Industry Week articles from March 2004

Industry Week archives from March 2004

What is bad data costing your company?(Interview)
March 1, 2004... Interview with Sam Starr, President and CEO, Sterling Commerce What is the most significant event in business integration today? If you sell to any of the largest mass merchandising, grocery, home improvement, chain drug, or office...

Manufacturers take a beating in budget: Bush's plan slashes valuable programs. Are you ready to respond?(Editorial)
March 1, 2004... NOW THAT WE'VE learned how the Bush Administration intends to help strengthen and revitalize U.S. manufacturing, executives in the hard-hit sector can get on with the job of pulling hard on their bootstraps. Having determined that the economy...

Top of U.S. Mfg. agenda.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... I appreciate what you're trying to do with your article ["U.S. Manufacturing Agenda," January 2004, Page 43], but at the end of the day the issues and some excellent solutions are already on the table--but [there is] no leadership from this...

Leadership begins at home.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... Although I agree that the administration has done very little to strengthen American manufacturing and has hurt U.S. competitiveness by allowing the budget deficit to grow [Re: "Half-Hearted Efforts Endanger Competitiveness," January 2004, Page...

Steel prices rise--again: increasing demand, a weaker dollar and higher input costs mean consumers will pay more.(Manufacturing)
March 1, 2004... JUST WHEN THEY THOUGHT THEY would get a break on steel prices again, U.S. manufacturers are facing rising prices prompted by a healthier domestic steel industry and a host of global forces. As of press time, a ton of hot-rolled sheet steel...

Gibson's instrumental leadership: Gibson Guitar Corp. chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz sees his new, handpicked executive team as the key to future success.(3 Quick Questions)(Interview)
March 1, 2004... HENRY JUSZKIEWICZ started his career in manufacturing and was educated through the General Motors Institute, Flint, Mich., ultimately receiving an M.B.A. from Harvard University on a GM scholarship while working for Delco Products, a GM...

Map Strategy.(mangement executive training)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Think of value stream mapping on steroids and you'll have a better idea of what co-authors Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton are up to in "Strategy Maps" (2004, Harvard Business School Press). As they did in "The Balanced Scorecard" (1996,...

Leadership training gets a second look: companies such as Dow Chemical are investing more in future executives.(Executive Education)
March 1, 2004... EXPECT GLOBAL MANUFACTURING COMpanies to start investing more in leadership training, a trend fueled by a rise in the number of retirees and increasing pressure on corporate leaders to perform and be accountable. Tom Silveri, president of...

Combat to classroom.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, Durham, N.C., will offer scholarships to two active-duty Army officers this fall as part of a partnership with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. [index] According to Liz Riley, Fuqua assistant...

Happy 20th birthday, NUMMI.(New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... 2004 marks 20 years since the inception of New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI), the Fremont. Calif.-based joint venture between Toyota Motor Corp. and General Motors Corp. that brought the Toyota Production System and learn-work to a...

A hello at Dana; a long goodbye at ITT Industries.(Executive Moves)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... The winds of change swept through Dana Corp. and ITT Industries Inc. in early February, as the former welcomed aboard a new CEO and the latter started the process of replacing its top gun. Automotive components manufacturer Dana, Toledo,...

'Launching point': execs want manufacturing report follow up.(Competition)
March 1, 2004... JERRY J. JASINOWSKI, PRESIDENT OF the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), allows that not every recommendation that NAM wanted to see was included in "Manufacturing in America: A Comprehensive Strategy to Address...

Little funding for MEP.(Federal Budget)(Manufacturing Extension Partnership)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Supporters of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership had little to cheer about when President Bush turned over his fiscal 2005 budget proposal to Congress on Feb. 2. The $2.4 trillion budget allocated $39.2 million for the MEP, a...

Continental compensation: pay packages for executives have similar components in U.S., Europe. But U.S. CEOs make much more.(Executive Pay)
March 1, 2004... WHEN IT COMES TO TARIFFS AND cross-continental mergers, executives in the United States and European often seem to be worlds apart. When it comes to compensation packages, however, they are more similar than one might think. A recently...

Peening with light: new laser new benefits: add speed and lower cost to laser peening's performance advantages.(Emerging Technologies)
March 1, 2004... WITH NEWLY GAINED PERFORMANCE and efficiency, laser peening could change how metal structures are designed and manufactured, says Dave Francis, executive vice president, Metal Improvement Co., Paramus, N.J. He's referring to new laser...

Spread spectrum probe.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Want to use "radio" probes to check the machining of very large, high-value, complex geometries? There can be substantial benefits to inspecting dimensions on the machine tool instead of chancing the time, effort and other risks of attempting a...

Parenting your company to profits: lessons for leading at home apply at work, too.(Brandt On Leadership)
March 1, 2004... THERE ARE A LOT OF COMPLIcated theories about how to lead and manage. Yet what if it's really no different than good parenting? Not because employees are children--they aren't, and if you treat them that way, you're sure to fail--but because...

Lean manufacturing: the 3rd generation.(Trends)
March 1, 2004... Forget everything you think you know about lean manufacturing. Just-in-time production, kanban cards, 5S, set-up reductions and standardized work--those are all just tools. It's time for the younger crop of U.S. manufacturing leaders to take...

The juice flows again: survey shows IT spending will expand this year as prices fall, and companies dust off shelved plans.(Cover Story)
March 1, 2004... WITH FOUR OUT OF FIVE MANUFACTURING PLANTS EXPECTING INCREASED revenues this year, it's no wonder that the IW/MPI Census of Manufacturers reveals a relatively positive outlook for new investment in information technology. While half of all...

World-class choices: plants on top choose cost-cutting and customer-pleasing applications.(Information Technology)
March 1, 2004... WORLD-CLASS MANUFACTURING PLANTS are more likely to use information technology and are better at squeezing profitability from that usage, according to results from the IW/MPI Census of Manufacturers. When compared with the overall pool of...

Material handling moves up: decision-making that was once incidental to the production process has assumed major competitive significance.(Plant Strategies)
March 1, 2004... ONE METRIC OF MANUFACTURING'S MOUNTING COMPETITIVE challenge is industry's annual spending for material handling, projected at $63 billion for 2005 compared with $34.5 billion in 1990. With a new emphasis on beating the competition by tracking...

Assess your material handling: 15 questions for benchmarking.(Plant Strategies)
March 1, 2004... LOOKING TO GAUGE YOUR MATErial handling progress? Start with some broad queries, advises manufacturing consultant R. Michael Donovan, Framingham, Mass. He offers 15 questions drawn from his new book, "Lean Supply Chain Management, An...

A look at lift truck design: Peter Amico's bet: the sidewinder ATX-3000.(Plant Strategies)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... THE MARKETING CHALlenge for Peter Amico's new lift truck concept may be in communicating the totally new application implications of the unusual design. For example, will potential customers understand that the benefits of its omnidirectional...

Rethinking compensation: heightened scrutiny and changing demographics will alter the makeup of wages-and-benefits packages for executive and laborers. Is your company ready?(Management Strategies)
March 1, 2004... THE $6,000 SHOWER CURtain has closed on corporate excess. Lavish parties, vacation homes, baubles and traditional stock options are being replaced by federally scrutinized compensation packages. Board members are buffing up on accounting...

Hey dude, the surf's up ... somewhere: the next big wave in technology is coming. But what will it be?(E Commentary)
March 1, 2004... LIKE A RIPPLE FROM A STONE landing in a pond, technology comes and goes. Clearly, though, some technologies make a bigger splash--and last longer--than others. I remember working on a car culture feature for the "Los Angeles Times...

Flying formation in Mississippi: helicopter production at a new American Eurocopter facility in Columbus is expected to be ramped up by yearend.
March 1, 2004... UNLIKE THE PHILIP ROTH NOVELLA, American Eurocopter LLC is saying hello rather than goodbye to Columbus--Columbus, Miss., that is. Between $11 million and $12 million worth of plant and equipment is going into American Eurocopter's new...

Spending surge.(Bottom Line)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Depreciation may be under-appreciated--except by CFOs and some number-savvy CEOs, But if the economic analysts at New York-based Merrill Lynch & Co, are correct, a temporary 50% accelerated depreciation allowance now in the U.S. tax code could...

Learning to listen: Voc Kaizens help Tuthill Coupling Group better understand and respond to its customers.(Best practices)
March 1, 2004... LOTS OF MANUFACTURERS HAVE PROgrams dedicated to gathering clients' input. Tuthill Coupling Group has such an intensive process that one room at its [Berea, Ohio, headquarters is dedicated customer feedback. The company, which manufactures...

Impatience as a virtue: quick hits should hit the bottom line.(Continuous improvement)
March 1, 2004... EVERY OPERATIONS MANAGER I'VE ever met has a list in his or her head. It's what pops to mind when someone asks, "What are you working on?" Today's crisis may be at the top, but below that is a list of the projects they have going that they hope...

Events.(Update)(Calendar)
March 1, 2004... March 17-19: American Pet Products Manufacturers Assoc. Pet Products Trade Show Ernest N. Morial Convention Center New Orleans www.appma.org/register March 18-20: IW/AME Best Plants Conference Sheraton Cleveland Cleveland www.ame.org ...

Federal budget deficits forever? They're not a given if a re-elected Bush reverses course, imitates Reagan.(Evans On The Economy)
March 1, 2004... So IS IT TO BE FEDERAL BUDGET deficits forever--again? Maybe not. We heard similar budget deficit laments in the 1980s and the early 1990s. But they did not occur. Rapid growth of the U.S. economy helped. But the fact of the matter is...