Editor-in-Chief
- FMA
- The Fabricator
- FABTECH
- Canadian Metalworking
Categories
- Additive Manufacturing
- Aluminum Welding
- Arc Welding
- Assembly and Joining
- Automation and Robotics
- Bending and Forming
- Consumables
- Cutting and Weld Prep
- Electric Vehicles
- En Español
- Finishing
- Hydroforming
- Laser Cutting
- Laser Welding
- Machining
- Manufacturing Software
- Materials Handling
- Metals/Materials
- Oxyfuel Cutting
- Plasma Cutting
- Power Tools
- Punching and Other Holemaking
- Roll Forming
- Safety
- Sawing
- Shearing
- Shop Management
- Testing and Measuring
- Tube and Pipe Fabrication
- Tube and Pipe Production
- Waterjet Cutting
Industry Directory
Webcasts
Podcasts
FAB 40
Advertise
Subscribe
Account Login
Search
Putting the cart before the reputation
- By Dan Davis
- January 7, 2011
Shop carts don't sound like an exciting end product, but they are in pretty much every shop I've ever set foot in. As a pitchman used to say about his tires in a television commercial that aired in my youth, "They don't smell good. They ain't pretty. But everyone needs 'em."
In his column, Davis explained that early in his metal fabricating career carts often were thrown together with whatever scrap was lying around. Size of the cart depended on what metal remnant was available for the tabletop.
As he pointed out, times have changed. The amount of scrap metal is minimal, so a lot of random projects simply don't happen when downtime and the availability of ample material occur. In today's manufacturing world, everything is measured and accounted for.
But shops still need carts, and that got me to thinking: In a way, shop carts reveal a lot about a metal fabricating business.
For instance, shops that fabricate their own carts probably are businesses run by those that love making all kinds of stuff out of metal, rather than shops run by business types, who find that managing the financial side of the business is more thrilling than building complex metal parts. After all, if a metal fabricator can't build a cart in a quality manner, can it build someone else's project?
On the other hand, other shops purchase their carts. That suggests to me that perhaps the shop is perhaps too busy to worry about fabricating non-revenue-producing jobs or that it believes those that specialize in cart design should be left to produce the best carts possible. In a day when shop floors are a key element in marketing to new and existing customers, professionally made carts also can be a nice addition to a clean and modern-looking manufacturing environment.
What about those shops that fall somewhere in between? I visited GenMet, a Mequon, Wis.-based metal fabricator and winner of The FABRICATOR's 2010 Industry Award, in late 2009. That shop used old grocery carts that it picked up for a few dollars to move WIP around the shop floor. It was inexpensive and fit in perfectly with the company's lean manufacturing environment, where common sense was the weapon used to eliminate waste from the shop floor.
In reality, most shops probably fall into more than one category. After all, metal fabricators need to be many things to many customers in many different industries. It's going to be difficult to pin them down.
However, I love the idea of asking a metal fabricator this kind of Barbara Walters-type question: "So, if you could be a shop cart, what kind of shop cart would you be?"
subscribe now
The Fabricator is North America's leading magazine for the metal forming and fabricating industry. The magazine delivers the news, technical articles, and case histories that enable fabricators to do their jobs more efficiently. The Fabricator has served the industry since 1970.
start your free subscriptionAbout the Author
Dan Davis
2135 Point Blvd.
Elgin, IL 60123
815-227-8281
Dan Davis is editor-in-chief of The Fabricator, the industry's most widely circulated metal fabricating magazine, and its sister publications, The Tube & Pipe Journal and The Welder. He has been with the publications since April 2002.
- Stay connected from anywhere
Easily access valuable industry resources now with full access to the digital edition of The Fabricator.
Easily access valuable industry resources now with full access to the digital edition of The Welder.
Easily access valuable industry resources now with full access to the digital edition of The Tube and Pipe Journal.
Easily access valuable industry resources now with full access to the digital edition of The Fabricator en Español.
- Podcasting
- Podcast:
- The Fabricator Podcast
- Published:
- 04/30/2024
- Running Time:
- 53:00
Seth Feldman of Iowa-based Wertzbaugher Services joins The Fabricator Podcast to offer his take as a Gen Zer...
- Industry Events
Pipe and Tube Conference
- May 21 - 22, 2024
- Omaha, NE
World-Class Roll Forming Workshop
- June 5 - 6, 2024
- Louisville, KY
Advanced Laser Application Workshop
- June 25 - 27, 2024
- Novi, MI
Precision Press Brake Certificate Course
- July 31 - August 1, 2024
- Elgin,