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Modern Manufacturing
Plex Manufacturing Blog
Read Between the Lines: The Importance of Barcoding in Manufacturing Processes
When is the last time you saw a barcode label on a product? Last night at the grocery store? On a magazine you read the other day? Do you even notice them anymore? If you’re in manufacturing, you most definitely notice them. The codes on the thousands of labels you see each day tell you everything you need to know about the parts your organization receives, produces and ships....
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Ongoing ERP Training Prevents Brain Drain
Have you experienced brain drain within your organization when skilled employees left, resulting in knowledge gaps? If this is your problem, we have the solution. The best way to combat brain drain is to engage your organization in ongoing ERP training....
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Guest Post: What Are We Reshoring?
We live in a global market. But when it comes to unskilled assembly-type jobs with a high labor content, let’s be honest: These are gone from the U.S. forever. Any of this kind of work that comes back to North America will only be because automation removes the labor content, since our robots can perform “manual” labor cheaper and more reliably than untrained or unskilled workers in other parts…
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In Supply Chain Management, Transparency Is the New Normal
While supply chain management is often considered its own function within the manufacturing enterprise, effective supply chain communication is critical to virtually every area of the business. But old-school relationships between OEMs and tier suppliers were often marred by distrust, suspicion and adversity. ...
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A Chance to Transform: 5 Key Questions to Ask ERP Vendors
Are you heading into an ERP selection project? Or are you heading into a manufacturing transformation project? We’ve found that top-performing manufacturers use their active ERP project for something greater. ...
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Guest Post: Measuring the Cost of Quality in Electronics Manufacturing
The complex global supplier network, dynamic customer demands, and the need for short and effective NPI cycles provide little room for error in the electronics industry, especially when it comes to managing the quality of processes and products. A slight hiccup somewhere along the value chain could have significant effects on the bottom line down the road. ...
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Guest Post: Electronic Documentation Eases FSMA Compliance
On the two-year anniversary of the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act, or FSMA, the agency proposed its first two major FSMA rules – and the food industry finally got a glimpse into the FDA’s expectation of preventive controls. A major part of compliance is documentation. According to the FSMA, if it isn’t recorded, it didn’t happen....
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Guest Post: Improving the Inventory Process
It’s January – and for many companies, that means going through the rigors of the annual physical inventory. Is your company about to count everything in the warehouse, or just finishing up the process? Are you happy about it?...
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The Case for a Smarter Approach to ERP Integration
We work with manufacturers in a range of industries and find evidence of a common scenario, no matter the size company: the need for data integration. For the manufacturing enterprise, there are compelling business reasons to improve the level of integration between a company’s ERP system and other mission-critical applications. ...
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How to Win a Food Fight with the Competition: Digitizing Connections Between the Top Floor and the Plant Floor
When it comes to the competitive food and beverage landscape, the strongest hand always wins. Your team should do everything it can to stack the deck in its favor and go for the royal flush. This means not just collecting the highest value cards, but having them all in the same suit as well.You need to know that your operations are aligned at every level from the top floor to the plant floor –…
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