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More from Dick Kallage
- From The Fabricator
New squeezes on the small metal fabricator
- By Dick Kallage
- Dec 18, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
The custom fabrication market is changing as more customers—with a single-minded focus on price—stipulate new performance demands for quality, delivery, service, responsiveness, and payment terms. Should custom fabricators rethink how they are structured and how they operate to offset what could be fatal weaknesses?
- From The Fabricator
Metal fabrication, efficiency, and safety
- By Dick Kallage
- Nov 6, 2014
- Safety
- Article
Morality and fear often drive safety investments. People don’t want to see people get hurt, and they don’t want fines from a terrible accident to put them out of business. But there’s another driver that’s sometimes overlooked: efficiency. Safety is an important part of the foundation for efficiency and operational improvement.
- From The Fabricator
Staffing the comeback
- By Dick Kallage
- Oct 22, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
It’s no secret—this industry has a tough time finding people, and as demand has increased in recent years, the problem has gotten worse. Just how many people does this industry need to compete, what talents do they need to have, and how can a company attract the best? To address these questions requires realistic planning based not on perceptions, but on facts.
- From The Fabricator
How to get scheduling right
- By Dick Kallage
- Aug 28, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
Many point to scheduling as one of the most challenging aspects of running a custom fabrication business. Why, exactly? Sometimes it’s the software, but quite often, it boils down to the inputs used to create the schedule in the first place.
- From The Fabricator
Scheduling high-mix, low-volume operations
- By Dick Kallage
- Jul 30, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
Scheduling remains one of the most complicated, least predictable aspects of contract metal fabrication. But why is this exactly, and what can a shop do to change this? In this first article in a series, Dick Kallage uncovers the answers.
- From The Fabricator
Differentiating in a commoditized market
- By Dick Kallage
- Jul 24, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
There are four principles to understand about differentiation and the buying factors that go beyond price: They always exist; they have economic value; they vary by customer; and they change with time, because yesterday’s differentiators can be tomorrow’s commodity.
- From The Fabricator
Winning in commoditized markets
- By Dick Kallage
- Jun 18, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
The lowest-cost-producer business model is simple. If you have the lowest costs and prices, you win. But this model can be ruthless, too.
- From The Fabricator
Commoditization: Is it inevitable?
- By Dick Kallage
- May 30, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
The digital revolution has changed the game of metal fabrication. How can business owners differentate their companies? Contributing writer Dick Kallage begins a new series to answer that question.
- From The Fabricator
80/20 homework
- By Dick Kallage
- Apr 16, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
Before a company looks to increase its inventory buffer as a step to improve on-time delivery, a shop should exhaust less expensive options first. These homework assignments may help fabricators explore those options.
- From The Fabricator
80/20: What can possibly go wrong?
- By Dick Kallage
- Mar 18, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
The necessary conditions must be in place to implement the 80/20 method of management successfully.
- From The Fabricator
An 80/20 primer
- By Dick Kallage
- Feb 28, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
The 80/20 management method seeks to maximize results—such as sales or profits—by systematically deploying available resources only to the drivers that have the most impact. It sounds straightforward, but columnist Dick Kallage explains why this management approach is sometimes hard to execute.
- From The Fabricator
Days in the lives
- By Dick Kallage
- Jan 30, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
To find time to dedicate to continuous improvement activities, a metal fabricator should have a good idea what employees do every day before assigning additional tasks.
- From The Fabricator
Want to make your own products?
- By Dick Kallage
- Dec 6, 2013
- Shop Management
- Article
This column is a bit of a change of pace, but like all the previous ones it is targeted to the real issues I see with contract manufacturers and fabricators. This column focuses on products, specifically, the products you may want to build and market under your company’s auspices versus someone...
- From The Fabricator
The hidden costs in manufacturing
- By Dick Kallage
- Nov 25, 2013
- Shop Management
- Article
Taken individually or in combination, hidden costs greatly affect a company’s financial and competitive performance.
- From The Fabricator
Adding rocks to the knapsack: A roadblock to continuous improvement
- By Dick Kallage
- Oct 9, 2013
- Shop Management
- Article
There’s nothing wrong with tackling the low-hanging fruit, unless it kills the big improvement initiatives that can really make you better.
- Podcasting
- Podcast:
- The Fabricator Podcast
- Published:
- 03/26/2024
- Running Time:
- 67:51
This week on The Fabricator Podcast, Jason Becker, host of the Arc Junkies Podcast and owner of Underground...
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