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Wondering about IoT Usefulness?

  A big buzzword right now is the internet of things (IoT). Is it really useful? Recently I had the opportunity to participate in an IoT class and lab sponsored by Intel and Microsoft. I was able...

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Are you manufacturing with methods from last century?

  Many manufacturing firms run custom manufacturing, test, or calibration equipment that was designed for the first generation of a product. Sometimes this is perfectly adequate. However, it can a...

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The Next Manufacturing Wave

Fred Hapgood writes in the latest issue of CIO magazine about the hstory and future of manufacturing (see Factories of the Future). He goes back about 100 years when the US manufacturers gained sup...

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Innovation

A couple of weeks back I was with a group that gets together quarterly to discuss business metrics and innovation issues. Our region has received one of the 13 US Department of Labor WIRED (Workfor...

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The Benefits of Measurements

Many processes can be managed by just observing and asking good questions. In fact, if your processes are not able to be understood by observation, you might want to consider some simplification. ...

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Automotive Manufacturing Productivity

Harbour Consulting produces their Harbour Report North America on the productivity of Automobile manufacturing in North America every year. This year shows the gap between the automakers is narrow...

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Predicting The Future

Last night I saw an advertisement for a movie (Dejavu) coming out where the police were predicting the future by being able to look at the recent past. Wouldn't that be a useful skill to predict th...

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Productivity Gains In Danger

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) released two reports that, taken together, point to a worrisome trend. The first report "The NAM Annual Labor Day Report" points out the correlatio...

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Employee Involvement

This weekend is the Labor Day holiday in the United States when we pause to honor all those who work. According to the U.S. Department of Labor website this holiday is "a yearly national tribute to...

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"A Single Version of the Truth"

This phrase has been used in many contexts, including by the SAS Institute in the book Customer Data Integration: Reaching a Single Version of the Truth. It is particularly applicable to the manufa...

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