 Sustainability is here for the long haul.
Blog by Randy Bertram, WMEP Director of Sustainable Services
The Wisconsin Profitable Sustainability Initiative (PSI) enters its fourth year of service to Wisconsin manufacturers this month. When PSI was launched in 2010, less than 30% of Wisconsin manufacturers identified with sustainability. Today that number is approaching 80%.
The turnaround in the perception of sustainability is largely attributable to a reframing of the issue. Manufacturers no longer view sustainability as a threat; they recognize it as complimentary to efforts to improve business performance, reduce risk, spur innovation, and attract and retain employees and customers. |
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Leaders share their continuous improvement stories
 blog post by Rich Rovito
Continuous improvement must involve a fundamental change of a company's overall business philosophy in order to be effective.
Getting employees to buy into continuous improvement can lead to an array of benefits, but often comes with numerous challenges because, let's face it, many of us tend to be resistant to change.
A trio of presenters tackled the issue of continuous improvement at the recent Manufacturing Matters! Conference held at the Hyatt Hotel in Milwaukee. They shared their stories during a sold-out conference break-out session. Each company was at a different point in implementing continuous improvement initiatives, making for an informative session for the crowd of 100-plus people attending the session.
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The world is changing and that means opportunity for Wisconsin manufacturers by Roxanne Baumann, WMEP Director of Global Enagement
For years, Wisconsin manufacturers could serve local, regional or U.S. markets and earn a solid profit. We could count on Midwest stability and doing business on a handshake with people we knew, who looked like us and talked like us.
But something's changing, making that solid profitability from domestic business alone not so easy in 2013. In fact, domestic growth is hard to come by these days. We feel the domestic market shrinking and the competitive pressures squeezing our profits. What is happening? Is it the economy? Will we return to those profit levels of five years ago again? Or is something else going on here?
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