| 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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| Unfilled Jobs—HR’s Fault, or Operations? Check your Culture! |
This month’s love letter, part of a series of monthly articles produced by Harbour Results, poses a timely question—maybe the question of the decade: As the manufacturing industry faces a talent problem that likely will not disappear any time soon, how did we get here and what can we do to overcome it?
The article digs far beyond an inability to locate and hire the right
qualified candidates to fill open positions. Instead, it points to
issues that can and should be addressed by every manufacturer:
- Is your facility clean?
- Are your safety processes effective?
- Do you have a nice break and/or lunchroom location?
- How’s your onboarding process?
In short, have you created an environment (company culture) where people
are proud of and enjoy coming to work every day? Investing time and
money to improve your facility and your processes not only will improve
your efficiency, quality, and safety metrics, but it will benefit
recruiting and retaining employees. |
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| 10 Metrics You Should be Tracking to Drive Robotic Process Automation Success |
From
Toronto, Canada-based Blueprint comes this infographic outlining
several critical metrics manufacturers should track to ensure that their
automated/robotic lines operate at peak efficiency and uptime. Among
them:
- Velocity—the average time it takes for an automated process to execute.
- Utilization—how often an automated process is executed and when.
- Break-fix cycles—how many times an automated process breaks and requires maintenance, and the business value lost in downtime.
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| Utility Prices on the Rise |
| A
variety of factors have contributed to the rise in natural gas (and
subsequently electricity) prices, and while no one can predict where
prices will go in the coming months, what you can do is take the right
steps to have an effective energy management plan in place. |
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| Re-Industrialization at Risk from Global “Education Gap” in Automation |
A
recent survey conducted by ABB finds that 80 percent of education
professionals say that robots and automation will shape the future of
employment over the next 10 yr., yet only 25 percent of education
establishments use robots in teaching programs.
“Change needs to happen now,” says Sami Atiya, president of ABB’s Robotics & Discrete Automation Business. “As companies turn to robotic automation to offset labor shortages, improve efficiency and increase resilience, workers need the skill sets to use automation to perform their jobs and augment their own roles. Businesses need to join forces, cooperating with education institutions and governments to ensure that society is prepared for jobs of the future.”
ABB has established a microsite dedicated to robotics in education to help bridge the skills gap with new training facilities, partnerships and training packages. |
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| The right benefits can make a difference… |
| Chances
are, you have key employees that play important roles in your
organization. Having the right tools to recruit, reward, retain and
retire your top talent can help them and your business. Contact us today
to get started. |
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| OSHA Updates its Severe Violator Enforcement Program |
In
October 2021, an employee of a Texas metal fabricator suffered
second-degree burns when oxygen leaked from a cutting-torch hose found
to be in poor condition. Just a few months later, another employee of
the company suffered an amputation injury caused by a lack of proper
machine guarding. Overall, the company experienced 10 incidents in 5
yr., as described in a U.S. Department of Labor blog, meeting the
criteria for the OSHA Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP).
Now OSHA has decided to make some important updates to the SVEP program. |
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| Middle Market M&A Activity Continues to Moderate |
According to the Blue Water Partners’ M&A Quarterly Review—3rd Quarter 2022, deal volume declined by 7 percent year-over-year during the trailing 12 months (TTM) ended June 2022. Total deal value shrank by 2 percent during the same period, and valuation multiples eased to 7.4X TTM adjusted EBITDA in Q2 2022, down slightly from 7.5X in the previous quarter.
Here’s the complete report, which finds that M&A activity is likely to continue its slower pace through year end. |
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| PMA Membership |
| Position your company as an industry leader when you utilize PMA resources—ITR Econ Trends reports, trade publications, One Voice and FABTECH trade shows. A PMA membership will provide your company and all of its employees with a range of valuable industry resources that are designed to help you become more connected, more informed, more efficient, more competitive and ultimately more profitable. |
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| Deloitte Issues 2022 Manufacturing Industry Outlook |
The
recently released 2022 manufacturing industry outlook from Deloitte
explores five industry trends that can help organizations turn risks
into advantages and capture growth. Among them:
- To attract and retain talent, manufacturers should seek to shrink the industry’s public perception gap by making manufacturing jobs a more desirable entry point.
- Digital supply networks and data analytics can be powerful enablers
for more flexible, multitiered responses to supply-chain instability
and disruptions.
- Investment in robots, cobots and artificial intelligence can
continue to transform operations. Foundational technologies such as
cloud computing enable computational power, visibility, scale and speed.
Here’s the full report. |
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| Webinar: Driving Profit Through Operational Rigor and Data Visualization |
| Do
you have the actionable insights available for taking decisive action?
Are your data accessible from the plant floor to the top floor? If not,
you are then you are leaving capital and resources at a standstill. Join
MetalForming magazine and Plex Systems, Inc. to learn how you can executive a smart strategy to optimize your data. |
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| Global HRB Prices Show Signs of Rebound, While U.S. Prices Continue to Slide |
| The
September 26th SteelBenchmarker, a bi-monthly report from World Steel
Dynamics, reveals that the World Export price for hot-rolled band (HRB)
rose by $10/metric ton to $625/metric ton, following nine consecutive
price drops, while the U.S. HRB price dropped by $20/metric ton to
$868/metric ton, the 10th consecutive price decrease. |
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