Kip Hanson

I recently read an article discussing how the Environmental Protection Agency will now allow asbestos-containing products to be manufactured and sold in the United States on "a case-by-case" basis, apparently reversing parts of the organization's 1963 Clean Air Act and the 1989 Asbestos Ban and Phase-Out Rule. While that's good news for the mesothelioma attorneys you see every night on TV, it's bad news for American workers, a number of whom will soon be tasked with mining and processing the dangerous material once known as "the magic mineral" for its heat, electrical and chemical resistance.

Continuous learning, continuous improvement, continuous generation of ideas—they're all important things. I would like to think they're especially important to manufacturers but am struggling to come up with a specific reason. Every business, from floral arrangers to drywallers, must continually adapt and evolve or face eventual corporate death. Perhaps the reason continuous learning and improvement are so relevant to manufacturing, which in this context means machining, is that our industry is one of the fastest changing in terms of technology.

Depending on whom you ask, you'll receive wildly different unravelings of the acronym DFAM. To music aficionados, DFAM might mean "drummer from another mother," clever branding from Moog Music Inc. to describe its newest line of percussion synthesizers. I wish I'd thought of that phrase. DFAM could mean the Darlington Farmers Auction Mart but probably only to those who live near there in England and are interested in buying a cow, goat or sheep. At The Walt Disney Co., DFAM refers to the extended family of employees who share the stress of working at the Magic Kingdom—as in, "I'm going to chill this weekend with my DFAM before the big Labor Day rush." Then there's the DFAM that manufacturers care about—or rather the additive manufacturers. That's because DFAM is short for "design for additive manufacturing," an acronym every bit as relevant to machinists as it is to people in 3D printing.

It started with the email from "Sarah." "Dear Friend. We are precision CNC machining manufacturer from China. Please try us, so that you will cost-down 40 percent at least!" I hate junk mail. Next to robocallers and those dirtbags who leave ominous voicemails threatening legal action by the IRS, spammers are the worst. The intrusiveness of it, the endless inbox management, never mind the laughable English skills. It's irritating.