Blog

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.

February 28, 2018

A recent survey conducted by a software industrial company indicated that a number of industrial companies are not taking cybersecurity seriously enough. The “Putting Industrial Cyber Security at the Top of the CEO Agenda” survey, that was conducted by Honeywell in collaboration with LNS Research, included responses from 130 strategic decision makers from industrial companies across North America, Europe, and other parts of the globe.

read more

February 27, 2018

Over 45 percent of the manufacturing companies that the MEP National NetworkTM serves identify product development as one of their top three challenges over the next three to five years, while many say financing is also an issue. One product development funding source to consider is the federal Small Business Innovation Research (link is external) (SBIR) program. (Another option is SBIR’s sister program, the Small Business Technology Transfer (link is external) program (STTR), which requires participation with a non-profit research institution.)

read more

February 20, 2018

With the new ISO 9001:2015 standard there is no longer the requirement for a documented quality manual. I have seen different reactions to this change: “Great, we will drop it all!”, “I am going to keep the one I have - just in case”, “We will copy the new standard and call it our manual. Like in the good old times.” Whatever your initial reaction, it is now your responsibility to answer the question: to keep or not to keep the quality manual?

read more

February 8, 2018

As the former owner of a small manufacturing company, I know how important the manufacturing industry is to the local and national economy. Manufacturing is the backbone of the United States. It created strong communities and brought us together as a nation and helped the U.S. become an economic powerhouse. As the director of the incredible organization we call MEP, I want us to have the strongest manufacturing base on the planet.

read more

February 1, 2018

There’s an apocryphal conversation between Hemingway and Fitzgerald where Hemingway observes that the difference between the rich and others is that they have more money. The accurate account is that Hemingway was talking with literary critic, Mary Colum. When Hemingway mentioned that, “I am getting to know the rich,” it was Colum who responded, “The only difference between the rich and other people is that the rich have more money.”

read more

January 25, 2018

Have you ever heard of Moore’s Law? According to Intel founder Gordon Moore, electronic devices double in speed and capability about every two years.

read more

January 22, 2018

Congressman Kevin Cramer supported bipartisan legislation passed by the House of Representatives to provide tariff relief on imported goods for American manufacturers.

read more

January 19, 2018

74% of supply chain companies have experienced supply chain disruption at least once, based on a recent Business Continuity Institute study. A similar number of respondents (72%) admitted to not having full visibility of their supply chain. Lou Feretti, Project Executive at IBM, and Pierre Mitchell, Chief Research Officer at Spend Matters, discussed supply chain risk in a webcast on 5/4. The two pointed out the challenges and complexities of supply chain risk, and how to overcome them. One issue that was frequently brought up was the visibility within the supply chain.

read more

January 19, 2018

Real GDP grew 3.2 percent in the third quarter, boosted by strength in consumer and business spending and net exports and extending the 3.1 percent gain seen in the second quarter. According to new data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, manufacturing added 0.24 percentage points to top-line growth in the third quarter, with mixed results for the sector. Real value-added output grew by 2.0 percent for manufacturers in the third quarter, buoyed by a 7.5 percent growth rate for durable goods firms but weighed down by a 4.1 percent decline for nondurable goods businesses. The latter were hit hard by recent hurricanes, especially in chemical and energy markets.

read more

January 11, 2018

The most important aspect of starting a food manufacturing operation is Food Safety. Nothing will be more important to you and your business than never having a customer become sick, or injured, or worse from consuming your product. Food Safety in the food manufacturing world is overseen by the FDA, State and Local authorities, and many times large distributors of your product. Generally this oversight will consist of on-site audits. An auditor will walk through your operation from start to finish and will conduct a paperwork review of your production records.

read more

Upcoming Events

Impact Dakota Blog