Ireland was one of the fastest-growing European economies (though briefly it was also one of the most expensive), but suffered a major collapse starting in 2008. However, today its costs are rapidly coming back into line and Irish manufacturing companies are again becoming competitive.

Legendary lean practitioner Art Byrne says he didn't have to accept excuses from employees when he requested dramatic improvements on the plant floor. That's because Byrne had become a "lean expert" and knew what type of changes were possible. There's a big difference between CEOs who engage in lean and those who simply encourage it.

System improvement is much more than problem solving. It is dual-staged, having two dependent parts that must be handled with the same enthusiasm to ensure success. The first segment is concerned with problem identification and solution finding, while the second segment deals with realizing a corrective action.

Over the last two years, manufacturers and sellers of consumer products across the industrial spectrum have faced growing wave of class-action lawsuits brought by consumers. Perhaps your company can become less appealing as a target.

Downtime is the enemy of lean. Downtime is, in fact, waste. Idled lines do not add value. Restarting production after unplanned downtime requires more effort, usually expended with less efficiency and worker productivity. This reintroduces waste, which creates added costs that customers do not pay for, yet must be absorbed into cost of goods sold.

Manufacturing is one industry that is wasting data for lack of the means to quickly and effectively analyze it.

The advancement of technology, combined with demand from customers, has continued to fuel interest in radio frequency identification tagging systems. Yet for all the attention paid to RFID, data from APQC's Open Standards Benchmarking in logistics shows a majority of organizations have not adopted an RFID tagging strategy.

Big data is real and it is costing you money. This is according to a recent report put out by Oracle breaking down some of the most pressing big data business challenges facing manufacturers today.

Just as homeowners are more likely to renovate their current homes rather than purchase a new one when the economy is soft, so too are many manufacturers opting to maintain and repair their existing equipment rather than making substantial capital investments in new systems.

Anyone in the business of manufacturing automobiles, trucks and automotive components back in the tumultuous years of 2008 and 2009 might be tempted to put their metaphorical transmission into neutral, reveling just a little bit in the success that surrounds an industry that is experiencing something akin to a rebirth. But as sweet as that might seem in the short term, there are significant challenges facing automotive suppliers despite the improving production outlook.