Five Fast Things
A full-day\'s supply of manufacturing knowledge in an easy-to-digest form
What do you need to know? Now what else do you need to know?
1. Twitter me this… In our Facebook-obsessed, Twitter-gone-mad world, you can find out anything instantly. It should come as no surprise that most of the stuff you find out is stuff you don’t need to know. We now live in a world where professional athletes Twitter from the bench and one major news story - the death of Michael Jackson - can bring an entire system to its knees. Everyon ...... Read More
Comments (0)GM bankruptcy: The end of a new beginning
1. The end of an era: When General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday morning, it marked the end of one era of the American automobile industry and the beginning of another. The bankruptcy filing means GM’s new majority owner is the U.S. government, and by extension, the U.S. taxpayers, many of whom have lost their jobs in the collapse of GM. The once-proud nameplate ...... Read More
Comments (2)The recession is over; so what did we learn?
Fifteen months ago in this space, I first used the word ‘recession’. Many people had spent the better part of a year trying to avoid using that word. We were gearing up for a presidential election and we were trying to understand the depth of the issues we faced. Little did we know how bad it would get. Well, I’m here to declare this month that the recession is over. OVER. It& ...... Read More
Comments (5)Get serious, get faster, get global
1. The clichés and the realities: I worry about our society when we trivialize serious issues by incorporating them into less-serious venues. A number of advertisers are now running what they call ‘economic stimulus sales’ to cut prices on a variety of goods from cars to hamburgers. The whole concept of economic stimulus was divisive to begin with; I’m not sure we need to ...... Read More
Comments (2)Get serious, connected, global
1. The clichés and the realities: I worry about our society when we trivialize serious issues by incorporating them into less-serious venues. A number of advertisers are now running what they call ‘economic stimulus sales’ to cut prices on a variety of goods from cars to hamburgers. The whole concept of economic stimulus was divisive to begin with; I’m not sure we need to ...... Read More
Comments (0)Getting Linked in to the manufacturing jobs issue
1. The discussion continues: It began as another way to look for young manufacturing professionals as part of our Future 30 initiative. It turned into a discussion of the many facets of the current crises in manufacturing employment. I wrote an item on a LinkedIn ...... Read More
Comments (0)Great reporting beats talking heads once again
1. THIS is what we’re talking about: You can talk all you want about the decline in newspapers, but as long as there is good newspaper reporting like this, there will always be an audience for it. A case in point: This brilliant article from New York Times reporters Peter S. Goodman and Jack Healy that lay out as clearly as possible the causes and effects of the economic downturn, a ...... Read More
Comments (0)The GM 'bailout' plan: Just more of the same
1. If General Motors were a homeowner, the banker would have laughed them right out of the bank. You’ve squandered all your money on bad investments and bad gambles? Your kids are out on the street? You’ve maxed out your credit card? And you want us not only to forgive the money you’ve squandered, but to extend your credit limit. And he would have done that in the BEST of time ...... Read More
Comments (0)IBM, infrastructure and getting smarter
1. Building on an infrastructure: The new IBM motto is ‘A Smarter Plant’ and Al Zollar, IBM’s general manager for the Tivoli Software portfolio, wants to get smarter through infrastructure. “This is about operator and IT convergence,” Zollar told an international press gathering in Las Vegas at the start ofIBM’s Pulse conference Monday. “This is sof ...... Read More
Comments (0)Thoughts on manufacturing at the ARC Meeting
1. Andy Chatha, CEO of the ARC Advisory Group, had some hopeful and sobering thoughts on the state of manufacturing and automation at the keynote address at the ARC conference on Sustainable Manufacturing Tuesday. Some of the initial thoughts were already well known to the more than 300 manufacturing and supply leaders in attendance. “Manufacturing companies are being hit very hard around t ...... Read More
Comments (0)AHR attendance solid; sadly, so is the Skills Gap
1. Trade show attendance warms the heart: Trade shows in Chicago in the winter make sense only in the context that it’s still Chicago. Otherwise, the snow and cold and snow and cold and snow makes for a challenging show environment, which means you REALLY want to know more about the topic area if you’re coming to Chicago in January. So it bodes well that the AHR Expo has such ...... Read More
Comments (0)Driving the discussion on the Skills Gap
1. Filling in the Skills Gap: I was honored to be asked to moderate a town hall meeting on the Skills Gap at Grainger’s Total MRO Solutions event in Orlando this week. It brought together key individuals from manufacturing, construction and education in south Florida. One of the first things we discussed is the perception that the Skills Gap isn’t really there. It’s a hard thi ...... Read More
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