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High Tech & Electronics
Plex Manufacturing Blog
Manufacturing's Resurgence
Last week I had the opportunity to attend Forbes’ second annual Reinventing America Summit, a gathering of key players in the advanced manufacturing ecosystem. The innovation, ingenuity and enthusiasm on display reinforced my conviction in the resurgence of American manufacturing and our ability to compete globally. ...
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Electronics Manufacturing Moves to the Cloud
“We focus on what we can offer that nobody else can,” explains Firstronic CEO John Sammut. “Our differentiators have become better shop floor controls, advanced technology, speed-to-market and flexibility.” Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Firstronic makes electronic components for automotive, industrial and medical industry customers....
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Valentine’s Day Floats on a Cloud
While Valentine’s Day has been celebrated since the 18th Century, it wasn’t until 1861 that candy makers placed their chocolates into heart-shaped boxes. The rest, as they say, is history. But what goes into making all the chocolates and truffles, and managing the increased demand for holidays like Valentine’s Day?...
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The Internet of Making Things: The Connected Torque Wrench
For more than 100 years the torque wrench has been an essential and valuable tool for manufacturers because it applies specific torque to a fastener, such as a nut or bolt. Torque can be the difference in the performance of the end product, whether that’s the power output of a diesel engine or the fit-and-finish of the latest iPhone....
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Why More Manufacturers Are Finding Quality Maturity in the Cloud
All manufacturers—from startups to those in the Fortune 100—are concerned with quality. However, where each is along the path to quality maturity varies. At LNS Research, we like to refer to the process of progressing forward on this path as an “endless journey,” because with an ever-evolving set of quality obstacles as well as continual innovation in strategies and technologies, there’s room for…
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The Lego Hand
Topics like quality, efficiency, process and cost can dominate almost any manufacturing conversation. End-customer satisfaction depends on consistent quality and high value; as an industry, we spend billions of dollars annually to implement practices and technologies to make things better....
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Repairing the Clumsy Relationship between People and Technology: Wearables on the Shop Floor at TEDxDetroit
Google Glass, Bluetooth and other emerging mobile and wearable technologies are poised to transform manufacturing practices and how people interact with materials on the plant floor. Imagine pairing Google Glass with RFID tags to create a way for people to see inside boxes and around corners without using their hands....
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Plex CMO Heidi Melin Talks Marketing Technology
Today’s highly connected digital world has evoked a shift in everything from the way people communicate with each other to how companies conduct business. We see it all the time in manufacturing – companies selecting Cloud ERP technology after putting careful thought into their business processes and the infrastructure to keep operations running....
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The Difference Between Active and Passive Compliance
I had an interesting conversation last week with a company that was evaluating new ERP systems. One of the principal drivers for replacing their old business system is compliance and traceability. Today they use a combination of manual processes and disconnected systems to track material usage, quality, and production activities. ...
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Cloudwashing
Wow have we made progress! It used to be that architectural changes in ERP systems required rewriting the code, but now you can do it by simply editing the web page and issuing a press release. ERP “paradigm shifts,” like the ones from mainframes to minicomputers or host-based to SOA, consumed thousands of software engineers’ efforts and sent the majority of vendors to the ERP graveyard. ...
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Guest Post: Cloud: the Key to Global Sourcing Strategy
Developing a global sourcing model to serve a world-wide customer base as well as to manage global operations in a seamless way, manufacturers have adopted a ‘build anywhere-ship anywhere strategy.’ Adopting a cloud manufacturing system is emerging as the best strategy to quickly enable these capabilities....
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How Plex Is Revolutionizing Manufacturing with Two-Tier ERP
Bottom line: Two-tier ERP strategies provide companies with a convenient approach to isolate and contain legacy ERP systems – which like asbestos - can do much damage in any company if left uncontained....
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How Cloud Computing Is Enabling An Artisanal Manufacturing Renaissance
A manufacturing revolution is flourishing. Driven by passionate entrepreneurs, this revolution is translating their creativity, craftsmanship and commitment to exceptional quality into products that are changing entire industries. These revolutionaries bring a passion and intensity to every aspect of their businesses. ...
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How Cloud Computing Is Enabling An Artisanal Manufacturing Renaissance
A manufacturing revolution is flourishing. Driven by passionate entrepreneurs, this revolution is translating their creativity, craftsmanship and commitment to exceptional quality into products that are changing entire industries. These revolutionaries bring a passion and intensity to every aspect of their businesses....
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Why Put a Software Company in Detroit?
One of the fun things about my job as VP of Strategy is that I get to brag about what we are doing at Plex to friends and acquaintances and occasionally total strangers. But inevitably they will always get around to asking the question – “Why would you put a software company in Detroit?” ...
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R.I.P. Business ByDesign
There was a major brouhaha when word leaked out that SAP was finally burying its ill-fated cloud-based ERP system, Business ByDesign. I assume it must have been a slow news week because no one could really have been surprised....
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Rethinking Business Innovation at the Cloud Business Summit
I recently had the pleasure of traveling to Times Square in New York City to attend Saugatuck Technology’s one-day executive event, the Cloud Business Summit. The event brought together more than 100 CIOs, CFOs and CMOs from large national enterprises to hear how the convergence of cloud, big data, mobile and social media is “Rethinking Business Innovation.”...
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Meeting the Challenge of Future Growth Using Two-Tier ERP Strategies
In speaking with industrial, high tech and commercial aerospace manufacturers, a common theme emerges: None of them have the luxury of waiting on reports created over days or weeks because ERP systems are out of step with strategic priorities. Their customers are demanding more responsiveness, more accuracy, and greater speed of quoting and order completion than ever before....
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Big Questions About Big Data
Big data is everywhere. It seems everyone is talking about it, but there’s still so much confusion around it. To top it off, more data is coming in every day, faster than before, and in formats not easily synchronized. Businesses need ways to store it, access it and turn it into a competitive edge. But how?...
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Guest Post: The Turning Tide of Acceptance for Cloud ERP in Manufacturing
Even though cloud ERP has been able to gain traction across most industries and company sizes, manufacturers have been notoriously slow to come on board. Manufacturers were first to utilize ERP itself, but have been somewhat reluctant to move away from what has worked for them in the past. I experienced this firsthand last year when I presented some of my research on cloud ERP to a group of…
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