Year: 2021

Helpful Websites for EDMM 1420 - Engineering Graphics (our CAD class). Course description: Essentials of engineering graphics including technical sketching, CAD applications, applied geometry, orthographic projection, section, dimensioning, tolerancing, threads and fasteners, weldments, detail and assembly drawing, charting and basic elements of descriptive geometry. All work is according to current ANSI drafting standards. Previous technical drawing is recommended. Spend lots of time with the TA & try to take it...

Companies within the same industry (and even across different industries such as aerospace, steel, chemical, etc.) are dependent on each other. The flows are more intertwined ("Integrated" supply management) than ever before. In a recent study, 90 percent of manufacturing companies report having some level of outsourcing (no big surprise, right?). Thirty percent outsource 40 percent or more of their manufacturing (hmmm, now this is getting interesting). Logistics levels of...

Assume a supplier estimates the following costs on an RFQ (Request for Quote - buyer wants supplier to quote on some potential business):Potential supplier says to you (you are the buyer/potential customer): Costs of Direct Materials $12,000Cost of Direct Labor $3,000Cost of Overhead $4,500Total Costs $19,500Profit $2,340Price $21,840What is the minimum price a desperate supplier might be willing to quote if this is their cost information? Answer:  $15,000 because it...

Managers screw this up regularly... A lot of mistakes are made because of this simple thing... Do not make this mistake when you are dealing with global suppliers and customers... dd/mm/yyyy or dd.mm.yyyy (day, month, year)?Notice that most countries write day/month/year (Europe in particular). We in the U.S. do month/day/year (9/27/08) is September 27, 2008 - this is not a date in most countries). Keep it safe in a multinational...

I wrote an article for the Kalamazoo Gazette a few years back. My editorial was in response to the 750 striking UAW hourly workers at the American Axle factory in Three Rivers, MI. These hourly workers make around $65 per hour with benefits and management wants to cut their pay/benefits in half. These strikes have started to shutdown several suppliers and GM factories. You should be able to read this...

Pasted below is feedback from a former student who works at TACOM (government SCM jobs). https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/535915100 These jobs do require U.S. citizenship and this is a unionized workforce.  Yes, unions only make up around 10-13% of America's workforce and most of them are actually government employees.  Pasted below is feedback from a former student who works at TACOM (who often has several job openings in Warren, MI).  This sounds like...

A former student asked me: Would you recommend using Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) or Consignment Inventory (CI)?  I feel like VMI means that you have to regulate the Suppliers more than Consignment would. Consignment allows you to have your inventory costs in the hands of the supplier so the inventory cost is lower for you.  In other words, Consignment means we will buy the stuff from suppliers, but we will...