I subscribed to Ryan Pohl’s blog feed, Change The Perception. (link below)
Ryan’s blog is thoughtful, passionate, and genuine.
It’s devoted to ” Building a New Respect for Manufacturing”
His post today is titled Super-Hero vs. Machinist. It’s about how Ryan’s childhood aspirations, kinda-sorta came true. Here’s a brief excerpt:
“Going from (becoming a) super-hero to precision machinist! I seem to remember Superman cutting through steel with his laser eyes…now, I know how to cut steel, and I can do it to an accuracy within the thickness of a split-hair…or less! What’s your accuracy Superman?”
You can read the entire post at Change the Perception.
I liked Ryan’s story a lot.
I liked how he showed that his thinking evolved.
And how in the end he recognized that he became his dream.
That as a machinist, he is in fact a Super-hero.
Who else but a fellow Super-hero, would dare to ask
Superman logo.
Superman Standing.
Legalese: The Superman Emblem is copyright of DC comics. It is also iconic and truly owned by the hearts and minds of every kid who has been bullied, beaten or lost unfairly and thought that he could make things right if only he was the Man of Steel. Machinists apply energy, tools and metalworking fluids to make the steel do their bidding. It’s no contest really.
Author: speakingofprecision
Here’s the latest bullet points from AMT, The Association for Manufacturing Technology:
- February U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $163.96 million,
- This is up 28.8% from January
- This up 22.1% from the total of $134.34 million reported for February 2009.
- Year-to-date total of $291.27 million, 2010 is up 22.3% compared with 2009.
How about some hollandaise for these green shoots?
You can see the full national and regional report at AMTonline.
Photo credit.
One of the joys of my job is always being on the lookout for great sources of information for the PMPA members.
Boy did I find a great source of news and info on the heavy truck market!
www.ftrassociates.com
Here are some factoids from a couple of their most recent news releases posted in their news room on their website:
1) FTR Associates has released preliminary data showing February Class 8 truck total net orders for all major North American OEM’s at 7,628 units, 19.7% higher than January when orders were the lowest since 2002.
Lesson there: January 2010 was lowest Class 8 truck sales volume since 2oo2! February data was still below 2009 average, but we think that for class 8 trucks, this may be the bottom.
2)FTR Associates continues to forecast Class 8 demand for 2010 and 2011 at the same levels as was forecast by the firm one year ago. FTR’s March North American Commercial Truck and Trailer Outlook Report forecasts 2010 demand for Class 8 vehicles will increase just 3% over 2009. The company projects that this will be followed by considerably more significant improvement of over 50% in 2011.
Analysis: FTR is forecasting only a 3% increase in demand for class 8 trucks in 2010. Last December, we ran a post about the heavy truck market that gave 6 reasons why we were bearish about prospects for heavy truck:
- Commercial credit availability is still impaired,
- Reduction of debt throughout the economy,
- Decrease of “stimulus” spending,
- General reticence to invest because of higher than normal risk.
- The economy has lost many years of growth- so fewer trucks are needed. (For instance, The precision machining industry sales are 85 percent of what they were in 2000 according to PMPA Business Trends Report.
- The cost of EPA 2010 Regulation compliant trucks is $10,000 higher.
While the manufacturing indexes are showing improvement, we don’t see that any one of these 6 has gone away. And with intermodal continuing to gain market share, the need for new Tractors remains weak in our opinion.
We think that the folks at FTR Associates are right on the money with their research.
If supplying precision components to the heavy truck and trailer market is your company’s thing, we bet that you will find this FTR Associates to be a great new “Tool You Can Use.”
What is your take on the Heavy Truck Market? Are you seeing better than 3% growth? We said in December that heavy truck sales would lag GDP; if FTR Associates are correct at 3% growth for 2010 heavy truck, what does that tell us about 2010 GDP?
I received an email from a trusted colleague that had a letter attached describing the writers frustration with outsourcing.
Here at pmpaspeakingofprecision. com, we are all about people making things to make our world safer and our lives better. So when we read this letter describing one engineers frustration when trying to do exactly that, well, we asked for permission to share it with you.
The writer, a maritime design engineer, is trying to source wheel fenders so that hulls of “80,000 DWT” oil tankers don’t rupture when contacting a fixed surface of the dock. It really matters, when “The potential impact of failure is 2000 years” if the hull tears. This post takes some highlight’s from that letter.
Guest post by Vitaly Feygin
My name is Vitaly Feygin. I am a Structural Engineer, not a writer, but I urge you to read this post.
Like many immigrants I came to this great country 20 years ago.
Twenty years ago we all were shocked to discover the prosperity of this country and how much this country achieved using competition of small and medium size businesses.
Today, I want to ask you: “Where is that competition? Where are professionals and skilled craftsmen who made this country?”
Instead of professionals who are doing and managing their work and are proud of what they were doing, we developed a gang of MBA (Masters of Business Administration) who mastered bureaucracy, who have not created anything but hurdles for those who could work. What these MBA have done to us- they sold us out.
Doing nothing, their only significant task was to sell our work to countries like China or India. That is the “real” Business Administration. Here is an example.
I am a Maritime Structural Engineer. In our business we are quite frequently use special rubber fenders that protect ships from destruction during dock operations.
Five years ago there were 5 companies producing these fenders in US. Today there is only one company, and after that company swallowed all her competitors they moved manufacturing facilities to where? You are right, to China.
We became a nation that sells to each other Chinese products- products that are produced in Communist China at a time when millions of US workers are without work and with no means to support themselves.
Go to any store and try to find any merchandise that is produced in this country.
You will find none.
We are discussing Health Reform with whom?
With destroyed small and medium size businesses who cannot compete with subsidized Chinese labor.
More than half of the 763,000 jobs lost in the first two quarters of 2008 were lost in small firms, and unincorporated self-employment fell from an average of 10.4 million in 2007 to an average of 10.1 million in 2008—9.6 million by November and December.
You probably heard that China artificially keeps her currency undervalued.
We send to them our jobs and now they peg their currency to keep us at a disadvantage.
China has growth.
We have enduring unemployment…
Our industry doesn’t use “mechanical power presses” per se, but the OSHA Mechanical Power Press Standard, 29 CFR 1910.127 is often cited as governing our automatic cycling equipment.
Point of operation hazards are not just limited to power Presses, and may be found in our industry’s equipment as well.
The most common type of injury associated with mechanical power presses is amputation. 
To reduce the frequency of occurrence of amputation injuries, OSHA has just published a new Safety and Health Information Bulletin on Hazards Associated with the “Unintended (Double) Cycling” of Mechanical Power Presses.
The references and bibliography may be of more than passing interest, especially if you have a power press somewhere in your operation as an ancillary operation.
If you have a number of these presses, YOU NEED THIS BULLETIN.
Even if you do not have “Mechanical Presses” in your shop, the OSHA etool found here will help you with safety in your shop.
The Millennials are the latest Generation to enter the workplace. millennials were born between 1977 and 1988 and represent about 29% of our workforce and the foundation of our corporate future., according to Diane Thielfoldt, of The Learning Cafe.
Millennials are packed with potential.
Packed with power, this is the first generation of “Technology Natives” a generation that grew up naturally with the technology the rest of us had to adapt to.
If you want to harness the power and potential that these confident, capable people can bring to your business, you need to think about what makes Generation Y-Not? different from the rest of us.
Here’s a sneak peek from Diane Thielfoldt’s Meet the Millennials Program that will be part of the PMPA’s National Technical Conference presentation Tuesday April 27, 2010 to be held twice at 8:30 AM and again at 9:45 AM.
Leadership Lesson #1 for Managing Millennials: Technology Rules
Millennials have grown up with technology and are completely comfortable with it. Cell phones, text messages, the Internet, instant messaging, and email are how millennials communicate. It’s how they get information. It’s how they get work done.
As consumers, for their families their opinions were sought out when computers DVD’s cellular phones and digital cameras were purchased.
They are technology experts. Listen to their ideas. Acknowledge their expertise.
Millennials know more about technology than most of us non-Millennials can learn.
To reach millennials, podcasting, IM-ing, and personal webpages are the next generation of corporate communication tools.
Are you using technology to recruit and hire Millennials?
Leadership Lesson #4 for Managing Millennials: Managing is More than a Palm Pilot
Millennials expect structure. Their entire lives have been scheduled around planned activities. They understand calendars, deadlines, time management, and multi-tasking. Millennials want lots of challenge and varied assignments- but they also expect structur. Providing structure can include clear objectives, frequent project debriefing, a project mentor, a specific reporting structure, a well understood timeline.
Share your vision, creating a clearer picture of your expectations, goals, results and rewards.
Want more info before the April NTC? Check out more about Diane Thielfoldt and her work with Millennials at The Learning Cafe.
Obama’s policies not enough.
Guest post by Peter Morici
PMPA’s 2010 National Technical Conference will be held at the Hilton in Pittsburgh, PA from April 24-27.
Transforming Technologies in Twenty Ten
The programming content follows three tracks to help your Technical, Quality, and Management personnel meet the challenges that they face daily.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcTGCD0JNcU&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Here is the link to register your team.
Link to program.
President signs bill to extend COBRA subsidy benefits
The 2010 defense appropriations bill (H.R. 3326), signed by the President on December 21, 2009, includes an extension of the eligibility period for premium assistance under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). The current premium subsidy eligibility period was scheduled to end on December 31, 2009. It is now extended to February 28, 2010. The nine months of premium reduction has now been increased to 15 months under the extension.
Workers who are involuntarily terminated from their jobs (assistance-eligible individuals) and are eligible for COBRA health insurance coverage, are responsible for 35 percent of the premium versus the total premium as was originally the case.
This premium assistance was originally part of the federal stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), enacted last February.
HR Professionals, there are some other significant changes, read the summary comments here.
The commissioners found the US domestic industry had been injured, with all six commissioners voting that injury had occurred as a result of the flood of imports of chinese subsidized steel tubes.
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) 
announced today its final determination in favor of the domestic steel industry over the Chinese industry in the $2.7 billion countervailing (anti-subsidy) investigation on Chinese Oil Country Tubular Goods. The commissioners found the US domestic industry had been injured, with all six commissioners voting that injury had occurred as a result of the flood of imports of chinese subsidized steel tubes. (6-0)
As a result of this finding, the combined anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs on OCTG (oil pipe) now will range from 10-99%, meaning these tariffs will be prohibitive to the high-cost Chinese steel pipe makers. The tariffs in this case are determined in order to offset damage caused by illegal subsidies and dumping.
This was, to our knowledge the largest steel related case handled by the ITC, and the unanimous decision will certainly add to the strains between mercantilist China and the United States.
More Chinese Steel trade cases are, pardon the pun, “in the pipeline.”
Dow Jones Newswire Report.