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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Digital Transformation

Plex Manufacturing Blog

Overcoming Challenges to Becoming a Quality Leader

Plex Team March 13, 2024

"Quality is everyone's responsibility."This decades-old quote from quality researcher and educator W. Edwards Deming has stood the test of time for good reason: essential to both products and processes, quality can be influenced by every role up and down the manufacturing process. Everyone shares the burden of maintaining and improving quality — and therefore can also share in the success of…

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Success with Suppliers: How to Ensure Your Partner & Supplier Network Meets Your Quality Standards

Anthony Murphy February 7, 2024

In most industries, product quality is a primary factor determining whether businesses are successful or not. Of course, there are many things that impact product quality, from quality leadership to employee talent to company culture. All of those apply in the manufacturing sector, but manufacturers also depend heavily on their partner and supplier networks to build good products that their…

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Digital Building Blocks for Leadership

Plex Team January 30, 2024

Manufacturers inevitably begin with operational efficiency, cost reduction, and process improvement during the foundational stages of a digital journey. Beyond that, the tendency is to retain vestiges of traditional thinking that “wall off” other functional areas as separate from the production focus....

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Great Leadership Builds Great Culture. Great Culture Creates Great Products.

Anthony Murphy January 24, 2024

In every business – no matter the industry – quality is a two-way street. The way a company is managed directly impacts the products and services they develop. Every business wants to deliver a quality product. But an organization can only deliver that great product if executives are great at managing and leading the company. Culture, in particular, is an essential part of this equation. To…

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What Can Manufacturers Learn from Brass Aluminum’s Quest for Visibility and Automation?

Plex Team January 17, 2024

Running a multi-operational business is an impressive feat, but that hasn’t always been the case for Brass Aluminum Forging Enterprises (BAFE). The company specializes in the production of brass, copper, and aluminum forgings and was originally comprised of only two forging presses, one trim press, and an eight-operator workforce. Over the years, the company has grown both in size and in…

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Digital Building Blocks for Your Enterprise

Plex DemandCaster January 4, 2024

From the most straightforward shed to the highest skyscraper, every structure is built with a complex assortment of components. These “building blocks” give the structure support and strength and allow it to be used as designed.As manufacturing industries rapidly adopt Industry 4.0 technologies to create smart and fully digital manufacturing systems, companies are realizing that digital building…

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How Smarter Manufacturing Makes You the Envy of the Neighborhood

Plex Team July 6, 2023

It’s hard enough keeping up with new products or system upgrades offered by the OEMs that built the equipment for your manufacturing operation. Staying current on software updates, new and more efficient electronics, and retrofits to add new functionality is difficult for even the most experienced managers and maintenance teams....

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Clearing Your Manufacturing Hurdles with the Right Software

Plex Team April 20, 2023

On your mark.Get set.Go!As the starting gun cracks, athletes streak down the track to clear hurdles in a race to the finish line. Some will clear them all, others will knock over one or two, and one athlete might seem incapable of getting the rhythm, height, and pace correct and crashes into them all....

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Key Takeaways from the Smart Manufacturing Software Buyer's Guide

Plex Team April 12, 2023

With advanced technology driving industrial digitization across the globe, companies are reaching new heights in efficiency, process optimization, and other revolutionary achievements unheard of even a few years ago.To stay competitive, it's essential to identify superior solutions that align your company with all these technologies. But choosing the best software solution to accomplish this isn’…

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