PM Blog

Carina moved to Canada about 10 years ago from Germany, and since then, her career path has led her to Harmonic Machine Inc., where she has created a company culture and work atmosphere that is positive and motivating, as the company’s human resources manager.

Since Carina began working at Harmonic, the machine shop has seen rapid growth, doubling twice under her leadership. She has managed to hire, train and lead a group of about 50 people through some challenging years. She has developed several HR policies and is currently working on an aggressive plan to roll out a leadership training program. She has also brought together diverse individuals with various skills and backgrounds to create a cohesive team that works together well.

When a supplier company is required to reach stringent cleanliness standards with certain parts it produces for its customers, it can be challenging to discover the most efficient cleaning technique to achieve these standards. To help quality engineers, manufacturing engineers, metallurgists, project engineers and supply chain/purchasing engineers who need to assure cleanliness standards, Glaser Inc. and Jomesa North America Inc. presented a Technical Cleanliness Expert Day at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center in Aurora, Ohio, on Sept. 25, to 39 registered participants.

Markus Rossler, V.P. of Glaser Inc. opened the conference with his presentation, “Industrial Standard ISO16232, Version 2018,” where he thoroughly explained this technical cleanliness standard, the differences between the new version versus the 2007 version as well as how the VDA 19.1 standard is different from the ISO standard. Later in the day, Mr. Rossler also presented “Concepts to Improve Production/Assembly Cleanliness Levels (in accordance with VDA 19.2),” where he explained how to design a clean assembly facility, from maintaining a clean environment to logistics and staff cooperation. His final presentation covered new cleanliness requirements due to emerging electromobility.

The article “Precision Machining for the Medical Industry” looks at a machine that needs little introduction to the medical machining community. The Bumotec s191 is the long-standing flagship of Switzerland-based Starrag Vuadens SA and is designed to deliver parts from barstock and cut blanks.

It’s this processing flexibility that makes the machine a favorite for precision machined parts makers serving the medical parts industry. The s191 was developed 15 years ago to handle complex geometric shapes that include either a ground finish or a dimensional tolerance of four decimal places.

When Andrew applied to be a CNC machine operator at his current employer, Global Precision Industries (GPI), in 2010, he was a senior in high school and had no understanding of CNC machining or the manufacturing industry. The job was initially a summer job to help the owners keep up with some new production jobs on a CNC vertical mill. However, what started as a short-term job ended up as a career for Andrew.

“I learned to operate multiple machines, use measuring instruments, change tools, read prints, etc.,” Andrew says. “I went to college during the days and worked part time there. The founder and owner Mark Wheeler was incredibly flexible and allowed me to work at my convenience.”

“Slow and steady wins the race” seems to be conventional wisdom in a lot of situations. But in this month’s About Your Business column, Matt Kirchner makes a case for a different way of doing things: “The faster you go, the more balance you get.”

Mr. Kirchner first became familiar with this lesson when learning to ride a bike. It turned out to be the beginning of his lifelong passion for cycling and a strategy he used when starting his own businesses.