Some good news for U.S. manufacturing to start off this week's roundup. According to PwC, for the first time in eight years U.S. manufacturers' optimism on the domestic economy is on the rise.
And that's not the only thing looking up. We just finished up our five-month research study with MESA International on manufacturing performance metrics and, overall, respondents reported some impressive improvements. For a recap of the event, including answers to many questions that were not able to be addressed due to time, read on to the bottom of this week's roundup.
The benefits of moving from paper-based quality documentation to digital capabilities are quite obvious and well-known. However, getting to the end result can often uncover challenges that were not anticipated. Michael Rapaport of IQS provides insight into four of the top obstacles companies may face during this process as well as how to avoid them. Discussion points include: structuring organizational information, approval and permissions policies, adapting quality processes, and culture change. Read more.
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According to the Q1 2014 Manufacturing Barometer, released by PwC US, manufacturers’ optimism regarding the direction of the domestic economy rose. In fact, this increase was the first since Q4 of 2005 (eight years). The same optimism could not be said for the economy on a global scale as manufacturers remain cautious. However, domestically, this leads to a great start for the year ahead. Revenue growth expectations are aligned, which should correspond to new jobs and spending within IT and R&D. Manufacturing.net shares an article that fully discusses these results, here.
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Fusion 10 was held at the beginning of the month, and Pilgrim CEO Thierry Durand depicted the theme of this event as “moving quality management from a cost center to a profit center.” This also highlighted the announcement of new company branding and positioning, which is centered on being the premier quality and compliance solution provider. Fusion attendees had a chance to meet with the Pilgrim management team as well as other customers, with two especially noteworthy presentations coming from Kari Miller, VP of Product Marketing, and Stanley Curtis, CTO. LNS Research's President and Principal Analyst Matthew Littlefield was in attendance and commented on the two presentations:
- Kari Miller helped attendees understand the key drivers behind the robust Pilgrim roadmap, including: improved best practices and solutions that are configurable, an improved user experience, improved quality and validation, and enterprise solutions with a global focus.
- Stanley Curtis provided insight into where the company was moving from a technology perspective, with specific insights on the strategy for an increased focus on cloud, mobility, business intelligence, and a web-based user experience.
Event Summary
Wednesday’s Metrics that Matter webcast highlighted the average performance improvements that companies are experiencing across eight metrics categories as well as key correlations between operational and financial metrics. Also discussed was how Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) software applications are supporting and impacting these metrics programs today. The event proved to be a success, but unfortunately many of the attendee questions could not be answered due to time constraints. This article answers some the top questions and provides further insight into this research study. Read More.
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