IndustryWeek covers manufacturing operations topics that senior-level executives care about. It creates a structured dialogue that addresses the real experiences and problems manufacturers face. In every issue, IW builds a discourse around six departments. The departments are founded on fundamental pillars of manufacturing knowledge, and each department's dedicated editor fosters a community around that department's most relevant topics. In a world rife with information, IW provides the single source where manufacturing's decision-makers find the applicable content they need. IW listens to manufacturing leaders, builds its departments around their needs, and produces content that actively reaches them.
Including...Robotics, Components, Controls, Capital Equipment, Motors/Drives, RoHS, Machine Tools, and Systems Integration
2 out of 3 manufacturing companies predict maintaining or increasing their capital equipment expenditures.
Automated Production" and "Manufacturing" are in many ways synonymous -- at least across North America and much of the modern industrialized world. In today's hyper-competitive environment, top executives of American manufacturing companies know their business plans must leverage the strategic advantages of factory automation in order to win in world markets. Plant-floor technologies and automation are mission-critical competitive investments that drive profitability, cut costs and -- if not managed properly -- waste resources. Factory automation also represents a significant capital investment for every manufacturer in what is truly a capital-intensive industry.
In this department, IW looks at what's new in factory automation and how manufacturers are using these technologies to pump up profitability and rein in costs. IW explores how these new technologies facilitate today's "lean" and "Six Sigma" factory environments, reduce energy costs, improve quality, decrease costly material waste, increase product yield, reduce labor costs and more. IW is committed to covering the state of the art in automated production every month.
Including...Lean Manufacturing, Energy, Maintenance/MRO, Green Manufacturing, Economic Development, Labor, Safety, Waste Management, and Capacity
The U.S. leads all countries in absolute levels of productivity, both per hour and per employee.
This IndustryWeek department focuses on energy, the environment, economic development, safety, maintenance/MRO, workforce and lean manufacturing. It covers topics that directly affect how and where companies develop competitive goods and services. It also looks at the factors companies face when they produce, market and sell these goods and services.
The Facilities & Operations department provides practical information, examples and guidelines to help manufacturing managers make strategic decisions and successfully implement them both on and off the production floor. This department is about the ways manufacturing managers can work with their colleagues to make the most of their investments in people, technology and machinery, whether the challenge is as complex as mapping and redefining an entire supplier-to-customer value chain or as simple as creating a quick-glance visual that shows if a production
die is in the right storage place.
Manufacturing firms fund $120 billion of R&D each year. That's 60% of the total U.S. private sector R&D investment.
In this monthly department, IW looks at the tools manufacturers deploy to shorten time-to-market while developing innovative products. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tools are helping manufacturers manage implementation hurdles as they deal with cultural changes throughout their enterprises. Nanomaterials are reshaping the face of manufacturing thanks to the structural information embedded in them. New technologies are increasingly being adapted to fit the needs of manufacturers' processes, with the goal of keeping the U.S. at the forefront of R&D leadership.
Including...Global Sourcing, Online
Marketplaces, Credit Insurance, Raw Materials,
Counterfeit Parts and the Gray Market, Spend
Management and Analysis, Procurement, and
Financing/Leasing
Material costs make up roughly half of the cost of goods sold at U.S. manufacturing plants. Escalating and extremely volatile raw material prices are putting the squeeze on manufacturers in their struggle to rein in costs and improve profitability. That's forcing manufacturing decision-makers to become smarter about how they purchase materials, and more strategic in their evaluation of both direct and indirect materials. To that end, they are implementing procurement strategies to mitigate those cost increases while reducing the impact of cost fluctuations.
Including...Transportation, Packaging,
Cargo Security, Material Handling, Warehousing and
Distribution, Inventory Management, 3PLs, Global
Trade Management, and Reverse Logistics
By 2020, forecasts predict that the U.S. transportation system will handle cargo valued at more than $28 trillion.
Doing everything right within the four walls of one's own facility no longer guarantees operational success. Today, manufacturers also must take responsibility for their extended supply chain upstream to the raw material providers and downstream to the end customer. Supply chain management is a tricky proposition fraught with political challenges and cultural obstacles. When done well, however, the payoff can be significant. Supply chain management means taking what Toyota did with "just in time," adding what Dell learned with its supplier integration, and topping it off with the lessons and systems borrowed from retail giants like Wal-Mart to revolutionize how manufacturers make their products and get them to market better, faster and cheaper -- on a global scale.
Including...ERP, Wireless Applications,
Supply Chain Solutions, RFID, Business
Intelligence, and more
The manufacturing sector will increase its spending on IT services to a total of $455.7 billion by 2009.
Every month IW takes a look at the changes taking place in vital information technologies. The pace of business continues to quicken and many manufacturers are demanding more real-time metrics to help them strategically stay ahead of the game. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and financial software help manufacturers measure real-time performance management. Wireless technologies such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), bar codes and machine monitoring provide the ability to move material handling data instantly, thereby improving efficiency and productivity. Data warehousing, content management and business intelligence software are used by many manufacturers to improve a variety of core business functions and thereby gain a competitive advantage. And manufacturers both large and small are increasingly relying on software to monitor their supply chain processes, create models, test solutions and implement changes to improve their service levels while reducing their inventory and logistics costs.
