufactured in the Americas, Asia and Europe.

Food-borne illness is no laughing matter. In 1985, a listeriosis outbreak in Southern California killed as many as 40 people. The outbreak was eventually traced to a Mexican-style soft cheese contaminated with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes.

The distinction between AC induction motors and permanent-magnet DC servomotors was once fairly clear. AC motors were for high-horsepower applications, such as compressors, pumps, blowers and bulk-handling conveyors. DC servomotors were for applications requiring low horsepower, high torque, high cycling and precise positioning, such as machine tools and pick-and-place machines.

The auto industry has a long history of borrowing ideas from the aerospace sector, ranging from aerodynamic styling to lightweight materials. The latest adoption is head-up display (HUD) technology, which was originally developed for fighter jets.

Remember 1992? Four Los Angeles police officers were acquitted of beating Rodney King, sparking riots citywide. Compact discs surpassed cassette tapes as the preferred medium for recorded music...

Forty years ago this month, the Skydeck at the Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower) was opened to the public. The observation floor remains one of Chicago’s most famous attractions, drawing nearly 1.3 million visitors annually.

For many years, plant managers told assemblers to “work smarter, not harder” without providing them the proper tools to achieve this goal. This was especially challenging for workers who had to lift heavy objects around their workstations.

Assembly machines are dumb. They can only do what they’re told, over and over again. Without a sense of sight or touch, they can’t know if parts or pallets are where they’re supposed to be.

Assemblers in many different industries depend on all sorts of pneumatic, DC electric and battery powered tools for a wide variety of fastening applications. Unfortunately, the devices are also the source of countless ergonomic headaches for manufacturing engineers.

The value of standard work is clear: improved productivity and quality. With standard work, the process is well documented, its yield is high, its cycle time is rock solid, and everyone has been trained to do it. It worked well once, so we do it again and again.