One of my most respected LinkedIn contacts is Phil Rink, a fellow engineer who writes the Jimi & Isaac series of children’s books, and is generally well-informed about anything he chooses to comment on. I just recently finished the second book of his series, Jimi & Isaac 1b: Curve Ball. (I love reading good kids’ books – […]

I just finished Hellcats of the Sea: Operation Barney and the Mission to the Sea of Japan, by Vice Admiral Charles Lockwood and Hans C. Adamson. It’s the account of the attack by the US submarine force on shipping in the previously inaccessible Sea of Japan late in WWII. (New sonar technology allowed the subs to […]

I’ve long thought that nobody can go to work for long in Washington, DC, and remain a useful member of society. This story from the book I’m currently reading, Freedom’s Forge by Arthur Herman, about the industrialists and businessmen who went there in the 1940s to lead the manufacturing charge for WWII production, only helps confirm my […]

Another entry in the “interesting tidbits of history” category… I’m deep in the midst of a riveting book about the industrial side of the US involvement in WWII, Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in WWII by Arthur Herman. An aside in the book involves the medical innovation helped along by Henry Kaiser, who got his […]

Professor Barry Brownstein had a superb article this week about government coercion in political opinion that’s part and parcel of socialism. His timing was fortuitous, because big news items highlighted decision-makers in the business world who desperately need his lesson. His piece serves as a stark warning against the current push to have corporations play […]

I recently signed on as a contributor for Forbes, to write manufacturing articles for them. Here’s my first one.

Chip Cutter, Editor at Large at LinkedIn, posted this article a couple weeks ago, and it certainly sparked a whale of a lot of commentary. Clearly the concept hit a nerve with folks all over the map. It’s about providing monetary incentives for the young and educated to move to small towns. My gut reaction […]

I’ve commented about this topic on LinkedIn a few times, most recently in response to one of my connections posting this article about why the big established companies can’t innovate. The author, Bill Fischer, called out a number of spot-on roadblocks. His points included some I’ve made in the past, like the destructive focus on […]

My title above is a phrase some coworker friends of mine and I used with some regularity years ago (except our language was usually in “full color,” profanity and all – I’ve grown up some since then). We were all of a mind that nobody should expect a pat on the back for doing the […]

Charles Kantz, a supply chain consultant, posted the following questions on LinkedIn today: Are DC/Whses going to disappear? If there is so much effort put into planning and improving lead times while reducing inventory along with planning out the supply chain, why is there a need for warehouse and DC’s here in the US? Shouldn’t […]