Lean

Cutting costs is nothing new in manufacturing. What’s new is having to do it while juggling labor shortages, supplier delays, and tighter customer demands. Lean principles, such as reducing waste and optimizing workflows, still matter, but they’re no longer enough on their own. Staying…

After a couple of heart attacks, I’ve learned to eat much healthier. But finding snacks can be challenging once you remove Doritos and Cheetos from the equation. A good substitute for me is now Harvest Snaps, which are baked lentil pods. I highly recommend the tomato-basil version.

Driving home from a customer last week, I caught a glimpse of a digital billboard—the kind that flashes eight different ads per minute. From a cost and aesthetic perspective, these backlit displays are a big step up from the old paperhanger versions. But I wondered: What do drivers actually see…

Uncertainty often pushes manufacturers to slow down. Orders fluctuate, budgets tighten, and “wait and see” becomes the default strategy. But a growing number of companies are taking the opposite approach, using slowdowns as windows to invest in digitalization and automation.  

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In several articles about challenges for tomorrow’s quality leaders, we’ve addressed how to plug the knowledge drain and effectively manage your company’s know-how. Your organizational structure and processes can be your worst enemy—or best asset. Organizational silos and roadblocks can impede…

They may seem simple, but SOPs (standard operating procedures) are surprisingly tricky. On the surface, they describe how a specific process is carried out at your organization. Pretty straightforward, right?

In reality, there are a lot of requirements for writing a good SOP, and…