Inside Quality Digest’s Second Annual Virtual Test and Measurement Expo

An extravaganza of industry coverage on Manufacturing Day 2018

Published: Thursday, October 11, 2018 - 12:01

One of the highlights on our calendar each year is the first Friday in October, which is Manufacturing Day here in the United States. This event offers us the perfect opportunity to celebrate the centrality of manufacturing as a driver of the economy, innovation, automation, education, and lots more.

For the past two years, we at Quality Digest have celebrated Manufacturing Day with our Virtual Test and Measurement Expo. This year’s live two-hour broadcast included an impressive technical demo, a drop-in on a Manufacturing Day event on the East Coast, and multiple interviews with the trainers, educators, and application engineers who are sharing best practices and helping develop the next generation of industrial professionals.

Following is an overview of our coverage; if you want to see the entire show for yourself, click here.

Demo: FARO Technologies’ 8-Axis Quantum ScanArm

Senior application engineer Rafael Hasbun presented this look at FARO’s breakthrough solution for better portable-arm laser scanners. FARO’s solution for an eighth axis is truly innovative and remarkably simple at the same time.

Interview: Michelle Edwards

Edwards is the director of global applications engineering and training at FARO, as well as a member of the Executive Committee of the Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS). We chatted with her about product development and encouraging more women to pursue careers in manufacturing.

Interview: Randy Gruver

Gruver is an employee development specialist at Boeing and a member of the Executive Committee of the CMS. In this interview, which we taped at CMSC 2018 in Reno, Nevada, he shared some background on the development of the CMS personnel certification program.

Interview: Joseph Carotenuto

Carotenuto is the director of business development for the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) center. The MEP, which is based at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has centers in all 50 U.S. states plus Puerto Rico. Here, Carotenuto explained to us how the MEP supports its manufacturing clients.

Interview: Shawn Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald is the vice president of marketing for Thomas, the data, platform, and technology company that supports the industrial marketplace. The group just released its “U.S. Manufacturing Perception Report,” which demonstrates that, although consumers still don’t fully appreciate the robustness of the sector, they do feel that “Made in the U.S.A.” still carries some cachet.

Interview: Joe Sabol, Jessica Dunlap, and Vince Warren

Sabol, Dunlap, and Warren work with Newport News Shipbuilding, an organization that has placed a premium on the importance of apprenticeships in developing its future workforce. Sabol is the operation’s director of shipfitting and metrology, while Warren is the manager of craft training at the apprenticeship school. Both are former Newport News Shipbuilding apprentices, as is (more recently) Jessica Dunlap. The three shared with us a compelling view of the increasing importance of apprenticeships for industry today.

Interview: H. Scott Halliday, Lisa Willis, and Adriane Tenequer

Halliday is a professor and the director of the Center for Digital Technologies at Navajo Technical University, and Willis and Tenequer are students of metrology at the school. The three of them joined us to discuss how industry can support academia, and what we all should be doing to develop increased diversity in the manufacturing fields by encouraging women and minorities to explore these interesting and lucrative careers.

We’ll return with a regularly scheduled episode of Quality Digest Live this Fri., Oct. 12, 2018. You can watch either via our home page or our special player page. See you then!

About The Author

Mike Richman

Mike Richman is the principal at Richman Business Media Consulting.