Miles Free Director of Industry Affairs, PMPA
Material Impacts On The Precision Machining Industry
The International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) reports that stainless steel production rose in 2006. Crude stainless steel production in Asia and now produces more than half of all stainless steel in the world. The Americas increased their stainless steel production. China's trade surplus versus the U.S. amounted to $23.76 billion in February 2007 according to China Customs quoted in several press reports. This is the second highest level ever, and is 10 times the February 2006 level of $2.5 billion!
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Energy Trends In Manufacturing
Every once in a while, I get to see a report from a branch of the United States government that reinforces my feeling that all of us in manufacturing are way ahead of the bureaucrats in Washington. This week, I received a Manufacturing Sector Report from the Environmental Protection Agency covering motor vehicle parts manufacturing. (View the report at www.epa.gov/sectors/energy/index.html.)
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Is Your Order Book Telling You To Consider Activity-Based Costing?
Activity-Based Costing (ABC) is often mentioned in conversations between shop owners, but it seems to be an idea that most shops never get around to fully investigating. There are many benefits to performing even a short-term ABC project, but costs and personnel time need to be considered. These days, everyone is too busy to take on an extra project, especially another accounting study. However, your order book might be sufficient evidence that you need to get to work on an ABC project. Here’s a brief explanation of how and why.
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Walt Disney World: A Model For Precision Manufacturing
What can a manufacturing person learn from Walt Disney World to help with his manufacturing business? PMPA members learned the following from the Management Update Conference recently held at Disney World in Orlando.
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Assuring The Payback Of Technology Investments
Your shop has good quality; you have a quality management system. Your shop has good reliability; you have management systems for assuring worker safety, scheduling equipment availability and careful stewardship of financial resources.
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Organizational Effectiveness—Many Lenses
One of the paradoxes of team sports that I struggle with has been watching a team with high-caliber players lose to a team with less talented players. We have all seen this happen time and time again.
Read MoreA Baker’s Dozen Of OSHA Moneymakers
The safety of our employees, precision and quality workmanship have always been guiding principles in the precision machining industry. What are the areas that we need to focus on for continuous improvement? Here is a baker’s dozen table of what the OSHA inspectors cited in our industry (SIC 3451; NAICS 332721 Precision Turned Products Manufacturing) for the last fiscal year (October 2005-September 2006). This data was current as of October 13, 2006.
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Sentinel Events – Recognize, Respond, Revisit
Every day, we face numerous challenges. Urgent demands from others, unexpected events, system breakdowns, equipment malfunctions, and failed communications are "all in a day’s work," for most of us. Occasionally, a singular event arrives that has the potential to alter the circumstances of our life or work. Such an event is called a sentinel event.
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Trends In Copper And Brass
Copper is selling for $3.70 per pound at the time that I am writing this in mid-September. Thefts of copper materials from homes, businesses and utilities are lead stories and front-page news on television and in the newspapers—even in the Wall Street Journal.
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Numbers –The Delta Is The Difference
Numbers carry far more information than their value or size. Numbers can be thought of as having three dimensions or aspects: 1) the numeric value (arguably, the least important to the shop owner); 2) the delta (change) it represents in the quantity being measured; and 3) the vector or direction of the difference of that change from the preceding value or target (benchmark).
Read MoreWhere Is Your Profitability Engineer
Go to any business and ask, "Who is responsible for generating profits?" You’ll typically get a limited number of answers. "Of course, it’s the boss" is the typical response. "The chief accountant or controller" is another common reply. While both "the boss" and the chief accountant are accountable for the company’s profit or loss, you may find that, in most companies, the profitability engineer is not the boss.
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Waste Management
As an avid gardener, I always notice the plantings and landscaping when I make visits to manufacturing shops. The foundation plantings, shrubs and the neat appearance of the landscaping are meant to convey a positive image about the plant, the premises, the company and its people. However, I seldom take photos of the landscaping on my visits. What I really long for is a photo of a nice trash dumpster.
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