Redefining Business Processes and Relationships Through Software

Considering how often product recalls can be traced to suppliers, customer/supplier relationships have been in a state of changing ownership and responsibility for some time. The functionalities of manufacturing and quality software are greatly simplifying the process of tracking, tracing, and assigning responsibility, and changing the way suppliers and customers relate.

Speaking of change, also in this week's round-up is an interesting twist to how you may approach measuring profitability...

Changing Perceptions: EQMS as a Value Generator in the Medical Device Industry

Management of supplier relationships and insight into supply chain processes are both critical to reducing product recalls and provide the ability to react quickly when needed within the medical device industry. Fifty-two percent of all medical device recalls are due to issues stemming from supplier relationships. Due to our global interactions, suppliers within the U.S. and abroad function under various regulatory standards and requirements that make data transparency difficult. Mohan Ponnudurai of Sparta Systems discusses how EQMS is making this process simpler and allowing manufacturers to trace, track, and assign responsibility to suppliers. Read more.

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A Better Way to Understand Product Profitability

Have you been calculating your product profitability or margin by subtracting costs from the sale price? Kick that equation to the curb. Brian Maskell, President of BMA, Inc., provides insight into the “contribution per minute” calculation:

Contribution/Minute = (Financial Contribution/No. of Minutes through the Bottleneck Operation)

Maskell recommends calculating this for all of your major products in order to compare the relative financial impact. This discussion provides insight into how to effectively measure contribution/minute and how it can help your organizations. Read more.

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Cisco's IoT Ship Sails Ahead as Former Captain Joins Start-Up

At the 25^th user conference this past week, Cisco announced its plans for the Internet of Things (IoT), despite the company’s former IoT chief joining Shanghai-based Envision Energy. Cisco announced aggressively investing in the IoT due to the alignment that this movement has to its overall mission and products. In the coming months, you can expect the launch of an application enablement platform that will provide the opportunity to build anew and adapt existing applications for the IoT environment. LNS’ Matthew Littlefield was in attendance this year, and we will keep you updated with his experience and takeaways in the days to come. Learn about Cisco’s plans as well as the start-up Envision Energy, here.

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8 Ways MOM Software Is Transforming Shop-Floor Quality

Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) applications have a strong effect on quality management initiatives, and research shows that companies have been performing greater numbers of quality-focused MOM implementations. Efforts are also taking place to further integrate quality functionality into MOM offerings. Greg Goodwin, research associate, looks at why MOM software application suites have had a growing effect on quality, and how companies have been leveraging them to transform shop-floor operations. Read more.

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