It is increasingly challenging to stand up a workforce of skilled operators, but by automating error-prone tasks and operationalizing your procedures, you can mitigate the risk to production and the…
CES is the annual consumer electronics show held every January in Las Vegas. It is “the world's gathering place for all those who thrive on the business of consumer technologies.” This year’s event,…
At the end of the day, your main concern is delivering on customer demands as efficiently and as cost-effectively as possible. The systems that run your business are essential to making this possible…
Everything you do is focused on the shop floor. A manufacturing execution system (MES) provides the foundation for operations to schedule, manage, and track each step during production.
I attended the Automotive Industry Action Group’s (AIAG) Annual Quality Summit in September and the topic of urgency was the required transition from the ISO/TS 16949 quality standard to the new IATF…
Running a profitable manufacturing business is no easy task. When faced with a decision to either invest, sell, or close up shop, it gets even tougher. Recently, I had the privilege of visiting…
Wearables and augmented reality aren’t so futuristic anymore because more manufacturers are seeing the opportunity to use these technologies to impact shop floor productivity, product quality, and…
Quality is one of the top concerns of most manufacturers. End customers demand quality products so OEMs demand quality performance all the way down their supply chains. There’s no tolerance for…
Hausbeck Pickle Co. produces an average 400,000 pounds of pickles or peppers a day for some of the world’s largest fast food restaurants including Subway, Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, Taco Bell, and…
For every large manufacturing company that is in the midst of a digital transformation, there are hundreds of small to mid-sized manufacturers still relying on manual, paper-based processes—and it’s…
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…
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…
When it comes to quality management, our friends at the fictitious Edge Manufacturing are grappling with lack of visibility and control. Edge manages quality control on paper. So, it’s hard to verify…
If you are still relying on manual, paper-based processes, quality is difficult to sustain and It’s likely you don’t even know exactly how much it’s costing you. The fact is, you rely on your quality…
If you’re a supplier in the automotive supply chain, you know Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) guidelines well. You know it’s required by OEMs and Tier One suppliers and that failure to comply means…
Keeping up with industry requirements and regulations is critical if you’re an automotive supplier/manufacturer. If you don’t, you won’t be competitive for automotive business where compliance to ISO…
Ensuring that quality controls are in place is a never-ending task for operations and quality managers. And it’s especially hard to do if you’re using manual, paper-based documentation. The key is to…
You likely use some type of traceability procedure to comply with customer and market mandates and/or for service, safety, and process improvement purposes. However, if you are relying on manual…
Paper records are prone to errors, difficult to manage, and may be impossible to find in a timely manner, like within two hours as the FDA requires. High profile recalls have increased in recent…