Month: October 2020
Our Shops Are Proving to be “Essential Manufacturing” to the Economic Recovery! September Precision Machining Industry Sales Rate of Growth Accelerates 8.4% over August as Federal Reserve’s Industrial Production Index Fell 0.6%, Manufacturing Output fell 0.3% All sentiment indicators increased or remained level for the fifth consecutive month.
Released October 26, 2020
Miles Free & Carli Kistler discuss what we can do better when it comes to workforce development and helping our performers build their skills in our shops.
Federated Insurance will provide a brief history as well as an overview of our structure to serve PMPA Members. We will review recommended insurance programs and specialized coverages specific to the machining and manufacturing industry, and an overview of our risk management services and tools available to clients to assist in operating their business. In addition, we will highlight personalized online destinations for risk management for clients that will be available late summer.
Colin Weighman from Comco, Inc.
Colin Weightman of Comco Inc. will take a look at different kinds of burrs: poisson and rollover (feather). This distinction helps determine the appropriate deburring methods and how to remove them. We explore a novel tool to effectively deburr small, fragile, and high value parts. Using several case studies we identify the capabilities and limitations of MicroBlasting for deburring a range of metals and polymers.
Graham Immerman from MachineMetrics
Graham Immerman, VP of Marketing for MachineMetrics will explore how organizations are working with American manufacturers to better prepare their supply chains to respond rapidly and proactively to future supply chain disruptions, with an emphasis on the importance of democratizing manufacturing data. Data democratization is a tremendous challenge. If achieved, however, the opportunities for continuous improvement for all manufacturing life-cycle members will be far greater than ever before.
Released October 19, 2020
Miles Free & Carli Kistler-Miller discuss what you should know about leaded steel such as machinability, the benefits, the downsides, as well as best practices when dealing with leaded steel.
The business strategy around estimating and quoting hasn’t changed much in 20 years. The same issues facing job shops in 1999 when Wayne Chaneski wrote his MMS column on Getting the Most From Your Quotations still hold true today. Most shops have a win rate of 20-30%. This means that 7 out of 10 quotes sent resulted in no revenue. So why are shops spending so much time engineering estimates?
Learn how technology can turn the data generated in the quoting process into valuable resources for future business activities and reduce time spent on over-engineering quotes.
Primary Topics:
Quoting strategies that increase revenue
The economics of costing
The true cost of quoting
The must-have customer experience
Released October 12, 2020
Miles Free & Carli Kistler-Miller discuss the upcoming 2020 election and each of Presidential candidates expected policies and approaches on environmental, human resources and workforce training policies.
*To be clear, we are not pro-Trump, we are not pro-Biden, we are pro-manufacturing and we want to bring you the facts shared with us from The Franklin Partnership so you can make an informed decision*
Released October 5, 2020
Miles Free & Carli Kistler-Miller discuss the upcoming 2020 Election and each of the Presidential candidates policy expectations on Trade and Taxes.
*To be clear, we are not pro-Trump, we are not pro-Biden, we are pro-manufacturing and we want to bring you the facts shared with us from The Franklin Partnership so you can make an informed decision*
Thanks to the 72 companies that responded to our latest request for updated information about your shops’ current status and expectations going forward.
We have forwarded these results to our team at The Franklin Partnership who will use this to help craft policy in Washington D.C.
Typically we share some inferences from our work, but this survey is clear and hardly needs any additional sensemaking. However, the fact that 86% of shops have no skilled employees on furlough, (Question #4) and 36% of respondents are actively seeking skilled workers right now (Q #5) are convincing evidence of our positive future.
Here are some other very interesting points to consider:
Again, thanks to those companies who took the time to respond and share with the rest of us their current status.