Author: Joe Jackson
Published May 22, 2023
Published May 15, 2023
Published May 8, 2023
Published May 1, 2023
Fabricated Metal Products Manufacturing is a subsector of manufacturing that makes critical goods from metal components.
Precision Turned Products Manufacturing is a subsector of fabricated metal product manufacturing that makes the components that MAKE IT WORK!
WISCONSIN ECONOMIC OUTPUT
Wisconsin Manufacturing
NAICS 31-33
$64,880,000,000
Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing
NAICS 332
$15,223,624,000
Precision Turned Product Manufacturing
NACIS 332721
$769,376,000
WISCONSIN MANUFACTURING ACCOUNTS FOR
Manufacturing Is Productivity –19% of Wisconsin’s total output (GDP)
Manufacturing Builds Businesses – 9,754 manufacturing establishments in the state of Wisconsin
Manufacturing Creates Jobs – Jobs: 17% of all Wisconsin employees are in the manufacturing sector. (475,300 employees)
Manufacturing Earns Export Dollars – Wisconsin manufactured goods exports were valued at $23.71 billion last year.
Manufacturing produces for WISCONSIN!
Wisconsin is a great place for a career in manufacturing
Published May 1, 2023
By David Wynn, Technical Services Manager, PMPA
This is not a discussion of children coloring their coloring page inserts from a children’s book. I am literally asking how many of you out in the shop color your carbide inserts. If you don’t color them, then how do you know what edge is good? What edge is bad? This is a simple visual management tool to help our shop performers identify the edges that will result in trouble-free production. No matter when you go back to a holder, you always know where that insert stands. Visual management gives an immediate positive report on the status of the tool. No more guessing if the edge has been previously used. It looks good. How do we know?
It is often hard to tell when an insert is worn. The obvious ones are the chipped out or cracked in half. How about when you get a job that requires tight surface finish requirements and a worn insert is totally unnoticeable other than the resulting cut. This is where a paint marker designed to mark on oily surfaces comes in handy. The simplest solution is a one-color system. Red for a bad edge and that is it. But consider a three-colored approach to enable the most life out of your inserts:
Red for bad edge. You are not using this edge again no matter what. Used 90% of the time.
Yellow for reusable edge. You would not use a yellow edge on a part that needs some super surface finish or tight tolerance, but when you have a ± 0.015″ bushing and just need a cutoff insert, this will definitely work. Used about 7% of the time.
Green for good edge but has been used. This is reserved for only those times you go to the lathe and drill a hole in a 12L14 or 360 brass ejector. This drill is still brand new, but the color lets us know it has been used. Used less than 3% of the time.
The next time you go to a drawer and look at a load of holders and wonder which of these inserts are used, look for your colored edge so that you know. Better yet, put the inserts away instead of leaving them in the holder. Now you can go to a box of inserts and easily see how many edges you really have. How many times have you ordered a box of inserts only to find 10 holders with that insert already in it? Visual management by applying simple color codes to your tooling will save you thousands of wasted dollars in inserts of uncertain status, locked up in holders. So, add a little color the next time you go to change an insert. Add a little color and you will always have confidence in the status of your edge. Use visual management to give you an edge!
Published May 1, 2023
Every year, the PMPA does a survey of our membership to determine the critical topics they are seeing as we prepare
for our advocacy in Washington D.C. before Congress and working with executive branch agencies. This year’s survey
showed continued high interest in many areas of concern, particularly around expensing, depreciation and recovering research and development investments. But the surprising takeaway for me was to see how the percentage of shops serving the various market segments has changed just since last year.
Historically, the top five markets most heavily served by our North American precision machining shops have been light vehicle, aerospace, medical device and implant, industrial machinery and equipment, and agricultural equipment/off highway. One of the interesting facts is that in many years, the category “all other” is often the third or fourth largest category — our shops’ high precision, high-performance components empower many different systems in a wide variety of industries. This year, “all other” came in eighth position showing just how strongly the demand from our primary markets has been. This year’s surprise? Oil and gas customers were the second place market served with 61% of survey respondents reporting sales to that industry.
Industrial machinery and equipment came in first position, claiming shipments from 66% or two thirds of respondents.
Automotive light truck came in third position tied with medical with 55% of this year’s survey respondents producing parts for those industries. Agriculture and off road came in fourth place, tied with defense/ordnance at 53% of respondents producing for these industries. Aerospace, typically our shops number two or three industry in terms of
being served by our shops, came in fifth position, tied with heavy truck which is served by half of our survey participants.
Appliances, electronics, telecommunications, new/renewable energy (think solar, wind, hydro) and computer/business machines filled the remainder of named markets served.
Every shop is different, and even though many shops use similar machine tools, equipment and technology, each organization has its own strengths and focus as far as understanding and meeting customer requirements — both explicit and implicit. But what the shifting number of shops serving each of these different markets showed me is
that our shops also have a flexibility, an agility to meet the needs of the greater market. Yes, a shop may be a strong
provider of high-volume, low-mix critical components for autos and light trucks, but that does not mean they cannot
also be a supplier for a variety of other components in smaller quantities for other industries.
The greatest surprise to me, however, from this year’s survey results, was the strong showing of oil/gas as the market served by the second largest cohort of shops in our survey. I would never have thought that oil/gas — aka dinosaur juice, according to the pundits inside the beltway — would be the second most important market for our shops for contract parts production. And yet we are. This flies in the face of all of the policy and legislative initiatives for reducing CO2, climate change and ESG considerations in the federal government — I counted 54 separately listed entries in the Energy Information Administration’s Table 1 Included and excluded Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provisions in the Annual Energy Outlook 2023 publication.
Despite the reports and forecasts of energy-related CO2 emissions falling 25%-38% below 2005 levels, our shops are
finding components for oil and gas to be the second largest segment of their current book of business. If we were to
add the percentage of shops also claiming renewable and new energy production orders market, the percentage of
shops serving “all energy” rises to number one position — with the largest number of our shops producing components.
Our takeaways? Despite all of the press attention on new and renewable energy, and CO2 reduction, the oil and gas market is surprisingly our industry’s second-ranked market served by percentage of shops responding. It is second to industrial machinery and equipment, ahead of automotive and light truck in third position, with medical and aerospace tying for fourth. is ranking is quite an upset. All of these markets are human-safety critical, where requirements for safety, quality and integrity of product are of the highest importance.
For the old timers who think our industry is just about hose fittings and high volumes of commodity parts, our latest survey tells a much different story. We are the people that make things. Things that provide all of us with energy.
Energy that makes things go. Without energy there is no supply chain — nor need for one. Take the reports of the
impending death of dino juice and ICE vehicles with a healthy dose of critical thinking. While these markets are
expected to decline, our shops are currently finding plenty of opportunity to add value as they produce needed critical
components. In the long term, our parts count and book of business could shrink. But we were completely surprised
to see that the oil/gas market is, as of 2023, our second largest market served.
Miles Free III is the PMPA Director of Industry Affairs with over 50 years of experience in the areas of manufacturing, quality and steelmaking. Miles’ podcast is at pmpa.org/podcast. Email Miles
Published May 1, 2023
Parts don’t get made without employees and the Human Resources (HR) Department handles recruitment, retention, compensation, benefits, training and more. The list is much longer, but, at its core, HR takes care of the employees. Brenda Diehl is the HR manager for Bracalente Manufacturing Group in Trumbauersville, Pennsylvania, and Diane Ferrera is the director of human resources for AccuRounds in Avon, Massachusetts. Both women share
their journey to manufacturing.
Brenda Diehl’s Journey
Brenda earned a bachelor’s degree in political science, then took a job as a restaurant manager. Knowing it wasn’t a good fit, she took some business classes at the local community college and provided general office help for Bracalente through a temp agency. She learned as much as she could about the business and, when the position opened, the HR manager position was ordered to her. “I like to say Ron Bracalente and I grew up together at Bracalente,” she says. Brenda continues reflecting on her 34 years in HR, “The company continues to grow and thrive every day and so do we!” Brenda loves helping people and problem-solving. She enjoys making a difference in the employees’ lives, their families and being in a position to help the company.
Diane Ferrera’s Journey
After earning her associates degree in science, Diane worked for a food distributer and retail grocery chain, and was exposed to a broad range of business processes. She worked her way up to human resource manager while earning dual bachelor’s degrees in education and psychology/sociology.
She was then hired into manufacturing in HR, which led to her current position at AccuRounds. Diane enjoys working with people and enjoys learning. “For a small company with limited resources, AccuRounds is progressive and has a forward-thinking mindset,” Diane says. “I am privileged to be entering my 18th year at AccuRounds and I have seen countless improvements made to our work environment and culture.”
Advice to Women (or Anyone) Seeking a Career in Manufacturing
Brenda’s advice to those seeking a manufacturing career is, “Do it. Manufacturing in the U.S. isn’t going anywhere, A career in manufacturing provides it all — longevity, challenge, reward, community and connection. We need the best and the brightest. Commit to being something bigger than yourself.” Diane’s advice to those seeking a manufacturing career is, “Learning is a lifelong journey. There are different career paths available, and many skills are
transferable into other fields and industries, so don’t limit yourself. Manufacturing is waiting for you.”
Carli Kistler-Miller, MBA has over 25 years of experience with
communications, event/meeting planning, marketing, writing and
operations. Email: gro.apmp@rellimc — Website: pmpa.org.
Published May 1, 2023
The National Technical Conference held in Cleveland, Ohio last week was a big success! We had 292 members attend from 96 companies and 106 first timers. Networking, learning and problem-solving filled the sessions, hallways and gatherings. A big thank you to all our speakers, mentors and members of the Technical Program Committee – you make this conference valuable.
Another big thank you to our sponsors whose support helps keep the registration fees reasonable.
All conference speaker slide decks are now available for download (PDFs) at the link below. They are password-protected (you’ll need your PMPA passwords to access).
PRESENTATIONS / SESSION RECORDINGS
Print Session Discussion
interactive discussions during a session
Miles Free teaching a session on CHIPS!
Save the date for NTC 2024 in Cincinnati, Ohio, April 28-30, 2024!
PMTS 2023 was the biggest show ever, featuring 322 exhibitors and over 6,500 registered attendees! Thank you to everyone who stopped by the PMPA booth – it was great to see you!
PMPA Staff recorded several Speaking of Precision podcast conversations in our booth and had wonderful discussions with our members. Watch for that special event podcast to be released on Monday, May 1 on major podcast platforms and on PMPA.org
Winner of the PMPA Gerstner tool box was…
PMPA member Sara Burns of B.I.C. Precision Machine Co., Inc. in Blanchester, Ohio.
Congratulations, Sara!!
Published April 24, 2023