By Patrick Kush, ASEM Membership Director

The Knoxville stop on the ASEM Summer Promotion Tour was initiated by an invitation from the local chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). Mark Swietoniewski invited me to participate in a collaboration effort with ASEM over the next academic year. Trish Simo Kush (ASEM Communications and Associate Executive Director) and ASEM Fellow Dr. Harold Conner attended the August meeting open to an exciting exchange of ideas. The discussions were productive and many ideas were covered. One of the valuable aspects of ASEM is the network of professional and academic members. We left the meeting contemplating how we could grow all our visions; thank you for your invitation!

The next day Trish and I visited ASEM member Rod Grubb at the 4M headquarters http://4mio.com/. Rod played a number of valuable roles with ASEM in the past and we wanted to drop in on him while we were in Knoxville. During the tour of the facilities, Rod was clearly proud in the success of his company and the fascinating developments in the future for carbon fiber. Afterwards, we were introduced to Rob Klawonn and Mike Agentis who were also excited about the advances. Each conversation circled back to engineering management and networking.

Over the two-day visit, Dr. Conner and Rita Gray coordinated visits for us on the beautiful campus of the University of Tennessee. We visited with Dr. Eric Boder, Dr. Gabriel Goenaga and Dr. John Kobza to discuss the value of ASEM to their students as they [the students] move into a future management role. With many students attending through distance courses, a conversation in developing a virtual student chapter was a focus. Dr. James Simonton also helped to develop a vision statement to guide the next steps. It will be exciting to see the University of Tennessee as part of the ASEM family.

Dr. Harold Conner was instrumental in putting all the parts together to make the trip a success. It was evident by our conversations that Dr. Conner has strong beliefs in engineering management and he appreciates the role that networking plays throughout the career of an engineering manager. This was demonstrated through his connections with multiple professional societies and with the University of Tennessee. ASEM thanks Dr. Conner for his support as a sponsor. It’s great to see Dr. Conner continue his support by bringing a student to the ASEM IAC to experience conferences and to build their network. This year, Dr. Conner is bringing Jake Beatty (bio below).

About Jake Beatty

Jake Beatty, from Clarksville, Tenn., is in his senior year as an industrial engineering major at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (UT). He is also working toward a minor in reliability and maintainability. He served a 2018 summer internship at URS | CH2M Oak Ridge LLC (UCOR) supporting UCOR’s LEAN program. That support included working to consolidate eight different waste software programs into one. Jake is a member of the Knoxville Chapter of Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers and has participated in 20 hours of volunteer work each semester at UT.

This summer, ASEM took promoting the society to a new level. We welcome new members from the Minneapolis (ASCE-EWRI) and Evanston (IEEE-TEMS) conferences. We are looking to expand our presence at more conferences through the New Year. I’ll share more plans in upcoming eNews articles. I’m also looking for networking stories to share with our society. If you have a similar story to share about mentoring success or professional networking, please send it to membership@asem.org

By Teresa Jurgens-Kowal, PE, CPEM, PMP®, NPDP

(EMBOK Blog Post #7)

I am currently in the market for a new car. One of the first characteristics that I can list is that I want the vehicle to be of high quality. But, what, exactly, does “quality” mean?  Domain 6 of the Engineering Management Body of Knowledge (EMBOK, 4^th edition) teaches us about quality as well as operations and supply chain management.

As noted in the EMBOK (pg. 165), quality is “defined for each product based on what the customer wants in … measurable characteristics.”  Certainly, this definition helps as I want my car to have at least 200 hp, not cost over $40,000, and be reliable for a lifetime of ten years. Rather than getting a sales pitch from a car dealer, they can instead show me new models that have specifications matching my desired quality characteristics.

History of Quality

The foundations of quality management in US, Canadian, and Western European industries started with the automotive industry. But, the principles of quality date further back to WWII when General Douglas MacArthur sought good radios in Japan. Influential quality gurus like W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran, Phillip Crosby, and Kaoru Ishikawa not only helped MacArthur in his quest for good radios, but also spawned the total quality movement. The Toyota Production System (TPS) is known for yielding high quality, low variability parts and a novel approach to manufacturing (which we now call “lean”).

The quality gurus shared a common belief that management must actively participate in quality improvement and that systems and data drive performance improvements. Ishikawa delineated a list of data-driven tools for engineers and managers to improve quality. These are shown in Table 6‑4 of the EMBOK (pg. 168) and include the affinity diagram and the prioritization matrix. R&D engineers will be familiar with these tools as project managers are also intimately familiar with the activity network diagram.

Quality in organizations today is supported by international standards, such as ISO 9001 and ANSI. In the US, the Malcolm-Baldrige Award is presented by the President to organizations that have demonstrated commitment and improvement through total quality management (TQM).

Process Improvements

Of course, quality is more than a measure of the final product. Process improvements to drive and support quality are a key task for engineers and engineering managers. Systems like lean manufacturing and Six Sigma encourage continuous improvement by eliminating waste and minimizing variation. Section 6.2 of the EMBOK compares and contrasts the principles of lean with Six Sigma improvement projects.

An important concept in lean is “flow,” especially for batch operations. Tools in lean help to reduce wasted time as a machine or downstream customer waits for work. The Kanban board is a visual tracking tool to show planned work, work-in-progress, products undergoing testing, and complete work. New work does not enter the “flow” until the Kanban board shows capacity of the work team to accept new work.

Like lean, Six Sigma is also driving a goal of continuous improvement. Six Sigma is project-oriented to find the root cause of a quality issue and implement an improvement. The core philosophy of Six Sigma is the DMAIC cycle, which includes the following steps:

•          Define,
•          Measure,
•          Analyze,
•          Improve, and
•          Control

Sales Forecasting

Of course, quality and operations management are not standalone functions. Operations must support product manufacturing and involves creating sales forecasts and inventory management. For example, production of one new car (Volvo XC40) is unable to meet customer demand because of underestimated sales forecasts, resulting in a waiting period to even test-drive the vehicle and an even longer waiting period for purchase. Engineering managers use a variety of forecasting, scheduling, and inventory management tools to avoid these situations. (Supply chain management is discussed in detail in Section 6.6 of the EMBOK).

While not all engineers and engineering managers work directly in quality assurance (QA) or quality control (QC) labs or even in operations or supply chain, each of us must be fully committed to quality management. As Domain 6 of the EMBOK points out, engineering managers influence and impact quality from the concepts of new product development through ongoing continuous improvement activities. We must remember at all times that it is our customer and our customer’s customer who define quality.

Oh yeah, and I want a blue car…

What activities are you doing today in your job as an engineer or engineering manger to improve quality in your organization?

Get your copy of the EMBOK here. There are also many great tools on economics and finance in the EM Handbook here. Past articles in this series include:

• -          The Business Savvy Engineer - https://www.asem.org/blog/5704908
• -          The Business-Savvy Engineer’s Introduction to Engineering Management - https://www.asem.org/blog/5880804
• -          Leadership & Organizational Management for the Business Savvy Engineer - https://www.asem.org/blog/6004937
• -          Strategic Planning for the Business Savvy Engineer - https://www.asem.org/blog/6133262
• -          Learning Financial Management: Being a Business-Savvy Engineer - https://www.asem.org/blog/6289895
• -          Project Management for the Business Savvy Engineer - https://www.asem.org/blog/6361845

About the Author

Teresa Jurgens-Kowal, PE, CPEM, PMP®, NPDP, is a passionate lifelong learner. She enjoys helping individuals and companies improve their innovation programs and loves scrapbooking. You can learn more about Teresa and her new Innovation MasterMind group by connecting on LinkedIn.

The Western Michigan University (WMU) student chapter of ASEM consistently improves, and is growing from years past. Students participated in school activities, the ASEM IAC, industry tours, and fundraisers. With the focus being to encourage EM development, here are report summaries for each event:

Bronco Bash: This is an event that takes place first week of September each year and 150+ RSOs have a booth to get people interested in joining an RSO. This is a fun way for RSOs to interact with students new to the university. This was the second time that the WMU chapter of ASEM took part in this and it was great talking to freshmen about what ASEM is and what our major is.

ASEM Conference: The annual conference in Alabama was a great experience for those that went to it. We got a chance to interact with professionals from industry working the job what we might have one day. We were able to get nine students to the conference through the use of a fund set aside for ASEM by our Advisor, Dr. David Lyth, and through the funding from our Dean, Dr. Houssam Toutanji. 

JR Automation: Our first tour was to JR Automation, manufacturer of custom automation equipment, which included talking to the management team there and a tour of their plant. 

Green Door Distilling Co: This was our second tour and a unique one. This is a distilling company was founded by an alumnus from the WMU Engineering Management master’s program. The tour showed our students in the program how Jon, founder of Green Door, was able to apply all that he learn from school and start his own company. 

Bells Brewery: The third tour we took was to Bells Brewery right here in our back yard. We were able to see the entire process of how their products are made, from grains to the bottling line. We were also able to taste their product. 

Stryker: Our last tour was at Stryker Instruments and for this tour we are planning to see operations that take place there. The tour was set up through an alumnus from the engineering management technology program at WMU that works at Stryker. This tour gave us insights on how a Fortune 500 company carries out its operations.

Blaze Pizza: This was our first fundraiser of the semester and we got in contact with Blaze Pizza for setting up this fundraiser. It was delicious! We may potentially do it again in the future.

Cookie Sale: For our second fundraiser we got a donation of cookies and we baked them and had a bake sale. This was something new that we tried whereas in the past we had contacted a local business and had a fundraiser there. This was an idea that would be good to use again in the future.

This year, the WMU ASEM Student Chapter will continue to connect students to industries where they might work. The plan is to reach out to the underclass students and have them get involved. Participating in the Bronco Bash provides good exposure for the chapter. Along with that, students will be presenting papers at the ASEM conference, and a case study team is currently being organized.  After the IAC, students hope to participate in an improvement project with YWCA in Kalamazoo.  Lastly, the students strive to partner with other engineering RSOs both in fundraising, and activities.

ASEM Members, please submit your nominations for the many prestigious ASEM awards, by visiting https://goo.gl/forms/3BqwM6IWjycUNJL33 before July 15, 2018. The awards are:

Bernard R. Sarchet Award: Considered to be the highest award given by ASEM. This award recognizes contributions to the Society and to the field of engineering management and is annually given to an ASEM member who has contributed the most to the Society on a local, national and/or international basis. 

Frank Woodbury Special Service Award: Recognizes an ASEM member who has provided outstanding service to the Society. This award is given annually to an active ASEM member who has demonstrated proof of continued service excellence to ASEM. 

Meritorious Service Awards: Recognizes the effort of the local sections of ASEM. Awards include:

• New Member Recruiting – Any member responsible for recruiting five or more new members in a given calendar year
  
• Outstanding Non-Board Member – Any member who is not currently serving on the ASEM Board of Directors and has contributed outstanding accomplishments to the operation, improvement, and/or recognition of the Society
  
• Outstanding Local Section President – Any local section president who in the course of executing the duties of a local section president, makes outstanding accomplishments to the operation, improvement, and/or recognition of the Society
  
• Outstanding Student Chapter President – Any student section president who in the course of executing the duties of a student chapter president, makes outstanding accomplishments to the operation, improvement, and/or recognition of the Society
  

Founder’s Awards:

• Undergraduate: To recognize undergraduate engineering management program leadership
  
• Graduate: To recognize graduate engineering management program leadership
  
• Student Chapter: To recognize ASEM student chapter excellence. All active ASEM student chapters are eligible
  

Presidential Award – Local Section: Annually recognizes ASEM local section excellence. All active ASEM local sections are eligible. Criteria for this award include:

• Section membership and demonstrated participation
  
• Participation in the ASEM International Annual Conference
  
• Publication of technical papers and delivery of seminars and workshops
  
• Other contributions to the field of engineering management
  

Best Dissertation Award: Annually recognizes the PhD dissertation that makes the most significant contribution to the engineering management field. Visit http://asem.org/resources/Website/About/Society%20Awards/2018%20-%20ASEM%20%20BDA%20-%20Call%20for%20Nominations%20-%207%20April%202018.pdf for complete instructions

William Daughton World Headquarters Service Award: Recognizes significant contributions to the streamlining, enhancement, or improvement of the day-to-day operations of ASEM world headquarters.This award recognizes an active ASEM member for their contribution of time, effort, or implemented idea that significantly enhanced or improved the day-to-day operation of ASEM including but not limited to:

• WHQ processes and procedures
  
• ASEM website and other communications
  
• WHQ office arrangements and accommodations
  

For more information about this award, and all of ASEM's Society Awards, please visit: https://asem.org/Society-Awards or contact asem-hq@asem.org.

By Patrick Sweet, P.Eng., MBA
(Blog #6 EMBOK series)

Photo credit: Thijs van der Weide

Introduction

The vast majority of engineering work takes place in the form of projects. A project is a one-time, temporary endeavor aimed at creating a unique product, service, or outcome. Many engineers turn to project management at some point in their careers. Others, while they may not be interested in leading projects, will almost certainly work in a project environment.

Chapter 5 in the Engineering Management Body of Knowledge (EMBoK) covers the basics of project management. This post will summarize the most important points of the chapter in the hopes that it will serve as a useful primer and encourage you to dig into the EMBoK if you’re interested.  You can order your copy of the EMBoK here. 

The Basics of Project Management

Project management is the art and science of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing projects. When an organization recognizes some sort of need or opportunity, a project is typically launched to address or pursue it. It is the project manager’s job to define the work, organize the required resources, and see to it that the need or opportunity is addressed on time, on budget, and with the right quality. In many ways the project manager is like the CEO of the project – they hold the ultimate responsibility.

Initiating a Project

Initiation is a crucial step in running a successful project. When initiating a project, the project team determines what exactly the project is meant to do, and how it will affect the project’s stakeholders. Stakeholders are anyone who can be directly or indirectly affected by the project, or who could affect the project. For example, for a hydroelectric dam construction project, the local electric utility, local government, and conservationists could all be pertinent stakeholders, each with very different views to take into account. Understanding the people involved and the ultimate goal of the project is critical before moving forward.

Planning a Project

Project planning is a major effort in the early stages of the project. When planning, the project manager determines what work will be done and what won’t be done. This is called the project’s scope. The project manager will also organize the scope into a work breakdown structure to organize everything that needs to be done and to facilitate scheduling the work and assigning it to the right people. At the end of the planning effort, the project manager should have a plan for the work that will be done, how much it costs, and how long it will take.

Project Risk

Risk is the effect of uncertainty on a project’s goals. There can be both positive and negative risks, often called opportunities and threats, respectively. Risks can be categorized according to their likelihood of occurrence and the level of impact that they would have if they were to occur. A highly likely, highly problematic threat requires a mitigation plan from the project manager. Risks can be managed through four typical strategies: acceptance, avoidance, transference, or mitigation. Similarly, opportunities can be pursued as well, which is an important way to help mitigate the effects of risk on a project.

Project Execution

Project work actually occurs through project execution. This is a very important phase of a project because this is typically where the majority of money is spent on a project. If a project manager isn’t careful, money can be spent doing the wrong work, or doing poor quality work. Both result in delays and overspending which threaten the success of a project. The project manager must be skilled at building and leading high-performing teams in order to succeed in project execution.

Monitoring and Controlling Projects

In order to make sense of how a project is proceeding, a project manager will monitor the project in several ways. Using earned value methodology, the project manager will look at what has been accomplished, how much money has been spent, and what was expected to be accomplished and spent based on the original plan. Using these metrics, it is possible to determine if the project is on schedule and on budget. If the measurements show a significant deviation, then the project manager must take action to correct the issue.

Closing a Project

At the end of a project, the effort must be formally closed. For successful projects, that means securing acceptance and payment for the project’s deliverables. The project manager should also host a post-mortem with the project team in order to elicit lessons learned for use on other projects in the organization. This will facilitate better project planning and execution in the future and elsewhere in the organization.

Conclusion

Projects are a ubiquitous part of an engineer’s day-to-day life. You will, in all likelihood, find yourself leading or participating in a project team at some point in your career. Understanding the basics of project management can make all the difference in the world when it comes to project success, no matter what your role is.

About Patrick Sweet

Patrick Sweet, P.Eng., MBA is a recognized expert in engineering management and leadership with expertise in systems engineering, project management and product management. You can read more from Pat at the Engineering & Leadership blog.

by Teresa Jurgens-Kowal, PE, CPEM, PMP®, NPDP
(Blog #5 EMBOK series)

Every day, I hear reports on the radio and television of stock market reports, the Dow Jones level, and of actions taken by the Federal Reserve (the central bank in the United States). Often, I ignore these reports, hoping the announcer will just get on with the scores of my favorite local sports team. However, all these economic measures impact my pocketbook in significant ways, like affecting the purchasing power of a dollar and in influencing a decision of when to buy a house, go back to school, or retire.

Economic and financial theory and practice are covered in the Engineering Management Body of Knowledge (EMBOK), Domain 4: Financial Resource Management. This domain covers the typical financial data and information engineering managers should understand. Moreover, much of the content in Domain 4 actually bridges the gap between engineering and management. Senior executives typically make decisions based on money more than how cool the science is.

Accounting and Finance

All engineers should be exposed to the basics of bookkeeping and accounting. The most typical system of bookkeeping is a “double-entry” in which debits (left-hand side of a worksheet) must be in balance with credits (the right-hand side of the worksheet). For chemical engineers, this is much like a material balance for money. (Please see “Talking to Your Bo$$” at AIChE’s ChEnected website).

Thus, for every transaction, the debits and credits must remain in balance. If we spend $1 to acquire a pencil, we would credit, or subtract from, the cash account while we debit, or add to, our materials account. Debits and credits stay in balance always.

Financial people will prepare reports called balance sheets on a periodic basis to demonstrate that assets are in balance with liabilities and owner’s equity. Owner’s equity is the value held in a company after all the liabilities have been paid off. If we had $2 cash and only spent $1 to acquire the aforementioned pencil, we would still have $1 in savings (also known as owner’s equity). If we had $0.50 of debt to pay off first, then there would only be $0.50 of owner’s equity. Companies often make investment and stock buyback decisions based on the value of owner’s equity. Banks will examine the balance sheet in order to make loan decisions, as well.

Profits

As described in Section 4.1.4 of the EMBOK (4^th ed.), profit is measured by the difference (in a given transaction) between the sales price of a good and the cost to produce and sell it. Production costs have two components: fixed costs which do not change regardless of the quantity of goods produced and variable costs that scale with production. Rent, for example, is a fixed cost because it doesn’t change regardless how many widgets are produced in a factory. Raw materials, on the other hand, are variable costs because as the number of widgets produced increases, we need more raw materials to manufacture them.

Profit, then, is the difference between sales price and the cost of production (fixed and variable).

Budgeting

On the radio and television, we also hear a lot about government agencies (national, state, and local) setting budgets. You might also have a personal budget so that your expenses don’t exceed your income. Engineering organizations also must establish annual budgets so that expenditures don’t exceed inputs. Further, the Board of Directors and CEO are tasked with maintaining the long-term financial health of the company.

The most common way for a business to set a budget is zero-based budgeting. In the zero-based budgeting method, we build expected revenues (inputs) and costs (expenses) from a blank sheet of paper each year. In this way, the management team (or family) will examine the validity of each expense and the assumptions leading to revenue generation. (Note that the US Congress does not use zero-based budgeting and generally assumes an added percentage to each budget item in each year, tending toward less examination of each line item.)  Budgets are designed to help engineering managers invest in appropriate growth projects while maintaining profitability in existing operations.

Economics

As a part of any budget process, we must assume and calculate information regarding inflation and the time value of money. In essence, the time value of money means that $1 today is worth more than $1 tomorrow. For example, in the US, the Federal Reserve has determined that a 2-3% inflation rate is ideal. Let’s call it 2.5%. This means, that next year, the $100 bill in your pocket will only have the purchasing power of $97.56.

As engineering managers plan, design, and construct projects with long lead times, the time value of money becomes an important consideration. The present value of a project will be more heavily influenced by revenues and expenses that happen in the near-term.  When cash flows are further into the future, the impact to present value will be lessened.. Similarly, foreign exchange rates for international projects and income tax rates can both influence the profitability of a capital project. Engineering managers must be fluent in both the science and the economics of projects they are involved in..

Making Money Work for You

Successful engineering managers can bridge the gap between the technical and the financial fields. Some engineers pursue expensive MBAs to learn about finance and economics. However, ASEM members are presented with a mini-MBA in Domain 4 of the EMBOK, building on the information presented earlier on Strategy (Domain 3, http://asem.org/blog/6133262) and Management Theory (Domain 2, http://asem.org/blog/6004937. To be successful, engineers must learn to speak “accounting” to gain support for projects and programs. CPEM and CAEM (http://asem.org/EM-Professional-Cert-Program) certification requires that an engineering manager be familiar with basic accounting so that s/he is skilled in the financial nuances of any engineering decision. After all, companies are in business to make money.

Get your copy of the EMBOK here. There are also great tools on economics and finance in the EM handbook here. Past articles in this series include:

The Business Savvy Engineer - http://asem.org/blog/5704908

The Business-Savvy Engineer’s Introduction to Engineering Management - http://asem.org/blog/5880804

Leadership & Organizational Management for the Business Savvy Engineer - http://asem.org/blog/6004937

About the Author

Teresa Jurgens-Kowal, PE, CPEM, PMP®, NPDP, is a passionate lifelong learner. She enjoys helping individuals and companies improve their innovation programs and loves scrapbooking. You can learn more about Teresa and innovation by connecting on LinkedIn.  

(This data reflects new and renewing Certifications and Memberships from the first quarter of 2018 / January 1- March 31.)

ASEM is proud to announce our newest CAEMs: Mehmet Efe Guzel (USA) and Andrew Toland (MI-USA)!

ASEM is proud to announce our newest CPEMs: Khalid A. Al-Jabr (Saudi Arabia), John Braswell (USA), Francis Chua (CA-USA), Golshan Coleiny (MA-USA), Jean Essila, (MI-USA), Samy Mohamed (USA), David Paulus (AR-USA), Shahryar Sorooshian (USA), Marcus Stewart (DC-USA), Bill Turnbull (USA), Travis Webb (OK-USA) and Tony Williams (USA)!

The following are ASEM's latest re-certified CPEMs: Yin-Chih Lin (China), John Nicholson (USA), Simon Philbin (UK), Daniel Rowbotham (Canada) and Brian Smith (MS-USA)!

Are you interested in certification? The ASEM website has all the details, here: http://asem.org/EM-Professional-Cert-Program

ASEM welcomes our new and renewing Academic Partners:

Univ of Colorado-Boulder AP Admin - CO (USA)

Evan Brunner - NY (USA)

Thomas Cruz - NJ (USA)

Caneel Dixon - NY (USA)

Kristen Egan - CO (USA)

Carl Johnson - GA (USA)

Jack Kesti - PA (USA)

Sara Klena - NY (USA)

James Kubisch - NY (USA)

Ryan Leemans - NY (USA)

Ryan O'Connell - SD (USA)

Daniel Provaznik - NY (USA)

John Richards - NY (USA)

Kathryn Silecchia - FL (USA)

Chloe Smith - NY (USA)

Justin Thomas - NY (USA)

Hayden Trainor - NY (USA)

Benjamin Vasta - NY (USA)

Charles Wagner - NY (USA)

Timothy Young - VA (USA)

There is more information about becoming an Academic Partner at the ASEM website, here: http://asem.org/AcademicPartnership

ASEM welcomes our new and renewing Student Members:

Ahmed Alibage - OR (USA)

Arlexis Branson - MI (USA)

Kyler Castro - MI (USA)

Jean Essila - MI (USA)

Basem Abdullrahman Fallatah - OH (USA)

Jose Febres - MD (USA)

Jedidiah Hall - SD (USA)

Stacy Kam - FL (USA)

Rafaa Khalifa - OR (USA)

Richard Mutule Kilonzo - NC (USA)

Jennix Kuriakose Joyson - Australia

Patrick Kush - MN (USA)

M. Oussama Laraichi - OR (USA)

Cliffton Lines - FL (USA)

Bradford Logan - VA (USA)

Lauren McIntire - MA (USA)

Atena Nosrati - CA (USA)

Bial Patel - MI (USA)

Marissa Poth-Miller - MI (USA)

Cyril Mark Taylor - VA (USA)

Thembani Togwe - KS (USA)

Ryan Van Leuven - ID (USA)

Pei Zhang - OR (USA)

Are you a student and seeking ASEM membership? There is more information at the website, here: http://asem.org/Student-Membership

ASEM welcomes our new and renewing Retiring and Professional Members:

Kate Abel - NJ (USA)

Ashokkumar Alalasundaram - Singapore

José Marcelo Almeida Prado Cestari - Brazil

Neslihan Alp - TN (USA)

Efosa Brown Amayo - Nigeria

Wayne Andrews - VA (USA)

Marco Antonio Archanjo - Brazil

Bill Bailey - GA (USA)

Timothy Barnett - AL (USA)

Eric Borquist - LA (USA)

Tom Bowlin - MO (USA)

Stanley Bullington - MS (USA)

Keith Burleson - AL (USA)

Hugh Cole - CA (USA)

Carlos Roberto Cordova Morales - Peru

T Steven Cotter - VA (USA)

Charles Daniels - VA (USA)

Jill DeLong - MN (USA)

Fernando Deschamps - Brazil

Gene Dixon - NC (USA)

Toni Doolen - OR (USA)

Mark Dotson - TN (USA)

Julie Drzymalski - PA (USA)

Vincent Dutter - WI (USA)

Ona Egbue - SC (USA)

Osama Elsafadi - TX (USA)

Gerald Emison - MS (USA)

Misagh Faezipour - TN (USA)

Sylvia Ferry - AL (USA)

Andreas Garstenauer - VA (USA)

Fernando Gonzalez Aleu - Mexico

Abhijit Gosavi - MO (USA)

Marc Haddad - Lebanon

Holly Handley - VA (USA)

Morgan Henrie - AK (USA)

Andrew Herbst - Canada

Michael Holman - FL (USA)

Deborah Howell - NY (USA)

Amr Ibrahim - Egypt

Keith Jeffcoat - NJ (USA)

Paul Kauffmann - VA (USA)

David Kern - VA (USA)

Bruce Kisell - Canada

Constantine Koursaris - FL (USA)

Geert Letens - Belgium

Sandy Lieske - ID (USA)

Yosef Manik - Indonesia

James Marion - GA (USA)

Robert Matteoni - MO (USA)

Daniel McCarville - AZ (USA)

Debashis Mishra - India

Heather Nachtmann - AR (USA)

Ganapathy Natarajan - OR (USA)

Kim LaScola Needy - AR (USA)

Ashley Nelson - TX (USA)

Asim Nisar - Pakistan

Akin Olufowoshe - TX (USA)

Wayne P. - WI (USA)

Ed Pohl - AR (USA)

Alejandro Polanco - Chile

Taiwo Taopheeq Popoola - Nigeria

Kehinde Popoola - Nigeria

Clement Potoki - MD (USA)

Imad "Danny" Qubain - FL (USA)

Michael Repomenta - Philippines

Lorenzo Juan Romero Diaz - Peru

Pedro Patricio Sabilala - Philippines

Mark Anthony Santiago - Philippines

Devis Saputra - Indonesia

James Schreiner - NY (USA)

Jiong Shen - PA (USA)

Tricia Simo Kush - MN (USA)

Yesim Sireli - NC (USA)

Brian Smith - MS (USA)

Alice Squires - VA (USA)

Robert Stevens - TX (USA)

James Strong - AL (USA)

Joseph Talik - FL (USA)

Walter Tamosaitis - WA (USA)

Andrew Toland - MI (USA)

Jalal Ud Din - Pakistan

Resit Unal - VA (USA)

Eileen Van Aken - VA (USA)

Michiel van der Hoeven - Chile

Ken Vaughn - IL (USA)

Jerry Westbrook - TN (USA)

Joseph Wilck - NC (USA)

Woodrow Winchester - PA (USA)

Charles Winder - TX (USA)

Ibrahim Yitmen - Sweden

Are you interested in becoming a Professional Member? You guessed it; there is more information at the ASEM website, here: http://asem.org/Professional-Membership

Executive summary authored by and presented with permission from Bruce Vojak, Managing Director at Breakthrough Innovation Advisors, LLC

One of just a handful of options available to executive leadership when their company or its products reach life cycle maturity, Breakthrough Innovation is the proven path of renewal, the opportunity to survive and thrive in a significant way. Yet, Breakthrough Innovation is only half of the innovation equation. A complete portfolio includes investment in both Incremental Innovation (which optimizes within the existing paradigm) and Breakthrough Innovation (which changes the paradigm within which competition occurs). When implemented effectively, Incremental and Breakthrough Innovation work together to enable the company to both survive in the near term and thrive over time.

Having decided to invest in Breakthrough Innovation, executive leadership must develop sufficient insight to do so wisely. Unfortunately, the most commonly held views on innovation, that it is either random or recipe, are flawed at their core and do not deliver on the promise of renewal. Instead, Breakthrough Innovation is the very human act of discovery – an act requiring a company to acquire and establish new perspectives, insights, cultural values, and business practices in order to achieve and sustain it. Only those who hold such a perspective possess the potential to succeed at Breakthrough Innovation.

Finally, having understood the way of Breakthrough Innovation success, executive leadership must commit sufficiently to ensure that success. While such commitment comes in many, varied forms, it includes but is not limited to hiring the right people, providing them with resources and time, and sustaining an innovation‐friendly culture. It also requires resisting the temptation to pull these resources onto the problem of the day to extend maturity, a problem that all too often dilutes and renders useless what originally was intended as investment intended to renew the company.

While such insight and investment is rare, those who rise to these expectations and challenges serve all, successfully leading their organization beyond everyone’s dreams.

The entirety of this article continues at AN-EXECUTIVE-BRIEFING-ON-BREAKTHROUGH-INNOVATION

Used with permission from John Walston, Co-Founder of ResourcefulManager

Let’s set the record straight.

Everyone who is a great leader isn’t necessarily a great manager. And great managers aren’t necessarily great leaders.

So when it comes to the Leaders vs. Managers debate, where do you land?

Here’s a list of 17 traits that separate the two. Go down the list and check off which ones match you. Most of us have some qualities of each. For example, do you have 10 Leader traits and 7 Manager traits? Or the reverse? Are you happy with the answer?

Make sure to tell us in the comments section and read more insightful articles at the Resourceful Manager website: https://www.resourcefulmanager.com/leaders-vs-managers/

ResourcefulManager Illustration by Michael Credle | Research by Lisa McKale
© Copyright 2016 ResourcefulManager

The 2017 data is in, and job announcements are up substantially for U.S. manufacturing.

By Harry Moser and Millar Kelley; used with permission by Harry Moser, Founder of the Reshoring Initiative.

Reshoring and foreign job announcements (FDI) surged in 2017 to over 170,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs. This is strong evidence that work can and will be successfully brought back—and is especially relevant in a time of intense debate over tariffs and the trade deficit.

All told, job announcements were up 52% from 2016, and a whopping 2,800% from 2010. Announcements lead to hiring typically within 6 to 24 months.

There is substantial potential for many more jobs to come back, if the right policies are implemented going forward.

Implications for the Economy and Manufacturing

President Donald Trump has announced tariffs on solar panels, appliances, steel, aluminum and a broad range of Chinese products. His aim is to eliminate the $700 billion/year non-petroleum goods trade deficit, thus increasing U.S. manufacturing by about 40%--about five million jobs.

Many observers question these actions based on likely retaliation and higher U.S. consumer prices. Others question the feasibility and wisdom of trying to increase manufacturing’s share of the economy by bringing back to the U.S. the industry that we have lost over the last 40 years.

We observe from our 2017 data on reshoring, combined with other Reshoring Initiative reports, that:

• It is now clear that U.S. manufacturing, including foreign-owned plants, can be started up or grown to support a substantial flow of work back to the U.S.
• U.S. and foreign companies increasingly recognize that it is in their interest to supply more of the U.S. market by local production and sourcing.
• Based on timing of announcements, much of the surge was due to the anticipation of lower taxes and regulations and higher tariffs. To bring back more than about 10% of the five million offshored jobs will require more U.S. competitiveness, more leveling of the playing field—including some combination of lower USD, stronger skilled workforce training, still lower corporate tax rates, and a VAT (Value Added Tax).
• Bringing so many jobs from offshore disproves the weak claim that only 4 to 13% of the decline in manufacturing jobs has been due to offshoring, with the rest to automation. If so few had been lost to offshoring, so many could not be recovered in one year.

In addition to federal policy, states and cities need to play a role:

• Some states are more attractive and effective as destinations. The Southeast and Texas have dominated. The Midwest is now moving up in the rankings. Government incentives are the most frequently mentioned motivating factor
  Education and skills training need to be improved in almost all regions. Skilled workforce is the third ranked driver of reshoring and FDI.
• Infrastructure is highly ranked.

Companies can profit from the data below—here are some things to keep in mind:

• Skills training is a corporate responsibility. Some companies have taken that responsibility; others have ignored it. Without a larger and better trained workforce, the flow will decline rapidly. Skilled workforce is the third highest ranked motivator of reshoring.
• Industry 4.0. Automation, productivity, innovation and lean collectively are the highest ranked enablers of reshoring. Have you optimized?
• See which industries or companies are reshoring. Join them or sell to them.
• Reevaluate offshoring. Recognize and quantify the frequently mentioned costs and risks. For example: quality, delivery, inventory and IP risk are often ignored when offshoring.
• Made in USA branding is the fourth-highest rated factor. Would increased volume and a moderately higher price cover the cost differences on some products?

Read the entire article at Reshoring-Rise-What-it-Means-for-the-Trade-Debate?