Page 47 - MetalForming-Nov-2018-issue

Colin Cosgrove, president, Laystrom Manufacturing Co.
Jody Fledderman, president/CEO, Batesville Tool
& Die, Inc.
David Arndt, president, Pentaflex, Inc.
pany. People are hungry for opportuni- ties to contribute, if they feel part of the vision. When they do, that fuels inno- vation and evolution.
Fledderman: Today’s technology provides opportunities for us to evolve, but we must stay on top of it because technology is moving more quickly than ever. In the 1980s, we gained inno- vations such as link-motion presses, wire EDM and CAD/CAM. If you didn’t get on board quickly with those tech-
Cosgrove: Finding ways to share the com- pany’s vision throughout the organization is important. We’re good at pulling back the curtain and sharing agendas, strate- gic initiatives and what’s going on in the com-
nologies, you
lost business.
The same is hap-
pening today
with servo press-
es, 3D printers
and IIoT. One
way to stay on
top is to find
the brightest
talent. That may
mean broaden-
ing your search
beyond the
local labor pool,
and in some cases, looking abroad.
MetalForming: In which technol- ogy areas must your company show improvement and what are you doing about it?
Arndt: With fewer workers available, automation, definitely, is an area where we’re looking to improve. We’re cur- rently using two servo presses and striv- ing to stay competitive with the latest technologies, including upgraded trans-
fer systems and
control systems
on our presses.
Also, we have
an automated
assembly cell
with material-
handling and
welding robots.
These additions
allow for the
work to be per-
formed with
one, rather than
three, employees per shift.
Fledderman: Automation is one of those weird terms that makes most everyone automatically think of the same thing: robotics. Yet, there are many other ways to automate. Think down the line and identify opportuni- ties for task-specific equipment such as pick-and-place units.
Cosgrove: Perhaps the most intriguing new technology is collaborative robot- ics, which can be readily deployed to
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MetalForming/November 2018 45