Man plans. God laughs. A client of ours just had a huge fire that wiped out much of his capacity. He is scrambling to pull things together overnight to service his customer base. The insurance adjusters dither while he awaits the settlement. Another client jumped into the machinery market because he landed a big new account that wants parts in September. He’s buying a $100,000 machine and new secondary equipment. It had not been in the budget finalized in April, but a million dollar job was not going to be missed for want of a machine to run it properly.…
Author: Lloyd Graff
Last Tuesday, I attended an auction in Carmel, a suburb of Indianapolis, trying to pick up a few CNC machines to round out Graff-Pinkert’s stock. Key Auctioneers was auctioning off machine tools owned by Ameriflo Corporation. The company wasn’t out of business. It had just decided to outsource its machined parts. The sale featured an L32 Citizen manufactured in 1999 and four Mazak CNC Turning Centers, Multiplex 6200Y machines. Two of the Mazaks were new in 2000 and two in 2004. Mazak Turning Centers are not Graff-Pinkert’s specialty, but we are always trying to learn the CNC market better, and…
I met up with a Jewish acquaintance a few days ago. I asked him what was new, and he said his son was having an interview the next day to volunteer for the Israeli Army. Why would an American kid who was not subject to the U.S. draft volunteer to fight? I can’t speak for him, but I think I understand the pull. I feel it myself, vicariously. Israel has been attacked once again by a hailstorm of rockets and vicious killers infiltrating the country through underground tunnels. The Palestinian leadership in Gaza has had decades to make a logical…
IMTS is coming and neither Graff-Pinkert nor Today’s Machining World will have a booth — but we do at least have business cards! Cards are a funny thing these days. It’s the 21st Century, and everyone has a Website, a Facebook, and smartphone that can store detailed information plus take photos and video. But still, if you’re in business anywhere in the world, you have to have a business card. Those little portable pieces of cardboard can be powerful. Pass out a lot of them, and maybe one will have a lasting impression that pays dividends. Last fall, I was…
My oldest granddaughter Eliana celebrated her 9th birthday Monday, and her grandmothers splurged on an American Girl doll for her present. She and her sisters love these dolls and they have a small family of them accumulated from several birthdays. I am fascinated by the success of the doll company, started by Pleasant Rowland in 1986 on a shoestring, an idea and a bit of a lie. She sold her company, called Pleasant Company, to Mattel (owner of Barbie™) in 1998 for $700 million cash. I have enormous respect for Rowland as a marketer. She built a brand based on…
Today, Shapeways may be nothing more than a company that uses 3-D printers to help designers create quirky figurines and modernist jewelry. But according to founder and CEO Peter Weijmarshausen, the longterm goal for the New York City-based outfit is to bring manufacturing back to America’s cities. “We believe manufacturing should be local,” Weijmarshausen said on stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York on Wednesday. “Our view is, over time, more and more Shapeway factories will appear in places all over the world, and in those places, not only will we get products to you faster and at a lower cost,…
As an owner of two small businesses, which are doing pretty well these days, I am in the throes of a daily decision making quandary. Do I hire more people, rent more people, or just watch which way the wind is blowing? This is a very real problem for me and I sweat it almost every week. The unemployment/employment numbers display the split personality of the current American economy starkly. The Unemployment Rate and number of Unemployed Persons have decreased significantly over the last year. However, in June, the average workweek for all employees on private non-farm payrolls was only…
The ReWalk exoskeleton helps people with spinal-cord injuries sit, stand, and walk. A motorized exoskeleton, designed to help paralyzed people walk again, just earned U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. It is the first such device to do so. The device, called ReWalk, straps on user’s bodies and helps those with certain spinal-cord injuries to sit, stand, and walk. Users have to wear a backpack to carry the ReWalk’s computer and battery. They also have to wear a wrist device with buttons to tell the motorized legs when to stand up, sit down, or start walking. But it’s not like users are…
A few weeks ago, I published a blog about my video series on YouTube. It is a documentary of my Greyhound Bus trip from Chicago to San Francisco when I was 19, called Where Are You Going? The series centers around the colorful passengers who included a chef from a nudist spa, a 36-year-old bi-sexual grandfather, a man who had just gotten out of jail, and a guy who lives on a ranch in seclusion, house sitting for free. I also filmed my dad driving me to the bus station, imparting some last minute wisdom. One of the things he…
In Michael Lewis’ great book, Moneyball, he writes about Billy Beane, now GM of the Oakland A’s, when he was a high school phenom outfielder. Beane was a sure first round draft pick, which at that time meant a $100,000 signing bonus. But there was conflict in the Beane household. His parents wanted him to sign a pro contract right out of high school. Billy wanted to go to Stanford on a full ride. Beane told Lewis that he started doubting his own baseball talent after his junior year of high school. He saw other star players catching up to…