smart manufacturing

  • The Role of Safety Audits in Preventing Workplace Accidents

    • August 21, 2024
    • Posted by: Nanette Gregory
    • Category: Manufacturing, Safety
    No Comments

    I’m going to say something that’s going to upset some people. There should be no safety audits in a factory setting. Why is that? Because safety audits are like restaurant inspections. Everyone who has ever worked in a restaurant knows the dirty little secret: when you know a health inspector is showing up, everyone makes

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  • Perform an Annual ABC Analysis to Find New Profits

    • May 19, 2024
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Management, Manufacturing
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    According to the Pareto Principle (also called the 80/20 rule), you’re wasting a large portion of your time on items and customers that don’t actually have an ROI for you. That is, 20% of your customers bring in 80% of your results, and 20% of your inventory brings in 80% of your sales. Conversely, 80%

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  • How Would You Start a Manufacturing Business Now?

    • November 24, 2021
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Manufacturing
    No Comments
    There are thousands of containers waiting to be offloaded cargo ships on the west coast, which is causing serious supply chain issues.

    Every new business needs an idea, or at least an opportunity, to get things rolling. And these days, during the supply chain crisis, there are plenty of opportunities that abound. Rather than trying to come up with a new product and convincing people that they want it, you could become wildly successful by giving people

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  • What are the First Steps a Manufacturer Should Take to Modernize?

    • October 20, 2021
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Digital Transformation, Innovation, Manufacturing
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    A modern-day smart factory.

    Last week, I talked about how there’s still a need for old-school manufacturing, but that doesn’t mean that there will always be a need. Some of you old-school manufacturers need to modernize and update your systems. If you’re still running labor-intensive processes and you’re struggling to find labor just to meet your orders, then maybe

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  • Apply the “Touch It Once” Productivity Principle to Manufacturing

    • June 9, 2021
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Digital Transformation, Manufacturing, Productivity
    No Comments
    A factory worker modeling the touch it once philosophy in manufacturing

    I often hear about the “Touch It Once” principle from productivity experts. The idea is that as soon as you pick up an item — say, an email or a piece of mail — you deal with it immediately. You don’t set it down to do later, you deal with it at that moment. That

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  • Want to Be Lean? Improve Customer Value

    • April 21, 2021
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Leadership, Manufacturing
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    A factory worker checks his equipment for problems. This is how you run a lean manufacturing operation.

    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 Maintain the Right Inventory Levels Without Resorting to Just-In-Time or Bulk Ordering?

    • February 24, 2021
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Management, Manufacturing
    No Comments
    A red walkway floor in a clean factory. They probably practice just-in-time manufacturing to keep it that clean.

    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 Does Digital Manufacturing Help You Become Agile?

    • August 19, 2020
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Manufacturing
    No Comments
    Digital manufacturing equipment can help you avoid the cast-offs and defects of traditional manufacturing setups.

    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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  • Five Improvements Digital Manufacturing Can Make For Your Manufacturing Company

    • July 29, 2020
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Digital Transformation, Manufacturing
    No Comments
    Photo of a woman engineer sitting at a laptop in a factory, part of a digital manufacturing operation.

    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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  • The Value of Smart Manufacturing in 2020

    • July 15, 2020
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Digital Transformation, Manufacturing
    No Comments
    An example of smart manufacturing technology.

    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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