Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast

Why One Size Doesn’t Fit All — Determining Employee Ratios and Organizational Structures at Your Plant

Joe Kuhn, CMRP, former plant manager, engineer, and global reliability consultant, is now president of Lean Driven Reliability LLC. He is the author of the book “Zero to Hero: How to Jumpstart Your Reliability Journey Given Today’s Business Challenges” and the creator of the Joe Kuhn YouTube Channel, which offers content on starting your reliability journey and achieving financial independence. In our monthly podcast miniseries, Ask a Plant Manager, Joe considers a commonplace scenario facing the industry and offers his advice, as well as actions that you can take to get on track tomorrow. This episode offers insight into how to determine employee ratios on the plant floor and throughout the company.

CPQ and Order-to-Cash: Redefining Workflow Automation for Industrial Teams

In this episode, we break down how Doss has streamlined Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) and Order-to-Cash workflows to meet the needs of machinery and industrial companies. Traditional ERP systems often fall short for real-world teams in these industries—demanding lengthy setup times, high costs, and extensive customization. Doss’s Adaptive Resource Platform (ARP) takes a different approach, providing flexibility and usability without the common ERP headaches.
Our CPQ solution, inspired by customer needs in grinding and deburring, helps teams manage custom orders without creating bloated catalogs of unique SKUs. With Doss, teams can pull data from their catalogs, apply lookups and filters, and seamlessly manage both standard and custom configurations, all while maintaining a clean product catalog. Context-specific options adjust automatically for details like payment methods, sizes, and delivery locations, allowing workflows to adapt quickly without rigid coding.
On the Order-to-Cash side, Doss brings procurement, quoting, inventory, and invoicing processes into a single platform. For many industrial teams, these tasks are spread across multiple disconnected tools, which introduces inefficiencies and risks. Doss consolidates these functions, enabling teams to issue purchase orders, track inventory costs, and consolidate sales data from channels like Shopify, Amazon, and wholesale. This not only reduces manual coordination but also provides a unified view of the entire order cycle.
In this episode, we’ll cover the key elements of our CPQ and Order-to-Cash solutions, including insights from our customers and the specific challenges we address. Learn how Doss provides an efficient, composable solution for industrial teams looking to optimize operations and focus on growth without the overhead of traditional ERP implementations.

Preparing for 2025: What’s Next for the Manufacturing Industry?

If 2024 was the year when the hype cycle for industrial AI hit its peak, what is in store for industry in 2025? Plant Services recently sat down with Aaron Merkin, Chief Technology Officer of Fluke Reliability, to get his insights and predictions on where manufacturing is headed. Merkin brings more than two decades of experience developing enterprise software across a variety of industries and markets, including roles at IBM, Dell, ABB, Aclara (now Hubbell), and Honeywell.

What OSHA Data Reveals About Fall Protection Safety [Talking EHS]

A discussion with Diversified Fall Protection’s Philip Jacklin on what OSHA’s Top 10 most common violations of FY2024 reveals about the safety of working at heights, what it doesn’t tell us and what safety professionals can do to create safer workplaces.

From Log Books to Dashboards — How Digitalization Drives Proactive Maintenance

Chris van den Belt is the head of product management at IFS Ultimo, and his colleague Berend Booms is the head of EAM Insights. Chris and Berend recently spoke with Plant Services editor in chief Thomas Wilk about how can software (CMMS and EAM) help companies move to more proactive maintenance modes, and which parts of the workday to focus on when they start making that change.

The Future of Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM)

For a very long time, computer-aided manufacturing – CAM – was contingent with CAD, computer-aided design. The parts and the programmer defined the manufacturing process. Now the world of programming is venturing into a new landscape in which artificial intelligence and digital twins are defining the production process for engineered parts.
Olivier Thenoz, Product Manager for CAM with Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, explains the current state of CAM for programmers and operators, and the future opportunities for manufacturers.

Preparing for Trump Tariffs: What Not to Do (Production Pulse)

With last week’s election of Donald J. Trump to a second term in the White House, the big question for the manufacturing community is what to expect in trade policy. On the campaign trail, Trump made higher tariffs, especially in Chinese imports, a centerpiece of his agenda.
Supply chain and legal experts say companies should prepare for a different trade environment, but don’t try to be clever or overreact. Back in 2018, some companies tried to avoid the first round of Trump tariffs by trying to hide the country of origin of their goods.
It didn’t go well for them.
So, be skeptical about vendor claims that they can insulate you from trade changes.
But, at the same time, don’t expect things to change too quickly or spend wildly to build up inventory in expectations of higher prices. That strategy often leads to higher costs and rarely saves much in the long run.
Sharing these insights and others, as part of IndustryWeek’s regular Production Pulse livestream were:
Jeremy Tancredi, partner in West Monroe's supply chain practice
Dan Swartz, international tax services principal, Crowe
Gregory Husisian, partner at Foley & Lardner LLP
Jill Jusko, IndustryWeek’s executive editor

7 Steps for an Efficient Plant Turnaround

Plant turnarounds are tricky, overwhelming, and daunting. But they don’t have to be. Here are seven actionable steps you can take to ensure a plant turnaround for a chemical plant or refinery goes as smoothly as possible which include working with your vendor and setting clear requirements.
About the Article
How to Make Your Plant Turnaround Smooth and EffectiveThese 7 tips will help make your chemical plant or refinery turnaround much easier to execute.Written by Mike AughenbaughRead by Laura DavisRead the article

How to Operate Smarter and Leaner, Thanks to Little’s Law

Anna Townshend is managing editor of Plant Services and has been a journalist and editor for almost 20 years. In addition to writing and editing thousands of articles in her career, she has been an active speaker on industry panels and presentations. In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Anna reads a piece that is part of our new Maintenance Mindset feature, where each week one of the Plant Services editors highlights important and interesting nuggets in the news about manufacturing and asset management.
About the Article
Maintenance Mindset: Little’s Law and lean manufacturing — A formula for operational excellenceThis week, the PS team remembers the life and work of the theorem’s namesake John D.C. Little and its influence on lean manufacturing.Written and read by Anna TownshendRead the article

The Art of the Possible and the Art of the Practical in Digital Transformation [(R)Evolutionizing Manufacturing]

Smart Industry's Scott Achelpohl and Industry 4.0 thought leader Jeff Winter delve into a two-part chat on imagination in digital transformation ... how to dream about what's possible but also be mindful of what's practical. An intriguing discussion about mindset in manufacturing technology.