According to a recent survey by the Manufacturing Leadership Council, 13% of manufacturing executives plan to digitize their design/production processes, and social media tools represent an important component. By 2023, that percentage will rise to more than half. “What’s the goal of increased social media-based interactions, ” asks Cisco News Network? Manufacturers want to tap into valuable customer opinions, preferences and desires. They also want to encourage collaborations between employees, partners and suppliers in order to create better end products.

For example, Frito Lay offers one illustration of a manufacturer going directly to its core constituency for critical product feedback. The company collaborated with customers via social media to define and select the most appealing flavor ideas. Such combinations of crowdsourcing—a form of distributive problem-solving—and taste buds represents a novel, and completely different, approach to the use of social media in manufacturing.

At the other end of the spectrum, a range of more industrial companies are beginning to employ social media-driven, collaborative tools for their workforce.  Airbus offers partners and dealers a range of interactive procurement portals. These platform-based resources enable suppliers to describe their capabilities to Airbus buyers in addition to exchanging requirements and proposals online during the bid process.

Such social media trends extend even further. Industrial Mold and Machine in Twinsburg, Ohio makes custom molds for plastic bottle manufacturers. The company empowers its workers by providing an iPad-accessible Social Media platform for production-line quality control, design access and problem-solving.

It appears that more and more manufacturers will use collaborative Social Media technology to advance their operations through multiple, diverse collaborations.

This post provided courtesy of Jay and Barry’s OM Blog at www.heizerrenderom.wordpress.com. Professors Jay Heizer and Barry Render are authors of Operations Management , the world’s top selling textbook in its field, published by Pearson.

Jeep designers got inspiration for this in-door net when they peeked in car windows and saw a bottle secured with a bungee cord.

Here  is a Wall Street Journal article (July 18, 2013) you may find interesting. In it, we find that Chris Shinouskis, whose title is “Engineering Specialist for Storage” at GM, is one of a handful of designers who carve out compartments to hold the ever-growing array of items people bring into their cars.

Adding storage can be a hard-fought battle, especially as cars today come crammed with high-tech safety, information and entertainment systems, all of which require space-hogging wiring and hardware. But buyers are demanding it–65% of new-car buyers said interior storage is “very” or “extremely important”– as they spend more time on the road and bring their tablets to stay plugged in.

Complicating the storage challenge is the fact that it can take 4 years to develop or completely redesign a model, while the technology world moves much faster. For example, Apple offered 4 generations of its iPad tablet in under 3 years. Matt Rutman, a Ford  storage specialist, was adamant that the new SUV needed a place, right above the shifter, for mobile-phone storage and charging. “I was told it wasn’t possible,” says  Rutman. “So I went back to my own computer and figured it out myself.” His solution involved redoing the ventilation system behind the dash, and moving up the video screen and controls.

The glove compartment, in particular, often becomes catchall for junk, so Chrysler has just designed a glove box in its new Dodge Dart deep enough to fit a small laptop or tablet. To make it fit, Chrysler had to mount the heating and cooling unit vertically, instead of the normal horizontal fit. With the importance of drinks and cell phones, the 2014 Chevy Malibu offers two cup holders and two cellphone cradles, one each for the driver and the passenger.

This post provided courtesy of Jay and Barry’s OM Blog at www.heizerrenderom.wordpress.com. Professors Jay Heizer and Barry Render are authors of Operations Management , the world’s top selling textbook in its field, published by Pearson.

The last auto plant in Detroit generates $2 billion in annual profit for Chrysler

There is a section of Detroit that sums up the city’s decline, a grim landscape of boarded-up stores, abandoned homes and empty lots that stretch all the way to the river. And in the middle of it stands one of the most modern and successful auto plants in the world. More than 4,600 workers staff Chrysler’s sprawling Jefferson North factory nearly around the clock, writes The New York Times (July 16, 2013), making one of the most profitable vehicles on the market, the Jeep Grand Cherokee.       

“Everything is aligned there,” said one auto analyst. “You have a hot-selling, high-profit vehicle, a flexible labor agreement and a facility that the company has invested in instead of abandoned.” Annual production has skyrocketed from fewer than 100,000 vehicles a year in 2009 to more than 300,000. And a work force that had dwindled to 1,300 people has more than tripled. In June, Grand Cherokee sales rose 33%, as buyers paid as much as $50,000 for the model.

The profits and productivity at Jefferson North put it on par with the most efficient luxury car plants in Germany and the best factories operated by Japanese automakers in the southern US.  Today, Jefferson North stands as the last auto assembly plant in Detroit’s city limits, which once had nearly a dozen of them.

The company has taken advantage of the groundbreaking 2007 labor agreement with the United Automobile Workers union, to bring on new employees at an entry-level wage under $16 an hour, compared with the $28 earned by longtime union workers.  Since its bankruptcy, Chrysler has hired two full shifts of new workers, over 2,200 people, at the lower wage.

This post provided courtesy of Jay and Barry’s OM Blog at www.heizerrenderom.wordpress.com. Professors Jay Heizer and Barry Render are authors of Operations Management , the world’s top selling textbook in its field, published by Pearson.