In the MFGx tradition of bringing you only the best in online, affordable collaboration tools that make sense for manufacturing SMBs, check this bad boy out:

Teamness is a free collaboration suite with a surprising number of features.

According to the Teamness site, it provides:

"... tasks, milestones, messages, file sharing, whiteboards with versions, overview of all recent activity, a powerfull search engine, groups to keep your data organized, notifications and RSS to help you stay up to date with any changes ..."

No, that's not how long it feels like listening to Boeing moan over losing the KC-X tanker contract (although no one would blame you for thinking that).

2 Million Minutes is the title of a new documentary, named for the approximate amount of time a student spends in high school. The push of the film is twofold: to compare those 2 million minutes from the perspectives of students in the U.S., China and India; and to exclaim loudly that the U.S. education system is broken - that it is incapable of generating the amount of engineers, scientists and technologists the U.S. economy requires to compete and thrive in the global bouillabaisse.

Check out the trailer for a great introduction.

Now, anyone would have to be a fool or asleep not to agree - at least partly - with this premise. The clues are all around us. Recently, Bill Gates testified before the U.S. Congress on the need for increased funding for math and science education and revised immigration regulations for the U.S. to maintain its competitive edge.

I acknowledge that our education system is flawed. Our curricula and techniques are outdated, and we're slow to adjust. Students in countries that 20 years ago couldn't hold our abacus are catching up to us at an alarming rate.

But you know what? I don't buy it - at least, not the fact that the education system is solely to blame for this malaise. It's like saying guns kill people. Yes, they do. But a lot of things lead up to a killing, outside of - and just as important as - the action itself, or instrument used.

Look at manufacturing in the U.S. If you're reading this, odds are you're intimately familiar at how difficult it becomes every year to find talent for the shop floor. You know that it's not just the system that is failing us.

It's the culture, too. Mostly.

Fact is, the attraction isn't there. Fewer students are ENTERING school to become chemists, engineers, and computer scientists. Manufacturing is seen as a path best suited for mouth-breathing Luddites out of step with the times and technology. More now see the road to success paved with abstracts, leisure and bling. Our culture places less emphasis on space programs or smallpox vaccines. Parents, families, peers, media, government and, yes, our education system are ALL a bit out of whack.

2 Million Minutes is an important film, with an important message. Heading its warnings can do nothing but help us regain our competitive edge.

But we must acknowledge that the 2 million minutes BEFORE these 2 million minutes are just as important to this cause. Otherwise, we're whistling in the dark.

Like the whole of manufacturing, the supply chain is suffering from a serious lack of talent – so says a recent survey and report titled “ Supply Chain Talent: State of the Discipline” from AMR Research.

It suggests a confluence of factors that have contributed to this malaise: fragmented definitions of what the supply chain is and does, a lack of corporate standards to train and establish expectations for supply chain professionals, and – shockingly – an insufficient response from academia, in general.

Specifically, the report pinpoints 5 areas of concern:

• No two supply chains are alike. Very few companies define the supply chain in the same way. Of the supply chain leaders with which we spoke, almost all had different spans of control. This contributes significantly to a lack of clear priorities for standards and for consistent curriculum development at universities.


• Leaders view supply chain management as a business discipline. Overall, supply chain management is still very engineering centric. Few companies include manufacturing and new product development within the definition and span of control of supply chain, which is a differentiator among leading companies. The dearth of companies with this view also makes clarity of priorities a challenge.


• Globalization has created urgency. A general flattening and global broadening of supply chain organizations has boosted the need for a more extensive set of complex skills and competencies within company ranks. In addition, a trend toward a more centralized supply chain structure has heightened the need for broader skill sets and faster ramp-up time.


• A common supply chain talent model is the foundation for improvement. For supply chain management professional development to evolve into a more universal body of capabilities, industries and academia need to adopt a shared, modern, comprehensive model that incorporates the growing depth and scope of the discipline. To this end, AMR Research has developed and tested a model through this research.


• Universities have an opportunity to take a leadership role. Schools can lead the way in providing more universal supply chain management skill sets. Truly comprehensive programs, covering the full talent attribute model, would gain strong support from the industry. This partnership model, with industry providing access for students to gain real-world experience, is a starting point for reducing the talent gap.

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.

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.

An earlier post on MFGx titled "Is China's Shift From LCC Status Beginning?" commented on China's shifting prospects as a preferred Low Cost Country for manufacturing.

The survey/report from Booz Allen Hamilton is now online and can be downloaded here:

http://www.boozallen.com/media/file/Chinas_Shifting_Competitive_Equation.pdf

The full report offers some interesting points that the initial reviews didn't mention. For example, many companies see China as valuable not just as a manufacturing base, but because they covet an emerging middle class in a market of 1.3-billion people.

Hat tip: Thanks, Bertrand. You're the man.

Last week, we passed along word that China is considering - among other actions - shutting down large portions of manufacturing to "green up" before, during and after the games.

Along with our sources on the ground in Shanghai, Richard over at All Roads Lead To China has been on the case in regard to those issues that could impact manufacturers in all roles of the supply chain.

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The talk is heating up, and it's hard to determine exactly what will be done where, and when it's gonna go down. And while talk of pollution has been around since Beijing won the 2008 Olympiad competition, consider these reports from the past few months as evidence that swift, aggressive action is on the horizon:

• East China Province Gives Ultimatum to Polluters Before Olympics - Richard at ARLTC has posted another update, this time looking into reports that 132 plants in Shandong Province (near Beijing) have been warned to comply with pollution regulations by 06/30/08 or be shut down.
• Beijing Petrol Stations Face Olympic Shutdown - ABC News Australia reported in February that the capital would shut down 10% of its gas stations, and fit the rest with special nozzles to reduce vapor emissions. Our sources tell MFGx that there has been more recent talk of using an even-odd system for vehicles for this time frame (e.g., cars with odd numbered plates drive on odd days, even on even days).
• China's Looming Olympics Disaster - Jim Jubak at MSN Money reported in March of the potential "perfect storm" - water and food shortages to support the games, the affects of pollution on atheletes, and - yes - the forced shutdown of industries its impact on the Chinese economy. (Oddly, not much is mentioned about potential Draconian measures' impact on the world economy.)
• China's Smog Shutdown - This article, published by the Chinese government on 02/28/08, is as informative for what is DOESN'T say about plant closings. No real details are given, which means as of March 1st, Beijing was (is?) leaving their options open.