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.

June 22, 2018

Certification can help you become a high-value commodity to your employer and be among the most sought-after individuals in your industry. Certifications not only help you attain knowledge, they prove it. Certifications are a recognized and respected industry credential.

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June 13, 2018

Although the workforce shortage ranks quite high nationally, it is, I believe, the number one issue constraining the growth of North Dakota businesses, especially in the manufacturing arena, based on on-going interviews within that segment of our economy. We hear all of the speculations and assumed root causes, such as, it is difficult to attract talent because of our winters, etc. Whatever the reason, no one has come up with the secret sauce that will fill the thousands of job openings that exist right now. Perhaps a novel approach to at least partially, and probably significantly, resolve this issue is to take a hard look at the jobs listings themselves.

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June 11, 2018

In some earlier posts, I wrote about the variation across states and industries in terms of productivity at a particular point in time. I like to think about these measures as gauges of what I call economic condition. Another way to look at things is to examine changes in productivity over time. These types of changes I refer to as a gauge of economic performance. GDP by industry is a good proxy for productivity since it’s defined as gross output minus the cost of goods sold.

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June 7, 2018

By 2018, supply chain will need to fill 1.4 million new jobs, and this doesn’t even count jobs people will be retiring from. While it’s great to see this kind of growth, there may not be enough bodies to fill these positions. Will this stifle the industry’s innovation and progress? In The Supply Chain’s Weakest Link, SDC Executive points out the shortage and how to fix this issue. Below we list 3 Ways to Address the Supply Chain Labor Shortage.

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May 21, 2018

Most manufacturers are working diligently on “getting better.” The question is: for what purpose? I’m frequently told that cost reduction and implementing employee ideas are the goals, and they’re not bad reasons to take action. They are not, however, the reason your business exists.

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May 18, 2018

Without manufacturing, the room where you make dinner would be rather stark and barren. There’d be no pots, no pans, no stoves, no spatulas, no appliances – big or small. There’d be no way to prepare the meals that give you and your family sustenance. With no counter, there wouldn’t even be a place to set down your coffee cup!

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May 15, 2018

t’s spring break for my 6-year-old grandson Bruce, and I’m spending the week with him in Oakland, California. What to do? We make a couple of trips to the park, looking for rocks on Treasure Island (that was a bust). When did the days get so long? Searching the internet for fun things to do with kids, I find the Jelly Belly Candy Company (link is external) in Fairfield, CA offers free factory tours.

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May 10, 2018

“Buy Made in the USA Products ” and “Buy American” might sound like nothing more than a slogan advanced by American manufacturers to sell made in the USA products. But the truth is that there are many reasons to consider buying American-made clothing, American made toys, and other US-manufactured goods. We’ve listed just a few of the benefits of buying American below:

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May 9, 2018

The pace of digital transformation in the manufacturing industry is relentless. But as Kevin Bull, Product Strategy Director at leading digital business services provider Columbus UK explains, digital transformation is not just about deploying emerging technologies – it’s about using the data collected to create new business opportunities, better understand and meet customer expectations, and put in place a future-proof digital strategy. In this article Kevin discusses five key takeaways from the recently published Manufacturing 2020 industry report.

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May 8, 2018

In an exchange with a colleague the other day, I shared a phrase my grandmother often used to say, “nothing’s so bad it can’t get worse.” Throughout my life, I have thought about those words and how grateful I am to have never adopted such an outlook on how I lead or live my life. During my weekends, I work as a certified leadership coach and have had many people share such experiences of having been exposed to similar messages and the affect those messages have had on their lives.

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