There was plenty to see, eat, drink, learn and hear at the United States Cutting Tool Institute’s (www.uscti.com) 2016 Fall Meeting, held Oct. 15-17 at the Omni Royal hotel in New Orleans.
As a former resident of Louisiana, I already knew the best places in the Crescent City to sightsee (Lower Garden District), eat (any po’boy stand) and imbibe (Napoleon House).
My favorite learning experience was the USCTI dinner held at New Orleans’ National World War II Museum. Visitors to the museum experience the war through the words of world leaders, military personnel, citizens and manufacturers who produced equipment for the war effort. Their stories are supplemented by stunning photographs and film clips.
The meeting also featured a number of interesting speakers.
Among them was Sandvik Coromant’s (www.sandvik.coromant.com) senior manager of business development, Jeff Rizzie, who discussed the digital machine shop and its relation to the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things ). He contends that for continuous process improvement to occur, all phases of a shop’s operation—from design to machining to outbound logistics—must exist as a single thread on which information travels forwards and backwards. This allows machine shop personnel to assess processes with fresh eyes.
“We have become so clever at working around problems that we don’t see that they’re problems anymore,” Rizzie said.
(To learn more about Jeff Rizzie’s thoughts on the IIoT and machine shops, check out this Making Chips podcast: www.makingchips.com/mc074/.)
Another compelling talk was given by retired U.S. Navy Commander Eric Potterat, who served 10 years as a Navy SEALs psychologist. His practice and research focused on stress reduction, mental-toughness training, operational readiness and personnel selection. He said that when assessing the suitability of a prospective SEAL, the Navy looks for individuals with grit—a resolute mindset.
“Grit is more important than talent,” said Potterat, who believes grittiness is a characteristic company managers should seek when hiring employees. “I would ask [SEAL candidates] to tell me the most difficult thing they’ve ever done, and how they handled it. I didn’t care what the difficult thing was. I wanted to know how they responded to it.”
No trip to New Orleans would be complete without hearing live music. I spent a few hours at the Crescent City Blues and BBQ Festival, where I caught Taj Mahal and a half-dozen other acts. The clip above features Colin Lake and his band.
Laissez les bon temps rouler!
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About the Author: Don Nelson, publisher and international sales representative of Cutting Tool Engineering, handles advertising sales for all accounts outside the United States. Don has been publisher of CTE for more than 20 years.
Related Glossary Terms
- bandsaw blade ( band)
bandsaw blade ( band)
Endless band, normally with serrated teeth, that serves as the cutting tool for cutoff or contour band machines.
