You may not know it but on this day in 1973 Ohio became the first state in the U.S. to post metric distance signs along I-71.
These new signs showed the distance in both miles and kilometers. The metric system, though standard in many nations around the world, never quite caught on in the United States, except on major-league baseball stadium fences — and on that highway in Ohio.
And that is why Richard and Joan Parker in the Summer of 1973 decided to call our company Metric Machining when the company began on September 1, 1973.
They wanted their company to be on the cutting edge………… and they’re still waiting for the rest of the country to catch up!
Sign
Author: Miles Free
Don’s inferences about the changes to come in the distribution industry could very well affect our provision of parts to our customers. His inferences about the employment situation are certainly in agreement with what we are seeing in our shops.
1 minute takeaway: Cultural unemployment occurs when the jobs available are not desired by unemployed workers due to cultural patterns. Factory and truck driving jobs were desirable jobs a generation ago, but the culture has changed and now a large portion of the available labor pool is avoiding these careers.
Guest Post by Don Ake. FTR (Freight Transportation Research)
“In December I attended the Chicago FED Economic Outlook Symposium. During a presentation on the steel industry, the speaker noted that companies are having problems hiring enough production workers. Then, during a presentation on the housing industry, the speaker noted that builders can’t find enough skilled tradesmen for the jobs available. Finally, an auto industry analyst stated that there are unmet employment needs there as well.
American Honda Motor company is a major employer in Ohio with about 13,700 employees and three major plants. Now Honda is exporting more cars than it imports.
We wrote about the opportunity to embrace “The New Domestics” as customers as well as presented a business case analysis at a meeting of a number of PMPA member Automotive Focused Parts Producers in 2009.
So we were not surprised to see a small article in our local paper that American Honda is now exporting more vehicles than it imports. And our follow-up search turned up the fact that they are also the only manufacturer with THREE car lines selling more than 300,000 vehicles in 2013. According to Autofieldguide.com, Honda sold 366,678 Accords, 336,180 Civics, and 303,904 CR-Vs.
When I was working for the steel company, we put multiple truckloads of high quality steel into Honda and its suppliers’ plants every week. High quality, high-tech, highly engineered steel.
We love foreign direct investment. We love the fact that Honda is paying the wages of about 13,700 employees here in Ohio. We love the fact that Honda is exporting more vehicles than it is importing.
And we love knowing that they are purchasing highly engineered, performance and safety critical components from PMPA members around the country.
Congratulations Honda. Congratulations, U.S. Manufacturing!
Does your business plan include the New Domestics?
Michael Tamasi was called to the White House to share AccuRounds’ successes in building a partnership to re-employ local residents in the manufacturing industry. A number of organizations promoting the national expansion of sector partnerships were also in attendance, including National Skills Coalition, (National Fund for Workforce Solutions), and Business Leaders United for Workforce Partnerships. Other event participants included CEOs from national corporations such as Boeing Co., Bank of America and Ebay, small and medium-sized employers, foundations, and other local organizations working to help the long-term unemployed in a variety of ways.
Secretary of Labor Tom Perez and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker joined President Obama at the event to discuss a number of new efforts by the Obama Administration to bring attention to the long-term unemployed. President Obama announced he is dedicating $150 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Labor for “job-driven training partnerships,” also known as sector partnerships, to help the long-term unemployed get back to work, building on the successful models developed by such organizations as AccuRounds.
Prior to this event, President Obama, along with Vice-President Biden, Secretary Perez and Secretary Pritzker, convened twenty of the top CEO’s in the country to share best practices and strategize on how to collaborate in moving successful initiatives forward. Tamasi was one of only two small businesses to participate in this forum. This intimate roundtable discussion was productive, with Tamasi providing input from a small business perspective, asking the Fortune 100 CEO’s to include SME’s in future dialogue to assure that the entire supply chain has a voice.
“It was an honor to represent AccuRounds, and small businesses across the country, at the White House”, said Tamasi. “It’s encouraging that small business had a voice at the CEO roundtable, and that needs to continue. The skills gap is a serious issue and sector partnerships are the best opportunity to close that gap.” Later that afternoon, Tamasi was a guest on the Fox Business News show “After the Bell” further stressing the importance of sector partnerships in closing the huge skills gap in America.
AccuRounds, located in Avon, MA, is a contract manufacturer that machines and assembles precision turned components for industries including medical, aerospace, semiconductor and emerging technology. For more information, visit www.accurounds.com
Burrs and foreign object damage are consideration that are increasingly critical as precision machined parts are engineered from more challenging materials and to demanding geometries and applications.- Guest Post by John Halladay of Vectron, Inc.
Burrs are unwanted raised material remaining on a machined part as a result of prior manufacturing operations. Link here
FOD can be either Foreign Object Debris or Foreign Object Damage as defined by the
National Aerospace FOD Prevention, Inc. (NAFPI),
Foreign Object Debris (FOD): A substance, debris or article alien to a vehicle or system which would potentially cause damage.
Foreign Object Damage (FOD): Any damage attributed to a foreign object that can be expressed in physical or economic terms which may or may not degrade the product’s required safety and/or performance characteristics.
“Cause damage, degrade product’s safety or performance characteristics, and economic damage” – These are serious issues to manufacturers and their customers making critical human safety reliant systems- like automotive, aerospace, fluid power, or medical devices or systems.
So how do we deal with Burrs, and FOD? John Halladay of Vectron explains:
“Based on my experience (a few more years than I care to admit) there are some things to consider with difficult to see FOD and burrs. Number one, hand deburring is typically out of the question—even with magnification. If hand deburring does happen to remove the burr, the dislodged burr magically transforms itself into yet another source of FOD. Mass finishing techniques (vibro, tumbling, Spinner, bead blast/water jet) will fall into the same trap. They may be able to dislodge the burr or foreign object, but then that dis lodged item creates damage to the surface finish or features you fought hard to create in the part.”
“Thermal deburring is a batch process involving very intense heat in very short durations. It’s like being inside an explosion. Because it utilizes combustible gases under pressure, it has been proven to be extremely effective at removing the hard to see burrs we often encounter on the less machinable materials and alloys we see in our shops today. One advantage of Thermal Deburring is that it does not create FOD, and the process will seek out other sources of FOD that may be lurking in some of the tightest geometries in the part. There is nothing quite like an explosive gaseous mixture to see and vaporize and remove all unwanted debris on or in our parts!
“Electro-Chemical Deburring, is usually referred to as ECD. It applies an electrical current to the areas where the burrs are located. The current carried by the electrolyte actually dissolves the burr material. This process can actually create a controlled radius on the workpiece by its action.”
Electro-Chemical deburring is therefore quite useful for removing burrs at internal intersections, especially when a radius is either desired or required. The downside of ECD is that it may not completely take care of other sources of FOD. This is easily resolved with the addition of a special wash process in conjunction with ECD to get to “Yes” with your customer.
Due to the expense and engineering associated with these processes, and the intermittent need for them, these processes are seldom performed in house in contract manufacturer’s operations. They are readily available from a number of job shops across the continent. You will find that most shops will provide a no-charge feasibility analysis including sample processing, so there’s really no down side to investigating these options while you continue to search for possible in-house solutions.
More info on Burrs and Deburring
Vectron, Inc.
While economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in January for the eighth consecutive month, and the overall economy grew for the 56th consecutive month, the actual level of manufacturing activity declined substantially in January compared to December. According to the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business®:
The report was issued today by Bradley J. Holcomb, CPSM, CPSD, chair of the Institute for Supply Management™ Manufacturing Business Survey Committee.
- “The January PMI® registered 51.3 percent, a decrease of 5.2 percentage points from December’s seasonally adjusted reading of 56.5 percent.”
- “The New Orders Index registered 51.2 percent, a significant decrease of 13.2 percentage points from December’s seasonally adjusted reading of 64.4 percent.”
- “The Production Index registered 54.8 percent, a decrease of 6.9 percentage points compared to December’s seasonally adjusted reading of 61.7 percent.”
Of the 18 manufacturing industries, 11 are reporting growth in January in the following order: Plastics & Rubber Products; Primary Metals; Textile Mills; Wood Products; Printing & Related Support Activities; Fabricated Metal Products; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Transportation Equipment; Machinery; Furniture & Related Products; and Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products.
What commodities were reported to be in short supply/ up in price?
- Copper;
- Electrical Components;
- Natural Gas;
- Plastic Resins;
- Polypropylene Resins;
- Stainless Steel;
- Steel (2);
- Steel — Hot Rolled;
- Wood.
The PMPA’s December Business Trends Report and Annual Summary showed a remarkably strong finish to the end of 2013.
We look forward to our Report on January which we will post on or about the 20th of February.
Actually, Saturday, February 1st, is the deadline, but do you really want to come in on Saturday to do this?
OSHA is paying a lot of attention to paperwork issues, and the PMPA recently testified about their proposal to increase the burden on employers with a new on line reporting scheme.
For now, you need to summarize your 2013 injuries and illnesses (OSHA 300 form) and post them via 300A form in your shop.
Need more details? We provided links to resources and downloadable forms here.
Great news for manufacturing:
- Real value added for manufacturing rose 1.9 percent in 2012, after increasing 0.7 percent in 2011.
- Manufacturing’s current-dollar share of GDP increased for the third consecutive year, to 12.5 percent, its highest share since 2007.
- Manufacturers contributed $2.03 trillion to the economy in 2012.
- Manufacturers were responsible for creating 12.5% of GDP in 2012.
- U.S. Manufacturing taken as a stand-alone entity, would be the 8th largest country in the world on a GDP basis
This informstion was taken from the latest Bureau of Economic Analysis news release on revised GDP statistics by industry. While the BEA release covers 2012 data, and our latest business trends report shows that precision machining industry sales for 2013 were up 5.2% over 2012.
Now is a great time to be in manufacturing.
BEA Industry GDP Release
The PMPA Business Trends Summary Report for 2013 shines an optimistic light on first quarter 2014 for our precision machining shops and for manufacturing in general.
The 3 month sentiment indicators for Sales Outlook, Lead Times, Employment and Profitability were all strongly positive according to our 92 respondents.
That will translate into a strong first quarter according to our experience.
And how was last month and last year for the precision machining industry?
- Our sales index for calendar year 2013 finished at 120, a new high
- December 2013, finished above 100, first December ever above 100.
- December 2013 was up 17% over December 2012.
- And the variability of sales for 2013 all year was lowest we’ve calculated, with a standard deviation of just 7.23, compared to 2012’s 11.44 and 2008’s 13.8.
Our full report looks at some key markets’ prospects in the year ahead- Automotive Light Vehicle, Aerospace, Housing, Medical Devices and how they can impact our business in 2014.
Read the full report here.
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February 1 is deadline for Posting OSHA 300A in your shop
Employers with 11 or more employees must post a summary of the prior calendar year’s injuries and illnesses. It is not enough to complete this report, you must post the summary in a visible place, from February 1 to April 30 each year. All employers maintaining the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s 300 Logs for workplace injuries and illnesses pursuant to OSHA’s recordkeeping standard must post their 2013 annual summary by February 1 2014. Employers must utilize the annual summary form (form 300A) when complying with the posting requirements.
Here is a link to OSHA’s downloadable Injury and Illness Recordkeeping forms
For more information.
Do I need to fill out the OSHA Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses? Probably