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Imagine yourself in your local supermarket, doing your usual grocery run. In aisle after aisle, countless brands vie for your dollars and attention. Colgate, Crest, and Aquafresh toothpaste. Smucker’s, Welch’s, and Dickinson’s strawberry jam. Coke, Pepsi, and RC Cola soft drinks.
Like most…
Ensuring the quality of a car’s performance and design, FARO 3D measurement technology solutions provide simple yet accurate ways of taking contact and noncontact measurements for quality control in automobile manufacturing and assembly.
Portable CMMs such as articulated arms can be used for rapid…
Why are some companies more productive than others? And why do certain divisions within those companies perform better than others do? Research has shown that top performers tend to invest more in research and development, adopt better technology, and employ a more educated workforce.
But a new…
It was a year ago that our country lost one of its most well-known and respected mavericks in recent political history. After John McCain passed away, many felt that his death left a void that would be hard to fill and wondered whether nonconformist leaders like him, who usually worry more about…
Amidst a sea of alarming cybersecurity statistics, there’s one that perfectly captures today’s reality. It’s from a 2019 Trend Micro survey, which says: “80 percent of all businesses expect to be hacked this year.” Not “perhaps” or even “likely.” But will be hacked.
And perhaps worse, only 39…
(Wiley: Hoboken, NJ) -- Sustainable Development Goals (Wiley, 2019) offers practical pathways for achieving and implementing the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Bringing together leaders from the World Bank, the financial and business sectors, the start-up community, and academia…
The World Economic Forum (WEF) estimates that artificial intelligence (AI) will displace 75 million jobs across the globe by 2022, and that the pace will only continue to increase. A PwC report predicts that 38 percent of jobs in the United States—as well as 30 percent in the United Kingdom, 35…
The World Economic Forum (WEF) estimates that artificial intelligence (AI) will displace 75 million jobs across the globe by 2022, and that the pace will only continue to increase. A PwC report predicts that 38 percent of jobs in the United States—as well as 30 percent in the United Kingdom, 35…
How would you like to go hands-free, maintain visual focus, and save time? These are just some of the benefits of using voice command to control machinery. Increasingly sophisticated natural language processing, based on artificial intelligence, also means that it is becoming possible to issue…
(Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, North Kingstown, RI) -- Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division will host HxGN LIVE Smart Manufacturing Day on Thurs., Oct. 17, 2019, at its North American headquarters located in Quonset Business Park, North Kingstown, RI. University of Rhode Island (URI…
Several years ago, I was asked to address a startup meeting at a new client, a large manufacturer of medical devices. The company was resource-rich, but after several years of trying had not yet gained significant traction with its lean efforts.
There were perhaps 40 people in the room, half from…
Many organizations feel the need to be leaner, faster, stronger, more adaptable, and more profitable. The right toolset to get them to that outcome may not be intuitive or singular.
Building organizational agility is a solid approach to help organizations develop the capacity to perpetually evolve…
Most people attribute business disruption to technology, thinking of the iPhone, 3D printing, robotics, and artificial intelligence. However, technology alone does not cause disruption. The iPhone didn’t succeed because of its technology; it succeeded because it met customer needs better than any…
The food industry is evolving rapidly, with consumers demanding quality, authenticity, and transparency from food manufacturers. And they’re not just demanding it; they’re “voting with their dollars,” supporting companies that align with their personal beliefs. To keep up with consumer demand—and…
Across the United States, small and medium-sized manufacturers are contemplating integrating industrial robots into their facilities. There is a growing awareness that increasingly flexible and affordable robotics systems can help existing workers in a variety of different ways, taking on…
The most noteworthy and significant change in data privacy regulation in more than 20 years recently came by way of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union (EU). Being GDPR-compliant has become an important consideration in the way data are stored, handled, and processed…
Without soil, water, and sunlight, a large, strong oak tree won’t grow. The same concept applies when building lean processes for a small to medium-sized manufacturer. While it’s critical to get every employee on board with lean practices, upper management must lead the way to ensure successful…
Last month I looked at how the fixed-width limits of a process behavior chart filter out virtually all of the routine variation regardless of the shape of the histogram. In this column I will look at how effectively these fixed-width limits detect signals of economic importance when skewed…
Have you created a vision? You might be excited about it, but are others? Does your vision inspire, motivate, and guide decision making?
It’s better to test your vision now than to find out later that it’s simply a wall decoration.
And if you already created a vision a while ago, it’s still…
For growth-starved Western entrepreneurs, the Chinese market is appealing. Think about it: Since 1995, China’s economy has grown by a factor of 18.5, from $735 billion to $13.6 trillion (excluding Hong Kong). In terms of purchasing power parity, it is now the No. 1 economy in the world.…
Every year, Manufacturing Day brings attention to the career path that has financed millions of growing families throughout the decades—including mine. This attention also recalls the ongoing shortage of people to fill the thousands of available jobs in manufacturing. The same can be said for the…
If you think it’s hard to tell how you’re doing at your job, imagine being a hockey goalie. Let’s say you block every shot in a game. Was that performance due to your superior skills? Or maybe just to a lack of skill in your opponents?
Evaluating ice hockey players' performance is getting easier,…
If you think it’s hard to tell how you’re doing at your job, imagine being a hockey goalie. Let’s say you block every shot in a game. Was that performance due to your superior skills? Or maybe just to a lack of skill in your opponents?
Evaluating ice hockey players' performance is getting easier,…
Editor’s note: Read episode two in the Respect for People series here.
I was standing in a back room of the Honolulu Museum of Art that was off limits to the public. In this one room, protected from bugs, humidity, and light, was the world’s largest collection of Japanese woodblock prints. (My…
I write about organizational culture and core values quite often. One of my most recent articles on this topic was about whether employees believe in their companies’ core values. I shared this statistic from Gallup: Only 23 percent of U.S. employees believe that they can apply the core values to…