We have addressed the importance of operational excellence in a number of past posts and have discussed the key role that leadership plays in maintaining competitiveness in the current tumultuous environment. The whitepaper below builds on the information we have already explored by defining the more refined skills needed by today’s modern operational leaders. In the whitepaper below TBM Consulting, a firm that specializes in maximizing enterprise value and growth potential for their clients, shares their insights into the five skills needed for the modern operational leader. For more insights, join TBM Consulting at the American Manufacturing Summit 2016 taking place in Chicago on February 29th – March 1st! Be sure to stop by their booth, Booth #14!
Read More →How to take Additive Manufacturing from Prototyping to Production
Additive manufacturing technologies will revolutionize industrial manufacturing over the next few years. Manufacturers such as GE and 3M are already leveraging 3D printing technologies for product prototyping and direct parts production. Beyond product prototyping, Cognizant, a global leader in business and technology services, believes that manufacturers will be able to reduce time to market, improve quality, shorten supply chains and achieve production at scale through the adoption of additive manufacturing techniques. To help guide and inform manufacturers, Cognizant has developed a maturity model and assessment framework that enables informed decision-making on additive manufacturing adoption for volume production. In the whitepaper below Cognizant addresses the key challenges and opportunities in adopting additive manufacturing and outlines the framework required. Printing the Future From Prototype to Production To hear more from Cognizant, join them at Booth #15 at the American Manufacturing Summit 2016 taking place next month in Chicago!
Read More →How to Train your VGV (Vision Guided Vehicle)
In an earlier post we introduced VGVs and looked into how they improve efficiency, reduce costs and increase safety in manufacturing facilities. Today we return to VGVs in the form of an automated pallet truck. In the video below, provided by our friends at Seegrid, we take a closer look at how VGVs are trained in their behaviors. The video demonstrates how the infrastructure free design allows VGVs to learn their routes and how 3D mapping enables automated transport through facilities. Don’t forget to catch up with Seegrid by stopping by Booth #5 at the upcoming American Manufacturing Summit 2016 taking place at the end of the month in Chicago!
Read More →Using IoT To Become An Informed Manufacturer: The Why and How
The inter-connectivity of objects is generating unprecedented opportunities for innovation within industrial and consumer markets. IoT (Internet of things) defines this new connectivity. Sensors embedded within objects allow them to communicate with each other while continually gathering and transmitting large volumes of data about the current state of the object and its surroundings. Whether it be the communication of a heart sensor with a health monitor, the communication of a car engine with the display dashboard or the coordination of transportation fleets based on their current location, IoT is changing the way individuals, businesses and industries interact with the world around them. From an industrial perspective, IoT can enable streamlined processes, labor cost reductions and increased productivity through connectivity and automation. Manufacturers will be able to reap great rewards from these new technologies, as IoT may be applied across multiple segments throughout the manufacturing value chain. Cognizant, a global leader in business and technology services, has created a fantastic whitepaper that explains how IoT enables informed manufacturing and how manufacturers can jump-start their IoT journey. The Cognizant whitepaper (below) breaks down the 4 elements in informed manufacturing organizations; informed products, processes, people and infrastructure. It describes the promise of and potential uses of IoT within manufacturing and also explains the steps that manufacturers should take on their road to becoming an informed manufacturing organization. Designing-for-Manufacturings-Internet-of-Things To hear more from Cognizant, join them at Booth #15 at the American Manufacturing Summit 2016 taking place next month in Chicago!
Read More →4 Critical Steps to Becoming a High-Performance Organization
High-performance organizations optimize the use of their resources, adopt lean initiatives and processes, boost annual efficiency gains and achieve organizational goals. As the manufacturing landscape becomes more complex, manufacturers must adapt to new models of excellence to remain agile and competitive. Leadership is a key factor in achieving operational excellence. To take a closer look at how leadership will effect organizational excellence, we turned to our friends at TBM Consulting, a global operations management consulting firm that maximizes enterprise value and accelerates growth by working with clients to leverage operational excellence. Last year, TBM conducted an ‘Operational Expertise Leadership Survey’ to identify the largest and most common gaps in fundamental leadership skill-sets. TBM found that organizations struggle with 2 main issues within their leadership teams; issues with management systems and processes, or with actual leadership skills and behaviors (or both). We are fortunate enough to have TBM share their findings with us in the whitepaper below. In the following whitepaper, TBM discusses the survey results and identifies 4 critical steps to close the ‘skill-set gap’ in leadership and become a high-performance organization. TBM Identifying-and-addressing-your-in-house-operational-expertise-leadership-gaps Join TBM Consulting at the American Manufacturing Summit 2016 taking place in Chicago on February 29th – March 1st! Be sure to stop by their booth, Booth #14!
Read More →Speaker eBook: Q&A With Bill Remy, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, TBM Consulting
In this second edition in the eBook Speaker Series we sit down with Bill Remy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at TBM Consulting, to gather his opinions on the current and future state of the manufacturing industry. TBM is a global operations management consulting firm that maximizes enterprise value and accelerates growth by working with clients to leverage operational excellence. Given Bill’s expertise and depth of experience, we asked him to speak to the challenges of and solutions to the growing labor shortage, factors driving major change in manufacturing and provide his forecast for the years to come. We are thrilled to have Bill join our distinguished speaker faculty at the American Manufacturing Summit 2016, where he will address the complexities of Driving Strategy in a Rapidly Changing Environment. Bill Remy, Speaker eBook More information on Bill’s session is available on the American Manufacturing Summit 2016 website. For those of you attending the event, don’t forget to stop by Booth #14 to find out more about TBM.
Read More →Vision Guided Vehicles Drive Manufacturing Efficiency
Vision guided vehicles are the next generation of AGVs (Automated/Automatic Guided Vehicles). Unlike AGVs, VGVs navigate without wires, lasers, magnets, or tape, using three-dimensional vision navigation instead. Offering cost effective, improved material handling within manufacturing facilities, VGVs are gaining popularity due to their ability to: Improve facility and employee safety. Reduce labor and operating costs. Increase throughput and productivity. To understand how a VGV would actually operate within a facility we asked our friends at Seegrid to share one of their videos of a VGV in action. Seegrid is the pioneer and leader in three-dimensional vision navigation. They provide unique and revolutionary automation technology for materials handling. As the video illustrates, the VGV is first taken through its route in training mode by an operator, once the route has been complete, the VGV is ready to take on the load, unmanned. Take a look at the VGV video below! To find out more about Seegrid, visit the website or join us at the American Manufacturing Summit 2016 and visit Booth #5.
Read More →Infographic: 5 Questions that Lead to Better Supplier Management & Performance
Take a closer look at the infographic: SQA Services- Supplier Performance Management (1) Find out more about SQA Services online, or Join SQA at the upcoming American Manufacturing Summit 2016, taking place on February 29th – March 1st in Chicago!
Read More →Speaker eBook: Q&A with Dave Rauch, SVP, Worldwide Manufacturing Operations, Western Digital
With the American Manufacturing Summit only 7 weeks away, we took some time to sit down with a few of our key speakers and gather their opinions about the current and future state of manufacturing in the US. In this first eBook in the speaker series, Dave Rauch, SVP, Worldwide Manufacturing Operations at Western Digital, shares his opinions on the challenges, opportunities and burgeoning trends within the manufacturing industry. We are thrilled to have Dave join our distinguished speaker faculty to address “The Agony and Ecstasy of Incorporating Big Data Analytics and IoT in Manufacturing.” For more information on Dave’s session, please visit the American Manufacturing Summit website. eBook, Dave Rausch, American Manufacturing Summit 2016
Read More →End-to-End Supply Chain Synchronization: The importance of Predictive Analytics & Lean Pull
A major focus within this blog has been looking at methods to drive efficiency and enable operational excellence in manufacturing. One aspect we haven’t yet explored is end-to-end supply chain synchronization. Synchronizing the supply network with final customer demand is a key factor in driving operational excellence. By using actual customer demand across the supply network manufacturers can enable better service and conversion costs with less inventory. Shertrack LLC has released a fascinating case study that highlights the key elements in achieving end-to-end supply chain synchronization. To find out more about demand-driven predictive manufacturing and the benefits of synchronizing your supply chain, visit: http://shertrack.com/
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