
Mobile Supply Chains
The business leaders of today require a greater understanding of the true costs of the supply chains. Knowing how much they can save by integrating and automating their supply chains can pay off in dividends. With today's increased demand for external (and even internal) accountability, supply chain cost analytics need to be extremely strategic and calculated. I have had extensive work with numerous healthcare systems and one comes to mind particularly. In the corporate offic


Mainspring Insights: Will "robots" take my job?
We have noticed numerous articles written about the general concern that jobs will soon be replaced by robots and automation, but how much should we really be concerned? CNN brought up an interesting point: nearly 100 years ago, the United States horse population hit an all-time high at nearly 23 million. Soon, the mass production and availability of the automobile soared. The population of horses have since steadily declined over the years. However, horses used for means asi

App of the Month: Shipstation
For small online businesses, many find that shipping their products is the biggest hassle of their job. You've created a great product, you've put together a marketing plan to generate demand, and you've even made sales - why is getting the product to your customer such a pain? Introducing ShipStation: an online shipping software that takes the pain points out of shipping. ShipStation acts as your main hub for all order fulfillment. Their intuitive dashboard design makes it e

Omnichain
Consumers in every industry understand that firms have access to advanced software and technology, and are growing the capacity to automate their operations to promote immediacy. Those consumers leverage this to communicate that they expect such immediacy. They want firms to address and respond to their demand fluctuations in real-time. Products and services need to be ready, available, customized, and rapidly delivered to them. With that being the requirement, firms that do


Mainspring Insights: "Generation Z"
Millennials, millennials, millennials. Everyone has heard the term, read the articles: how to work with these people, how to keep them happy, how to market to them, etc. But before our eyes, millennials are getting older, and the next generation, Gen Z, is inbound. This growing group of individuals in the United States, from ages 7-21 years old, comprise about 25% of the population (23 million people). These people are often referenced online as the iGen or Centennials. Resea

App of the Month: Quip
Many of us are familiar with using - or at least heard of Google Docs. Well what if there was an application that combines the functionality of Google Docs with email, instant messengers, to-do lists, etc., all into one hub. Introducing to you, Quip. Quip provides high-scale document and spreadsheet collaboration, with a greater breath of features than your typical Google Doc, while maintaining simplified functionality. Additionally, Quip partners with many third-party applic


Employee Onboarding: The Right Way
Many business leaders will tell you, if you do not properly introduce a new employee into your organization, both from a skill and culture standpoint, they will not last long. Statistically, those who claim they do not feel like they were properly onboarded do not last past the first 90 days of their job. But what is onboarding exactly, and how does this differ from training? As mentioned before, this 90 day period is critical to properly enculturate an individual to your org


Digital Manufacturing
One of the driving forces behind the Industrial Revolution was to equip factories with the machinery and infrastructure necessary to mass produce new commodities. Vehicles were becoming to exponentially gain demand, and they needed to be created quicker than the manufacturing industry was prepared for. In today's world, on the contrary, is deviating from the purposes the assembly line and mass production were created for, and is beginning to focus on a new manufacturing model


The Importance of Benchmarking
Mainspring Solutions was founded on the idea of improving business processes. It leads to more efficient operations, enhanced product/service quality, satisfied employees, and a larger bottom line. Every firm contains many different processes with in it - many of which are preformed on a daily basis. There are operational process, IT process, managerial processes, etc. Each individual component of these, theoretically, has the capacity to be improved. This is where benchmarki

Lunch & Learn
Over the past decade, many firms have integrated Lunch & Learn sessions into their employee training programs. Synonymous with "brown bag" sessions (in reference to the food), lunch and learns are a great tool to engage employees in a subject matter that is prevalent to their industry when time is in a crunch. Many employees have bought into this monthly/bi-weekly event as they simply substitute their lunch break for a free meal and an educational opportunity. So what do thes