Impact Dakota Blog is a blog dedicated to supporting North Dakota’s manufacturing community improve People, Purpose, Processes and Performance. Entries provide information on opportunities, new ideas, quick tips, celebrations of success, and well, frankly, anything to help you become a better manufacturer.
Each year, the MEP National NetworkTM is fortunate to assist manufacturing companies across the nation that are operating at the cutting-edge of their industries and creating distinct, quality products. And, each year, we like to share some of these small to medium-sized manufacturers and their products with you. While not exhaustive, this gives you a sense of the great products made right here in the U.S. For 2021’s gift-giving season, we’ve pulled together a list of companies with offerings that will have you on everyone’s nice list come December.
Employees, employers, and workforce development practitioners nationwide are all recognizing either new trends, or the amplification of existing ones, that are disrupting the American workforce in ways that are here to stay. By pivoting from ‘The Great Resignation’ – a negative term that implies that the problem lies with lazy workers – to ‘The Great Recognition,’ which captures how both employers and employees are learning and evolving, we as a nation can begin to directly address these challenges and take action to fill the 900,000 open jobs in manufacturing right now.
This is an exciting time in the food manufacturing industry. The innovations and technology associated with Industry 4.0 are making it easier for small and medium-sized manufacturers to overcome obstacles in ways that at one point would not have been considered. While manufacturers have previously been slower to move toward incorporating advanced industry technologies due to the high level of regulation and biologically complex products with which they work, innovation is becoming more widely accepted as a key to industry sustainability. Two examples of such Industry 4.0 technologies are automation and augmented reality.
After diving deep into the Mars missions, MAGNET’s Matt Fieldman was convinced that the leadership approach Adam Steltzner, an engineer at NASA, learned could, in fact, help small manufacturers nationwide. Find out more about these five workforce lessons.
The technology that brought you Bitcoin is beginning to make waves in the food manufacturing industry. The benefits become obvious in the event of a foodborne illness outbreak. Traceability can be reduced to seconds, so the response is greatly accelerated, potential product loss is minimized and long-range costs and damage to the brand can be significantly reduced.
Supplier scouting is hard work for manufacturers and potential suppliers, but it could lead to big payoffs with supply chain efficiencies and even reshoring opportunities. Learn more about how the MEP National Network provides value in this important area.
This blog is the seventh in a monthly series brought to you by the America Works initiative. As a part of the MEP National Network’s goal of supporting the growth of small and medium-sized manufacturing companies, this series focuses on innovative approaches and uncovering the latest trends in manufacturing workforce development.
While Fridays have always been a reason to celebrate, the first Friday of October is one that is near and dear to the MEP National Network, as this year, Friday, October 1, is Manufacturing Day (MFG Day)! Organizing your MFG Day events may have changed quite a bit in the last 18 months. Why hold a hybrid event with both in-person and virtual aspects? By combining both in-person and virtual experiences into a hybrid event, you pave the way for increased participation and greater regional and national attendance. Here are three ways to create a great hybrid event.
Small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) are often resource- and talent-challenged. But these conditions also are what should make the advancement of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) so attractive to SMMs. Using an MES helps focus on defining, measuring, analyzing and controlling what is actually driving the business. It will deliver a more holistic and detailed report of how production impacts finances.
Business growth in manufacturing traditionally has come along two lines: market penetration, growing with the same product; and market diversification, bringing the same product to new markets or new products to the same market. Manufacturers looking to grow their business should not underestimate the benefits of targeted market research. Your local MEP Center can help.