Trade show time again
For Michael Deren regional trade shows signal the coming seasons
Magazine Column
Machinist’s Corner
How your shop looks makes all the difference
Machinist's Corner: Michael Deren wants you to take a good look at your shop's appearance.
What a drag it is getting old
Machinist's Corner: A torn rotator cuff, a torn bicep and arthritis won't keep Michael Deren off the shop floor for long.
Consider the costs of growth
Manager's Desk: If growth is a part of your business plan, don't let the costs that go with it catch you by surprise.
A market for good employees
Machinist's Corner: It is a great time to be in manufacturing. For qualified workers that means better wages and benefits.
What type of employee are you?
Machinist's Corner: Michael Deren examines work ethics and opportunity.
Let’s have a one-on-one about goals
Michael Deren stresses the importance of setting goals and setting aside time to discuss how to meet them.
When suppliers are the weakest link in the chain
CTE Machinist's Corner Columnist Michael Deren bemoans industrial suppliers who don't care about their customers, or know how to treat their customers. This is not the '60s and '70s, when OEMs had a take-it-or-leave-it mentality.
Shop implements system of safety tickets
What about the less obvious threats to worker safety? How do you take those elements into account? To address this concern, the shop where CTE's Machinist's Corner columnist works uses a system of unsafe acts or conditions tickets (UACTs).
Raising the level of skills
Michael Deren, who writes the Machinist's Corner column for CTE, spent the holidays reflecting on a couple of events from 2017. One was his promotion at work. The other? Three machines failed within 24 hours.
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.
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?