The Benefits of Connected Quality in Manufacturing

Manufacturing has always depended on quality. But for decades, quality data lived in spreadsheets, paper logs, and disconnected databases. Inspectors caught defects....

The Real Cost of Firefighting on the Factory Floor

If you manage a plant, you already know the usual problems: equipment breaks down, a process gets skipped, a new hire is working out of order, and production stops until the...

Rethinking MES in the Era of the Connected Workforce

Most Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) were built to rigidly enforce processes, not to empower people or evolve how work gets done. MES platforms excel at orchestrating...

Blueprint for Brilliance: Takeaways for Joining the Ranks of the World’s Most Productive Companies

LNS Research recently released its 2025 Benchmarking the Journey of the World’s Most Productive Companies report, and the findings are a wake-up call for the industrial...

How Dozuki Drives a Culture of Improvement

Most manufacturers don’t lack talent, they lack systems. Quality, productivity, and safety issues on the floor often stem from outdated training, undocumented knowledge, and...

How Top Manufacturers Prevent Errors Before They Happen

When a frontline worker makes a mistake, it's rarely due to carelessness. It's more often a failure of training, documentation, or communication. And in regulated industries,...

A Playbook for Tech Success in Regulated Industries

"When I wake up in the morning to empower an operator and an engineer, and they're using software from four versions ago, then I'm failing them."A former director and manager...

Navigating Industry 4.0: Insights from a Manufacturing Innovator

"We literally have to create the talent if we can't find it." These inspiring words (and more!) come from our Season 2 kickoff conversation with LaRuthie Mason, who works at...

How to Build a Thriving Machine Shop

“We make the components that make the magic happen. Everything else is just a sculpture.”That’s the economic value of precision manufacturing. All those machined parts...

Manufacturing The Heavy Way: Unlocking Productivity Gains

Disruption is the new status quo in heavy equipment.Supply chain challenges continue to impact production.Covid accelerated labor trends that impact every part of the...

Push vs. Pull System in Manufacturing: A Complete Overview for Optimizing Production

fthoughtsManufacturing companies must carefully balance expenditure and revenue to remain profitable. It might sound simple when put that way, but every manufacturer knows...

How to Improve Performance with Preventative Maintenance

Equipment failure is a known evil in the manufacturing world. But unplanned downtime carries a significant cost and hurts overall performance. This week Brian sits down with...

How to Scale Technology Across Manufacturing Operations with 3M

Most manufacturing companies don't have people dedicated to evaluating and deploying modern tools. At best, IT or HR takes responsibility for new technology and doesn't have...

Digital Technology Trends in Manufacturing

In the past, manufacturing technology was focused on improving equipment and tools. Now, the industry is shifting its priorities towards workforce enablement. How will the...

How Smart Factories are Impacting Productivity

Deloitte research suggests that "smart factory" initiatives have yielded an average of 10-12% increase in labor productivity gains. Despite this success, a majority of...

How Digital Tools Enable Rapid Communication for Manufacturing

The ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic has forced companies of all types to rapidly update policies and procedures governing how they share information in response to a world...

How 3M Continues to Innovate During COVID

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, 3M has been integral in maintaining domestic and international supplies of essential PPE. These production and supply chain challenges required...

What Caused the False Missile Alert in Hawaii

Apparently, it was a simple mistake that caused the false missile alert to be sent to phones across the state of Hawaii. And while citizens were still recovering from the...

Hidden Waste: The Unseen Inefficiency in Shop Travelers

Travelers and build books are intimately related, however, with traditional methods they often function independently. This gap between the travelers and build books creates...