Industry Week articles from March 2006

Industry Week archives from March 2006

State Of disunion: why the tone of debate is as important as its substance.(public policy)(Editorial)
March 1, 2006... President George W. Bush had an excellent chance to raise the quality of public policy debate in the State of the Union address, and for a fleeting moment, I thought he would. "In a system of two parties, two chambers, and two elected...

Wake-up call or Vapid Platitudes?(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... Re "A Wake-up Call From Asia," Editor's Page, Page 9, January 2006. It is truly a wake-up call. We need to bring the awareness and reality to the attention of all the people in our surroundings in order to create the sense of urgency....

Evans needs a history lesson.(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... Re "Not So Happy New Year," Evans On The Economy, Page 48, January 2006. Wait a minute! In November 2005 you were telling us that there was no housing bubble ("Ignore The Bubble Babble," Page 56). Now you discuss it as an established fact....

Trucking costs continue climb: regulatory changes, new fuels and driver shortages mean much higher transport charges. Collaboration could ease the pain.
March 1, 2006... Forget about lean practices and kaizen blitzes. If you can t ship the products you've worked so hard developing, what's the point? While the logistics landscape isn't quite that bleak, rising shipping costs are showing no sign of coming...

U.S. Steel CEOs Confident, but concerned: IndustryWeek roundtable reveals a stronger industry, but labor, energy, trade and domestic issues worry leaders.(Discussion)
March 1, 2006... On Jan. 9 IndustryWeek hosted roundtable discussion at its Cleveland headquarters with CEOs from some of the country's largest steel companies. The executives came as members of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), Washington, D.C....

Leading principles.(Silos, Politics and Turf Wars)(Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... "Silos, Politics and Turf Wars" (2006, Jossey-Bass) and "Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?" (2006, Harvard Business School Press), two notable books out this spring, approach leadership differently but complementarily. The first is told as an...

Amgen extends global reach.(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... There appears to be no slowing down biotechnology firm Amgen, whose president and chief executive officer, Kevin Sharer, was named IndustryWeek's CEO of the Year in the publication's january 2005 issue. At a time when many manufacturing...

'Revolving door' syndrome: CEO churn in high gear, survey shows. Turnover can be costly.(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... For CEOs tired of unrelenting criticism about how they are sitting pretty with fat paychecks and unquestioned authority, there is fresh ammunition that shows many of them are not sitting at all. They're moving on. More than 10% of CEOs at...

2006 applications available.
March 1, 2006... Is your North American-based manufacturing plant on the leading edge of efforts to increase competitiveness, enhance customer satisfaction, and create stimulating and rewarding work environments? Do your manufacturing performance metrics lead...

GM's revamp consolidates suppliers: a decade after becoming GM's first CIO, Ralph Szygenda accelerates IT globalization with a $15 billion program.(General Motors Inc.)
March 1, 2006... To support GM global business direction and GM's global business processes." That's how CIO and group Vice President Ralph Szygenda describes the goals of General Motors Inc.'s $15 billion IT restructuring program. He describes naming the...

PTC, IBM and PLM.(PTC Technology, International Business Machines Corp. forms alliance)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Operating in China? Or have U.S. or European involvement with electronics, consumer packaged goods or life sciences? Those are the target markets for an enhanced PLM alliance between PTC and IBM. "The idea is to go to market selling the...

Business travel tips for bozos: shoes off. Mouth shut. Bags checked. Hands to self. Compress gas pedal.
March 1, 2006... A few helpful notes for several of you who stood or sat near me at various airports or on one of several planes in the last week or so (you know who you are): 1. Yes, you have to take your shoes off at the security checkpoint, and no, the...

Manufacturing's most influential thinkers & doers: you know Jack Welch, but you may not know Taiichi Ohno. Both, however, made huge marks on manufacturing during the past three and a half decades. so, arguably, did Richard Nixon.
March 1, 2006... Think about the people who have had the greatest impact on manufacturing during the past 35 years, the first 35 years of IndustryWeek's existence. It's much easier to come up with names of doers than of thinkers. Four years after he was...

California dreaming.(Haas Automation Inc.)
March 1, 2006... The entrepreneurial spirit struck Gene Haas at the machine-tool industry's lowest point--the 1980s. The Japanese were going head-to-head with the U.S. on price--and winning. Scores of U.S.-based machine-tool manufacturers closed shop. Gene Haas...

New plants, old problems: hundreds of new power plants are in the works in the United States, but they won't make energy cheaper or more reliable.
March 1, 2006... Hundreds of new U.S. power plants are planned in the next few years. They include coal-fired, gas-fired, a solar electric power plant in Nevada and others fueled by renewable resources. Even nuclear has rejoined the conversation when it comes...

Supply-side manufacturers benefit: GE, ABB capitalize on new technology, global demand.(GE Energy)
March 1, 2006... While it's not likely that more than 100 new power plants in the United States would mean lower prices for manufacturers that are major consumers of energy, an upsurge in power plant construction does stand to benefit such firms as General...

How a flat world affects manufacturing.(Advertisement)
March 1, 2006... If you haven't read Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, you should. It's an excellent book explaining globalization and its impact. It made me think about how different things are for my kids compared to when I was young. Today, both kids...

Quality takes a beating: can manufacturing's favorite superhero fend off cost pressures, complex electronics and untested products? Stay tuned.(product quality)(Cover story)
March 1, 2006... When Marc Trahan began setting a new services group responsible for tracking product quality for Audi North America in June 2002, he had no idea what awaited him. Although a controversial safety issue had plagued the model 5000 series in the...

Bacteria invade UK medicine plant!(Chiron)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... THE BIOTECH INDUSTRY TOOK A QUALITY knockdown punch in late 2004 when Chiron, the nation's biggest manufacturer of flu vaccine, had its Liverpool, England plant shut down by the chief UK regulatory body, the Medicines and Healthcare Products...

Conferencing solutions converge: integrated collaborative technologies provide multiple ways to communicate simultaneously.
March 1, 2006... IN THE IDEAL WORLD, EFfective corporate collaboration would include the ability for business partners and co-workers to see and hear each other and to share documents and information in real time. The reality, though, is that distance, travel...

Building for future growth: Roanoke Companies Group Inc. expands to accommodate increasing flooring-accessories sales, opts to build near labor force, suppliers and transportation network.
March 1, 2006... HOME-IMPROVEMENT spending by homeowners increased 4.3 % rain 2005 from the previous year, according to a January report by Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. That's good news for Aurora, Ill.-based flooring-accessories manufacturer...

Doing double time: Oshkosh Truck Corp. produces commercial and military trucks on one line--and can adjust for lost-minute customer requests.
March 1, 2006... OSKOSH, A WISCONSIN city of 63,000 about 50 miles north-northwest of Milwaukee, is best known as the home of OshKosh B'gosh Inc., a maker of children's wear, and the Experimental Aircraft Association Inc.'s annual summer show, an event aviation...

The end of (most) pensions: accounting rules figure in the demise of private-sector retirement programs.
March 1, 2006... A PERSON JUST ENTERING THE LABOR FORCE CAN basically forget about ever receiving a pension from his or her employer--unless that employer is the government. In recent weeks, a number of name-brand companies, such as IBM Corp. and Alcoa Inc.,...