Talk of health reform has become frenzied in recent weeks. The latest compromises have bordered on desperation. We can't pursue the public option plan, to appease budget-weary politicians (and voters) and the insurance industry. We're uncomfortable about requiring everyone to buy insurance during the current economic climate. The insurance industry isn't going for caps on premiums. The idea of taxing high-end health insurance plans isn't faring well either. What's left are thousands of pages of legalese signifying, well, not much.

Democratic representatives, senators, and the president have all said they will pass health care reform. They say they can’t walk away from the table.

No wonder special interest groups are moving in for the kill.

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The responses reflect the harsh nature of being part of anyone's supply chain nowadays.

Robert Buzzard, plant manager at Hamlin Steel Products LLC: "Go ahead and do that … then give them my number! ;-)."

Robert Quinn, owner, RCM Inc.: "So long as you do it, it's not impossible, only 'next' to impossible. And that is acceptable to them! :)"

It's definitely a cold, cruel world out there. But it's also one full of opportunity. Metal fabricators just have to hustle like they never have before.

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Buy low, sell high. Good rules to live by for the investment-savvy person. (I, being oh-so-not investment-savvy, usually do the opposite.) The phrase could be applied, slightly altered, to a business strategy: Invest during slow times so you can sell when times are good.

That sounds like a smart, level-headed business rule, and some of the largest companies follow it. Today The Wall Street Journal reported on a study showing that companies that had steady or increased R&D spending during a downturn found big success once the economy kicked back into gear. Apple’s iPod is a shining example. R&D for the device that helped propel Apple’s growth during the last decade started in 1999, and it was released during troubled economic times--in 2001, just one month after Sept. 11.

But Bruce Hamilton, president of Boston-based lean consultancy GBMP, takes this concept another step. He suggested that companies don’t just hang in there and wait for the upturn. Now, he said, is the time for the best companies to get aggressive, ramp up advertising and marketing efforts, and gain market share.

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Let the record show that I’m no fan of the iPod®. My wife got one two years ago, and upon downloading the iTunes® media player program and going through setup, the dang thing prompted us to register at the iTunes Store and—wait for it—insert a credit card number.

What?

We just shelled out money for this gadget, which cost more than most comparable brands, and now it wants us to set up an iTunes account so we can spend more money? We’re frugal (we still haven’t set up the iTunes account), but the story does show why Apple’s been a Wall Street darling in recent years. It can make money not only making computers and software (though much of the hardware is outsourced to Asia), but also selling services, which has the advantage of high margins and steady income: The company sells an iPod to a consumer once, but those music download fees keep coming. Judging by its market performance in recent years (excluding recent weeks), Apple’s apparently on to something.

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At last week's FABTECH International® & AWS Welding Show with METALFORM in Las Vegas, I walked the show floor, which I'm proud to say I survived. Anyone who attended the show knows what I mean. The show was huge and the aisles were long. The first day, it also was crowded with record attendance—a positive sign at this time when we're focused on so many economic indicators.

Along the way, I stopped by booths and spoke with company representatives eager to talk about new products and enhancements to tried-and-true products. As I took notes, I began to write key words in the margins that jumped out at me as motivators for new developments. Coincidentally, all five begin with the letter "S."

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Hidetsugu Masuda revels as a tour guide.

The president of KantoSeiko Co., Ltd. Group, in Fuji-Gun, Shizuoka Prefecture, isn’t your typical Japanese shop manager. The shop’s main meeting room is lined with photos of customers and other shop managers from Japan and, indeed, around the world who have toured his facility. Each tour is usually a learning experience both for Masuda and his guests.

Last week I was lucky enough to be one of those guests.

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I don’t know much, but I do know this: If metal fabricators had my plumber’s customer service record, they wouldn’t be in business for long.

Forgive my venting, but I’m sure many can relate. We had an oh-so-delightful problem with our plumbing—1946 vintage. The trouble really began when we bought the house. We had what I like to call “Old Home Delusional Disorder.” (I’m stealing the term from humorist—and my hero, in a way—Dave Barry.) The house was, and is, absolutely charming: crown moldings, original kitchen fixtures, and, as it turned out, very original clay drain pipes that, as of January, had evolved into half dirt, half tree roots, and no substantial clay to speak of.

To make a long story short, we signed the plumbing contract, which specified a date when they would start and finish. Of course, I failed to read the small print: These times are estimates and may change “due to circumstances out of our control.”

You can guess what happened.

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The word global and all its derivations are everywhere. Saying a business is a “global company” may make a good marketing sound bite, but think about it: If your community is home to a company that calls itself a "global enterprise," would you really care?

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Everyone who works at Tampa Sheet Metal Co. has a riverboat to thank. Yes, a riverboat.

During the early 1900s, Augusta Jiretz, looking out the window of her room in a waterfront hotel, saw a riverboat that reminded her of home, Hamburg, Germany. That was enough for Augusta and her husband, John, a journeyman sheet metal mechanic who shortly thereafter set up a two-man sheet metal shop in 1920, the Tampa Sheet Metal Co. In 1938 the company's 12 workers built a facility on what is today Kennedy Blvd., then the outskirts of town; today it's virtually downtown.

"When I first came to work here [in 1956], we did most things by hand," said John L. Jiretz, company president and the founder's grandson. "To set up a punch press took a half hour, and to change a hole size took another 20 minutes."

My how times have changed.

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Last week Chew Choon Seng hosted a symbolic event in aviation history. The CEO of Singapore Airlines threw a party more than 30,000 feet in the air, where he strolled the aisles in his company’s new crown jewel: the Airbus A380. After years of delays, the thing is finally airborne.

From Singapore’s Changi Airport direct to Sydney, Australia, the inaugural voyage lasted seven and a half hours. The flying behemoth has a wingspan of more than 260 feet, about 50 ft. wider than Boeing’s 747-400. Technologically, it’s an engineering marvel.

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