Kevin Parker, editorial director
Articles
Kevin Parker: A quick look at the varieties of intelligence needed for goods making
What do former Michigan Governor John Engler, today president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), and SAS, the provider of analytic tools, have in common? At the recent SAS manufacturing executive conference, where Engler was featured speaker, both wanted the same things. SAS provides both “summary and predictive” analytic tools packaged as applications for ...
Kevin Parker: Innovation as a collective undertaking applied to newly pervasive technologies
Why is innovation the current king of management concepts? How has it become in manufacturing circles something akin to one of the “four big truths” or “five shining lights” that used to emerge with the five-year plans of command economies? According to Paths of Innovation: Technological Change in 20th Century America, by Mowery and Rosenburg, it wasn't till the second h...
Kevin Parker: Gauging the changing nature of change
Given a constant interplay between ruling management concepts—such as lean production or globalization—and an information technology (IT) infrastructure integral to the business process, manufacturing systems are always changing. This is a good thing, as evidenced by productivity statistics, which reveal the very real gains in productivity growth experienced in the manufacturing i...
Kevin Parker: Confidence as an attribute of good management
“What I look for is confidence, in people and in countries,” says Paul Orzeske, who, as general manager, EMEA, hires talent and makes investment decisions, among other things, for his employer, Honeywell Process Solutions, which in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) includes more than 2,800 Honeywell employees.