US Coal Fields Potential Sources of Rare Earth Minerals

The US Department of Energy is offering $32 million in funding for the production of rare earth and critical minerals, mainly cobalt and lithium, from coal-based sources to reduce dependency on China and other countries.

The funds come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which aims to build mineral processing sites across the US, enabling more control of supply and pricing.  Money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law may be used for engineering analyses, design studies, development of facilities for domestic production and refining […]

What’s Causing Apple’s Reduction in Vision Pro Production?

Apple has cut production of its Vision Pro headset by 60% due to hardware supply chain constraints and design issues.

The two main reasons given for lowering headset production from one million, to 400,000 units: 1) the complexity of the headset design, and 2) the inability for its supplier, Sony, to increase production of two key headset components.


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The Strategic Importance of Effective Capacity Management

The adage goes that effective (and efficient) supply chain management extends from “a supplier’s supplier to a customer’s customers.

Manufacturers are all rushing to “win” the race to electric automobiles. With this comes literally thousands of new and unique parts, of which suppliers may not have the production and/or engineering capacity to meet.

According to Opsahl, “The capacity of a supplier to launch new stuff…isn’t so much dependent on machine tools and production capacity as it is on human […]

1099-K Changes Impact Small Firms and Individuals

With the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, an important provision related to the 1099-K tax form affects those who receive payments through third-party networks. Just a few examples of those who may be affected: anyone paid for a side hustle through Paypal, who sells on eBay, or who contracts with companies such as Uber and Lyft.

In this post, we’ll focus on the capacity and productivity impacts of this tax law change on a variety of stakeholders.

WHAT […]

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