Production Machining - Your access to the precision machining industrial buyer.
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16 Maintain to Improve COME VISIT! Maintain to improve. Many of us have taken for granted a lot of the things we ought to have been actively maintaining. Making an efort to maintain is therefore the frst step in our continuous improvement journey. Improvement means building on a solid foundation. Maintaining that foundation is the frst step. Maintaining requires little additional capital and improves the yield of your invested capital. Maintaining by training assures the highest and best use of the human talent in your organization. We may not see clearly what lies ahead, but we can have a solid understanding of what we currently have if we make the efort. Why not maintain to improve our commercial standing and ability to say "Yes!" when the next inquiry comes along? Maintain is to improvement like the pawl is to a ratchet: It prevents us from going backwards. Columbus, OH process equipment at their highest and best use, you are losing, not maintaining, your shop's capacity. Are you running the right jobs on the right machines? Do you have the right people in the right jobs? Why or why not? Highest and best use of your assets, either equipment, human or capital, is the optimum way to maximize your return. How many of your machines are running below 50 percent of their capacity or capability? Why? Now is the perfect time to address these defciencies. Train to maintain. In the military, training is constant. Because memory can fade, skills can become unpracticed and people can become over-confdent. "Practice makes perfect," my drum teacher used to say. Our customers get "perfect" from ordinary suppliers these days, so practice, and its industrial counterpart "training," are essential to maintain the skills and performance of our valued team members. PMPA's booth, #1230, at the Precision Machining Technology Show. April 16-18, 2013 More Than a "Band-Aid" Approach Brought to you from Federated Insurance An efective frst aid program is good business. If an employee or a customer is injured on the job, are your employees properly trained to respond to a medical emergency? Are you? Besides helping fulfll OSHA requirements, an efective frst aid program can help reduce workers' compensation costs by: • Minimizing employee lost work time. • Improving safety-awareness of employees, especially those with frst aid training. • Reducing possible lawsuits alleging failure to properly respond to an emergency. Setting up a frst aid program is easy to do. Most frst aid programs include: • Formal frst aid training. Tis is typically available through your local ambulance or EMT groups, 18 PRODUCTION MACHINING :: FEBRUARY 2013 local fre departments, community colleges and the American Red Cross. • Written procedures. Your local physician can often provide steps for administering basic frst aid. • Adequate facilities. Maintain a centrally located room or area containing frst aid supplies. • Proper records. Include instructions on properly recording injuries to identify causes or trends so preventive steps can be taken. • Efective communication. All employees should be aware of your commitment and understand how and where frst aid is available. Encourage your employees to participate in a frst aid program, and update your supplies and equipment if needed. An efective frst aid program is good business.