Now More Than Ever

I'm betting few of you out there in Modern Machine Shop land will be crushed to see the year 2002 pass. It has been tough.

The promise of a second half recovery, so tantalizingly close after the first quarter, turned into dip number two as we hung on by our collective nails moving into IMTS.

Lower overall attendance at the show seemed offset by a higher quality of attendee. Only time will tell if those good leads can be turned into real orders and hopefully buoy the industry at the end of the year.

We saw some venerable machine tool names merge, sellout, or go belly-up, victims of global overcapacity in machine tool manufacturing. The net result of these activities, and those to come, is an industry that will have fewer but healthier discrete players.

As the industry continues to hunker down in a survival mode, what should individual shops and metalcutting businesses be doing? Of course there are many answers to this. One general answer is to lower the cost of production by increasing efficiency. But specifically, how can a shop go about doing that?

We believe that one excellent way is to read this magazine when it comes to you each month. Through examples of best practice applications and analysis of technology, Modern Machine Shop is capable of helping you understand what's available to your business. And we do this without the expectation of selling you our product.

In fact, as a qualified recipient, you receive this magazine free of charge. While Modern Machine Shop comes to you at no charge, there is one small annual request that we make to ensure you continue getting the magazine each month.

That renewal card on the front cover that you probably blew by to get to my column is one of three simple ways to receive Modern Machine Shop for another year. We've made the renewal process as easy as possible.

• Renew online at www.mmsonline.com/subscribe.
• Fax a copy of the completed card to us at (513) 527-8830.
• Fill in the card and send it to us.

We all know that during times like this, definitive answers are difficult to come by.

And we don't pretend that Modern Machine Shop has all of the manufacturing answers. But over the next year if you find only one good idea for your business in this magazine, it certainly would cover the price of renewal. Wouldn't it?