ARTICLE

ET CETERA... THEY'VE GOT PERSONALITY!

The whole industry seems to be discussing this topic. Here’s what Modern Machine Shop has to say about "Et Cetera... They’ve Got Personality!".

By Chris Koepfer, Senior Editor

One of the things I like best about my job here at the magazine is the chance I’m afforded to visit shops and plants. Rarely do I come away from such a visit without learning something. It may be a process I’d never witnessed. It may be an unusual application of technology, which allows the manufacturer to get a leg up on its competition. Sometimes I take away an enlightened perspective on the art and science of manufacturing provided by the experience and pragmatism of the people I get to visit.

Something else I’ve picked up about companies during my visits is that like individuals, manufacturers also possess distinct personalities. However, a company’s personality is not readily apparent to outsiders and often employees.

It’s a natural coping device for us humans to try and categorize large entities that are difficult to comprehend because of their size or complexity. That tendency sometimes leads us to see things monolithically. We might categorize job shops, for example, as small, "mom and pop" operations. A general perception is that they are not very sophisticated and operate on tight margins—which means they can’t effectively utilize or afford cutting edge technology. I, for one, know this is not true. My experience is that the job shop environment is actually an incubator for some of the most interesting and creative applications of technology that exists anywhere in manufacturing. I’ve seen ten-person job shops with an output of hundreds of thousands of dollars per employee per year. There are large job shops with multiple plants and hundreds of employees.

Likewise, machine tool builders are sometimes cast inflexible. These impressions may be based on narrow experiences with one or two products out of many that the company markets. Recently, I was part of a conference here in Cincinnati that toured three local machine tool builders: Milacron, Makino, and Mazak. The topic was high speed machining. A number of the 117 people, who attendedand toured, came away from the experience with a better appreciation of the "personality" differences among these three builders. Many found that besides machine design issues there are philosophical differences in how these companies approached high speed machining. These differences were perceived by many to be even more important than the technological approaches. It’s good to look past the perception and find the personality. It’s in there.