"The Business of Metal Manufacturing"
Everyone’s ready for a fresh start this year, but one company isn’t leaving 2021 outcomes to chance. A dynamic new marketing approach for 120-year-old Jarvis Cutting Tools included a logo redesign, a bold undertaking led by an industry outsider.
Connecticut mold maker Ray Coombs put capital investment on hold for five years to work with the local educational and manufacturing communities to solve his labor problems once and for all. Then he added three new machines that are helping to cross-train employees for record sales.
U.S.-based ACS Industries had a lock on the market for standard attachments – buckets, forks, blades, etc. – for construction equipment, but needed to cost-effectively fabricate specialized implements for related markets. Six-axis robotic welding clinched $1.5 million in new business while lowering labor costs 60%.
Agricultural and construction equipment uses many of the same components you see in cars, but they’re a lot bigger, a lot heavier, and generate a lot more swarf. Machining engine blocks and gearbox housings requires a different type of machine tool.
U.S.-based AGCO makes five brands of agricultural equipment at 40 plants on six continents. To bring order to the potential chaos of model-year changes and new product introductions, the company deployed software for a design anywhere, build anywhere strategy.
As heavy equipment manufacturers gear up for healthy backlogs, a key West Coast supplier is helping customers find reliable and cost-saving replacements for obsolete parts. Meet the former chef-cum-machinist who’s serving up all kinds of new orders via his CAM software.
Vernet-Behringer’s integration into the Behringer Group is part of a long-term relationship between the two companies. The transition allows VB to expand internationally by meeting the growing demand for integrated and automated lines.
Manufacturers no longer wonder when the pandemic is going to be over, but how to profitably interact with customers and suppliers in a way that protects the health of employees, their families, and the local community. As ever, U.S. metal fabricators and machining companies are highly resourceful.
A small Ohio company outpaces its market with new expertise and a new compensation system.
When the pandemic hit, many companies used the downtime to make data-driven automation, process, and employee training improvements. As global supply chains reconfigure, those investments are paying off.
Nuts, screws, and bolts comprise one of metal manufacturing’s most competitive product niches. As it works to gain market share by capitalizing on pandemic-driven supply chain disruptions, this Illinois fastener manufacturer and distributor illustrates the art of decision-making in uncertain times.
Modeling deeply intentional and thoughtful leadership, the CEO of a machining company equips his team mentally and digitally to muscle through myriad obstacles –– and emerge victorious for their customers and themselves.
The global pandemic has revealed the fundamental flaw of relying on only one or two manufacturers of metal parts, components, and assemblies: Companies pay less up front, but are scrambling to fill their customers’ orders. Here’s how to grab your piece of the pie as U.S. companies search for local partners.
Yet another development shows the global coronavirus pandemic’s unique impact on U.S. manufacturing trends: After a sharp downturn in the first few months of the crisis, fabrication and metalworking companies are more optimistic about the future.
In an example of the show’s theme — Digital Manufacturing. Implemented. — the owner of North America’s largest biannual metalworking trade show is developing a way for the manufacturing community to connect and learn through a comprehensive digital experience.
Not even a pandemic can interfere with metalworking’s inexorable technological progress. Blowing way past automation, entrepreneurs are harnessing digital know-how to solve analog problems — wherever they find them.
San Francisco-based Plethora Corp. shaves as much time as possible from the iterative design process. After developing software that enables customers to design for the shop’s capabilities in real time, this 2017 start-up delivers prototypes and production runs within three days.
Most shops have a win rate of 20% to 30%, which means seven out of 10 quotes add zero revenue to the bottom line. By eliminating Excel spreadsheets and integrating with ERP software, online quoting tools streamline relationship-building.
For almost a decade, machine tool consumption in the U.S. has increased and China’s has decreased. As global supply chain emergencies accelerate a manufacturing migration to the U.S., metal fabrication and machining companies that use manufacturing as a service (MaaS) platforms stand to benefit.
A New York sheet metal prototype specialist is sharing PDF and DWG files it developed to make face shields comprising a Mylar shield with an adjustable stainless steel headband. Unlike much personal protective equipment (PPE), they can be used more than once.
LVD Strippit has kept its New York plant and all four of its North American support facilities open during the pandemic to continue supplying parts and aftermarket service to essential manufacturing businesses. And when remote service isn’t enough, their techs hit the road to keep customers’ equipment running smoothly.
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) is designed to help companies with fewer than 500 employees navigate the pandemic. Like metal fabricators and manufacturers nationwide, this Michigan fabricating company is following federal and state guidance to keep employees safe while maintaining operations.
With everyone here at Fabricating & Metalworking hunkered down and working from home, we hope you, your loved ones, and your employees (often one and the same) are safely navigating these uncertain, unsettling times. How are you coping?
Living under the shadows of coronavirus, no one has all the answers; but everyone’s in the same boat as we work toward the ‘new normal.’
An estimated 10% to 20% of tools are changed out too soon to avoid failure during cutting. Edge computing is giving machine tool builders and manufacturers the tool they need to avoid such unnecessary expense.
Early reports indicate an uptick in cybersecurity attacks during the global coronavirus pandemic. A manufacturing innovation hub is presenting a free webinar to help companies protect networks, systems, and data.
Overwhelmed about where and how to start digitizing? Relax. Rome wasn’t built in a day, either.
When it couldn’t find an acceptable digital work instructions solution, CMP Advanced Mechanical Solutions in Quebec developed one in-house: Visual Knowledge Share (VKS). The spinoff business earned CMP a prestigious best-practices award from the provincial government.
A Nevada company became a single-source supplier after installing a fiber laser tube cutter and replacing a CO2 sheet cutter with a fiber laser cutter. With a fiscal year of April to April, B&J Inc. is on track to surpass its yearly sales goal by 20%.
New year, new decade, new opportunities, new editor. Allow me to introduce myself.
We have few more pressing needs than updating roads, bridges, pipelines, and energy grids – a potential goldmine for suppliers of heavy equipment, off-road machinery, assemblies, parts and services used in construction projects. The trick is breaking into the market.
This Kentucky communication tower fabricator got its start a century ago by maintaining water infrastructure assets. Now it’s cashing in on the market for telecommunications infrastructure.
Talk about a high-mix, low-volume operation. American Highway Products’ manhole risers are available in more than 700,000 possible permutations. One software program is getting the jobs done to customers’ wide range of specifications.
Manufacturers selling to the public sector need a special business acumen to thrive in this market.