Articles
The Year Ends on a Better Note in U.S. Manufacturing
January 4, 2013 12:50 pm | by Jon Minnick, Associate Editor, Manufacturing Business Technology | CommentsThe overall economy continued to grow for the 43rd consecutive month while economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded, moving the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) back over the 50 percent mark in December, according to the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business.
Getting Your Capital Acquisition Process in Gear for the New Year
January 4, 2013 9:35 am | by Sudeep Menon, Global Practice Leader of Equipment, Engineering and Construction, Procurian | CommentsTo compete and win in today’s marketplace, manufacturers have begun to re-evaluate what was once a technical undertaking and an administrative afterthought: the capital acquisition process. For decades, multi-million dollar decisions about essential equipment buys have been left to the engineering department, and while their in-depth knowledge is essential, achieving real efficiency and real savings requires something more.
Five Ways to Minimize Manufacturing Downtime
January 3, 2013 12:48 pm | by Tom Bonine, President, National Metal Fabricators | CommentsDowntime is dangerous to any manufacturing group. After all, the old saying that compares time to money is true. If people or machines are idle, then products are not being made, which certainly affects the business’s bottom line — minimizing manufacturing downtime makes money for a company.
Prepare for the Inevitable: The Four Cornerstones of Career Insurance
January 3, 2013 9:23 am | by Dr. Marty Martin | CommentsThere is more to job security than mastering job search skills. There are plenty of books about resume writing, networking, interviewing and developing a LinkedIn profile. These job search skills are important, but not sufficient in an age when companies and even entire industries are undergoing radical changes.
Strategy, Reliability and Service
January 2, 2013 12:26 pm | by Alan Nicol, Executive Member, AlanNicolSolutions | CommentsDo you have a product strategy? What is it? Does everyone taking part in its development know what it is? Answering these questions can be the key to brand reputation and business success in an era of fickle customers.
Experts Offer Five Perspectives on Poultry Industry Future
January 2, 2013 9:15 am | CommentsWith high feed costs, increased government regulations and intensifying consumer demands, the future of the poultry industry is difficult to predict. At the Poultry Solutions Seminar held in Hannover, Germany Nov. 12, a number of distinguished poultry industry experts discussed their cutting edge research and the issues that they believe will be of most importance in 2013.
Sensing The Wireless Future
December 21, 2012 9:23 am | by Janine E. Mooney, Editor, WDD | CommentsSensors enable engineers to establish wireless techniques that will ensure the reliability of data transmission, eliminate disturbance by other wireless devices, ensure data security (and safety), and lower the power consumption and price.
FM Rewind: Top Stories Of 2012
December 21, 2012 8:00 am | by Krystal Gabert, Editor | CommentsAs 2012 comes to a close, the Food Manufacturing editors have put our heads together to recap the top food news stories of the year. Today we present the top 10 most-read stories of the year, according to readers of Food Manufacturing newsletters. Stay tuned all week as we bring you the year in review.
Cloud-Based Voice Helps Distributors Exceed Customer Expectations
December 20, 2012 12:42 pm | by Keith Phillips, President and CEO, Voxware | CommentsIn an industry where high velocity, tight margins and aggressive customer service commitments are the norm, the increased demands of the holiday season provide additional stress on distributors’ fulfillment resources. Regardless of the added pressure, distributors know the importance of getting their customer’s orders correct and exceeding their expectations in the order-to-delivery cycle.
FM Rewind: Biggest Disasters Of 2012
December 20, 2012 8:00 am | by Krystal Gabert, Editor | CommentsAs 2012 comes to a close, the Food Manufacturing editors have put our heads together to recap the top food news stories of the year. Today we bring you the top industry disasters and debacles of 2012. Stay tuned all week as we bring you the year in review.
Enabling The Digital Plant
December 19, 2012 12:17 pm | by Dan O’Brien, Global Leader, Collaborative Manufacturing, Honeywell Process Solutions | CommentsGlobalization is presenting industries with myriad challenges to growth, sustainability and profitability. Vertical markets across the process industries are confronted daily with these challenges, and compete in an increasingly rigorous environment marked by tighter regulation, growing margin pressures and an aging workforce, among other issues.
FM Rewind: Favorite Features Of 2012
December 19, 2012 8:00 am | by Krystal Gabert, Editor | CommentsAs 2012 comes to a close, the Food Manufacturing editors have put our heads together to recap the top food news stories of the year. We’ve taken into account reader feedback as well as our own favorites in order to present you with some of the most interesting articles we ran in 2012. Stay tuned all week as we bring you the year in review.
Embracing Technology For Recall Preparedness
December 18, 2012 12:05 pm | by Mike Edgett, Director, Industry Marketing, Process Manufacturing, Infor | CommentsFood companies are no strangers to the world of product recalls. Most modern companies have a detailed, yet very manual process in place for handling a recall scenario. The objective of a plan is to ensure that any suspect product is quickly removed from commerce and to help the company manage specific customer requirements as well as International Organization for Standardization (ISO) guidelines.
FM Rewind: Favorite Photos Of 2012
December 18, 2012 8:00 am | by Krystal Gabert, Editor | CommentsAs 2012 comes to a close, the Food Manufacturing editors have put our heads together to recap the top food news stories of the year. We’ve crunched the numbers and are ready to serve you up the top five photos of the year. Stay tuned all week as we bring you the year in review.
Sweet Possibilities In Stevia
December 17, 2012 12:56 pm | by Benjamin Fleischer, CEO, Pyure Brands, LLC | CommentsOn Friday, Nov. 30, Health Canada approved the use of steviol glycosides (commonly referred to as “stevia”) as tabletop sweeteners and food additives. The effects of the approval are expected to be immediate and far-reaching as consumer demand for healthy, reduced-sugar food and beverage products continues to swell.
FM Rewind: Top Recalls & Outbreaks Of 2012
December 17, 2012 8:00 am | by Krystal Gabert, Editor | CommentsAs 2012 comes to a close, the Food Manufacturing editors have put our heads together to recap the top food news stories of the year. Using a careful metric analyzing scope, scale and newsworthiness, we rank the top five recalls of the year. Stay tuned all week as we bring you the year in review.
The Next Frontier Of Competitive Wars In Supplier Management
December 14, 2012 9:35 am | by Vineet Seth, Head of Product Management, SAP Global Business Incubator | CommentsSupply disruptions are expensive. Businesses are always looking for ways to predict and address these disruptions before they hit them, but traditional supply chain analytics and supplier scorecards can’t solve the problem completely.
Report: Wide Agreement On U.S. Competitiveness
December 14, 2012 9:04 am | by Harvard Business School, SRBI and GfK | CommentsA new Harvard Business School (HBS) survey reveals serious concern about America’s competitiveness trajectory, but wide agreement between liberals and conservatives on the policy imperatives that Congress and President Obama should advance following the election.
Benchmarking: The Speck Of Sawdust In Your Brother's Eye
December 13, 2012 9:08 am | by Sandy Munro, CEO, Munro & Associates | CommentsAn independent source will always see more issues than someone stuck inside the forest. The problem has nothing to do with intelligence, experience, or education, but rather a psychological issue called mental scotoma. Scotoma simply means “blind spot” and this affliction — mental scotoma — is very common.
It’s Storm Season: Your Best Insurance Is Agility
December 12, 2012 5:36 pm | by Glen Margolis, Founder and CEO, Steelwedge | CommentsIn mere minutes, last year’s earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan broke apart supply chains that took global companies 30 years to build. And we just experienced it again with Hurricane Sandy, the 2012 “megastorm” that shut down cities and paralyzed transportation — much of which is still not functioning. In recent years, supply chain insurance has evolved from a “nice to have” to a matter of national criticality.
