In 1910 when Rudyard Kipling wrote this verse, the USA produced about 24 million tons of steel. That amounted to roughly 482 pounds for each of the 92.2 million americans counted in the census that year.
In 2010, the US produced 88.5 million tons- down 13% from 2008 and down 18% from 2006 and 2007. That 88.5 million tons- amounted to about 575 pounds for each of the 308 million Americans alive that year.
That’s an increase of about 20% per person over a period of a hundred years?
Only 20%?
What amazes me is that all of our devices using steel have diminished the mass of the steel needed to do the same job.
This 1910 Case tractor probably weighed in around 3000 pounds and delivered no more than 20 horsepower.
This 2010 production single cylinder Kohler (iron cylinder) engine equipped Cub Cadet also rated at 20 horsepower:
I don't think this one weighs 3000 pounds...
Steel truly is the master- in this case the master of doing more with less.
Buckminster Fuller describes this decreasing of mass but increasing of capability as “ephemeralization.”
Its something my kids have seen growing up as they observed our communications technology:
This is what a cell phone was when my kids were born in the 1980's.
Cell phone today:
Oh the one in the 1980's didn't bring me my newspaper or have a virual assitant or play movies either. It was ...just...a ...phone!
Steel may be the Master of Them All, but it is Engineers, and Machinists and other manufacturing craftsmen who are the real masters – we make the stuff that makes our modern world- Modern.
Guest post by Dan Vermeesch and the team at Micron Manufacturing.
Dan and his team are internationally recognized manufacturing experts, when they have something to say, I listen!
The Micron Manufacturing Team was awarded the Shingo Silver Medallion for excellence in manufacturing.
You can check it out here – its that little red thing at the very bottom left of the page.
I was having a side conversation with Dan via email about another subject that had been posted on PMPA’s members-only Listserve when we started talking about the importance of preventive actions, and how they are REALLY DIFFERENT from Corrective Actions.
I asked Dan “What do you think is the ‘right’ investment in preventive actions?”
Ladies and gentlemen, here is the response from Dan and his savvy team at Micron Manufacturing.
(Prepare to hit ‘Print’ and stick it in the interoffice mail to- well, you know who…)
What is the right investment in preventive actions?
Years ago:
We made gage stations for each machine…rejects and scrap went down
We invested in more and better gaging… rejects and scrap went down
We improved and increased the average light level from 45 to 65 lumen … rejects and scrap went down
We involved all people on teams to be a part of something bigger than pushing a green button… rejects and scrap went down
We eliminated supervisors and leadmen resulting in greater personal responsibility for all machinists… rejects and scrap went down
We eliminated product inspection and replaced it with process auditing… rejects and scrap went down
We invested in new equipment and improved processes so we can run more challenging products… rejects and scrap went down
What’s the “right investment?”
Wayne Gretzky said, “A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”
The right investment level for preventive actions is that which gets you to the puck wherever it’s going, not ahead of it or behind it.
Incidence rates for injuries and illnesses combined among private industry establishments declined significantly in 2010for total recordable cases of job transfer and restriction: and for cases of days away from work, job transfer or restriction together remained unchanged from 2009.
Facts is facts. Critical thinking is making inferences from facts.
So why the high emphasis on enforcement?
While manufacturing was the sole private industry sector to experience an increase in the incidence rate of injuries and illnesses in 2010- the rate for manufacturing rose to 4.4 cases per 100 fulltime workers from 4.3 cases the year earlier– the increase is attributed to a greater decrease in the hours worked compared to the decline in the number of cases reported in the sector.
Interestingly- the BLS’s estimates for public sector (18.4 million state and local government workers) – shows the incidence rate for these public employees to be 5.7 cases per 100 full time workers.
Seems like manufacturing workers are about 29.55% safer by the BLS’s data than government employees are…
West coast precision machining companies- here’s your chance to connect and get critical business intelligence at our FREE half-day seminar at DMG/Mori Seiki’s Los Angeles Technical Center Wednesday, November 9, 2011.
This is the place to be next Wednesday if you are a precision machining company on the West Coast.
PMPA is producing a half day business seminar on a wide variety of topics including industry outlook and capital spending forecast, market trends and new developments in raw materials, regulatory update, and tools available to aid your competitiveness.
DMG/Mori Seiki is hosting this event and will provide a networking lunch and demonstrations of their machines.
Representatives from Chase Brass, Kaiser Aluminum, and Schmolz + Bickenbach USA will moderate the materials panel.
Steve Kline from Gardner Publications will speak on the industry economic and capital spending trends.
And ‘yours truly’ will review tools available from PMPA to help you stay competitive and sustainable as well as provide an overview of the current regulatory regime in Washington D.C.- and our work to change it.
Heading West to connect with YOU!
If you are a precision machining company on the West Coast- we’d love to have you join us next Wednesday.
P.S. Events like these pay off a huge bonus beyond the programmed content by what one learns via networking. This is sure to be the top West Coast Precision Networking event for the remainder of the year. Make sense of the challenges of 2012 by connecting with your peers at this free event!
Right Skills Now will provide fast-track training for skilled manufacturing jobs- starting with entry level precision machinists.
Right Skills Now for manufacturing
According to a Skills Gap study by the Manufacturing Institute, more than 80 percent of U.S. manufacturers can’t find qualified people for the nearly 600,000 skilled production jobs that are currently unfilled.
For American manufacturing to be successful, employers need machinists that have the right skills, and they need those skills now. That is the impetus for a new, fast-track education initiative called Right Skills Now.
The program is an accelerated, 16-week training course for operators of precision machining equipment. It provides classroom and hands-on shop experience to prepare students for immediate employment. It also allows individuals to earn college credit and national industry certifications.
One of the founders of Right Skills Now is Darlene Miller, CEO and owner of Permac Industries in Burnsville, Minn. She helped launch the training program for CNC machinists in her home state. PMPA provides staff support to Ms. Miller’s PCJC work. Miles Free, Director of Industry Research and Technology helped develop an initial outline of the curriculum to assure relevance to today’s advanced manufacturing shops.
Darlene Miller Announces Right Skills Now At President's Job Council Listening and Action Session at Productivity Inc, in Minnesota
As a small business owner representing the manufacturing sector, Ms. Miller was asked to serve for two years on the President’s Council for Jobs and Competitiveness. The Jobs Council is comprised of citizens chosen to provide non-partisan advice to the President to help foster economic growth, competitiveness, innovation and job creation.
According to Ms. Miller, the first time she met with President Obama, she was asked to talk about the economy as it related to manufacturing and small business. “One of the things I said to the President was, ‘Not every student needs to go to college,’ she says.
“He had recently made a speech saying that every student should go to college. But he later agreed that while not all students must go to college, they do need some educational training beyond high school.
“I told him that in the precision machining industry, we have an urgent need for skilled people,” Ms. Miller continues. “We can’t afford to take just anyone off the street, provide some training and then put that person in a machining job.”
Despite the nation’s high unemployment rate, attracting workers with machining skills has been difficult for small manufacturers. “Because of the recession, we’re all strapped financially,” Ms. Miller explains. “We need people that have math skills. Our equipment is very high-tech, and our customers expect zero ppm performance so we can’t afford to hire someone that hasn’t had technical training.
“It is critical that new hires have the necessary math and safety skills to understand and operate the machines,” she adds. “There is so much more involved now than there was 10 years ago.”
Serving on the Jobs Council with Ms. Miller are some of the country’s top corporate leaders from GE, American Express and DuPont. After the council meeting with the President, the members were divided into sub-committees. Ms. Miller was asked to co-chair the High-tech Education Sub-committee with Intel’s CEO, Paul Otellini.
The group held meetings and brought in two of Minnesota’s technical schools—Dunwoody College of Technology and South Central College. The sub-committee was also able to elicit help from the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM); the National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS); and American College Testing (ACT), the company that developed the testing for applicants. The program has also received funding from the Joyce Foundation.
“To make this work, there had to be a partnership between the business community, the technical schools and organizations like NAM, NIMS and ACT,” Ms. Miller emphasizes.
This photo shows a small fraction of the almost 200 attendees for the launch of Right Skills Now.
To be eligible for the program, applicants have to pass the ACT test, which is geared towards the machining industry. If an individual doesn’t qualify for the program the first time, there are remedial classes available.
“Problem-solving is huge part of the curriculum,” Ms. Miller says. “There is a mix of both classroom learning and shop time. After sixteen weeks, the student will intern at a manufacturing company for eight weeks.
“That person can stay with the company and continue his or her education in a specific field,” she adds. Some go into programming, Swiss machining or advanced CNC skills. Others may end up as operations managers, quality managers or even entrepreneurs.
“We intend to replicate Right Skills Now nationally,” Ms. Miller sums up. “It’s not just for CNC machinists. It can be used for nearly any job skill. The program is so well-defined and accredited, it can be tweaked very easily to train anyone from welders to healthcare technicians.”
In the old days, everybody knew that it was cycle time that won you the job over the other shops…
Everybody knows it's cycle time...
Cycle time is a major determinant of price per piece, but it may no longer be the main one. (I’m going to ignore the effect of setup time and order quantity in this discussion. These can also be a major influence in price per piece on smaller lot sizes.)
Here are 7 other determinants of piece cost:
Cleanliness– some parts require millipore tests to assure cleanliness on parts for sophisticated systems. Costs to obain this level of cleanliness can exceed the cost to whittle the part out of the barstock.
Surface finish– what the machine can deliver may be acceptable, but when the customer demands to see CPK for surface finish, now you are talking about a secondary operation for grinding, honing or other surface finishing process- at an additional cost.
Certifications and paperwork– No I’m not talking about mill certs for raw material, I’m talking about customer required documentation that requires outside labwork, analysis, testing or validation. In specialty areas like aviation, medical, and automotive, the cost to prepare paperwork submissions (especially first piece submissions) easily exceeds the value of the parts provided. Making aircaft parts? Something on the U.S. Munitions List? You know what I’m talking about.
Post process steps– Plating or heat treating costs can exceed the cost of the basic part depending on the process and application. Transportation to outside vendors also adds to this, as would the compliance costs if the shop is capable of doing these processes on site.
Packaging– In a day when supply chains span the globe, multiple time zones, and climate regions- where our metal products may be exposed to salt air on board ship or depressurized air cargo holds at 35,000 feet- packaging to preserve product integrity can be a cost driver. Especially if to Mil-spec and or the requirement mandates the need to preserve integrity for a period of years.
Tolerances and capability– I have seen parts where a new engineer has decreased the tolerance so much that the product can no longer be made on the economical machines that exceeded requirements for the past five years. Requiring Cpk that exceed normal manufacturing expectations “just for safety’s sake” can also result in moving a part off a multispindle automatic with short cycle times onto several CNC machines (to maintain volume) just to get that extra “kick” of Cpk. The risk that was eliminated is now reflected in the new cost of the more expensive process.
Raw Materials– on tiny, high stock removal, highly engineered parts, the cost of machining probably does exceed the cost component of the raw material. Show me a part that looks essentially like the piece it was made from, and I’ll show you a part where raw material cost, not cycle time, is the primary cost driver.
Transportation, including premium freight for parts or paperwork, is another item to consider. The point of this post is not to whine about all of these additional requirements- it is to point out that they can be a frictional cost, a parasitic load that increases part costs, and yet are under the control of the Buyer. These costs, either separately or in combination, may be the main drivers of why that 15 second part now costs so much.
Sales people and estimators- unless you actively review the real needs with your customer, your blind acceptance/compliance to all of these “Additional Requirements” may be the real reason that the customer comes back saying that “Your price is too high.”
I teach my students that critical thinking is recognizing and challenging assumptions. Critical sales and estimating, if they are to be successful, might share that definition of recognizing and challenging those assumptions that add cost, but not value, to our precision machined products.
Ever want to know what happens after an OSHA inspection, what are the types of violations that you can be cited for, or other issues regarding your post inspection rights?
Contents include Employer Options, Informal Conference and Settlement, How to Comply, How to Contest Citations, The Contest Process, Petition for Modification and Abatement, Follow-up Inspections and Failure to Abate.
Compressive Stress is important in the forging, stamping, coining, and cold heading industries. It is compression stress that is used to change the shape of the product. This is different than in our machining industry, where we create the shape of the part by subtracting material by some means of stock removal.
Compressive stress is caused by an applied load that is acting to reduce the length of the steel in the axis of the applied load. Because the forces acting on steel are in the same axis (collinear) with the longitudinal axis of the member, these forces cause the steel to either shorten or stretch.
Compressive stress causes different failure modes in brittle and ductile steels.
Compressive strength is the limit of compressive stress that the steel can withstand before failing in a ductile failure.
When steel’s compressive strength is exceeded, the steel will fail in a brittle fashion, and it will shear, usually at a 30 to 45 degree angle.
When I see cracks at angles in the range of 30 to 45 degrees from the direction of applied load in steel, formed by cold working deformation, I know that the failure is a brittle mode.
This does not mean that the steel itself was too brittle, it may mean that the angles and loading in the process tooling were incorrect, causing the compressive limit of the steel to be exceeded.
When I installed a cold heading wire drawing line in my mill, my employees preferred to call our compression or upset test the “Squeeze Test.”
We upset test (compression test ) small samples of steel from each coil of wire to see the failure mode of the material after drawing, and to see if any seams opened up as the section thickness increased.
Image from my archival copy of a chart from Steelways 1955.
