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Daily industrial news and top headlines for plant and maintenance managers
Interoffice Email Crisis: 2009
September 1, 2009 12:05 pm | by by David Mantey, Editor, PD&D | Comments“Now I know my pet carrier didn’t just grow legs and walk out of the office itself. I understand if you mistook it for your own, but if the culprit would stop by my desk to drop it off this afternoon, Crash and Burn would certainly appreciate it. For the record, Crash and Burn are kittens.
Mergers, Acquisitions & Free Cable
September 1, 2009 11:36 am | by by Luke Simpson, Associate Editor, Chem.Info | CommentsAfter dinner on Friday night I found that our cable TV had been disconnected. When I called my cable provider to report the problem, I was told that they would send someone out on Sunday afternoon — would I prefer they came between 1 and 5 p.m. or between 3 and 5 p.
EPA - R.I.P.
August 31, 2009 8:15 am | by by Jeff Reinke, Editorial Director, Chem.Info | CommentsOne of the more interesting green developments in recent months has been Wal-Mart’s decision to initiate greater sustainability standards in the products they’ll purchase and re-sell. I’ll abstain from sharing the inter-office banter that has pitted my colleagues against me regarding this topic, but instead offer some thoughts on the interesting precedent this could set for processors.
Blocking & Tackling
August 31, 2009 8:00 am | by by Carrie Ellis, Editor, Chem.Info | CommentsWhat is my worst self-critique as far as work habits are concerned? Time management. I may consider it my arch nemesis, yet it still needs to be blocked and tackled over the course of the day.--> Carrie Ellis, Editor, Chem.Info If you hang out with sports lover and editorial director Jeff Reinke for any amount of time, you are bound to stumble across some of his sage advice.
Guest Feature: Selecting The Right HMI Vendor
August 31, 2009 4:44 am | by by Gary Labadie, Marketing Manager, Pro-face America | CommentsHow do you go about choosing the right HMI vendor for your operations? It’s a great question that bares discussion. An HMI vendor is a critical information visualization supplier that greatly impacts and influences a process plant, an OEM, and system integrator operations. An HMI vendor can be one of two things, a supplier or a partner.
Mustachioed Deer Hunters
August 31, 2009 4:09 am | by by Anna Wells, Editor, IMPO | CommentsBeing from Wisconsin, I often have to turn a blind eye to how my native people are portrayed in the media: the obese, beer-guzzling, cheese and brat shoveling mustachioed deer hunter. But what you bring to the table—whether it be your knowledge of Harleys or your interest in seeing cars destroyed from a lawn chair vantage point—can almost always translate into other tasks, ideas, product development, or process improvement.
Guest Feature: Facing the Sustainability Challenge
August 27, 2009 12:07 pm | by by Kent St. Vrain, Vice President, Business Development & Marketing, Paxoni | CommentsSustainability — it is clearly the hot topic of the day — you cannot turn the page in any periodical without reading about it. This is particularly true in the manufacturing and packaging worlds. But this "new" imperative is really not new at all. It is the continuation of a course of action that started more than a decade ago when there was a major focus on consumer waste, crowded landfills and the advent of widespread recycling programs.
Lie, Cheat & Steal
August 27, 2009 10:40 am | by by David Mantey, Editor, PD&D | Commentsby David Mantey, Editor, PD&D Seriously, they tell you not to cheat in school but did you ever notice – that is if you ever cheated – that when you worked off a friend’s paper (read: copied), you would copy everything that was good and beef up the sections that needed a little help, creating a better end product? It’s the American way, so why do teachers frown so heavily upon it? --> Struggling mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson’s recently appointed new president had quite the golden nugget of information to offer as he took over his new post.
Guest Feature: Stronger-Than-Steel Processing With Industrial PCs
August 25, 2009 10:35 am | CommentsIn today’s world of steel making, profit margins are as thin as sheet metal. That makes the margin of error at the Timken Faircrest plant in Canton, OH even thinner for the utilization of time, equipment, and raw material. The workforce must be coordinated across a site covering dozens of acres.
Guest Feature: Using GRC to Drive Innovation and Competitive Advantage
August 24, 2009 9:08 am | by by Dan Wilhelms | CommentsWith governmental regulations for compliance becoming all the more rigorous, chief audit officers (CAOs) are finding themselves between a rock and a hard place regarding controlling costs and satisfying these more rigorous compliance demands. At the same time, external auditors are getting more sophisticated in their investigations of compliance — delving deeper into organizations’ controls.
Embracing The Role
August 24, 2009 8:59 am | by by Jeff Reinke, Editorial Director, IMPO | CommentsOne of the great American traditions is that of embracing the plight of the little guy, the underdog, the one with all the odds stacked against them. I think it’s because even in these seemingly impossible conditions they’re committed to doing whatever it takes and are unwilling to yield to theoretically superior opposition.
Cleaning Out the Web Cobwebs
August 20, 2009 11:07 am | by by Anna Wells, Editor, IMPO | CommentsAnna Wells, Editor, IMPO The web is a strange place to live because there is such a disparity in structure from place to place. In real life, my neighborhood is all maples, condos, and serious lawn care. I don’t accidentally turn a corner and find myself in a sewer.
Full Speed In Reverse
August 20, 2009 4:43 am | by by Jeff Reinke, Editorial Director, IMPO | CommentsJeff Reinke, Editorial Director, IMPO I know, I know, the U.S. auto industry has been an easy target for quite a while now, but a release came across my screen last week that made putting it back within the crosshairs of my keyboard way too appealing. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve all become familiar with the Cash For Clunkers program.
Redefining Dairy
August 18, 2009 8:15 am | by by Jeff Reinke, Editorial Director, IMPO | CommentsJeff Reinke, Editorial Director, IMPO As someone who grew up in the rolling corn and hay fields of southeastern WI, I’ll proudly testify to the sentiment that permeates throughout this area. Combining a strong work ethic with a common sense approach has resulted in a collective that embraces both traditional and new ideas.
Fighting Back Against The Recession
August 17, 2009 5:26 am | by by Amy Radishofski, Features Editor, Manufacturing.net | CommentsThe manufacturing sector has taken a beating by the recent economic downturn. While no industry has escaped unharmed, companies are beginning to fight back, according to the 2009 Manufacturing and Wholesale Distribution Survey by RSM McGladrey. Does that mean there is some good news on the horizon? Well, sort of.
