June 2013

6/28/2013 - THE CENTER
Many manufacturing companies use absorption costing methodologies that simply add up all costs and divide by the number of hours worked in a given year. This equation typically yields an average cost per hour for each department, or a blanket cost per hour (i.e. everything in the shop costs $120 per hour). This approach is quite easy to calculate and it provides a safe way to make sure all costs are ‘covered’ in terms of determining costing rates.

6/21/2013 - THE CENTER
Every business owner cares about workplace safety for the obvious reasons. I mean, who doesn’t want the reassurance that their employees are working in a safe and healthy environment? However, many of Michigan’s manufacturers “play defense” when it comes to safety regulations.

6/14/2013 - THE CENTER
According to the findings of a recent Deloitte survey, "Perspectives on family-owned businesses; Governance and succession planning," family-owned business executives may be impacting their companies' long-term success and competitiveness due to gaps in the areas of governance, board operations and succession planning.

6/7/2013 - THE CENTER
Michigan’s manufacturers come from different niches and consist of many sizes. Despite their differences and nuances, they virtually all have one thing in common: they want more sales! And when it comes to sales, there’s a very simple rule: you can’t have more sales without marketing.