More from the FMA Conference–Metal Matters

March 27th, 2009 at 10:18pm Teresa Beach-Shelow

Two days have flown by! Those of us who have attended in the past agree it was the best so far. We moved away from “talking heads” to good roundtables, camaraderie, networking, and peer to peer sharing. Energy, passion and talking from the heart about the state of the industry, Lean leadership, the economy, knowing your costs, shop software, strategic sharing to grow your business, yes even technical stuff and plant layouts that help the bottom line.

Rockford has done Continuous Improvement but maybe it is time to focus a bit on Lean Leadership. Take CI to the next level.

I was exposed to shop automation that is going to increase out put but not the need for employees. The training for the robots took minutes instead of hours. No need for inspectors as it takes the measurement before it picks up the part and moves it.

A shop owner was tired of buying computers “It wasn’t on my balance sheet five years ago” Now he never buys computers they just build their own from parts bought off the internet. That’s a way to help your bottom line!

One laser shop owner buys the newest and fastest computers and programs all his machines with automated functions and cameras. Another laser welder doesn’t use a microscope to see the parts he has fashioned two digital cameras that display on a big screen so he can see to weld. Are these types of innovations going on in the RRValley?

These people encouraged us to encourage the “thumbies” or “computer kids” to come into manufacturing, there is a place for them in our future….there was talk about exciting students to go into Manufacturing…our Region has a head start on many! We have to keep up the good work. I hear that the ACE High School is looking for students. If you know of an 8th grader that loves video games more than school….maybe ACE is for them! Sign ‘em up!

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