Now in Manufacturing & Processing
Manufacturing at the Crossroads
Many manufacturing jobs and technologies have moved offshore forever. To bring work home to the U.S., manufacturers need to focus on what we do well: high quality, ability to handle demand fluctuation, products with regulatory or safety issues. In other words, U.S. manufacturers will continue to do what they have always done: keep changing.
Read more
Knowledgebase
Steve Jobs marks the end of an era by stepping down as head of Apple. That era is likely to be defined by his drive to achieve a certain aesthetic and usability in computers and gadgets alike. To do so he often had to push the engineers that he surrounded himself with to areas they might have thought unfeasible. The evidence is found not only in the obvious examples but in the details of the many machines he produced.
Read More
Knowledgebase
Many manufacturers are investigating how the configure-to-order model could be put to use at their own companies and some have implemented the method—along with the necessary software to get the job done—with great success. Their approaches follow the Dell model: same basic parts, many configurations; and the capability to assemble the product to order and get the product out the door quickly.
Read More