Smart Manufacturing Blog

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Modern Manufacturing

Plex Manufacturing Blog

Manufacturers: Risk is an Opportunity, Not a Cost Driver

John Dancoe July 9, 2018

As a fastener manufacturer, delivering high quality ensures (among other things) that scrap rates are kept low and first pass yield remains high. But did you know that it could also influence which business you’ll win next?...

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How Wholesale Bakeries Can Manage a Complex Manufacturing Process

Gerry Gray June 20, 2018

When you think of manufacturing, your mind may not jump directly to a visual of rows of cupcakes and cookies or a seemingly endless batch of cake cruising down a conveyor belt, but wholesale bakeries have all the same challenges as other manufacturers—and then some!...

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4 Manufacturing Efficiency Ideas to Consider This Summer

Dave Morfas June 13, 2018

Summer is usually a slower time for manufacturers. In fact, you’ve probably already decided to take some time off and get out of town. Nobody will fault you for that. Everybody needs a break. But before you go, make plans to do something else with your summer: carve out time to gain a better understanding of your business. ...

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A Case for Digitizing Food Safety Management Systems

Kaitlin Rebella June 11, 2018

You don’t have to look any further than the recent E. coli outbreak caused by romaine lettuce – the worst E. coli outbreak since 2006 – to know that better food safety practices are essential to consumers’ health and wellness. Over the course of several weeks, nearly 200 individuals across 13 states became sick from the contaminated food. Five people have died to date, and nearly 100 were…

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5 Areas Every Supply Chain Leader Should Focus on to Sustain Competitiveness

Hemant Makhija April 17, 2018

As a supply chain leader, you must have a broad understanding of how your entire business flows from sales to procurement to engineering to service. You also need access to a reliable and holistic set of data or you’ll feel more like you’re fighting fires instead of delivering on customer demand. ...

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How to Become a Preferred Manufacturing Supplier

Stu Johnson April 10, 2018

Becoming a preferred supplier is a status most manufacturers want to attain and keep. To achieve this, you need to keep a close eye on quality performance while managing all the work involved with proving compliance. After all, your customers use compliance as a way to weed out lower performing suppliers so the two go hand in hand—even though compliance presents a whole set of headaches for you…

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Manufacturers: Is it Time to Break Up with Your Legacy ERP?

Dave Morfas February 14, 2018

Break ups are never easy. As a manufacturer, ending your relationship with a legacy ERP system that no longer supports the agility and speed at which you do business can seem complicated. But there are many good reasons to move on. First and foremost, saying goodbye is necessary to the health of your manufacturing operations....

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Digitize, Connect, and Comply: Manufacturers Need a Risk-Based Approach

Stu Johnson February 12, 2018

Manufacturing industry standards have undergone significant changes in recent years in an attempt to respond to quality issues in products that resulted in personal injury, and deaths. You have likely seen the rise of the trend toward risk-based quality compliance that focuses on mitigating quality risks through prevention versus the more traditional approach of detection, or catching quality…

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Manufacturers: How Connected is Your Supply Chain Planning?

Hemant Makhija January 29, 2018

Unless you have supernatural abilities, you’re like most humans who can’t accurately predict the future. But as a manufacturer—you need an effective way to “see” into future customer demand so you can allocate the right amount of inventory, optimize production, and keep customers happy....

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Maximize Your Investment in the Plex Manufacturing Cloud with Continuous Improvement

Kristin van Duelman January 8, 2018

Once you’ve chosen, implemented, and worked with the Plex Manufacturing Cloud, you still aren’t “done” with it. Now it’s time to dig in and discover how to really maximize your investment. Just as your business continues to innovate and move forward, your Plex system will deliver updates that you can use to drive even more efficiency and results. ...

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