When you are responsible for manufacturing and distributing over 10,000 different products, real-time visibility is critical to running an efficient and agile business.

Next month, the American Coatings Show and the Adhesive and Sealant Council Spring Convention and Expo will draw thousands of key players in the global adhesives, sealants, and coatings industries to Atlanta and Orlando, respectively.

On a daily basis, television, newspaper, and radio fill their programming with “experts” who are all too eager to prognosticate where the stock market will be in 12 months, how quickly the sea will rise in the next 100 years, or who will win the Super Bowl and why.

Raw materials and chemicals are literally the building blocks of the adhesives and sealants industry. Without quality materials that are often specifically tailored to specific applications, our industry could never fully succeed.

In August 2013, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) reported a backlog of 591,665 patent applications waiting to be examined and an average total pendency (time from filing to end of examination) of 29.4 months.

The beginning of each calendar year is a great time to take stock of our business and try to make some work-related New Year’s resolutions (aka, goals).