One of the common attributes’ employees list for an ideal job is a stress-free work environment. Even if there was such a thing as a stress-free job, the reality is we would still carry our stress from home and other sources. To make matters worse, a study…
CONVERSE, SC, August 10, 2021 – Jerome Kirkland, Site Manager for BASF’s Converse manufacturing facility in Spartanburg County, has been named to the Upstate Workforce Investment Board. The board builds and maintains a workforce development system that meets the needs of employers of Cherokee, Spartanburg and Union…
Collaborative robots (Cobots) don’t get sick. They don’t take the long way to get to tools, they don’t have an after-lunch crash, and they don’t have bad days. Cobots meet a daily standard that is not only fixed, but also efficient and laser-focused enough to understand and…
All the 131 OpExChange member companies are at some stage of their continuous improvement journey. Some have been working on this for multiple decades and some are just getting started. Two things we all have learned through this: 1) The journey never ends. 2) No matter where…
Sleep Number Corporation, manufacturer of the award-winning 360® smart bed, hosted a plant visit for the OpExChange at their Irmo site last week. They shared that value stream mapping (VSM) has become an integral tool in their continuous improvement program. Although there is still room for improvement,…
Wilmington, N.C. (August 3, 2021) PolyQuest, Inc. (PQ), the leading distributor of PET resins and manufacturer of recycled PET resins in North America, announces the promotion of Ryan Nettles and Brad Willingham to Senior Vice Presidents. Joining PolyQuest in 2006, Ryan Nettles has demonstrated exceptional leadership of the…
Is it time to celebrate Victory over Covid Day (VC Day)? The country (as well as the rest of the world) is coming out of a pandemic that has impacted all of us in profound ways. Some have lost loved ones, some have suffered from anxiety and…
The Challenge The shortage of workers remains a challenge for manufacturers. Reuters reported on July 1, 2021: “. . . a shortage of willing workers is hampering hiring, with other data on Thursday showing a measure of employment at factories contracting in June for the first time…
Eat That Frog – Time Management Join FocalPoint Coaches Jerry Pilewski, John Roney, and Mike Ungar for their next Business Advantage free webinar on August 24 from 12pm to 1pm for: You can do anything . . . But you cannot do everything. Time management is…
In the spring and summer of 1945, the United States celebrated two very important milestones. VE Day (Victory in Europe) and VJ Day (Victory over Japan) were two of the most important dates of the 20th century. I remember my mother describing the euphoria as people were…