Status of Manufacturing – April 2008
As the frontline sellers of machine tools, distributors have a unique perspective of what’s going on in manufacturing. We are involved in the boardroom decisions required to approve projects, finance to pay, engineering to design and the manufacturing floor to produce. A wide variety of statistics from the media show averages and projections, but these amount to no more than dated information and speculation. It’s the real time decisions that will affect your businesses the most.
In Tennessee, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle we are insulated from the averages in the economies highs and lows. The industrialization of the south over the past thirty years has brought diversity, which has equated to a steady trend of continuing growth. Disregard what you might hear in the media. The industrial plants we visit daily show no sign of weakening. We have just finished a record year of sales with activity indicating the new year won’t be any different. But manufacturing is changing and recognizing the trends will determine your future. Some of these components of change may be useful and practical to your planning process.
Automation
There is a definite trend towards automation, even at a very basic level. Barfeeds and parts catchers are replacing saws. Two axis turning machine sales are down for the second year in a row, but multi-axis lathes sales are up for the same period. Parts handling and conveying unit sales are up. Consider some aspect of automation when buying machines.
Horizontal Machining Centers
HMC sales are up and growing. A HMC with a standard pallet changer has eight working surfaces, greatly increasing available spindle time. Also, the more powerful controls allow multiples of different parts to be run non-sequentially. It does require different planning and mindset, but it works.
Multi-Tasking Machines
Like the horizontal machines, the mill/turn technologies have advanced to a very practical application level for most users. Don’t disregard this as too complex for your shop. Examine it and you might be surprised.
Inflation
Currency changes are affecting the manufacturing costs of imported and domestic machines. Price increases by three major machine tools builders, Mazak included, have been announced. Expect competitors to follow. Expect less discounting.
Tax Incentives/ Economic Stimulus Act
The tax incentives allow for increased depreciation and expensing of new machines put into service before January 1, 2009. This is a tremendous way to decrease your taxes and amounts to money in your pocket. But be aware this has stimulated business and caused deliveries to increase. You must act quickly to implement this before years end.
Training
This could be the #1 long term problem faced in our industry. Consider a partnership with a school, company or some resource available to you for future employees. There are some in-house videos, web-streaming products and more coming to help you advance present personnel and train promising talent. Have a plan to train, and more importantly, keep those people. Mazak has some basic and advanced training classes and products.
Don Roberts, President; Pinnacle Machine Tools, Inc. - roberts@pinnaclemachine.net
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