Leadership
Early Collaboration, Part Design Involvement Key to Global Growth in Packaging
This mold manufacturer has achieved success by partnering with manufacturers in the packaging and closure markets on innovative plastic part designs—not simply providing a mold quote.
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Analysis of the Additive Manufacturing (AM) Industry Worldwide, Part I
After more than two decades of research, development and use, the additive manufacturing industry continues to expand with the introduction of new technologies, methods and applications. Additive processes have had a tremendous impact on design and manufacturing, and this impact will continue to grow in the coming years.
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Simple Automation Helps Offset Economic Downturn for Moldmaking Applications
Reducing costs and achieving greater productivity within an existing mold manufacturing facility, while improving customer service, are all essential to softening the impact of these uncertain economic times. It’s a difficult challenge, but one that can be successfully met by initiating simple automation. Simple automation is the installation and integration of automated storage and retrieval systems— such as vertical and horizontal carousels and vertical lift modules (VLMs)—into mold manufacturing operations.
Read MoreIf You’re Not Meaningfully Unique, You’d Better Be Cheap
These are the words of Doug Hall (www.doughall.com), founder of Eureka! Ranch and P&G brand-building wunderkind. It is also the mantra for the U.S. government’s latest initiative to lead manufacturing in this country into the new century. The goal of the new administration’s plan is to help transition discrete manufacturing companies—small and midsized manufacturers (SMMs)—from the “old” economic model (based on commodity and price) to a “new” economic model based on innovation, technology and “green.”
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Post-Processor Pointers
In addition to the development of CAD/CAM software, it is important not to forget the importance of post-processors, which manage numerically controlled machines. Without the right post-processor the best CAD/CAM software is of no use; likewise, the most sophisticated machine will not function optimally without the right post-processor.
Read MoreFive Tips for Capital Equipment Purchases
Cash flow is the foundation of any business, but it plays an especially important role when it comes to capital equipment purchases. By financing such purchases, businesses can realize several benefits, such as more consistent cash flow, preservation of working capital, better management of the company’s bottom line, tax advantages, streamlining of the purchasing process, and preservation of bank lines of credit.
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Byrne Tool & Die: A Culture of Change
This moldmaker takes employee training and development to a new level and relies on the latest in lean initiatives to get the job done quickly, earning them the MoldMaking Technology 2009 Leadtime Leader Award: Small Shop.
Read MoreAdapting Scouting Skills to Your Shop
A common factor among all of us in achieving our goals— whether personal or business—is our past associations.
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Operations Reassessment Yields Customer Diversification, Increased Competitiveness and Improved Capabilities
The recession came early to Michigan shops serving the automotive industry. For Eifel—a company specializing in simultaneous product development and manufacturing with a heavy emphasis on mold manufacturing—it resulted in the acceleration of a strategic plan for growth.
Read MoreHow Success Happens
All too often lately, I sense a feeling of entitlement in some areas of manufacturing. I know how that sounds—U.S. manufacturers rightly believe that they’ve been bludgeoned over the past 20 years or so by government trade policies, along with a shifting perception in our culture that a career in manufacturing is in some way less-than-noble/lucrative/rewarding. But there are some SMMs that I speak with who say things are hopeless. They tell me that their industry and government have abandoned them, and there’s nothing they can do about it.
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