Industrial Operations Weekly
Search and filter sharp, essential coverage across every industrial operations topic that matters.
Final-mile costs now represent more than 53 percent of total shipping spend. We look at how the best operations teams are redesigning their networks from the ground up.
Nearshoring is accelerating across every industrial sector, but real costs and timelines are consistently underestimated. We spoke with the operations leaders who have completed the transition.
Static safety stock formulas no longer work in markets where demand swings by 30 percent quarter to quarter. The operations teams getting inventory right are using a fundamentally different approach.
A growing number of facilities are running automated production through the night with zero human operators. We visited three plants that have made the transition and documented exactly how they did it.
Across industrial sectors, defect rates have climbed for three consecutive years. A small group of manufacturers have held the line, and their approach offers a clear blueprint for others.
Years after the pandemic exposed the fragility of hyper-lean supply chains, manufacturers are still recalibrating the balance between efficiency and resilience, and the right answer looks different by sector.
New OSHA rulemaking covering ergonomic hazards, heat illness prevention, and chemical exposure limits will affect the majority of industrial facilities. Compliance timelines are shorter than most teams realize.
Permit approval timelines have lengthened by an average of 14 months over the past five years. Operations teams that have learned to work the system proactively are completing projects on schedule.
Tariff classifications, country-of-origin rules, and exemption programs are changing faster than most trade compliance functions can track. Here is a practical framework for staying ahead of the risk.
Traditional capital allocation models favor large, visible projects over incremental operational improvements that often deliver the highest returns. The CFOs closing that gap are using a different framework.
Most organizations dramatically underestimate the true cost of an unplanned production stoppage. Finance teams building accurate downtime cost models are changing how operations leaders prioritize maintenance.
Industrial energy costs have swung by as much as 40 percent year over year in major markets. Operations and finance teams building structural hedges into their energy strategy are gaining a real competitive edge.
A new generation of AI tools promises to cut defect rates, optimize throughput, and predict failures before they occur. We spoke with operations teams running pilots for 18 months to find out what works.
Sensor deployments are growing rapidly across industrial facilities, but the majority of connected data still goes unanalyzed. The gap between IoT investment and realized operational value remains stubbornly wide.
From small job shops to global manufacturers, operations teams are racing to replace reactive maintenance with predictive programs. We put six leading platforms through a rigorous evaluation.
After years of being treated as an execution function, operations leadership is earning genuine strategic authority in the C-suite. We spoke with 14 COOs about what changed, and what still needs to change.
When the operations champion leaves, efficiency gains often erode. The organizations with the most durable operational performance have embedded strategy into governance structures that outlast any individual leader.
The gap between collecting operational data and actually influencing executive strategy remains wide at most organizations. A handful of operations teams have cracked the code. Here is their approach.
Try a different search term or topic filter.
