7 Questions To Assure Lockout Tagout Compliance

Posted on by

Many folks associate September 11 with the year 2001 and the horrific attacks to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. That is appropriate and respectful.

This should be a common sight in your shop.

But professionally, I associate September 11 with 1990, the year that the US Dept. of Labor issued their OSHA instruction STD 1-7.3 Subject: 29 CFR 1910.147 the control of hazardous energy (Lockout/Tagout) – Inspection Procedures and Interpretive Guidance.
Here are 7 questions you should answer to make sure you’re in compliance:

Do you have a written hazardous energy control program in your shop? When did you last revise it and review hazards?
Do you have documented hazardous energy control procedures? Can you show me evidence of employee training?
Does your program have a means of dealing with outside contractors?
If an inspector asks an employee what is the procedure for removing another employee’s lock, what will they say?
Does each employee have their own personal lock out device?
Are the lockout points identified on every power driven machine in your shop?
Can you show me the actions that you took / follow up to your annual review and certification of your shop’s energy control program?

Lockout Tagout Hazardous Energy Control Violations continue to be a high violation in our industry by OSHA. This is 2009. So in the 19 years since 1990, you would think that our companies would have this lockout tagout stuff figured out by now, right?
Here’s a construction example of what can happen when there is a failure to properly lockout electrical energy.
Here is OSHA’s Booklet 3120 on Control of Hazardous Energy
Photo courtesy of the Workplace Safety Store, who offers DVD VHS Lockout Training Refresher Program.

Productivity Increases As Manufacturers Reduce Costs

Posted on by

The Bureau of Labor Services reported the preliminary productivity changes in manufacturing for the second quarter of 2009:
5.3 percent gain in manufacturing;
3.9 percent gain in durable goods manufacturing;
2.0 percent gain in nondurable goods manufacturing.
According to the BLS, “The increases in productivity in all manufacturing sectors were the result of hours falling faster than output. Manufacturing includes about 11 percent of U.S. business-sector employment.”

Productivity is defined as output per hour worked.
The 5.3 percent gain in manufacturing productivity is reported to be the largest quarterly gain in this indicator since the first quarter of 2005, when output per hour increased at a 7.3 percent annual rate. Over the last four quarters, manufacturing productivity declined 1.3 percent, as a 15.0 percent drop in output was largely offset by a 13.9 percent decline in hours worked… For the entire 2000-2008 period manufacturing productivity increased at a 3.3 percent annual rate.
The BLS declining hours data for manufacturing is approximately double that of the precision machining industry. PMPA’s Length of First Shift declined 7.9% by the end of the second quarter compared to the BLS’s “hours worked decreased 14.4 percent ” figure for manufacturing in the second quarter.

6 Business Influenza Considerations For Our Shops

Posted on by

Business influenza information abounds. But what is authoritative?
The media is flooded with all kinds of stories about the Swine Flu /2009 H1N1 Novel Influenza. Our email boxes are being filled with all kinds of rumors, myths, and offers regarding this possible ‘pandemic.’
We’ve looked at a lot of sites, and a lot of resources. The workplace planning tab at www.flu.gov looked like a great all in one place resource for manufacturers like us. But following a link there led me to http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/business/guidance/ and I think that this is the one H1N1 influenza resource that you need.

Besides technical disease information and precautions, here are some of the ideas from this site that employers should be considering if the H1N1 outbreak occurs this year.

Prepare for increased numbers of employee absences due to illness in employees and their family members, and plan ways for essential business functions to continue.
Advise employees before traveling to take certain steps
Prepare for the possibility of school dismissal or temporary closure of child care programs
Consider increasing social distancing in the workplace and canceling non-essential business travel
Make sure your sick leave policies are flexible and consistent with public health guidance, and that your employees are aware of these policies.
Make contingency plans for increased absenteeism caused by illness in workers or illness in workers’ family members that would require them to stay home. Planning for absenteeism could include cross-training current employees or hiring temporary workers.

More ‘Tools You Can Use’ include:
Born before 1957? Interesting article HERE.
For training materials including powerpoints and spanish language materials try here
OSHA has an easy to read explanation of what a pandemic is and other resources for employers and employees.
OSHA guidance on preparing our workplaces.
The ability to anticipate and intelligently manage risk is what separates the great managers from the wannabes. These links help you with your preparations.
Have you reviewed your sick leave, cross training, and other policies in preparation for the upcoming influenza season?

What's In Your Lobby?

Posted on by

I found a treasure in Epco Products’ lobby!
I just returned from a 900 mile trip to visit member companies and call on potential members with my colleague Monte Guitar.

We covered parts of Ohio and Indiana, and can give you a real positive report on the corn crop, and a more sobering report on the state of the business for the shops we visited.
According to our trip report, we visited 10 companies. That’s 10 lobbies. Probably 40 or 50 supplier quality awards dating back well into the last century.
Some from companies that no longer exist.
ISO/TS certificates. Proof that the company whose lobby we were waiting in has what it takes in terms of quality system fundamentals to be sustainable. If they can survive the current capital drought.
But we found a real treasure on the wall in the lobby of Epco Products in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Now the folks at Epco probably think that the treasure is the Senate Productivity Award. It was awarded to the team at Epco in March of 1988 by then Senator Dan Quayle.

But here is the real treasure found in the lobby at Epco. Engraved on a plaque, is the following quotation:
“A machine can only do so much. Capital can only do so much. What makes the difference is people who have confidence in themselves and their abilities.” U.S. Senator Dan Quayle, 3-8-88
That’s the treasure I found in one lobby this trip.

Congratulations to the team at Epco. Congratulations to Fritz Aichele for spearheading the work that garnered that award.
And a heartfelt ‘Thank You!’ to Former U.S. Senator and Vice President Dan Quayle. For really understanding what our precision machining business is all about– people with confidence in their abilities and themselves making a difference.

Canada US Dollar Parity And Your Precision Machining Shop

Posted on by

Looks like the Canadian Dollar has been eating its Wheaties.

: Someone has been eating their Wheaties.

A strong Canadian Dollar does not bode well for Canadian manufacturers already struggling with lack of orders for end products, tight credit, and a depressed global economy.

A report by Statistics Canada showed economic activity contracted for the ninth consecutive month in April, while the trade deficit rose to a record-high of C$1.42B in May, driven by a 6.9%% drop in exports. The restructuring of the automotive industry accounted for more than half of the decrease in exports and imports according to Statcan.

Is the expected nascent recovery of automotive driving this runup?

How will Loonie Dollar parity affect your contract machining operation?

New Edition of ISO/TS16949 Just Published

Posted on by

Why you should care.

We're not getting these from customers anymore!

There actually has been a payoff to our shops from our investment and implementation of ISO/TS Quality Systems. That payoff is a reduction in audits from customers. Prior to the widespread adoption of ISO/TS, we were besieged by auditors from multiple customers. Auditors with multiple points of view. And multiple concerns. So our work looked like this:
W(o)=Customers^(auditors^points of view^concerns-1)
Where
W(o)= Our work
and
Concerns-1 = That rare case where two different auditors actually thought the same about an issue.
Customer audits actually added complexity!
Complexity added confusion.
Confusion added cost while lowering our capability.
Now that we can all agree on the cost savings of using the internationally recognized ISO/TS Quality System Standard, by no longer hosting multiple auditors from multiple customers with multiple concerns and points of view, we won’t mind having to buy the newest revision.
ISO has just published a new edition of ISO/TS 16949:2009, which replaces the 2002 edition many of our shops are currently following. The IATF has set a transition period of 120 days from date of publication of the new edition – 15 June – for organizations to comply with the standard’s requirements. Communique.
There are no essential changes to the technical requirements. The modifications relate mainly to the management requirements in the document to reflect the content of ISO 9001:2008, and those that are intended to improve consistency with the environmental management system standard, ISO 14001:2004.
The current update incorporates the requirements of ISO 9001:2008, as well as detailed, sector-specific requirements for

Employee competence, awareness and training;
Design and development;
Production and service provision;
Control of monitoring and measuring devices;
Measurement, analysis and improvement.

Rules for achieving IATF recognition.
http://www.iatfglobaloversight.org/docs/Rules%203rd%20Edition%20SI%20June%202009.pdf
Buy Standard. We think you’ll agree it’s better than buying 75 different customer audit teams lunch.
Had you noticed the change? Or have you been so busy making and shipping product that you missed this development? Or are you one of the lucky ones that still gets customer audits too?

3 Reasons To Not Weld Free Machining Steels

Posted on by

Any type of arc welding of resulfurized steels is generally avoided. This post will give you some reasons why. Resulfurized steels are free machining steels. This includes steel grades in the 11XX and 12XX series, such as 1215, 12L14, 1117, 1137, and 1144. These steels contain sulfur and may contain lead. These two elements will create low melting temperature constituents that will cause cracks.
Here are 3 reasons not to weld resulfurized free machining steels:

Sulfur reduces weldability. The higher levels of sulfur make a slaggy joint.
The high volume fraction of manganese sulfides also hold hydrogen. This hydrogen can then create post weld cracking.
Both sulfur and lead can become a fume inhalation hazard at welding temperature.

Finally, with the exception of grade 1144, resulfurized steels are generally not sold to mechanical property requirements. Welding implies mechanical property performance.
We have seen 1215 welded using an inertial or friction welding process. But these welds are usually not subject to mechanical loads, merely attachment. Here’s a video of a friction weld process for truck axles from Thompson Friction Welding in the UK.
Want a second opinion? Dave Barton at Lincoln Electric hosts a column Barton’s Q&A in Welding Magazine published by Penton. The second question in this column deals with welding 12L14.
Think of weldability and machinability as two sides of the material coin.

Heads it machines well, welds lousy, Tails...

You can usually win on one, but at the expense of the other. If you need to weld, a low carbon plain carbon steel is your best bet.

3 Teamwork Lessons- Vanamatic Golf

Posted on by

My contributions were recognized, valued, celebrated. So that’s what its like to be part of a team…
Our fivesome finished 6 under par.

With me on it! Yes it was a scramble. Yes I was charitably given a 40 handicap. Uhh-huh, I’m the guy in the pink shirt.
My fellow golfers were better at driving. Chipping. Putting. Drinking. Especially drinking! But that’s okay. We used a couple of my drives.
My goal from the back tees, was to put the ball in the air farther than the front tees. I often succeeded. And a couple of times, I really succeeded. Those shots were celebrated. I no longer felt like I wasn’t contributing. And we used one or two of them.
My goal, on the chip shots, was to follow through, and keep my head down. A couple times it worked. We actually used some of my chips. I felt like I was part of the team.
On putts, I was usually the first or second guy to putt. Why not use my putt as “sacrifice” to the G-d of the Lay of the Green? That allowed the better players to calibrate their putts. (Kind of like we do at PMPA for our member shops- always looking ahead to help you determine what lies ahead). Even the worst putter in the group (me?) had an important job to do.
We finished 6 under par. If I hadn’t been there, maybe they would have done better. Maybe not. But I will tell you, the guys in my fivesome made my day, and reinforced for all of us the lessons of what is important when you are on a team.

It’s important to contribute.
It’s important to recognize everyone’s contributions.
It’s important that everyone knows that their contributions are valued.

I’m not a golfer. But at Vanamatic’s 2009 Hacker’s Open, I was a member of a team.
It felt great. Thanks Chip Strawbridge, Mike Mishler, Aaron Pollock, and Scott Wiltsie.
Yay Team.

3 Reasons We Believe Precision Machining Industry Recovery Has Begun

Posted on by

The July 2009 PMPA Business Trends Report remained level at 69 in July. We were pleased to see that this index did not further erode in July.
This is a departure from both the seasonal trend of low sales in July and a departure from the declines in sales all this year (only 1 month out of 7, March 2009, showed an uptick).
Here are three reasons we believe that the Precision Machining Industry’s recovery has begun.

Sales have leveled off and did not decline further in July.
Exactly half of all PMPA Business Trends Participants reported increases in sales for July. Almost one third reported double digit sales increases.
Average length of first shift indicator climbed by 1.2 hours in July, first such increase all year. (The length of first shift has declined each month since January 2009 until July)

The shops reporting included those serving markets in Medical, Automotive, Aerospace, Heavy Machinery, as well as Trucks, Construction Equipment, Food Service, and Military.
Are we out of the dark tunnel yet? No.

But the PMPA’s Monthly Business Trends Report data tells us that about half of us are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.
PMPA members can see the PMPA Business Trends Report here.
Photo courtesy Blueridgecollargirl her August 8 2008 post gives perspective and is worth a read.

Bubbles Can Be Bad For Your Fluids-And Your Bottom Line!

Posted on by

Foaming can cost your precision machining shop money by causing loss of fluid, shorten pump life by cavitation, and reduce material removal efficiency by lowering heat removal and lubricity at the workpiece.
Here is one way (and two tests to prove) that too much air (as foam) can spoil your metalworking fluids.
bubble bath Factors that can contribute to foaming in your metal cutting machines include makeup water hardness; fluid type; speed of machining operation; design and maintenance of filtration, return pipes, and sumps; pump parameters; and contaminants. Never underestimate the ability of a fluid in a machine to ‘attract’ contaminants!
Here are a couple tools you can use to evaluate foaming of your metalworking fluid.
Bottle test. Modeled after ASTM D3601, fill a bottle half full and shake at a steady rate for say 45 seconds or so. Stop shaking and immediately measure and record the height of the foam. Count the seconds (use a watch with a second hand) until the foam collapses to an acceptable level. No salt please! Addition of salt to reduce foam is acceptable at the beer garden, but never in the shop!
Blender Test. Using a blender to simulate your machining process is probably more likely to match your process than the ‘arm-strong’ method described above. This method is modeled after ASTM method D3519. Place a 200 milliliter sample of your fluid in the blender and agitate it at 8000 rpm- lid on blender is highly recommended– for 30 seconds. As in the bottle test, measure the foam height immediately after shut off, recording the seconds until the foam collapses to 10 mm in height. If it doesn’t recede to below 10 mm by the end of 5 minutes, note the remaining height.
If you do these tests when you first install fluids, the initial reading will give you a performance benchmark to compare to later periodic tests. A large difference will give you an indication of whether you should adjust or discard your machining fluid.
We used a version of the blender test to troubleshoot some quenching oil in our laboratory when I was a lab supervisor. We were getting some really high hardness but sporadic readings on samples quenched at the furnace in one lab, but not the other. After we confirmed furnace temperatures at both labs, hardness tester calibration at both labs, and steel sample analysis we decided to test our quench oil. The oil at one lab reacted differently in our version of the blender test. Further work (and a separatory funnel) revealed water from a leaky roof had contaminated the quench oil at the main lab. Because the water was heavier than oil, it wasn’t visible by other means.
It’s not that we don’t like bubbles.
But they really don’t help us in our machines in the shop.
What have you done to keep control of the foaming of your machine’s metalworking fluids?