In a January 2022 survey of four metalworking manufacturing associations for which I lobby in Washington, D.C., 133 respondents said their company spends on average $247,526 annually on energy and expected a 10% increase. This came prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine leading to skyrocketing energy costs around the world.

Yesterday I bought a simple, gas-powered Craftsman lawnmower with a Briggs & Stratton engine. It wasn’t very fancy, it wasn’t self-propelled and it didn’t have a lot of “bells and whistles.” It did, however, happen to be exactly what I wanted – a basic workhorse lawnmower to cut grass at my daughter’s rental property.

Safety in the workplace regarding heat treatment connects each and every person who works in either a captive or a commercial shop. We all have an obligation to one another to minimize the risk of accidents and injuries (no matter how minimal or extensive that injury might be).

During the debate over the Affordable Care Act more than a decade ago, a manufacturing client of mine testified before the U.S. Congress that he was tired of being in the healthcare industry and just wanted to make parts. 

Since people generally come to failure analysts when they can’t figure things out for themselves, it’s important to have access to reliable facts, know how to recognize them and be able to explain to people why our facts are indeed of the reliable kind!

There is a plethora of automotive news this month. Never before have I seen so much significant news coming out of the auto industry. We will do our best to parse it in this column and in the podcast.

There are few things in Washington, D.C. on which Democrats and Republicans can agree on these days. The issues on which both parties are even willing to work together are so few most of us can predict the outcome of a bill before it hits the floor for a vote. The one exception to this unfortunate rule is apprenticeships.

Too many companies still use built-in “holds” when heating up parts in their brazing furnaces. I recently asked the production manager at an aerospace company, “Why do your brazing personnel have those temperature holds in their furnace brazing cycles?”

Developing the next generation of manufacturing workers is essential to the success of U.S. manufacturing and the economy.

As an editor in business-to-business media, I have watched for more than 30 years as good-paying manufacturing jobs slowly disappeared from the United States toward foreign countries eager to build up their economic prospects through basic manufacturing and job creation.