David Marshall
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Set a Thief to Catch a Thief: What is So Important About Cybersecurity for a Manufacturer?
- September 16, 2020
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Safety
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You don’t think about a manufacturer’s computer operation as being an attractive target for hackers and thieves, but many manufacturers are vulnerable to cyberattacks for any number of reasons because their cybersecurity is practically nonexistent. For one thing, hackers may just see disrupting your operation as something to do. They break into your system for
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How Can You Handle Rush Orders? (Small Batch Sizes)
- September 9, 2020
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Digital Transformation, Innovation
It doesn’t matter how well you plan, all it takes is one bad inventory count or runaway forklift for a customer to have a rush order for a small number of parts, say 250 brackets. It’s something you don’t make that often and you have to retool and set up for that order which makes
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The Problems With Outsourcing Manufacturing
- August 26, 2020
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Manufacturing
I’ve never been a fan of outsourcing manufacturing, especially to overseas providers, for a couple of reasons. For one thing, you can very quickly lose control of the quality of your product. Your supplier can make several thousand units but slip on the specs even a little. Something’s a little off, or they used a
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How Does Digital Manufacturing Help You Become Agile?
- August 19, 2020
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Manufacturing
If you’ve ever made pancakes on a Saturday morning, you probably know the first one is always the throwaway, the mistake, the burnt offering to the breakfast gods. It’s the one you either throw in the garbage, or sneak eat while everyone else is still getting ready. You burned it or undercooked it, or something
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You Don’t REALLY Need to Create a Lean Operation, Do You?
- August 12, 2020
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management
We hear a lot about lean manufacturing and lean principles these days, but it’s kind of a catchword. I’ve never been a big fan of buzzwords because they only complicate something that’s already simple, but I don’t think “lean” necessarily means anything special. For the most part, I’ve found you don’t need to be “lean”
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Why You Should Keep Marketing in an Economic Downturn
- August 5, 2020
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Innovation, Management
One of the biggest mistakes executives make during an economic downturn is to make cuts to their sales and marketing staff. Those are the two departments that actually make the money that your company runs on, which means there are fewer people helping you make money, which means you make less money. Sales have to
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Five Improvements Digital Manufacturing Can Make For Your Manufacturing Company
- July 29, 2020
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Digital Transformation, Manufacturing
Digital media has done a lot for the sales and marketing world. We can quickly and easily create photos and videos, personalize them for people, and even automate that process. Software has done some amazing things to not only allow marketers to reach their customers but to create amazing content to reach them with. The
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How Do You Replenish a Decimated Workforce?
- July 22, 2020
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Management
With unemployment up and the economy facing some serious difficulties, many companies have furloughed or laid off their workforce, if only to protect their assets and hope for a recovery when they can bring those associates back. In the meantime, one of two things has happened: 1) the furloughed staff have been receiving unemployment for
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The Value of Smart Manufacturing in 2020
- July 15, 2020
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Digital Transformation, Manufacturing
The pandemic has created unprecedented changes in the American economy for the last several months. Some companies have shut down and furloughed their employees, while other companies that manufacture food, PPE, or medical supplies are seeing skyrocketing demands for their products, and they’re fighting to keep up with the increase in orders. Other companies are
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What are the Downsides of a Digital Workplace?
- July 8, 2020
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Digital Transformation, Manufacturing
There are a lot of people who are worried about the implications of an automated and digital workplace in a manufacturing setting, but the truth is there are no real downsides. If anything, a digital workplace solves an awful lot of practical problems. The funny thing is that having a totally people-powered operation is a