Monadnock Area Manufacturers to Network on April 23, 2010
April 16, 2010
- “Geoff Forester photograph, courtesy of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund”.
The New Hampshire MEP is sponsoring a forum from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM on April 23, 2010 for Monadnock area manufacturers to discuss topics of mutual interest. The host company for the forum will be Smith Medical of Keene. The MEP has conducted several forums this year in other areas of the state. The purpose behind these regional meetings is the realization that there are regional differences and regional problems that are best addressed by those company’s affected by them. You can register on-line at http://www.nhmep.org/events.html.
New Hampshire’s Manchester School of Technology on CNN April 15, 2010
April 13, 2010
“Geoff Forester photograph, courtesy of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund”.
This must be the week for good news about education. Besides my always uplifting experience speaking with Dartmouth graduate students, I heard today that the Manchester (NH) School of Technology will be featured on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 on Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 11:30 PM. According to MST principal Karen White, ” It is about how the state of NH has done better than other states in the country on dropout prevention and we were chosen by the Dept of Ed to showcase our efforts. One of the highlights is that technical education is what is attracting students and keeping them in”.
I’ve been working with MST as part of a advisory group that has helped them institute a manufacturing technology program for their students. This is a comprehensive program that provides hands-on education in all aspects of technologies involved in manufacturing. The program features a well equipped training area and an experienced teacher focused on this curriculum. Part of the training includes introductions to lean manufacturing, statistical techniques, and the many people skills required for a successful career. Students come out of the program ready to go to work, or to enter a more in-depth continuation of the training at Manchester Community College. Either way, manufacturers are getting new workers ready for successful careers in industry.
Dartmouth Engineering Graduate Students are Getting Ready for the Real World
April 9, 2010
“Geoff Forester photograph, courtesy of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund”.
I just finished my fourth yearly visit to Dartmouth College to speak to their Master of Engineering Management students about running a manufacturing company. These students are in a great program that prepares them for real world situations. All students go through certification for Six Sigma Black Belt and are well versed in principles of Lean Manufacturing and Theory of Constraints. We had the pleasure of working with two of their students on research projects here at Graphicast. They helped us solve a recurring quality issue in casting and developed a method for reducing set up times in CNC machining. I always enjoy my time at Dartmouth and hope we can work with their students on other projects in the future.
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
- “Geoff Forester photograph, courtesy of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund”.
We’ve had a busy two weeks of visitors at Graphicast. Not from customers or potential customers, but from students. A class from our local high school is learning about career opportunities, soft and hard skills required for success in the workplace, and taking part in internships to gain some experience. I first visited their classroom to talk about all the different skills that are required to run a manufacturing company. The next day, they came by for their plant tour. This was the first chance for most of them to see an operating factory. They had no idea what was taking place within a few blocks of their school. As one student said, “This was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be”.
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.
American managed.
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