All Features
Bruce Hamilton
Peter Drucker, celebrated by BusinessWeek magazine in 2005 as “the man who invented management,” is credited with a concept that has created confusion for me throughout my work life: the distinction between knowledge work and manual work.
In his 1959 book The Landmarks of Tomorrow (latest edition…
Adam Zewe
Imagine purchasing a robot to perform household tasks. This robot was built and trained in a factory on a certain set of tasks and has never seen the items in your home. When you ask it to pick up a mug from your kitchen table, it might not recognize your mug (perhaps because this mug is painted…
Lindsey Walker
In the quickly changing industrial landscape, firms continue to place a high premium on safety. Innovative approaches to improving industrial safety have been made possible by technological advancements. One particularly revolutionary option is computerized maintenance management system (CMMS)…
Witold Henisz
It is a phenomenon known as the “war on woke”: the political backlash against investments in companies with a corporate purpose beyond profit maximization. Some U.S. lawmakers have argued that environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing undermines financial returns. However, a new paper…
Chanakya Gupta
The food and beverage industry is currently growing at 8.7% and is projected to be worth $8.9 trillion by 2026, according to Research and Markets’ 2022 report on the global food and beverage market. This growth presents opportunities and challenges for manufacturers, many of which must modernize…
Mike Figliuolo
We make leadership way too difficult. We write entire books on it. We teach it in universities and MBA programs. We dedicate entire fields of study to it. We create massive corporate programs to foster it. Here’s the thing: It’s really not that hard.
Sure, we teach leadership at thoughtLEADERS,…
Paul Bramson
Effective communication is the cornerstone of every healthy relationship, both personal and professional. This isn’t new information, of course, but the reality is most of us aren’t very good communicators. Even if you have strong skills and may even be told this by others, you can always improve…
Etienne Nichols
On Feb. 23, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its proposed rule for the new Quality Management System Regulation (QMSR). The proposed QMSR will be the result of aligning the current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) requirements of the FDA’s Quality System Regulation (QSR…
Max Farrell
While recent economic reports on inflation have signaled positive signs for the future, frontline industry turnover rates remain high. With further supply chain disruptions looming, retaining top talent has never been more important for employers. These pressing challenges and continual raw-…
Michael Jarrett
History is filled with tales of courageous and decisive heroes. Individuals like Julius Caesar and Winston Churchill, for example, have led from the front to guide people through adversity and achieve ultimate success. This myth building is especially prominent in business, with stories of…
Ian Wright
It’s been a long and arduous road, but you’re almost ready for that first production run. You made it through supplier selection, your designs and production processes have been finalized, preproduction is finished, and now there’s just one more hurdle to clear: first article inspection (FAI).…
Gleb Tsipursky
Hybrid employees don’t hate the office; they hate commuting to it, surveys show, since for many workers commuting takes more than an hour per day and costs thousands of dollars per year. Peer-reviewed studies find clear associations between longer commute times and lower job satisfaction, increased…
Stephanie Ojeda
Mistakes around standard operating procedure (SOP) management are widespread and costly, especially given the pace of change in manufacturing today.
Consider, for example, an electronics manufacturer that introduces a new product model with updated features and components. This new model requires…
Fred Sievert
Ask any executive what he or she considers the most important skills for team members who aspire to leadership roles, and you will get answers ranging from clear communication to collaboration to adaptability.
During my career, especially as the president of New York Life Insurance, I found that…
Mike Figliuolo
Sometimes you fire someone who doesn’t deserve it. Your job as a leader is to admit the mistake and do your best to rectify it properly as soon as possible.
Many of you (likely about 80%) have fired someone at some point. The odds are that some of you made a mistake in doing so along the way. A…
Chandrakant Isi
Additive manufacturing (AM) and AI are two of the most exciting fields in technology today. 3D printing has revolutionized manufacturing and design, allowing for the creation of complex objects with ease. Meanwhile, AI tools such as ChatGPT, MidJourney, Stable Diffusion, and Resemble have shown…
Etienne Nichols
Amedical device company is expected to deliver innovative, life-changing devices while ensuring compliance and achieving true quality. This task bears loads of responsibility—all of which must be kept and documented within your quality management system (QMS).
A QMS contains everything that…
FABTECH
Manufacturers understand that their businesses won’t grow if their workforces don’t grow along with them. That’s why the talent shortage in the metal fabrication industry continues to be a pressing concern—and three-quarters of respondents in the National Association of Manufacturers’ 2023 First…
Hank C. Andersen
Not many years ago, there was a CEO so exceedingly fond of finding the right strategy that he spent all of his money on consultants to tell him what the strategy should be. One day there came two consultants, and they said they could craft the most magnificent strategy imaginable. Not only would it…
Megan Wallin-Kerth
Business owners and employees alike have long debated over how best to achieve quality standards and what those standards ought to be. However, as much as linear thinking may help when measuring degrees of improvement, increases in profit, or low turnover rates, it can’t tell you that your company…
Jennifer V. Miller
What are the stories we tell ourselves? It’s a simple question, yet one rich with possibility. In my years of creating leadership development programs, one of the “stories” that continually surfaces with leaders is “I need to do X for my direct reports because they are not yet ready/willing/able to…
Aaron Smith
A successful company can’t run without happy and motivated employees. One way you can achieve that is by improving your employees’ uptime. Uptime refers to your employees’ freedom to pursue personal and occupational growth without the burden of preventable injuries. Here is everything you need to…
Mike Figliuolo
You folks know I love asking questions. From this post about forgoing answers in favor of asking questions, to my quote, “Asking the right question about the future is more powerful than having the right answer about the past,” I’ve found questions to be a more powerful leadership tool than many…
Mark Mortensen
The end of Covid-19 workplace disruptions has ushered in a fresh set of challenges for organizations. Chief among them has been establishing new office policies for a workforce that has largely embraced flexible work and has expressed a desire for this to become a permanent fixture.
But…
Gleb Tsipursky
As the world slowly recovers from the pandemic, many knowledge workers find themselves at a crossroad. On one hand, the prospect of returning to the office stirs up a cocktail of dread and nostalgia. On the other hand, the threat of AI-driven job elimination looms large. It’s like being caught…
