Manufacturing And Warehousing IT News For VARs — September 2, 2014
By Trisha Leon, contributing writer
In the news, the U.S. economy grew rapidly in the second quarter. Also, articles provide an example of a manufacturer’s success leveraging IT and the benefits of IT offered as a service to manufacturers.
Economy Shows Rapid Growth In Q2, Optimism For 2015
Martin Crutsinger, AP economics writer, reports in Manufacturing.net that the U.S. economy grew rapidly in the second quarter of 2014. He writes, “After a bleak start to the year, the U.S. economy grew at a brisk annual rate of 4.2 percent in the April-June quarter, the government said Thursday, slightly faster than it had first estimated.” Combined with the first quarter’s low numbers, economists’ predictions for 2014 are modest — 2.1 percent growth, not much change from last year’s 2.2 percent. However they are far more optimistic about 2015, expecting growth to accelerate to 3 percent, with many factors influencing the growth. Crutsinger says, “Besides more jobs translating into more spending power, economists think other forces, such as business investment, stronger state and local finances and rising exports, will also support growth in coming months.”
How One Manufacturer Leveraged IT
Patricia Moody, publisher at Blue Heron Journal, interviews John Sammut, CEO at Firstronic, in the Industry Week article, “Leveraging IT for Competitive U.S. Production,” the third in a series. He answers her questions about his companies’ IT investments, security concerns, and component and material obsolescence. He explains Firstronic’s philosophy on IT and how it has led to their “integration of an of internally-developed program management software with an off-the-shelf cloud-based ERP solution,” and thereby driven manufacturing growth from operations in the U.S.
The Benefit Of As-A-Service To Manufacturers
A CloudTech article, X as a service (XaaS): What the Future of Cloud Computing Will Bring,” explains what X as a service (XaaS) is and what advantages it offers. John Dixon, consulting architect maintains that XaaS can take the place of commodity services like email and desktop services. Dixon writes, “Increased investment in email or the desktop environment does not translate into increases in top-line revenue or bottom-line profit for the business. Consider that investment includes financial and time investments. So, why have an employee spend time maintaining an email system if it doesn’t provide any value to the business?” Sourcing commodity services to specialist providers can increase investments in services that add value to the business.
Manufacturing IT Talking Points
In the Industrial Distribution article, “Top Distractions in the Warehouse: 10 Proactive Ways to Eliminate Them,” Jerry Matos, product specialist at Cherry's Industrial Equipment, defines what a distraction is, lists major distractions in the workplace, and gives practical advice on how to minimize them. In order for manufacturers to reach production goals and preform at the optimum level, workers must be as efficient as possible. This means they must able to do approach their work in a distraction-free environment. Matos says, “While not all distractions can be eliminated in a warehouse, they can surely be reduced to improve the safety and efficiency.”
The article, “Making Things One at a Time is More Efficient Than Mass Production Says Lean Expert,” in Global Manufacturing, features Ted Duclos and his revolutionary idea that “America can revitalize its manufacturing base by making things one at a time.” Abagail Phillips writes about Duclos’ somewhat unorthodox process, “instead of using a massive injection-molding machine to shape a group of thermoplastic pieces simultaneously, Duclos is promoting a system of small, single-cavity presses that generate one perfect piece at a time.” Duclos explains, “Single cavity molding is more like biology–you have many small machines working together in a highly efficient, effective manner. As you scale up with this approach, it drives efficiency all the way through the supply chain, saving money.” Though those in the industry will need more convincing, Duclos believes this process will continue to gain momentum.
For more news and insights, visit BSMinfo’s Manufacturing And Warehousing Tech Center.