Metalforming Matters

Guest Blogger Kelly Barner, Editor,  Buyers Meeting Point  Think globally, act locally. – Paul McCartney …except when to do so causes more harm than good. – Kelly Barner As consumers of goods and services, we are constantly bombarded with feel good messages about the companies we buy from. Green production, sustainability, and local sourcing: it is easy to take for granted that these programs are in everyone’s best interests. After all, why wouldn’t we want the companies we patronize to keep the bigger picture in mind and take every opportunity to do a little bit of good in the process of making a profit? Business to business operations have to take a different kind of approach to such initiatives as their immediate customers are usually more motivated by efficiency and innovation than socially-oriented programs. Procurement and purchasing professionals play a unique role in B2B local sourcing; we have to outline the pros and cons and help the rest of the co...

Blogger: Allison Grealis Vice President, Precision Metalforming Association President, Women in Manufacturing   We know that manufacturing needs millennials, but recent research proves that millennials need manufacturing as well.  This is not going to be another article about the skills gap in manufacturing.  We all know about the millions of open jobs and how the number is only going up with daily retirements.  But replaying these same dire predictions and hoping they will attract new workers is like putting an unpopular song on repeat and hoping people start to dance. I have been working with the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) and Women in Manufacturing (WiM) for more than a decade.  Over the years, I’ve seen many workforce development initiatives come and go.  Too often, they fail because the focus is on the industry and not on the worker.  That’s the wrong strategy.  We need to flip the paradigm and start from scratch. ...

Blogger: Pete Ulintz Technical Director,  Precision Metalforming Association  Prior to the discovery of metal, people used simple hand tools crafted from bone, rock and wood. After fire was discovered, humans soon learned that adding heat to certain rocks (ores) would free the metal from the rock. Eventually, the art of extracting and smelting metals and forming them into usable objects evolved. This practice is commonly referred to as metalworking. Metalworkers were considered very valuable members of early societies. As more and more items and tools began to be made out of metals, more people were needed who were skilled in the craft of metalworking. Objects made out of metals were necessary for industry, farming, jewelry making and defense purposes.  Old coins show that the art of die sinking - a process to create a specific size or shape cavity or opening for casting or forging - was known to the ancient Greeks at least back to 800 B.C. (ref: J.L Lew...

Blogger: Pete Ulintz Technical Director, Precision Metalforming Association  Many contract stamping manufacturers have the ability to build their own stamping dies onsite, in their own tool room. On occasion it may become necessary to buy tooling from an outside source. This is commonly referred to as outsourcing. Outsourcing may be the required due to excessively high workloads in the tool room or short delivery requirements from the customer. For some companies, outsourcing may be part of an emerging or existing business strategy.  Sometimes, it is simply be a better economic choice. When considering to outsource any tooling, either domestically or internationally, you should first conduct a “make-or-buy” study first. A high-quality make-or-buy study ought to include a thorough evaluation of the following: Design and Engineering Capability: Does the project require you to have die designers and engineers on staff with varied experiences? Does the project requ...

Did you know that 91% of Millennials plan to stay in a job for less than three years before moving on? Imagine your own business’s turnover rate if every new employee you hire will only be there for a maximum of three years. Add that to the baby boomer retirement rate of nearly 10,000 people leaving the workforce each day in the US, and that is a lot of holes to fill. Those are some intimidating stats! All that considered, let’s think beyond the skills gap for a moment. How does this turnover rate favored by Millennials affect your business as an operation? We asked ourselves this question and the first thing that came to mind was: “inefficiency.” When you consider the amount of work and time that goes into each new hire, from the hiring process itself to training to probationary periods and more, not only are resources constantly redirected from the shop floor to the training room, but the risk of error rises, too. How can you prevent the same mistakes from being made by each cy...

We all know about the skills gap and our industry’s concerns for the future of manufacturing. According to research from Deloitte , nearly 3.5 million skilled jobs will need to be filled in the next decade, and the skills gap is predicted to result in over 2 million of those jobs remaining vacant. One of the many proposed adjustments is the integration of collaborative learning. What is collaborative learning? Whenever someone is learning a skill, process, or system outside of the typical instructor/trainee scenario, that is collaborative learning in its broadest sense. Hands-on experience, mentorships, online tutorials, message boards, and any other kind of interactive learning outside of a classroom lecture environment is considered collaborative. Why is this model so important to manufacturing? There are many reasons why collaborative learning is critical to the future of manufacturing. First, this type of engagement will allow the highly-skilled generation that will soon be...

Guest Blogger Kelly Barner, Editor,  Buyers Meeting Point Traditionally speaking, procurement and sales have been ‘uneasy bedfellows.’ We each represent our organization through an important interaction that may or may not result in an ongoing relationship. Even if a deal is struck, there is likely to be a change in the point of contact on one or both sides. Procurement may hand off to budget holders within the business and sales may hand off to technical or account managers. And yet, for the duration of the sourcing/sales/negotiation processes, procurement and sales bear the majority of the responsibility for exploring the potential benefit of helping their organizations work together on an ongoing basis. Over time, the nature of these processes, and the relationships that result from them, have changed significantly. One of the most meaningful changes has been the perception of the relationship between procurement and sales. Unlike the curve we typically associate wit...