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From automobiles to artwork
Manuel Sarmiento went to a vocational school to learn to be a fender-and-body technician and to learn to paint cars. Fooling around with a plasma cutter one day, he cut out the shape of a hand and took it home to his wife. She loved it and...
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Made to order, for emergency
No one would argue that at least some elements of lean manufacturing
apply to most operations, but Horton Emergency Vehicles is a made-to-order vehicle manufacturer. Certainly, Horton’s highly custom
approach didn’t fit a assembly-line...
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Steady flow, steady profits
ETM Manufacturing invests in continuous improvement training.
Since initiating these efforts in 2007, the company has less than
doubled its headcount, but tripled annual sales.
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How soft skills make a shop successful
When hiring, Jay Manufacturing Oshkosh managers don't look for
technical skills first. Instead, they concentrate on elements that are difficult to teach--that is, the soft skills.
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Three’s company
Many weld instructors will tell you that the ability to hear plays a critical role in developing a skilled welder. But a deaf student from Tennessee is proving that character traits like determination and a strong work ethic are more important. It...
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TPJ’s 2012 Industry Award Winner: Chicago Tube & Iron
Don McNeeley, president and CEO of ChicagoTube & Iron, describes the big turning points in a company's inflection. For many companies, a point of inflection is the plateau between the company's youthful growth phase and the decline into old age,...
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Metcam cleans house
Metcam reduces inventory and reorganizes the shop floor, placing press brakes and hardware insertion presses next to blanking centers--all during one of the company’s busiest Decembers ever.
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The melding worlds of motorsports and metal art
A community college motorsports fabrication instructor finds common ground in race car fabrication, metal art.
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Lessons learned lead to big bounce back
A&E Custom Manufacturing was on the ropes financially in the early 1990s, but the lessons learned during that struggle helped to put it in a position to rebound strongly after the downturn of 2009. In fact, they have been steadily rebuilding the...
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Metal fabrication, the Swiss way
Switzerland’s manufacturers have no trouble finding citizens with
technical skills; there just aren’t enough Swiss citizens. The country
has a comprehensive apprenticeship program that helps prepare
students for the working world.
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Need a light--now?
Phoenix Products Co.--a high-mix, low-volume lighting products manufacturer--has implemented an improvement methodology called quick-response manufacturing, and realized dramatic improvements in lead-times. One light fixture that used to take...
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Fabricator takes a team approach to job management
Anderson Dahlen is a precision sheet metal job shop. It’s an industrial contractor that designs and fabricates entire systems for the processing sector, everything from mixing systems for the chemical industry to holding tanks for dairy plants....
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Brass instrument manufacturing: How metal makes music
Getzen Co. uses 200-year-old technology to make its high-end trumpets and trombones. Walking into the company’s Elkhorn, Wis., facility is a bit like walking into a metalworking museum. Here, worker experience and skill reign supreme.
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How a shop devoted to improvement improved
At a major automotive OEM, a support operation is devoted to continuous improvement projects for the assembly line, fabricating items as needed to make life easier for line workers. Unfortunately, the improvement shop wasn’t very organized. As...
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Fabricator finds path to skilled labor
Crow Corp. had trouble finding the right person for the job, so company management took a bold step—and outsourced the hiring process. Today, the Houston-area fabricator is feeling the benefits.
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Design for manufacturability opens doors
Dawson Doors, a fabricator in a small town in western New York, has developed a global presence in the high-end enclosure and door fabrication markets. By closely collaborating with customers, the unique fabrication company has continued to grow.
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The benefits of technical certification in metal fabrication
The prototype shop at International Gaming Technologies employs serious talent. They take a sheet metal part through the entire fabrication process, from laser cutting and bending to welding and grinding. To qualify for a job here requires...
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Project engineer changes careers, chooses metal fabrication
Jacob Melton quit his desk job in Chicago, drove home to Houston, and with his father bought a metal fabrication company. Several years later, even after a severe recession, it turns out that was a smart career move.
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Don't waste a good recession
When others sat on the sidelines praying for a miracle during the Great Recession, Seconn Fabrication added 25,000 square feet, invested in new equipment, implemented a new MRP system, refocused its marketing efforts, and tackled other projects to...
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Getting in tune with tube
Custom guitar-maker Gordon Branch started making guitars from wood, the traditional material, about 25 years ago. He went in a different direction when he created a design based on an aluminum billet, relying on the metal’s acoustic...
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The personal side of metal fabricating
Southern Fabricators Inc. has put a premium on the relationships it has with its customers, and that focus has led to robust growth, particularly as the metal fabricator has invested in new equipment to keep up with customer demands.
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A method to job shop software madness
Choosing job shop software can be a daunting task. How can you be sure to choose a system that accomplishes the tasks you want and provides the best return on investment?
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Old-school fabricator takes it one step at a time
Shortly after the company was founded as a welding and repair shop in 1949, Wells-Osborn Spiral Stairs found a niche in building spiral staircases. Founder Bill Osborn bought some equipment and made some of his own. Some of Osborn’s original...
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Welding ventilation goes to school
The concern to protect welders from the dangers of inhaling welding fumes is not limited to just metal fabricating companies. The schools training the next generation of manufacturing workers need to be concerned as well. In fact, the pressure may...
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Fabricating of the third-generation kind
A commitment to a new sales strategy and a solid foundation of fabricating talent and capabilities helped Clark Metal Products, Blairsville, Pa., weather the Great Recession. It's also put the company in a position to top its record year of 2008...
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Fabricating tube, learning lessons in America's Dairyland
J & D Tube Benders Inc., founded as a partnership to produce a single part number in 1971, today generates $16 million in annual revenues and is on the cusp of the third generation of family ownership. The key to its longevity is learning valuable...
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The Army’s manufacturing muscle
The Rock Island Arsenal has been a manufacturer of military equipment and ordnance since the 1880s, but today it has established itself as the only general-purpose, vertically integrated metal manufacturer in the U.S. Department of Defense. With...
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Fabricating to the drumbeat
A central Ohio job shop uses a mix of improvement methodologies--
including the theory of constraints--to reduce lead-times from weeks to days.
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Snow mean feat
Snowshoes have been used for thousands of years, but only recently have modern manufactured materials come into the picture.
These days lengths of bent and welded tube, usually aluminum, make up the frame. Although the market is crowded, Jake...
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Using watts, again
A West Coast metal fabricator, Laser Cutting Northwest developed a product called the regenerator, which generates electricity from exhausted air. One application includes dust collectors for laser cutting systems. Installed into the shop’s own...
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Stamper cuts costs of making surgical instruments
At least one stamper is reducing the cost of
medical devices by converting machined parts
to stamped or stamped/machined parts. Not
only is the manufacturer using this
innovative approach to reduce cost without
sacrificing quality and still meet...
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New metal fabrication player touts high-value engineering
A Baltimore job shop remained on the growth
path throughout the recession by
circumventing the traditional job bidding
process and gaining a serious foothold in the
export market.
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Lights, camera, lean--recording manufacturing efficiency
Nexteer Automotive uses sports video software to track machine, part, and worker movement. During the past few years, the technology has been integral to Nexteer's lean-manufacturing initiatives.
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Meet Metcam - a leaner, greener, meaner fabricator
Operating seven days a week fabricating and shipping products domestically and worldwide, Alpharetta, Ga.-based Metcam Inc. has found a formula for success that has this company thriving when others are struggling to survive.
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Doing what was always done doesn't cut it
ABMyr, Belleville, Mich., is a manufacturer
of finishing systems for its automotive
clients, but at the heart of the company is
its fabricating talent. That is what will
serve the company best as it looks to rebound
from the recent downturn.
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The Wisconsin Family Robinson
Anyone that works for Robinson Metal Inc.
learns the business from the ground up. That
approached has served it well as the De Pere,
Wis., company has grown to become one of the
largest fabricating jobs shops in the U.S.
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Welders on welding
Based on feedback from "Welding Wire" subscribers, you have to wonder if CareerCast.com interviewed any welders when compiling its 2010 list of the best and worst jobs. Welding was the No. 5 worst job on the list, and welders question its ranking.
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Waste not, want more
In recent years General Metal Works, Mequon, Wis., has leaned heavily on practices that eliminate waste in its shop floor operations and kept its work force engaged. The efforts have paid off in that no layoffs have occurred during the recent...
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Want to export? Cozy up to your globalizing customers
Some stampers have adapted to their customers' global expansions by producing unique and sometimes difficult-to-manufacture components and assemblies and maintaining strong relationships with their domestic customers that have migrated offshore.
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Want to export? Cozy up to your globalizing customers
While some stampers have experienced demand losses when their clients set up manufacturing facilities offshore, others have successfully co-piloted their customers' global expansions to supply to them in their new digs. In each case, the stamping...
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Welders to the rescue
In times of trouble we depend on firefighters and rescue personnel to provide assistance.But who do they depend on when they need assistance, particularly when their equipment is worn down or broken? In the areas around St. Charles and Aurora,...
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Raising the bar, one sink at a time
Glastender, a food service products manufacturer, takes bold movesand expands during this historic economic downturn.
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Fabricating with a digital foundation
An architectural metal fabricator takes a building-information modeling (BIM) approach, using enhanced computer modeling to streamline operations.
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Putting out fires, the lean way
Crimson Fire, a lean fire truck OEM, enjoys record orders, but prepares for challenges ahead.
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Rapid Creek Cutters—The second time around
At a time when companies are thinning the worker ranks, many people may be thinking about going into business for themselves. Pat Burrington, the owner of Rapid Creek Cutters, has worked for others and for himself. He recommends the latter.
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'We are all Shickels'
Shickel Corp., Bridgewater, Va., has a very diversified customer base, a strong manufacturing tradition, and a commitment to exposing youngsters to the exciting world of manufacturing. For all those reasons, this 70-year-old company is the...
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Getting it there yesterday
Greenheck has made a science out of quick lead-times. For most products, customers can place an order and receive a custom fabrication within three to five days, and sometimes in less than 24 hours.
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Forming metal that 'remembers'
Memry has built a business around shape-memory alloys, mainly for customers in the medical arena. It's a difficult, highly specialized field that managers at Memry are betting will grow.
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Getting the weld right the first time
When a metal fabricating company moves into a new, larger building, it has a great opportunity to take a hard look at production flow. Victory Industrial Products, Batavia, Ohio, did just that and the results were extremely powerful.
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Rocket science, entrepreneur-style
Managers, designers, and manufacturing engineers at Space Exploration Technologies have come up with a new way to design and manufacture a rocket.
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