The push to develop wind power sources has slowed a bit in 2009, but it's starting to gain momentum again, as attendees at the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association's Wind Energy Conference found out Sept. 15 in Elgin, Ill., at Mazak Optonics Corp.

Last year more than 8,400 megawatts of wind energy-producing turbines were installed across the U.S., which was a 50 percent increase over the year before. This firmly cements this country as the largest producer of wind energy in the world, according to Jeff Anthony, director of business development, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), at least until China firmly jumps on the alternative-energy bandwagon.

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The cover of Newsweek could be journalism school fodder for ways to stand out on the newsstand: "The Case for Killing Granny." That headline tugs at the soul, drilling down to the heart of the health care debate. The lion's share of health care costs in this country occurs during the final months and years of life, as doctors work valiantly to prevent our inevitable demise."

I have to be honest. Seeing the headline at a newsstand this morning made me take another direction with this blog. My first thought was to describe how the health care industry could learn a thing or two from lean and other improvement methodologies rooted in manufacturing. Doctors are paid by procedure, not results. The more tests they do, the more money they make. In manufacturing, it's the opposite. Fabricators strive to simplify. Simplifying parts, producing on demand, and making life easier for customers likely will garner more work in the long run ... right?

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Buried within the Institute for Supply Management™'s July Manufacturing ISM Report on Business® is a telling quote from a metal fabricator.

"No stimulus for manufacturing."

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Wanna talk about health care? Not really. The thought of a discussion gives me a headache, and I don’t think I could get around to seeing my doctor until next Tuesday.

Wanna vilify China? I’ve got be careful on this one. I think a company from China actually owns my mortgage now.

Wanna bash illegal immigration? I think people would be quickly bored about my disdain for Latverians.

What about the economy? Well, since you asked …

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That number bounced around the blogosphere this week as CIT teeters on the brink of bankruptcy. CEO Jeff Peek told news outlets that 760 manufacturing companies could shut down if CIT collapses. And then comes the ripple effect, which is even scarier.

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This country seems to be itching for the next big thing, those game-changing innovations that drag us out of our economic malaise. General Electric Co. CEO Jeffrey Immelt knows this, and it's why his company announced a $100 million investment in an R&D center 25 miles west of Detroit. As the AP reported over the weekend, the center will employ about 1,200 engineers and scientists.

It's been awhile since we've seen true game-changing innovations out there. The last real innovation came with the personal computer and the dot-com era that ensued. During the past decade we've had "financial innovations," and we all know where those led. I equate these complex financial instruments to fancy motor oil. You need oil for an engine to run, and good oil may make a good engine run even better. But if we have a poorly designed engine, it doesn't matter how good the oil is; the thing eventually just will fall apart.

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Before one session at last week's ALAW Laser Applications Workshop, a fabricator stood in the back of the conference room at the Inn at St. John’s in Plymouth, Mich., just outside Detroit. He peered at the small sound board that controlled the microphone at the podium and noted the metal brackets and enclosures, as well as the nameplate.

"I’ll have to give them a call," he said.

This underscores the decidedly different tone at this year's event, co-sponsored by the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association (FMA), International, and the Laser Institute of America. Launched as the Automotive Laser Applications Workshop 17 years ago, the conference has since broadened its scope to include contract manufacturing and other industrial sectors. Like in previous years, the conference offered two tracks, one focusing on the automotive industry and another on general metal fabrication.

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This is going to sound strange, but a recession like this sometimes feels like a breath of fresh air. If a company can operate through a downturn like this relatively unscathed, that's really something. If a company's inefficient, it shutters its doors. Sometimes bad things happen to good companies, but often, the hand of the free market makes all those annoying things about business--political infighting and other wasteful practices--stop, because companies that continue that silliness close their doors.

A downturn like this takes no prisoners--and it doesn't put up with political bull, either.

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This has been a busy few weeks for Eric Isbister.

The chief executive at General MetalWorks in Mequon, Wis., north of Milwaukee, held an open house Friday to celebrate 10 years since he and his wife, Mary, took over the fabrication business. Late last month he braved the halls of Hannover Messe, the giant industrial tradeshow with hundreds of exhibitors in the wind industry. And this week he's attending the WindPower 2009 expo, put on by the American Wind Energy Association.

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Did you hear IBM's getting into the water business?

That’s right, the water business. Specifically, IBM managers are looking to change the way water is managed through digital sensors and computer networks. This is coming from a company that grew up in the era of mainframes and transformed the corporate world with the personal computer. Now it wants to get into the infrastructure-improvement business, including the management of automobile traffic, water, and the power grid, according to a recent Associated Press report.

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