Bruce Hamilton
Over years of listening to people describe their work, one single word has surfaced repeatedly as a barometer of what is frequently called “culture.” The use of the word “they” in conversation gives...
Thomas R. Cutler
More than 80 percent of U.S. food manufacturing plants operating today were built more than 20 years ago and may lack safety features. The average age of manufacturing assets and equipment currently...
Bruce Hamilton
One summer when I was a kid, my friend Rick and I built a pole vault setup in my postage stamp-sized backyard with a plant box (the place where you plant the pole as you begin your vault) and a...
Ryan E. Day
In order to best illustrate how enterprisewide SPC software can help address shop-floor problems and then funnel the captured data to the corporate level where strategic issues can be analyzed, here...
Tom Taormina
After more than 50 years as a quality control engineer and having worked with more than 700 companies, it is my observation that the vast majority of quality professionals hold their prime directive...
Michael Popenas
Product development (PD) is the life blood of a company’s success and is the process for innovation. Today, product life cycles are shrinking due to an ever-increasing number of competitive and...
Sridhar Kota
The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed glaring deficiencies in the U.S. manufacturing sector’s ability to provide necessary products—especially amidst a crisis. It’s been five months since the nation...
LauraLee Rose
The reality for small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) is that they are going to have to be good at training their workforce or they won’t make as much money. That’s a blunt assessment, but the...
Katie Myers
Freight trucks account for 23 percent of U.S. transportation. Transportation is the No. 1 source of greenhouse gas emissions in America. The country’s freight industry is in no position to ignore its...
Knowledge at Wharton
We’ve all been in lines that seem to last forever, especially if we choose our queue at the checkout, and the one next to ours is moving faster. You know the existential dread that comes along with...
James J. Kline
In today’s coronavirus environment, governments at all levels are under greater fiscal pressure. For instance, Oregon’s governor has told state departments to prepare for a 12-percent reduction in...
Jim Benson
Untitled Document
From Dust Tracks on a Road, by Zora Neale Hurston (J. B. Lippincott, 1942)
The quote in the picture from Zora Neale Hurston does not end there; it finishes, “It is a seeking...
Shobhendu Prabhakar
The “mantra” for continuous improvement is to learn from our mistakes. Not only learn but also take necessary actions and come up with strategies to prevent the recurrence of the same or similar...
Steven Forrest
The ongoing pandemic will likely change, if not completely alter, many aspects of our daily lives. One facet that will significantly change is the way we work. After months of being in lockdown, the...
Andrew Peterson
Collaborative robots are increasingly attractive to manufacturers that require flexible solutions for their growing product mix but may not have the scale of work or capital resources needed to...
Farhana Ahmad
Despite juggling competing priorities, building resilient systems and processes within their organizations continues to be top of mind for business leaders today and is anticipated to be so for the...
Lolly Daskal
In a recent survey, only 3 percent said they have confidence in corporate executives.
The news was equally dismal for others: 3 percent reported having confidence in government officials, 5 percent...
Bill Bernstein
Step into the factory of the future. Alicia, an operations manager, sits at her workstation viewing a digitally enhanced video feed of the facility, using cameras installed in strategic locations....
Bruce Hamilton
Shortly after a recent post, in which I referred to sowing the seeds of change, I enlisted the help of my son, Ben, to reseed a particularly bare area of our yard. I’d neglected this spot for a few...
Greg Hutchins
My recent epiphany was that the lens for all work and even for everyday living during the next few years will be risk-based. Why do I make this case?
In January 2020, my company was selected to...
