Does your current technology create value through utilizing your ERP / Manufacturing software to capture and analyze data to drive (JIT) Just-in-Time manufacturing? Let’s start with a brief history of JIT manufacturing and how it’s adoption has impacted the manufacturing sector. Then look at some of the…
Although the Charleston-based pharmaceutical company, PharmRight, is nearing the day its cloud-connected pillbox, Livi, will hit the market, the product will be manufactured in Maine, not South Carolina. In February, the company signed a deal with Enercon, a Maine company, to manufacture the dispensers. Randy Parker, CFO…
A Chinese auto manufacturing company will invest $45 million in bringing its operations to the Upstate; a move they say will generate 150 jobs. Jiangnan Mold Plastic Technology Corporation will build its new 260,000 square foot plant in Greer, and expects to be hiring in the second…
The traditional management model has existed for more than a hundred years and the basic tenants are still fundamental to how businesses are managed. Concepts such as hierarchy, standardization, specialization, goal alignment and the use of extrinsic rewards to motivate behavior are key components. Above all, efficiency…
Whether or not your organization employs lean processes, chances are you have experienced them. Maybe you have seen the power of lean from drastically reduced wait times in healthcare, to significantly faster manufacturing lead times, to improved service delivery times and many other positive impacts. Yet, despite…
Every week, the Greenville Area Development Corporation works with companies who echo the same sentiment, “Our employees are our most important asset!” But the evolution of industrial processing mirrors the advances in technology. Today’s rapid increase in production levels are rarely the result of adding more staff,…
The Charleston Metro Chamber has identified urging legislature to either fully fund an aeronautics training center or allowing construction of the facility to start, as one of its priority issues for this legislative session. In its legislative agenda released in January, the chamber called for the…
The Upstate economy has made great strides coming out of the “Great Recession” thanks to a vibrant manufacturing base that calls our ten-county region home. As this large sector continue to hum along, one theme to watch for in 2016 is the idea of “Industry 4.0” within…
In the 1960s Star Trek television program, crew members would head into the cafeteria and push a couple of buttons on a “replicator” and within seconds they would reach into the box and pull out their meal. This was great science fiction, but could it ever be…
It’s a valid question. It’s not too presumptuous to think. Why not? Could South Carolina be the home to the next supersonic commercial airplane? Perhaps this isn’t on anyone’s radar screen yet. For decades, there has been discussion of a new supersonic commercial airplane. During my Boeing…