PM Europe Rides Again

This month we debut a new column in PM. Actually, we’re reviving an old column that appeared in the early issues of the magazine. Back then, we contracted with veteran editor, Michael Page, who was based in England and ably covered the continent for several of those early years. 

Today, there is a need for something similar. There continues to be a lot activity in Europe in the form of trade shows, technology conferences, open houses and plant tours that deserve more than cursory coverage. Face-to-face is still the best means to cover our industry and having a European on the ground who knows the technology and can cover these events in person will provide you better, timelier, information about what’s happening in the precision machined products industry across the pond.

Our plan is to periodically publish reports on happenings from Europe that will be generated first hand. This month represents our first “PM Europe” piece, which features an interview with Lothar Horn who heads up the family business making high end cutting tools (see page 80).

Its location in the magazine is where we historically publish our Last Word guest column. We will continue to solicit guest columns, but will run “PM Europe” in its place when appropriate.

The author of the new column, Barbara Schulz, is our newly hired Germany-based, European correspondent. Over time, she will be sharing the strategies, success stories and trends in other countries’ precision machined parts manufacturing industries because, despite globalization and globally available technology and equipment, every country has its own way of doing things and, more important, making things. 

Her articles will appear in various areas of the magazine as the subject dictates. For example, she may contribute an article on a new technology she has come across in her travels and therefore the article will be used as a Tech Brief. Likewise, her shop application stories will run as a Case in Point article.  

Barbara has covered the manufacturing industry since completing her studies in linguistics and mechanical engineering in 2005. She began her career covering European manufacturing as editor with one of Germany’s leading industrial trade magazines.

Two years later, she joined the Australian “Manufacturing Technology” magazine as editor-in-chief. Upon returning to Europe in 2013, she has been an editor-in-chief for Vogel Business Media. She has written extensively about emerging technologies and their application in (small to medium enterprises throughout Europe and Australia.

It’s not common to find someone with the technical “chops” to understand how many of the complex technologies that manufacturing uses in its effort to compete in our global economy, but Barbara’s ME degree serves her well to understand what she’s seeing. Even less common is the ability to communicate those complex concepts to an audience in a useful way. Her studies in linguistics allow her to successfully communicate to an American audience in a voice that is interesting and helpful to the reader. Her English is excellent.

I have had the pleasure of seeing her work at numerous events, trade shows, open houses and plant visits. She is very good at what she does and brings a perspective to PM readers as only a native European can. We are pleased to have her facing PM in ways that our domestic staff simply cannot because of our proximity to the “action” in Europe.

Watch for her byline in print and online. We believe her addition to our brand will be met with enthusiasm as it represents our continued efforts to be a valuable resource for helping you do your business of making things even more efficient and profitable.