Industry Week articles from January 2005

Industry Week archives from January 2005

What do you expect real GDP growth to be for 2005?(online poll, gross domestic product)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
January 1, 2005... What do you expect real GDP growth to be for 2005? Industry Week.com readers respond: Below 2.5% 22% 2.5 To 3% 43% 3. 1 To 3.5% 21% 3. 6 To 4% 10% More Than 4% 3%

Searching for innovation's source: where will manufactures find their next big breakthrough?(Editorial)
January 1, 2005... WHEN MOST PEOPLE TALK ABOUT INNOVAtion, they re generally talking about high-cost, high-technology breakthroughs--the latest computer chip, a new bio-engineered material or a hot new category-defining product such as the iPod. Yet for the...

The manufacturing agenda: steel prices.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... I agree totally with your view of how manufacturing in the U.S. never seems to catch the attention from Washington that it should. ["Putting Manufacturing Back On The National Agenda," November 2004, Page 9.] Our company has been a member of...

This electronic life.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... E-BOOBS! What a great moniker! ["Way Too Wired," November 2004, Page 23.] Even more annoying than the inane cell-phone chatter we are forced to listen to in restaurants and airport bars is the self-important e-BOOBS who find it necessary to...

Doha unfinished: World trade talks miss one deadline and may not be complete in 2005. Is a manufacturing free-trade agreement an alternative?
January 1, 2005... THREE YEARS after it was launched in Doha, Qatar, 15 months after being all but scuttled at a divisive meeting in Cancun, Mexico, and five months after the 147 members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreed to give it another try, the...

Fund the future: Intel Corp. CEO Craig Barrett says U.S. technological leadership is at stake.(chief executive officer)(Interview)
January 1, 2005... IN MAY, CRAIG R. BARRETT WILL HAND OVER THE CEO REINS OF INTEL CORP. TO CURRENT President an d COO Paul S. Otellini and take over the company's chairmanship from Andrew S. Grove. As chairman of the Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP], a...

Steel powerhouse grows again.(Lakshmi N. Mittal's acquisition spree continues, forms Mittal Steel Co.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... LAKSHMI N. MITTAL IS AT IT AGAIN. BUYING steel companies, that is. When INDUSTRYWEEK caught up with this steel magnate in 1999 ("Steel's Still-Growing Giant," Jan. 18, 1999), he had just purchased Chicago-based Inland Steel Co. to add to Ispat...

The year of the question mark: strength of economic growth in 2005 depends upon oil, labor market and capex.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... > BY JOHN S. McCLENAHEN ON THE CHINESE CALENDAR, 2005 is the Year of the Rooster. Economically, 2005 looks to be the year of the question mark. The strength of growth, especially for the United States, will depend upon such variables as...

Ghosn in the fast lane.(Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.'s chief executive officer, Carlos Ghosn)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... CARLOS GHOSN, THE AMBITIOUS AND WIDELY admired CEO of Japan s Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., is perhaps the closest active chief execu tive in the mold of General Electric Co.'s legendary lack Welch at his best. Like Welch, Ghosn has brains, drive and...

Ethics by the numbers: new tool helps executives measure their companies' good behavior.(Gantz Wiley Research, Center for Ethical Business Cultures)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... MOST MANUFACTURING EXecutives who made it to the top did so by measuring, measuring, measuring. How else to document and take credit for improvement? Now executives can use an objective tool to measure their companies' ethical...

Reinventing heat-treating: Dana's concept heats parts with a microwave-absorbing plasma.
January 1, 2005... GET READY TO RECONSIDER process strategies about the heat-treating of metals--things like brazing, carburizing, hardening and sintering. A new approach, based on microwave-absorbing plasma, potentially changes all the rules, reports the aptly...

PLM for everyone?(product lifecycle management)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... ANDREW ANAGNOST REFERS TO AUTODESK'S PRODUCT LIFECYCLE management (PLM) strategy as ' AutoCadding the PLM market." As Autodesk's senior director of products and solutions, he hopes his PLM market entry, Productstream 2, will be a classic repeat...

Sales prevention 101: 3 steps to really sticking it to your reps at this year's annual sales meeting.
January 1, 2005... WELL, IT'S JANUARY AGAIN, WITH YET nether ridiculous sales forecast hanging over your head like a giant rate full of dynamite and cow pies. As you sit banging your head against the spreadsheet on your desk, moaning softly, it suddenly...

Medicine man: can Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer's formula for success invigorate your company?(chief executive officer)(Cover Story)
January 1, 2005... About Kevin Sharer KEVIN SHARER WAS elected Amgen's CEO in May 2000. He is Amgen's third CEO and became the company's third chairman of the board in January 2001. Sharer joined Amgen in October 1992 as president and COO and a board member....

Shaping the future of manufacturing: a tour through manufacturing's recent history reveals clues of what's to come.
January 1, 2005... BILL GATES WAS FIVE YEARS FROM FOUNDING Microsoft, and Michael Dell was 15 years from starting Dell Computer Corp., but Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce were in their second year running Intel Corp., and Sam Walton was in his eighth year running a...

Learning to lean: manufacturers evolve to meet the challenges of 21st century enterprise.(Advertisement)
January 1, 2005... IN THE NEVER-ENDING QUEST TO REMAIN COMPETITIVE IN THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE, MANUFACTURERS NEED MORE THAN PLATITUDES, THEY NEED RESULTS--ESPECIALLY IN TODAY'S INCREASINGLY COMPETITIVE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE. For years, industrial manufacturers...

House of cards: just-in-time deliveries, lean inventories and tight relationships with key vendors. The quest to minimize supply-chain costs has maximized vulnerability. Have manufacturers gone too far?
January 1, 2005... AS COMPANIES EXTEND THEIR SOURCING NETWORKS AND BUY MORE PARTS AND PRODUCT from China, India, Eastern Europe and the Middle East--to say nothing of the added complexity required to sell more products in these regions--their operations become...

Still waiting for the goodies: applications limited to e-mail, CRM and field services.(customer relationship management)
January 1, 2005... IMAGINE HOW YOU'D FEEL after waiting weeks to see what Santa would bring, and then Christmas morning came and went, and there was nothing left under the tree. That's how manufacturers feel when they look back on the promise of wireless...

High-pressure turnaround: Formica Corp. may be known worldwide for its high-pressure laminate products, but it was Frank Riddick who found himself under pressure to perform when he joined Formica as CEO in 2002.(chief executive officer)
January 1, 2005... AFTER BEING BOUGHT AND sold five times in 15 years and leveraged to the hilt during a late '90s acquisition spree, Formica Corp. was hit hard by the postSept. 11 economic decline. The company could not pay its debts and found itself in...

Guaranteed on time for LTL shipments puts Toshiba in driver's seat: differentiation. With 15 letters, seven vowels and six syllables, this word doesn't get much play in everyday parlance. But it's a different story in the business world, where "differentiation" carries quite a bit of weight and relevance.(less-than-truckload, Toshiba International Corp.)(Advertisement)
January 1, 2005... Distinguishing yourself from the competition can make the difference between success and failure, especially in today's competitive marketplace. Just ask John McCarthy, logistics manager for Houston-based Industrial Division of Toshiba...

EPS growth seen slowing: Merrill expects just 4.2% in 2005 after 21.6% in 2004.(earning per share, Merrill Lynch and Company Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... MERRILL LYNCH & CO. roamed with the economic bears during most of 2004. And when it comes to 2005 operating earnings-pershare growth that's the crowd the venerable Wall Street firm will continue to hang with. Merrill is forecasting S&P 500...

Numbers game.(Novations Group Inc.'s financial education software "The Accounting Game")(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... TEACHING EMPLOYEES ABOUT basic financial principles could benefit the bottom line, according to Novations Group Inc., a Boston-based training and professional skills consulting firm. A recent Novations survey that found 41% of respondents...

Forward ho! For an organization to evolve, a conviction that there are infinite opportunities for improvement is required.
January 1, 2005... THE FOUNDATION OF CONTINUOUS IMPROVEment is the belief that your organization can always be doing better. Operations can be more efficient. Quality can be improved. Costs can be reduced. Sales can grow faster. And the company can be more...

Four more years: Bush believes deficits do not matter. I disagree.(President George W. Bush)
January 1, 2005... PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH DOES NOT think deficits matter. I agree with him on many issues, but not on this one. However, the voters have spoken. Since I am a believer in democracy, I accept the will of the people, so I will climb off my soapbox...