Develop your core strength

“Fortune favors the prepared mind” - Louis Pasteur

Investigative reporters start with a topic and dig deep to discover facts that reveal who, what, and why. Knowing the facts and truth of a situation helps readers make better decisions about the things and events that influence their lives. Doing your own version of investigative reporting about formability, sheet metal properties, and technology also can lead you to make better decisions.

Sheet metal forming has many traditions and much wisdom passed down through generations of experience. These traditions served well when “steel was steel.” In recent decades, steel has undergone changes that have challenged old standards for forming.

Aluminum continues to show up in more consumer products. Did you know that, as recently as the nineteenth century, aluminum was considered more precious than gold? Napoleon III, Emperor of France from 1853 to 1870, used aluminum place settings to serve honored guests. Improvements in extracting aluminum from bauxite made the mineral more affordable. Depression-era needs to provide electricity throughout the country made aluminum’s superior conductivity attractive. Aluminum then found its way into aerospace and military applications. Today, we see aluminum in beverage cans, automobiles, household appliances, and foils.

The type of alloy and how it’s manufactured determine a material’s physical characteristics. These characteristics define the metal’s capabilities and behaviors during forming. The metal’s microstructure is a key determinant of how it will perform. If you understand these fundamentals, you can

• Improve the probability of meeting the formed components requirements efficiently.
• Adapt to the evolving environment of new materials and material grades.
• Translate raw data about your materials and operations into something meaningful.

In this age of “big data” and nearly unlimited computing capacity, business owners often are misled into complacency about the need for knowledge. People frequently fall into the trap of believing that data reveals all of the necessary information about business activities. Computer science students learn the data-information-knowledge-wisdom (DIKW) model as the frame of reference for how to manage information and knowledge. This model, a hierarchy focused on assuming that knowledge comes from organizing raw data into information, is represented as shown in Figure 1.

This is, however, a misguided attempt to offer computer science students a meaningful reference. The DIKW model implies that knowledge is a subset of information and data. In fact, knowledge is the core that gives data its meaning. Also, information is an ambiguous and imprecisely defined term. Wisdom is more of a social term that used here seems to be simply about topping off the pyramid.

In previous articles, I have mentioned the bad decisions employees make because raw data is meaningless without context and knowledge. In fact, a meaningful study of data can be made only by knowledgeable individuals. Knowledge itself results from experiences and observations. It is a messy and disorganized process. It also is the foundation for all of our progress and success. In manufacturing, the use and enhancement of knowledge looks something like the diagram in Figure 2.

The conclusion of this model is that knowledge is the core that defines the success of research and activities. The more you understand forming technologies, forming manufacturing processes, and the effect of material properties on forming behavior, the greater the quality of your data studies and production tests. As the quality of your activities improves, your gains in meaningful knowledge also improve. This model demonstrates the cycle of knowledge and experimentation.

As your core improves, you also become less susceptible to the influence of dated traditions and “rules of thumb.” Your belief system begins to evolve based on evidence rather than anecdotes. Results should improve and customers will like what they see. As a supply chain member, you now can lead the discussion rather than repeating what customers and suppliers want to hear.

The number of available sheet metals and forming technologies continues to grow at an unprecedented pace. Those who are willing to study, learn, and challenge convention will be tomorrow’s leaders.

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