Old-school versus newfangled fabrication talk

Fabrication is still cutting, bending, forming, and joining metal parts. The tools have changed, but the general goals of metal manipulation remain the same.

The environment around fabrication, however, has changed greatly. Rare is the job shop that can focus solely on metalworking. If the shop is to be busy next week, it needs to take steps several weeks before to win those jobs. Fabricators need to be as skillful with their estimating and marketing as they are with their welding torches on thin pieces of stainless steel sheet.

As the business side of running a metal fabricating company has become more important, the language of the business has changed. Larger fabricating operations adopt the buzzwords of their upper management or large OEM customers. They don’t have problems, just “challenges.” A fair job contract isn’t good for everyone; it’s a “win-win.” “Collaboration” is called for, not meetings.

These examples only become more evident in shops with fewer than 10 employees, which the U.S. has plenty of. These folks don’t have time for codified communication. They shoot straight, telling it like it is.

Here are some examples that I’ve picked up on in recent conversations with some of these smaller shops:

• Large company: “This is a very challenging engineering project for a fabrication that requires precision bends over the length of the part.” Small fabricator: “The part needs to go over here, do this, go through there, and end up here? OK. We got it.”
• Large company: “We want to collaborate in a way that makes us indispensable supply chain partners.” Small fabricator: “Show us what you need and we’ll make it happen.”
• Large company: “Our culture is one that encourages employee empowerment and ownership of work.” Small fabricator: “People know right from wrong. We don’t have time to work on things twice.”
• Large company: “We are committed to our craft. We run multiple shifts to ensure products are delivered to customers on time and meet quality expectations.” Small fabricator: “We work on weekends because we like being in the shop. It’s a man cave for us.”

In the end, fabricators both small and large want to meet customer expectations. It’s just a little more fun talking to the small guys. The conversation is colorful and unvarnished, kind of like life.