Our nation has an urgent need for Ventilators, and General Motors, one of the companies charged with retooling to make ventilators, asked a PMPA member if they could make all of the parts needed. Our member brought the prints for the ventilator parts to PMPA to leverage the capabilities of our entire association. The PMPA team submitted the prints to our membership and compiled the list of PMPA members who have the capability and the capacity to produce parts for ventilators.  The list has been submitted to GM, FEMA and The White House, and we have confirmed that at several parts have already been awarded to our members and are in production. As our members report additional capacity and capability we will submit an addendum.
 

Ventilator parts in production at PMPA member shop in Illinois #makingpartsthatmakeadifference

Manufacturing matters. And local manufacturing can make a local difference. The race to the bottom for the globally lowest price is not helping us in our hour of need. Local solutions can solve Global problems. American Manufacturers are stepping up. We need to keep that in mind after we get through this crisis.

PMPA Business Trends March 2020

 

“Unexpectedly Positive First Quarter, Despite Unseasonal March”

 

With 79 companies responding, the PMPA Business Trends Index for March fell to 129, a drop of only four points or 3% from February, down 12.2% from March 2019, and down 7% from the March five year average. Who expected this strong of a performance in March?

 

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Covid-19 Training and Education Materials

Tuesday March 17, 2020

The attached materials will help you provide authoritative training and background on this issue for all your employees. The training should run about 15 minutes. PMPA thanks Dr William Edwards, Jr. MD, MBA of member company Peterson Tool Company in Nashville for preparing these materials and sharing to reduce the risks for all of our members and their employees.

 

Levels

Share Facts About Covid-19

16.20 Upward Trajectory or Flattened Curve?

What You Need to Know About Covid-19

Slow Spread Germs

Stay Home You’re Sick

Prevention and Treatment of Coronavirus Disease

What to Do if You Are Sick With Coronavirus Disease

Why Should You Care

 

 

 

 

“The one thing that you can do is to stand down for ten minutes and 3-S your shop.”
Paul Akers,  the hands on Manufacturer who also wrote 2 Second Lean, was one of our Update conference’s most popular speakers. (Paul will tell you, as he told us, he’s not a speaker. He’s not a consultant. He’s a MANUFACTURING GUY.)

Paul Akers, manufacturing guy.

 
One of the ideas that he shared  is so appropriate right now, I feel that I have to share.
The one thing that you can do right now is to do a ten or fifteen minute stand-down and 3-S (Clean, sort, and organize) your premises
Have your team sanitize every surface that anyone touches.
Sweeping = sanitizing

Everyone gets to do their part!
The fellow on the ladder cleaning the sign- that the V.P. of Sales.

People get pretty excited when there is a threat- but there is nothing that they can do. Its called the fight or flight syndrome, and when people can’t do anything, they get stressed.
Look at 3-S’ing your premises as a great way to 1) take positive steps to prevent transmission of the virus or germs among your team, and 2) a positive step to de-stress because people are doing work to reduce everyone’s risk.
Do it everyday- even when this COVID-19 event is in our rear-view mirror.
Thank you Paul Akers for giving us a tool we can use to minimize our risk as we improve our workplace and culture.
That’s a lot of great takeaways  from just two slides, Paul. Maybe we should call it 2-slide lean. What do you think Paul?

Covid-19 Training and Education Materials

Tuesday March 17, 2020

The attached materials will help you provide authoritative training and background on this issue for all your employees. The training should run about 15 minutes. PMPA thanks Dr William Edwards, Jr. MD, MBA of member company Peterson Tool Company in Nashville for preparing these materials and sharing to reduce the risks for all of our members and their employees.

 

Levels

Share Facts About Covid-19

3. Coronavirus: Upward Trajectory or Flattened Curve?   

What You Need to Know About Covid-19

Slow Spread Germs

Stay Home You’re Sick

Prevention, Treatment of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

What to Do if You Are Sick With Coronavirus Disease

 Why Should You Care

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Throughout history, American manufacturers have answered the call to find solutions, support progress and step up in times of crisis. Our U.S. manufacturers and workers are ready to minimize operational disruptions and help produce a quality, reliable products ready to ship to any location. We’re here to help.
Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity  (VUCA) are business as usual for the North American Manufacturing Industry.
We remain on the job ready, willing, and able to get you the critical components that you need for your critical quality and human safety applications.

Open letter to suppliers

Having supply chain / procurement issues? Our member shops are available to help. Check our websites for assistance in finding a shop:
www.amba.org          American Mold Builders Association
www.ntma.org           National Tooling and Machining Association
www.pmpa.org          Precision Machined Products Association
www.pma.org            Precision Metalforming Association
www.tmaillinois.org   Technology & Manufacturing Association
Throughout history, American manufacturers have answered the call to find solutions, support progress and step up in times of crisis. Our U.S. manufacturers and workers are ready to minimize operational disruptions and help produce quality, reliable products ready to ship to any location. 

It’s what we do.

The experts say “Wash your hands.
The experts say Don’t touch your face.”
Actually they sayAvoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands. Viruses that cause colds can enter your body this way and make you sick.” 
If only playing Simple Simon  with the experts calling the shots would keep us safe.

The experts say wash your hands- why don’t they suggest that you not touch contaminated surfaces in the first place?

In manufacturing, we have a thing called Root Cause Corrective Action. We try to prevent reccurrence by eliminating causes.
Basically we work on offense against causes. Not play defense against things that have already happened.
From a root cause preventive action point of view, what is one thing that you can do to reduce your risk of community acquired infections?

Use a stylus!

 

If you don’t touch the infectious contamination on the keys used by who knows how many people before you…

Do you know how many people touched those keys before you?
“Reviewing the literature on all available human and veterinary viruses within this family, encompassing 22 studies, researchers have found that the human pathogens can persist on surfaces and remain infectious at room temperature for up to nine days. “- Sciencealert corona virus on surfaces
If you knew that someone had a tissue in their hand when they used the keypad, would you not use the keypad? 
(Hint, I see that happening a lot)
Go ahead and touch. Ewww…

 
How many keypads and touchscreens do you get to touch in a day?
I count 4 or 5 in a typical day- grocery store, pharmacy, bank counter and ATM,  gas station pumps and counter, retail shops, department stores.
On non typical days, add Airline parking access gate touchscreen and airline check-in kiosk touch screens. Hundreds of people ahead of me at the airport…
Whose job is it to disinfect them?
When I asked, all I got was blank stares… though at my local Gas Station the Cashier has been doing a great job of wiping down touchscreens.
What if instead of touching all of these with your fingers and possibly acquiring infectious bacteria or viruses- what if we didn’t touch these contaminated surfaces? 
What if a stylus did the touching?
Wouldn’t that keep us safer, by reducing our exposure to infectious materials with our hands?
Washing hands is fine. We get it.
But not getting our hands contaminated with infectious contaminants in the first place?
We think that that is far better than playing only defense- getting contaminated, and then washing up.
We think that using a stylus instead of your fingers on touchscreens and keypads is the one thing that you can do that will positively reduce your chance of community acquired infection.
We’re not sure why the experts don’t suggest it.
Use a stylus!
I purchased a bunch from Staples to give to my colleagues at work.
Use a stylus not your finger…

You can order them on Amazon too.

 
We think that using a stylus instead of your fingers on touchscreens and keypads is the one thing that you can do that will positively reduce your chance of community acquired infection.
What do you think? More importantly,  what will you do?

Manufacturing expanded in February, as the PMI® registered 50.1 percent, a 0.8-percentage point decrease from the January reading of 50.9 percent. “The PMI® expanded in February, but at a slower rate. Four of the big six industries expanded, at similar rates compared to January. Four of the PMI®’s 10 subindexes recorded expansion, down from six the previous month,” says Fiore.
A reading above 50 percent indicates that the manufacturing economy is generally expanding; below 50 percent indicates that it is generally contracting.

A PMI® above 42.8 percent, over a period of time, generally indicates an expansion of the overall economy. Therefore, the February PMI® indicates growth for the 130th consecutive month in the overall economy, and the second month of growth following five months of contraction in the manufacturing sector. “The past relationship between the PMI® and the overall economy indicates that the PMI® for February (50.1 percent) corresponds to a 2.1-percent increase in real gross domestic product (GDP) on an annualized basis,” -Timothy R. Fiore, CPSM, C.P.M., Chair of the Institute for Supply Management® (ISM®) Manufacturing Business Survey Committee

Manufacturing grew in February, though rate down from January,

The industry is currently facing challenges from supply change disruption due to coronavirus outbreak and continued Boeing 737 Max delays.
The  low but still positive PMI in February  corresponds to a 2.1-percent  increase in GDP according to ISM.
This February PMI® indicates growth for the 130th consecutive month in the overall economy, and the second month of growth following five months of contraction in the manufacturing sector. 
Could certainly be worse!
Graph: Calculated Risk Blog

U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Coronavirus Emergency Loans Small Business Guide & Checklist

 

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act allocated $350 billion to help small businesses keep workers employed amid the pandemic and economic downturn. Known as the Paycheck Protection Program, the initiative provides 100% federally guaranteed loans to small businesses who maintain their payroll during this emergency.

Importantly, these loans may be forgiven if borrowers maintain their payrolls during the crisis or restore their payrolls afterward.

The administration soon will release more details including the list of lenders offering loans under the program. In the meantime, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has issued this guide to help small businesses and self-employed individuals prepare to file for a loan.

 

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