Page 4 - MetalForming January 2010

Contents January 2010
Volume 44 — Number 1
Cover Story
14 Precision Blanking Line– Three Times Faster, Quicker
to Set Up
Features
11 Crowning Achievements Deliver Press Brake
Accuracy and Process Efficiency
16 How Much Does an Accident Really Cost You?
24 Fabtech/Welding Show/METALFORM
Tooling Technology
18 Automotive Die Redesigned and Reshored
Commentaries
Editorial ........................2
Resolve to Develop and Protect Your IP...and Other New Year’s Resolutions Brad F. Kuvin
TheScienceofForming ............20
Sheetmetal Deformation— Review of Key Points Stuart Keeler
ToolingbyDesign.................22
Flattening, Straightening and Leveling
Peter Ulintz
YouandTheLaw .................27
Farewell to 2009
Douglas B. M. Ehlke
MetalformingElectronics............28
One-Finger Quick Die Change (QDC)
George Keremedjiev
The Business of Metalforming . . . . . . . . . 30
Entrepreneurial Economy: Change the Rules
Michael Bleau
Blackman on Taxes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
An Easy Way to Maximize Your Investment Income...Private Placement Life Insurance Irving L. Blackman
Departments
NewsFronts......................4 TechUpdate .....................6 Fastening/Assembly Technology . . . . . . . 10 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Ad Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Serving those who create precision metal products using stamping, fabricating and other value-added processes.
“So long to 2009 and welcome 2010, with cautious optimism for a better year.”
EDITORIAL BRAD F. KUVIN
Resolve to Develop and Protect Your IP...and Other New Year’s Resolutions
Afew years ago, one list of New Year’s resolutions for small business man- ufacturers (penned by the Manu- facturing Extension Partnership) included these gems:
• Reexamine your marketing approach to identify pockets of growth, and assess your strengths and weaknesses related to these market segments;
• Invest in sales training and tech- nology, to elevate your sales capabilities; • Reassess what performance attributes you measure, and consider adding or delet- ing measures, such as inventory turns and on-time delivery performance; and • Engage your employees, asking them for ideas on how to improve the
company.
Considering the recent bottoming
out of our industry (and signs of the beginning of a recovery, noted from multiple conversations at our indus- try’s recent tradeshow), I’ve added a few resolutions to the list as we wave so long to 2009 and welcome 2010, with cautious optimism for a better year. (And, I’d love to hear any resolutions you’ve come up with—please e-mail me at bkuvin@pma.org.)
First, engaging your employees seems to still warrant a top spot on the list. The downsizing of the U.S. manufacturing economy has wreaked havoc on employ- ee morale and attitude. As evidence, consider a recent Gallup poll revealing that more than half (54 percent) of employees are “not engaged at work” and nearly one in five are “highly dis- engaged” and “disruptive to others.”
Experts say that the best way to engage your employees—i.e. turn them into conscientious, creative and inno- vative contributors to your company—
is to invest in management training. This is because, finds the survey, that most employees who become disen- gaged and leave a company do so because of a poor relationship with their manager.
So, New Year’s Resolution One: Invest in training for your managers.
Second, it seems to me that the healthiest companies in the metal- forming industry today are those that focus on developing intellectual prop- erty (IP)—patents on tooling features for example, or on engineering product- design enhancements—and which also know how to protect their IP. When Ford Motor Co. began, in mid-2009, to ask its parts suppliers to turn over their technology secrets to other sup- pliers in far-away places, it really was asking suppliers to stab themselves with a dagger. To quote one blogger on the subject: “Only those suppliers who refuse to cave into (Ford’s) demands like these will survive.”
So, New Year’s Resolution Two: Develop more intellectual property, and commit to protecting it.
Don’t wait for 2010 to be a good year for your company—go out and make it happen. And, please accept my sincere wishes for a happy and healthy New Year, on behalf of the staffs of Metal- Forming magazine and the Precision Metalforming Association.
Editor
bkuvin@pma.org
2 METALFORMING / JANUARY 2010
www.metalformingmagazine.com