In honor of World Book Day, Twitter hosted a curated collection of beautiful photo images of libraries around the world. These architectural gems are inspirational examples of design, paying homage to the written word even in the midst of the Digital Age. If you look...
Look Back to Move Forward: The Year in Review
Continuous improvement – it’s a principle of Kaizen, or lean management, which encourages constant incremental advancements and uses past performance to suggest changes for future improvements. The coming new year is always a good time to reflect on the previous...
Risk-Averse Retailers Gamble Safely on JIT
The just-in-time (JIT) inventory strategy has been the darling of manufacturers, distributors, and retailers for 20+ years. But there’s an inherent danger for retailers who use JIT. JIT is at the heart of the nimble business model, allowing businesses to be flexible...
A Different Kind of Overhead
Square footage is ever more precious as our urban areas grow ever more crowded. Cities with naturally occuring geographical restrictions – San Francisco, Hong Kong, New York (Manhattan) – learned long ago that when you can’t go out, you have to go up. Land is too...
Anticipating Change? Get Proactive with Your Facility
In general, we all crave stability. Change is as unwelcome in our work life as it is in our personal life. But change is inevitable. No one knows this better than facilities managers who deal with constant change. Whether you’re managing the seasonal changes at a...
A Tax Deduction To Give Thanks For – The Sec. 179 Rule
It happens every year around this time – the season for end-of-year tax deductions. The Section 179 tax rule gives businesses an opportunity to write off as much as $500,000 in new and used equipment costs. Equipment or software purchased and put into service by...
The Titanium Librarian
The classic idea of a librarian – a pedantic person who is always shushing people – is giving way to a high-tech version that isn’t perturbed by chatty patrons. By combining high density storage systems with robotic storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), large...
The “Always-On” Supply Chain – Are You Ready?
Economists and logistics pundits are hailing the advent of the “always-on” supply chain – one in which information is as valuable as goods. From drones to the Internet of Things, smart technology is changing the supply chain landscape. A recent report from MHI, the...
The Remarkable Future of the Supply Chain
Drones, 3D printing – the past few years have seen innovations that could prove highly disruptive to the traditional supply chain. Lora Cecere, CEO of Supply Chain Insights, serves up her predictions for the 2030 supply chain in this post. The highlights include:...
Your Gift from the IRS: The Equipment Purchase Deduction
As the song says, “It’s that time of year,” time to take advantage of Section 179, the tax rule that allows you to deduct the full purchase price of business equipment, up to $25,000. New equipment put into service before December 31st can be deducted from your...