Stellantis Gets Stung and Signs of Aging at 3M: IndustryWeek's Weekly Reads

Welcome to IndustryWeek's first Weekly Reads for the month of August 2024. In this feature, we showcase the most-consumed content over the past seven days on IndustryWeek.com. Our lead item for this week, China's Threat to Ban Critical Mineral Exports Is Not a Bluff, also appeared in last week's Weekly Reads, showing the widespread concern of this topic to our IndustryWeek manufacturing community. 

The full Top 10 in this edition of IndustryWeek's Weekly Reads is as follows.

China’s Threat to Ban Critical Mineral Exports Is Not a Bluff: Rare-earth mineral restrictions are a very real option that the US should be actively preparing for.

Lineup Shift, Struggling Sales Funnel Sting Stellantis’ Volumes and Margins: CEO Carlos Tavares says fixing the company’s North American inventory glut is his top priority and won’t rule out brand divestitures.

New 3M CEO: Time to Invent Stuff Again: ‘The simple fact is that our products are aging,’ Bill Brown said on his first earnings call with analysts.

Lean Manufacturing: It's Still All About People, Darnit! A lively panel discussion featuring Sarah Tilkens, Carl Livesay and Dave Rizzardo focused on getting the most out of people by listening to them and understanding them.

Industry 4.0 Gains Are Ahead of the Tools to Measure Them: Productivity metrics are in dire need of an overhaul.

Boeing Needs a Culture Overhaul. Could Strategic Hiring Help? A new body of research suggests that choosing candidates around culture-fit can have a positive spillover effect on existing employees.

Boeing Names New CEO as It Reports Hefty Loss: Current leader Dave Calhoun ascended to CEO in January 2020 unexpectedly following the ouster of predecessor Dennis Muilenburg amid fallout from the MAX crashes.

So That Happened: Making Flags in America and Keeping Japanese Steel Companies Out: IndustryWeek editors look into those stories and leadership changes at Johnson Controls and who's joining the hall of fame.

Developing Problem Solvers for Operational Excellence: GE Healthcare’s Sarah Tilkens shares some thoughts on problem solving.

Future-Proofing Your Operations on a Budget: ‘Leading-edge’ doesn’t have to mean massive costs for small- and medium-sized manufacturers.