Month: October 2017
October 2017 | Craftsman’s Cribsheet #59
Busy machines and production lines are good, but even better are busy machines and production lines that are making the right product and making the
product right. This is one perspective on OEE – Overall Equipment Efficiency.
Gary Chynne uses his skills with the longbow to explain and demonstrate the fundamentals of mastery by having and following the process in “Guy Language.”
How good can you get?
At 3:10 into this video, he summarizes his lesson: ” So how good can you get? If you know all your steps- you take your front step, your back step. Get your head, get your bow at 45 degrees, get it back to your anchor, relax your arm. If you can follow those steps and get bulls-eyes, THEN DO IT!
“Do not short draw. Do not overdraw. Do not draw to the right of your anchor. Do not draw to the left of your anchor. Don’t let your bow waver around. Don’t let it wiggle. If its supposed to be 45, make it 45.
“That’s how you’re going to hit the target. So its just a matter- once you know how to shoot- how good can you get- at taking the steps to shoot properly?”
Probably the best advice you’ll ever get about machining as well. Follow the process. Be true to the process. Don’t take shortcuts or deviate from your known process.
His follow up is TRUTH as well
“Anyhow, it’s kind of a blast, and its kind of a bit harder than you would wish, sometimes. Anyhow, when you do that stuff, you start to hit the target.”
Or, as one of the commenter’s posted:
“Don’t just practice until you can get it right. Practice until you never get it wrong.”
I think that this is probably some of the best machinist advice I’ve run across. What about you?
Deputy Director of OSHA’s Directorate of Enforcement Programs Patrick Kapust presented the agency’s preliminary list at the National Safety Congress and Expo on September 26.
Here are the Top Ten, along with the number of citations.
If you are just now reviewing your OSHA training performance, these standards would be a great place to start.
The items numbered 1910 are General Industry, those numbered 1926 are Construction.
Photo courtesy Staffing Talk
“Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in September, and the overall economy grew for the 100th consecutive month, say the nation’s supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM® Report On Business®.”- ISM PMI
Low inventories, growth in orders and strong production levels drove the PMI to 60.8 from last month’s 58.8. That 2 point increase is the largest monthly increase since May 2004, before the Great Recession
“The September PMI® registered 60.8 percent, an increase of 2 percentage points from the August reading of 58.8 percent. The New Orders Index registered 64.6 percent, an increase of 4.3 percentage points from the August reading of 60.3 percent. The Production Index registered 62.2 percent, a 1.2 percentage point increase compared to the August reading of 61 percent. The Employment Index registered 60.3 percent, an increase of 0.4 percentage point from the August reading of 59.9 percent. The Supplier Deliveries Index registered 64.4 percent, a 7.3 percentage point increase from the August reading of 57.1 percent. The Inventories Index registered 52.5 percent, a decrease of 3 percentage points from the August reading of 55.5 percent. “- ISM release
The data is why we continue to be optimistic– despite the imminence of the 4th Quarter and its seasonal low demand- LOW INVENTORIES will drive continued demand for our machined products!
Read that last line in the quote above: “The Inventories Index registered 52.5 percent, a decrease of 3 percentage points from the August reading of 55.5 percent.”
Those low inventories mean that demand will need to be met by new orders from our shops.
According to Industry Week: “Orders will probably remain strong in coming months as a gauge of customer inventories held close to a six-year low. What’s more, the ISM’s order backlogs index crept up to the highest level since April 2011, helping explain why more factories are stepping up hiring.”
We’ve been saying that right along in our monthly PMPA Business Trends Reporting. Anecdotal evidence from our shops indicates that lead time issues are causing some shops to off load business with others with open capacity.
We continue to believe that 2017 will be a strong year for shipments of precision machined products.
Chart courtesy of Calculated Risk Blog.
Published October 2017
By PMPA Staff
Before it was a 60-employee, full-service milling company capable of high-volume production across a number of different industries, Montague Tool and Manufacturing was a modest machine shop run by an owner with a knack for milling ingenuity.
Published October 2017
By Sterling Gill III
The game-changing Manufacturing for Future Generations (MFG) training resource from PMPA-MFG is available exclusively to PMPA member companies.
