Recovery? I’m about to vote yes.

April 7, 2010

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

We’ve just closed the books on the first quarter. Orders were up 48% over the same period a year ago. However, not all orders were for immediate shipment. Some orders have shipments stretched out over the next six months. This increased the depth and breadth of our backlog, but didn’t result in our first quarter shipments equalling our first quarter bookings. If the bookings trend continues through the 2nd quarter, the shipments will eventually rise to meet them and we will be back at a pre-recession level. So, is this a recovery? It sure feels like it. Being cautious, I’ll call it “recovery spring”. Things are beginning to blossom, but we could still have some cold snaps before we get to “recovery summer”. I hope we’ll have a long growing season. We could all use some green.

Maybe There is a Future for Manufacturing

March 25, 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.

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 LTA Casting Process Described in Detail on New Video

March 4, 2010

We’ve just posted a new video to the Graphicast You Tube channel. You can now see the Graphicast LTA casting process unfold in slow motion, with each step explained in a thrilling narration. Just like in the Olympics, breaking the action down into slow motion with analysis along the way helps you better understand what’s happening during the process and, hopefully, gives you a better appreciation of the finer points of the process.

The Economic Indicators – An Informal New Hampshire View

February 28, 2010

During my interview on New Hampshire Public Radio on Friday, we talked about the indicators Graphicast is seeing that may suggest a recovery is underway. The biggest thing for us is that our order book in January was the highest it’s been since October 2008, when the bottom started dropping out of the economy. Our February orders exceeded January’s, so that’s two strong months in a row. March will be critical in the trend analysis. Were January and February just inventory catch ups months, or are we seeing sustained growth? We’ll let you know in a few weeks. Here are some of the other recovery indicators people are seeing in their personal and business lives.

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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