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Metal Forges Focus on Advancement in 2017

May 25, 2017 / , , , , , , , ,

 

Broad spectrum forecasts continue to look positive for manufacturers. As reported in our 2017 Industrial Metal-Cutting Outlook, experts believe that 2017 will be a year of growth for industrial manufacturing. Specifically, the latest outlook from MAPI says that industrial manufacturing growth should be 1.2% in 2017 and then accelerate to 2.6% in 2018.

Manufacturers are also optimistic. According to a May survey from the Institute for Supply Management, U.S. manufacturing and services executives expect to see increased revenue, hiring, and capital spending in 2017, reflecting confidence in the economy, reports IndustryWeek. Even after a short decrease in manufacturing orders in April, ISM’s gauge remains well above the average for all of 2016 and “indicates healthy optimism among factory managers,” according to Bloomberg.

A Focused Forecast

What does this mean for metal forges? From a big-picture standpoint, this is all good news. Economic health directly impacts automotive and other customer segments that carefully choose how they spend money with forges and other supply chain partners.

However, as stated in the article from Forging magazine, “Forgers are manufacturers, of course, but drawing their circumstances out of the mass of data represented by surveys like PMI or similar sources is futile.” In other words, it is more beneficial to look at segment forecasts than it is to look at broad manufacturing outlooks.

To give a more accurate outlook picture, Forging conducts its own annual survey with forging executives. Below are some results from its 2017 Forging Business Outlook:

Trends to Watch

Like most industrial manufacturers, forges remain committed to continuous improvement, regardless of market conditions. Because lean manufacturing is nothing new, today’s forges need to think outside the box—or beyond the shop floor—to find new improvement opportunities. As stated in the news brief, Resource Allocation Strategies for Leading Industrial Metal-Cutting Organizations, “managers focused on continuous improvement should explore all of the ways they can save their operation time and money.”

For example, Weber Metals of Paramount, CA and Ulven Forging of Hubbard, OR have taken their lean manufacturing and other continuous improvement activities “above the shop floor” and into the front office. According to Forge magazine, this has resulted in numerous benefits for the companies, including improvements in traceability, quoting, product flow, and scheduling.

Another big trend within the forging industry is a commitment to technological advancement. Last year, the Forging Foundation (FIERF) and Forging Industry Association revised the industry’s Forging Technology Roadmap to develop, support and fund technology and research to benefit the North American forging industry. In early 2017, The FIERF Board approved funding for five new technology projects. Below are three of those projects, as reported by Forging magazine:

1. Forging of Magnesium Alloys for Automotive Applications. Professor May Wells, University of Waterloo, Dept. of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, and two graduate students, are engaged in the project that seeks “to design, build and validate an automotive, fatigue-critical component made of forged magnesium.” Ford Motor Co. is the industry partner to their research.

2. High-Strength, High-Toughness Microalloyed Steel Forgings Produced with Relaxed Forging Conditions and No Heat Treatment. Professor Anthony DeArdo, University of Pittsburgh, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, and a graduate student, are seeking a “new composition and process route for making high-strength, high-toughness forging with minimum die wear, limited distortion and no heat treatment.”

3. Development of a Manufacturing Process for High-Power-Density Hollow Shafts. Professor Gracious Ngaile, North Carolina State University Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, with two student researchers will work to develop a cost-effective manufacturing process for high-power-density hollow shafts. The project’s industry partner is Mid-West Forge.

For a complete explanation of all five projects, you can read the entire article here.

Looking Ahead

Market forecasts aside, one thing is clear—today’s metal forging operations need to stay relevant and focused on the future. Improvement should continue to be the goal in 2017 and beyond, both in terms of process and technology. Forging may be a mature industry, but as the editors at Forge have stated over and over, with the efforts of industry leaders, it can still be advanced manufacturing.

In what areas can your forging operation advance in 2017?

 

 

 

supply chain

Supply Chain Trends Impacting Metal Service Centers in 2017

January 5, 2017 / , , , , , ,

As metal service centers and other industrial manufacturers find new ways to stay competitive, the role suppliers play is becoming more and more critical. Now more than ever, manufacturers need to be in tune with what is happening within their supply chain.

One major trend companies need to be aware of is the shifting dynamic within the supply chain, much of which has been caused by cost pressures. “Competitive pressure to reduce costs is forcing changes in supply chain operating models, creating more complexity and dependence in the value chain,” notes PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on its website. “The number of entities and interdependence between parties is increasing and expectations regarding reporting are also becoming more burdensome.”

Another trend is increased collaboration with suppliers. Many service centers are looking to form strategic relationships with suppliers that can provide value, not just low-cost services or products. A white paper from the Lenox Institute of Technology discusses how this is happening within industrial metal-cutting:

“Operations managers increasingly find that to be successful, they must establish a collaborative vendor relationship that moves far beyond the sale of a product. By leveraging all of the assets their vendors can bring to the table, companies can form strategic partnerships that not only help fulfill their customer demands, but that also help optimize other aspects of the business such as cost management and employee training.”

A recent article from ThomasNet confirms this trend, stating that supplier collaboration will be crucial in 2017. The article, which you can access here, lists three more trends worth noting:

  1. Increased Emphasis on Ethics and Transparency. In 2016, many companies came under fire due to a lack of ethical practices within their supply chain. As consumers become more environmentally and sustainability conscious, supply chain professionals will be under enormous pressure to ensure that their products are safe, ethical, and environmentally friendly. As a result, procurement teams will invest in technologies that provide greater visibility into their suppliers.
  2. Digital Will Become Standard. For years, the supply chain has been shifting away from the paper-and-technology model of information management to an all-digital approach. In 2017, that shift will go from optional to essential.
  3. The Supply Chain Will Get Agile. Today’s intricate, global supply chains are inherently risky, so supply chain managers need to be able to plan ahead and react quickly when a disruption does occur. Thanks to the advent of real-time data, it’s now possible. Leveraging data, supply chain professionals can make quick decisions that can resolve potential crises.

Of course, only time will tell how much of an impact these trends will have on your service center this year. Some of them may have no impact at all. However, for those companies that want to have an edge up on the competition, it is critical to keep a pulse on every aspect of your business, including your supply chain.

supply chain

2016 Industrial Metal-Cutting Outlook

April 1, 2016 / , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Although many hoped that 2016 was going to be a year of full recovery and growth, expansion in the industrial manufacturing sector has been slow moving. High inventory levels, a strong dollar, falling commodity prices, and a slowdown in China have left many industrial metal-cutting companies disappointed and more than a little cautious.

Slow Growth
Evidence of slow growth started at the end of 2015. According to estimates from the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI), manufacturing industrial production was unchanged from the third to the fourth quarter of 2015. Monthly data has shown erratic patterns of growth and decline that have pretty much cancelled out any movement forward—a trend that is expected to continue.

“We expect the volatility to continue through the first half of 2016, a situation that will result in essentially no manufacturing production growth,” MAPI stated in a recent report. “Manufacturing production should be flat in the first and second quarters of 2016 before accelerating to a 3-percent annual rate in the second half of 2016.”

For the entire year, MAPI expects manufacturing production to decelerate rather than accelerate compared to 2015. “Production increased 2 percent last year, and we forecast only 1.1-percent growth in 2016,” MAPI states. The good news is that MAPI predicts growth in industrial manufacturing of more than 2 percent for both 2017 and 2018.

Unfortunately, the forecast for steel demand also shows little to no growth, although 2016 is expected to be an improvement over 2015. According to the Short Range Outlook 2015-2016 from the World Steel Association (worldsteel), global steel demand decreased 1.7 percent in 2015 but is expected to grow by 0.7 percent in 2016.

“It is clear that the steel industry has, for the time being, reached the end of a major growth cycle which was based on the rapid economic development of China,” Hans Jürgen Kerkhoff, chairman of the worldsteel Economics Committee, said. “Combined with China’s slowdown, we also face low investment, financial market turbulence, and geopolitical conflicts in many developing regions.”

The only bright spot is that steel demand in developed countries is expected to show positive growth of 1.8 percent this year. The U.S. in particular should see demand increase by 2 percent in 2016, worldsteel predicts.

Realistic Expectations
While no one wanted the year to start off slow, most manufacturers aren’t too surprised. In a roundtable discussion with Metal Center News (MCN), Michael Bush, a vice president at Esmark, Inc., was quoted as saying that he didn’t expect the market to pick up until at least May. “Even though it will pick up in the second half, we expect 2016 to be down 1 percent for the year,” Bush told MCN. “That’s our general feeling going into the market.”

Bush isn’t alone. The American Metals Market annual survey of metals executives showed that 30 percent of respondents in the steel, aluminum, and other metals sectors expected business to be worse in 2016, and 70 percent predicted that the domestic economy would not fully turnout until 2017 or later. (You can read the full report here.)

The reality is that the U.S. is still in the middle of an economic recovery, which means that metal-cutting companies and other manufacturers won’t likely see any major growth this year. According to MAPI, manufacturing industrial production must grow another 3 percent in order to reach the pre-recession production level achieved in the fourth quarter of 2007, which means a full recovery is expected in the third quarter of 2017. Non-high-tech manufacturing production is 5 percent below the prerecession level and will not be fully recovered until the third quarter of 2018.

On a positive note, the latest numbers from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) show some improvement. As reported by Plant Engineering, ISM’s monthly Purchasing Manufacturers’ Index (PMI) jumped 2.3 percentage points in March to 51.8 percent, putting the index solidly above the 50-percent growth threshold for the first time in 2016.

Out of 18 manufacturing industries, ISM says that 12 reported growth in March, including Fabricated Metal Products and Primary Metals. One survey respondent from the Primary Metals segment stated, “Our business is still going strong.” Another respondent from the Fabricated Metals Products segment said, “Capital equipment sales are steady.”

The big question, of course, is will this momentum continue? Analysts believe that continued growth will depend largely on continued strong employment because it creates new income growth and a solid base of consumer spending. MAPI says that another impetus is easy credit availability, which propels big-ticket spending for motor vehicles, residential housing, and nonresidential construction.

Moving Forward
While the overall data is certainly sobering, there are a few signs that suggest the metals sector can still snap out of the lull. As Modern Metals recently reported, “The average age of a vehicle on the road still exceeds 10 years; construction season is coming and Congress passed a long-term highway bill in December.”

Metal executives participating in MCN’s roundtable believe that automotive—which is predicted to top 17 million vehicles this year—will be the big market driver, as well as residential and nonresidential construction, white goods, and anything associated with “green energy.”

A report from Fabricating & Metalworking says that surviving 2016 will require manufacturers to use the current market conditions to their advantage. “U. S. manufacturers should be aggressive to take advantage of falling costs while at the same time finding new opportunities created by these economic forces,” the report says. Specifically, the article states that companies should consider employing two key strategies:

From an operations standpoint, continuous improvement activities will continue to be critical for industrial metal-cutting companies as they push through this slow period. Finding ways to optimize what is happening inside your shop doors is perhaps one of the most effective ways to balance the uncertainty of what is happening outside your doors. What does that look like? An eBook from the LENOX Institute of Technology’s lists five performance-boosting best practices that can help metal-cutting companies improve internal operations:

  1. Get lean. Although lean manufacturing is not a new movement, it is evolving. Companies that “got lean” years ago are focusing on continuous improvement, and a growing number of high-mix, low-volume operations are tweaking traditional lean methodologies to fit their specific situation. Regardless of your organization’s size, lean manufacturing should be at least part of your operational strategy.
  2. Invest in human capital. Industry data indicates that metal executives tend to invest in technology over people, but the tide is changing as the manufacturing industry deals with a serious shortage of skilled production workers. Managing this skills gap will require changing the way companies train and maintain talent, whether by beefing up training programs or rethinking their hiring tactics.
  3. Focus on quality as a process. There is no question that speed and agility are critical in today’s fast-paced market, but managers need to make sure that meeting demand doesn’t come at the expense of accuracy. To meet this challenge a growing number of market leaders are putting practices in place to ensure that their quality goals are met and maintained.
  4. Embrace preventative maintenance. In almost every manufacturing operation, machine breakdowns are one of the top causes of lost productivity. While some downtime is inevitable, proper maintenance and proactive care of equipment and tooling can reduce its occurrence. One benchmark survey revealed that 67 percent of industrial metal-cutting operations that follow all scheduled and planned maintenance on their machines also report an upward trending job completion rate.
  5. Form strategic supplier relationships. In today’s competitive marketplace, it is easy to base supplier relationships on price. However, a growing number of manufacturing leaders are placing more value on their supply chain. By leveraging the knowledge and services of trusted suppliers, companies can turn vendor relationships into strategic partnerships that have a real impact on the bottom line.

Ready and Waiting
All things considered, 2016 won’t likely be a banner year for industrial metal-cutting organizations. However, not all hope is lost. Recent upticks in manufacturing may indicate some positive (albeit slow) momentum, and many experts believe growth is in the long-term future, even if we have to wait another year. Until then, metal-cutting companies can continue to apply strategies that address external trends while also improving internal operations, putting them in the best position possible when the market finally turns around.

supply chain

Four Ways Forges Can Get More Value Out of Their Supply Chain

December 25, 2015 / , , , , , , , ,

In today’s competitive marketplace, it is tempting to base supplier relationships on price. Yes, quality is always a consideration, but cost typically makes or breaks the deal. However, a growing number of manufacturers are starting to place more value on their supply chain by focusing less on price and more on building strategic partnerships that offer long-term benefits.

In fact, supply chains are expected to be “a key value driver” for engineering and manufacturing companies over the next 10 years, according to the report, Building the World: Engineering & Manufacturing 2025+ from DHL Customer Solutions & Innovation. Specifically, the report says that manufacturing leaders will understand the importance of collaboration and will create new supply chain concepts to differentiate themselves in the market and stay competitive. For example, some companies may build regionalized supply chains to better adapt to shifts in economic activity.

Big name companies like Cargill, Coca-Cola, and Amcor Asia-Pacific are already establishing more collaborative supplier relationships, and they are seeing results. A case study on Bob Evans Farms and Gordon Food Services (GFS) featured here in Supply Chain Quarterly provides a great example. For the last four years, Bob Evans and GFS have been working to jointly identify and actualize opportunities for profit growth through the use of cross-functional teams. So far, the financial benefits have exceeded $31 million dollars, according to the article.

Forges and other industrial metal-cutting organizations can take a similar approach with their supply chains. While smaller operations may not have the time or resources to adopt the in-depth methodology utilized by Bob Evans and GFS, there are some simple ways forges can position their supply chain to bring more value. A new eBook from the LENOX Institute of Technology provides four strategies managers can use to build more value into their supplier partnerships:

Ultimately, the goal is to build a relationship that benefits both you and your suppliers. How can you create more of a win-win relationship with your supply chain?

To read more about the benefits of value-added supplier relationships, including some key areas where suppliers can help, download the eBook, Five Performance-Boosting Best Practices for Your Industrial Metal-Cutting Organization, or check out the white paper, Managing Your Blade Manufacturer Relationship.

supply chain

How Fabricators Can Improve Response Times

December 10, 2015 / , , , , , , , ,

With the rise of online retail giant Amazon, nearly anything—from batteries to furniture (and more)—can be delivered to front doors across America within the same day of ordering. With free two-day shipping and even the introduction of drone deliveries, consumers are increasingly becoming used to clicking and receiving.

In fact, there’s a name for this focus on responsiveness. It’s called the “Amazon Effect,” and according to manufacturing consultant Lisa Anderson, this mentality is creeping its way into manufacturing. For example, one of her clients, a building product manufacturer, ships out a product within 24 hours as a worse case scenario, while another ships within two days.

Industrial metal-cutting companies and fabricators are no exception to this trend. Customers are now expecting orders to be completed in half the time they were just 5 years ago. Like all manufacturers, today‘s fabricators are faced with doing more (increased demand) with less (efficient resource allocation) as quickly as possible.

As reported in the LENOX Institute of Technology white paper, The Top 5 Operating Challenges Facing Fabricators’ Metal Cutting Operations, customer service and delivery continue to be a top challenge for fabricators as they attempt to balance quality with speed. Forecasts and schedules can help fabricators estimate delivery times, but when it comes to improving response time, the proof is usually in the process.

To get orders out the door faster, managers need to take the time to evaluate their processes and observe where and how product travels on the shop floor. A recent article from manufacturing.net provides four key areas fabricators should focus on:

  1. Rethink the manufacturing footprint. While ordering raw materials offshore helps save costs, it can extend lead times from 30 days to more than 180 days. To deliver faster, consider bringing operations back stateside. Talent can be recruited with new facilities or by relocating operations to maintain a competitive advantage.
  2. The right product for the right customer. To ensure you have the right product for the right customer at the right price, fabricators need to reduce complexity in their operations. Start by cleaning inventory and assessing SKUs to determine which ones should stay in the portfolio. Then, work with customers and stakeholders to assess the impact of new launches and discontinued products. Tracking customer schedules, including exceptions to lead time, order minimums and costs will help provide customer profitability. Equipped with knowing which customers and products create the most value, fabricating operations can then reduce the number of suppliers to better manage materials flow and delivery.
  3. Improve material flow and inventory accuracy. Simplify operations and reduce inventory to shorten lead times. Keep inventory organized so it’s easy to find when needed and easy to see when it’s time to reorder.
  4. Continuously improve. Lean manufacturing and an efficient process is the foundation of improving response time. Simplifying production from supply chain to delivery all adds up to shorter lead times.

Out of the four strategies offered in the article, the last strategy is probably the most important. While continuous improvement has long been touted as a best practice, it shouldn’t be overlooked. It takes time to constantly improve, but lean tools and other improvements strategies are almost always worth the effort. According to an article from Industry Week, one manufacturer cut lead-time in half—from 10.5 days down to 5 days—by taking the time to conduct a value stream map exercise. Specifically, the team mapped out each area of operations and was able to optimize production from receiving to shipping.

In a hectic fabricating environment, it’s easy to push product through and forget about the process. However, with today’s on-demand mentality, manufacturers can’t afford to miss any opportunity to improve response time. By evaluating and rethinking some of the key areas of their operation, fabricators can optimize their processes and, in turn, better meet the demands of their customers.

When was the last time you re-evaluated your fabrication processes?

supply chain

A Look at Inbound Quality Inspection in Your Forging Operation

September 25, 2015 / , , , , , , ,

When most managers think about quality, they tend to think about their internal operations and the competency of their employees. Quality control is largely based on the processes that managers have put in place to ensure that tolerances are met, cosmetic expectations are achieved, and errors are kept to a minimum.

However, it is important for managers to remember that quality begins with the supply chain. According to the white paper, Top 5 Operating Challenges for Forges That Cut and Process Metal, operations managers need to be sure they are tracking the quality and accuracy of the material coming from the supplier. Product liability and traceability continue to be huge concerns for forges and other metal-cutting companies, and raw material mix-ups can be both expensive and dangerous. Even major organizations like Boeing and NASA have learned this lesson the hard way.

Put simply: thorough inbound inspection processes are just as critical as outbound quality processes. By taking the time to confirm what is coming in the door, forges can confidently supply products that are both accurate and fail-safe.

The most successful way to ensure inbound quality is to devise a standard operating procedure (SOP). If you don’t already have one in place, an archived article on alloy verification from thefabricator.com provides a good starting point. According to the article, a good SOP should include the following six components:

(For a detailed explanation of these six components, check out the full article here.)

If you already have a standardized inbound quality process in place, another article from Quality Magazine suggests ten ways manufacturers can optimize this critical procedure. Below are a few best practices that will likely apply to your forging operation:

In the end, quality starts well before a piece of material even makes its way to the shop floor. Don’t underestimate the value of verification—or the cost of assumption. By implementing, enforcing, and optimizing inbound quality inspection processes, managers can stand behind every product that comes in—and goes out—their doors.

supply chain

Quality in your Service Center Starts with Your Suppliers

March 5, 2014 / , , ,

When most managers think about quality, they tend to think about their internal operations and the competency of their staff. And, yes, quality control is largely based on the processes that managers have put in place to ensure that tolerances are met, cosmetic expectations are achieved, and errors are kept to a minimum.

However, it is important for managers to remember that quality begins with the supply chain. As echoed in this paper from the LENOX Institute of Technology (LIT), product liability and traceability continue to be huge concerns for metal service centers, and mix-ups can be both expensive and dangerous. For this reason, it is critical that operations managers track the quality and accuracy of the material coming from the mill. By taking the time to confirm what is coming in the door, metal service centers can confidently supply products that are both accurate and fail-safe.

There are several tools today’s manufacturers are using to manage supplier quality. This blog from LNS Research lists several that could be useful, including supplier risk scorecards and document management. According to an article from Quality Magazine, these tools not only help manage supplier quality, but also keep the line of communication open. When failures do occur, the magazine suggests that manufacturers include suppliers in the process of determining the root cause of the issue. Instead of pointing fingers, the article says that manufacturers should use the opportunity to work closely with suppliers to strengthen quality processes so the same mistake doesn’t occur again.

Close supplier relationships can also help improve quality before errors occur. For example, this white paper from LIT discusses the role band saw manufacturers can play in optimizing processes and making sure manufacturers are getting the best possible results out of their equipment and industrial metal-cutting tools. By utilizing value-added services from trusted suppliers and making them more of a partner, service centers can improve quality and productivity—both of which impact the bottom line. In fact, this is one of the key principles on which the quality management system standards of ISO 9000 standards are based.

Quality can’t just be one aspect of an operation. As the Quality Magazine article confirms and as many leading companies have found, quality needs to be engrained in every aspect of an operation, starting with the supply chain.