My impressions after being in the business for nine months. How do I think I’ve done? My friend Michi, a machinery dealer in Italy, once told me that it would take at least five years for a person to understand the machinery business. I felt that time frame was similar to my previous gig writing/editing at Today’s Machining World. It wasn’t until the fifth year working at the magazine that I felt like I sort of knew what I was doing, or least knew what I didn’t know. So of course what did I do then …? I decided to…
Author: Noah Graff
Last Sunday 60 Minutes did a story on Chrysler’s great comeback since Sergio Marchionne of Fiat took the reins of the company in 2009. When Marchionne came on, Chrysler used a $6 billion high interest loan from the U.S. Treasury to modernize the company’s plants with state of the art equipment, upgrade 16 existing car models in just 18 months and begin integrating Chrysler and Fiat’s operations. Last year Chrysler turned a $1.83 billion profit and paid back its $6 billion federal bailout six years ahead of time. When Marchionne came on, one of the first things he did was…
In mid-December I trekked 3 hours from Chicago to Northeast Indiana for a tour of manufacturing companies put on by the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership and Indiana Michigan Power. On paper the trip didn’t exactly have the same allure as my last two traveling assignments for Today’s Machining World (to Japan and France), but the people and the companies I encountered on the trip may have been the most genuine, shrewd and successful out of the three destinations. Turns out, when it comes to manufacturing Indiana is where it’s at. Over 40 percent of Indiana’s workforce is involved in manufacturing.…
Emily Halgrimson, Today’s Machining World’s Managing Editor, is currently on a press tour of Thailand’s manufacturing industry. The following are her first impressions. Monday: The tour has been awesome so far!! Food is incredible and others in group are great. We are in 5 star hotels and being treated like royalty. Toured Western Digital yesterday and an investment fair. Today off to Pattaya to a spa hotel and day of tours and meetings. Haven’t spotted any screw machines so far but will keep looking. Tuesday: Thailand Board of Investment CEO Forum today. Guest speaker: Tony Blair. Thailand is putting on…
I was in Northeast Indiana last week for a press junket promoting the manufacturing sector of the region. The first company we visited was the General Motors plant in Roanoke, IN, a 716 acre facility with 35,000 employees where they build light and heavy pickup trucks–476 trucks in an eight hour period we were told. Our guide Mike Glinski, manager of Fort Wayne Assembly, a GM employee of 26 years, really impressed me with his presentation. He was one of the best speakers on the trip and we were all pleasantly surprised how relaxed he was about letting us shoot…
A few years ago, I was playing a doubles tennis match and after missing an easy shot I said to my partner Archie that I was sorry. He then told me emphatically, “From now on, never say you’re sorry, just stay aggressive!” All of a sudden a great weight was taken off my shoulders. I didn’t worry anymore about pissing off my partner by screwing up and instead just focused on winning the game. I relaxed, had more fun, and generally played better. Since then, playing doubles has never been the same. I never say “sorry” any more, and the…
I attended the PMPA annual meeting last weekend and watched an inspiring talk by Herbert E. Meyer, Former Vice Chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council. He gave a unique perspective on where the opportunity lies in the coming decades for U.S. manufacturers. India, the Middle East and Africa will be the leading consumers in the next few decades, while Europe and Japan will literally die. According to Meyer, the Western capitalist democracies in Europe and Asia simply don’t produce enough children to support their aging populations. A rate of 2.1 births is needed to sustain a population, and modern…
Writing about the machine tool business while wondering if the Cubs will hire Theo Epstein. I attended my first Machinery Dealers National Association (MDNA) convention in Chicago last weekend, and I was surprised to find that it had a powerful effect me. The convention, called “Weekend With The Pros,” revolved around touring several large successful used machinery dealers’ facilities and networking with other dealers at various bars. The tours were impressive, but as I expected, mingling at the hotel bar was the true feature presentation. I’m the third generation to work at Graff-Pinkert & Co., but I only officially joined…
Seth Godin, one of my favorite bloggers, wrote a piece this month called “Back to (the Wrong) School,” in which he argued that the U.S. education system is designed to churn out conformist, obedient factory workers. He claims the system is an an anachronism based on 1920s industrial revolution thinking. He says schools need to be emphasizing initiative, creativity, and risk taking because countries with cheap labor are going to beat us at the commodity producing race. Godin is right that our schools need to encourage more critical thinking and less standardized testing, but sadly he like so many people…
Sometimes it can be difficult for me to explain to people outside of the manufacturing world what the heck I write about. They ask me what the precision machining industry does and they want an explanation of why they should care. The following are two stories from the 2011 PMTS show that brought the machining world to life to me. At the show, Matt Redder, a sales representative from a Haas Automation distributor in Cincinnati, Ohio, came over to the Today’s Machining World booth. He told us the story of his recent surgery to repair a bad disc in his…