All Features
Rina Hoffman
The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union reached a provisional agreement last month on the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation.
“The first element that makes a product green is the brain that designs it,” Spanish Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, says. “…
Del Williams
To provide food processors with insight into the industry’s current challenges and opportunities, Cablevey Conveyors, a global specialty conveyor manufacturer, and Automated Handling Solutions, a service-focused subsidiary of Cablevey, have released results from an annual proprietary survey…
Zach Winn
For professor Elsa Olivetti, tackling a problem as large and complex as climate change requires not only lab research but also understanding the systems of production that power the global economy.
Her career path reflects a quest to investigate materials at scales ranging from the microscopic to…
James Barai
Environmental consciousness is a priority for both consumers and businesses, now more than ever. Sustainable business practices continue to gain popularity across various industries, including the nutrition and food industry. In this realm, scientific laboratories are a resource-intensive space as…
Leah Chan Grinvald, Ofer Tur-Sinai
Cars are no longer just a means of transportation. They have become rolling hubs of data communication. Modern vehicles regularly transmit information wirelessly to their manufacturers.
However, as cars grow “smarter,” the right to repair them is under siege.
As legal scholars, we find that the…
Gad Allon
Amazon’s incredible growth over the years has made it a textbook example of what it means for a business to scale, going from a scrappy startup in Jeff Bezos’ garage to a multinational corporation with more than 1.5 million employees.
The retailer recently announced it’s hiring 250,000 full- and…
Poornima Apte
When Alexander O’Brien sent in his application for graduate school at MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, he had a germ of a research idea already brewing. So when he received a phone call from Professor Mingda Li, he shared it: The student from Arkansas wanted to explore the…
Mike Figliuolo
Have you ever met someone who was fired from their job? I’ll bet you $50 they said, “Yeah, I never saw it coming.” For some reason, getting canned always comes as a shock to people. They’re clueless as to how bad they’re doing and how close to the door they are.
Makes you wonder: Are you close to…
Ron Soonieus
Driven by geopolitical uncertainty, trade risks, and new technologies such as generative AI, the most profound business transformation in 50 years is underway. Alongside these factors, pressures from regulators and stakeholders are mounting around the reporting, transparency, and accountability of…
Julie van der Hoop
We’re all familiar with photos of Ford’s production lines in 1920. But would we recognize them today? As part of a broader trend referred to as “Industry 4.0,” systems in many factories have modernized considerably in recent years. This digitization of the manufacturing sector aims to apply…
John Davis
Over the past decade, one of the biggest advances in enterprise resource planning (ERP) has been the ability to communicate and integrate with machines and external software programs to lower costs and increase efficiency. For example, BOM Compare software can reduce engineering costs and get jobs…
Mike Figliuolo
I’m going to take over the world! It’s really fun to say that. It’s even more fun to take action toward that goal.
Our world has gotten smaller. Way smaller. Globalization is an unstoppable trend. But as they say, the trend is your friend, so why not take advantage of it? I don’t care how big or…
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,…
Bruce Hamilton
I’ll admit it: After five decades watching U.S. companies turning to simplistic accounting tricks to remain profitable, I’m discouraged.
I was a kid when I first discovered the Toyota Production System (TPS). My eyes were opened to the immense amount of waste in our production and business…
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…
Etienne Nichols
Supply chain management is crucial to any medtech company’s ability to deliver safe, effective, and high-quality devices to their customers.
But as anyone in the industry can tell you, consistently getting the products and services you need to manufacture your devices is harder than it sounds. In…
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…