By Lloyd Graff When you enter a machining firm which cuts millions of pounds of brass bar each year, you expect to find a line of New Britain screw machines or Davenports – bunches of almost identical automatics methodically turning out fittings. But at Marshall-Excelsior Corporation in Marshall, Michigan, the machinery assortment reflects the eclectic taste of its owner, Jeff Begg. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Warner-Swaseys, New Britains, Davenports, Wickmans, National Acmes; 5-spindle; 6-spindle; 8-spindle; a menagerie of screw machines bite at the brass rod, turning out Jeff’s variegated mixture of niche market non-ferrous…
Author: Lloyd Graff
By Lloyd Graff Thanks to reader Roger Meyers for sending me an informative article from Forward ONLINE about manufacturing coming back to the United States. One of the companies prominently mentioned in the piece is Wham-O Corporation, maker of Frisbees and Hula Hoops. Wham-O’s products are not exotic, but they take up a lot of container space per dollar value. With container costs from China up to $4500 from as low as $3000 at the bottom of the recession, Wham-O has rejected offshoring. Their products are not labor-intensive to produce, primarily using injection molding presses. They are cheap, light and…
By Lloyd Graff On Thursday, I had the opportunity to spend several hours with Mitch Liss of Edsal Manufacturing, a major producer of steel shelving and office furniture with sales of $200 million, based in Chicago. Mitch gave Noah and I an insider’s view of purchasing politics by big box retailers and huge catalog sellers. He said that within massive organizations like Wal-Mart or Grainger you find two distinct parties influencing purchasing decisions, the buyers and the global (strategic) sourcing groups. The shelving buyers who work closely with the sourcing people have the responsibility of making the final call about…
(From the Archives) The Chicago Bulls are playing the Cleveland Cavaliers in round one of the NBA playoffs, and I just cannot resist comparing Michael Jordan and Lebron James. Let’s break this down. 1. Defense: As a defender Jordan was a consistent all pro, but he was not a shot blocker. Lebron defends well and is a superb shot blocker when he wants to be. Advantage Lebron. 2. Rebounding: As a rebounder Jordan was instinctive in his positioning, thus ending up with numerous triple doubles. Lebron is taller but seemingly is out of rebounding position more than Jordan. Advantage Jordan.…
By Lloyd Graff I remember virtually nothing from my early childhood. I sometimes think I was born when I was five years old. My parents told me that I did not talk until I was three. They actually thought I was retarded. But I do remember one thing quite vividly from my early years—my mother performing dramatic readings in dialect for my sister and I in the park. She would pack a picnic lunch, we would go outside, and she would read stories, doing several voices like it was a radio performance. Her favorite was about an immigrant mother taking children to an amusement park. I had…
By Lloyd Graff When my arterial plumbing got perilously close to fatal failure 16 months ago, God granted me the opportunity to reassess my life while on a breathing tube for 12 days. The highlight of those days was turning over in my bed (actually, being turned). My conclusion after the ordeal ended was that I really did not want to make any big changes in my life except one—I wanted to feel my days more intensely. Whatever I got to do in the days I was allotted I was going to do with an awareness and gratitude that was…
By Lloyd Graff Salt is the ultimate commodity. Buy a canister of Morton’s off the very bottom shelf at the supermarket for a buck and a quarter and use it for six months, then buy another. But for a seasoned cook, salt has a flavor that varies with the coarseness of the granule and where it comes from. Sea salt tastes different than mined salt, and rough kosher salt makes better brine than the fine stuff. When I think of salt I envision Tony Maglica, the man behind Mag Instrument, the greatest machining success story of the last 30 years.…
The purge of former college jocks at GM continues. Former pitcher at the University of Michigan, Fritz Henderson (Senior year ERA of 5.91), is out, following the ouster of Rick Wagoner who played basketball at Duke. The culture at the top is changing with the nasty old phone guy Ed Whitacre shaking things up like a juiced up blender. Will ex-Oakland Raider and Chevy spokesman, Howie Long, be the next to hit the road? *********** I recently talked to a long time friend and client, Wes Skinner of Manth Brownell, Kirkville, New York. This year Wes has taken his available…
The Swiss just voted overwhelmingly to bar the building of new minarets in Switzerland. No big deal in and of itself (only four of the country’s 150 mosques have them), but quite significant as a symbol of the discomfort level in the county over the “Islamification” of Europe. Minarets are tower-like structures built on top of mosques that are traditionally used for the call to prayer. None are used for that Switzerland however, because of strict noise pollution rules. Muslims now comprise roughly five percent of the population of Switzerland, traditionally a conservative and insulated country. They have a much…
The default position for many in the machining world has been to flee the automotive business like it was an ominous cloud of swine flu. I admit to lapsing into that mindset, but after reading a provocative article in Inc. Magazine by Bernard Avishai I am becoming a believer in a new golden age of car technology. Avishai used to sell car parts in college in the 1960s and is now a part-time professor at Hebrew University Jerusalem. He is convinced the electric car (plug-in) is coming soon in a big way and will present fabulous opportunities for entrepreneurs, including…