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Breaking Business Silos  Companies seem to naturally gravitate to functional silos. Accounting in one, engineering in another, operations, quality, maintenance and on and on.
As manufacturing becomes increasingly global and interrelated, there is also a growing recognition of silos outside the company—suppliers, partners, other divisions. Technology evangelists propose a number of ways that technology can help companies break these silos by creating teams across functions, geographies and companies.
There have been many Internet-based communication strategies featuring voice and even video conferences. Despite down economies in which people cut back on travel, these have not taken off in a big way...
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» INFRASTRUCTURE: Robots’ Future Is Non-Automotive
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Given the very real downturn in the U.S. automotive market and the slowing of sales in traditional robotics markets, robotic manufacturers are looking to expand or continue expansion into other manufacturing sectors such as packaging and solar.
Opportunities arise because robots have always been targeted at applications in which there’s a high demand for flexibility, there is a difficult environment, or there is a need for highly repetitive moves, very precise positioning or high speed, explains Dan Throne, sales and marketing manager for vendor Bosch Rexroth Corp.’s ( www.boschrexroth-us.com ) electric-drives-and-controls division, Hoffman, Estates, Ill...
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» INDUSTRIES: Global Warming, Economy, Politics Threaten Oil and Gas -
The most pressing issue in the oil-and-gas industry today is anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming, according to Rayola Dougher, senior economic advisor with the Washington, D.C.-based American Petroleum Institute ( www.api.org ).
“Legislatively, we’re looking at Waxman-Markey (the proposed American Energy and Security Act of 2009). We think it has some laudable goals, as currently written, but we need an equitable plan."...
Dougher believes that Waxman-Markey—which would establish the Safe Climate Act of 2009 to regulate greenhouse gases—“will hurt consumers and producers of motor fuels the most.” She is concerned about long-term impact of congressional decisions...
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» TECHNOLOGIES: An Innovation Engine -
Getting teams to collaborate, sometimes on an ad hoc basis, across boundaries of function, geography and company is crucial to manufacturing success in today’s environment.
Because Microsoft Corp. products have become almost de facto standards within the manufacturing community, it stands to reason that a product from the Redmond, Wash., technology provider will have significant impact.
Such is the case with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. An integrated suite of server capabilities, it can help improve organizational effectiveness by providing comprehensive content management and enterprise search, accelerating shared business processes and facilitating information sharing across boundaries for better business insight...
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