I talked with a metal fabricator this week that installed a precision punch press with a six-station tapping unit about four years ago. The turret punch has been working hard the past several years, but the company finally has gotten around to working with the tapping unit. It"s incredible how big of a difference it has made in the short amount of time the company has been using it.

They have moved away from manual insertion of weld nuts and PEM®-style inserts and are relying more on the tapping unit on the punch press. News has actually spread to its customers in the point-of-purchase industry, those folks responsible for the special shelving and displays in retail establishments, and they are demanding that more work be done with this automated process.

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There's a conversation in the movie "Clerks" where characters Randal Graves and Dante Hicks, friends and fellow retail store clerks, are talking about Graves' interest in going to a funeral:

Dante Hicks: "You hate people!"

Randal Graves: "But I love gatherings, isn't it ironic?"

How things have changed since the early 1990s. If only these dynamic duds lived in today's world where you don't even need to communicate with people face-to-face. You can just break out your mobile phone and text them.

One-on-one communication be damned. Let's just meet up at the party.

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At what point in a tough manufacturing economy does a metal forming and fabricating company pull back its marketing efforts? For most companies, it's one of the first areas to be cut. Others, however, see an opportunity to stand out, while others step back and wait for better times.

As one marketing guru once told me, "A company should want to be where his competitors aren't."

So it was with a sense of pride that I saw a Wisconsin metal fabricator step up and support a community festival that also happens to be one of my favorite summertime events—Milwaukee's Summerfest, which runs June 25-July 5 on the city's lakefront.

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