Month: February 2013

10 Ways to Get the Contract- Guest Post by John Wirtz

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Guest post by John R. Wirtz of Pinpointe Marketing, LLC.JRW Pix

PMPA collaborates with Gardner Publications to produce Production Machining Magazine.

We contribute a half dozen pages of content each month, and our partners at Gardner do the rest.

The February issue had a wonderful tutorial about how not to get the contract. It was written by John R. Wirtz, a respected marketer in the industry.

Spoiler alert– We’re just giving you the bullet points, you’ll need to go to Production Machining’s posting of 10 Ways to Get the Contract to get the full details!

So why did you lose a major project to a competitor?

Hint- it probably wasn’t your price!

1. Do less talking and more listening.  

2. Use the tech review as a weapon of mass instruction.

 3. Don’t assume anything. 

4. There’s no such thing as a courtesy meeting.  

5. Act like you truly want the business.

6. Add value at every step of the process.

7. Show your bench strength.  

8. It rarely comes down to only price.

9. Make the most of your oral presentations.  

10. Be careful how you play the boss card.

John modestly suggests in his article in Production Machining that you should take these tips with a grain of salt.

I’d suggest acting on them immediately to improve your closing percentage.

Thanks to John R. Wirtz president of Pinpointe Marketing LLC. and Gardner Publications for the share.

Pinpointe Marketing, LLC, an Ohio-based sales and marketing firm specializing in the turned parts and engineered industrial products industries. He can be reached at 440-506-8963.

Congratulations- 122 Women in Manufacturing Honored at STEP Awards by Manufacturing Institute.

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When I started in manufacturing, “The Gals” were in the office- not the shop.

122 women who make a difference in Manufacturing today
122 women who make a difference in Manufacturing today

The inaugural group of 122 STEP honorees recognized by the Manufacturing Institute on February 5th in Washington D.C.  showed me that the times have changed and that there are many, many ways  that women can and do meaningfully contribute to manufacturing at their companies as

  • Plant and Production Managers,
  • Operations,
  • Engineers,
  • Technologists,
  • Process Control,
  • Regulatory Affairs,
  • Certified Welders,
  • CNC Machine Operators,
  • Weld Process Specialists,
  • Quality Control,
  • Health,
  • Environment,
  • Process Safety,
  • Chief Financial Officer,
  • Designers and Design Engineers,
  • Compliance Officers,
  • Chief Scientists,
  • Safety,
  • Quality,
  • Black Belts,
  • Training and Apprenticeship Instructors,
  • Manufacturing Lead,
  • Product Development,
  • Sales and Marketing,
  • Information Technology,
  • Lead Analyst,
  • Business Development,
  • Continuous Improvement,
  • Planning and Shipping,
  • Designer,s and Design Engineers
  • Information Security,
  • Assembly,
  • Legal and Corporate Affairs,
  • Systems Development,
  • President,
  • CEO
  • Owners

I am certain that I missed a few…

PMPA is proud to recognize our member and Vice President Darlene Miller, CEO of Permac Industries in Burnsville MN as one of this inaugural group of honorees.

Darlene Miller Nak“Darlene’s leadership  reaches far beyond PERMAC. As a member of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness she recognized the need for trained high skill workers and led the creation of Right Skills Now training program and helped support the 10,000 Engineers nationwide engineering student retention program. She was named small business person of the year in 2008 by the U.S. Chamber, and serves as an officer and board member at PMPA as well as a number of other nonprofits.”

Congratulations to Darlene and all the women recognized for their vital role in manufacturing today. And thanks to the Manufacturing Institute for helping raise the awareness of the vital need for the talents that these and all women bring to our shops.

Yes, I would like to see my daughter get into manufacturing. Wouldn’t you?

January 2013 ISM Report

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The January 2013 PMI composite shows a modest expansion, with all of its component indices showing positive gains for January.

ISM PMI JAN2013 fredgraph

“The PMI™ registered 53.1 percent, an increase of 2.9 percentage points from December’s seasonally adjusted reading of 50.2 percent, indicating expansion in manufacturing for the second consecutive month. The New Orders Index registered 53.3 percent, an increase of 3.6 percent over December’s seasonally adjusted reading of 49.7 percent, indicating growth in new orders. Manufacturing is starting out the year on a positive note, with all five of the PMI™’s component indexes — new orders, production, employment, supplier deliveries and inventories — registering above 50 percent in January.” January ISM Report

Precision machining is a subsector of Fabricated Metals, which was one of 13 sectors reporting growth in January in the following order: Plastics & Rubber Products; Textile Mills; Furniture & Related Products; Printing & Related Support Activities; Apparel, Leather & Allied Products; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; Fabricated Metal Products; Transportation Equipment; Petroleum & Coal Products; Machinery; Primary Metals; and Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products.

What does ISM’s PMI have to do with you?

The ISM correlates generally with GDP and Industrial Production over time. for a great discussion of how the ISM fits into the big picture, you might like “Robert Oak’s” take over at “The Economic Populist” blog.

ISM to REal GDP fredgraph

ISM to IP fredgraph

“Robert Oak” is  the pen name of “a thinking person like yourself who became fed up with corporate written and special interest driven trade, labor and economic policy and analysis.  Many spin with numbers including the financial press.  Robert Oak analyzes by first principles and puts accuracy and objectivity first.  The numbers don’t lie but people lie with numbers all the time.”

Fred ISM Graph Series

8 Positive Impacts of a Setup Reduction Program- Vanamatic

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Setup reduction is the one discipline that every precision machining shop must master.

Complete changeover and setup in under an hour is old news at Vanamatic.
Complete changeover and setup in under an hour is old news at Vanamatic.

Here are 8 positive impacts of a setup reduction for your precision machining shop from PMPA member company Vanamatic, who created the Vanamatic Lean Setup Reduction Video to show you the way…

1. Manufacturing Capacity. Setup reduction increases manufacturing capacity without adding people or machines. Doing more with less is the essential lesson of lean.

2. Scheduling. Standard (8-hour) setups are notorious for ending up at 20 hours, which puts the machine in the hole before it starts. Setup reduction programs compress the bad setup times significantly, which also helps scheduling. Setup reduction increases on-time performance and builds customer loyalty.

3. Premium Time/Overtime. Setups gone wrong often require overtime hours to catch up.  Additional premium time is seldom required with a good setup reduction program.

4. Setup Skills. Good setups from scratch require the highest skilled setup personnel; interchangeable tooling setups can be performed by operators.

5. Scrap and Defects. Setup scrap can be limited to a few pieces and bar ends. Ideal setup reduction programs generate a good piece on the first piece.

6. Machine Maintenance. Machine problems after setups from scratch occur frequently. Setup reduction programs with interchangeable tooling reduce the number of machine component adjustments, thus eliminating breakage caused by improper adjustment.

7. Tool Breakage. How often have you heard, “The tool broke because it was set wrong”? Quick-change/interchangeable setups eliminate breakage. They use tools that drop in or are preset outside the machine, resulting in setups and normal tool changes that seldom result in breakage because of improper settings.

8. Down and Waiting for Machine/Tool Components. Good setup reduction systems require that all tool and machine components be ready prior to the setup beginning. The best setup reduction programs store all tools and components in the machine area (not a crib) so the operator/setup people can prep for the next setup while the machine is running.

PMPA  offers the Vanamtic Setup Reduction Case Study slides and Video (via CD-R with paper master handouts) for a $500 donation to the PMPA Educational Foundation. The PMPA Educational Foundation awards grants to applying companies and individuals to further their skills training in the precision machining area.

These materials provide convincing evidence that Lean Setups are not just wishful thinking by showing actual people actually performing.

Contact Jeff Remaley  for an order form and we will also include a copy of the Micron Manufacturing Case study as well…

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