Posts Tagged ‘Current Events’

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Dysfunction junction

April 5th, 2013
By: Dan Davis

How could the U.S. Congress screw up funding job training programs? Manufacturers need specialized workers, and the unemployed need training for those unfilled positions in manufacturing. Sounds simple, right?

Nothing is simple nowadays.

In mid-March Republicans in the House of Representatives passed the Supporting Knowledge and Investing in Lifelong Skills (SKILLS) Act, which reauthorizes the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). The bill aims to eliminate and consolidate 35 duplicative and ineffective employment and training programs administered through the WIA. (more...)

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College basketball and cross-training

March 22nd, 2013
By: Dan Davis

'Tis the time of year when people might be secretly paying more attention to NCAA basketball tournament games than work and, in some cases, actually leaving work early to watch the afternoon first-round games. Even though March Madness might sap worker productivity, it still might hold meaning for fabricating management.

How could that be? Well, recent research suggests that sports teams with players who can play more than one position can field a better lineup on a more regular basis than teams without those types of players. Those teams also show more resiliency when it comes to player injuries.

More specifically, "The value of flexibility in baseball roster construction," a report prepared by Timothy Chan of the University of Toronto and Douglas Fearing of the Harvard Business School, examined statistics from the 2012 Major League Baseball season and found that players with the ability to play multiple positions were responsible for up to 15 percent of the teams' runs. The researchers then compared this flexibility to that of automotive supply chains that can adapt quickly to changes in supply and demand, helping production remain as efficient as possible. Both baseball teams and automotive manufacturers want to stay at their top performance level even in the face of obstacles—which might be a major injury for a baseball team or a material shortage for a supply chain.

If metal fabricators haven't realized the importance of that type of flexibility on their own shop floors, they likely haven't seen profits rise with the uptick in the metal manufacturing sector. They probably have a problem getting products through the shop, which prevents them from getting paid as soon as possible. (more...)

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News you can use

March 8th, 2013
By: Dan Davis

Last week more than 100 metal fabricators gathered for The FABRICATOR's Leadership Summit in Palm Harbor, Fla. The conference attendees seemed optimistic as most are in the midst of coping with expanding business opportunities.

But with such pressures come concerns. Everyone apparently is looking out of the corners of their eyes in hopes that they can see what challenges are coming next. Uncertainly still abounds.

Fortunately, the conference provided metal fabricators a chance to absorb some expert observations. FMA economic analyst Dr. Chris Kuehl and Donald McNeeley, president and COO, Chicago Tube & Iron Co., and professor at Northwestern University, took the stage the afternoon of Feb. 27 to talk about current business conditions. Some of the insights were noteworthy:

  • Kuehl works with the National Association of Credit Management to put together the Credit Managers' Index (CMI), which is similar in structure to the PMI, the prominent index used to gauge the health of the manufacturing industry. The CMI, however, is more forwar-looking as it's based on credit applications, the step needed before any type of uptick in manufacturing activity occurs. Kuehl reported that more credit applications have been submitted and approved the last three months than in the last two years combined. The money has been there to lend, but only now are lending institutions and borrowers connecting to put the funds to use. (more...)

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Taking control of training efforts

January 25th, 2013
By: Dan Davis

A&E Custom Manufacturing, Kansas City, Kan., isn't much different from other metal fabricators today. It is looking for the right skilled employees.

"If we could find the people, we would probably add four to five employees," said John Jaixen, A&E's general manager, in December. Specifically, he would bring on talented welders for the second shift and inventory help—if he could find the right people.

Needless to say, A&E isn't alone. In October 2012 the Boston Consulting Group issued a report saying that manufacturing companies had 80,000 to 100,000 open positions for skilled workers. That's dwarfed by the 600,000 openings cited in a 2011 survey from Deloitte Consulting and The Manufacturing Institute. Sure, that's a big disparity, but the fact is that the current manufacturing workforce isn't getting any younger; the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the average age of manufacturing workers in the U.S. at 56. (more...)

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Mexico's other competitive advantage

January 11th, 2013
By: Dan Davis

It used to be just labor cost, but apparently Mexico has another secret weapon in trying to expand its role as the world's manufacturing partner: It can churn out engineering and manufacturing talent for the large multinational manufacturers looking to locate in North America.

Don't believe it? Look what's happening elsewhere in the world. (more...)

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FABTECH 2012: A reason for optimism

November 16th, 2012
By: Dan Davis

The year was 2008. FABTECH, North America's largest metal fabricating and forming technology tradeshow, was making its first visit to Las Vegas. The opening day of the event generated a lot of excitement because more visitors attended that first day than had ever attended a FABTECH opening day, which included the typically larger Chicago shows. Many attendees were uncertain about the economy cooling down, but plenty of others blamed such talk on the liberal media trying to sabotage the economy. Several weeks later, however, any enthusiasm soon faded; the U.S. economy seemingly fell off of the cliff.

The year is 2012. FABTECH returned to Las Vegas, Nov. 12-14. The opening day generated similar numbers as the show four years ago. Attendees still don't know how much their taxes will go up in 2013 or just how much the federal government's new health care mandate will cost them. Meanwhile, some attendees point the finger at the liberal media for not recognizing that the metal manufacturing sector is operating at near-full capacities. Business is good, but uncertainty remains high even after the presidential election. Can the Republican majority in the House of Representatives work with the Democratic majority in the Senate to provide a roadmap that helps the federal government avoid the huge mandatory budget cuts that are linked to the "fiscal cliff"?

It appears what is old is new again—much to everyone's frustration. But there is good news, and that is fueling quiet optimism among the metal fabricating community walking the floors of FABTECH 2012. Everyone is lean and means to grow the business. Everyone is waiting on the right moment to do it, however.

(more...)

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Fabricating real value

November 9th, 2012
By: Dan Davis

As I was watching Hurricane Sandy coverage on Oct. 29, I flipped on CNBC only to find a reporter lamenting the fact that the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) might be forced to close for a second day due to inclement weather, marking the first time since the Blizzard of 1888 that weather had forced the Wall Street institution to be closed for two consecutive days. Additionally, this closure was coming at the end of the month when traders typically price financial portfolios. Oh, the horror!

Meanwhile, I was just thrilled that my 401(k) actually might not lose money for two consecutive days.

Beyond my self-centeredness, however, I couldn't shake the thought that so much attention was being placed on the NYSE while the area police officers, firefighters, public service crews, electrical workers, and storm recovery specialists were working around the clock to get New York up and running after Sandy blew through town. Certainly, financial trading is important to a modern economy, but life doesn't stop if financial traders can't make a phone call or send an e-mail. You can't say the same about the people who restore power and clear roads; if they don't show up, no one else can show up for their jobs. (more...)

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Magical fabricating tour

October 12th, 2012
By: Dan Davis

If you weren't a part of The FABRICATOR's Technology Summit in early October, you missed a great learning experience. About 50 attendees visited six fabricating operations, two manufacturers of laser equipment, and one systems integrator of custom laser machines. If the event didn't "ignite innovation"—as its tag line suggested—it certainly got some people thinking about how they might change their own operations.

What exactly did attendees see as they traveled around Minnesota's Twin Cities? They got to see everything, from the automated manufacturing processes used to fabricate Hoffman boxes—one of the most recognizable brands in the metal manufacturing industry—at Pentair Technical Products, Minneapolis, to the manufacturing might needed to construct giant grain handlers at Schlagel Inc. in Cambridge, Minn. At those stops and others they saw the latest in automated storage and retrieval systems that feed material to laser cutting machines with no human intervention; specialty laser cutting devices tailored for industries such as medical device and aerospace parts manufacturing; and even a fiber laser that ripped through tubes, cutting shapes in a matter of seconds. (more...)

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IMTS 2012: Crazy times in manufacturing

September 14th, 2012
By: Dan Davis

Sometimes you wonder if North American metal manufacturers got the memo.

Europe is struggling with countries teetering on the brink of financial collapse. China is no longer seeing its GDP grow by double-digit percentage points. Other once-hot economies in the world, such as Brazil, have cooled considerably. Meanwhile in the U.S., unemployment remains above 8 percent, and economists fret that the federal government may be headed off a "fiscal cliff" at the end of the year, when automatic budget cuts take place and Bush-era tax cuts end.

So what happened as the International Manufacturing Technology Show 2012 opened in Chicago on Sept. 10? Show organizers announced that they were expecting its most well-attended show since 2002. (Preregistration alone stood at 86,000.) Simultaneously, AMT—The Association For Manufacturing Technology announced that U.S. manufacturing technology orders in July were up 5.4 percent overall compared with the same time in 2011. U.S. manufacturers continue to move forward no matter what craziness occurs around them. (more...)

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A taxing time

September 7th, 2012
By: Dan Davis

I wonder if the average voter really knows what a jump back to a tax rate of 39.6 percent from the current level of 35 percent might mean. The underinformed might view it as a slight financial inconvenience for the Wall Street button-down types and the owners and management of large corporations. Unfortunately, many of the folks that are going to get hit with the higher tax rate at the end of the year—if Congress doesn’t complete a Hail Mary pass to renew the Bush-era tax cuts—will be owners of manufacturing firms. (more...)

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