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Digital Transformation: People, Process, and Technology Mature with Better Technology, Methodology,

An issue in the manufacturing process needs a solution. It could be mechanical equipment reliability and integrity, or inadequate process equipment performance and resulting failures, or another complex issue. How do you select the solution? I remember years ago being told in no uncertain terms by... Continue Reading

Safe at Any Speed: Getting Workers to Use Their Protective Gear

Small changes in training can lead to big results. Buying safety equipment and getting workers to use it are two entirely different things. Anecdotally, almost every safety professional I’ve spoken to finds it much easier to go shopping for the latest hard hat and safety glasses than... Continue Reading

Manufacturing Companies are Wary of Internal Fraud

Today’s organizations face a perfect storm of fraud related risks – internal, external, regulatory, and reputational. In PwC’s latest Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey, we gathered responses from more than 7,200 clients and third-party participants across 123 territories... Continue Reading

Robots or Job Training: Manufacturers Grapple with How to Improve Their Economic Fortunes

With unemployment low and wages creeping up, companies have an incentive to become more efficient — an exercise that tends to drive economic progress. HICKSVILLE, Ohio — For Anthony Nighswander, rock-bottom unemployment is both a headache and an opportunity. For businesses and... Continue Reading

Inside the Digital Factory

Cutting-edge technology gives a glimpse into the future of how things will get made, and what manufacturers must do to stay relevant. The industrial world has been in the throes of digitization for well over a decade. Primarily through enterprise resource planning (ERP) and manufacturing... Continue Reading

The 3-D Printing Playbook

A new era in additive manufacturing, or “3-D printing,” is at hand, with major implications for adoption of the technology and for business models that companies can use in taking the plunge. In the three years since I last wrote about the field for HBR (“The 3-D Printing... Continue Reading

Know Your Customers, Industry 4.0 Edition

How you can better use your CRM system to think beyond traditional channels and master the fundamentals of engagement with end-users. Not so long ago, manufacturing was singularly about making things. Manufacturing companies would develop and create a product, hand it off to a series of... Continue Reading

How Data is Changing the Nature of Maintenance and Repair

With industrial equipment repair costs and complexities on the rise, many manufacturers have been rethinking their maintenance repair and operations (MRO) processes. While they’ve often viewed these activities as a cost center, more manufacturers are using technology and strategy in MRO to... Continue Reading

What is Natural Gas Storage?

In the energy industry, we talk about natural gas storage a lot. It’s a term that frequently comes up in articles, we include it every week in our APPI Energy Advisor, and power markets rise and fall based on the weekly report submitted by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).... Continue Reading

Utilizing Industry 4.0 to Respond More Quickly To Customer Demand and More

How have you seen Industry 4.0 impacting manufacturing companies? The phenomenon of Industry 4.0 is steadily transforming the world of manufacturing. Like the adoption of mechanization and mass production in the 19th century, manufacturing companies are now using computers, automation, and... Continue Reading

Get Control of Maintenance

Control system's hardware, design and programming can simplify maintenance. There are many sides to maintenance in a manufacturing plant. Some involve mechanical components, and others define the procedures and processes needed to service them. The list of mechanical... Continue Reading

4 Most In-Demand Cybersecurity Skills

As cyber-attacks continue to increase in number and escalate in complexity, companies are looking to hire hard-to-find cybersecurity experts to help secure their needs. Here’s a look at the four most in-demand cybersecurity skills for 2018 and beyond. There were more data breaches last... Continue Reading