A Good Morning at the Manufacturing Leadership Summit 2010

May 4, 2010

The highlight of the morning at the Manufacturing Leadership Summit was a review of what the National Asociation of Manufacturers is doing to boost the visibility of the manufacturing sector around the country, especially on Capitol Hill. John Engler, president of NAM and former three term governor of Michigan, presented a rational overview of areas of tax policy, education, and industrial policy that are needed to secure manufacturing as a key foundation of our economy. With all the talk of the decline of manufacturing in the US, it is important to realize that the US share of global manufacturing output is 21%, while China’s share is 12%. That may be hard for some to realize, but it just underscores the need for stable manufacturing policy in government and a serious effort from education to keep the supply of a highly qualified workforce at the forefront of their efforts.

Interzinc Goes to Texas

April 22, 2010

Thanks to Doug Rourke of the International Zinc Association for his feedback from Texas:

Interzinc, the zinc casting market development organization (www.interzinc.org), made a swing through Texas with seminars in Dallas, Austin and Houston. The seminars received enthusiastic response from attendees who learned how zinc castings can produce lower cost and better performing parts due to the excellent mechanical properties of zinc alloys and the efficient casting processes

Doug Rourke – International Zinc Association

Monadnock Area Manufacturers to Network on April 23, 2010

April 16, 2010

Business Sustainability and the Recession

March 17, 2010

“Geoff Forester photograph, courtesy of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund”.

Graphicast will be one of the presenting companies at this year’s spring conference of  New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility. We will be in a session entitled “What lessons has the recession taught us about business sustainability?” Graphicast was asked to participate in this conference based, in part, on how we dealt with the impact of the recession on our business.

We developed an action plan which we communicated to our employees early in 2009. In this plan, we indicated the steps we would follow  if certain situations occurred during the recession. These steps included cuts in discretionary spending, salary reductions, hour reductions, and temporary furloughs. As with many other manufacturing companies, by the spring of 2009 we were at the last step. We did have some voluntary furloughs late in the in the spring, but by mid summer everyone was back on the job. During the furlough period, Graphicast paid 100% of the health insurance costs of our furloughed employees. This allowed them to more easily sustain themselves while they were not working. As it turned out, many of the furloughed employees took advantage of this time to develop stronger relationships with their families and friends. They made the best of a difficult situation.

Several of our employees captured their thoughts and impressions of the furlough during a video interview conducted by Heartwood Media. This video was shown at the “Breakfast with the Best” celebration in February 2010. Take a look at what they had to say about their experiences with the recession.

INTERZINC SEMINARS

March 13, 2010

The next series of Interzinc Design Seminars will take place in Texas at the following locations and dates: April 20, 2010 in Arlington, April 21, 2010 in Austin and April 22, 2010 in Houston. By attending an Interzinc Seminar you will gain valuable knowledge of the engineered zinc-aluminum alloys. The presentation is free and will include coverage of physical property specifications, design guidelines, casting applications, available finishes and case studies. Click here for more information and registration on line. Hope to see you there.

Design2Part Show Dallas

March 11, 2010

Traffic has been good both days, with an unusual number of attendees from local machine shops yesterday. Their customers are pressing for lower part cost, and one solution is a near net shape casting that requires minimal secondary machining. Lower cost solutions seem to be driving most attendees this year, although I have been encouraged to to see a number of design engineers show up with projects they are working on that will potentially involve castings.

Graphicast on NH Public Radio on Friday, February 26 at Noon

February 24, 2010

I will be interviewed by Jon Greenberg of NH Public Radio between noon and 1 PM on Friday, February 26 during his live, call-in program, “Working It Out”.  Working It Out (WIO) is about the economy and its impact on the state. Notes are collected from NH residents and posted on WIO’s website to provide a panoramic view of the economy from the various regions of the state.  Monthly, Jon does a live, call-in program to supplement the web postings. The response to the program has been enthusiastic, as people have been eager to tell their stories and share their experiences.  On Friday, Jon will be exploring the recovery. He’ll be trying to find out what people are seeing around the state , is the recovery for real, are people confident or wary? It should be an interesting program. For those out of the immediate New Hampshire area, NHPR does have a streaming audio feed for its broadcasts.

A Busy Spring Trade Show Schedule

February 19, 2010

The spring trade show season is upon us. Graphicast will be covering the Midwest, Southwest,  and Southern California this year. Please be sure to stop by and visit our booth. We’ll update this information as we get closer to the show dates.

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