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More from Tim Heston
- From The Fabricator
How scalable is contract metal fabrication?
- By Tim Heston
- Apr 14, 2014
- Shop Management
- Blog Post
How big can custom fabrication get? Judging by recent trends at some of the larger contract operations in this country—very, very big.
- From The Fabricator
Quality assurance gets an upgrade at Eaton Fabricating
- By Tim Heston
- Apr 14, 2014
- Testing and Measuring
- Article
Eaton Fabricating Co. Inc., Grafton, Ohio, revamped its front office and shop floor operation to ensure parts emerge from machines right the first time. The key is that management gives operators time to perform quality assurance checks at every stage in manufacturing.
- From The Fabricator
A foundation for 5S
- By Tim Heston
- Apr 7, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
Macksteel Warehouse, a service center and job shop serving area OEMs, has undergone significant transformations in recent years, including the way employees sweep the floor.
- From The Fabricator
Laser cutting on the level
- By Tim Heston
- Apr 3, 2014
- Laser Cutting
- Article
A laser cutting machine doesn’t care how hard or soft a metal is, but the material’s flatness matters immensely. That’s why so many service centers are investing in leveling processes that aim to equalize stresses, ensuring sheet metal stays flat after being cut.
- From The Fabricator
Apprenticeship, North Carolina-style
- By Tim Heston
- Mar 31, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
Max Daetwyler Corp., a Huntersville, N.C.-based contract manufacturer, has evolved significantly to serve the changing business needs in the custom machinery arena. Its approach to employee skill development has evolved as well, with a growing regional partnership founded on the concepts behind European-style apprenticeships.
- From The Fabricator
A new business model, a new structure—a new business
- By Tim Heston
- Mar 26, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
It’s easy for metal fab shop owners and managers to fall into the habit of complaining about the lack of skilled talent in the marketplace. Executives at of General Sheet Metal Works, South Bend, Ind., recognized that their employees had plenty of knowledge and skill. The fabricator just didn’t have a strong structure to channel that knowledge and build a better company.
- From The Fabricator
The odd industrial barometer of capacity utilization
- By Tim Heston
- Mar 17, 2014
- Laser Cutting
- Blog Post
Industrial capacity utilization soured in the booming 1990s. Today average utilization is lower, and yet the overall value of manufacturing output continues to climb. Over the long term, is capacity utilization really an accurate barometer for demand? If a fabricator's capacity utilization drops, is the shop struggling, or has it gotten more efficient?
- From The Fabricator
How a heavy fabricator reinvented itself
- By Tim Heston
- Mar 17, 2014
- Bending and Forming
- Article
BEPeterson, Avon, Mass., used to be a weld shop. Most of the work was seasonal, which isn’t really a solid foundation for growth. The fabricator changed that with a commitment to diversification. Today the company has three unique business units: power utility, medical, and pressure vessels.
- From The Fabricator
Better brushes, better technique, better cleaning
- By Tim Heston
- Mar 14, 2014
- Finishing
- Article
Most fabricators don’t think much about deburring or finishing a metal surface, but they should considering how much time is spent on the activity. The first step is to understand how a wire brush actually cleans and deburrs.
- From The Fabricator
Why the stigma attached to factory work?
- By Tim Heston
- Mar 14, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
People should spend less time pushing every student toward college and spend more time realizing what people are actually doing on a shop floor of progressive fabricating shops. They aren’t “laborers,” but skilled machine operators and technicians—typically without a traditional four-year degree. Any stigma that exists about today’s factory worker is no longer relevant.
- From The Fabricator
Sustainable growth in the sunny Southwest
- By Tim Heston
- Mar 13, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
You might have noticed the employees of CAID Industries Inc., Tucson, Ariz., walking around FABTECH 2013 with bright yellow shirts indicating that the fabricator was hiring. The company is looking for the right talent to help turn the $40-million-a-year business into something much larger.
- From The Fabricator
About growing the economic pie
- By Tim Heston
- Mar 3, 2014
- Bending and Forming
- Blog Post
At The FABRICATOR's Leadership Summit, held last week in Austin, Texas, industry executives talked about growing the economic pie. One keynote speaker recalled how his business effectively grew the pie, thanks to open book management.
- From The Fabricator
How millennials will make a difference
- By Tim Heston
- Feb 28, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
Millenials have gotten a bad reputation. But the best of them may find a metal fabrication career extremely rewarding.
- From The Fabricator
The few, the proud, the small-shop employee
- By Tim Heston
- Feb 19, 2014
- Shop Management
- Blog Post
Small business employees now make up a smaller piece of the employment pie, and this may say a lot about manufacturing's perennial skilled-labor crisis.
- From The Fabricator
Mission-critical metal fabrication
- By Tim Heston
- Feb 17, 2014
- Shop Management
- Article
No matter how eye-popping the technology, the means of getting a job done is secondary; the result is primary. This is where General Tool Co.'s "team of experts" appraoch comes into play.
- Podcasting
- Podcast:
- The Fabricator Podcast
- Published:
- 04/16/2024
- Running Time:
- 63:29
In this episode of The Fabricator Podcast, Caleb Chamberlain, co-founder and CEO of OSH Cut, discusses his company’s...
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