Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Strong Manufacturing Production Predicted for 2015, 2016

From: Industry Week

A combination of strong growth in jobs plus replacement demand for equipment from businesses will provide a stable base for overall economic growth, according to a new report released by The MAPI Foundation, the research affiliate of the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation.

The group released its quarterly economic forecast, predicting that inflation-adjusted gross domestic product will expand 2.8% in 2015 and 3.0% in 2016. Both are declines from the August report-of 3.0% and 3.3%, respectively.

Manufacturing production is expected to outpace GDP, with anticipated growth of 3.5% in 2015 (a decrease from 4.0% in the previous forecast) and 3.9% in 2016 (an increase from 3.6% in the August report).

The November 2014 report forecasts a five-year horizon in which GDP is expected to average 2.8% and manufacturing production to average 3.26% growth.

"We will have full employment in 18 months and manufacturing is already there," said MAPI Foundation Chief Economist Daniel J. Meckstroth.

With the unemployment rate continuing to fall, the pain and suffering from the recession is dissipating. Why are businesses spending? Because consumers are spending. Also, the drop in energy prices is essentially a tax cut for us. Lower prices are a positive development.

Production in non-high-tech manufacturing is expected to increase 3.8% in 2015 and 3.7% in 2016. High-tech manufacturing production, which accounts for approximately 5% of all manufacturing, is anticipated to grow 8.2% in 2015 and 10.0% in 2016.

The forecast for inflation-adjusted investment in equipment is for growth of 6.9% in 2015 and 7.3% in 2016. Capital equipment spending in high-tech sectors will also rise. Inflation-adjusted expenditures for information processing equipment are anticipated to increase by double digits in each of the next two years-12.1% in 2015 and 12.3% in 2016.

The MAPI Foundation expects industrial equipment expenditures to advance 7.6% in 2015 and 3.6% in 2016. Conversely, the outlook for spending on transportation equipment is for decreases of 0.8% in 2015 and 0.4% in 2016.

Inflation-adjusted exports are anticipated to increase 3.3% in 2015 and 3.9% in 2016. Imports are expected to grow 3.6% in 2015 and 6.6% in 2016. The MAPI Foundation forecasts overall unemployment to average 5.6% in 2015 and 5.3% in 2016.

The outlook is for an increase of 202,000 manufacturing jobs in 2015, a decrease from 315,000 in the August report. Meckstroth envisions 16,000 manufacturing jobs to be added in 2016, down from 86,000 in the previous forecast.

Over the five-year period from 2015 to 2019, the MAPI Foundation forecasts an average annual increase of 66,800 manufacturing jobs.

The refiners’ acquisition cost per barrel of imported crude oil is expected to average $80.00 in 2015 and $80.60 in 2016.

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7014/1762/0635/2014-12.pdf

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The Importance of Goals & Direction for Growth & Profitability

"Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?"

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to" said the cat.

"I don’t much care where" said Alice.

"Then it doesn’t matter which way you go" said the cat.

Lewis Carroll

Are you like Alice or do you care about the future and the direction you want to take?

2014 is winding down already and it’s time to prepare for 2015.

If you don’t take the time to define your future,
someone else will.

AM&T has helped hundreds of Southern Tier manufacturers develop and implement meaningful Strategic Plans.

Give us a call and let’s discuss how we can help you:
• Examine your current state
• Define your desired future
• Develop a road map and actions for growth & profitability
• Develop the right metrics to monitor progress

Contact Jim Cunningham at 607-725-1225 or jcunningham@amt-mep.org

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7014/1762/0635/2014-12.pdf

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The Entrepreneur’s Simple Guide to Business Concepts

By: Jim Joseph

Positioning is one of the hardest marketing concepts to not only understand, but to do right. It’s very conceptual, highly theoretical, and mostly emotional. Not everyone does well with that combination.

It’s also very confusing, especially when it’s not well crafted and when coordinated with other parts of defining your business and managing and marketing it.

Many people continue to get positioning mixed up with other business concepts, so here is the entrepreneur’s guide to business concepts, with simple definitions of common elements of a business plan -- quick phrases to help clarify and solidify terms that many get confused.

Positioning

The space you want to occupy in your customer’s mind when they think of your brand. While your positioning should remain consistent over time, it should also evolve with your business and the marketplace.

Mission

Your core purpose -- why you started the business.

Vision

A lofty ideal of what your organization does. It’s not the "why" of a mission but more a "what" you do to accomplish that mission.

Values

The principles by which you run your business. If you have business values, and you should, you also need to communicate them to your customers.

Voice

How you represent your business and how you talk to your customers. It’s one thing to have a voice, but it’s even more important to consistently apply it in all that you do.

Objectives

What you are seeking to accomplish in a given year. You are likely to have multiple objectives that change frequently over time.

Strategies

How you plan to accomplish your objectives. You are likely to have multiple strategies for multiple objectives.

Tactics

Specific programs you put in place to fulfill your strategies to accomplish your objectives. Tactics should be constantly changing to keep up with what you have to get done for your business.

Oh, and one last one.

Entrepreneur

The backbone of American business and economic growth. ‘Nuff said.

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7014/1762/0635/2014-12.pdf

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Four Ideas to Improve Next Year’s Results

By: Mike Brown
Creating Strategic Impact
Even if an organization is well into strategic planning for next year, what steps will help ensure it’s having greater success in creating strategic impact?
Here are four ideas:
  1. Broaden the range of employees invited to offer insights and ideas into the strategic plan. At a minimum, expand participation by at least one level in the organization.
  2. Exploit how smart structure can create flexibility. While it sounds contradictory, selecting the right strategic planning structure can help employees more successfully contribute to creating strategic impact. And that’s true for both veteran and new planning participants.
  3. Don’t ask the same old strategic planning questions. When knowledgeable people are invited to address strategic opportunities from questions that provide "strategic detours," an organization will uncover exciting new paths to growth. Additionally, through expanding participation within the organization, answering these questions becomes part of the daily strategic conversations taking place in the organization.
  4. Simplify your strategic language. If nothing else, use simple, understandable, and actionable language to describe your strategies and plans. Don’t use corporate jargon and confusing words so that what you’re trying to accomplish becomes clear to everyone in the organization.

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7014/1762/0635/2014-12.pdf

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Upcoming Workshop

Lean Thinking & Value Stream Mapping
A powerful combination to improve your company’s performance
OVERVIEW
Introduction to Lean provides participants with the basic Lean concepts and principles. These concepts and principles will be described and put in context to explain how they can be applied within the Manufacturing environment.

Common Lean improvement tools and techniques will be identified and the class will discuss how best to apply these techniques from a Lean system perspective. The common mistake organizations make by focusing on "Point" improvements versus "System" improvement will be studied. Point improvements create ‘exciting chaos’ while "System" improvement creates dramatic sustainable bottom line benefits.

This second half of the day is designed to provide participants with an introduction to Value Stream Mapping.

Enterprise Value Stream Mapping is a critical Lean technique that provides an end-to-end "Systems" perspective for analysis and coordinated improvement. Value Stream Mapping creates an overall road map and shared vision, plus an actionable plan.

A value stream is the set of all activities, from order to delivery, used to provide a product or service to clients. Understanding and improving processes as integrated end-to-end systems is fundamental to real and sustainable improvement.

TARGET AUDIENCE
These interactive sessions are specifically designed for personnel at all levels of a manufacturing organization who would like to enhance their working knowledge of Lean and Value Stream Mapping. This training is especially valuable to those who are involved in process management, continuous improvement, or process redesign. The workshop will also act as a springboard and prerequisite for an upcoming series of Lean workshops that will continually take the participants’ knowledge and ability to the next level of capability and confidence.

WORKSHOP OBJECTIVE:
Enable you to discover how Lean Thinking and Value Stream Mapping can get you started on your Lean Journey that will, in turn, enable your company to:
• Streamline processes
• Reduce costs
• Improve quality
• Improve profitability
• Prepare for growth

Date:  February 19, 2015
Time: 8:00 am to 4:30 pm
           7:30 am sign-in, continental breakfast, lunch provided
Location: Owego Treadway, Owego, NY
Cost: $250 ($200 for AM&T Associates)
Registration: amt-mep.org/index.php?cID=159
                      or contact Kathy Peacock at 607-774-0022 x308

Don’t Miss this Workshop - Register Early

Meet your Instructor: Carol Miller has over 25 years of experience in the manufacturing and service sectors. She has a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the State University of New York, College at Buffalo, and an M.S. in Management of Technology from Polytechnic University. She is a member of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) and the Project Management Institute (PMI), is a NIST-certified trainer and implementer of Lean Manufacturing techniques, and has received certification as a Lean/Six Sigma Black Belt from Villanova University. Carol leads AM&T’s Lean effort.

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7014/1762/0635/2014-12.pdf

Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org

Leadership: How to Get From Good to Great

By: Peter Economy

Focus on a few core components of leadership and you can take your company to new heights.

Company leaders always want to motivate, inspire, and support their people to the absolute fullest. But most go to bed at night suspecting that they’re coming up a little short. Maybe more than a little. Take heart: You can become a truly great leader. All it takes is:

• Perspiration

Great leadership requires effort--lots of effort. And much of that effort revolves around learning: about your people, your operations, your industry, and yourself. Be relentless in your pursuit of knowledge about everything -- and everyone--in your business ecosystem.

• Vision

Develop a clear vision for what your business is all about, and don’t lose faith in it. Know in your heart that you and your team can accomplish anything you set out to accomplish if you work together and believe in one another. You will undoubtedly encounter setbacks, but don’t be deterred. Learn from failure and remain confident.

• Communication

Great leaders communicate sincerely, often, and in many different ways to everyone in their organizations. They inform, provide feedback, and motivate -- intelligently and honestly. Connect with all your people and cultivate multiple channels for two-way. When you hear your own words and messages repeated back to you from your employees, or when your employees talk among themselves using your words to describe your vision and goals, then you know you’re making an impact.

• Collaboration

Form teams and groups that are constituted for maximum effectiveness. Recognize that in order to do their very best work most employees need consistent support and input from co-workers, peers, and managers. When you create this kind of environment, you’ll see an immediate impact on productivity and effectiveness--as well as morale.

• Decisiveness

Highly effective leaders are decisive when called upon to make tough calls quickly and confidently. Take a moment to assess a difficult situation and then calmly and rationally consider your options. As soon as you have the information you need to make an informed decision, make it. Don’t let fear of being wrong prevent you from making what you know is the right call.

• Integrity

Study after study finds that the No. 1 quality that employees want leaders to possess is integrity. Always be candid, forthright, honest, and fair. Treat your people as you want to be treated. Your employees will respect you and respond in kind.

• Inspiration

When times are tough, be the person that people look to for inspiration. Don’t just talk, act. Reassure your employees and help them overcome their own doubts and anxieties. Model the kind of positive behavior you want to see in them.

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7014/1762/0635/2014-12.pdf

Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org

Wishing you Happy Holidays and a New Year filled with prosperity and success!

  • Jim Cunningham
  • Bob Edwards
  • Ed Gaetano
  • Lloyd Johnson
  • Bob Mann
  • Michael Meador
  • Carol Miller
  • Kathy Peacock

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/7014/1762/0635/2014-12.pdf

Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

AM&T Activities that Promoted Innovation, Collaboration, Growth & Profitability of Manufacturers in the Southern Tier

  • Conducted an ISO 9001:2008 Briefing at a company in Ithaca ,NY. Twelve (12) project leaders, supervisors, and managers received training in the requirements of the ISO Standard.
  • Performed a Lean Assessment at a company in Endicott, NY. Inefficiencies were observed and a Lean Support proposal was prepared and delivered.
  • Completed an ISO 9001:2008 Internal Audit at a company located in Rochester, NY. A summary report was prepared and delivered. This effort is a partnering effort with High Tech Rochester.
  • Completed an ISO 9001:2008 Internal Audit at a company located in Elmira, NY. Their QMS was deemed compliant and effective.
  • Conducted a Lean Thinking workshop at a company in Stamford, NY as part of a Lean Support contract. A mix of manufacturing, engineering, and office employees participated. Twenty (20) participants received training in the basic lean tools and methods.
  • Conducted a 5S / Workplace Organization workshop at a company in Hornell, NY as part of the CFA contract. A mix of manufacturing, engineering, and office employees participated. Ten (10) employees received training in the 5S tools and methods and participated in a 5S Kaizen event.
  • Completed an OHSAS 18001 Gap Assessment at a company located in Elmira, NY. Gaps and deficiencies were noted and a summary report was prepared and delivered.
  • Completed ISO 14001:2004 & 9001:2008 Internal Audits at a company located in Rochester, NY.
  • Conducted two TWI Job Relations workshops at a company in Elmira, NY. A total of 16 supervisors and team leaders were trained on using a 4-Step Method for dealing with employee conflict and creating better job relations.
  • Conducted a Pull / Kanban workshop at a company in Hornell, NY. A mix of manufacturing, engineering, and office employees participated. Ten (10) employees received training in setting up Kanbans and implementing pull systems.
  • Conducted a multi-day “Change Request” value stream mapping event at a company in Greene, NY with a team of eleven people. It is anticipated that when implemented, the plan will result in reduced wastes and a significant reduction in lead time.
  • Conducted (1) four-hour Lean Thinking training session at a company in Elmira, NY focused on identifying and improving production and administrative wastes. The training was attended by 10 people.
  • Completed Lean Six Sigma Green Belt training and a lean pilot project for a logistics operation company in Endicott, NY.
  • Completed Management Representative training and a Pre-Assessment Audit in ISO 9001, 13485, 14971, and AS9100 for a sheet metal fabricator in Hammondsport, NY.
  • Completed ISO 9001 Internal Audits for a company in Van Etten, NY.
  • Conducted (1) four-hour Lean Thinking training session focused on identifying and improving production and administrative wastes. The training was attended by 10 people.
  • Conducted two four-hour Problem Solving training sessions for a company in Spencer, NY. The training was attended by 20 people.
  • Completed a Pre-Assessment Audit at a company in Ithaca, NY
  • Conducted a QMS Management Review and participated in a surveillance audit at a company in Syracuse, NY. This is a partnering effort with CNYTDO.
  • Participated in a Registrar’s Surveillance Audit at a company in Binghamton, NY.
  • Conducted an Internal Audit and Management Review at a company in Endwell, NY.
  • Worked with management of the Southern Tier Hotspot and the new REV Ithaca Downtown Incubator staff to coordinate support for entrepreneurs in the Tompkins County region.
  • Planned, coordinated, and delivered a Pre-Seed Workshop to over 50 participants at the McGovern Family Center for Venture Development at Cornell University. The workshop centered around the creation of five teams that explored all the aspects of analyzing the commercial potential of five start-up companies, most of which emerged from the work of Cornell researchers. Their work culminated in presentations to a feedback panel of venture capitalists.

Value Stream Mapping - Good, Bad or Ugly? Find out Dec 1st

Are you looking to learn and share new continuous improvement ideas with other Lean Thinkers outside your organization? AME Roundtable events can help!

AME is conducting a “Roundtable Discussion” event, which will predominately include manufacturing participants. The focus will be on continuous improvement topics of importance to you and your organization.

This session’s topic will be Value Stream Mapping - the good, the bad and the ugly!
If you have a specific topic for the group to address at a future session, you are encouraged to inform the AME event host.

Attendees are encouraged to “bring a friend” that has background / experience in Value Stream Mapping.

PARTICIPANT BENEFITS
Learn from your peers some of their challenges.
Learn how these challenges are being addressed.
Learn how companies are staying competitive.
Network with your peers.

AGENDA
12:45 - 1:00 Arrive
 1:00 - 1:15 Introductions / Welcome
 1:15 - 2:15 ASI Energy: Lean manufacturing; energy efficiency in processes
 2:15 - 3:30 Roundtable Discussion - Issues / Challenges Facing Regional Manufacturers
 3:30 - 4:00 Networking Time
 4:00 Depart

Date: December 1, 2014
Time: 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location: ASI Energy
              950 Danby Road
              Ithaca, New York
Cost: Non-Member Fee: $50
Registration: http://www.ame.org/event/ame-mid-atlantic-round-table-cny

4 Things That Financially Healthy Businesses Have in Common

by Susan Payton

If you’ve ever wondered if there are certain qualities that make for a successful small business, you’re not alone. While there’s no magical formula for being financially healthy, the “Small Business Financial Health Analysis” (http://www.thefundwell.com/wp-content/uploads/SMBFinHealthReport.pdf), put together by The Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago and San Francisco, Pepperdine University, and online lending resource FundWell, shows there are four practices that successful businesses share.

For the survey, more than 900 businesses were asked about their knowledge of financial products, the credit experience of business owners, and financial planning and management practices. Here are the four practices that were common among successful small businesses:

1) Strong Knowledge of Credit Products — And Experience Using Credit

If terms like inventory financing, accounts receivable financing, or trade credit make you scratch your head, you might want to bone up on those topics.

The survey showed that the majority of businesses in excellent financial health were very knowledgeable about financial terms and credit products.

And while taking out a business loan isn’t necessarily an indicator that a business will succeed, 75 percent of those surveyed with excellent financial health have, indeed, secured financing from a bank.

2) High Level of Unused Credit Balances

Financially healthy businesses have credit to spare. Meaning, they do not max out their credit cards and loan borrowing capabilities.

Conversely, the less successful businesses tended to max out — 65 percent of those in poor financial health had no credit available, at all.

3) A Budget for Business Expenses

You might think that budgeting is a no-brainer. Nope.

What’s surprising is that apparently not every business budgets for expenses — not by a long shot. Could it be due to lack of organization, or lack of a good accounting software to use, or something else? Whatever the reason, those that did not budget fell into the camp of the less financially healthy.

Not only did 60 percent of the most financially healthy businesses budget for business expenses, but they also had a separate bank account for their business transactions.

4) Cash Set Aside for Payroll – Not Used It For Anything Else

There’s nothing that drives a company into closing up shop faster than not paying employees on time. Even worse is the situation of a company that doesn’t pay payroll tax withholding to the government in a timely manner. The IRS will put you out of business fast if that situation lingers.

Take a note from successful companies, 90 percent of which always have enough money in the coffers to pay employees. They also have enough to cover payroll taxes, health insurance and benefits expenses.

Who Runs These Financially Healthy Businesses?

If you’re curious to see who’s behind these thriving small businesses, the survey contains that information too. The majority of these financially healthy companies, more than 72 percent, are male or non-minority owned. That’s possibly because this group has traditionally received more business loans in the first place. Thus, they have had more experience with credit and financial management.

By contrast, just 28 percent of the companies surveyed were run by women, and 21 percent by minorities. Across the survey, women and minorities scored well on knowledge of credit products. But when it came to credit experience and financial planning and management, they performed lower.

Minority entrepreneurs still have a more difficult time than other entrepreneurs when it comes to securing a loan, claims a report by The Washington Post. But programs are currently under way to see that women and other minority small business owners have more access to funding for their ventures as well. So this may lead to higher financial health among women and minority owned businesses in the near future.

Why Manufacturing Makes America Great

While U.S. manufacturing makes up a smaller share of total employment than in decades past, the sector remains a vital source of our standard of living and economic growth.

Here’s why.

Still made in America: It’s a myth that we no longer make anything in this country. If the U.S. manufacturing sector were its own nation, its $2 trillion worth of annual value- added would make it the world’s seventh largest economy.

Supporting millions of other jobs: One in six U.S. private sector jobs depends on manufacturing, with the factory sector supporting 26 million domestic jobs, including roughly 14 million in professional services, wholesale and retailing, transportation, agriculture, and other sectors.

Driving innovation: Manufacturers account for 68 percent of all business R&D performed in America; spillover effects from these investments spread new ideas across sectors.

Generating more economic activity than any sector: Manufacturing has a higher multiplier effect than any other sector: every dollar of final sales in the sector generates $1.92 in economic activity throughout the economy.

Driving productivity growth: Superior productivity growth leads to low inflation for goods, thus stretching family budgets and lifting living standards. U.S. manufacturers are leaders in this metric because they embrace—and develop—advanced technology.

The lion’s share of exports: U.S. manufacturers exported $99 billion in goods per month last year to almost every country on earth. Manufactured products represent more than half of all American exports, helping bridge the country’s huge trade gap.

The United States boasts the world’s most productive, innovative manufacturing powerhouse. The sector is key to future economic growth and America needs to take appropriate measures to encourage and expand innovation and production.

Presentation Tips – 4 Ideas for Successful, Last-Minute Speeches

By Mike Brown

If you have just a few moments to set the stage, get your point across, and get off stage, all with high impact, here are four ideas on how to make that happen:

1) If the speech topic feels off, redirect it to something that works better for you.

You want to be up on stage talking about something that you can relate to well, even if it isn’t exactly what the organizers planned. Look for how you can twist the topic more toward your strengths. If you deliver a great message, no one is going to remember you twisted the topic around a bit.
2) Start your speech with a personal story, and weave the story into a reinforcing pattern.

It’s clear we all love stories. But use a personal story at the start of your talk to its best advantage. Tie the opening story to your bigger message, but consider creating some suspense by not finishing the story. That creates the opportunity to finish or call back to the story at the end of your talk. That’s always a nice touch.

3) In between stories, make a couple of related, memorable points.

When you have only a few minutes to present or set the context for a panel, confine yourself to only a couple of points. Succinctly convey those points, ideally in a way that relates to the story you told to start the presentation.

4) Have a couple of go-to questions at the ready.

If there might be an opportunity for questions after your brief remarks, have a couple of questions that you either plant with audience members or ask and answer yourself. And a few conversation-rich questions are always helpful for a panel moderator.

Is Your Business Ready For Curves In The Road Ahead?

By Marty Zwilling

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall. This S-Curve, with no correction, can quickly lead to disaster.

I’m not talking here about a small pivot. I’m talking about the kind of change that moved Apple from personal computers to music distribution to consumer electronics, and Amazon from books to e-Commerce to cloud computing services. On the other end of the spectrum are companies that fell behind the curve and may never recover, including MySpace for social networking, Yahoo with online ads, and maybe even Groupon with discounts for group purchasing.

To sustain long-term growth, every company needs to build a repeatable process for innovation and finding new opportunities before their core business growth disappears. The reasons for this requirement, and some practical guidelines for how to prepare, are outlined in a recent book “The Curve Ahead: Discovering the Path to Unlimited Growth,” by Dave Power.

Power has been guiding growth companies for 25 years, and now teaches innovation at the Harvard Extension School. He has helped many companies with this problem, and as an advisor to startups, I see the same common themes leading to growth slow-downs. These are appearing earlier and earlier in emerging companies, as well as in mid-sized and mature companies:

Your original market becomes saturated. Initially, all companies sell to customers who are the easiest to reach and most excited about the new product. As a company begins to penetrate its market, it begins to work hard and harder, often in new geographies, to find more prospects. Marketing costs and time go up, and the growth curve flattens.

Competitors see the same opportunity. New players jump in, and existing players broaden their offerings to cover the same territory. They steal a share of your market, slow down customer buying decisions, making it harder to close new business, and put the brakes quickly on your exponential growth.

Prices begin to decline quickly. The first customers are early adopters who are the least price-sensitive. Unfortunately, the mainstream customers who can really drive revenue care more about price. Thus even if unit sales keep increasing, revenues can lag due to the need for lower prices as the mainstream market takes over.

Customer acquisition gets harder and more expensive. Scrappy guerilla marketing based on personal contacts and word-of-mouth campaigns gives way to more expensive customer acquisition using advertising, trade shows, and a marketing agency. You suddenly need to enhance your in-house social media efforts with a public relations firm.

An expanding customer base demands better support. Serving a growing customer base – with a great customer experience – requires more time and dedicated resources. In the early days, your product engineers could handle customer support. Over time, however, a continuous growth company needs a trained and dedicated support team.

Management overhead and skills required go up. In the beginning, your entire team could meet in your office. As the company grows, functional leaders need to build and manage larger teams, recruit and develop talent, and manage remote offices. Managing the scale and complexity requires more formal processes, which slow the momentum.

Your first objective should be to stretch the S-Curve, which can buy you a few months or a few years. Among the most common ways to stretch the curve include deeper penetration of current markets, expanding into new geographies, new market segments, optimizing pricing and packaging, and driving consolidation through acquisition of competitors.

Ultimately you need to find the next S-Curve, and then the next, and build the process into your strategy, for unlimited growth. This means you need to find new sources of revenue growth to offset a slowdown in the core business. It means finding a large underserved market and addressing this market with a product or service innovation, often with a different business model.

Successful entrepreneurs and successful companies never stop re-inventing themselves. The alternative of not anticipating the curves, and not building the navigation systems into your core engine, is likely to be a long and painful fall off a high cliff. Do you have a plan in place yet?

Associates’ Corner - Endicott Research Group, Inc. (ERG)

Endicott Research Group, Inc. (ERG) provides power solutions for backlight displays, general lighting applications, and LED retrofit opportunities. You might be using an ERG product on a daily basis and not even know it! The display at the gas pump may have an ERG inverter powering the light that illuminates it; ERG’s LED driver may be powering the sign of a local business; or you may have a dimmable ERG Lighting LED driver powering your undercabinet kitchen lighting.

ERG began in 1979 developing DC-DC converters to power neon displays. That all changed when General Motors was in need of a high-quality EL lamp to power the coach lamp in its "top-of-the-line" showroom cars. An exclusive relationship between GM and ERG became the cornerstone for growth into other substantial markets such as medical displays, point-of-sale, and defense. ERG continues to design and manufacture standard and custom solutions for CCFL and LED displays as well as DC-DC and EL applications.

In response to the recent explosion of LED technology in the general lighting markets, ERG created a division called ERG Lighting which is dedicated to applying expertise in LED driver solutions to general lighting applications such as street lights, refrigeration lighting,
troffers, showcase, and downlights. This year, ERG developed their own line of Made-in-the-USA LED troffer retrofit kits for both commercial and residential lighting. In addition, they offer contract manufacturing services that provide customers with leading-edge manufacturing processes. ERG is very proud of how they have always responded to changes in technology with innovative and cost-effective solutions for their customers.

ERG ships products around the world, but they are all proudly engineered and built in the
Endicott, NY facility that has served as headquarters for over 35 years. For more information about ERG, visit the websites at ERGpower.com and ERGlighting.com, or contact Nate Burd at 607-754-9187 (nburd@ergpower.com).

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Associates’ Corner - Automated Cells & Equipment, Inc.

Automated Cells & Equipment, Inc. (ACE) provides complete design, build, integration and commissioning of solutions related to factory automation and robotic systems. Incorporated in 1996, Automated Cells resides in a 27,000 square foot state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Painted Post, NY with a staff of over 40 employees including mechanical and electrical engineers, robot programmers, service technicians and support personnel.

With its vision to be a leading automation solutions provider, ACE solutions can be found in many industries including: aerospace, automotive component manufacturing, food, foundry, job shops large and small, medical device manufacturing, and the powder metal industry.

Specializing in the sale and service of FANUC Robotics’ complete line of industrial robots, ACE can offer robots with payloads ranging from 1Kg to over 1000Kg. They are also one of a select group of FANUC Certified Servicing Integrators and are pre-approved to perform warranty repairs on FANUC Robotics’ products with technicians that have met or exceeded the requirements for programming, maintenance and trouble-shooting of FANUC robots. In addition to being a FANUC Certified Servicing integrator, they are also a FANUC Certified Vision specialist with expertise in applying FANUC iRVision to solve many industrial automation challenges.

For more information, contact Jim Morris, President, at 607-936-1341

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf

Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org

Associates’ Corner - ASI Energy

Take Control of Your Energy Costs

ASI Energy turns your energy expenses into assets.

ASI Energy, an Ithaca, New York-based energy leader, offers significant cost-saving solutions for industrial and commercial facilities. Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is a reliable source for electrical and thermal energy at a low cost without reducing your energy supply. Utilizing this innovative technology, ASI Energy takes a single fuel source, like natural gas, biogas/methane to create electricity and heat. Electricity is created with a prime mover engine and the heat is captured for use in a full range of industrial and commercial applications such as steam generation, thermal energy recovery, primary and secondary thermal energy, and preheating.

The process to determine potential savings for your operations is simple. ASI Energy conducts a client-centered Initial Facility Assessment – a complete, singular appraisal of your facility’s energy needs and then generates a guaranteed savings proposal including financing options, possible grants and tax incentives, emission savings as well as project NPV and IRR calculations customized for your organization, and ending with a suggested CHP system for your operations.

ASI Energy’s approach includes:
• Integrated project delivery through Project Management Office
• Guaranteed ROI
• Frequent project reporting and transparency
• Detailed financial analysis
• Financing for your project

While other CHP approaches can be complicated, inefficient and expensive, ASI Energy’s integrated project delivery system is a highly efficient and comprehensive CHP solution. This cost-saving system is backed with extensive knowledge and experience in engineering design, construction management, utility regulatory policies and project financing. ASI Energy’s team spearheads this multifaceted project while you continue your day-to-day business operations without interruption. Their engineers, financial experts and project managers work together to minimize disruptions typically associated with a major energy project.

For more information, and to find out if CHP is right for your operations, please contact ASI Energy at 607-330-1203 or visit them online at asienergy.com/manufacturing.

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf

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4 Marketing lessons to learn from the ALS "Ice Bucket Challenge"

By Avinash Murthy - www.linkedin.com
If you are a social media-holic, chances are that in the last few weeks, you would have chanced upon a video of a celebrity, or an athlete, or a politician dumping buckets of ice and water over their heads. I wouldn’t blame you if you already started wondering if this is a collective attempt towards beating global warming! Well, before you stretch your imagination further, here’s what this ice bucket fuss is all about.
 
A fundraiser and awareness campaign for the ALS Association, the "Ice Bucket Challenge" has taken social media by storm since it popped off on July 29, with more than 176,000 people tweeting about it in the first seven days alone. The rules of the challenge are simple: once challenged, a participant has 24 hours to either dump a bucket of ice water over their head, or donate $100 to the ALS charity of their choice. To enhance the outreach and spread awareness further, every participant must then nominate three more people to either take the challenge or pay up.
 
While there are critics pointing out that the viral nature of this fad appears centered around an aversion to giving money, I would say that the campaign has done a fabulous job given that a growing list of celebrities including business stalwarts such as Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos have participated in this social media fundraising initiative. Also, according to the ALS Association, more than 70,000 new donors have given money to one of its 38 chapters since July 29, contributing to a grand total of $4 million in donations during this same period (compared to only $1.12 million during the same period last year) leaving little doubt that this initiative has been a massive success!
 
What caught my attention however is the reason behind the euphoric and emotional response to this campaign. I believe that the brains behind this campaign have taught us four important lessons on how to run a successful viral social media campaigns:
  1. Relate to a Cause - The objective behind the campaign was to help raise awareness about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease while raising funds. History says that any marketing campaign that is associated with a cause which strikes an emotional chord with the target audience does well.
  2. Be Simple - The Ice Bucket Challenge is very simple. All it needs for one to participate is a smart device and a social media account - which is just about everyone these days. Leaving aside the cost of the ice and the amount involved in donation, the entry to be a part of the awareness campaign is essentially free, and the humiliation factor is extremely minimal.
  3. Have Fun - When you’re interacting with your social community it’s important to have fun, so long as your business type allows it. Therefore, it should be no surprise that people enjoy entertaining and fun-loving engagement. The Ice Bucket Challenge did enough to tickle people’s senses.
  4. Endorsers - Any successful viral campaign gives the end users a voice and an active role in the campaign and the Ice Bucket Challenge did exactly that.
This is not rocket science. A vast majority of marketers already know this, but even the best ones have a hard time actually getting it right!
 
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf
 
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Job Development Authority Loan Program

What is the Job Development Authority (JDA)?
• JDA provides direct loans for the growth of manufacturing and other eligible businesses within New York State by assisting in financing a portion of the cost of acquiring and renovating existing buildings or constructing new buildings ("Real Estate" projects) or for purchasing machinery and equipment ("M&E" projects).
• In most cases, JDA loans can lend up to 40% of the total project cost of Real Estate or M&E projects.
• Loans can be made for up to 60% for those projects located in Empire Zones or economically distressed areas.

JDA Financing Structure
• The combination of a bank loan and a JDA loan allows up to 90% financing of a project.
• Loans can be from $250,000 - $3,500,000.
• JDA Real Estate Loan is normally a second mortgage loan, subordinate to a first-mortgage loan provided by a bank.
• M&E Loans are secured by a first lien, co-equal with the bank’s lien, on the M&E being financed.
• 50% Bank Loan.
• 40% JDA Loan.
• 10% Borrower Equity

Requirements
• The Borrower must secure a letter of commitment from the bank detailing the banks portion of the project cost.
• Personal guarantees are required from any person owning 20% or more of the Operating Company for whose benefit the JDA Loan is being made.
• The Borrower must provide at least 10% of the project cost as an equity contribution to the project.

What are the costs involved with utilizing JDA?
• $250 Application fee.
• JDA charges a 1% one-time fee to the borrower on the JDA portion of the loan as opposed to higher fees charged by similar programs.
• In Real Estate Transactions, NYS Mortgage Recording Taxes are waived for the JDA portion of the loan amount.

Contact Jim Cunningham at 607-725-1225 for more information

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf

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How Do You Become a Thriving Company?

By Steve Minter
Since 2006, McGladrey, the tax and consulting firm, has been collecting information on the practices of "thriving" companies for its annual report on mid-market manufacturing and distribution firms.

McGladrey asks business executives to rank their companies as "thriving," "holding steady" or "declining." This year, 32% of executives said their companies were thriving, a drop of 7% from 2012.

McGladrey identified five of the best practices these companies are employing to achieve above average results:

Continuous improvement – Thriving companies "consistently deploy process improvement and quality programs," McGladrey’s research shows. In fact, 87% of the companies that identified themselves as thriving have an advanced culture of continuous improvement.

International expansion and exporting – Companies that pursue sales outside the U.S. tend to have better financial performance than those focused strictly on the domestic market.

Training and productivity – Most thriving businesses provide internal training and skills development programs, McGladrey found, a particularly vital practice as the workforce copes with more sophisticated technology.

Information technology – Thriving companies capitalize on their IT investments by developing innovative products, decreasing cycle time and increasing productivity. Information technology also provides top management with better information and insights into corporate performance so it can take action quicker.

Measuring procurement – Using strategic sourcing and tracking vendor performance, McGladrey notes, helps thriving companies ensure on-time delivery.

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf

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Prosper by Making Time Every Day to Just Think

By Art Petty
If your typical day resembles the one that most of us experience in the corporate environment, it’s a series of meetings interspersed with a series of transactional exchanges that might be better described as interruptions.

There’s little of that elusive and precious asset called "quality time" on our calendars or in our days. The steady drumbeat of deadlines is constantly playing in our minds and at times, it feels like there’s a fire to fight around every corner. When we’re given the opportunity to be creative, it’s often in forced marches through meetings with the labels of "planning" or "brainstorming."

Our days are filled with what has been described as "unproductive busyness." We sprint from meeting to meeting letting the Outlook calendar drive our days. And even when we’re supposed to be focusing, too many of us are obsessively checking our devices searching for something to stimulate our brains. After all, there must be something more important than this meeting going on in front of us.

Since when did meetings become excuses to catch up on email?

Chris Lowney, a former Jesuit priest turned Investment Banker (an interesting career path to say the least), writing in his book, "Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads," describes what happens when we don’t create the time for daily reflection: "And so we turn ourselves into hamsters on hamster wheels: spinning, but not necessarily moving forward."

I see the long-term impact of no down-time…no thinking time in the form of worn-out mid-career managers and exhausted senior leaders who struggle through their days. They’ll describe in private that they no longer feel the same passion for the work they once loved, and they worry that they’ve lost their edge and will be unable to get it back. They are worried and frightened of what this state portends for the balance of their careers.

What we fail to do in our workdays is find time to think deeply. From unstructured conversations to reflective time on our own roles and our performance in the workplace, the time spent thinking and talking without a deadline is valuable processing time.

This isn’t down time, it’s different time. Instead of unproductive busy-ness, it’s productive un-busy-ness. It’s the root source of ideas and connections between ideas. It’s the time when we see our way forward through complex problems and toward solutions that have been otherwise elusive.

Productive un-busy-ness cannot be mandated, but it can be prioritized. The most successful leaders and managers I know have cultivated a mechanism that helps them recharge by creating thinking time and/or pushing themselves so far from the activities of work that the brain gets a momentary and much appreciated holiday. Lowney offers the Jesuit practice of Examen: a daily technique of prayerful reflection, as one approach for leaders and professionals struggling to jump off the hamster wheel.

From meditation and prayer to the lunchtime walk-about or workout to quiet reading time, it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you make the time to shift gears and let your brain focus somewhere other than e-mail or the noise coming from yet another status meeting.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

No program, no management fad, no short-list of the top ten things to do. Just a reminder that your brain and the brains of your team members will serve you best if you build in and/or encourage people to regularly tune out the drumbeat and turn off the updates. I’ve watched burned-out managers come back from the brink by recognizing the need to create time to think deeply, and then making it a habit. Whether it’s for your professional mental health or for the health of your team members, it’s important to find ways to momentarily reflect and place things in context.

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf

Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org

The 15 Ronald Reagan Quotes Every Business Leader Must Know

By Ray Hennessey - Entrepreneur Magazine
No leader communicated so plainly and effectively as Ronald Reagan. With an acting and public-speaking background, Reagan’s approach was simple: Say what you mean, say it directly and make folks smile as often as possible.
Reagan was a champion of capitalism, a defender of freedom and never met a regulation he didn’t hate. Many of his quotes still resonate today, particularly since the themes of high taxes and intrusive regulations continue to addle new-business creation in the United States.
Here are the 15 Ronald Reagan quotes every business leader needs to know by heart:
  1. "Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
  2. "Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out."
  3. "The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away."
  4. "The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help."
  5. "Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse."
  6. "Government does not solve problems. It subsidizes them."
  7. "There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder."
  8. "My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose. Somehow we win out."
  9. "Status quo, you know, is Latin for ‘the mess we’re in.’"
  10. "Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States."
  11. "We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions."
  12. "When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat."
  13. "Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July. The Democrats believe every day is April 15."
  14. "How do you tell a communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin."
  15. "They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong."
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf
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Basic Project Management Training

A "train and do" workshop introducing the basics of Project Management, including classroom presentation and exercises on how to organize and manage projects and bring them to a close – on time and on budget.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
This training is for manufacturing, engineering, and installation personnel with project leadership responsibilities, whether in a new role or just in need of a refresher.

COURSE OUTLINE:
• Introduction to Project Management
• Individual Roles and Responsibilities
• Defining the Mission & Approach
• Methodology Overview
• Work Plan Review and Sign-off
• Project Tracking (Working the Schedule)
• Action and Contingency Plans
• Project Status Reporting
• Book shelving Project Management Data

(Course materials are based on methods described in the Program Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), published by the Program Management Institute)

Date: November 11th, 2014
Time: 8:00 am to 4:30 pm
Sign-in and continental breakfast
at 7:30, lunch also included
Location: Treadway Inn, Owego, NY
Cost: $150 ($100 for AM&T Associates)

Register at www.amt-mep.org/events or contact Kathy Peacock at 607-774-0022 x308

Registration Deadline: November 05, 2014

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/8514/1166/6653/2014-10.pdf

Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Manufacturing Revitalization Bill Passed by House, Now In The Hands of the Senate

(Compiled from multiple sources)

A bipartisan effort to bolster the country's manufacturing sector passed the House in mid September, and as of early October is awaiting action by the Senate. The Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act of 2013 (RAMI) calls for the creation of a network of regional institutes across the country, along the lines of the “manufacturing hub” pilot project launched by the Obama administration in Ohio.

The bill was introduced in the House by Representatives Tom Reed (R-NY) and Joe Kennedy (D-MA), and in the Senate by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Roy Blunt (R-MO). The intent of the legislation is to expand our ability to compete for advanced manufacturing jobs by investing in manufacturing technologies and capabilities. The planned institutes would bring together companies and universities, supported by Federal agencies, to co-invest in world-leading manufacturing technologies and workforce capabilities.

The bill's sponsors apparently recognize that America’s manufacturing sector is critical to an innovation economy that supports a strong and growing middle class. After a decade of decline, the manufacturing sector has added 515,000 jobs since the beginning of 2010, and adding bipartisan government support can help insure the growth of a U.S. manufacturing renaissance. This legislation would fund the institutes with up to an initial $600 million investment channeled through the National Institute of Standards and Technology. However, the funding expires after 7 years; the institutes would then have to arrange for private-sector funding 

According to Rep. Reed's office, he and Rep. Kennedy see the legislation as a way to re-establish the United States as the global leader in manufacturing. Each institute will be focused on a unique technology, material, or process relevant to advanced manufacturing. Comprised of local industry, academia and other stakeholders, the institutes would work to (1) expand research and development, (2) close the gap between R&D and commercialization of products, (3) support small and mid-sized manufacturers, and (4) train a top-tier advanced manufacturing workforce.

“We’re thrilled to have such overwhelming bipartisan support for our bill to create high-tech, high-paying manufacturing jobs for Americans,” said Congressman Reed. “These are the kinds of jobs that will give generations to come the opportunity to create and innovate right here at home – not across the ocean. Americans need something to come together on, something to unite around to fight for jobs. RAMI is that uniting initiative. The nation as a whole will benefit from the skilled workforce, innovative manufacturers and some of the best education and research institutes in the country that RAMI brings together. The House passage of this bill is the result of bipartisan partnership and countless input from industry leaders and colleagues on both sides of the aisle."

Monday, September 1, 2014

Basic Project Management Training

A "train and do" workshop introducing the basics of Project Management, including classroom presentation and exercises on how to organize and manage projects and bring them to a close – on time and on budget.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
This training is for manufacturing, engineering, and installation personnel with project leadership responsibilities, whether in a new role or just in need of a refresher.

COURSE OUTLINE:
• Introduction to Project Management
• Individual Roles and Responsibilities
• Defining the Mission & Approach
• Methodology Overview
• Work Plan Review and Sign-off
• Project Tracking (Working the Schedule)
• Action and Contingency Plans
• Project Status Reporting
• Book shelving Project Management Data

(Course materials are based on methods described in the Program Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), published by the Program Management Institute)

Date: November 11th, 2014
Time: 8:00 am to 4:30 pm
Sign-in and continental breakfast
at 7:30, lunch also included
Location: Treadway Inn, Owego, NY
Cost: $150 ($100 for AM&T Associates)

Register at www.amt-mep.org/events or contact Kathy Peacock at 607-774-0022 x308

Registration Deadline: November 05, 2014

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/4414/1166/6581/2014-09.pdf

Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org

Leaders, Principles and the Pursuit of High Performance Teams

By Art Petty
"In high-performance teams, the leaders managed the principles and the principles managed the teams." – Carl Larson and Frank LaFasto via Jim Highsmith in Agile Project Management - Creating Innovative Products.

Larson and LaFasto in their assessment of high performance teams offer us a profoundly powerful and simple to comprehend answer to the question of how to support the emergence of effective teams: clear, strong, actionable, livable principles beget an environment for effective collaboration and innovation.

Every high performance team I’ve experienced as a participant, a sponsor or an outside advisor, was governed by an overarching set of principles or values that formed and framed the culture. And while good words alone don’t create success, the combination of the leaders and participants living and acting according to those words everyday made things work.
On successful teams, the team leaders…and ultimately the participants eat and drink the principles for breakfast, communicate them constantly and most importantly, they live them in how they collaborate, problem-solve and challenge themselves and their team members forward in pursuit of success.

And since as we all know, even the best of teams face dark days when nothing goes right, the guiding principles serve as bedrock for self-reflection and guidance for navigating the way forward.
There’s a cautionary tale here. As Highsmith warns us, "Grand principles that generate no action are mere vapor." When engaging with an organization for the first time, I make it a habit to understand a firm’s values, and all too often, what I find are nice words…unarguable in their intent, that serve only to occupy space on a wall in a conference room. It’s a wholesale failure on the part of the leadership of an organization, when the guiding principles aren’t a visible part of everyday life.

Teams are a fact of life. We execute strategy via projects. We innovate on teams. We develop new products, improve processes and search for ways to better serve our customers via projects and teams. We darned well better figure out how to succeed at this more often than not. Right now, in too many organizations, "not" is winning.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

This intangible, sticky, squishy topic of operationalizing guiding principles or values doesn’t lend itself well to a prescriptive list of steps-to-success. The onus is on you as a team leader, project leader, functional leader, informal leader or organizational leader to ensure that your best efforts are supported by meaningful, actionable guiding principles. If you can’t articulate what those principles are and what they mean for behavior, accountability and performance, then it’s time to take a step back and tackle this issue. The effort will pay dividends going forward. Larson and LaFasto are right…leaders should manage the principles and the principles will manage the team.

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/4414/1166/6581/2014-09.pdf

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Manufacturing Day is October 3, 2014 - Join the Movement

Come Join the Celebration!

As we near MFG DAY, we wanted to share some changes we’ve made to the event registration process in order to accommodate as many hosts as possible.
• Registration has been streamlined and now takes just 5 minutes.
• Multiple events can be created under one user account.
• An event can be designated "invitation only."
• Dates other than October 3 can be selected — and are encouraged!

We’ve also made a number of technical improvements. Uploading logos is easier. And hosts can generate reports to see who plans to attend their events.

So if you haven’t already, we invite you to check out the new registration process and put your MFG DAY event on the map. Let’s show the world what manufacturing is all about!

Register Your Event
http://www.mfgday.com/user/register

Register by Phone:
If you still need a little help registering your event, you’re welcome to call Fabricator & Manufacturers Association, International (FMA) Customer Service toll free at 888-394-4362.

Event Planning:
Once you’ve registered your event, you may want some tips for running it. Get started with the Manufacturing Day Host Toolkit.
Get the Toolkit at http://www.mfgday.com/resources/manufacturing-day-host-toolkit

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/4414/1166/6581/2014-09.pdf

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Four Steps for a Successful Brainstorming Session

By Fast Company

Don’t filter. If you start a meeting and you say, ‘Okay, we’re gonna come up with really good ideas,’ that can be a really bad way to start. With that kind of pressure to come up with the best ideas right away, you don’t have a sense of exploration. Things will kind of run dry.

Don’t start with an example. Planting a solution which worked in the past in someone’s mind makes them much more likely to come up with similar solutions rather than new ones.

Use analogies. They allow you to step between worlds that seem disconnected and connect them based on some structure to help you come up with new ideas, even if they’re not radical, and then build on them.

Beware of incentives. When you give people incentives (like cash) for ideas, they come up with lots of ideas and they tend to be very similar to each other but not a lot of creative ideas.

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/4414/1166/6581/2014-09.pdf

Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org

Creating Strategic Impact - Do You Need a Strategic Plan?

By Mike Brown

If you’re interested in creating strategic impact, now is a natural time to be asking if your organization needs a strategic plan. The question makes sense whether you are considering an update to a previous strategic plan or something completely new.

From our perspective, it’s not a question you ask and answer as some type of check box, i.e., "We have a strategic plan, so we can check that off the list!"

Instead, you should address the question of whether you need a strategic plan in light of important aspects of how it would help your organization in creating strategic impact. Some of the questions to consider include:

Given your situation, is it essential to your organization’s success that you take the time to look ahead and consider dramatically new opportunities and directions?

Does your organization need stronger alignment for its direction?

Is there a need for more strongly communicating the organization’s strategic direction to everyone in the organization?

Do you need to need the guidelines and impetus to change the management discipline in your organization so you accomplish the important activities you spend more time talking about than addressing?

Yes answers to any of those four questions could indicate it’s time to take on developing a new strategic plan for your organization.

If you want to get the maximum value from a strategic planning process, any of the reasons above should suggest a different type of planning process geared to deliver those organizational results.

Not sure where to start with accomplishing that?

Let us know. It’s what we deliver for clients so strategic planning creates real results and beneficial impacts throughout their organizations. All that, plus we make it a rewarding, stimulating, and fun experience.

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/4414/1166/6581/2014-09.pdf

Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org

Growing Sales and Maximizing Profits

If your Sales and Profits are Down or Stagnant and you’re not sure what to do about it this seminar is for you!

Section 1: Is your Company prepared for growth?

Everything starts and ends with the value your company provides. It’s easy to blame the sales team when business is down and profits are eroding, but you can’t sell what you don’t have and you really shouldn’t expect significant sales growth or high profitability if your company, products and services are not meaningfully unique in your target markets.

In? this section we will take a comprehensive overview of what consistently drives sales and profitability in successful growth-oriented companies... and how you can do the same.

Section 2: Is your Sales Team prepared for success?

In this section, we will discuss Sales Systems, Processes, Tools, Skills, and Knowledge required to build and manage a high-performance sales organization that can quickly identify and develop high-potential opportunities that will consistently grow your top-line sales and maximize your bottom-line profits.

Who Should Attend

Companies of all sizes and industries. Whether you are a company of 1, or you are a large corporation, the principles in this seminar apply to you.
• Smaller companies should send Owners, Managers and Sales personnel.
• Larger companies should send Company Executives, Sales Managers, and Professional Salespeople. To get the most out of this seminar, we recommend that you bring a cross-functional team.

Date: Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Time: 8:00 am to 12:00 pm
(Sign-in and full breakfast at 7:30 am)
Location: Owego Treadway - Owego, NY
Cost: $75 ($50 for AM&T Associates)

For questions about this seminar contact: Jim Cunningham at 607-725-1225 or jcunningham@amt-mep.org

Register at www.amt-mep.org/events or contact Kathy Peacock at 607-774-0022 x308

Registration Deadline: September 10th

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/4414/1166/6581/2014-09.pdf

Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org

Associates’ Corner - Crowley Fabricating & Machining Co., Inc.

Crowley Fabricating was established in 1985 and has recently received AS 9100 and ISO 9001 certifications and are ITAR registered. They have the ability to receive and send encrypted documentation. Their customer base consists of 60% Commercial, 35% Prime Contractors and 5% Department of Defense customers, and they are proud of their very diverse customer base which has allowed them to continue to grow.

Use of an MRP System allows them to manage and standardize administrative activities and track all information on a real time basis.

Crowley Fabricating has two manufacturing locations and one warehouse. Machining and offices are located at 403 N. Nanticoke Avenue in Endicott, New York. This location houses Sales and Manufacturing Engineers, Customer Service, Shipping/Receiving, CNC Programmers, and Administration Departments as well as twenty CNC Mills, seven CNC Turning Centers, Waterjet, Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMM), Cut-off Department and a Mechanical Assembly area.

Sheet metal fabricating is located at 2 N. Nanticoke Avenue in Endicott, New York which is two blocks away from the main office. Last year over one million dollars was invested in new state of the art fabricating equipment such as a new Amada FOM2 NT 4000 Watt Laser Cutting System with Shuttle Table, a new Amada HD 1303 NT CNC 143 Ton x 122" Long Bed Press Brake, a new Amada ID 404ST Spotwelder and a new Series 4 Pemserter for hardware insertion. Amada’s latest software, which is used by CNC Programmers to program the CNC sheet metal equipment, was also purchased. This software enables quick turn work. New equipment was added to help support our other sheet metal equipment such as Turret Press, Press Brakes, Timesaver, MIG and TIG Welding Equipment along with Assembly. Certification has been obtained to several welding specifications.

Crowley Fabricating is a certified Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business that has received numerous awards and recognitions for performance throughout the years.

Please contact Tom or Mike Crowley at 607-484-0299 or visit www.crowleyfab.com for more information.

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/4414/1166/6581/2014-09.pdf

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Associates’ Corner - Courser, Inc.

Courser Incorporated is an Elmira, NY contract CNC machining and general machining company. Incorporated in 1974, Courser produces customer’s products to their specifications with special attention to on-time delivery and quality. Their experienced and friendly customer service staff makes procurement of machined components an enjoyable process for their customers.

Courser utilizes military quality standards for measurement equipment calibrations and quality systems. Customer specifications are verified with 1st article, in-process, and final inspections supported by automated coordinate measuring machines that utilize solid modeling inspection routines. Solid modeling systems are integrated into each phase of manufacturing, from providing quotations to CNC programming creation to final inspection routines. These capabilities reduce the lead time and cost of manufacturing both simple and complex products.

Courser continues to expand their impressive machining capabilities and support systems. Two 5-axis vertical machining centers produce complex components with close tolerances and have produced a wide array of complex aerospace components that could not have been produced on 3-axis machines. Their most recent addition is a new large vertical machining center with a 10 foot bed and 10 feet of X-travel that allows large components to be machined. A new tooling crib and bin system provides the shop floor with all the proper tools and fixtures at exactly the right time. The updated shipping and receiving area provides a clean and efficient area for packing outgoing shipments.

For more information, contact: Daniel Herman at dherman@courser.com, 1-800-568-0045, ext. 215, or visit www.courser.com

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/4414/1166/6581/2014-09.pdf

Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Growing Sales and Maximizing Profits

If your sales and profits are down or stagnant and you’re not sure what to do about it, this seminar is for you!

Section 1: Is your Company prepared for growth?

Everything starts and ends with the value your company provides. It’s easy to blame the sales team when business is down and profits are eroding, but you can’t sell what you don’t have and you really shouldn’t expect significant sales growth or high profitability if your company, products and services are not meaningfully unique in your target markets.
In this section we will take a comprehensive overview of what consistently drives sales and profitability in successful growth-oriented companies... and how you can do the same.

Section 2: Is your Sales Team prepared for success?

In this section, we will discuss Sales Systems, Processes, Tools, Skills, and Knowledge required to build and manage a high-performance sales organization that can quickly identify and develop high-potential opportunities that will consistently grow your top-line sales and maximize your bottom-line profits.

Who Should Attend
Companies of all sizes and industries. Whether you are a company of 1, or you are a large corporation, the principles in this seminar apply to you.
  • Smaller companies should send Owners, Managers and Sales personnel.
  • Larger companies should send Company Executives, Sales Managers, and Professional Salespeople.
To get the most out of this seminar, we recommend that you bring a cross-functional team.

Date: Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Time: 8:00 am to 12:00 pm
(Sign-in and full breakfast at 7:30 am)
Location: Owego Treadway - Owego, NY
Cost: $75 ($50 for AM&T Associates)

For questions about this seminar contact:
Jim Cunningham at 607-725-1225

or contact Kathy Peacock at 607-774-0022 x308
Registration Deadline: September 10th

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/4214/0734/2344/2014-08.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Manufacturing Execs Open Pockets, See Growth Ahead

By: Steve Minter, Industry Week

Remaining positive about the U.S. economy and sales at their own companies, manufacturing executives in two new surveys say they will be increasing capital spending to prepare for improving business conditions.

Some 52% of industrial manufacturers in the quarterly Manufacturing Barometer survey conducted by PwC said they plan major new investments in CAPEX spending, up 13 points from the March 2014 survey. The mean investment was expected to be 5.7% of sales, higher than the 5.4% reported three months ago and well above the 4.0% forecast a year ago.

Manufacturers are also increasing shorter-term spending, the survey found, with 75% planning increased operational spending, led by R&D, introductions of new products or services and information technology. More than a third (38%) also plan to be engaged in M&A activity, with 35% planning to buy another business.

"Companies have maintained historically high levels of liquidity and are increasingly looking to put this money to work in strengthening their operations, adding talent and improving technology in a highly competitive marketplace," said Bobby Bono, PwC’s U.S. industrial manufacturing leader. "Plans for R&D spending reached the highest level in the past five quarters, as management teams look to differentiate their products and enhance the value proposition they offer to their customers."

Plans for both domestic and international investment also increased in the MAPI Business Outlook survey conducted by the MAPI Foundation, the research arm of the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation. The U.S. Investment Index, which examines plan for domestic capital investment in 2014, increased from 59 this past March to 67 in the current survey. The Non-U.S. Investment Index, which forecasts investment outside the U.S., rose to 64 in the June survey from 59 in March.

There’s No Place Like Home!

Manufacturers remained positive (65%) about the U.S. economy’s prospects for the next 12 months, the PwC survey found, though that figure dipped 6 points from the last quarter. But industrial leaders were much less positive about the world economy. Some 38% said they were optimistic about the global economy, a drop of 3 points from the previous quarter. The largest group, 57% of the manufacturers who market abroad, said they were uncertain about prospects for the global economy.

Industrial manufacturers expect those positive conditions in the economy to translate to improved sales. Some 77% of the executives polled by PwC say their revenue will increase in the coming year, with the average increase pegged at 5.2%, just off last quarter’s projection of 5.3%. None of the executives expected to see sales dip in the next 12 months.

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/4214/0734/2344/2014-08.pdf

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Manufacturing Day 10-03-2014

Manufacturing Day has been designed to expand knowledge about and improve general public perception of manufacturing careers and manufacturing’s value to the North American economy. In addition, manufacturers will learn about business improvement resources and services delivered through manufacturing extension partnerships.

HOST AN OPEN HOUSE

As a manufacturer it’s your opportunity to:
• Tell your company’s story
• Dispel outdated myths about manufacturing
• Inspire a new generation of manufacturers
• Connect with potential customers in your community
• Learn about manufacturing extension partnerships that can improve your efficiencies and work force skills and boost your profits
• Visit other manufacturers to initiate business relationships and learn what is being made in your community

The core element to Manufacturing Day is the schedule of manufacturer’s open houses. Manufacturing Day producers will promote the open house schedule through general and trade media campaigns which will alert thousands of people to visit manufacturers and see that American manufacturing is a vibrant career path and employers need skilled workers. The event will also make it possible for manufacturers to visit other participating companies in their region that may be potential business partners – either as customers or suppliers.

Register to host an open house at your company

Sign-up to visit other manufacturer’s open house events

www.mfgday.com

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/4214/0734/2344/2014-08.pdf

Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org

Turn Strategy into Action

Competitive Solutions, Inc.

"Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position." - Brian Tracy

Goals provide the focus for organizations to achieve their strategy, but without GOAL ALIGNMENT, employees and departments are disconnected and corporate goals cannot be fully realized.

Employees who understand their individual goals - and how they relate to those of their organization as a whole - will also be more engaged and motivated to play their part within the organization. It is the coordinated, collective efforts of individuals and departments that drive organizational success, as everybody’s energy is harnessed and directed toward common goals.

Employees can only be productive when they know exactly what is expected of them.

Goals that are SMART:
• S - Specific (clearly specify the intended goals)
• M - Measurable (state exactly what the criteria for success will be and how it will be measured)
• A - Attainable (challenging but achievable)
• R - Realistic (employee is willing and able to work towards the goal’s achievement)
• T - Time-bound (clearly defined target date)

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/4214/0734/2344/2014-08.pdf

Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org

Strategic Planning For A Competitive Advantage

Do you have a Strategic Plan? Is it shared with your team members?

Why Strategic Planning is important:
• Aligns your resources around a common vision.
• Provides a tool to help your organization do a better job with:
  - Focusing your energy.
  - Ensuring that all members of your organization are working toward the same goals.
• Assesses your organization’s direction in response to a changing competitive environment.

Strategic Planning is a disciplined approach to answer the following key questions:
• Where are you now?
• Where are you going?
• What needs to be accomplished?
• How do we get there?
• How will we measure progress?

Strategic planning creates a vision of the future that inspires and empowers your team to contribute to meeting your key strategies. By planning proactively, you will more successfully address your customer needs. Your action-plan will allow your operational improvement effort to connect while meeting your overall company strategy. Additionally, your activities and efforts will concentrate on markets where they will have the most impact and are most likely to succeed. Lastly, you are provided with professional, written plans to all team members that are easy to modify when business climate or competitive situation changes.

OUTCOME: A Compelling Competitive Advantage:
• Identifies your most valued customers.
• Defines and improves your organization’s understandings of your customers wants.
• Helps to clarify your competitive strengths and weaknesses.
• Evaluates relations with stakeholders, customers, suppliers, employees and owners.
• Clearly defines the major initiatives that will produce results and grow revenue.
• Identifies new opportunities and markets.
• Captures what your customer values from you.
• Identifies the key metrics necessary to monitor progress.

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/4214/0734/2344/2014-08.pdf

Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org/