by BILL WADDELL Suppose you are in charge of Pepsi and things aren't going so good - sales stagnant, profits lagging. What do you do? The lady in charge these days, Indra Nooyi, is doing exactly what her resume drives...
- 5 days ago, 17 Feb 12, 1:31pm -

by BILL WADDELL You can't really blame Baltimore Sun writer Julie Bykowicz for writing nonsense - after all she's a journalist and, by definition an expert at nothing except the high art of avoiding ending sentences with prepositions and the...
- 6 days ago, 16 Feb 12, 1:10pm -

by BILL WADDELL Heather Peters is not someone you have likely heard of - unless you are a lawyer, that is, or Honda. In that case, you have not only heard of her but are probably either furious with her,...
- 9 days ago, 13 Feb 12, 2:53pm -

By Kevin Meyer A recent Wall Street Journal article on French parenting methods has been rattling around in my noggin for a week so I've got to do something about it to free up some aging neurons. Yes it is...
- 16 days ago, 6 Feb 12, 7:08pm -

by BILL WADDELL A curious observation on the Apple article Kevin covered the New York Times Apple article quite well, so I won't repeat. I had to point out, however, the curious incongruity between the Dow Corning exec who said...
- 21 days ago, 2 Feb 12, 5:48am -

The National Activity Index from the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank dropped from 0.54 in December to 0.22 in January. PositiveRead the Rest...
- 1 day ago, 21 Feb 12, 8:52pm -

The National Association of Manufacturers is pleased by the news today that finally, the U.S.-Korea trade agreement will take effect onRead the Rest...
- 1 day ago, 21 Feb 12, 5:04pm -

American manufacturers are focused on investment, expansion and job creation.  One important way to do this is by expanding theirRead the Rest...
- 1 day ago, 21 Feb 12, 4:33pm -

NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons appeared on the Don & Roma radio show on WLS 890 in Chicago todayRead the Rest...
- 1 day ago, 21 Feb 12, 4:31pm -

The U.S. economy continues to expand, with last week’s manufacturing and housing indicators showing progress. While the top-line industrial productionRead the Rest...
- 1 day ago, 21 Feb 12, 2:49pm -

(September 2011) Those of you who have participated in the 2011 McGladrey® Manufacturing & Distribution Monitor survey series have gained a robust view of the state of the U.S. manufacturing and distribution industry, along with a detailed understan…
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(September 2011) The results of the McGladrey Summer 2011 Manufacturing & Distribution Monitor study have been released.Company executives and managers across the country participated in this current edition of the Monitor. The results indicate tha…
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(August 2011) In my July 25 post I discussed some preliminary data from the McGladrey® Manufacturing & Distribution Monitor summer survey regarding plans by our respondents to expand workforce over the coming year. It initially appeared that, even t…
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(August 2011) Bob Jirsa joins us today as a guest blogger. Bob is a managing director and leader of McGladrey’s Manufacturing & Distribution practice in the mid-Atlantic region. He regularly interacts with industry executives and has his finger on…
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(August 2011) As a manufacturer/distributor, you know that any type of systems or production downtime can quickly impact the customers who rely on you, thereby impacting your revenue stream. Some recent trends in manufacturing have illuminated the ne…
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Software to the rescueIn part 4 of this series (Back in December … it has been a busy start to the year!) I introduced the idea of the "design to production pipeline."  This was to illustrate the design to manufacturing continuum and show a strate…
- 16 days ago, 7 Feb 12, 7:13am -

Choice Items for the New YearI've hit the pause button on the "Tools of the Trade" postings for the moment and, on the occasion of New Year, have included here a few items that seem a propos to green manufacturing - broadly interpreted- under the hea…
- 50 days ago, 4 Jan 12, 3:42am -

Building the green manufacturing pipelineIt has been a busy month of December so I am a bit behind in this posting. The good news is some of my activities helped me to frame this and the next few discussions!In a post on October 14, 2009 I discussed…
- 58 days ago, 26 Dec 11, 7:39pm -

Maps and directionsWe continue our discussion of the the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) Sustainable Manufacturing Toolkit and related items. In case you've missed the past two posting you can find details on the toolkit…
- 87 days ago, 28 Nov 11, 6:41am -

Still turning!In the last posting we began digging into the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) Sustainable Manufacturing Toolkit. The toolkit can help companies the their business approach to be more viable, socially respon…
- 14 Nov 11, 8:00am -

When considering the implementation of an enterprise manufacturing execution system, what is the best implementation partner strategy?
- 14 days ago, 8 Feb 12, 10:00am -

The global manufacturing tactics utilized to effectively making and distributing global goods on a global scale is highly strategic.
- 22 days ago, 31 Jan 12, 7:00pm -

Manufacturers increasingly rely on an expanded global supply chain, putting pressure on the ability to deliver global trace and genealogy.
- 26 days ago, 27 Jan 12, 4:00pm -

There are three steps to achieving Lean success – second step is to be sure process improvements can be measured
- 35 days ago, 18 Jan 12, 6:50pm -

Automotive manufacturing continues to be impacted from its global transformation … expect a continuation into 2012
- 42 days ago, 11 Jan 12, 6:00pm -

A metal fabricator knows the importance of diversity in business. A diverse customer base helps a company avoid the dramatic ups and downs that may come with being linked too closely to one industrial segment. A management team with diverse backgroun…
- 5 days ago, 17 Feb 12, 4:52pm -

Yesterday I visited an Atlanta-area fabricator that moved into a new facility two weeks ago. The company name says it all, really: Mitchell’s Specialized Fabrication. It’s a specialized fabricator of industrial tanks, pressure vessels, and piping…
- 6 days ago, 16 Feb 12, 11:41pm -

Almost lost among today's msnbc.com headlines and the Internet chatter about Whitney Houston's death and whether the New Jersey governor is justified in calling for the state's flags to be flown at half-staff in memorial was a link in the "Business"…
- 7 days ago, 15 Feb 12, 9:09pm -

If you haven't checked the recent blog post by Vicki Bell, thefabricator.com's Web content manager, you are missing some good conversation. She referenced an e-mail from a fabricator who was responding to an article in the January 2012 "Fabricating U…
- 12 days ago, 10 Feb 12, 7:05pm -

The January "Fabricating Update" included statistics and comments from the e-newsletter's recent survey about fabricator concerns. Some of the comments focused on the lack of skilled labor, an oft-cited concern in the fabricating industry and manufac…
- 15 days ago, 7 Feb 12, 1:59pm -

The Paslode cordless gas nailer is one of the most distinct tools around the shop and has been for a number of years. Since we first picked one up, it’s proven to be more than capable, and its sheer portability has kept it within arm’s reach when…
- 2 hours ago, 22 Feb 12, 6:55pm -

We’ve been telling Toolmongers about the slow-but-mostly-inevitable move from incandescents to more energy-efficient lighting for a while now, like last year when the possibility of voting down anti-incandescent legislation arose. We even took on…
- 3 hours ago, 22 Feb 12, 6:51pm -

We have a big-ass whiteboard in the Toolmonger office, and it’s often a centerpiece for creative work. There’s nothing nicer than having lots of space to spread out a group’s ideas and kick them around visually. So when it comes to whiteboards…
- 1 day ago, 21 Feb 12, 6:36pm -

We joke around the office that if you ask Sean to make anything (from a bookcase to a giant dinosaur), the first thing he does is open Photoshop. (No, really.) So say you’ve crafted some awesome sign lettering or other cool pattern digitally, but…
- 1 day ago, 21 Feb 12, 6:32pm -

Mag drills are the tool of choice for steelworkers who need to drill big holes in, um, uncomfortable places, like, say, 20′ up the side of a vertical steel tube. The drill forms its own mount by magnetically gripping the steel (or other ferrous m…
- 2 days ago, 20 Feb 12, 7:24pm -

The Lean Enterprise Institute, Rhode Island-based VIBCO and instructor Gwen Galsworth will collaborate to offer the Visual Workplace/Visual Thinking seminar. The format is a combination of classroom and shop-floor learning. Participants will first at…
- 15 days ago, 7 Feb 12, 11:14pm -

Over the past week the greater Seattle area was met with the largest snowfall in a decade or two. Recently I was in New York City, where the season's supply of snow had dropped last October, with barely a blizzard since. Back in November during a t…
- 31 days ago, 23 Jan 12, 6:37am -

Image source: Wikimedia CommonsElmore Leonard is an American novelist who has been writing lean and taut crime novels for a half century. He is the Toyota of crime novels, if that's a compliment. Reliable, not flashy, always delivering on the prom…
- 41 days ago, 13 Jan 12, 2:20am -

The kanban has met many adventures on its way to becoming a popular tool for the limitation of tasks, projects and works in process. As superhero origin stories go, kanban has an interesting one. As long ago as 8th century Japan, guidelines were se…
- 49 days ago, 5 Jan 12, 4:56am -

Many years ago when I was first learning how to drive a car, my dear young aunt Ruth rode with me on an Illinois country road. She taught me the importance of accelerating when going into a curve. This was deeply counter intuitive to me, as I had p…
- 53 days ago, 1 Jan 12, 9:00am -

Check out the latest edition of our “From the Shop Floor (Unscripted)” series where we show you real MFG.com user interviews from people who obtained actual results. Hear about the value of MFG.com right from the source!             About S…
- 7 days ago, 15 Feb 12, 6:59pm -

Today, on our 12th year anniversary (oh yeah…and Valentine’s Day!), we launched the 10th edition of our MFGWatch Survey. The results are extremely interesting and very encouraging for the state of North American manufacturing and where we are hea…
- 8 days ago, 14 Feb 12, 7:07pm -

Beginning in the first quarter of 2011, MFG.com expanded its MFGWatch Quarterly Survey of North American Manufacturers to include manufacturers from Europe, the Middle East & Africa (EMEA). The survey was conducted from the MFG.com Paris office,…
- 70 days ago, 14 Dec 11, 9:45pm -

The latest MFGWatch survey was just launched to measure manufacturing activity in North America and Europe for the third quarter of 2011 and their expectations for the upcoming quarter. The most recent results show that while many North American Prod…
- 84 days ago, 30 Nov 11, 8:52pm -

On October 25 – 26th, MFG.com attended an event in Independence, OH that was all about Women in the largest industry in the world – Manufacturing. The Women in Manufacturing symposium, hosted by the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA), was d…
- 8 Nov 11, 2:54pm -