Holly B. Martin

At the National Tooling and Machining Association Plant Managers Roundtable, held Feb. 8 in Phoenix, Jeff Estes, director of Partners in THINC at Okuma America Corp., Charlotte, N.C., discussed the advantages and challenges of shop-floor automation.

Because through-coolant toolholders eliminate the variances often experienced with external cooling nozzles, the additional cost of such holders, which is sometimes zero, can be easily justified through the reduction of cycle times and improvement of tool life and part quality.

Though Rosie the Riveter and a multitude of her sisters proved that women were perfectly capable of working in manufacturing when the men were called to serve during World War II, many of these patriotic women graciously stepped aside to allow the returning soldiers to resume their jobs. Since then, the number of women in manufacturing jobs has yet to recover. According to a 2015 report by consultancy Deloitte LLP, in conjunction with The Manufacturing Institute and the APICS Supply Chain Council, women hold only 27 percent of U.S. manufacturing jobs, even though they make up 47 percent of the total labor force. "Women are underrepresented in every manufacturing sector in the U.S.," the report stated.