Manufacture Smarter Blog

1/4/2013 - THE CENTER
This week, the Institute of Supply Management (ISM) reported that December was the fourth consecutive month of expanding orders from American businesses. The ISM export gauge showed sales growth overseas for the first time in seven months. American manufacturers are becoming increasingly optimistic about the outlook for sales in 2013.

12/21/2012 - THE CENTER
2012 has been a pivotal year for our country's manufacturing sector. A sector which is integral part of any sustained economic recovery. We’ve seen a renewed focus from media, legislators and the general public to sustain and assist the industry.

12/7/2012 - THE CENTER
​If there’s one thing to be learned from the impending zombie apocalypse (think Walking Dead), it’s the need for someone to have your back. You can be strong, resilient, and powerful, but at some point - you need to sleep. That’s when you want to know that someone is looking out for you.

11/30/2012 - BY: MIKE BEELS
As a consultant, I work with many, many family owned businesses in Michigan. When I start to relate the numbers to not only my clients, but my friends, I realize the incredible importance of having a succession plan. Imagine the impact on a company, a family, the employees, and a community without one.

11/21/2012 - THE CENTER
Top Twelve Reasons We’re Thankful in 2012

11/16/2012 - THE CENTER
Defining innovation should be easy, unfortunately, it’s not. Is it a process? Is it the end game? Is it merely a new way of doing an existing thing or is it only something completely different? Is collaboration a tool that allows innovation to take place or is collaboration itself the innovation? At least we can agree on this - manufacturing innovation includes the introduction of new processes and practices, new technology and equipment and/or new materials to a company.

11/9/2012 - THE CENTER
Pay Per Click advertising, the “Sponsored Ads” that display at the top and side in search engines like Google, is a highly effective method of driving new prospects and buyers to your website. You only pay for visitors who actually “click” your ad – a more cost effective advertising approach than Yellow Pages, ThomasNet, Newspapers and many more traditional forms of advertising.

11/2/2012 - THE CENTER
The U.S. economy relies heavily on the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing firms fund most of our domestic corporate Research & Development, and the resulting innovations and growth in productivity improve our standard of living. Manufacturing boosts exports and the industry plays an important part in national defense. 

10/26/2012 - THE CENTER
It’s the nature or nurture question for business. How much does the environment shape the workforce? OSHA regulations and workforce safety issues aside, are there things that a company can do to improve employee performance and product output? This goes beyond cleanliness, which we would file under workforce safety.

10/22/2012 - THE CENTER
In an era of global competition, smaller manufacturers face challenges above and beyond the challenges that larger, more established companies face. By definition, small manufacturers are companies making less than $10 million in revenue annually. Based on numbers from the latest Michigan County Business Patterns, roughly 92.28% of Michigan’s SMMs or 11,423 of Michigan’s 12,378 manufacturing establishments meet this criterion.