The Thomas Blog

Driving Compliance And Cleaning Up Your Tail

Tail spend optimization can be the key to reducing costs and increasing the overall performance of your supply chain. However, many organizations fail to properly analyze their tail spend, or they don't take the proper measures to clean it up and ensure compliance. 

Fortunately, there are some proven methods you can use to clean up your tail.

3 Characteristics Of Effective Content

Content marketing less true; content is still a foundational element of any inbound marketing scheme worth its salt.

If you’re thinking, Andrew, you’re a professional writer, you’re biased, well … you’re right. I am biased. That doesn’t make the phrase any less true, either. If a grocer told you “vegetables are good for you,” you wouldn’t respond that he’s biased and therefore his statement is untrue. Would you?

What To Avoid In Your User Journey: Key Takeaways From ConversionXL Live 2017

ConversionXL Live is an annual conference that provides web designers, developers, and strategists a forum to learn from optimization experts. The event is also a fantastic networking opportunity, as it brings together more than 75,000 practitioners every year.  

This year’s conference agenda was broken into three themes:

• Day 1: UX & Digital Analytics
• Day 2: Optimization & Testing
• Day 3: Growth & Success

What B2B Buyers Look For When Selecting Suppliers

Creating a shortlist is an essential component of the supplier discovery and selection process. But what, exactly, are supply chain professionals looking for when making their lists?

To find out, Thomasnet.com conducted an informal survey of our users – buyers, engineers and procurement professionals – to find out what factors they consider the most important when evaluating new suppliers.

Manufacturing Industry Jobs Update: March 2017

At THOMASNET.com, we are big champions of American manufacturing and reshoring. In fact, we work with suppliers who produce amazing products made in America every day, and we play an instrumental role in helping small- and medium-sized suppliers grow.

But how can we measure growth for the industry overall? A good barometer is the state of the manufacturing workforce. That’s why we will be regularly diving deep into the latest information from the Bureau Of Labor Statistics to take the pulse of hiring in the industry and to highlight sectors that are growing.

Here is our Manufacturing Industry Jobs Update for March 2017 (scroll down for previous releases):

NASA's New Robot Will Tackle Spots Rovers Can't Reach

The latest big invention from NASA might be smaller than you would imagine. Their Pop-Up Flat Folding Robot, or PUFFER, is designed to fold and contort in order to reach places that traditional roving robots cannot.  

5 Essential Capabilities For Automation Technology

Smart manufacturing facilities offer limitless possibilities for increasing efficiency and productivity. Unfortunately, without the right automation systems in place, the actual results can be disappointing. 

Green Manufacturing: 3 Steps To Be More Sustainable On The Shop Floor

Sunday, April 22 is Earth Day. To celebrate we wanted to shine a light on the importance of sustainability in manufacturing. Fortunately, the manufacturing industry is embracing sustainability like never before. In fact, no other industry produces more "clean economy" jobs. 

Fueling the adoption is the fact that sustainability is not only good for the environment, it can be good for a business's bottom line. Procurement departments are becoming increasingly focused on finding environmentally friendly partners, and studies show that "green organizations" experience faster growth than their less eco-conscious counterparts.

Why It's Great To Work In The Supply Chain Industry As A Millennial

At Thomasnet.com, we know that there are variety of reasons to choose a career in supply chain. Unfortunately, however, many young professionals don't consider supply chain as a career option. Many don't even know it exists!

To spread the word and shed some light on why working in supply chain can be a great option, we asked the winners of our 30 Under 30 Rising Supply Chain Stars contest to weigh in.