Operations
Choosing a part numbering scheme is one of the more important decisions you make as you move toward production. Once you commit to a part numbering scheme, you are married to it for a long time to come, so you need to be 100% sure it is nimble enough to evolve and scale right along [...]
Now that I’ve given you a high level analysis of the pros and cons of intelligent and non-intelligent part numbering, I can tell you how I really feel. While well intentioned, intelligent numbering schemes can be a tricky rabbit hole—hostile to growth for a variety of reasons. A good part numbering scheme is nimble. It [...]
It’s the end of the year—the best time to get organized for the year to come. If you found yourself struggling with out-of-control changes in 2011, maybe it’s finally time to create and formalize an engineering change process. While creating a process to manage the unexpected may seem oxymoronic, for a business to run successfully, [...]
Your part numbering scheme is ultimately adopted by every team with a stake in product development—from design and engineering to operations and manufacturing—so it’s no surprise that choosing the right scheme is a point of debate for many companies. Most manufacturing circles today still hold on to the belief that intelligent part numbering schemes are [...]
As Cisco closes its “Flip Camera” chapter of history, it’s shutting down a 400 million dollar business, letting go of 550 employees and spending $300 million in restructuring costs. But given the circumstances, abandoning Flip may just be the right choice for Cisco. Since venturing into the world of consumer products and acquiring Pure Digital—the [...]
As we mentioned recently on this blog, it is commonly believed that much of U.S. manufacturing has moved overseas in search of cheaper manufacturing alternatives. And while it’s true that many companies outsource, we hear about new and innovative U.S. manufacturing organizations almost every day. Take Timbuk2 Designs, a custom bag manufacturer based in San [...]
For years, “Made in the U.S.A.” implied “overpriced” to manufacturers and consumers alike. The pressure to reduce costs drove many manufacturers to seek less expensive offshoring alternatives to the seemingly more expensive domestic ones. Coupled with the fact that our economy hasn’t been in tip-top condition the last few years, it is no wonder that [...]
This Valentine’s Day we are giving part numbering schemes a big juicy KISS. Parts are the heart of your product. You have to manage (um, treat) them just right, otherwise you could have product heartache on your hands. Assigning a part number is a way for a manufacturer to reference a part. Some may employ [...]
Most manufacturers strive for growth and expansion, looking for opportunities to gain greater market share and see their products succeed. But the truth is, today’s opportunities for expansion often come at unexpected times and in unexpected ways. And if a company is not well-equipped with the organizational, product development and manufacturing processes to capitalize on [...]
We often meet small and mid-size manufacturers when they’re in the midst of a growth stage—and the processes they’ve created on the fly are no longer good enough to keep product development running smoothly. While the engineering change process is one of the first places most of them want to add more structure, we typically [...]
