Business as Usual? Not a Chance

I’m here front and center to tell you that MetalForming continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of its readers. It’s no secret that trade magazines have slimmed down in recent months, making editorial a valuable commodity. At the same time, your need for critical news and technical information rises—a Catch-22.

Luckily, we have a well-designed website geared to deliver editorial content that does not find its into MetalForming. Therefore, I encourage you to visit our website often, where you’ll find, in addition to our daily news updates, articles and columns that will satisfy your hunger for timely and useful information tailored specifically for the metalforming industry.

This month we’ve prepared for our website an Online Exclusive article on alternative financing methods, authored by Mike Semanco, COO of Hennessey Capital. Also online with our April issue are the regular columns of tax guru Irv Blackman and safety and legal sage Doug Ehlke. Just because their columns don’t appear in print this month, don’t miss out on the valuable information they have to offer.

That said, we’re excited to debut, with this issue, our new monthly columnist. “How do you quickly steer your company into new industries and sources of revenue…guarding against erosion of your current customer share?” That’s the mission explored this month by Michael Bleau, author of our new column: The Business of Metalforming. Bleau, president and owner of a management-consulting and business-planning company, will fill his monthly column in MetalForming with advice on an array of sales, marketing, workforce-development and other subjects along the theme: The Business of Metalforming.

A Last Word

The distressed economy and its horrible consequences make headline news in our industry nearly every day. Yet, we continue to publish content that offers hope and opportunity to the industry. That effort took a hit last issue (March), when we had prepared an article on automated mechanical fastening at automotive supplier Utah Stamping. Eric Bush, one of the company’s engineers, pitched the article to me with great pride and excitement. He aimed to highlight his and his company’s success, and educate the entire industry.

Eric and I, along with Utah Stamping general manager Michael Ott, worked for hours developing the article. Then, at press time in early February, I received a phone call from Eric asking us to “stop the presses” and pull the article. Utah Stamping’s customer (its only customer) had just decided to pull all of its tools, effectively putting his company out of business.

That’s sad enough. But it got worse. As I continued to communicate with Eric, I learned that the stress of the situation had resulted in the worst possible consequence. Eric Bush had suffered a heart attack and passed a. Utah Stamping’s Michael Ott writes:

“Eric Bush had been with Utah Stamping for 8 years before his death on February 9, 2009. He had many years of knowledge and experience in programming, troubleshooting and engineering of specialty machinery. He was our ‘go-to’ expert on the machines we used for assembly, and our press equipment.

“Eric, along with his coworkers, developed processes for 100-percent detection of in-die fastening, and for applying sensors throughout all of our stamping processes. He was a dedicated professional, a forward thinker and communicator. He will be deeply missed by all of the employees at Utah Stamping.”

I knew Eric for only a few short months. But the professionalism, excitement and pride he displayed made an impact. It reminded me of why you do what you do; and, why I and the rest of the team at MetalForming magazine do what we do. Eric Bush’s legacy lives on.

Technologies: Management

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