People & Companies

Affiliated Distributors' Industrial Supply Division recently named Seco Tools its 2013 Supplier of the Year for Marketing Excellence. The accolade is part of Affiliated Distributors' annual Spirit of Independence Awards Ceremony that recognizes individual affiliates and suppliers that demonstrate consistent excellence in marketing, performance and/or leadership.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration launched two new Web resources to assist companies with keeping their workers safe from exposure to hazardous chemicals. While many chemicals are suspected of being harmful, OSHA's exposure standards are out-of-date and inadequately protective for the small number of chemicals that are regulated in the workplace. The first resource OSHA has created is a toolkit to identify safer chemicals that can be used in place of more hazardous ones.

I'm a big a supporter of my local community college's machining programs. There's one facet of machine shop management a classroom can't prepare a student for, though: the constant, yet unexpected, gear shifting that goes on when you're running a shop.

Tucked into the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, Linda Tool, a family-owned machine shop, is adding to its capabilities.

After working in the machining and fabrication business for 21 years, Keith Jennings, the Manager's Desk columnist for Cutting Tool Engineering, has concluded that million-dollar jobs don't guarantee big profits.

PRAB's Dualpak briquetter adds value to scrap, reduces volumes and transportation costs, and helps manufacturers comply with EPA regulations by removing hazardous cutting fluid from material.

Len Graham, Business Unit Leader, Rexam Mold Manufacturing, discusses the motivation behind the Buffalo Grove, Ill., company's decision to build a Mega Cell automated mold manufacturing system. Graham offers a detailed walk-through of the company's Mega Cell, which began operation in March 2013.

Representing your company through community involvement accomplishes two goals. Hopefully, you're doing something positive and, in return, raising the reputation of you and your company. You may also gain access to another network of valuable contacts and potential leads.

Thomas W. Malone, a professor at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, suggests in the latest Sandvik Coromant "Looking Ahead" video series that recognizing and rapidly responding to change will be critical to the success of any company in tomorrow's business environment.

Element Six, which consolidated its four R&D centers spread around the world into one 60,000-sq.-ft. facility now known as its Global Innovation Centre in Harwell, U.K., offers a video tour of the new facility.

This month's Manager's Desk column suggests that good managers are able to shift gears and take maximum advantage of all business cycles, up or down.