All Features
William A. Levinson
Valuable American manufacturing jobs were sent offshore under the dysfunctional belief that low-wage labor would result in lower product costs and higher profits. Although it may seem counterintuitive, manufacturers do better with high-wage workers who will acquire skills, follow work standards,…
Matthew T. Hughes, Srinivas Garimella
Not only people need to stay cool, especially in a summer of record-breaking heat waves. Many machines, including cellphones, data centers, cars, and airplanes, become less efficient and degrade more quickly in extreme heat. Machines generate their own heat, too, which can make hot temperatures…
William A. Levinson
Inflation is a serious national issue. Credit agency Fitch Ratings just downgraded the U.S. credit rating—as in the “full faith and credit of the United States”—from AAA to AA+.1 This doubtlessly reflects the fact that our national debt exceeds $31 trillion, or almost $100,000 for every American,…
Stephanie Ojeda
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Workplace safety incidents are a key driver of risk in manufacturing organizations. There are the obvious risks to workers, whose ability to make a living directly depends on their employer’s approach to safety.
There are also huge risks to companies themselves, which face…
Mike Figliuolo
Do you find yourself muttering, “I hate my job” every day when you wake up? Have you been saying that for more than a month straight? Are people starting to avoid you because you’re a downer to be around?
Then it’s probably time to shut your mouth and quit your job.
Yep. Time for another…
Rob McAveney
For most discrete manufacturing companies, digital transformation initiatives are underway in some capacity. They’re largely seen as table stakes in today’s economy. Unfortunately, outdated systems and procedures often bring problems that hinder these initiatives.
A lack of consistency among…
Mike Figliuolo
Life goals. Bucket lists. “One day I’ll ....”
We all have dreams and goals. The biggest difference between people who achieve them and those who don’t is the act of actually doing. Do you have goals and things you want to achieve? Professional aspirations? Personal bucket list items?
Let me ask…
Audrey Kim
Before he became an expert on corporate leadership, Charles O’Reilly spent five years in the U.S. Army. There he witnessed the stark divide between good and bad leaders and realized how much influence they had on the people who worked for them.
Now a professor of organizational behavior at…
Max Farrell
While recent economic reports on inflation have signaled positive signs for the future, frontline industry turnover rates remain high. With further supply chain disruptions looming, retaining top talent has never been more important for employers. These pressing challenges and continual raw-…
ISO
Net zero is our strongest tool yet against the climate crisis. The transition to net-zero emissions presents a compelling solution that offers not only environmental benefits but also economic, social, and health advantages. Failing to act swiftly and decisively risks catastrophic climate change,…
Gleb Tsipursky
The unemployment rate is surprisingly low, at 3.7%, shocking economists who expected a slowdown in hiring and rising unemployment rate. Frontline work, such as healthcare, led job growth. Frontline workers are in high demand, and the competition for their services is fierce. Yet wage growth cooled…
Melissa Phillips
The levels of contaminants in our food supply are, generally, decreasing. That’s the good news.
But we still need to measure those contaminants and make sure our food is safe. And measuring tiny things (and big things) is what we do best here at NIST.
In our food safety program, we’re studying all…
Bob Ferrone
Industry stands at a new frontier of how organizations will be structured. With rapid advancements in technology, changing consumer behaviors, and the emergence of new business models, businesses are being forced to adapt and evolve to remain competitive. Businesses are also focusing more on…
Jeanne Quimby
As I sat with my 7-year-old son for more than an hour in front of an abstract painting, I saw what appeared to be black paint thrown onto a white canvas.
My son loves abstract paintings. He was explaining to me how much I was missing by just looking at the paint color. I hadn’t seen the energy…
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
On the grounds of the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center sits the nation’s first additively manufactured home made entirely from biobased materials—BioHome3D. The 600 sq ft home, the result of a collaboration between Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the…
Martin Cottam
It’s tempting to attribute the increased profile now given to occupational health and safety (OH&S) to the Covid-19 pandemic. But while in many organizations the pandemic shone a spotlight on OH&S management, there are other issues that will keep OH&S at the fore throughout the next…
Gleb Tsipursky
With 74 percent of U.S. companies transitioning to a permanent hybrid work model, leaders are turning their attention to measuring the success of their return-to-office and hybrid work policies. That’s because, in the United States, there’s only one traditional office-centric model of M–F/9–5, but…
Bryan Christiansen
With so many assets and projects to think about, facilities management is a huge and complex field. It’s easy to lose focus.
Luckily, there’s a simple and easy fix for this problem—facility management KPIs (key performance indicators). Outlining and tracking the most important ones will help you…
Stephanie Ojeda
Quality management and environmental health and safety (EHS) have traditionally existed as siloed processes and roles in most organizations. It’s easy to see why, given the forces that have shaped quality and safety during their history.
Modern quality management was born from the post-World War…
Robert Mazzucka
Manufacturing has always had an element of matchmaking at its core. As a supplier, you want to be found quickly by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), prime contractors, and tier one and two suppliers. Buyers want to find companies capable of doing their work.
The ability of manufacturers and…
Lauren Richards
Why is the telecommunications industry so important? Given that everything from observing Earth via satellites to scrolling through social media relies on telecom companies or “telcos,” providing a succinct and effectual answer to this question is a cosmic challenge.
However, to put it into…
Joshua Zable
Optimizing inventory, like most problem-solving, requires a thoughtful process and a few steps. Naturally, the easiest way to prevent back orders is to always have a lot of inventory on hand. There are ramifications for not optimizing inventory, though. Overproducing and maintaining high inventory…
Leslie Bloom
Our country has proven to be a place where workers who are skilled with their hands (and have a head for all things mechanical) can flourish, even during difficult times.
The value of resilience has been etched into the soul of our most famous products: • Thomas Edison’s phonograph in 1877 • Henry…
Scott A. Snyder
Recently, ESG has become a main topic of shareholders, boards, and C-suites. Billions in capital have been deployed through Impact or ESG-rated funds. Ninety percent of S&P 500 companies now have ESG strategies, and ESG mentions grew more than 300 percent in investor briefings. Major indices…
Bob Ferrone
Quality and sustainability are two critical aspects of modern business operations that are closely intertwined. While quality refers to the level of excellence or standard achieved in a product or service, sustainability relates to the ability to maintain or improve that quality over time while…