You can’t often bridge the gap between the past and present as directly as Thomas Industrial Coatings is on the 139-year-old Eads Bridge rehabilitation. By using the TruQC application (or app), they’re connecting the bridge’s history with the app’s innovation. For this project, highlighted in “The Mighty Mississippi: Coating Crew Saves River’s First Bridge” (CoatingsPro, May 2013), the coatings crew is maintaining quality control over the daily hazard analysis, weekly environmental report, toolbox talk, incident report, and timesheet submission.

When examining efficiency in machine design, it is arguable that the human body contains some of the best-automated systems around. The circulatory system, for example, contains chambers and valves that efficiently direct and pump blood from the heart to the organs and the extremities of the body and back to the heart at a regular rate appropriate for production demands.