July 18th, 2008
Sam Schmitz, President, Goodwill/Abilities Center, announced today that they have been selected by Goodwill Industries International (GII) as one on five national “Kaizen” training sites for this fall. Goodwill/Abilities Center was selected from a group of 26 Goodwill agencies from around the country that bid to be a “Kaizen” training site.
Kaizen is a proven process improvement concept designed to improve quality, cost and delivery. GII has taken this concept and applied it to the donation centers of Goodwill retail stores, particularly in improving the back room (donation center) processes. It has been proven to be effective in multiple retail stores around the country.
The training is scheduled for November 11 - 14 at their new location on North Second Street.
This is a special recognition for our local Goodwill/Abilities Center; any questions, call Sam at 815-965-3795.
July 18th, 2008
I came across this quote regarding the June 2008 composite index from manufacturing.net: “This quarter’s results unequivocally reflect slowing activity in manufacturing and offer little prospect for an overall increase in activity over the next three months,” said Donald A. Norman, Ph.D., MAPI Economist and survey coordinator. “The news, however, is not all bad. The rise in indexes for backlogs, non-U.S. prospective shipments, and non-U.S. investment, coupled with the strength of the indexes for capacity utilization and exports, indicate that most of the manufacturing sector is holding up much better than it did in the last recession largely because non-domestic business continues to grow.” For more information, visit http://www.mapi.net.
This continues to reinforce the importance of developing international strategies for growth. The RAEDC is assembling a delegation for the third straight year to visit the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce’s Entrepreneurial Days in Stockholm this Sept 15-16. Contact the RAEDC office at 815-987-8118 for more information.
