Flexible lead times balance speed and cost in metal fabrication

www.thefabricator.com: We at OSH Cut have always focused on speed. We quote instantly, and our standard lead times are usually just two to three business days, with options for same-day production. Still, rapid turnaround is expensive. While we’ve been able to keep prices reasonable and fair, default fast service makes it more challenging to serve cost-sensitive customers. As I write this, we’re tackling this challenge head on.

Your Project Is A Promise!

www.signshop.com: So, let’s start at the beginning: what should you look for in a project management system? While no system can do everything, it’s crucial to cover the basics and make sure you’re purchasing a system that will help you scale. Your needs will also depend on the type of signs you produce and how you operate. For example, the requirements of a full-blown custom fabrication facility are very different from those of a sign broker or a vehicle wrap shop.

Trello is redesigning its project management platform for a remote work future

The Verge: Productivity app Trello, a virtual whiteboard-style platform for organizing and managing projects, is announcing a major redesign today in addition to new features for helping businesses manage third-party integrations. The platform is getting a visual overhaul, both to its logo and the illustrations it deploys across its website and apps. It’s also getting multiple new ways to both customize cards and view your workload beyond the core whiteboard column view.

2021 Sci-tech Oscars

fxguide: The Academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards honor those whose discoveries and innovations have contributed in significant and lasting ways to filmmaking. This year’s ceremony recognizes 55 individuals and two companies for their contributions to a wide range of fields and disciplines. Each year there are types of scientific innovations that are acknowledged and this year a well-deserving group has been chosen, modern production management tools.

Restarting Your Pandemic-Delayed Project With the Critical Path in Mind

2020-04-03 | Engineering News-Record: I know a lot of project managers are trying to keep working safely while others are shut down for safety and health reasons during the pandemic. There’s something else to consider when weighing what to do at the construction jobsite, especially if you think it through like a planner. Forging ahead with non-critical activity won’t help finish on time and may even contribute to layoffs or cost overruns without advancing the project.

7 Essential Strategies to Create Quality Projects Under Tight Deadlines

ALC Training News: Successful project management require you to manage numerous moving parts. Add to the mix strict deadlines and you’ll have little room to make mistakes. With a detailed project plan and smart project management tools however, you can achieve your project goals and fulfil the required quality standards.

Best Project Management Tools for Event Planners

Endless Events: There’s not one perfect tool for every event. Depending on your needs, budget, and event size, you might find that one program works better than others. To cover your bases, here are 11 of the best options for event planners. These cover everything from general task management tools to programs with specific event planning functionality. Experiment with these programs until you find one that meets your needs.

Dropbox’s new software extensions let you easily edit files on the web

The Verge: Dropbox has a new feature it hopes will make getting work done from within its cloud storage product even easier. Called Extensions, these third-party software plug-ins will let you perform basic tasks you’d normally need to launch a separate app or in-browser window for all within Dropbox on the web.

Managing Projects on Asana; Mobile vs. Web Experience

AMT Lab @ CMU: Founded in 2008 and launched publicly in 2011, Asana is a website and mobile application that gives users a single medium to create, view, and collaborate on tasks and projects. Asana allows users to designate tasks to team members, provide real-time status updates, create a timelines or calendars for project goals, and form group chats for messaging team members.

7 top project management methodologies: Which is best?

monday.com/blog: Kanban, PMBOK, Scrumban…no, these aren’t the names of villains in the newest Star Wars movie, but are rather some of the world’s top project management methodologies.

We’re not fans of clunky project management tools. Many of these products treat people as a resource, a byproduct, or a secondary consideration that gets lost in a web of hierarchies, dependencies, and endless subtasks. That’s a grave mistake—you don’t manage projects; you only ever manage people.

Five Structures for Helping Students Learn Project Management

John Spencer: If we want students to think like artists, entrepreneurs, and engineers, they need the chance to design real projects. But this also requires students to learn how to engage in project management.

Two Things That Can Help Keep Your Projects on Schedule

Remodeling | Operations, Planning: Projects that get behind schedule eat into your company's profit and upset clients. To avoid these pains and help keep projects on schedule, remodelers can use Gantt charts and pre-job conferences, consultant Michael Stone advises.

The Challenges of Shipping From China – Life of a Flailing Tube Man

Hackaday: Last summer was an exercise in developing a completely different kind of product from my normal wheelhouse; a costume. My Halloween costume had been so popular that I decided to have a go at commercializing it, and that took me on a path into manufacturing that I hadn’t yet taken; shipping by boat from China. The short version is it’s a ridiculously difficult mess.

5 Must Know Tips To Be A Better Project Manager

The PM Coach: In today’s world, the role of a project manager is much more than simply overseeing the occasional project. Between defining and communicating project objectives to your team, procuring the information and materials to complete the project, assigning tasks, and managing the constraints of the project, there is very little (if any) of the job that the project manager is not responsible for.

How to Use PivotTables to Analyze Your Excel Data

business.tutsplus.com: The problem we all face is that we have mountains of data and need a way to digest it. We're all looking for a way to make sense out of large sets of data and find out what the data indicates about the situation at hand.

Excel's PivotTable feature is a drag and drop analysis tool. Point Excel to tables of data in your spreadsheet, and slice your data until you find an answer to your question. Most importantly, it's an easy-to-use tool right inside of Excel where your data might already live.

6 Reasons to Use Gantt Chart

Project Management Software ZilicusPM: It is true that we are hearing a lot about agile project management, agile methodology of project delivery. But there are advantages Gantt chart has to offer for those follow traditional way of planning and delivering projects. Thousands of companies and millions of users use, refer Gantt chart to plan project schedule better, be more productive, provide better clarity of project delivery and improve communication.

How to manage projects like an actual project manager

Atlassian Blog: So. You have to manage a project, and you’re not a project manager by trade.

I’ve been there. It’s pretty daunting, with all these different frameworks and methodologies to consider… But if you’re like me, you don’t really care about methodology. You just want to deliver your project successfully, and not lose your mind in the process.

What's On Your Phone, Desi Gonzalez?

AMT Lab @ CMU: Desi Gonzalez is the Digital Engagement Manager at the Andy Warhol Museum, where she writes about and researches the intersection of art and technology. Before her position at the Warhol, Desi designed technology for educational purposes at La Victoria Lab in Peru, developed interpretive experiences at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and managed a children’s website for the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her writing has been featured in publications including Art in America, Art Papers, Indiewire, and The Brooklyn Rail.

10 skills you need to become a great project manager

TechRepublic: Project managers must exhibit a broad range of talents to bring teams together and help organizations reach goals. This often comes down to great collaboration and people skills, said Marty Brodbeck, chief technology officer of Shutterstock. "The skills to be an effective project manager are universal in nature for everyone across all industries," Brodbeck added. "They are skills that can—and should—be worked on and developed in various ways across your career."

Why You'll Never Do Your Best Work Alone

Fast Company | Business + Innovation: At last week's Grammy Awards, Beyoncé’s Lemonade lost Album of the Year to Adele's 25, much to her fans' dismay. This wasn't the first time that the record, Beyoncé’s sixth studio effort, found itself at the center of an uproar.

When it was released on April 23, 2016, Lemonade credited 72 writers—and earned a swift public backlash as a result. One person on Twitter wrote, "Is this the time of year where we call Beyoncé a musical genius even though she has 50 [to] 100 writers and producers for each album[?]" Another said, "Beyoncé has FIFTEEN writers on one of her songs. But she’s a genius, they say."