The choice of materials for food applications is critical if we are not to poison someone.
As Masters of Metals- ahem, machinists- many of us feel that there is no need to buy the expensive store bought items that we can easily cobble together from a few common on hand materials.
Personally the use of the galvanized garbage can doesn’t bother me nearly as much as the possibility of galvanized wire cages being used for grates for fire or grills for food contact.
While the temperatures involved in smoking foods are far lower than those encountered in welding and metal flame cuttting, the minimal risk of zinc is unneccessary.
The use of galvanized (zinc containing) steel grates – from old refrigerators or chicken cages or galvanized fencing should be avoided for applications actually touching food.
7.1.1 Stainless steel used in food equipment shall be of a type in the AISI 200 series, AISI 300 series, or AISI 400 series.
7.1.2 When used in a food zone, stainless steel shall have a minimum chromium content of 16%.
Stainless steel with a chromium content of less than 16% may be used for cutlery, blades, and similar applications requiring a sharp edge, provided the alloy has been hardened or tempered by an appropriate post-weld heat treatment process.
We don’t know why NSF thinks that the heat treat needed is a post weldheat treatment, (who is welding blades?) The blades may be quench and temperedto develop microstructure and toughness… but we’ll still trust their opinion about the safety aspects.
Is now the right time for you to start your career in U.S. Manufacturing?
The phrase "get in on the ground floor" comes to mind...
I found this chart on Global Macro Monitor Blog on WordPress. They look at it for their purposes. Lets look at it for ours.
I started my manufacturing career in September 1973, near the bottom of the “Nixon Decline.” It wasn’t easy- I had plenty of layoffs- but there was plenty of upside and I went from laborer in a sintering plant through a series of jobs to become, senior plant metallurgist, quality director, plant manager, division director for quality and technology.
Being in the right place at the right time (manufacturing) from 1973 to 1977 allowed me to take advantage of the upside in manufacturing that gave me the momentum to grow my career.
Looking at the chart above, 2012 looks like the exact same opportunity, only better.
Global Macro Monitor lists some of the factors which influenced the chart above:
Strengthening of the dollar during the 1980′s;
Globalization;
Entry of China and India into the global labor force;
The internet;
Improved productivity;
Technological innovation;
Demographics and worker preferences;
All of the above.
I speak and meet with precision machining company managers and owners daily.
All are looking for people with skills and talent.
All are investing in training for their proven performers.
Our National Technical Conference last week had over 102 first time attendees.
Twice as many companies offerred internships as there were students in our first Right Skills Now class.
A comment I received yesterday on Linked In: “I teach Precision Machining and our students are all getting jobs now and the starting pay is getting better… ”
These are some very strong indicators that now is a great time to start a career in manufacturing.
If you can do the math and solve problems based on your experiences, we’d love to have you in our precision machining industry.
P.S. And even though I characterized it as the “Nixon Decline,” I am not at all holding any president responsible for these.
There are far more important factors at play in this chart than whether or not there is a Donkey or an Elephant in the oval office.
There is a lot of uncertainty in the press about the economy and a lot of fear among businessmen regarding the near term for their business. Here are 5 reasons why I am bullish on the Precision Machining Industry’s prospects for the balance of 2012.
5 Reasons!
Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) for April rose to 54.8 an increase of 1.4 points. If sustained this would indicate an approximate 4.1% real growth in GDP. Precision machined components are vital components in all facets of industry and so would reflect that GDP growth.
The World Steel Association (Worldsteel) just released its April 2012 Short Range Outlook (SRO) for 2012 and 2013. Worldsteel forecasts that global apparent steel use will increase by 3.6% to 1,422 Mt in 2012, following growth of 5.6% in 2011. In 2013, it is forecast that world steel demand will grow further by 4.5% to around 1,486 Mt.
“According to USMTO, February machine tool sales were 2,063 units. This was 23.5% more than February 2011, which was the highest one-month rate of change since September 2011. On an annual basis, unit sales continued to see slower growth, but that rate of growth (33.5%) is still historically high… While the rate of growth in machine tool sales is bound to slow, the leading indicators are strong enough that it looks like machine tool sales should be good throughout 2012.”- Steve Kline Jr, Latest email
“Future business expectations remain strong. The index showed metalworking facilities are slightly more optimistic about their business than they were last month. This continues the trend of improving business expectations that began in October 2011. Finally, since September 2011, the average spending on metalworking equipment for the next 12 months has improved. This indicates that machine tool sales should remain strong for at least the next quarter or two.” Modern Machine Shop MBI
Real personal consumption expenditures increased 2.9 percent in the first quarter, compared with an increase of 2.1 percent in the fourth. Durable goods increased 15.3 percent, slowing from the fourth quarter’s 16.1% increase. – BEA
Anecdotally PMPA’s Business Trends Reporting sentiment indicators are strongly positive. We’ll have the index, and our prediction for the end of year average in about two weeks.
At Lakeland Community College the Alliance for Working Together (AWT) Consortium, a local initiative addressing manufacturing needs and concerns, is full steam ahead as it launches an associate of applied science certificate/degree program. The goal of this program is to provide a pipeline of skilled workers to the manufacturing sector.
The Alliance for Working Together (AWT) Consortium supports Lakeland Community College’s efforts to support the manufacturing community with a degree program to educate future employees. Last weekend, Lakeland sponsored a robotics competition for local high school students, who designed, built and operated robots for competition.
Our industry's future talent.
We were pleased to see the interest in making things, the widespread use of PPE and a team whose Tshirts said it all:
Madison Robotics- T-shirts say it all!
In addition to the associate of applied science degree, an educational and career pathway has also been developed by AWT and Lakeland. The degree will require at least 63 credits and be aligned with curriculum supported by the National Association of Manufacturers’ industry standards and skills certification system.
Manufacturing is vital to the economy of Northeast Ohio, the state, and in fact our nation’s economic competitiveness. We are pleased to see the pipeline for manufacturing talent being primed by AWT, Lakeland Community College, and the local manufacturers who sponsored the student robotics teams. Over 100 students from 18 high schools in three counties got to test their ‘mettle’ at this second annual Robobot competition.
Guest Post by Professor Peter Morici.Peter Morici is an economist and professor at the University of Maryland School, and former Chief Economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.
The economy is growing too slowly for it to be considered robust- adverse developments in four areas could derail the recovery:
China
Dodd Frank Regulations
EU
U.S. Student Loans
Higher probability of economic disruption than zero...
1. China faces real challenges-falling property values, questionable accounting standards and state banks burdened with bad loans. Foreign investors cannot ignore the size of its market, and firms like GM, Ford and Apple will continue to invest to produce for and distribute products in China. However, rising labor costs and increasing revelations of corruption and intrigue, up to the highest levels of China’s leadership, are causing investors to cast a more jaundiced eye on the Middle Kingdom as a place to invest for serving markets in North America and Europe.
A crisis of confidence in China could disrupt both the Chinese and U.S. economies, and such an event has a much higher probability than zero.
"If I wanted to paralyze the recovery of American economy, I would use Dodd Frank to strangle the flow of cash to small business job creators and potential homeowners to do it." -Miles Free
2. Dodd-Frank regulations are severely handicapping small and moderate sized banks. Writing conventional mortgages has become an increasingly challenging activity, and securitizing commercial loans quite difficult. Despite the fact that these bank woes pose significant barriers to recovery in the housing sector and jobs creation among small and mediums sized businesses, Washington appears disinterested, and smaller banks are selling out to their larger brethren.
Wall Street banks now control more than 60 percent of deposits nationally. The absence of competition in many markets has driven down CD rates, and seniors are losing a lot of purchasing power as interest on their retirement savings shrink. Wall Street banks are less interested in making loans to Main Street businesses than were the regional banks they absorbed.
Not looking so rosy in Eurozone despite the easy credit of the ECB's.
3. The EU is in recession and remains in deep trouble-fixes for Greece, Portugal and Ireland are inadequate and eventually will need to be reworked. Spain is teetering on crisis-a failure of its government to meet budget targets or a further spike in unemployment, already about 23 percent, could set off a contagion beginning with Italy.
European banks are highly stressed. Those have not used the grace afforded by easy credit from the European Central Banks to properly add to capital and rework loan portfolios. Rather, they have often adopted gimmicks to paint up bad loans or move those into offshore vehicles-all reminiscent of tactics employed by U.S. major backs when mortgage backed securities became problematic before the financial crisis.
Average debt per Bachelor's degree holder was ~$18,300 in 2010.
4. U.S. higher education loans-now more than $1 trillion-are a ticking bomb. Most education loans are not dischargeable through bankruptcy, and big debt coupled with disappointing pay will become an increasing drag on consumer spending.
Undergraduates are borrowing too much against future incomes, and many graduate students are borrowing to obtain degrees that will not markedly improve their circumstances.
In the face of all this, the U.S. private sector is proving remarkably resilient.
Neither policy missteps in Washington nor purposeful incompetence in Europe can keep American capitalism down.
However, the economy would be doing a darn sight better with better leadership on both sides of the pond.
We get pretty excited when we learn of new photographic technology, just like when machinists learn of a new tool coating or substrate material.
So we were really excited when we learned of the Mesolens Confocal Microscope being developed at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.
The mesolens is capable of showing three-dimensional images within cells and tissues at the same time as showing the whole organism, something which is currently not possible with any single imaging device.
Fleas typically aren't much larger than the period at the end of this sentence.
According to Dr. Brad Amos, Visiting Scientist there:
“The information provided by microscopes is vital to this process but can take hours at a time to emerge. The confocal lens can be trained simultaneously on or inside an individual cell and the full organism, with strong resolution and will have the capacity to deliver 3D images which go far beyond the limitations of 2D representations.
“This level of detail can open up vast possibilities for discoveries which can contribute to the fight against disease worldwide.”
Dr Gail McConnell, a Reader at the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, is a partner in the research. She said:
“Our research fits with Strathclyde’s ethos of technical innovation with universal impact. We already have the two-dimensional technology for the lens in place, but a third dimension will allow us to take the revolutionary step of presenting images with a range and versatility which no single imaging platform can currently offer.”
I like her thinking: “…ethos of technical innovation with universal impact.”
It reminds me of our role in the precision machining industry making human safety critical, highly engineered products with our own ‘ethos of technical innovation with universal impact.’
Attendees and shop owners agree: The 2012 PMPA National Technical Conference was a major success!
Who thinks that this is a great conference?
“All the sessions I went to this year were excellent, with many items to bring back both professionally and personally. Tools to use, help train others in our shop and increase our competitiveness.”– Shop owner
“As a group of all first-timer’s this year we found it to be a great networking experience and all brought back something to share with our colleagues.”- First time attendee.
If the just wrapped up PMPA National Technical Conference held over the weekend in Wheeling, Illinois on Chicago’s North Side is any indication, our Precision Machining Industry is doing very well these days.
Over 420 people in total attended, over 100 of the attendees were attending our conference for the first time.
More than 160 companies sent people who were actively involved and networking.
Technical, management, quality, and certification programs gave everyone take home value to make their shops more competitive and sustainable.
Our industry is thriving and working to upgrade the skills and knowledge of our people. PMPA’s NTC gave all attendees “Tools They Can Use” back at the shop to make their shop more competitive and sustainable.
This year’s NTC event turned out to be one of the most successful conferences to date. Just ask someone who attended! The link below will take you to the handouts, if available, for each session.
Thank you to the Technical Program Committee and to the many contributors to this program’s content.
PMPA members can download program handouts here. (pass word protected)
Robots continue to find their way into our precision machining shops as we move away from departments of similar machines as a business model.
Savvy shops today are creating cells that use the robot to efficiently transfer work from one type of machine to another.
Robots can also deburr, pick and pack or present to inspection equipment.
As robots become more common in our operations, we need to assure that we are up to date on safety practices and procedures for our employees who are now sharing the same shop floor work environment with our robots.
Chapter 4 of the OSHA Technical Manual is a “must understand” reference for shops with Robots. You can get it at the link below for free:
This standard is currently being updated, with a major focus on risk assessment.
ANSI/RIA R15.06 will combine the ISO 10218-1 standard ( cost: 146 Swiss francs) which applies just to the robot, with ISO 10218-2 (cost 184 Swiss francs) which covers the integration of the robot into your systems. While these have been finalized by ISO, the final adoption into ANSI RIA 15.06 has not yet taken place. The updated ANSI/RIA R15.06 standard will include both of these as well as some additional USA requirements. The Canadian standard Z434 committee is also at work on the national adoption of these ISO standards. We have our fingers crossed that the U.S. and Canadian robot standards will be harmonized.
While we’re waiting for the updated ANSI/RIA R15.06 to be published, you probably ought to make sure that your team is up to speed on the OSHA material mentioned above.
And for $45 the current (2009) version of ANSI R15.06 is worth your time and monies to obtain.
Just remember that when the update is released, it will be best practice and authoritative.
Want more info? Siemens is sponsoring a webinar on April 25, 2012 at 2:00 P.M. Eastern time.
The March 31st explosion at Evonik Industries in Marl, Germany is likely to have the same effect on worldwide automotive production as last year’s Tsunami and reactor accidents in Japan.
We remember the first time we got a letter from an automotive supplier in the 1980’s “awarding us sole supplier status” for a couple of items, followed immediately by a fire and security survey to assure that we would not shut down our customer in the event of a “problem” in our shop.
“I think that we should tell them that in order to give them the low price they wanted, we had to cut somehere, and fire protection at our one truck loading area was what we chose,”suggested a young member of the commercial team who even then couldn’t abide the bankrupt thinking of the great Detroit automotive industry.
That young man has matured, and understands that sole sourcing reduces variation for all downstream processes.
But he still wonders how business men can make “Business Plans” that fail to intelligently manage risk of failure at sole supplier facilities of critical, essential, non- substitutable materials?
The economists will insist that there is a loss to society if backup stocks are held any where in the supply chain.
The geniuses in finance and purchasing will strut how they have eliminated every bit of waste by maintaining “lean inventory” thus maximizing profits- without any understanding at all about supply-chain implications and risk factors.
And the finance boys are right, as the sales team will surely raise the price of autos in light of strong demand but greatly reduced supply due to the supply chain’s failure to have adequate -dare I say it- safety stock?
The loss to society will be the sum of the costs of the damages at the plant that was destroyed, as well as the lost wages of workers who will NOT be building autos due to this accident, and the increased price paid by buyers who must pay the price demanded because they need to replace their car. Plus the cost of a gazillion PPAP’s and material trials for the substitution / replacement of Nylon 12, knowing the automotive industy’s love of and addiction to documentation.
Yes, that sole sourcing lean inventory business strategy that is unthinkingly accepted throughout the automotive industry is perfect- for a world in which accidents don’t happen, chemical plants don’t explode, and tsunamis and nuclear plants don’t lay waste to entire districts of manufacturing.
Sole sourcing and Lean inventory is perfectly calibrated to a world where those things don’t happen.
Unfortunately, that is NOT the world we live in.
Instead of minimizing stock at each and every inventory in the supply chain discretely, perhaps it is time for the “businessmen” to do some supply chain contingency planning to assure that adequate stocks are distributed throughout the supply chain to mitigate the possibility of a single source failure.
The OESA Original Equipment Suppliers Association is doing yeoman duty to fact find, manage this, and help their members understand the impact to their business.
You can find their sensemaking on their home page here. Look under the OESA HEADLINES for the latest developments.
The pundits lately are all increasingly pessimistic about manufacturing these days. Industry Week, NFIB, Bloomberg.
Please ignore the negativity in the press, we have some positive data to share.
The PMPA Business Trends Index was reported to be 125 in March, up 6 points from February.
PMPA members can access the current report here. (Accredited media can contact mfree(at)pmpa.org to receive a copy.)
Compare that to March ISM report which showed manufacturing up just 1 percentage point.
Why we are excited about prospects for manufacturing in 2012:
The correlation coefficient for our first four months of the year sales to the end of the year average is 0.958.
If you don't know what correlation coefficient means, ask a Statistics Professor.
As the graph below shows for the years from 2003 to 2011, the blue line is the average of our Index for the first four months of each year; the red line is the Shipment Index’s year end average.
It looks like our Index's average of shipments for the year could be around 123.
Last year’s average was 113 ( 2000, 2010= 100). Our current look (three months data) could be that precision machined products manufacturing in 2012 is up 10% from last year.
Our products are embedded as components in practically all manufactured goods- automotive, aerospace, off road, heavy truck, agriculture, food service, appliances, munitions.
Our data strongly suggests that suppliers who are fixated on fear, uncertainty, and playing defense may be doing a far greater disservice to their company’s performance this year than any external factors.
What are you doing to help assure that your company is prepared to deliver a possible 10% greater sales performance in 2012 than you did in 2011?
After all, it’s not really about our numbers.
It’s about how you manage your business.
Our Business Trends Index numbers suggest you should be managing for growth!
