Workforce Development

Making Strides To Maximize Worker Efficiency

This 40-year-old shop combines original best practices with new technologies and manufacturing approaches to make the most of its home-grown skilled labor.

Finishing Process Extends Life Of Cutting Tools And Components

By applying compressive forces and abrasive media to cutting tools or workpieces, this surface finishing process improves component wear resistance and lubricity.

Abrasive Waterjet System For Large Jobs

When The Labor Disappears

Evaluating the strength of U. S.

Task Simplification Or Increased Training?

I’ve written about task simplification in several of my previous columns. Task simplification lowers the skill level required of a person performing a task, minimizes the potential for mistakes and shortens the time required to perform the task.

How To Handle Tall Wire EDM Work

Modular workpiece fixturing plays a vital role in this shop’s quest to win larger, more difficult wire EDM jobs.

Teaching With Technology

A North Carolina machining instructor says the industry should give community colleges a second look.

Aerospace OEMs Back A Lean Sea Change

A lean enterprise initiative comprised of aerospace primes and their suppliers, attempts to bring commonality to the supply chain. Its strategy is to provide a gage to measure lean progress and a roadmap to the higher levels of process maturity.

An Analytical Approach To The Outsourcing Decision

The decision to manufacture in-house or send work overseas should not be based solely on labor cost. After an honest evaluation of its machining processes, this OEM found it was more profitable to bring work back in-house.

How To Succeed At Failure

Your cutting tool’s failure mode may be telling you what to change about the process. Not every failure mode is the same, and one mode is preferable to all the others.