Mechanical properties of a given steel under compression compare closely with its tensile properties. An upset can be performed to determine how the steel will perform under compressive load.
A brittle steel under compression will ultimately fail by breaking along cleavage lines at an angle approximately 30 degrees from the axis of pressure being applied.
A more ductile steel flattens out, rather than cleaving, showing vertical cracks around the outer circumference. This ductile steel will not break, but will continue to flatten as more stress (load or force) is applied.
This compression or upset test is helpful for assuring that a steel will successfully cold work.
It can also be used to determine the extent of seams, laps or other surface imperfections on the surface of the bar. That’s what I used to do when we were producing drawn wire for cold heading applications.
Author: Miles Free
Lousy forecasting by OEM customers beats Lean and JIT every time, leaving the OEM’s supply chain bloated with inventory and starving for releases.
Ryan Kutz of PMPA member company Aztalan Engineering asks “Since a better portion of our customers have adopted lean, JIT, or quick response manufacturing practices-where inventory is dock to stock and stock levels are managed daily, making inventory almost none existent- is there any evidence of this in the year to year trend? Are sales figures becoming even closer to real time with manufacturing orders? “
Ryan asks this in response to our post February Precision Machining Shipments Level With January .
Ryan, we agree with your premise that most of our industry’s customers have adopted programs such as Lean, JIT, Quick Response Manufacturing, and other dock to production (as opposed to dock to stock) programs. These programs are designed to reduce cost of possession for the OEM. However, we see these as being essentially a blunt instrument used to beat the supplier rather than as a means to truly coordinate supply chain effectiveness. We feel that despite these programs, our OEM customers lack valid insight into market demand, causing inventories to rise and then their orders to our shops to plunge concurrently. Take a look at the following chart from Dr. Ken Mayland of Total Business Sales vs Total Business Inventories:
This graph shows that in first three quarters of 2014, our customers had a great handle on their demand and their orders and invetories tracked quite closely.
From 4Q 2014 forward, however, the % Change in Total Business Inventories continued to remain in the positive Year over Year, while the % Change in Total Sales year over year plummeted through end of Q1 2015, when they “leveled off” at around negative 2-3%.
I think that we err when we overestimate the power of Lean, Just in Time, and Quick Response Manufacturing in the hands of our customers.
These tools seem to be a blunt instrument at best.
To your question “Are sales figures becoming even closer to real time with manufacturing orders?” the graph above does seem to show that the change in sales and in inventories are converging at end of 2015 and 2016 year to date.
My conclusion is that it doesn’t really matter how fine a resolution our customers have in their Lean, Just In Time, or Quick Response Manufacturing processes and procedures, if their ability to forecast is so poor, especially during market declines.
Lousy forecasting by OEM customers beats Lean and JIT every time, leaving the OEM’s supply chain bloated with inventory and starving for releases.
Thanks for the great query.
Mike Reader, President of Precision Plus, shares his take on PMPA’s recent 2 day Capitol Hill Fly-in.
On Tuesday, March 15th, I flew to our nation’s capital to join nearly a dozen other business leaders from our trade association, Precision Machined Products Association (PMPA), for 2 days of work on the hill. The purpose of the trip was to continue our engagement with elected officials in order to keep them aware of legislative and regulatory matters impacting our ability to compete globally. As always, the pace is fast and the time passes far too quickly to accomplish all we set out to do.
For those of you who have not been to Washington D.C. to participate in our political process, let me share a few observations. Every American citizen should make the trip at least once to experience the madness of it all. It is like a giant anthill that has just been attacked by small children. Every special interest group on the planet is there lobbying for their cause. How anyone gets anything done in the midst of the chaos is unknown to me. More than likely, not enough does get done. While I was not interested in the political process for many years, it became clear to me during the great recession that we must all get involved or be silent about the consequences others have imposed upon us.
Central to our conversations were these three advocacy issues:
- Workforce development through training and education to ensure we maintain the most talented workforce on the planet. Our workforce is our greatest asset. However, the majority of skilled employees are aging, and public perception of manufacturing careers needs an adjustment. No longer is the world of manufacturing dark, dirty, and dangerous. Today’s world class manufacturers have state of the art facilities and advanced technology. Changing these outdated stereotypes that have been decades in the making will not happen overnight, but we must start one person at a time. We and our industry partners are promoting tours of manufacturing facilities to showcase what they look like today, as well as the rewarding career opportunities that exist all around us. These are honorable, family supporting professions that helped make America great, and we need to celebrate them. Policymakers, too, must vocalize the deep need for job training reformation and the strengthening of education grants.
- Tax and regulatory policies that promote domestic business investment, while maintaining good environmental standards. We must come together as a country for an honest conversation about these matters before it is too late. American businesses need a level playing field in order to compete. We are not asking for anything special, just that the 100 pound rucksack be removed so that we can truly compete with those countries that are taking our work with lower tax rates, fewer regulatory burdens, and less worker compensation.
- We also brainstormed how we can energize our fellow PMPA members to get involved in the conversation, as there is so much at stake for all of us. I encourage everyone to participate in a PMPA DC fly-in event at least one time to see for yourselves, how the process works, or not. It is our responsibility to be active and stay current on the issues that matter in our industries. Not doing so will be detrimental to our businesses, as well as our country.
Without common sense agreement on the top two items, we will continue to lose our workforce as jobs and businesses are exported in exchange for cheap taxes, labor, and greater global pollution. It is time to have this honest, yet respectful, conversation before it is too late.
– Mike Reader President of Precision Plus
“Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in March for the first time in the last six months, while the overall economy grew for the 82nd consecutive month, say the nation’s supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM® Report On Business®.”
“The March PMI® registered 51.8 percent, an increase of 2.3 percentage points from the February reading of 49.5 percent. The New Orders Index registered 58.3 percent, an increase of 6.8 percentage points from the February reading of 51.5 percent. The Production Index registered 55.3 percent, 2.5 percentage points higher than the February reading of 52.8 percent.”
This is good news for the precision machined products industry. Our products make most manufactured technologies function and perform whether, electrical, electronic, hydraulic or fluid power, or simply utility control.
Of the 12 markets reporting growth in March, Furniture & Related Products; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; Machinery; Plastics & Rubber Products; Fabricated Metal Products; Primary Metals; and Computer & Electronic Products are served by our industry. Of the remaining markets reporting contraction, Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Transportation Equipment are markets heavily served by our industry.
The resumption of manufacturing expansion is welcomed, and we hope will put to rest the speculation of a recession just around the corner. Manufacturing represents almost a third of our economy see our article here
ISM report here
Calculated Risk (Graph)
OSHA Issues Safety Alert- Scissors Lifts
10 fatalities and 20 serious injuries over a one year period spurred the alert.
What you need to know:
- Only trained operators permitted to use;
- Training must be complete;
- Equipment must be properly maintained;
- PPE must be worn;
- Lift platforms must have guardrails in place, and employees must not stand on guardrails;
- Never move a lift when the platform is elevated per Manufacturer’s instructions;
- Outdoor operations only when wind speeds are below 28 mph.
Pre-shift scissors lift inspection Graphic Courtesy Toyota Lift Truck of Minnesota:
Link to OSHA Alert: Scissors Lift Hazard Alert
ToyotaEquipment of Minnesota Graphic
OSHA Aerial Lifts Fact Sheet
Editing to remove non- value adding distractions and waste is the true essence of Lean.
Who is the “Lean Editor” to cut the non-value-added distractions and waste throughout your shop?
Level Precision Machining Industry Sales Beat Fed Industrial Production Numbers for February 2016
With 81 companies responding, the PMPA Business Trends Index in February 2016 remained level at 117.
The glass half full interpretation of this is that we did not get the traditional February decline from January.
The glass half empty interpretation is that February 2016 is down five points or four percent from February 2015. Year to date our index is just 95% of that of same period 2015.
The good news is that our index’s remaining level beats the Industrial Production DECREASE reported by the FED for February of 0.5 %.
What are you seeing for sales in your shop?
Here are three of my favorite and most shared ideas to get the most from drills in your shop.
- Keep the drill short.
- Get the feed rate right.
- Replace the drill on schedule before it dulls.
Keep the drill short. Drills need a rigid setup. Having extra length can lead to deflection and drill wander. There is a reason that drills for screw machining applications are short- we need the rigidity. I learned this while working as the metallurgist for a steel bar company. I got a call from a customer that my steel wouldn’t drill straight. After a 3-1/2 hour drive to the customer’s shop out of state, I found a very narrow diameter drill (maybe 3/16″) being held in a Jacobs chuck the size of my head, being held on a Morse taper the length of my forearm. Or maybe a bit longer. Add to that a very short cycle time, and the drill and chuck never got to a repeatably steady location- they were vibrating until they entered into the next workpiece. They could enter that workpiece at a number of different locations based on that vibration and moment arm. We shortened the setup considerably and suddenly the steel that we provided was drilling straight, true and on center.
Get the feed rate right. When I was learning machining, I was taught that the feed rate determines your success in drilling. After years and years in shops like yours, I am convinced that what I was taught is correct. Yes, the wrong speed can burn up a drill. But getting the feed right assures that the chips break up appropriately. that they will flow smoothly down the flutes. Proper feed assures that the drill won’t “chip out” on the cutting edge, and also that the drill itself won’t crack or split up the center from too heavy of a feed.
Planned replacement of the drill before it dulls will make you more parts per shift. This is an under- appreciated way of thinking. In most companies, they have a purchasing culture and want to get the most out of a tool before replacing it. In the most profitable companies, they have a “respect the process” culture that focusses on maintaining process control, not maximum tool life. By replacingthe drill before it gets dull, they minimize downtime, They minimize the production of defective parts. They minimize the creation of workhardening in the parts produced prior to tool replacement. This means less downtime, more trouble-free uptime, and more parts at the end of the shift. Twenty extra minutes of production on a part with a ten second cycle time is an extra 120 parts at the end of the shift. Shippable, billable, no- anomaly parts.
There are other factors besides feed that influence drilling, I will grant you that.
Proper speed, proper coating, proper geometry, effective delivery of coolant– we could create quite a list.
But in my experience, the three factors that hold the secret to productive drilling in our precision machining shops are short rigid setups, proper feed, and planned or scheduled replacement. These three factors are the keys to getting more parts with less trouble out of your shop.
What do you think?
Photo credit: ENCO
Economic activity in the manufacturing sector contracted in February for the fifth consecutive month, while the overall economy grew for the 81st consecutive month, according to the latest Manufacturing ISM® Report On Business®.
We admit that manufacturing is one definitive pocket of recession- 5 consecutive months of contracting economic activity is by definition “recessionary.”
Strong consumer balance sheets and strong corporate balance sheets seem to be keeping the general economy growing, with February being the 81st consecutive month of general economic expansion according to ISM.
Besides, there has never been a recession in the United States unless and until the yield spread has inverted. Of course, there was never before such a situation of somuch foreign purchase of US Treasury debt either…
Our January Business trends report showed many respondents with huge sales increases over December 2015, and many with no significant pick up.
We think that we have, as manufacturers, stronger months ahead of us in 2016.
Calculated Risk Blog
“When we install this automated line we can eliminate three jobs.”
This is probably the stupidest thing that I have ever overheard. (I was eating lunch at a rest stop on the turnpike home from a recent trip.)
There are at least 600,000 high tech manufacturing jobs currently unfilled in the US and Canada.
We know that there are about 391,000 Baby Boomer generation machinists that will be leaving the workforce in the next few years.
- Who in their right mind wants to eliminate people?
- They have proven that they can come to work
- They have proven they can do the work
- They have proven that they can add value
The point of automation isn’t to eliminate jobs. It is to eliminate non-value added labor.
The employees have already demonstrated that they can add value. Automation should free them up to add even more, higher value added to your operations.
I believe that people should be engaged at their highest and best use. Or, as Norbert Wiener once wrote – The Human Use of Human Beings.
The point of automation is to let you elevate your existing talent to their highest and best use.
Any thing else is The 8th Waste- unused creativity of our people.
Automate to elevate. Not to eliminate. Good people are hard enough to find.
Why would you eliminate your great ones?