Page 60 - MetalForming Magazine June/July 2022 80th Anniversary Issue

“As we’re celebrating our 50th year in business in 2022,” says Weiss-Aug's Weissenrieder-Bennis, “we understand well that longevity, stability and growth require a strong labor force. Being a solid employer through financial stability, strategic vision and visible growth is key to attracting and recruiting new talent.”
• Update standards for operations and quoting. Establish expectations on quoting models for new opportunities by using data to evaluate each existing job. Think real dollars, not percentages, when making decisions on what jobs stay, what needs to go and what is accepted as new business.
• Use the people you have for their valuable and best skills. Do you really need a person at each press watching parts fall into a basket? Are they making the part more valuable by doing so? Evaluate the tasks of jobs on and off the shop floor for opportunities to drive efficiency.
For perspectives from industry insid- ers, we discussed with a team of industry experts from UHY LLP the threats small to midsized manufacturers will face in the coming years, and opportunities that lie ahead. And, we also solicited input from several executives from long-time metal forming companies to uncover the strategies that have allowed them to
thrive during recent years, and that will set the stage for continued success.
Preparing
for a Fast-Paced Future
During the last 30 yr., manufactur- ing employment has spiraled down- ward (see the figure below), as pro- ductivity climbed. Beginning in 2000 or so, globalization began to take hold and manufacturers “have been in a race to the bottom ever since,” says Tom Alongi, UHY partner and national manufacturing-industry practice leader. “This had small to midsized U.S. manufacturing companies com- peting against the world, driving efforts to increase their use of automation, implement lean-manufacturing strate- gies and take other steps to wring out costs.
Manufacturing Sector: Output for All Employed Persons Manufacturing Sector: Labor Productivity (Output per Hour) for All Employed Persons
Manufacturing Sector: Employment for All Persons
160
140
120
100
80 60 40
OUTPUT
EMPLOYMENT
PRODUCTIVITY
1990 1995 2000
2005 2010 2015 2020
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
www.metalformingmagazine.com
MetalForming/June/July 2022 57
Weissenrieder-Bennis: “We implemented a new ERP system in 2019, with the need for more data as the main driver. Now we’re looking at OEE by work center every shift, every day, and making better decisions based on that data. This is critical in terms of driving out costs and enabling us to compete at
a high level.”