All Features
Amitrajeet Batabyal
Arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity, said former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. Globalization, the international trade in goods and services with minimal barriers between countries, may seem inevitable as the world’s economies become more…
Sridhar Kota, Glenn Daehn
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 declared a national emergency, yet shortages of test kit components, pharmaceuticals, personal…
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 need for proficiency in training will only increase, whether it’s retraining current employees for…
Jennifer Mallow
Covid-19 has led to a boom in telehealth, with some healthcare facilities seeing an increase in its use by as much as 8,000 percent. This shift happened quickly and unexpectedly, and has left many people asking whether telehealth is really as good as in-person care.
During the last decade, I’ve…
Eric Stoop
When it comes to quality management objectives, what many manufacturers don’t understand about cost of quality could hurt them.
A survey by LNS Research asked more than 500 manufacturing executives to identify their most important financial and quality management objectives. Across the board,…
Paul Laughlin
During this month of thinking about thinking, it’s a good time to learn from fresh perspectives, like summer interns.
As a leader, it can often be helpful to adopt what Buddhism describes as a beginner’s mind or shoshin: seeking to let go of past knowledge, status, and assumptions to see things…
Manfred Kets de Vries
Effective organizations rely on teamwork, not least because it facilitates problem solving. Many leaders, however, are ambivalent about teams. They fear overt and covert conflict, uneven participation, tunnel vision, lack of accountability, and indifference to the interests of the organization as a…
Edward D. Hess
As the digital age advances and technology takes over more jobs, workers must get better at those “human” skills computers can’t do. They must excel at critical thinking, innovative thinking, collaborating, and emotionally engaging with others in the creation and delivery of products and services…
ASQ
You already know that technological advances of the past decade have resulted in a new industrial revolution often referred to as the fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0. It’s a revolution driven by the exponential growth of disruptive technologies and the changes those technologies are…
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 standing in a dedicated queue and waiting interminably. To make service of all kinds more efficient,…
Jon Speer
Imagine you’re a patient going in for any medical procedure. You probably think very little about the risks of the medical device being used on you. Generally, patients trust clinicians’ expertise and seldom wonder if the products being used have undergone rigorous testing and are proven to be safe…
Harry Hertz
Rest? The new normal will be about activity, you say. Actually, I believe some rest will be necessary. After the frenzy of activity since March 2020 to establish new work patterns and new home life patterns, many of us—especially those with young families—have been left totally exhausted. So some…
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 mistakes. It is true for humans as well as for businesses. In business, especially in the oil and gas…
Tina Berger
A manufacturing apprenticeship pilot program in Florida is taking a hybrid approach that replaces the traditional classroom element with competency-based, on-demand e-learning. It could help bring the apprenticeship career development tool into the digital age and be a breakthrough for…
Steve McKee
Is 2020 a bump in the road or the beginning of the end? That’s not a trick question. For some companies, the virus and lockdown have been inconvenient and annoying, but navigable. For others, they have been devastating. And the social unrest has troubled us all.
For nearly two decades, my firm has…
David English
As we all become accustomed to the ongoing restrictions as a result of Covid-19, an increasing number of Brits are looking for new and innovative ways to learn and develop. From home DIY to exercise classes, there are all kinds of weird and wonderful ways the British population is making the most…
Tom Taormina
Each article in this series presents new tools for increasing return on investment (ROI), enhancing customer satisfaction, creating process excellence, and driving risk from an ISO 9001:2015-based quality management system (QMS). They will help implementers evolve quality management to overall…
James Anderton
Injection mold making used to be a relatively simple business: machine the cavities and runners, polish, cross-drill for cooling, then shoot resin. Today, however, relentless pressure for lower part cost and higher productivity have led to bigger, faster machines with molds to match.
Multilayer…
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 massive shift to working from home has proven to be effective in helping employees stay productive.…
Benjamin Kessler
The full economic impact of the pandemic has yet to be felt. However, it seems beyond dispute that Covid-19 and globalization don’t mix well. Of course, all economic activity is suffering in this worldwide recession—but the global breadth of business may experience an especially acute shrinking…
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 foreseeable future. As such, the first logical step is to turn to existing methods and approaches…
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 in reporters and journalists, 8 percent in small business owners, and only 11 percent in ministers…
Richard Fendler
Job satisfaction is important to most people, and yet this can be a fairly nebulous concept that is tricky to achieve and also tough to measure in a meaningful way.
Luckily a number of software platforms designed to manage employee recognition have emerged in recent years, as outlined in this…
Rajesh Midha
Digital experiences surround us in all aspects of our lives. Today, as consumers of products and services, we can accomplish most of our tasks digitally. This digital ecosystem has been carefully crafted by brands that have spent millions of dollars to create experiences to build and grow…
Jason Chester
For manufacturers—as for all of us—the past few months have been a blur of fast adaptations and long periods of waiting. At the start of the pandemic, many manufacturers did what they have always done in the face of disruption: adapt and find the fastest workaround for the challenge at hand.…