Here are a couple of online, low-cost collaborative tools for you to use with clients or colleagues. These may not be the most secure or elegant solutions, but for personal use to support your work, you may want to check these out:

• ADrive - ADrive offers up to 50GB of storage space for your documents and files. While it's touted as an online backup for your hard drive, you can share your files with anyone. Adrive is free after you create an account.
• Tweetcube - Do you Twitter? Many are flocking to the real time networking site. Tweetcube allows you to share files of up to 10MB in size through your Twitter account, and deletes them after 30 days. Tweetcube is also free with registration.
• SnapYap - OK, the name may sound odd, but Yahoo was already taken, OK? SnapYap is simple: plug in the e-mail address of anyone you want to video conference with, they're notified to meet you online, and you're squawking together in no time. Absolutely free.

Shout out: Robin Good.

I'm an unapologetic Doug Hall fan. For just one reason why, check out this previous MFGx post.

I'm also a fan because he's a creative inventor, honest to a fault, rabidly passionate about manufacturing, and he is anything but afraid to get in your grill and challenge a concept until it's proven correct - or not.

His latest invention - Planet Eureka (named after his famous Eureka Ranch in Ohio) - is an "innovation marketplace" that's less original in its concept, but more so in its approach.



Most innovation marketplaces connect companies or organizations looking for creative solutions with those that can provide them - scientists, engineers, and other technologists and professionals. Here, it takes two to tango in a common formula - "seekers" looking for "providers."

But the Planet Eureka (PE) model is different in that "Providers" (inventors, companies, and entrepreneurs) post their solutions and the "Seekers" engage based on their needs.

What's so cool about the PE model is it looks to protect the provider in the process via Access, Translation and Valuation.

Like its other innovation brethren, PE offers access to inventors or companies - they ALL do that, pretty much. But PE also provides translation of inventors' ideas into language that businesses can easily understand. PE also provides advanced valuation services that help both parties realize the solution's commercial potential.

For any manufacturer with advanced capabilities or processes, this model and its counterparts offer opportunity and inspiration.

Leave it to Doug Hall to turn the tables and shake things up.

Other Innovation Marketplaces:

• InnoCentive
• Innovation Exchange
• NineSigma

Props: Innovation Marketplace Helps People With Good Ideas Find Problems from Marianne Kolbasuk McGee @ Information Week

The confluence of the virtual world on linear manufacturing continues to point us toward great rewards, and great uncertainty.

Recently, we've presented some interesting (and very real) influences that are gonna change the manufacturing supply chains and marketing channels as we know them (see here, here and here).

Another case in point: Double Happiness Jeans (DHJ), a "telematic manufacturing" business (as they call it) housed on and run through the virtual world Second Life.

The New York Times covered the Double Happiness debut at the Sundance Festival earlier this year. Here's the NYT's description of what DHJ does:

Stephanie Rothenberg, a new media performance artist, and her collaborator, Jeff Crouse, a digital artist and programmer, started Invisible Threads (parent "company" of DHJ) a year ago while at Eyebeam, an art and technology center in New York. Invisible Threads is intended as art, but they see it as a window into so-called telemetric manufacturing methods of the future.
The jeans are being shown and sold for the first time at Sundance, in a beta version. Customers tell the Invisible Threads staff the size and style of jean they would like, the instructions are sent to the virtual factory inside Second Life, where workers push buttons that generate an image. From that image, a pattern is created and sent to an industrial printer, made by Hewlett-Packard, which spits out the custom-printed canvas cotton patterns. The patterns are then cut and assembled on the spot (at a Sundance Festival venue, that is) with a glue gun and a little stitching for reinforcement. They cost around $35.
The margins are pretty good. The Invisible Threads "factory" has sixteen workers, who are paid 200 Lindens an hour (Lindens are the currency of Second Life) - about 90 cents, which is pretty good pay by Second Life standards. Factory workers are also granted 500 square meters of Second Life "land" on which to build a house.
(+There are many photos of the entire process at the DHJ Web site.+)

While there are real people behind the sales and operations of DHJ, technologies are leveraged to truncate those processes - as well as the actual design and manufacturing of the product - in ways that turn the supply chain and customer experience on its collective ears.

Imagine your own company's interactions with prospects and customers, and how these relationships will change as Second Life, avatar marketing, 3D printing, and on-demand manufacturing principles make their way into the manufacturing mainstream.

Now, imagine your own relationships with your suppliers. What demands will you make of them when you know order time, design processes and costs can be greatly reduced through these technologies? Will you accept the status quo?

This change will come neither with a bang nor a whimper. It never does with manufacturers - most of us, anyway. The signs will all be there, and when they are forced on us we'll act as though we never saw it coming.

Pay attention. Listen to your kids and the smart, energetic youth whose talents we'll need as manufacturers to take advantage of these emerging markets and evolving channels for doing business.

Ignoring the virtual future may come back to bite you in the actual behind.

For more on businesses that market, communicate and manufacture on Second Life, visit The Business Communicators of Second Life.

Videos presented on machining and manufacturing Web sites vary wildly in both quantity and quality. Don't believe me? Take a trip around the Manufacturing Web and tell me what you find.

Granted, some are pretty good (mostly on capital equipment manufacturers' or other big boys' sites). But the vast majority of what little you can find shouldn't be.

A big part of the problem is MIP (Manufacturer's Internet Phobia). This is a condition that afflicts many managers, presidents and owners of small to mid-sized shops and plants that are on the cusp between their kids that can setup a LAN with their eyes closed and their parents who still marvel at the first time they saw the Smothers Brothers on color TV.

Videos can be incredibly valuable in presenting your value as a technology and service partner. They can also go a long way in differentiating you from your competition.

But the question for MIP sufferers is: How do I create and manage videos efficiently and do my business justice?
Answer: Have you thought about YouTube?

Obviously, many manufacturers haven't. Check out these search results from YouTube a few days ago (keyword/phrase – results):

• Machining – 174,600 (looks impressive until you start finding Jimi Hendrix "Machine Gun" and Rage Against The Machine clips on the 3rd SERP
• High Speed Machining - 100 (much cleaner results, but c'mon – 100?!?!)
• Gear Hobbing - 8 (including a House Of Blues reference)
• Machining - 122 (not as bad as you'd think, but just know there aren't a lot of Davenport references)

YouTube isn't the place where your customers are going on their own to research in ways meaningful to you. There's too much "space junk" to make it a valuable research channel for your prospects.

Instead of producing and hosting your own videos on your site or posting random videos on YouTube hoping they're found in the haystack, consider creating a Channel on YouTube.

It's easy to create (create an account on the YouTube home page) and your profile page is your Channel. Give it your company name, and start uploading videos of the processes you're best at. As your collection grows, link to it/them from your own Web site – both as a collection (click here for videos) and individually (click here to see this turbine blade machined).

Following this advice is free, effective (by linking to it from your site, you increase the value by sending prospects to videos in context to their research) and it's easy (no hosting or other technical requirements).

Related Link: Joining the YouTube Community – And Creating Your Own Channel

MFGx offers manufacturers the chance to Buy & Sell equipment, tools, materials and more. Whether you're looking to clear out that shop floor or looking to pick up a great deal, you can post or browse MFGx anytime throughout the New Year.

Check out the following categories:

• Machines
• Tooling
• Raw Materials
• Inspection Tools

A friend of mine and I were talking recently about the state of the education system in the U.S. We focused on the real problems with the public schools and - with laser-like efficiency - concluded that there's only one thing to do about it.

Nothing.

It's easy, we figured, to blame the education system itself. So close to the problem, and so easy. Politicians have the perfect scapegoat, and the proletariat scarfs it up Pall Mall.

But the problem isn't the school system's or the Department of Education's so much as it's a cultural problem.

Think about it - the culture parents (or lack thereof), street, cred, peers, and media - all add up to a potpourri of posturing and quick-fixes, that feeds students into the system that are looking for the "wow" as opposed to the "how."

OK, I know what this sounds like - another old curmudgeon looking for an axe to grind. Maybe I'm guilty, but we (my friend and I) have a point.

So, maybe that's the real cause of the lack of qualified, quality employees in manufacturing these days. Time after time, I hear manufacturers complain about that more than anything (except for maybe China and the U.S. government). And the question always is, "why don't they do something?"

The answer is, we opined, that "they" can't - "we" have to. If parents and our culture - and, yes, our education system, too - doesn't put more of a premium on the importance of the "how," we may wanna just pack it in.

In the future of manufacturing, regardless of how automated manufacturing becomes, design will become that much more important. And that requires just as much "shop smarts" as anyone running a Davenport or setting up a Hitachi Seiki needs today.

No association, no department, no institution or "system" can be responsible for what it gets. To expect them to churn out people different than it receives is impractical and just plain naïve.

Sure, provide more options for students that aren't suited for college. Give them the channels to express their talents - more "trade schools," for example. And update the curricula to modern, realistic standards.

But "they" ain't gonna make a silk purse from a sow's ear.

For what it's worth, my friend and I think the culture has to take responsibility, too.

Let me tell you about a new product (new to me, at least) that offers many small-to-medium sized manufacturers a fantastic opportunity to market themselves more effectively.

Mitch Free, CEO/Founder of MFG.com, loves his gizmos. If there was a stronger word than love, I'd use it and not be exaggerating. When Mitch gets a hold on any new tech-toy, he's done. Imagine the excitement of kid on Christmas morning, mixed with the concentration of a neurosurgeon - that's Mitch in that zone. He just absorbs these things.

So, Mitch stops by yesterday with the latest object of his affection, the Flip. It's a point-and-shoot, stupid-simple-to-use video camera. About the size of a cell phone. Brilliant user experience. Looks really cool. Records up to 60 minutes of video/audio. Its name comes from the USB plug that "flips" out of its side. Plugs right into your computer, or any USB-enabled device.

Mitch made a 10-second clip of me. Plugged the Flip into his laptop, D&D'd the file, and played it. I was astonished at the quality of the video and audio.

Pure Digital, the company that makes the Flip, has been around for a few years. They introduced the Flip in May of '07. It sells for $149 - $179 on its Web site. I found a top-end Flip for $149 on Amazon.

The importance of this product to manufacturers is this:

Many manufacturers either don't have the time, resources or ability to create quality video of their processes, capabilities and products to complement their Web presence. Or enable their sales or support staffs in the field to share videos. The Flip heralds a moment in technology when you can record effectively and efficiently and share or post those videos easily - regardless of how comfortable you are with the medium.

Record processes or facilities or interviews with a Flip, post videos to a channel on YouTube, link to them from your site. Simple, quick, and all for less than the cost of a weekend at a Holiday Inn.

We recently wrote about CSR and its ultimate importance you manufacturers at every level.

A few days back, the CSR Supply Chain Summit was held in Shanghai. The event is compelling enough, what with the recent PR (2007) on China products.

But the companies that presented their CSR strategies in Shanghai are the story here. These companies are serious. And their commitment is focused to help their supplier base reduce the damage that PR has done to their (and other) brands.

Bayer Healthcare. Nestle. Eaton. These are not just companies that can talk CSR - these are companies with skin in the game.

Check out the notes from the CSR event in China. Look for what qualities and strategies equate well with your business.

Now's the time to embrace this movement, not later.

File this under Friday fun time:

Want to see where your site ranks on the search engines? Get a sense of how many backlinks there are to your site? Then you need to visit:

Xinu Returns

Just plug in your URL (or any URL) and you're on your way.

Couple of drawbacks: It's a Spanish site, so checking your indexed pages on Google takes you to google.es (it's easy to switch, but still ...) and some of the search engines register only sporadically.

But Xinu does a cool job of validating coding on your site, and it actually grades your URL and title, keywords, and description code for effectiveness.

Nothing's perfect, but this is a great idea, fairly well executed.

Shout Out: Thanks to Peter08, an MFGx community daddy-o, for the tip.

In "Impatience Is A Virtue," we reported on a survey conducted recently in Europe that shows the vast majority of people that submit requests to a company online expect an answer in 24 hours or less.

Your customers are no different. As a matter of fact, it's not unreasonable to surmise that they are even more impatient than that - likely a LOT more.

Think about it - the referenced survey was conducted across a collection that included a lot of consumers. While they are likely very anxious to get information on a book, corkscrew or gift, their sense of urgency can't possibly approach the significance of a manufacturer approaching a deadline. Or a crisis.

Assign someone in your company to frequently check your Web site's e-mail account for incoming requests.

When a request is found, make a call right away to let the prospect or customer know you got the message. Get them the answers they need for their questions or concerns. Be diligent.

When an event - a job, an award, a project - from a fresh prospect doesn't go your way, contact the prospect and keep the conversation going. Many times a selected supplier doesn't work out for a buyer, and they have to fall back to other sources. Maintaining that dialogue that originated online can lead to other work outside of the original contact. Use that contact to your advantage, and don't give up if the first response you get is a negative. As clichéd as it sounds, it's an opportunity.

And here's another tip: Don't be afraid to communicate with your customers when you have nothing to say. Sometimes an unsolicited call (just to ask if there's something they need) can forestall an issue before it gets out of hand. Or, at the worst, keep the lines of communications open.

Bottom Line: Manufacturers are often not good communicators. Work at improving and continuing the dialogue with prospects and customers you engage online (or that engage you).

Check out this YouTube video of Jeff Hollander, CEO of Hollander Home Fashions, a $300-million (USD) textile manufacturing company that has globalized, unionized, and managed to maintain a balance between manufacturing in the US and China. His take is important for anyone in the global value chain.