While manufacturers have used lean principles for decades to increase their productivity and reduce complexity, smart technologies can now be integrated to enhance the impact. Daniel Küpper, partner and managing director at the operations and industrial goods practice at Boston Consulting Group, told BCG.com that manufacturers seeking to optimize their […]

Even today’s super-lean, robotized U.S. manufacturing base holds the promise of some good jobs. For one thing, the McKinsey report emphasizes, manufacturing and service-sector roles increasingly overlap.   In the decade after World War II, the United States produced more goods than the rest of the world combined. Now America’s […]

In certain situations, because of the flexibility and lean process in Florence, Balluff can offer same-day delivery on linear transducers.   With the 2014 expansion of its campus in Florence, Kentucky, Balluff, the German sensor manufacturer and automation supplier, takes another significant step in improving its global production and logistics […]

Energy efficiency is good for profitability and the planet. What’s more, simple improvements in resource management can produce big benefits Of all the commercial factors that might motivate a firm to play its part in the fight against climate change, the chance to improve its efficiency offers the most potential […]

A warehouse worker using an augmented reality wearable device. By now, it’s well known and widely accepted that the explosive growth of e-commerce over the last five years has seriously disrupted the logistics and supply chain industries. Consumers expect fast, cheap (or even free) shipping, a wide range of choices, […]

There are at least three major unrecognized advantages of instituting lean principles, including better navigating the competitive life cycle. In practice, lean manufacturing is an operating philosophy that yields a number of long-term benefits that aren’t always obvious to those who are considering adopting it. The first thing most manufacturing […]