Miles Free Director of Industry Affairs, PMPA
Energy Efficiency Equals Money In Your Pocket
You don’t have to have the last name 'Einstein' to figure that energy efficiency equals more money for you and your business. While many of us consider our company’s energy budget to be a fixed cost or a constant variable cost as a fraction of our sales, the fact is both of these mindsets put blinders on our ability to think about energy costs.
Read MoreBusiness Protection You Can’t Afford To Be Without
Contract review is a critical aspect of running a successful shop. APQP, FMEA, and PPAP—all of these contribute to the "no surprises, products meet all aspects" of the customer’s specification delivery experience. But what about the commercial side? The efforts you fail to make on commercial aspects of your obligations can have consequences just as serious as shipping nonconforming products to your customer.
Read MoreTriple Jeopardy And Your Stored PCs
Because of the high initial cost and relatively short useful life (about 5 years) of most personal computers, many companies delay disposal of their old PCs. Yet, the consequence of maintaining a depot of used PCs actually increases the risk to a business in at least three areas: environmental, employee privacy and customer privacy.
Read MoreObsolete Federal Specifications
The reform of federal government acquisition processes has resulted in the wholesale demise of entire classes of specs, standards and commercial item descriptions. MIL-STDs and MIL-Specs once added up to 35,000 in the early 1990s.
Read MoreInternational Materials Data System Reporting
On September 18, 2000, the European Union established the End of Life Vehicles Directive to identify hazardous materials that were contained in cars. The directive was also designed to determine the content recyclability in vehicles at the end of their useful life. A reporting system called the International Materials Data System (IMDS) was established for standardizing the reporting of chemical compositions finding their way into automobiles.
Read MoreBetween A Rock And A Hard Place
When the subject of 'material challenges' or 'material difficulties' is brought up in manufacturing, one instantly suspects difficulties in machining or cutting the material. But the real material challenge facing the industry today is the following 1-2-3 punch.
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A Crisis Management Lesson from a Professional Violinist and the San Francisco Symphony
This contingency plan ensured that the soloist and senior violinist had working instruments, allowing the performance to continue. Another part of the organization made the needed repairs on-time and on-site.
Read MoreChallenges Facing The Precision Machined Products Industry
It is impossible to ignore the current perfect storm of extreme pricing escalation for raw materials versus the multi-year fixed price contracts we have for our products. (Does anybody know the surcharge du jour?)
Read MoreFounding Fathers: A Father’s Day Greeting For Our Industry
While the official title of Sunday, June 20th is “Father’s Day,” I can’t help but be appreciative of the many bosses, supervisors and executives I’ve worked for that made a difference in my career by their mentoring or example.
Read MoreWhat Can I Do Today That Will Make The Most Money For My Company?
Those of you who have heard me speak at district programs know that the above question is the fifth point of my internal compass. Taking a look at this question in light of your shop’s situation will be time well spent, I assure you. Here are some ways to make your company money by improving overall performance.
Read MoreWooden Pallet Regulations Delayed
Do you produce parts for shipment overseas? Do you now or are you thinking about importing parts from overseas? Are you up to speed on the international phytosanitary requirements as they might apply to your shipments?
Read MoreStarting A Quality System From Scratch
Most of us work with the quality systems and departments already in place in our companies. Much of our work is determined by the structure and form of the established quality policies, procedures, processes and systems that we have inherited. These systems grew as our businesses did, evolving from an initial inspection focus to systems using statistical process controls, and they now comply with international quality system standards.
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