Manufacturing Talk: Strategies for uncertain times Archives

What happened to the Good Old Manufacturing? - Part 1

Guest Post by Varun Chhibber, Associate Consultant, MFG-ADT Online, Infosys

Recently there has been a lot of hue and cry over the outsourcing and the job losses that followed. Major companies have been accused of exporting jobs to Asian countries such as China when there has been an ever increasing need of job creation in their native countries. To this companies argue that they are creating a lot of jobs indirectly by creating opportunities and if the jobs are not moved to save efficiencies, eventually it will lead to further job losses!

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Posted by Guest Blogger at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Crisis Management in the Times of Global Manufacturing Supply Chains

Guest Post by Varun Chhibber, Associate Consultant, MFG-ADT Online, Infosys

Crisis management has been the biggest bane for the manufacturers in the recent past. Manufacturing industry suffered from one crisis after another last year. First it was Japan earthquake and then Thailand floods.

The Japan Crisis caused major supply constraints for global automotive industry resulting in poor capacity utilization of plants, long waiting times, cancellation of orders etc. Similarly during the Thailand crisis many manufacturers were forced to shut down production or cut back the output due to disruption in supply of critical parts.

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Posted by Guest Blogger at 7:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Are You The 'Knight Rider' of Your Data?

Guest Post by

Partha Pratim Dutta, Senior Technology Architect, Manufacturing, Infosys Limited
Ashutosh Agrawal, Senior Consultant, Manufacturing, Infosys Limited

Do you remember the American TV series called "Knight Rider" or the Hindi movie "Tarzaan : The Wonder Car"? KITT(the artificially intelligent Pontiac Trans Am in "Knight Rider") and Tarzaan, both were advanced, artificially intelligent and nearly-indestructible cars. I always dreamt of having one of these.

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Posted by Guest Blogger at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Now it's recovery, now it's not

What does a fragile recovery mean to manufacturers?

There are clear signs that the worst downturn of our generation is behind us. Manufacturing sector is reporting good numbers - Institute of Supply Management (ISM) reports that the US manufacturing sector expanded for the 19th consecutive month in February, while the overall economy grew for the 21st consecutive month. What's more, ISM's Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI) rose to 61.4 in February, the highest level in almost seven years. GM reported its February deliveries grew by 46%, Toyota's sales grew by 42% in February. Impressive!

But wait - unemployment rate in the US remains at 9% and is expected to remain high for years to come. The housing market is not looking very bright either. Home-ownership rate at the end of 2010 fell to 66.5%, lowest level since 1998. US Consumer confidence pulled back a bit in February. The portion of consumers who think the economy is improving declined 2 percentage points to 31% in February, while those who believe it is worsening was up 4 points at 44%.

The recovery is fragile, growth is not completely secured yet. An extended turmoil in the middle-east can affect the economy adversely.

This means that the intense focus on operational efficiencies that global manufacturers have mastered during last 2 years must continue. At the same time, the need for business innovation was never higher - new revenue models, new ways to engage with customers and new markets that never existed before need to be created. Business must be transformed to succeed in this new normal.

A new article from Harvard Business Review brings out these dimensions very impressively.

Posted by Peeyush Dubey at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Top 5 trends in Automotive Industry of 2010

The writing is clear on the wall…. Toyota at the helm of automotive industry has been bitten large by the recall bug. And that’s not just because of being at the top, but unforeseen to most admirers, because of the forced diversion from its basic tenets of lean. And the other warlords like GM and Ford has its back against the wall still scouting for buyers for Pontiac , while literally surrendering to lesser mortals like Sichuan Tengzhong and Zhejiang Geely of China to shed its overladen baggage of Hummer and Volvo cars respectively, having tasted bitter pills with its deals with Magna for Opel and Vauxhall, Roger Penske for Saturn and Spyker for SAAB. VW, the European biggie had to tie-up with Suzuki Motors through a 20% stakes and Engineering collaboration for next-generation mini-car, possibly Alto, to capture Indian market. Renault has similar plans of shrinking European market and wants to enter China with Nissan’s help to reach the 1 million magic figures in China. Chrysler which has a close relationship with Fiat has planned its product plan till 2014 with amalgamation of Fiat platforms in Chrysler’s brands like Dodge and Jeep by 2013. With these far reaching changes sweeping the industry there are some converging trends which emerge in the automotive industry in 2010

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Posted by Sudripto De at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Five Questions Facing European Manufacturing CIOs

Finally the summer has come to an end. Traffic is back in Parisian roads and the early morning London-Frankfurt flights are full again. It was a different summer in many ways. First England won back the Ashes. Then there is more hope about economy in general and General Motors in particular in comparison to last summer when Lehman folded. On a more mundane note, in my 10 years in Europe, this was the most hectic August. Over a span of 6 weeks, I had the privilege of meeting several senior IT leaders across automotive, aerospace, chemicals, machine manufacturing, high tech and defence companies in Europe. I am going to share some of the exciting discussions I had in this space, starting with the five questions that I heard CIOs are asking as they cautiously prepare for post-recession economy.

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Posted by Satya Samal at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Innovation imperative. Risks in supply chains. Mitigate with caution (and actionable intelligence)

Despite all the doom and gloom in the economy, the mood in this year’s AMR Research Executive Conference was notably upbeat. And so was the message around innovation. Former Disney boss Michael Eisner’s “creativity in a box” expression summed up the prescription for this economy: organizations need to think about creative combination of physical products, content and IP to survive and thrive in this new economy.

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Posted by Krishnan Parasuraman at 2:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Demystifying Global Engineering - The right concoction is key to cutting the flab...

"Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration", this famous quote captures the essence of Edison’s illustrious career, full of inventions. The process of transforming creative ideas (inventions) into larger utility can be one of the definitions for “innovation”. It is interesting to note that engineering – that involves varying degrees of systematic innovation - is not too far from aforementioned Edison’s insight!

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Posted by Valmeeka Nathan at 2:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Global sourcing - what's a mid-market process manufacturer to do?

The last couple of years have shown an increased awareness of global sourcing from mid-market process manufacturers. Yet few have fully embraced the benefits to the extent that Hercules did in 2006 when it outsourced and offshored large portions of its infrastructure, IT and back office operations. Given the inherent value of lower overall cost, a reduced fixed cost ratio and increased operational flexibility - especially in a highly cyclical industry - it begs the question why.

Two main concerns have become apparent; 1) difficulty in showing significant cost reduction with a smaller operation, and 2) a concern that mid-market customers will not receive high levels of customer service from large offshore service providers.

Strides have been made to address the need for a stronger cost benefit to smaller operations through shared services offerings - but for large service providers who are serious about the mid-market the challenge remains to convince prospective customers and advisory firms that they will not be treated with less care and attention.

Posted by Paul van Deventer at 5:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Double-dipping: social media delivers the marketing 2-in-1

There’s been a lot of talk about social media. A Q3 Forrester report showed inquiries about Web 2.0 and social media on the rise among B2B marketers, with a sharp spike in interest in the last 6 months of the report (January to July 2008). Many marketers are still finding their way around utilizing tools such as blogs and social networks in their marketing efforts, let alone making these efforts payoff with real business benefit. Now, the economy has put social media on the back burner for many B2B companies. Yet, this is just the time to take a more serious look at social media in marketing. Why? Social media lets marketers double-dip.

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Posted by VJ Bala at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Seizing the pot of gold on the rainbow behind the tornado

Got your attention, huh - before you dismiss the pursuit of the myth, at least admit that we are in a tornado or a perfect storm or your favorite metaphor for the mess the U.S. economy is in, in general, and manufacturing in particular. Hi tech OEMs are suffering with cut backs in Enterprise and Consumer spending hurting the whole value chain, Discrete mfrs are caught between high local manufacturing costs in the face of slumping demand vs high cost (of hedging) fuel costs if they choose to manufacture elsewhere, auto manufacturers ..well .. There's plenty to talk about gloom and doom, but the U.S. Manufacturing sector will recover sooner than we brave to predict - a combination of federal spending, fiscal policies, lower material costs, potentially lower labor costs all work in its favor.

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Posted by Badri Devalla at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)