| Welcome to the newest monthly newsletter offering from MetalForming magazine and PMA. We hope you find it useful and interesting; please feel free to share your thoughts with us. |
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This regular column from MetalForming magazine provides an inside look at the management styles and techniques of metal forming and fabricating company executives. We’ll share some of their philosophies, their daily challenges and how they face them, and offer additional insights. We hope that you find these interviews useful and can take away some ideas to use at your own company.
Want to be interviewed for this column? E-mail editorial director Brad Kuvin. |
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| Perspectives on Business Management with Ross H. Liberty, President, Factory Pipe, LLC |
“Ours is a very different business model than most companies out here,” says Ross Liberty, president of Factory Pipe LLC, “being that rare commodity—a brick-and-mortar manufacturing company in California. We have to take a different tack. We have long focused on manufacturing exhaust systems for the power-sports industry, and we provide a turnkey, vertically integrated solution. Our focus is low- to medium-volume (250 to 25,000 units), rapid turnaround and flexible manufacturing of exhaust systems, providing everything from product design to on-time delivery to the assembly line.”
Here’s the rest of our interview with Ross Liberty. |
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| Logopress ProgSim: Real Results from Real Tooling |
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| Industry Remains Optimistic Despite Supply-Chain, Talent Challenges |
PMA Metalforming Insights, powered by Harbour Results and Plante Moran, continues to deliver valuable data and information for the metal forming industry to help companies manage the often-chaotic challenges revolving around talent and the supply chain. However, the situation isn’t all bad—data collected from 97 facilities indicate that despite all of the supply-chain and talent challenges, the industry continues to be optimistic. Utilization continues to rise, from 57 percent in Q1 to 65 percent in Q2, and the year-end forecast is up to 69 percent.
For more on the survey, check out Laurie Harbour’s latest article appearing on her Love Letters blog. The article is part of a series of monthly articles produced by Harbour Results for the MetalForming Business Edge enewsletter. |
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| Decrease Energy Costs with Demand Response |
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your energy consumption during peak demand and get paid for using less.
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| Welcome to the newest recurring column in the MetalForming Business Edge
enewsletter, focused on safety and compliance issues that require the
consistent attention of metal forming and fabricating company
executives. This time we focus on: |
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| Lockout-Tagout Procedure: Everything You Need to Know |
A
series of blog posts from the safety and compliance consultants at KPA,
Lafayette, CO, addresses the Top 10 Manufacturing Safety Tips.
“Manufacturing compliance is no joke,” writes author Toby Graham, director of marketing at KPA. “Regulatory authorities such as the Occupational Health and Safety Administration are paying close attention to your safety program, just waiting to hit you with massive fines if they discover any issues…. Lucky for you, we have no shortage of tips for manufacturing health, safety and compliance.”
Tip One: Lock down your biggest risk areas, and Graham takes a deep dive
into five of the most common safety hazards in manufacturing, based on
the frequency of OSHA violations. In particular, a blog post specific
to lockout-tagout delves into some of the most common reasons why
violations occur; outlines the minimum procedures required; and makes no
bones about what companies stand to lose when violations occur. |
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| Are Your Lead-Gen Efforts Failing? Here are Five Reasons Why |
Generating
the correct type of lead that converts to a sale is a struggle for many
metal-manufacturing businesses. Lead generation means more than
collecting business cards at a tradeshow. Rather, it comprises a
multistep process that requires consistent execution in order to garner
results.
If your company struggles to find the right type of leads, evaluate
whether you have fallen into one of the five pitfalls outlined in this
article posted recently to the website of MetalForming magazine. Among them:
- Not viewing lead generation as a long-term strategy
- Thinking that more leads mean more sales
- Assigning lead-generation activities to the wrong person.
“Division of labor requires breaking down the sales process into separate tasks performed by those who are, or will become, specialized in each task,” the article stresses. “Don’t confuse account management with sales. Selling to current customers (farming) requires a different skill set than creating new business from nothing (hunting).” |
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| Content Strategy Drives Lead Growth & New Business Opportunities |
| Since 2003, TopSpot has specialized in digital marketing and website development for industrial manufacturers, fabricators, CNC shops, OEMs and more. Learn more about how TopSpot’s data-driven content development increased the industrial website's online leads by 221% within the first year. |
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| OESA Supplier Barometer Plummets as Supply Shortages and Production Shutdowns Rise |
OESA recently released the results of its Q2 Automotive Supplier Barometer,
and the news is not good. The Supplier Barometer Index, intended to
gauge the perspectives of supplier executives on the market outlook and
the key industry topics of supply chain, globalization and
sustainability, fell from 62 in Q1 to 44 in Q2. The index is 6 points
below a neutral reading of 50 and marks the first net pessimistic
outlook since the first quarter of 2020.
“Pessimism is strongest amongst the largest suppliers…however, smaller suppliers have a neutral outlook at best,” notes the executive summary.
The 27-page report contains numerous charts and tables breaking out the
data by company revenue, types of raw materials used and more. One key
question posed:
What is your greatest internal (non-supply chain) risk in meeting customer production requirements?
After labor availability (53 percent), inaccurate customer release schedules/volumes came in second place (21 percent). |
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