What is sustainability

Sustainability is a word that gets tossed around a lot. All too often it is associated solely with companies’ efforts to go “green”. And all too often even that is nothing more than “green-wash” a polite was of saying it’s nothing more than trendy marketing with no real [...]

Industrial Anorexia

At the recent IMEC 2008 conference organized by the University of Toronto, Art Rice of Maintenance Technology Magazine said that in many cases “Lean is a form of Anorexia”. That got me thinking and I realized that in many cases where I’ve seen attempts at “lean manufacturing” the lean [...]

Are you ready for the recovery?

The recession is over – at last! Whew! Manufacturers are gearing up. The resource sector is coming back to life. Major projects are getting again underway. Demand for consumer goods is growing. But is your company ready for the demands of the new markets we [...]

Prove it

We’re seeing an interesting phenomenon these days – senior executives actually being taken to task over excessive pay while their companies languish. The US Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal is challenging rate hikes to pay these salaries and named Northeast Utilities, United, Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas Company. [...]

Waiting for budget might mean you do not believe you can do it

This year has been a rough one for many industries, especially manufacturing. Training and consulting budgets have been slashed or eliminated over fear that the company won’t have enough money, or perhaps a future. Yet slashing these investments [...]