The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and the Modern Marketer

For your customers, it’s more than just connectivity I was recently reading about the Industrial Internet of Things as it relates to my business—manufacturing software. It’s exciting that technologies are now available that will liberate manufacturers from the rigid systems and processes of the past. For today’s manufacturer, the IIoT boils down to the ability to capture and connect data from multiple sources to attain truly meaningful information. An interesting

Common Lean Manufacturing Software Project Constraints

Leveraging Project “Constraints” and Maximizing Results As a project manager for demand-driven, lean manufacturing software, I have more than a nodding acquaintance with the theory of constraints (TOC). What I find quite remarkable is the ability to apply the theory of constraints to other mediums beyond the manufacturing of goods – even something like project work. When a client

John Maher, Synchrono Manufacturing Software

Using TOC, Lean and Six Sigma to Become More Demand-Driven

What Tools to Use to Get the Most of Your Demand-Driven Changes Last time, we looked at specific companies that I have worked with and how they became more demand-driven using the Theory of Constraints (TOC) as a first step. As you saw from these real-life examples, TOC works well as a pointer to see where you need to change – and what should be the first items on the

Three Ways to Use Big Data to Understand Your Customers

How effective marketers use customer intelligence data to build relationships Marketers have more connected data to work with these days– but many of us struggle to find a place to put it to use. The Internet of Things has delivered unprecedented visibility and connectivity between: Sales data (what leads yield results and why?) Customer data (who is your customer and where do they go to learn about your products?) Product

Life Hack 101: Doing Implementation Documentation Right

The Who, When, What and Where for a Solid Project Doc Strategy Imagine if your most important photos—your child’s first birthday party, the day you brought home your new dog, that awesome vacation in Europe—were all lost forever. Your computer fell into the bathtub or the hard drive was wiped by an electrical storm, and you didn’t back up your drive. Don’t

When Manufacturing Improvements Have Too High a Price

Engineering design fiascos – spending thousands to save pennies This is a true story. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. It’s meant to illustrate how using constraints-based thinking can uncover the hidden price of cost-cutting projects. Several years ago, a friend of mine was working in the quality group at a large automotive company. We will call