Here's an interesting online collaboration tool that can help manufacturing SMBs, workgroups and displaced teams come to consensus around elements of a project.

Zapproved allows anyone - at no cost - to submit a proposal or proposed project/product to any person or group with an email address. Of course, attachments can be added to any proposal. The proposal package can then be sent within the email with two buttons - one to approve, one to deny. All votes, their sources and any comments from the group are tracked and shared, allowing for strong record keeping and approval cycle management.

Since Zapproved is a SaaS (software as a service, and Web-based), there's no software to install. And your projects and proposals - along with all data around the approval cycle - are maintained and retrievable for later review.

This simple tool can help technical groups build consensus, keep projects moving, and it brings transparency to all team members involved in a decision process.

It's not too hard to imagine how Zapproved can assist manufacturers manage their supply chains by gaining documented approval and consensus on design or process changes, as well.

A unique approach to collaboration, Zapproved is worth a visit if your team could use a little control.

Clavardon (www.clavardon.com) is an online tool that allows you to invite others to co-browse any Web site with you and chat live with everyone in the process. As you surf a site, others can see what you're looking at, what you're pointing at and any text or item you want to highlight.

According to Clavardon, the utility was created to help e-commerce businesses and sales staffs to demo their sites to prospects. It certainly does that.

But SMB manufacturers can use it to their advantage as well. For example:

• Review your own Web site with offsite resources to develop or refine.
• Review and collaborate on any item - drawings, plans, or projects - that you've uploaded to the Web beforehand.
• Review documentation and information with customers or prospects.

But for the convenience and usability, this is a hard utility to beat - especially for the cost.

Hat Tip: Robin Good

I recently wrote about why manufacturers (and businesses, for the most part) don't blog.

I stumbled on and article this morning titled "12 Common Blogging Mistakes To Avoid" that gives some pretty good advice on do's and don'ts for the beginning bloggist.

Of course, that's you - if you want to be. Just register on MFGx, and you get your own blog for the manufacturing world to see.

1. Thinking (more) people will actually read (a) post [they won't)
2. Using full paragraph format (be brief)
3. Not using or numbering lists (see previous)
4. Trying to sell something in a blog post (the more commercial you are, the less credibility you earn)
5. Not including facts (support your findings)
6. Using improper titles (don't get cute - say what it's about)
7. Writing for pHds (keep it simple, when you can ... tough for manufacturers sometimes - it's the nature of the beast)
8. Making the post too long (again, be brief)
9. Repackaging existing information (and be sure to give proper credit)
10. No use of headings and subheadings
11. Highlight or bold important terms and concepts (helps readers scan - perfect for the Web)
12. Not using supporting images (a picture's worth a 1000 posts)

Regardless of your relationship with Autodesk, you should give their online community a bookmark.

If you're into design, grab a belt loop and hang on.

The Autodesk Manufacturing Community isn't JUST about Autodesk product (although you'll certainly get that in spades). You'll find a remarkable collection of manufacturing resources there. To whit:

• 3D Content Sharing - Download 3D models from supplier partners and peers in the community - why reinvent the well, no?
• Forums - Sure, they're related specifically to Autodesk product, but we're talking a collection of experts that can crowdsource many design issues - this is a great resource and worth the time to join.
• Blogs - Again, while these are Autodesk-focused, they provide an extraordinary wellspring of manufacturing mojo and insight to any engineering or manufacturing design professional.

No one that I know of has done more over the years to help define what a Web site should say than Jakob Nielsen of www.useit.com.

He is direct, knowledgeable, and almost always right. His message for Web site language and content has been consistent, and extraordinarily useful for manufacturers.

The latest post on the subject comes from his Alertbox newsletter. Writing Style for Print vs. Web follows Jakob's mantra that prospects are in a different condition when they visit your Web site, compared to when they encounter a brochure or other printed media.

I've always described the distinction like this:

Printed media introduces prospects to things they didn't know they needed. The Web introduces prospects to things they already know they need, but aren't sure where to find them.

• Be Succinct! (Writing for the Web)
• The 3Cs of Critical Web Use: Collect, Compare, Choose
• Deep Linking is Good Linking
• Information Pollution
• Use Old Words When Writing for Findability
• Blah-Blah Text: Keep, Cut, or Kill?
• Low-End Media for User Empowerment

Awhile back, we wrote about Google Sites, a platform from the Googleplex that allows manufacturers to create whole Web sites with social/2.0 features easily.

Here's another toolkit from Google Labs that manufacturing SMBs will want to watch: Google Pages.

Like Google Sites, Google Pages is a WYSIWYG html editor. Here's what we get:

• No technical knowledge required. Build high-quality web pages without having to learn HTML or use complex software.
• What you see is what you'll get. Edit your pages right in your browser, seeing exactly how your finished product will look every step along the way.
• Don't worry about hosting. Your web pages will live on your own site at http://yoursitename.googlepages.com.

Finding information about supply chain management isn't a big deal these days. And although finding information about how to function within or around any supply chain is a little more difficult, it's a whole lot better than it used to be.

But finding the right supply chain info at the time you need it is still a daunting task. I mean, every business by its own nature brings unique requirements to a supply chain party. Add to that regional/global, industry, technical and specific customer requirements, and answers become more complex and hard to find.

There are universities that have taken the initiative to develop supply chain programs and networks in conjunction with government and industry. These resources can help greatly with establishing processes and efficiencies for your business, and redefining its place in supply chains.

• The MIT Global SCALE Network - You may have heard of MIT's Center for Transportation and Logistics - it's one of the most prestigious think tanks for supply chain in the world. MIT's recently established SCALE (Supply Chain and Logistics Excellence) Network is part of the CTL and it intends to connect companies, academia and governments from around the world to "pool their expertise and collaborate on projects that will create supply chain and logistics innovations with global applications." The network currently has partnerships in the U.S., Europe and South America. They are in the process of launching partners in Asia and Africa. Think of the network as "crowdsourcing" for the supply chain.
• Georgia Tech's Supply Chain and Logistics Institute - The SCLI has been around for over 60 years. It has developed an impressive global network of industry and academic partners serving several supply chain verticals - overall strategies, manufacturing logistics, warehousing & distribution, and more.

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