Manufacture Smarter Blog

9/21/2018 - THE CENTER
Since 2013 the Skilled Trades Training Fund (STTF) has provided nearly $73 million in funding for training and apprenticeships. This fall, another $29 million will be available for businesses throughout Michigan through the Going PRO Talent Fund, the new face of STTF. Although its name has changed, Going PRO is still as powerful as ever, helping to drive Michigan’s economy and provide manufacturers with the talent they need to compete and grow.

9/14/2018 - BY: ELLIOT FORSYTH
Manufacturing is changing. The industry is entering a new era, with oncoming workforce and technological advancements set to transform manufacturing as we know it. In this emerging age of smart manufacturing, a number of factors are contributing to this evolution.

9/7/2018 - BY: BRIAN MAMO
Manufacturing Day answers the question: what does it mean to be a manufacturer? If you were to ask 20 people this question, you would get 20 different answers. This is because of not only the lack of awareness of the manufacturing industry, but also the ever-changing nature of manufacturing itself. 

8/24/2018 - BY: JAMIE HEADLEY
Employers across America are dealing with the combined effect of baby boomers retiring, a strong economy and record low unemployment. Now faced with the large labor shortage this perfect storm has created, manufacturers are looking to the next generation of workers to fill this gap: millennials.

8/17/2018 - BY: GEORGE SINGOS
While company-wide alignment is essential to realizing strategic goals, progress cannot be made without maintaining a strong sense of how well the business is performing. This is where Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) come into play. By establishing, monitoring and analyzing KPIs, such as on-time delivery, changeover time or schedule bumping, companies will be equipped with the data and guidance necessary to align their business toward success.

8/10/2018 - BY: JOHN SPILLSON
Everything we do as manufacturers, and food processors, can be described as a process.  FMEAs help identify what can go wrong within a process as you create, make or assemble your product. Although this is often associated with a manufacturing process, it can be applied to any process (which involves inputs being turned into outputs). FMEAs are used to analyze possible failures or risks, along with the potential severity, chance of occurrence and detection rate of each risk.

8/3/2018 - BY: DALE WICKER
If your company is registered to one of the ISO Quality Management Systems (ISO 9001, AS9100, ISO 13485, IATF 16949), then you are required to perform internal audits at planned intervals to verify the conformance of your system.

7/27/2018 - BY: MIGUEL GOMEZ
What is the vision that drives your company? Why do you operate each day? What do you hope to achieve? Do your employees have the same goals? Many organizations find that their larger company visions can be forgotten in day-to-day firefighting. This is detrimental to success as workers at every level are left unaware of what they should be doing or how their work contributes to larger business goals.

7/20/2018 - BY: BETSY WILLIAMS
At Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) in Traverse City, the tradition of sharing and learning from others on a lean journey launched the Northern Michigan Lean Learning Consortium (LLC) 10 years ago. Two years later, the Michigan Lean Consortium (MLC) was founded by a group of nine forward-thinking individuals who firmly believed that if every Michigan organization used lean principles, the state's economy would rebound.

7/13/2018 - BY: ELLIOT FORSYTH
Having skilled, competent employees is key to an organization’s success. This is no longer easy for manufacturers to come by, however, as a massive talent shortage has emerged in the industry in recent years, leaving many jobs unfilled and tasks undone. It is expected that this talent gap will result in millions of positions remaining vacant in the years to come, a number that will only continue to grow if nothing is done to counteract this trend.