Managing Automation - February 2009 - (Page 10) 02-09 MAILBOX Managing Automation Contact Info Managing Automation 5 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10001 Fax: 212-629-1559 e-mail: dbrousell@ thomaspublishing.com 20/20 FORESIGHT To the editor, correctly ridiculing in the technology boom. Jacob Mark General Manager, Packard Industries, Inc. MACRO THINKING Readers weigh in on topics ranging from managing risk in the financial crisis to whether global warming is a real problem that requires a solution. Managing Automation is always interested in hearing your views on manufacturing and the articles and columns in the magazine. Send e-mail to DBrousell @thomaspublishing.com or mail to 5 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10001. MA reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and length. maonline managingautomation.com To read David Brousell’s Take 1 column, visit: u The Financial Crisis www.managingautomation .com/takeone53 To read Joshua Greenbaum’s Notes column, visit: u Depression 2.0 www.managingautomation .com/notes57 To read the August Cover Story, visit: u Poll: It’s Time for Action www.managingautomation .com/poll To read Robert Malone’s Next column, visit: u Manufacturing on the Move www.managingautomation .com/next55 Regarding “The Financial Crisis (Take 1, November, p. 8), the tipping point in most supply chain crises is dealt with in post-mortem discussions about what went wrong and why we were not notified beforehand. This happens all the time because we do not have leading KPIs. By that I mean many companies have yet to deploy a comprehensive BI strategy that will allow them to know business effects as they happen, let alone early-warning signals and systems. A strategy of leading-edge KPIs that indicate risks ahead of time can only be constructed by companies that have built an integrated IT infrastructure that has BI capabilities today and explores what-if scenarios in a mature S&OP process. And those companies are few and far between. So rather than falter down the path of “how did we get here,” let’s strategize ahead and say, “Where do we want to go?” Then the fun begins. Tom Dadmun Adtran [Joshua Greenbaum replies: An economy that depends on high levels of debt to fund consumer spending and business expansion is the direct result of policies such as deregulation in banking and finance. Much of the rationale behind these policies came from faddish financial thinking, but it was deliberate policy that actually put us on a path of economic disaster.] livered to daily rental fleet operators. In this model, less is more: The less product that is manufactured to meet demand, the more profitable the program. There is more than $10 trillion of commercial and military capital goods, at current replacement value, in the U.S. This is a huge market that is just beginning to be recognized as being of greater value as a subscription-priced, performancebased model, rather than the legacy build-and-sell model. Ron Giuntini Principal, OEM Product-Services Institute SUBSCRIBE TO A NEW MODEL To the editor, SAME THINKING, SAME RESULTS To the editor, In your December Notes column, “Depression 2.0” (p. 16), to what “20-year policy that needs repudiation” are you referring? Consumer borrowing and business expansion exclusively through massive debt aren’t policy; they’re the same type of faddish financial thinking you’re In response to “Manufacturing on the Move” (Next, November 2008, p. 62), I believe you have missed the major change occurring in our economy: We are going to a subscription-priced, performance-based business model. End-user ownership is becoming no longer germane. Think product operating lease coupled with a maintenance service-level agreement. This model is evolving in the transportation equipment sector, medical, and most high-end capital goods and consumer products markets. Only U.S. companies can manage this model effectively because our management skills and rewards systems can make such programs profitable. Examples are high tech’s move to cloud computing, with 99.95% uptime; 3D printing OEMs that give you the machines and charge you only for consumables; and construction equipment de- GLOBAL WARNING To the editor, Your recent survey report mentions that a large portion of manufacturers want the government “to expand the scope to cover global warming” (“Poll: It’s Time for Action,” August 2008, p. 17). How do sane, intelligent people reach that opinion? Man-made global warming is a scam. Any money spent on this stupid idea of global warming or global climate change is ruining our economy and those of other countries. I believe history books in the future will talk about how people in our era falsely believed that they were destroying the planet and that human life was being threatened simply because man burned fossil fuels. Since when is CO2 a pollutant? It is good for plant life. Plant life is good for people. Thomas M. Walker President, Anthony Liftgates, Inc. 10 February 2009 http://www.thomaspublishing.com http://www.managingautomation.com http://www.managingautomation.com/takeone53 http://www.managingautomation.com/notes57 http://www.managingautomation.com/poll http://www.managingautomation.com/next55
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