Michael Deren

Articles • October 11, 2017 • Michael Deren

Machinist’s Corner: A look at D-O-W-N-T-I-M-E

The October 2017 Machinist's Corner column explains the "eight wastes of lean," for which there is an acronym known as DOWNTIME: Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Nonutilized talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion and Extra processing.

Articles • September 11, 2017 • Michael Deren

Machinist’s Corner: Show customers you care

How do you treat your a customer who received an order and has a problem with it? Maybe you shipped the wrong part or made a part according to an old revision. How do you handle the situation and appease the customer?

Articles • July 20, 2017 • Michael Deren

Machinist’s Corner: New kid on the block

Remember when you were the new employee? If you had any questions, you asked the individual closest to you. The Machinist's Corner column in the July 2017 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine explores a better way to conduct orientation for new employees.

Articles • May 2, 2017 • Michael Deren

Machinist’s Corner: Ya’ gotta love your vendors?

Machinist's Corner Columnist Michael Deren shares a cautionary tale for vendors and machine shops. Do your vendors realize how important they are to you? Do they appreciate your business or do they think they're the only game in town?

Articles • March 7, 2017 • Michael Deren

Machinist’s Corner: Talking safety

When was the last time someone sat your team down and talked about safety? Where I work, we sit down once or twice a year for safety sessions, according to Michael Deren, who writes the Machinist's Corner column for Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

Articles • January 4, 2017 • Michael Deren

Lean from 30,000 feet

Michael Deren, who writes the Machinist's Corner column for Cutting Tool Engineering magazine, explains why he now believes wholeheartedly in lean manufacturing.

Articles • October 1, 2016 • Michael Deren

Improving Daily Management

Cutting Tool Engineering's Machinist's Corner columnist shares his experience with various continuous-improvement processes, such as 5S, kaizen events and gemba walks, and a recent rapid-improvement event. The target was the company's daily operations management.

Articles • September 1, 2016 • Michael Deren

IMTS is the place to check your wish list

The trade show of trade shows—IMTS—is coming to Chicago's McCormick Place.

Articles • July 1, 2016 • Michael Deren

Industry’s Image Issue

The results from a recent SME survey of parents about their views relating to careers in manufacturing showed there is not enough accurate information about the opportunities a manufacturing career offers.

Articles • May 1, 2016 • Michael Deren

Machinist’s Corner: Apprenticeships wanted

Lately, I haven't been hearing much about machinist apprenticeship programs. I have been hearing about vo-tech schools, as well as job shops hiring people off the street to just push buttons. Do apprenticeship programs still exist in the U.S.? The answer is "yes!"

Articles • March 1, 2016 • Michael Deren

Gaging nonconforming parts

Do you know why your last part run had a high defect rate, why parts from an outside supplier were nonconforming, and what you are going to do with those parts? If your company has a material review board, it can probably answer those questions.

Articles • January 1, 2016 • Michael Deren

Are You Just Another Resume?

I typically keep my resume online at all times on the major job search engines and update it annually to keep recruiters I've worked with in the past abreast of what is happening with my career. The drawback is, after I update my resume, I am inundated with email from recruiters and job placement companies that want to place me in a new position. If you've ever posted your resume to an online job search engines, I'm sure you're familiar with this scenario.