I watched the video of a commencement address given by Steve Jobs in 2005 to graduating students at Stanford University and had mixed emotions about it. The late chairman and ex-CEO of {complink 379|Apple Inc.}, wrapped up his address with the phrase, “Stay hungry, stay foolish.” It has since gone viral and been folded into…
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In our work at freebenchmarking.com, one of the surprising findings is the amount of cost reduction available to companies by just implementing pricing that they have already achieved with suppliers. In times of economic uncertainty and with price reductions getting more difficult to achieve, companies can't afford to let profits leak away. We see two…
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Whenever there are two or more working copies of the same file or document, there is an increased potential for change edits where one or more of the documents no longer reflect the latest version of the part or assembly of record. If there is no centralized Documentation Control operation, then it is difficult to…
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When a natural disaster hit Japan back in March, it would have been hard to predict the recovery would come from an economic disaster six months later — and halfway around the world. That disaster was the European financial crisis. Part of the fallout from the apparent bankruptcy of Greece, and the teetering economies of…
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Nothing is as thorny for healthcare providers as being confronted with a patient who is clearly hurting but does not know the exact source of the pain or how to describe its intensity, making detection, diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment extremely difficult. Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine are working on a solution that may…
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IHS just released a troubling report about the high level of semiconductor inventory piling up in the electronics supply chain. According to the report, days of inventory (DOI) held by chip companies at the end of the second quarter was an unusually high 83.4 days. That's above the level seen right before the economic meltdown…
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Goodbye, Steve Jobs. The cofounder, chairman, and former CEO of {complink 379|Apple Inc.} and one of the technology world's most innovative minds died Wednesday. He was 56. Jobs will be sorely missed by his family, colleagues, friends, and even foes. Jobs came, conquered, and left a lasting legacy. We mourn his passing but, just as…
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I have a secret. Everything I know about managing a successful supply chain, I learned from my mother. No, my mom didn't have a PhD in supply chain management or an MBA in operations. Her credentials were even more impressive than that. My mom was a high school graduate, domestic goddess, and the chief operating…
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When {complink 2470|IBM Corp.} celebrated its 100th anniversary this summer, I noticed a consistent theme throughout the media coverage of the milestone. There was, of course, a great deal of reverence for a company that could endure a century's worth of economic ups and downs. But there was also a sometimes less-than-subtle implication that IBM…
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Producers and distributors of electrical and electronic equipment take notice: India is the latest country to enact RoHS and WEEE legislation. Hazardous substance and electronic waste legislation is here to stay and is expanding worldwide. RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substance) legislation was previously enacted in the European Union, Japan, China, Korea, and California. WEEE (Waste…
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