For some time, many companies have been singing the praises of lean manufacturing, either as a standard lean production practice, or as lean six sigma, a combination of lean manufacturing principles and six sigma principles. But should you be implementing lean manufacturing in your organization? What are the pros and cons? What Is Lean Manufacturing?…
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In any field, whether it be manufacturing, medical, construction or even food service it is important that most, if not all tasks and processes have a written procedure. Having written procedures and regularly refining them not only improves the way your company does business but provides a back-up plan in case of the unexpected. Events…
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In an interesting move, it was recently announced that SunPower Corporation is buying SolarWorld Americas, a rival company that championed import tariffs which shook the solar industry last year. We’ve written about the state of the solar industry before, especially about SunPower’s work to be exempt from some or all of President Trump’s tariffsbecause of…
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Do you practice sustainable manufacturing in your facility? The Department of Energy (DOE) and National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) have partnered up to implement green manufacturing goals. As part of its Better Plants initiative, the DOE is teaming up with NAM for the Sustainability in Manufacturing partnership to help manufacturers strengthen their investments in sustainable…
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Renewable energy seems to be the wave of the future, with everyone touting wind, geothermal and solar energy benefits. But what about renewable energy in manufacturing? Is it worth it? Is it beneficial? Here’s what you need to know about the pros and cons of renewable energy for corporations and manufacturing companies. Pros The pros…
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You’re at the grocery store and you can’t remember if you need milk. You use an app on your phone to look inside your refrigerator at home to see how much milk you have left. Device interconnection via the Internet of Things (IoT) makes it possible for you to access data on your fridge’s contents from…
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The promise of technological advancements is the positive face of a double-sided coin. Every advancement that adds convenience, improves productivity times, and better connects different pieces of manufacturing processes comes with a risk. Each of those added components is a point of cybersecurity vulnerability, and manufacturing industry insiders must make sure they advance their security standards…
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President Trump’s recently announced tariffs on imports from China has started to have an effect on American businesses that rely on imported goods to refine and turn into new products. Many of these companies are struggling to figure out how to accommodate for the increase in operating costs because of the tariffs, and whether or…
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In electronics, specifically any device that does computing, you will run into the terms software and firmware. The difference between the two can be a little hard to define as they both, in general, refer to data stored within a hardware device. Software is most often meant to describe a program or piece of data…
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It was recently announced that Van Hool, a family-owned Belgian manufacturer of buses and other commercial vehicles, plans to break ground on a 500,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Morristown, TN. The company’s goal is to bring over 600 jobs to East Tennessee and produce around 400 public transit buses per year. If various projections are…
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