One of the biggest questions on the minds of facility managers across the country is how to incorporate green products while saving money. The largest on-going cost in most facilities is churn caused by growth/contraction/relocations. Construction costs are regularly planned into the budget to make sure everything is in place for optimum performance. To that…
US Manufacturing Should Embrace Green
With all the talk of recession lately I’ve been thinking about the new green economy that is being developed and what it could mean for the US manufacturing industry. There has been the lingering fear of manufacturing jobs eventually disappearing from US soil as they are slowly off-shored to cheaper labor markets. Sustainability dictates that…
Real Estate Analysis
Everyone knows that it is important to get a regular checkup from the doctor. Just get a quick and easy assessment of where they stand as far as the basics are concerned. In the best case, the doctor will give them some tips on how to do better. Worst case the doctor tells them there…
The Myth of Continuous Improvement
Continuous improvement is thrown around as the best way to stay ahead of the competition in business. It’s used as a talking point for consultants, senior management, engineers and a wide range of others who have responsibility over a process. Six sigma is the king of continuous improvement still today. Take a documented process and…
Consulting Language (aka Buzzwords)
Buzzwords seem to be the stuff that consultants live off of. If they can they’ll throw the words into every sentence they utter whether they are talking to a client or just simple everyday talk. It’s at the point where all someone needs to do to instantly identify themselves as a consultant is start talking…
Changing Tides and Gen Y
Do a search through any online news aggregator and you will find hundreds of stories related to how Generation Y is changing the rules of the workplace. Stories about how they don’t stay with the same company for long periods, how they don’t want to come in at the entry level but start with responsibility,…
Common Sense Forgotten
How many times have you come across a situation where there is a process and set of procedures in place that seem to run completely opposite of common sense? It happens far too often in business that good intentions run awry. Tracing backward in time it is easy to find the events and rational decisions…
Giving Away Your Thoughts
One of the biggest arguments people make against company blogs is that it seems like the equivalent of giving away our intellectual advantage. If we tell people what we think and how we do things what is to keep them from simply doing it themselves? It’s a valid question that is worth deeper examination. It’s…
Benchmarking
The year has only just begun but there is already a new hot topic that is flying around among our clients and it will probably be one of our focuses for the year: benchmarking. Interest in this topic is being driven by clients trying to get a handle on what they are doing right, what…
Automation vs. Manual
There are a lot of conveyor salesman that like to hoover around warehouses. They love to tout the productivity improvements that can be gained by installing their products. Throw in a nice little shoe sorter and you’ll be able to take 4 people out of your shipping process! Add in a Pick-to-Light forward pick zone…