Smart Manufacturing Blog

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Innovation and Technology

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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Digital Building Blocks for Operational Efficiency

Plex DemandCaster January 16, 2024

As Industry 4.0 continues to shape industries across the globe, one of the most significant beneficiaries of the power of these technologies is operational efficiency within manufacturing.This is particularly true with the rise of the role of robots in manufacturing industries and the supply chain....

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Digital Building Blocks for Sustainability: Part 1

Plex DemandCaster December 12, 2023

Sustainability. It has such a simple definition, yet it has become diluted and obscured in many ways when companies try to implement it as part of their business model.The definition of sustainability for business and development is well established by the UN World Commission on Environment and Development. This definition states: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of…

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Automation Fair – From Chaos to Control Maximizing Efficiency With Plex DemandCaster Supply Chain Planning

Plex DemandCaster October 31, 2023

Continuing with our discussion of how Plex Systems products will play a role in Rockwell Automation's Automation Fair 2023 in Boston, MA, November 6-9th, 2023: Ara Surenian, Vice President of Product Management – Rockwell Automation, sat down to discuss how Plex DemandCaster Supply Chain Planning software can help maximize efficiency by bringing control to chaos....

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Why Manufacturers Must Embrace Data-Driven Operations

Plex Team October 25, 2023

There was a time in manufacturing before personal computers (PCs). Data was manually tracked, and decisions were made based on experience, gut feelings, and guesswork. But the lowly PC changed all that. Suddenly, companies could store more data and utilize spreadsheets to analyze operational aspects.As much as that was a big leap in operational improvement, it still relied on an overabundance of…

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Is Your Manufacturing Operation a Haunted House?

Plex Team October 24, 2023

A door opens with a creaking sound. Faint groans are heard just around the corner. And the distinct sight of a completely bandaged entity is seen shuffling down a corridor. Is it a haunted house? A scary abandoned building? Or is it your manufacturing process?While haunted houses can be a fun way to celebrate Halloween, they’re not so fun when they reflect a harsh reality within your plant. That…

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How Demand Drives Execution

Plex Team October 10, 2023

In traditional manufacturing models, there needed to be more connection between the ability to meet customer demand and manufacturing execution. Subjective data-gathering on demand coupled with manual processes and manual data collection in manufacturing obscured the real demand picture....

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