The Drug Testing Dilemma
Even if attitudes are shifting toward greater tolerance of drug use, manufacturing employers see little choice but to keep up their screening.
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Pick the Next Business Segment in which Your Shop Will Succeed
In machining, market segmentation is an important strategy for success. An executive of a major contract manufacturer offers advice.
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Do Not Underestimate Your Value to Customers, and Other Advice for Shops
Sharing a few of the takeaways from the recent NTMA Sales and Marketing Conference.
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The Arrival of Low-Cost Metal AM?
Systems just introduced promise to lower the price of entry for 3D printing metal parts.
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Theory and Practice of the Shop Visit
There is certain information that can only come from standing in the facility.
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Keep an Eye on AI
Big data is just the beginning. In the future, optimizing the system will be a function of the system itself.
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Eliminating “Islands of Production” with More and Better Data
A portal that reminds me of Uber today holds the promise to perform like eHarmony in the future, its CEO says.
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Answering, “It’s Not What We Do”
Every choice is a step toward a destination. Do you know where you want to go?
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Why the Surge in HMCs?
Spending on horizontal machining centers is forecast to reach its highest level in more than a decade. Small shops in particular are buying these machines. A shop I recently visited illustrates the reason.
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The Unseen Capacity
Capacity utilization figures conceal the likelihood that it is a particular type of capacity going unused. Also: the debut of a new column.
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People and Systems
The 2016 election and its outcome offer two lessons manufacturers will recognize.
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Impressions of IMTS 2016
Things changed this year. New technologies and a new generation were
prominent, and together they are helping to take this show into its next era.
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Cobots and Beyond
Collaborative robots address a challenge that will continue to be addressed.
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The Next Milestone Year
The arrival of AM already ensures that IMTS this year will be significant.
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The Attentiveness Gap
American visitors to Japan noticed the focus of manufacturing employees there.
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Q&A with Cardinal Manufacturing
A Wisconsin high school manufacturing class funds itself by operating as a business. The program provides a model for other school systems seeking to advance manufacturing instruction. Leaders in one Ohio county recently explored this idea.
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Anderson Machining Finds Its Unicorn
For this formerly family-owned shop, the generational transition and the shop’s future prospects were both better served by letting a new owner take the business bigger. The family was happy to discover that an owner like this does exist.
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Does Precision Have to Be Painful?
The more effective and efficient processes result from accuracy being easy.
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Your Shop, Too, Will Have a 3D Printer
In the future, we will take it for granted that a small 3D printer is among the resources routinely used by machining job shops.
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TMA’s Training 2.0
A different and newly equipped training program addresses the needs of Illinois-area manufacturers as those needs have changed in recent years. The success of the new program suggests questions for leaders in other regions of the country.
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