The Precision Machined Products Association’s brand promise is offering “Tools You Can Use” to its more than 450 member companies. A major component of that promise is the availability of the educational tools PMPA offers throughout the year. These tools are designed to assist member companies in sustaining their operations with the latest operational and technical information.
Below is a brief description of the tools PMPA provides to member companies:
Daily
Listserves: PMPA’s online, problem-solving forums are where members go to ask questions and receive answers on everything from machinability issues to HR questions to software solutions. This powerful tool saves valuable time and money for members by delivering timely and relevant answers to problems from a trusted network of manufacturing professionals.
Website: Members tap into PMPA’s website to access resources such as the “Raw Material Grades Translator,” an online utility designed to convert foreign raw material grade specifications to their U.S. equivalents. The website also holds a variety of industry-specific tools and other relevant information to help members access the collective knowledge of the PMPA.
Blog: The PMPASpeakingof
Precision.com blog is available every business day. It has features on timely topics related to technical developments, proposed regulatory action, business leadership, international trade and more. The PMPA blog has generated more than 125,000 page views from visitors during its 2 years in existence.
Weekly Reports e-Newsletter: PMPA’s weekly e-newsletter offers the latest information on EPA/OSHA compliance, legislative matters, HR issues, economic trend data, new technology, upcoming meetings and events and business intelligence/market information.
Material & Equipment Exchange: Members can post items for sale or items they are looking to buy on the PMPA Material & Equipment Exchange (M&E). This is a great way to locate those difficult-to-find raw material grades, machinery, tooling, parts washers and other equipment.
Find a Supplier: Every PMPA member has a listing on the “Find a Supplier” online database. Buyers looking for sources to machine component parts use this database frequently to find qualified suppliers. Members can update their listings daily as they add new capabilities or expand into new markets.
PMPA Headquarters Staff: The association’s headquarters staff specialists are available every business day to assist members with a variety of issues related to technical/machining problems, quality, sales/marketing, government regulations, human resources and other topics.
Monthly
Business Trends Report: This monthly snapshot of member sales, leadtimes, employment and profitability—along with a brief narrative—allows members to gage how their companies are performing versus the competition.
iLumen Benchmarking: PMPA members use iLumen’s online benchmarking program to receive critical financial analytics to make better-informed business decisions. Members simply upload their monthly financial statements to the iLumen/PMPA database. The connection has extremely high levels of security to protect user identities and financial data. Once the upload is complete, participants can tap into powerful financial data as it relates to precision machined products manufacturers.
Market Trends Report: PMPA’s economic analysis firm, The Institute for Trend Research, provides monthly analyses of the major consuming industries served by PMPA member companies. These analyses show whether the markets are trending up, down or remaining flat.
Advocacy Report: PMPA’s Corporate and CEO Listserve subscribers receive a monthly advocacy report from the association’s retained lobbyist, The Franklin Partnership. This report updates members on the latest industry-related developments from Capitol Hill.
Quarterly
Chapter Meetings: PMPA’s chapters meet quarterly, or even monthly, to make formal educational presentations on new technology, industry trends, machining innovations, environmental/safety compliance, health compliance and shopfloor automation. The chapters also conduct plant tours and offer other networking programs.
Market Forecast: The Institute for Trend Research provides in-depth quarterly trend analysis focusing on the following major industry market segments: U.S. Industrial Production, North American Light Vehicle Production, Aircraft Production, Housing Starts, North American Heavy-Duty Truck Production, Medical Device Production and Industrial Machinery New Orders.
Annually
Annual Meeting (Fall): The national-level networking event brings together owners and senior management personnel from companies across North America to discuss higher-level strategic issues.
Management Update (Winter): This annual conference focuses on mid-level to senior-level managers. Management Update provides a range of programs to help managers strengthen their individual skill sets to make them better leaders and contributors.
National Technical Conference (Spring): The “Tech Conference” is PMPA’s best-attended national-level event. It attracts industry-leading shops and suppliers that share best practices through member-generated content in the form of technical presentations and seminars.
Wage & Benefits Report: This annual benchmarking report allows members to compare their wage and benefits packages with others in their region, nationwide or by company size. The report is a powerful tool for making decisions regarding employee compensation.
Holiday Time-Off Report: Members participate in this annual survey to provide and receive guidance on addressing national holidays in terms of staffing.
Membership in PMPA is an investment in your company’s ongoing operations. This investment pays dividends throughout the year. Rather than spend valuable company time scouring the Web or reading another periodical hoping to find answers to your questions, why not join the PMPA? The association has the information you’re looking for and it is accessible 24/7.
Join PMPA today and get plugged into your industry’s trade association and the “Tools You Can Use.” Contract manufacturers can receive a 50 percent discount off first-year membership dues. Visit pmpa.org/join/ or call PMPA at 440-526-0300 for more information.
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Starting on Thursday August 8, 2024, PM will begin “gating” its premium content, asking all new website users to provide some information about themselves — name, title, employer, email address — before they are provided free access to the content.
We are doing this because the ways PM’s audience finds and accesses our content is changing. Google’s search algorithms, increasingly, make it difficult to connect PM’s content with the people who might make use of it. On top of that, generative AI like ChatGPT is serving up PM content to internet users without attributing that content to PM.
As a result, it has become increasingly important for PM evolve its audience development strategy and learn as much as possible about who is accessing our content, what content they are accessing and how they are accessing it.
With this audience development strategy, we hope to do two things:
First, we will be better able to deliver directly to our audience the editorial content that aligns with the machining materials, processes and technologies that interest them.
Second, we will be better able to connect the materials, equipment and services our advertisers supply with the audience that is most interested in them.
PM plays a distinctive role and has earned a place of esteem within the focused and specialized industry it serves. Large developments in the media landscape are forcing us to change the way we communicate with our audience. We are confident that our audience values the role PM plays in their professional lives and will join us in this effort to stay connected to them.
We thank you for your continued interest in and support of PM and welcome any questions you might have about the brand’s new content gating strategy.
