Management

Manager's Desk, Back to Basics, Part Time, Talking Points, Get With the Program, Machinists' Corner

Manager's Desk, Back to Basics, Part Time and Ask The Grinding Doc from October 2004.

CTE's first cost-justification and planned-expenditures survey reveals what metalcutting companies intend to buy in 2004 and why.

Getting control of labor costs can increase a job shop's profits by 15 to 30 percent.

Job shop owners offer advice on getting started in the business.

Capability is determined by how well a process produces parts. Three measures of capability are important to a machinist: gage, machine and process. The author provides a detailed description of capability and suggests ways to quantify if a process is or isn't capable.

One company instituted a comprehensive plan for reducing setup times and saw its average setup time drop from 252 minutes to 39 minutes. The plan involves everything from standardizing tooling to consolidating raw materials to creating families of parts. The author outlines a step-by-step program that readers can apply to their metalworking setup operations.

Business insurance represents a costly but necessary investment for any shop. This article presents the findings of a Cutting Tool Engineering survey of the liability insurance purchasing habits of readers. The article also offers some guidelines for insurance shopping.

The manufacturer of the most widely used fire-hose nozzle has continually upgraded its processes and equipment to meet its customers’ needs. This article outlines the market forces and changes to its nozzle design that have driven the company to maintain a state-of-the-art shop.