Industry Week articles from October 2006

Industry Week archives from October 2006

The business of staying in business.(JUST IN TIME)(Editorial)
October 1, 2006... Conventional Wisdom Says You Should Always seek more than one doctor's opinion, especially when the news isn't very good. That way of thinking certainly can be applied to the state of manufacturing in the United States. For instance, if...

Building a high-tech workforce: Bill McDermott explains why the U.S. needs to assemble a workforce for our high-tech economy.(Viewpoint essay)
October 1, 2006... Dividing By Fractions, solving for x, and calculating sines and cosines--these are just some of the requirements of a solid and substantial mathematics education. Unfortunately, too few American students can solve these problems today....

America in crisis.(BOOKSHELF)(In China's Shadow: The Crisis of American Entrepreneurship)(Brief article)(Book review)
October 1, 2006... Crisis Is An Overused Word, From The Daily crisis at home to the continuing crisis in our schools to crisis management. But in "In China's Shadow" (2006, Yale University Press), a slim book subtitled "The Crisis of American Entrepreneurship,"...

Keep it simple.(STRATEGY)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... New Analysis By Bain & Co. shows there's money to made by embracing a corporate philosophy of "less is more." Indeed, the global consulting firm's examination of 75 companies across 12 industries reveals that the lowest-complexity firms grew...

Manufacturing to outpace 2006 GDP.(PRODUCTION)(gross domestic product)(Brief article)(Statistical data)
October 1, 2006... AT 5%, THIS YEAR'S anticipated growth in U.S. manufacturing production will "significantly" exceed projected inflation-adjusted GDP growth of 3.3%, predicts Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, an Arlington, Va.-based business and public policy...

Automating the warehouse: a mobile robot-based system helped triple order fulfillment rate per operator at a retailer's warehouse.(MOBILE ROBOTS)
October 1, 2006... ARMLESS, MOBILE ROBOTS? Eventually hundreds of them? They're automating storage and retrieval at the Chambersburg, Pa., warehouse of Staples Inc. Used as warehouse gofers for order fulfillment operators, hourly output per person has tripled....

Lean gets a software assist: ERP technology can support lean initiatives if you're willing to ride out the cultural shift.(ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE)
October 1, 2006... THEY SAID IT COULDN'T BE DONE. Mix enterprise resource planning (ERP) with lean, that is. Once viewed as total opposites that couldn't exist harmoniously beneath the same plant roof, manufacturers' lean projects are starting to catch a boost or...

A daily routine of continuous improvement: at Batesville casket, diversity is a competitive advantage.(Batesville Casket Co., Batesville Operations: Batesville, Ind.)(Company overview)
October 1, 2006... At Batesville Casket Co., There Is A Keen awareness that the plant's production is ultimately dependent on tragedy, acknowledging in its mission statement a goal of helping families at the most difficult time of their lives as they honor...

Empowered to drive production: an involved workforce helps cut more than $12 million in waste for medical device maker Cordis De Mexico.(Cordis de Mexico S.A. de C.V.: CIUDAD JUAREZ, CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO)
October 1, 2006... Seemingly Out Of Nowhere, Mozart's Symphony No. 40 blares through overhead speakers at the Cordis de Mexico cardio and endovascular device plant in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Within seconds, a group of production workers in lab coats...

Flexibility equals opportunity: General Cable de Latinoamerica finds winning combination in six sigma and lean.(General Cable de Latinoamerica S.A. de C.V.: TETLA, TLAXCALA, MEXICO)(Company overview)
October 1, 2006... Root Cause: Volcano. Not A Likely source of problems in most manufacturing plants certainly, but plausible at General Cable de Latinoamerica S.A. de C.V. The telecommunications wire and cable manufacturer is located in Tetla, Tlaxcala, a...

Where lean is on target: Lockheed Martin's Camden operations, which produces complex weapons systems for the military, is itself a lean and mean machine.(Lockheed Martin Missiles/Fire Control, Camden Operations: CAMDEN, ARK.)(Company overview)
October 1, 2006... Normally, Lockheed Martin Corp.'S Missiles and Fire Control Operations in Camden, Ark., doesn't keep any finished goods inventory. The rockets, missiles and launch systems made at the 1.5-millionsquare-foot facility among southern Arkansas'...

Culture of cooperation: management and unionized labor work together remarkably well to continuously improve performance and better serve customers.(Magee Rieter Automotive Systems, Bloomsburg, Pa.)
October 1, 2006... AS TORRENTS OF RAIN POUNDED THE EAST-central Pennsylvania town of Bloomsburg on June 27, Fishing Creek and the Susquehanna River became one and, eight hours earlier than expected, began to claim the production floors of Magee Rieter Automotive...

A comeback winner: wallboard maker stages a revival that is all about people, purpose and performance.(National Gypsum Co.: WILMINGTON, N.C.)(Company overview)
October 1, 2006... THE TURNAROUND AT THE WILMINGTON, N.C., facility of National Gypsum Co. reflects the strong determination of the entire plant team to be driven by a common purpose--winning with manufacturing performance. Even charitable activities such as...

A plant's grand vision: panelboard plant utilizes lean visualization tools to consolidate assembly while increasing productivity.(Schneider Electric, Peru Operations: PERU, IND.)(Company overview)
October 1, 2006... Kyle Hamm Chuckles When He Stops By A bin labeled "Aluminum Cans" on the bottom rack of a computer terminal where customer orders are generated to produce a line of Square D electrical panelboards. Hamm, senior manufacturing manager for the...

Strong and stable: for more than a decade, Scotsman ice systems has relentlessly and continuously improved its processes, people and products.(Scotsman Ice Systems: FAIRFAX, S.C.)(Company overview)
October 1, 2006... Scotsman Ice Systems Doesn't Do One thing well. That's good news given that this Fairfax, S.C.-based ice machine manufacturer's devotion to continual improvement dates back to the late 1980s, when it first began adopting many elements of the...

Best of times in a tough industry: technical expertise and lean are key to one auto supplier's success.(Siegel-Robert Automotive Farmington: FARMINGTON, MO.)(Company overview)
October 1, 2006... It Is Not The Best Of Times To Be An Auto Supplier. But don't tell that to Siegel-Robert Automotive Farmington. This plant combines technical expertise in chrome plating and injection molding with lean manufacturing principles to profitably...

What's working for U.S. manufacturers: the latest census of manufacturers reveals that lean is still the most popular improvement method.(CENSUS OF MANUFACTURERS)(Survey)
October 1, 2006... The State Of U.S. manufacturing in 2006 can be summed up as simply this: leaner and meaner. Based on the results of the 2006 IW/MPI Census of Manufacturers, lean manufacturing has significantly increased in popularity over the past year. In...

Supply chains at risk: manufacturers need to guard against disruptions in the flow of materials. With so many things that can--and do--go wrong, contingency planning is no longer a luxury ... it's a necessity.(RISK MANAGEMENT)
October 1, 2006... From 2000 To 2001, The High-Tech Industry, having spent hundreds of millions of dollars on sophisticated supply chain management software, got blindsided by an acute shortage of certain electronic components. One such device, the tantalum...

Upcoming webcasts: www.industryweek.com/webcasts.(OnLine)
October 1, 2006... September 27: Transforming Business Performance Through Enterprise Integration: Break down walls to increase quality and productivity Sponsored by GE Fanuc October 4: Lessons Learned From Hawker de Havilland: Maximizing...

Webcast archive: www.industryweek.com/webcasts.(OnLine)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... * Enhance warehouse worker productivity and asset utilization with mobile RFID systems Sponsored by Intermec and Cisco Systems * Adaptive Manufacturing: Enabling operational excellence globally at Roche Pharmaceuticals Sponsored by SAP, in...

Tools: IndustryWeek's best plants benchmarking database: www.industryweek.com/Benchmarking/BestPlants.(OnLine)(Website overview)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... Enhance your operations, reduce waste and streamline all your activities by finding out how the best do it. Using INDUSTRYWEEK's Best Plants Benchmarking Database, you can find out how the best plants with operations like yours have achieved...

eNEWSLETTER: IW manufacturing business challenge: www.iwchallenge.com.(OnLine)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... Learn from leading industry analysts and consultants every month as they tackle many of the same challenges dogging your company. The IW Manufacturing Business Challenge is a monthly IndustryWeek eNewsletter produced with SAP, that is...

The manager's guide to conference call etiquette: as always, what you do is less important than what the home office thinks you are doing.(BRANDT ON LEADERSHIP)
October 1, 2006... WITH MORE AND MORE EMPLOYEES WORKING outside the walls of a traditional office (a recent study says that one in five American employees works remotely at least part of the time), the conference call--bane of executive life--has assumed even...

Tweaking Brandt.(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2006... Re "Management By Procrastination," Brandt On Leadership, Page 21, August 2006. Knowing that the best humor has a grain of truth, I went digging through your friend Andy's Gravity Fed Decision cone. Tell him it would be a pretty good model for...

Feedback on feedback.(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2006... Re "Letters," Page 9 and "Labor Days," Page 23, September 2006. It is a shame that the authors of this special study didn't have prior access to the letter to the editor from Abogle. He hit the nail on the head as did Kathie Leonard of Auburn...

How to fight the high cost of moving freight: transportation and warehousing cost U.S. companies more than $1 trillion in 2005, and the price tag continues to rise.(TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT)
October 1, 2006... Historians Might Well point to 2005 as the year that supply chain management came of age, but that distinction has nothing to do with the increasing sophistication of the tools or a wholesale agreement that performance metrics matter. It was...

Strategies on becoming a carrier's preferred customer.(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... Time Is Already An endangered commodity, and these days supply chain professionals are spending more of their time handling freight transportation crises. As Paul Nazum, principal of Supply Chain Insights, observes, there are three things that...

Tracking the tech shakeout.(INDUSTRY CONSOLIDATION)(Table)
October 1, 2006... The Old Adage That "You Can't tell the players without a scorecard" certainly describes the situation within the supply chain marketplace. In recent months, a number of big companies--IBM, HP, Oracle, Infor--have expanded their portfolios...

High achievers: Industryweek's 2006 best plants' devotion to excellence in manufacturing drives winning performances.(IW BEST PLANTS)
October 1, 2006... IT'S ALL ABOUT AUTOMATION AND OPERATOR EXPERTISE at AK Steel's Rockport (Ind.) Works, an 8-year-old steel finishing facility that produces flat rolled carbon, stainless and electrical steels with first-pass yields approaching 99%. Down in...

Automation abounds at AK Steel: AK Steel's Rockport Works touts itself as the most-productive flat-rolled steel finishing facility in the world.(AK Steel Corp., Rockport Works: ROCKPORT, IND.)
October 1, 2006... MICROSOFT'S BILL GATES ONCE SAID, "THE first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency." For AK Steel, Rockport Works, Rockport, Ind., that sentiment holds true....