supply chain | Accessa

3 New industry agenda items for progressive metalworkers

Here’s the on-ramp for 2015. There are 3 lanes, choose yours carefully. The HIT boys voted to bring back six of the Bastard’s more critical stories of the few past months. I’ve organized them into the 3 topics most likely to make your next general operations agenda. Six beefy short summaries follow; which themselves offer conversational takeaways. Click the link to the published story and hit th...
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2 Advances in manufacturing challenge your control in 2015

Survivors are no longer the largest, strongest or even the most intelligent—they just know when to adapt. In light of the challenges, they also know that growth begins with control, not revenue. You wonder where they get such insight. Each year around this time, scads of articles appear with predictions about the future and, more importantly, what’s next for manufacturing. This year, two topics s...
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Collaboration—critical, but attractive choices

Call it what you like but relationships where collaboration thrive is a one-plus-one equals-three proposition. Task by task, you can achieve shared goals that are more meaningful within your company, more valuable to your customers and more strategic within the supply chain. Companies that want to grow seek the competitive advantage gained from collaborative efforts. They see the disruptive comple...
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From data to wisdom: charting your shop’s new path

Before metalworking coolants are drawn, lubricants changed, adhesives applied or before any conversion coating solution is even dreamt about, data are being collected and managed somewhere along the food chain. I am no expert in data science but I do appreciate how much (and how fast) industry is being tantalized with the power of data. What’s relevant for any shop is that meaningful data manageme...
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Lip service, nosebleeds and value propositions

Why do we find it so hard to walk the talk when it comes to the importance of human capital? No one argues the importance of people to our businesses. CEOs famously assert in their public relations efforts “people are our most important asset.” And in survey after survey we hear various leaders, for small and larger operations alike, recount the importance of good people and the relationship of hu...
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“Manufacturing punches above its weight”

Supply chains, out for the count. If you survived the last five years you have to be doing something right. Think back to 2008 and remember the world’s largest economy contracting like a blown front tire by 3.9 percent (fourth quarter 2007 to third quarter 2009) marking the worst economic slump since the Great Depression and the first decrease(s) in the GDP in 17 years. In spite of all that, the m...
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21 Tipping points (or tripping points)

Identifying trends from vague signals As a supply chain, you’re party to an expansive ecosystem that changes constantly. Your control consists of 1) how you respond to change and 2) how you adapt your business [people, product, place, processes or pitch (your value proposition)] in order to benefit from opportunities and avoid the perils. Leaders are challenged to identify and understand the tre...
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Reshoring becomes more and more compelling

Steady trends beg: What can a supply chain do to get in? The “buy American” trend is gaining traction. Increasingly, American consumers are avoiding foreign manufactured products. It’s a trend powered by renewed belief in American made products, and the promise to save jobs. To this end, a study released this year by J.D. Power and Associates show “the percentage of buyers who avoided import mode...
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Three ways to profit by working it smart

Improve margins; increase machining performance Effort is money and in that regard, for a large segment of metalworkers, things can seem like they’re all conspiring against you. If your business is cutting, milling, turning, grinding or drilling metals you know the devil is in the details—often at a microscopic level. Yet to remain competitive, your business must run the gamut from maintaining you...
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3 Trends support funding email marketing

Plus 8 strategic advantages Business-to-business marketers continue to shift resources from traditional sales and marketing tactics to online. With websites improving (and social media still out with jury) industry loves the ROI of email marketing. It’s a cost-effective way to stay in touch with customers and cultivate new leads. Here are three factors that are trending, and later I describe eigh...
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