PM Blog

Cutting tool manufacturers face a constant challenge when raising performance levels of their products, including the important intermediate area of holemaking. But depending on their type, drills can vary substantially in their capabilities. They have established application areas according to hole requirements, practical limits to tooling and tool development. A few drill types dominate holemaking, a machining process made up of sub-areas that are evolving along with changing drill capabilities.

Indexable insert drills provide unbeatable production economy, with high machining productivity for bolt-type holes as well as some thread-tapping holes. Drill-depth capability is 5× the diameter.

As the common idiom goes, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” in business, it’s safe to say, “Don’t’ judge a person by their title,” meaning a person’s title isn’t always accurate; it often doesn’t tell the whole story about the person. This is true for Kyzen Corp.’s Southern Regional Sales Manager Jason Schwartz. Jason has taken his sales title further, providing superb service to his customers, which has included consulting on his own time and without compensation, and spending long hours on the road at night to meet with customers when he knows he is needed.

With manufacturers needing to fill increasingly more jobs openings (4.6 million in the next decade, according to some estimates), it is becoming more and more important for them to reach out to the students who will be the next generation workforce, along with their parents and teachers. These positions are often high-skilled, high-tech and high-paying, but unfortunately misperceptions about the manufacturing industry are persistent. To dispel these inaccuracies, manufacturing companies can participate in MFG Day, an effort organized by The Manufacturing Institute, by hosting an event (such as an open house) that’s designed to connect future employees to potential employers. The event officially kicks off every year on the first Friday in October but is beginning to expand as more states declare October as Manufacturing Month and companies schedule events in the weeks that follow.

Mention “standards,” and people’s eyes glaze over. One colleague claims to ignore all references to standards in contracts. This is not wise. Understanding and complying with cleaning standards is essential in the event of an audit and to avoid liability. There are also non-punitive benefits to understanding standards.

One common question goes something like, “Why can’t there be a single cleanliness standard? Every customer wants us to comply with a different one.” There are reasons for the abundance of specifications. For one thing, there are different types of soil. Common surface residue is often classified as thin film, particulate or mixtures of the two. Residue may be organic, inorganic or biologic-based. In enclosed systems, volatile residue can be a problem. Acceptably low residue (of whatever type) depends on the application.  Depending on the product, specific residue may damage the surface, interfere with surface finishing, interfere with assembly or compromise product performance. Some products have a low tolerance for particles, others are sensitive to thin film residue. Some thermal spray processes are readily compromised by organic residue, but can tolerate particulate residue left from, for example, aluminum oxide grit blast. Standards associated with implantable medical devices address avoiding undesirable interaction of residue with the body.

Manufacturing is inundated with risk, especially as global corporate supply chains become deeper and more complex to manage. Issues can arise at a moment’s notice, and not all manufacturers may be equipped to handle unexpected roadblocks that come from solving short-term issues or responding to a crisis. More strategic and holistic risk awareness and management is especially important for production machine shops as threats can cause major impacts to a manufacturer’s viability and supply chain resilience, short-term solutions can have long-term negative consequences.

Unseen and poorly managed risk events slow—or in the worst cases, halt—production, directly impacting the bottom line and causing reputational damage that can result in financial losses in the long term. Additionally, as consumers live in a world of instant gratification, the speed of production is ever increasing, making the financial stakes even higher. It’s obviously important to have alert systems in place to quickly manage short-term or immediate risks, but in our global supply chain environments, it’s crucial to know, understand and plan for the long-term risks and ramifications of any business decision as well as the ripple effect of any disruption.