Manufacturing
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Three Lessons Manufacturers Should Have Learned from the Pandemic
- April 28, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Manufacturing
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The COVID-19 pandemic certainly brought the world to a crashing halt, especially manufacturers. Companies that continued working were either considered essential manufacturers or they had pivoted and were making things like ventilators. We weren’t able to start working from home or working remotely. We had to be onsite, working in wide-open spaces, and trying to
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Want to Be Lean? Improve Customer Value
- April 21, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Manufacturing
So many companies have bought into the Lean philosophy, which can be downright silly at times. Not that the idea of streamlined operations is silly. Not at all. When I think of all the money companies have wasted over the years with bloated operations and “that’s the way we’ve always done it thinking,” I imagine
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How Do You Deal With Supply Shortages? How Can You Prevent Them?
- March 10, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Manufacturing
Here’s a scenario. Let’s say you’re expecting a shipment of needed parts in order to fill an order of your own. Maybe you’ve got a customer who’s waiting on you, or you’ve got a big installation that you’re working on. Your supplier calls you and says, “I’m sorry, we’re out of this part you need
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What It’s Like Working With Just-In-Time Manufacturing
- March 3, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Manufacturing, Productivity
One of the things manufacturers often come up against is the issue of just-in-time manufacturing. You find it with large manufacturers that mass producing a lot of products for larger projects. Just-in-time manufacturing means that your products or parts show up at another manufacturer’s plant or a project site just in time to be used,
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How Do You Maintain the Right Inventory Levels Without Resorting to Just-In-Time or Bulk Ordering?
- February 24, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Manufacturing
The story of just-in-time inventory is one used to frighten young manufacturing operations managers: automotive manufacturers are so tight on their just-in-time manufacturing require their vendors to deliver their shipments at a specific minute or else they’ll be fined thousands of dollars for every minute of delay. Operations managers hear this and begin considering all
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How Have the Challenges of Manufacturing Remained the Same Over the Years?
- February 17, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Manufacturing
Over the last several years — decades, in fact — certain aspects of manufacturing have stayed the same. I could say the attitudes about change and disruption, but that would be a bit mean. And also untrue. If you’ve paid attention to the automotive manufacturing industry, you already know the massive changes they’ve gone through
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How Important is Ongoing Safety Training in a Manufacturing Operation?
- February 10, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Manufacturing, Safety
Ongoing safety training is critical in any manufacturing operation. It’s not just a one-and-done, set it and forget it type of operation. Safety training is absolutely essential because your first priority in your business is human life. You absolutely, positively have to protect that above everything else; there are no two ways about it. Protecting
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What’s Stopping Additive Manufacturing in the Factories?
- February 3, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Digital Transformation, Manufacturing
I’ve been interested in digital manufacturing and additive manufacturing ever since we tore down and rebuilt an entire factory to take advantage of the latest in digital manufacturing technology back in 2007–08. So I like to keep an eye on the latest trends and developments in the field, especially around measurement, hiring, and, of course,
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Should Manufacturers Use Blockchain
- January 27, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Digital Transformation, Innovation, Manufacturing
You’re no doubt hearing more and more about blockchain and how it’s being used in new and different applications. For one thing, you’re probably hearing more about Bitcoin, and you may even know that it operates on the blockchain principles. But what is blockchain? Is it important? Can manufacturers use it? Should we use it?
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5 Manufacturing Predictions for 2021
- January 6, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Digital Transformation, Innovation, Manufacturing
Sometimes we’re so close to the trees that we can’t see the forest. We’re so focused on this one tree, not realizing that the forest is growing and changing all around us. I feel that way when I think about all the manufacturing technology changes that have been going on around us in 2020 and