manufacturing
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The Rise of Resilient Supply Chains: What Every Manufacturer Must Prepare For
- April 23, 2025
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Manufacturing
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I’ve been in manufacturing leadership for a long time, and I’ve seen some amazing technological advances. Gains in efficiency, gains in productivity, an increase in safety and sustainability — they all came from tightly-tuned (tightly-wound?) supply chains. For decades, the goal has been to adopt the Japanese method of “lean manufacturing” and reduce redundancy, minimize
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Manufacturing in 2030: Five Manufacturing Trends Leaders Can’t Afford to Ignore
- April 16, 2025
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Digital Transformation, Innovation, Leadership, Manufacturing
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all my time in leading manufacturing organizations, it’s that the industry never stands still. From the automation boom of the 20th century to lights-out warehouses and robotics to AI-driven factories, every decade has brought seismic shifts. Yet the changes in the next five years may be the most
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The Future of Manufacturing: Where AI, Automation, and Human Ingenuity Meet
- April 9, 2025
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Innovation, Leadership
For nearly fifty years, I’ve had the privilege of working at the intersection of materials science, high-volume product, and global supply chains. Whether it’s helping to improve efficiency or helping turn around a manufacturing operation, one lesson has remained consistent: Manufacturing is never static. It’s always evolving, always changing, and it reshapes not only what
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The Angriest a Customer Has Ever Been at Me
- February 5, 2025
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Management, Manufacturing
You can’t go through your business life without a customer getting angry at you. The thing that defines you is how you deal with that problem. Do you fix it, ignore it, or twist it around so it’s the customer’s fault and you can wash your hands of the entire problem? I remember an incident
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Building a Winning Team by Hiring for Skills, Not Education
- September 11, 2024
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Manufacturing
When you’re building a winning team, it’s important that you hire people for their knowledge and smarts, not their education and degrees. Too often, businesses require certain educational experiences that either don’t make any sense or mean you miss out on some prime candidates. If I had to choose between hiring a 22-year-old with a
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The Benefits of a Lean Manufacturing System
- September 4, 2024
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Management, Manufacturing
Lean manufacturing is a buzzword that gets used a lot, but what does it really mean and why should you care? Lean manufacturing is about eliminating waste and removing superfluous processes. It means having the ideal number of associates, trimming the fat, and making sure that everyone can get the most amount of work done
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Advanced Strategies for Creating a Lean Manufacturing System
- July 24, 2024
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Digital Transformation, Innovation, Manufacturing
You’re no doubt already familiar with lean manufacturing, as it’s now one of the most common manufacturing philosophies today. And even if you haven’t, you’ve heard about its core principles: reducing waste, improving efficiency, and maximizing your value to the customers. But lean is more than just eliminating waste or Jack Sprat’s wife’s dietary restrictions.
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How to Develop Good Leadership Habits
- June 26, 2024
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Leadership
Good leaders are always open to new ideas about how to become better leaders. They don’t assume they know everything, especially as they ascend to higher and higher positions. They know their strengths and work to make them even stronger. They know their weaknesses and work to make them, well, stronger, too. You don’t have
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How to Stay Competitive in a Global Market
- April 24, 2024
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Innovation, Management
We are truly in a global market these days, and the cost of production in the United States makes cheaper overseas production much more attractive to a lot of buyers. Despite the push to “Buy American” and other campaigns, overseas manufacturers are slashing costs and paying their workers a less-than-optimal wage. That makes it a
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What Role Do Public-Private Partnerships Play in Your Strategy?
- February 21, 2024
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Manufacturing
Many private companies and governmental agencies tout the benefits of public-private partnerships, but I’m a little leery of engaging in them. One thing experience has taught me is that developing a public-private partnership is a very expensive business. The public funding you receive is certainly not without its challenges and a lot of compliance requirement