Blog
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July 5, 2022It’s one thing to have access to data — amidst today’s data explosion, that’s easy. It’s quite another to be able to make sense of that data. Industry 4.0 Smart Manufacturing technologies are now making advanced contextualization of data possibl... -
June 28, 2022Since the Industrial Revolution beginning in the mid-18th century revolutionized manufacturing processes, technological change has been a constant. Now, here in the 21st century, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also known as Industry 4.0, has ... -
June 21, 2022Industry 4.0 Smart Manufacturing helps Food & Beverage manufacturers take control of their operations through a digital transformation driven by continuous intelligence, automation, and connectivity in a cyber-physical environment. Smart Man... -
June 14, 2022Ensuring the quality and safety of products in the pharmaceutical industry is critical, without question. The global population depends on many of the modern medicines produced in pharmaceutical manufacturing for health and survival. But recalle... -
June 7, 2022The Fourth Industrial Revolution, aka Industry 4.0, has brought with it many technological advancements that have transformed the global manufacturing landscape in remarkable ways. But for companies who have yet to make the digital transformatio... -
June 1, 2022As the Industry 4.0 digital transformation (aka Smart Manufacturing) progresses, more and more manufacturing industries are seeking to optimize data collection and analysis in order to utilize data to its maximum potential. Data centers are esse... -
May 30, 2022Join ThinkIQ at the Smart Manufacturing Experience June 7-9 in Pittsburg, PA. at our booth #626 and then check out ThinkIQ CEO Doug Lawson present on Tuesday, June 7 at 11: 25am ET: -
May 25, 2022What’s the bedrock of a manufacturing business that runs smoothly and efficiently? Realtime reporting. Managers of manufacturing enterprises need to know what’s happening with their operations, the granular details that illuminate progress, proc... -
May 20, 2022Machine Learning trained to watch for anomalies as part of a Safety Management System When I started working summer jobs in construction and later worked as a materials/supply chain manager in back in the 1970’s, workplace safety was often an a... -
May 18, 2022Efficiency is a top priority for manufacturers in every industry. From the mining industry to the pharmaceutical industry, the chemical industry to the food & beverage industry, manufacturers want to know how to get more done, in less time, ... -
May 16, 2022North Pole Times Investigation Reveals the Shocking Truth The North Pole Times conducted a months long investigation that included dozens of interviews with elf helpers at the main toy factory. The elves requested anonymity to reveal just how m... -
May 13, 2022With Computer Vision & Machine Learning we finally have one irrefutable version of the truth. In my very early days of manufacturing and operations we were taught that the only way to really know what was going on was to walk around the man... -
May 11, 2022When it comes to manufacturing, surprises are almost always a setback, from broken down equipment, to a late shipment, missed defect, contamination, or a costly recall. Today’s manufacturing landscape is unpredictable. But what’s the best way t... -
May 9, 2022How Computer Vision and Machine Learning is Revolutionizing the Aggregate and Cement Industry -
May 6, 2022Regardless of the level of sophistication of your systems or the complexity of operations, there is no easy way to monitor a work center today. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems push work onto the floor in batches or via kan bans. Manuf... -
May 4, 2022Quality control is important in any industry, but perhaps none more so than the food and beverage industry. Food manufacturers source and manage highly sensitive raw ingredients that consumers continuously depend on, and even a minor incident co... -
May 2, 2022Computerized Shop Floor Control (SFC) Systems and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) date back over 40 years and were designed to track and document the transformation of raw materials first into work-in-process (WIP) and finally into finishe... -
April 29, 2022There has been a great deal of interest in tracking truck movements on the open roads using IoT technology. Some of these systems use the driver’s smartphone and a microcontroller based on GPS/GSM/GPRS technology. The GPS is great at capturing g... -
April 27, 2022Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing: There’s a lot of buzz today, and yet there can still be a lot of confusion about what they are and how they apply in manufacturing. Let’s explore some of the real world ways the digital solutions of Industr... -
April 25, 2022American manufacturing is reestablishing its global dominance after decades of decline. In spite of the drum beat of political rhetoric about tax breaks and other bi-partisan legislative incentives, the resurgence in American manufacturing is dr... -
April 22, 2022Modern Machine Shop conducts an annual survey of American machine shops. Of the 356 respondents, the top 20 percent were designated as “top shops” based on their scores for sales per employee, sales per machine, and utilization rates.Surprisingl... -
April 20, 2022The chemical industry is essential to the health of the global economy, influencing many other industries including the textile, automobile, and pharmaceutical industries. Incredibly, the chemical industry affects the production of more than 96%... -
April 18, 2022Industry Week reported in January that American manufacturing continued to expand at a healthy pace and for the 17th consecutive month. The closely watched factory index from the Institute of Supply Management (ISM) increased to 59.7, up from 58... -
April 15, 2022The Broad Applications of Process Maps -
April 13, 2022Who’s looking for some stability in an unstable world? Maybe with a little reliability, clarity, predictability, too? Manufacturers are, especially today, in need of solutions to the vexing supply chain management problems that have changed our... -
April 11, 2022Starting in 2018, the corporate tax rate will be dramatically reduced from 35 percent to 21 percent. Since the new tax law did little to close many loopholes, the effective corporate tax rate will be even lower. Josh Bivens, Director of Research... -
April 9, 2022Smart Manufacturing Much has been written about capturing a digital representation of operations in what is commonly known as Smart Manufacturing. Smart Manufacturing aims to use advanced computer controls and data to provide insights in how to... -
April 6, 2022How do we actually use massive amounts of raw data? Data - it’s everywhere. More than ever. The problem with this ever-expanding array of data is that it’s becoming increasingly overwhelming and difficult for organizations to manage, understand... -
April 4, 2022Process improvement projects have typically been a labor-intensive and imprecise process. Labor-intensive in that capturing the as-designed vs. the actual current-state process required facilitated meetings, interviews, surveys, and analyzing op... -
April 1, 2022The Past - When I started in manufacturing in 1975, we were taught that the only way to know what was going on in operations was to wander around without a set destination – to look for anything that looks out-of-order, and to chat with a variet... -
March 30, 2022Let’s talk about the mass-balance concept of sustainability. There are no two ways about it - the world’s plastic waste problem has increased exponentially over the last several decades, between the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the devastating e... -
March 28, 2022What is Smart manufacturing? Smart manufacturing is the business, technology, infrastructure, and workforce practice of optimizing manufacturing through the use of engineered systems that integrate operational technologies and information techn... -
March 25, 2022Henry Ford revolutionized American industry by standardizing manufacturing with very efficient processes using start-of-the art equipment and with workers enjoying the highest wages of the time. There is a commonly held misconception that the r... -
March 23, 2022When it comes to supply chain challenges, whether it be shipment delays, customs congestions, increased premium freight costs, supply and demand variability, quality issues — a lot can and does go wrong. Recent volatility as a result of the pan... -
March 16, 2022The concept of a “known unknown” has become the reality around today’s global supply chain disruptions, which are set to continue into 2022 and perhaps beyond. Covid-19 has had a massive impact, and now the Ukraine situation is causing further u... -
March 9, 2022Lean or agile, take your pick. It seems like it was always one or the other, but never both. Not anymore. The unpredictability of the Covid years changed the ways that manufacturers approach supply chain management. Where once the focus was on ...
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March 2, 2022Remember dad’s stories about the good old days? Maybe you just finished complaining—then he’d recount how in his day, he and his friends had to walk to school, uphill both ways — in a snowstorm, of course. That’s right. Things used to be more di... -
February 23, 2022If you haven’t been living under a proverbial rock recently, you may have noticed the rapidly increasing pace at which unprecedented change is unfolding in our world today, change that has only hastened and intensified 2 years into a global pand... -
February 21, 2022Doug Lawson, ThinkIQ CEO speaks at the American Food Manufacturing Summit 2021 on "A Journey To Certain Safety: The Future Of Food Supply Chains". Everyone responsible for food & beverage supply chain or any manufacturing optimization should... -
February 16, 2022With the fourth industrial revolution (aka Smart Manufacturing or Industry4.0) well underway, it’s crucial for manufacturers want to stay efficient, competitive and in compliance with industry standards by upgrading to the smartest digital equip... -
February 9, 2022The coming of each new year traditionally brings with it hope for a fresh start, bold resolutions for improvement, and renewed optimism. In the case of 2022, it also brings what the Economist recently referred to as a predictable unpredictabilit... -
February 2, 2022Concerned about profits, supply chains, the environment, or your organization’s public reputation? One surprising way to enhance all those areas is to consider your supply chain, particularly the inefficiencies. Waste not, want not, as the old ... -
January 26, 2022The control tower. This term might call to mind visions of a literal, concrete structure reaching towards the sky - a hub where people man headsets and switchboards, managing the flow of information and executing decisive action to keep processe... -
January 19, 2022Have you ever noticed that complexity is really quite complex? Yet they say simplicity is complexity resolved. It’s really quite simple. Wait, what? Think about feats of strength or athleticism that leave you feeling underwhelmed. The general r... -
January 12, 2022ThinkIQ is starting a fireside chat series with industry experts Greg Ladd, vice president of sales for ThinkIQ, Doug Lawson, Founder and CEO of ThinkIQ and Jake Barr, CEO of World Supply Chain Consulting sharing need to know thoughts for smart ... -
January 5, 2022Marines say “Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome.” And that’s exactly what the world has been doing since COVID-19 really started changing our way of life in early 2020. It’s incredible to think that early on, we spoke in terms of things resuming bac... -
December 29, 2021From all of us at ThinkIQ, we wish you a very happy, healthy and safe holiday season and prosperous New Year -
December 22, 2021Doug Lawson, ThinkIQ CEO speaks at the CESMII Smart Manufacturing Summit 2021 on "How Smart Manufacturing Enables Business Value". Everyone responsible for supply chain and manufacturing optimization should not mee this presentation which can be... -
December 15, 2021They say, “Take no half measures.” Half measures are actions that only achieve part of what they are intended to achieve and are the reason many home improvement projects, famous portraits of presidents, and great novels remain unfinished. And l... -
December 8, 2021Remember when it was cooler to drive a stick shift? We’re kind of old school and still think a manual transmission should be the only way to drive certain exotic vehicles (does Porsche even make a car with an automatic transmission?), but gone a... -
December 1, 2021Remember MS-DOS computers? Show the C prompt to anyone born after 1990, and they’ll probably look at you like you’re wearing a tin foil hat. To execute the simplest of tasks on your computer, you had to know a whole language of commands. It was ...
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November 24, 2021Don’t you hate interruptions? One moment you’re cruising along, the next, you’re dead in the water. Stranded. All momentum lost. That feeling of being in the zone, fully immersed and focused, is sometimes referred to as the flow state. In this w... -
November 22, 2021ThinkIQ CEO and Industry thought leader Doug Lawson spoke at the American Food Manufacturing Summit on Thursday November 14. His topic was "A Journey to Autonomy: The Future of Industrial Supply Chains" and you should check out the recording her... -
November 17, 2021Want to buy a new car? Good luck with that. Interested in picking up a high-end graphics processor for your gaming computer or crypto farm? Fat chance. Hey, let’s just hope toilet paper doesn’t start drying up from store shelves again. As the ho... -
November 10, 2021One of the greatest innovations in all computing this century is the pinch-to-zoom. Twenty years ago, touchscreen gestures were not much of a problem. Most touchscreens — we remember the old digital mall map kiosks back in the 1990s that always ... -
November 3, 2021Modern problems require modern solutions. You wouldn’t have your Tesla Model X serviced by a blacksmith. Nor would you get your Wi-Fi network installed by a an old-timey switchboard operator. It stands to reason, then, that in matters of mitigat... -
October 27, 2021Regulation is a tricky thing. One’s first instinct may be to roll his or her eyes at the thought of having progress stymied in the name of bureaucracy. And it’s true, there can be a lot of frustration in regulatory compliance. On the other hand,... -
October 20, 2021Career success is a funny thing. Typically, you start out in the mail room. Your prime objective is to sort everyone’s mail correctly and deliver it on time. It doesn’t get much more micro than that. The interesting dynamic is that as you achiev... -
October 13, 2021What’s a modern car without an ECU? A pile of parts that won’t move. What’s a computer without a CPU? A blank screen. What’s an HVAC system without a thermostat? Thousands of dollars of equipment that won’t stop cooling or heating once the ideal... -
October 6, 2021Your senses of smell, taste, hearing, touch, and sight serve a greater purpose. They’re not just for breathing in freshly baked bread, swishing a glass of pinot noir, listening to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, squeezing the Charmin, and... -
September 29, 2021Once upon a time, the combustion engine was a threat to everyday life as man knew it. Somewhere, a resentful stagecoach driver shook his fist at the prospect of him and his horses losing their jobs to this newfangled “horseless carriage.” In hin... -
September 22, 2021How do you feel about change? We fear change. Who’d blame you? The pandemic has been either a catalyst or accelerant of boatloads of change over the past two calendar years, including issues extending far beyond the realm of healthcare. It can f...
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September 15, 2021“Trust the process” was the mantra pushed by the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers when they went through a particularly rough patch in the mid 2010s. During a six-year period, the team managed to win only 36 percent of their games, reaching their lowest... -
September 8, 2021Sports and athleticism sometimes have a tenuous relationship. Sure, there are the freak athletes who dominate their sport: Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, and Jim Thorpe come to mind, each two-sport stars. But then there are the players who aren’t ph... -
September 1, 2021You are what you eat. Which for some of us, means we are lasso-toting, cowboy-hat-wearing cream-filled golden sponge cakes. Yee-haw. For others, their body is a temple — everything that goes in must be pure organic brain or muscle fuel grown wit... -
August 25, 2021Where would the human race be without software? The concept was first explored in the 19th century for the Analytical Engine, then later theorized more formally by Alan Turing in the 1930s. The first piece of software was executed in 1948 on the... -
August 18, 2021A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. To be sure, this is a powerful, poignant refrain that is easy to fathom when you imagine said chain is only six, even 12 links long. But what if your chain consists of 50 links? Thousands of links? ... -
August 11, 2021In the 1960s, George Jetson showed us the sexy side of the future. We were promised flying cars that could fold into briefcases and robotic maids (top that, Back to the Future 2!). The joke of the whole thing — the same basic joke they used abou... -
August 4, 2021Aristotle is credited as the first to say, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” In other words, if you have the ingredients you’d use to bake a pie in a pile, it isn’t as meaningful as having the baked pie itself. The value of the f... -
July 28, 2021Humans have been imagining the future in a variety of ways for quite some time now. We’ve dreamed everything up, from flying cars to funky clothes to space travel. Another trope is artificial intelligence (AI). For centuries, we’ve imagined coex... -
July 21, 2021Remember your earliest ambitions? For some it was to be the starting shortstop for the New York Yankees. For others, it was to be the first astronaut to set foot on Mars. Perhaps you wanted to be the prima ballerina for the American Ballet Theat... -
July 14, 2021Every great film series includes a few key elements. Usually, they’re grounded in a great first act: the original movie that got the audience hook, line, and sinker — think Star Wars: A New Hope, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future, The ... -
July 7, 2021We live in an age of immense and often overwhelming information sharing. The internet, social media, and a cacophony of smart devices have democratized the flow of information so that everything from TikTok dances to lifehacks to the fringiest o... -
June 30, 2021We live in a constantly changing world. Most people don’t buy groceries like they did just 10 years ago. We’re more aware of the consequences of the foods we choose to eat, so we shop healthier. We use apps to help us find deals and coupons on t...
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June 23, 2021A revolution wouldn’t be a big deal if it didn’t have long, far-reaching effects. The American Revolution was not only the birth of a superpower, but it signaled the beginning of the downfall of the previous superpower, the British Empire. Revol... -
June 16, 2021Back when America Online CD-ROMs, Netscape Navigator, and the tumultuous buzzing noises of a modem connecting over dial-up were synonymous with the World Wide Web, we were told the promise of the internet would be a great free exchange of inform... -
June 9, 2021At the end of the day, everyone is just trying to live his or her best life. Your best life might be different from someone else’s, which is why some people are driven to Steve Jobs-ian business success, while others are just as happy to play vi... -
June 2, 2021A lot of habits were changed in 2020. When you’re stuck at home, cut off from most human interaction, things start getting weird. It feels like a lifetime ago that we were all anxiously trying to figure out where our next roll of toilet paper wo... -
May 26, 2021Not everything is what it appears to be on the surface. A sports car may have stunning lines and exotic accents, but you’re always going to want to check under the hood and make sure that make/model isn’t known to be parked at the shop all the t... -
May 19, 2021When we think of wars in recent American history, the World Wars come to mind, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War. Each subsequent conflict resulted in fewer and fewer deaths. The logical conclusion must be that the human race is gett... -
May 12, 2021Though we tend to focus in on how much COVID has changed our world, the fact of the matter is, times were already changing. And thank goodness they were because as strenuous as the last year has been on the supply chain, it could have been far w... -
May 5, 2021With COVID-19 vaccine injections hitting stride, many people are beginning to see the light at the end of a very long, very dark tunnel. We begin to fantasize about how soon normalcy can return and how normal that normal will look. Do we dare im... -
April 28, 2021If you Google difficult recipes, Duck Pâté en Croûte pops up. It’s a time-intensive recipe that can take longer than 24 hours to prepare (“a labor of love”). To hit the mark, one must procure special ingredients, concoct a flaky homemade pastry ... -
April 26, 2021Industry 4.0, also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, merges traditional manufacturing processes with smart technology. This marriage of the old and new creates a more streamlined and efficient system — one that's run on data. The world'... -
April 19, 2021It should be no surprise that American Supply Chain Summit 2021 will be a virtual event to accommodate the challenges with social distancing but still provide the world-class access to the latest in supply chain management technologies and best ... -
April 14, 2021I’ve got a great deal for ya. I’ll sell you this high-end laptop for $5. Amazing, right? But the power cord — that’ll cost you $3,000. It’s an old trope, but there’s a lesson to be learned. A product is only as good as the sum of all its parts.... -
April 7, 2021Seeding your lawn isn’t so bad. Basically you clear and prep the soil, spread seed, water, and in good time, you’re mowing and edging beautiful green grass. That is of course assuming yours isn’t the size of the White House lawn. That’s a little... -
March 31, 2021Fridges nowadays have touchscreens. There’s an Instant Pot with WiFi. My porch automatically lights up for 15 minutes when I arrive home after dark. Forget those cute yet mildly terrifying robotic dogs, it’s the small creature comforts of everyd... -
March 24, 2021Change is as inevitable as death and taxes. Change, in fact, is the driver of those two certainties. If changes in health due to age, genes, and environment don’t get you first, a speeding semi might. And the ever-changing nature of vocation, th... -
March 17, 2021Imagine handing a smartphone to a caveman. The leap in technology from fire to 4K video might make his brain explode. But what about someone from more recent times? Imagine showing that same smartphone to an assembly line worker from the early 2... -
March 10, 2021The computer age is incredible. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are making possible what we once only dreamed of in TV shows like The Jetsons and Futurama. But aside from robot maids and galactic space travel, the greatest... -
March 3, 2021In recent times, the general public has gained a heightened awareness of quite a few new topics that no one would have ever anticipated. Certainly, politics have taken a prominent place in many people’s lives in recent years, regardless of your ... -
February 24, 2021Warranty Reserve is a fund maintained by a manufacturing companies to meet warranty expenses. The warranty reserve balance is the balance left after deductions of claim expenses for the year. The accrual rate is usually a fixed percentage of sal... -
February 17, 2021Many companies, including Proctor & Gamble have set goals of zero waste from manufacturing. For P&G, zero waste means zero manufacturing waste is disposed directly to the landfill or sent to incineration without energy recovery by the si... -
February 15, 2021Evolution is quite a thing to ponder. About 85 million years ago, primates diverged from other mammals, after which over a period of about 20 million years and several diverging families, subfamilies, tribes, and genera, the human form we know t... -
February 10, 2021Food waste prevention isn’t just best practice in the supply chain, it’s of growing concern on a national and global level. To wit, Hellmann’s mayonnaise (or Best Foods as it’s known west of the Rockies, and that of Unilever) threw its hat into ... -
February 8, 2021In the United States, food waste is estimated at between 30-40 percent of the food supply. Anytime a material balance calculation is done across a manufacturing plant, for example in food production, it may be a mystery why the “gazintas” do not... -
February 3, 2021We wanted to give you more reasons to come back to thinkiq.com frequently, so we have revamped and relaunched our website. In addition to the latest ThinkIQ offerings for Continuous Intelligence for Manufacturers, contextualizing data — both in-... -
February 1, 2021Remember when we used to buy all our computer software from brick-and-mortar stores? You might have driven to the mall and strolled into an Egghead Software or Software Etc to buy the latest Windows operating system, Microsoft Office, or MacPain... -
January 27, 2021The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the most sweeping reform of our food safety laws in more than 70 years, was signed into law by President Obama on January 4, 2011. FSMA aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus f... -
January 25, 2021It seems that the technology buzz du jour is blockchain. If you believe the hype, then blockchain will literally solve every problem under the sun and even technology problems that haven’t been discovered yet. While blockchain does have a signif... -
January 20, 2021A long time ago, in what feels like a world far, far away, pizza restaurants promised to deliver their pies to customers within 30 minutes or they were on the house. By the 28th, 29th minute, the suspense was unbearable. Will they show up on tim... -
January 18, 2021Statistics show that recalls are a real threat to doing business. A food recall is when a food producer takes a product off the market because there is reason to believe that it may cause consumers to become ill. In 2019, the USDA recalled over ... -
January 13, 2021Big data is revolutionizing industries from healthcare to finance, and food manufacturing is no exception. In fact, the food and beverage industry might be one to gain the most, thanks to the arrival of material flow analytics, an advancement th...