Industry Week articles from May 2005

Industry Week archives from May 2005

Wanted: inspired leaders, engaged employees.(EDITOR'S PAGE)
May 1, 2005... WE'RE LEADING IN A PARTICULARLY TOUGH time in manufacturing, and it's questionable whether we're rising to the challenge. We want to be optimistic, shouting from the rooftops when the economic news turns favorable. We have to be realistic,...

Pondering profits.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2005... Hmmmmmm. Ms. Panchak's March 2005 editorial, "Profit Pursuits Are Choking Innovation," [Page 11] sounds a lot like the appropriate level of outsourcing. The theory is simple: If companies outsource high-value-creating and corporate learning...

Guru bashing.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2005... Re "If I Were A Guru," Brandt On Leadership, April 2005, Page 23: Mr. Brandt's thoughts are right on track. So many "gurus" are out there preaching gobbledygook while the working stiffs are making things happen. Why do we "honor" these guys...

Skills deficit.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2005... Re "Jobs And The 'Twin Deficits,'" Evans On The Economy, April 2005, Page 76: I'm not an economist, but this old engineer can still add 2+2. Our textile workers cannot learn high-tech skills quickly, so when laid off they draw from the economy...

Execs continue plea for strict trade: Doha Round threatens steel recovery, they say.(TRADE)
May 1, 2005... FOR EXECUTIVES IN THE North American steel industry, it will be deja vu all over again. When the 32-member American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) holds its annual meeting in Washington, D.C., this month, leaders will undoubtedly be discussing...

Prepare for a hard landing: Changes in Brazil, Russia, India, China and Korea will affect all manufacturers.(3 QUICK QUESTIONS)(Interview)
May 1, 2005... ALCOA CEO ALAIN BELDA WAS THE KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT this year s National Manufacturing Week in Chicago in March. Here, the aluminum executive expresses his views on how the changing world will require new strategic thinking from global...

Shown the door.(TIME MACHINE)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... IT'S GOODBYE AND HELLO AT HEWLETT-PACKARD Co. Gone is Carleton (Carly) S. Fiorina, former chairman and CEO who stepped down under pressure Feb. 9 following a turbulent six-year run that saw the Palo Alto, Calif., technology firm acquire Compaq...

Outsourcing reconsidered: two reports redefine its manufacturing impact.(PRODUCTION)
May 1, 2005... FOR THE FORESEEABLE future, the outsourcing of production and services promises to be around, as manufacturers continue to pursue cost savings and competitive advantages. However, two recent reports from respected business research firms...

SCORE change.(BOOKSHELF)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... A BELIEF THAT THE COMMAND-AND-CONTROL style of management that dominated corporations in the past is "about to be blown away by a younger, more international, less loyal, and less tolerant workforce" has led Thomas T. Stallkamp, former vice...

Barriers decried: China criticized for lax intellectual property protection.(TRADE)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... EVERY YEAR THE U.S. TRADE Representative's office (USTR) inventories foreign trade barriers to U.S. goods and services. And while this year's report cites an agreement with China that allows U.S. semiconductor makers to maintain and expand...

Measuring success: businesses link innovation to performance metrics.(INNOVATION)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... WONDERING HOW TO MEAsure the success of your company s innovation efforts? Which performance metrics make sense in the innovation equation? Many of the fastest-growing U.S. private companies may be able to assist you in answering those...

Software with broader goals, value: solution providers innovate with an enterprise view.(Emerging Technologies)
May 1, 2005... REMEMBER WHEN: * All a product life-cycle management (PLM) vendor wanted to talk about was leveraging design data in engineering. * All that an asset management company was focused on was maintenance issues. * All that ERP...

Invasion of the profit snatchers: looking out for No. 1 was never so lucrative.(BRANDT ON LEADERSHIP)
May 1, 2005... IT TURNS OUT THAT YOU AND I AREN'T QUITE the Masters-of-the-Universe type CEOs we thought we were. We know this not only because we have teenage sons and daughters (Isn't it a pleasure to hear "Dad, please" in response to your every word or...

Energy's impact: for appliance manufacturers, incorporating efficiency is a challenge yesterday, today and tomorrow.(CONSUMER DURABLES)
May 1, 2005... WITH SOARING ENERGY COSTS, UNSTAble supplies and increasingly vocal debate about the United States' overdependence on nonrenewable fossil fuels taking center stage these days, you may be tempted to identify growing energy concerns as a recent...

Feeling the burn: customer demand, regulations and globalization prompt manufacturers to design more fuel-efficient products.(ENERGY)
May 1, 2005... THE ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHER PLATO is credited with saying, "Necessity is the mother of invention." More recently, U.S. Senator John Kerry has said, "You can't drill your way to energy independence. You must invent your way there." ...

DOE partners in energy projects: focus is on combustion engines and heat conversion.(ENERGY)(Department of Energy)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY IN FEBRUary announced that it would award nearly $88 million to 12 projects to develop more fuel-efficient passenger and commercial vehicles. The private sector will contribute another $87.5 million to the...

Sleeping with the enemy: the giants of manufacturing are teaming up with their competitors to cut costs and increase market share.(LEADERSHIP)(Cover Story)
May 1, 2005... GENERAL MOTORS AND FORD. HITACHI AND PANASONIC. DAIMLERCHRYSLER AND GM. NORTHROP GRUMMAN AND BAE. GM AND TOYOTA. TIMKEN AND SKF. What these pairs of manufacturers have in common is that they compete with each other head-to-head. At the same...

Teaming, take 2: once a buzzword, teaming today is one of the fundamentals of manufacturing--especially in a global economy. However, the key to success lies in how teams are implemented.(PLANT STRATEGIES)
May 1, 2005... WHEN FIRE WAS FIRST invented, it was a big thing. After a while the fervor died down, and fire became just a daily part of life. The same goes for teaming. When the practice of teaming was introduced, every manufacturer wanted to jump on the...

Pipeline = lifeline: researchers say 70% of today's manufactured goods will be obsolete in six years, and that companies with strong enabling R&D strategies are 73% more profitable. Yet, many manufacturing leaders see product innovation as a low priority. Experts warn: They, and their companies, simply won't survive.(MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES)
May 1, 2005... JIM BERGES CAN POINT TO SATISFYING Results from his determination to help build and maintain technological leadership as president at Emerson Electric Co., St. Louis, Mo. Last year net sales were a record $15.6 billion, up 12% from $14.0...

The skinny on thin clients: manufacturers embrace ultralean versions of PCs to lower costs and boost security.(PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT)
May 1, 2005... IT TOOK ALMOST A DECADE, but the era of the so-called "thin-client computer" ballyhooed by Oracle Corp. chairman Larry Ellison back in 1996 is finally coming to pass. The concept was that a stripped-down machine could serve almost as a...

Devising strategies: corporate social responsibility must be an integral part of what a company is about.(MANUFACTURING & SOCIETY)
May 1, 2005... "WHAT IS OUR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY STRATEGY?" It's a perfectly natural question, one that senior executives in manufacturing companies need to ask. It's also a very difficult question to answer. The question implies that corporate...

Inventory liability--the scourge of supply chain management.(Response Management)(Advertisement)
May 1, 2005... Some things never seem to change in life. Excess inventory is one of them. In spite of all the investment in state-of-the-art demand and production planning systems, improvements in inventory management have been marginal at best. In fact,...

Where the customers are: MBA Polymers locates plastics recycling plant in Guangzhou.(MBA POLYMERS INC.)
May 1, 2005... RICHMOND, CALIF.-BASED MBA Polymers Inc. is not in China because of the vast Asian nation's famed supply of relatively cheap labor. "It's all about the size of the marketplace in southern China," stresses Richard McGombs, president and CFO of...

A slower trickle: last year's boom among the upper-income set is ending. U.S. growth rate will be less this year and next.(ON THE ECONOMY)
May 1, 2005... LAST YEAR WAS A DECENT BUT NOT SPECTACULAR year for overall U.S. consumer spending, which rose 3.8% in inflation-adjusted terms. However, the gains at the high end of the scale--so-called luxury goods--were far more impressive. Precise figures...