President Obama highlighted the role of advanced manufacturing to the US economy yesterday with a visit to Alcoa’s aerospace component plant in Davenport, Iowa.

Davenport is the manufacturing hub of Alcoa's $3 billion aerospace business, producing high-tech products for all major aircraft, including the Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger plane, and Boeing's 747-8 and 777.

Engineering powerhouse Siemens says it expects new orders to increase again in the third quarter of fiscal year 2011, driven by a major order in May for new ICx long-distance trains.

The company also anticipates a clear increase in revenue compared to the same period a year earlier.

“We're continuing to invest strongly in innovation and the expansion of our global market footprint,” said Siemens CFO Joe Kaeser at the Siemens Capital Market Day in Shanghai on Tuesday. “Our growth expectations have come along in the third quarter."

Just 10 months after beginning commercial production, Oman Aluminium Processing Industries Limited is planning a phase of expansion to nearly treble the plant’s output. Mr PR Ramakrishnan talks to Ben Sansom about the role the company is playing in Oman’s industrial development.

Technocraft Group is one of the largest exporters of drum closures in the world. But its story doesn’t stop there—the company is constantly seeking new avenues and opportunities, no matter what sector they are in. Jane Bordenave reports.

Nordic Mines has already sold some of the gold from its mine in Finland: Laiva will make Nordic one of Europe’s leading gold producers—and the timing couldn’t be better.

A positive contact centre culture is the core to providing great customer service. But what is culture and why is it so important that we understand it and work to improve it in contact centres?

To many, ‘culture’ is a fluffy term, commonly used but rarely understood. What we should all know about culture in relation to contact centres is that it is often the cause of long-standing issues that have had a negative impact on the company’s reputation for customer service and consequently, its bottom line.

Lean management is often perceived as something just for large organisations. Glyn Finney, product leader at global management consultancy firm Simpler Consulting, outlines the opportunity for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve customer service using lean.

Top-down strategy is dead. Modern strategy is middle-up—involving cross-functional teams and interactive workshops. Paul Christodoulou, a strategy leader with 22 years’ experience in blue-chip companies and a Sainsbury Management Fellow, discusses this new approach to strategy development that can tap the hidden strategic ideas within your senior team to constantly refresh your competitive advantage (whilst saving a fortune in consultancy fees).

Sandalwood is possibly the most valuable wood on the planet; and in Australia the first commercial and sustainable harvesting programme ever devised is just a couple of years away, as Alan Swaby discovers.

Life is not easy in the construction industry, even in South Africa; but Protech Khuthele’s history is an object lesson in how to entrench and expand a niche capability.