A Christmas wish list

Modern Machine Shop, Dec, 1995 by Tom Beard, Mark Albert, G. Chris Koepfer

"These would have a snowball effect on our growth," Jim Sekely says. He thinks the additional capital derived from a reinstated tax credit would prompt the company to substantially step up equipment purchases. "I could see us going from a $4 to a $6 or $8 million capital investment budget."

Savings in time and money from eliminating or greatly reducing handwork on dies have already allowed Sekely Industries to play Santa, so to speak. The company offers rebates to its customers when they go along with the changes to the die making process that yield these savings. These savings may represent from 7 to 10 percent of total die cost -- no trivial amount -- and that's not to mention the valuable competitive advantage the customer derives by reducing new model development costs and, especially, leadtimes.

There are certainly those who have legitimate concerns about the federal government's role in keeping industry's technology stocking stuffed, but at Sekely Industries, tax incentives for investments in new equipment were put to good use and would be again if they came back.

A Fix For The Apprenticeship Problem

When we first visited C & A Tool Engineering in Churubusco, Indiana, the company had implemented some rather radical ideas about managing both processes and people. It had just completed a new Grinding House, a facility designed especially and uniquely for high precision grinding, staffed by a highly motivated and enthusiastic group of employees working under a high degree of self-direction and autonomy.

Since then, several similarly specialized and advanced facilities have been added, including a new Milling House and an Engineering Center to form a cluster of dedicated buildings that Dick Conrow, president of C & A Tool, calls "an industrial village." According to Mr. Conrow, the buildings, house various "area disciplines" that together offer customers a broad range of contract manufacturing services that go from initial design to final completion.

What Mr. Conrow would like to receive, if only it came gift-wrapped in a box, is the wherewithal to implement an in-house program that gave apprentices not only a strong foundation in the basic skills but also a deep respect for the value of these skills. And it's not that C & A Tool hasn't emphasized training or worked with local schools and vocational centers. Their record in this regard has been outstanding. Yet Mr. Conrow says his efforts to establish a more comprehensive program for newcomers to the field have been frustrated. One hindrance he finds vexing is the government red-tape generated by what he feels is a misdirected social agenda. He'd like to know how to get through or bypass those complications to keep the focus on a strong foundation in the fundamentals.

Right now, as Mr. Conrow sees it, "we are creating a generation of green-button people," workers who can operate or monitor automated machinery but are not masters of the processes this equipment embodies. Although these workers may be productive in an economic sense, they cannot be truly engaged in their occupations without possessing skills and knowledge of their own. "I'd like every employee to walk up to a manual machine and be able to make the same part the CNC is making -- then they would appreciate what the machine can do but not be intimidated or dominated by it."