Smart Manufacturing Blog

Welcome to your source for all things smart manufacturing. Whether you’re looking for expert insights, hard data, or actionable tips for your plant floor, we’ve got you covered every week of the year.

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Food & Beverage

Plex Manufacturing Blog

How to Speed Up Your Recall Response—and Transform Your Entire Business

Plex Team December 16, 2020

Can your food and beverage manufacturing company run a mock recall in 20 minutes or less? If you said no, you’re far from alone. In a recent online poll conducted by Plex during a webinar, 38 percent of respondents said “no” to this question. All other respondents said “not sure.” Not one webinar participant said “yes.”...

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Food and Beverage Manufacturer Shows Off Benefit of an Agile Manufacturing Process

Plex Team November 3, 2020

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit manufacturing, it quickly became clear the companies that would succeed would be companies that could pivot on a dime. One of those companies is Plex customer Olde Thompson. Headquartered in Oxnard, California, the company is the world’s largest manufacturer of salt and pepper mills and a leading manufacturer of private label and branded dry spices and seasonings.…

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3 Reasons Why Traceability is Key to Reducing Errors on Your Plant Floor

Plex Team September 15, 2020

High profile recalls have increased in recent years and manufacturers have paid steeply not just in money but also the impact on their reputation. Paper based records are prone to errors, difficult to manage, and may be impossible to find which means days of delays in responding to a recall. A clear way to reduce errors on your plant floor and to avoid a recall, is implementing a system that…

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5 Tips to Hacking Distribution Requirement Planning in the Food and Beverage Industry

Plex DemandCaster August 10, 2020

One-third of our food and drink goes to waste. Read our five expert tips on hacking distribution requirement planning in the food and beverage industry. ...

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5 Key Takeaways from the 5th Annual State of Manufacturing Technology Report

Jerry Foster May 7, 2020

The state of manufacturing technology is one that is constantly evolving. What is true one month might not be true the next, and we have seen that volatility with the impact of COVID-19. So how do manufacturers to stay ahead of the curve to drive growth and stay ahead of competition?...

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How Jagemann Answered the Call for PPE Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Amy Jagemann May 5, 2020

Guest post from Amy Jagemann, marketing and customer service manager, Jagemann Stamping The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the way we view business, our personal lives and the safety of our family, friends and communities. For my colleague Nathan Dudney, director of sales and business development at Jagemann Precision Plastics – a division of Jagemann Stamping – this battle is…

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Restarting Plex ERP After An Unprecedented Shutdown

Monti Piccioni May 1, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the manufacturing industry across the world, including organizations that leverage the Plex smart manufacturing systemplatform. Fragmented supply chains have become significantly harder to manage. Demand in many industries has fallen. Manufacturers have found themselves hobbled as they try to sustain current operations or shut down entirely for an undetermined…

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Declining Manufacturing Production Turns the Corner

Jerry Foster April 22, 2020

This week’s global data marks a turning point: the decline of manufacturing production is starting to flatten, and in some regions and industries, even shows an upturn in activity. For instance, let's first look at two of our bigger data sets – manufacturing in the United States and China, both of which are showing signs of improvement (see graphs below). U.S. data set...

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Manufacturing Leaders Share COVID-19 Response

Plex Team April 17, 2020

In today’s volatile global environment, manufacturers around the world being tasked with adapting to fluctuating supply chain demands, meeting new regulatory requirements and addressing shifting customer needs – all while protecting the health and safety of their workers....

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Global Manufacturing Community Activity Diverges from China Recovery Model

Jerry Foster April 15, 2020

Global manufacturing activity continues to drop – now producing at approximately 20% of where rates were four weeks ago, when we saw the start of a steep decline in activity....

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