Industry Week articles from February 2007

Industry Week archives from February 2007

Violations on the field.(READER: FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2007... Re "How Level Is Your Playing Field?" Just In Time, Page 7, November 2006. Manufacturers also need a level playing field with respect to the energy industry. For example, in 2005 the top five oil companies averaged a return on capital...

No best plants in New York?(READER: FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2007... Re "Are Your Best Practices Getting The Job Done?" Just In Time, Page 7, December 2006. I understand your comment "politics really isn't the issue here," but I wonder if it is really possible to totally separate politics from "Best...

IW asked: is there a skilled worker shortage?(From The Forums)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... forums.industryweek.com/show thread.php?t=651 A shortage of skilled manufacturing workers? Last time I checked we've shed over 3 million manufacturing employees in the past five years. At least 1 million of them must have "skills." ...

Confronting our manufacturing labor crisis: we need to show today's youth that manufacturing has a stable future.(CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT)
February 1, 2007... WE HAVE ALL HEARD PEOPLE SAY THAT there are no careers in manufacturing anymore, and we have all seen the articles in the mass media about the doom and gloom of employment in manufacturing. But in reality we currently have a skilled labor...

Hitting a moving target: when sourcing from Asia and the Pacific, manufacturers need to constantly keep on top of who does what well.(STRATEGIC SOURCING)
February 1, 2007... IMAGINE GOING TO YOUR FAVORITE RESTAURANT and finding out that there's a new chef in town and the dish you made a special trip for now tastes like wallpaper paste. "Global sourcing dynamics are also always changing and a good source today...

Aligning business functions pays off: recent study outlines best practices to ensure a world-class procurement function.(STRATEGY)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... One size does not fit all when it comes to aligning your corporate plan, according to Chris Sawchuk, procurement practice leader at Atlanta-based The Hackett Group. When aligning businesses, each business within the company needs to...

Cap ex predicted to rise by 8.5% in 2007.(capital expenditures)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... THE INSTITUTE FOR SUPPLY MANAGEMENT'S (ISM) end-of-year report on manufacturing reveals that for 2006, purchasing and supply managers report capital expenditures rose 7.3% when compared with 2005 levels--which was pretty much what they expected...

Purchasing calendar.(PURCHASING)(Calendar)
February 1, 2007... Procurement Technologies: Achieving Procurement Excellence: Strategies & Tools March 28-29 Chicago www.conference-board.org OSDBU Procurement Conference 2007 April 19 Upper Marlboro, Md. www.fbcinc.com/osdbu ...

Waste not want not? Processing water plays a large role in the manufacturing process, and the equipment and services involved in that process have grown to become a multibillion-dollar market. For many companies, [H.sub.2]O has become the new profit formula. Learn what U.S. manufacturers need to do to be competitive players.(FACILITIES MANAGEMENT)
February 1, 2007... FROM HIS OFFICE AT BIOTEQ ENVIRONMENTAL Technologies Inc.'s headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia, Brad Marchant, the company's president and CEO, sees a niche water market that's not likely to dry up anytime soon. Focused on the mining...

Do you recall? If you manufacture a product--any product--chances are good you may have a product recall in your future. Implementing best practices during a recall will help ensure consumer safety and company longevity.(OPERATIONS)
February 1, 2007... IN 2005, 20 CHILDREN DIED WHILE PLAYING with toys. Nine deaths were due to choking on the toys, which included six balls, a balloon, a bead from a toy-horse figurine and a toy dart, according to an Oct. 5, 2006, memo from the United States...

Online poll.(economic recession in the United States)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... What is the chance the U.S. will have an economic recession in 2007? IndustryWeek.com readers respond: 100%. I'm sure of it. 13% 50%. Even odds. 37% Less than 10%. 44% 0%. There's no chance of...

Toyota's real secret: manufacturers sometime assume Toyota's success begins and ends with the Toyota Production System. In truth, though, implementing the TPS is just the first step toward optimizing all the functional processes of an enterprise. The next competitive step: the Toyota Product Development System.(PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT)(Toyota Motor Corp.)(Cover story)(Company overview)
February 1, 2007... MANY MANUFACTURERS FIND THEMSELVES trying to solve the Toyota Production System conundrum: More and more, adopters of the lean manufacturing practices of TPS find they aren't guaranteed a competitive edge. TPS merely brings their manufacturing...

Building a bridge to ERP: manufacturing execution systems provide for lower-stress operations-level data collection.(COMPLIANCE)(enterprise resource planning)
February 1, 2007... COMPLIANCE ISSUES HAVE CAUSED more than a few "Maalox moments" for manufacturers. However necessary they may be, the reality is that regulations force manufacturers to allocate valuable resources and time to track, monitor and record...

Bringing data together.(INFORMATION MANAGEMENT)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... The need for companies to link data from multiple sources has made master data management (MDM) systems one of the fastest-growing software markets, according to a study by analyst firm ARC Advisory Group. MDM systems serve as a central system...

IT spending shows modest growth.(SPEND ANALYSIS)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Companies are spending more on information technology than in previous years, but IT investments pale in comparison to the dot-com boom of the late 1990s. A survey of 21,000 companies across 37 different industries shows spending was expected...

A gold star for Konica.(CUSTOMER SERVICE)(Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. Inc.)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... WITH NEARLY 1,500 SERVICE technicians working in the field nationwide, tracking service calls at Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. Inc. can be challenging. Apparently, the Ramsey, N.J.-based producer of digital imaging solutions is...

How to get your forecasts wrong, in ten easy lessons: learn what to do--and what not to do--from this list of "forecasting fallacies.".(SUPPLY CHAIN & LOGISTICS)
February 1, 2007... ONE BIG PROBLEM WITH SUPPLY chain forecasting is that companies don't draw on enough resources when creating their forecasts. "Done well, forecasting contributes to supply chain performance, customer satisfaction and financial success,"...

Fuel cells in the warehouse.(MATERIAL HANDLING)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... THE BUZZ AT LAST MONTH'S ProMat show in Chicago was on a type of material handling innovation that doesn't actually exist yet: fuel cell-powered lift trucks. At least two major lift truck manufacturers--Toyota Material Handling U.S.A. Inc. and...

A delicate balance: resource management requires measuring and controlling supply and demand. It's no easy feat.(BEST PRACTICES)
February 1, 2007... RESOURCE MANAGEMENT. IT'S A seemingly simple concept, yet one that continues to bedevil manufacturers as they race to bring new products to market. Get it wrong and six-month projects take nine months to complete, on-time delivery flies out the...

Opening up.(BOOKSHELF)(Open Innovation)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2007... IN HIS 2003 BOOK, OPEN INNOVATION, Henry Chesbrough argues that businesses must adopt a model of innovation that looks both outside of its own four walls for ideas, as well as licenses its home-grown but unused intellectual property to others....

Stagnant investment In Europe.(R&D)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... MUCH AS IN THE UNITED STATES, manufacturers in the European Union are proclaiming innovation key to maintaining competitiveness on the global playing field. That said, recent statistics show that research and development among EU countries...

Progress with Platinum: research demonstrates method to improve metal's efficiency as a catalyst.(FUEL CELLS)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... WHILE RESEARCH continues around the globe to find alternatives to fossil fuels for vehicle applications (see "Supply Chain & Logistics," Page 48, for one such example), scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory say they have made progress in...

The spin doctor is in: bad news? Rotten profits? Take two euphemisms and call me in the morning.(BRANDT ON LEADERSHIP)
February 1, 2007... OF ALL THE ABILITIES REQUIRED TO RISE through the corporate ranks, none is more important than learning the mysterious language of Euphemismo. Euphemismo (from the Greek, euphemismos, to "use auspicious words") is the soothing balm that...

A cynic's view of Washington: don't expect the U.S. government to accomplish much for manufacturers this year.(JUST IN TIME)
February 1, 2007... THERE'S A FINE LINE BETWEEN BEING SKEPTICAL and being downright cynical, and when it comes to the idea that the U.S. government will somehow solve all--or even some--of the manufacturing industry's problems, I guess you'll have to label me a...

I, Microsoft: by providing a common development platform, Microsoft hopes to expand the potential for robotics.(ROBOTICS)
February 1, 2007... EXPECT A NEW AGE OF ROBOTIC APPLICATIONS," says Georgia Tech's Tucker Balch, associate professor in its College of Computing. He sees the release of Microsoft Robotics Studio leading to new generations of robots and robotic devices that will...

Factory of the future: get a glimpse now of manufacturing tomorrow.(BRICKS & MORTAR)(American Honda Motor Company Inc. is building an automobile manufacturing plant )
February 1, 2007... IN DECATUR COUNTY, IND., A FACTORY of the future is now in the works. American Honda Motor Co. Inc. is building a $550 million automobile manufacturing plant on 1,700 acres of land near Greensburg, 50 miles southeast of Indianapolis. The plant,...

Well, now are you satisfied?(EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT)(employee satisfaction poll)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... SOME MANUFACTURING COMPANY employees would have every right to answer the question with a resounding negative. They are among the 49% who responded to a recent informal INDUSTRYWEEK online poll, saying that employee satisfaction had never...

Dow completes cogeneration purchase.(ENERGY)(Dow Chemical Co.)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... ON DEC. 1, 2006, Dow Chemical Co. completed its purchase of the Plaquemine Cogeneration Facility in Plaquemine, La., from subsidiary of American Electric Power. The facility, which consists of four 170-megawatt gas-fired combustion turbine...