Medical product manufacturers—including producers of medical devices and plastic medical components—are in the some of the most competitive segments of manufacturing. And many of them are growing 10% a year or faster than their peers, according to a recent survey of 151 North American manufacturers conducted by research firm Decision Analyst on behalf of IQMS.

With its racing debut in 2016, Haas F1 Team is the first American Formula One team to hit the circuit since 1986. Founded by Gene Haas, the team is based in Kannapolis, NC. Haas is the founder of Haas Automation, the largest CNC machine tool builder in North America, and he is the chairman of Haas F1 Team.

Fujitsu Glovia, Inc. has released Glovia G2 V3.5.0, which expands upon its manufacturing planning and execution experience gained over more than 30 years. The new release provides a number of enhancements to the company’s manufacturing ERP software, along with three new applications.

While enterprise resource planning (ERP) software has existed as a manufacturing tool for nearly five decades, digital manufacturing has taken a giant leap forward over the past several years with companies increasingly adopting Software as a Service (SaaS) or Cloud ERP models. 

Macola Software unveiled Macola 10.6, the newest release of its ERP and business software.

Modern manufacturers collect mountains of data every day. But how much of that data is ever studied, beyond the small percentage that raises red flags?

Socrates said, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” Another great mind, Ed Morse (in his keynote address at this past year’s Coordinate Metrology Society Conference), said, “Data is only as good as what you can do with it.” If you were so inclined to put these two thoughts together, you could see the current dilemma regarding Big Data.

Several months ago I wrote about the Cynefin Model and the benefits of keeping things simple to the decision-making process. And a large part of decision making has to do with choice, or more accurately, the number of choices we have. Enter the “psychology of choice.”

People often talk about the high failure rate for software implementation projects. Stories abound about failures in CRM, MES, SCM and QMS, but the stories are especially disturbing when they involve ERP. 

With cloud-based devices becoming a more integral part of manufacturers’ personal and professional lives, the question remains: Is this influx of new technology actually improving the work-life balance?