Welcome to Foundry Management & Technology Sign in | Join | Help

REB Blogs

  • Cast steel does something seemingly impossible

    The title is drawn from the observation of a structural engineer explaining the secret to a novel building design: essentially, it's one, mid-sized office building in Toronto that's being designed, in part, as an insert to an existing structure that has...
    01-30-2012, 2:12 PM by REB to REB Blog
  • Short cited-ness

    "Reshoring" continues to be a hot topic among manufacturers. I wrote about the man many people recognize as the leading authority on the subject, but the trend has been observed for several years now. (NADCA is planning a panel discussion on the topic...
    01-24-2012, 7:49 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • The riddle of recovery

    I've written several times that the ongoing economic recovery is so unsatisfying because we continue to see high levels of unemployment, but that unemployment is a feature of the economic recovery - not a defect. See this entry, for example. The point...
    01-17-2012, 8:18 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Odds of recovery

    Economic predictions are still popular this week, but here’s an insightful analysis of recent economic trends that documents a simple and easy-to-miss point: “…most of the economy is (the results of) people doing normal stuff that they always just have...
    01-02-2012, 8:15 PM by REB to REB Blog
  • Slow going

    “World growth will slow in 2012—the only question is by how much.” That is the abrupt and sober opening from IHS Global Insight’s chief economist Nariman Beravesh in his Top 10 Economic Predictions for 2012 . We cannot blame bad news on him, but it’s...
    12-20-2011, 9:03 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • We're not machines

    The U.S. Labor Dept.'s monthly employment report has become a ritual of the ongoing recession — “jobs” rather than GDP are the measure of our economic progress. As such, the November report from late last week was good news, revealing as it did that nationwide...
    12-06-2011, 8:01 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Time warp

    The National Labor Relations board was established in 1935, by way of the Wagner Act , as an independent panel assigned to adjudicate differences between employers and labor interests. Lately, however, the NLRB seems to operate from the assumption that...
    11-27-2011, 8:32 PM by REB to REB Blog
  • Stick to the message

    Speaking only for myself, I have never much like trade shows, conferences, seminars, etc. I realize they are important routines for conducting business - and that a lot of people appreciate the opportunity to socialize and recreate with colleagues they...
    11-08-2011, 8:16 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Is it working for you?

    It’s hard to study robotics — as I did recently — without examining the human aspect of it all, meaning how the availability of robots (and advanced technology more broadly understood) intersects with the humans that install them. Most of us realize now...
    10-31-2011, 10:14 PM by REB to REB Blog
  • Another gap in the system

    I attended an event in Canada about two years ago – a competition of vocational skills (machining, welding, carpentry, and much more) among young people (16 to 22 years old, I recall), from all over the developed world. Notably, there were very few Americans...
    10-18-2011, 9:09 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • You think you've got it bad?

    I screen all sorts of links related to metalcasting, but this is a novel one: first-hand accounts of the survival of foundries in an oppressed and depressed country. Most of us probably don't think much about the misery of life in Cuba since 1959, where...
    10-11-2011, 8:43 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • 7,000 engineers

    Last week’s arrival of the U.S. Labor Dept.’s September employment report didn’t reveal much: there was some increase in hiring and economists feel the threat of a new recession has been averted. But, the unemployment rate is still 9.1% of the workforce,...
    10-09-2011, 9:57 PM by REB to REB Blog
  • One of the greats

    Having written recently about the importance of recognizing the good works of people around us, I'm glad to be able to point readers to this article about one of the recent greats of the metalcasting industry. It happens that he's a member of the FM&T...
    09-11-2011, 10:20 PM by REB to REB Blog
  • Where the jobs are

    The anxiety over employment totals continues to drive most discussions about the state of the U.S. economy, and so last week’s report indicating that August ended with no net improvement in the jobless rate is bad news indeed. However, headlines suggesting...
    09-06-2011, 8:47 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Honorable mentions

    In a few days we'll announce who has been named to the FM&T Hall of Honor for the current year. I am always a little tense about this effort, because we want to be sure that the individuals we identify are worthy of the recognition, and of the company...
    08-30-2011, 8:27 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • A little context

    I'm not sure that the political analysis in this column is as important as the underlying point that Midwestern states are overleveraged, giving them more incentive to be demanding of businesses and other taxpayers in order to meet their obligations —...
    08-16-2011, 8:44 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Of course, I could be wrong

    In my last column for the magazine I took up the issue of CAFE standards again, because the word is out that the federal government wants domestic automakers to achieve a corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) of 56.2 miles per gallon by 2025. Now, I don’t...
    07-12-2011, 8:13 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Consider all options

    It used to be that polite people would avoid conversations about religion and politics. Now, add “energy” to the list. Last week I was an accidental bystander to a heated lunch-table discussion about energy: what is going to be the reliable energy source...
    06-28-2011, 9:12 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Enough growth?

    A few weeks ago a foundry executive expressed to me the opinion that the multiple-site business model remains unproven for the metalcasting industry, because the costs of operating a single plant (energy, labor, capital equipment, etc.) remain high and...
    06-21-2011, 12:15 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Are they losing it?

    "Based on recent analyses and reports, a leading manufacturing sector economist asserts the Chinese will stand to lose significant market share in the years to come, and will not have a cost advantage over U.S. manufacturing by the year 2016." That's...
    05-23-2011, 4:15 PM by REB to REB Blog
  • You know who "you" are

    If you merely scan the headlines, you’ll know that General Motors reported impressive earnings for the first quarter of 2011 , about $3.2 billion, which was more than three times what it earned in 2010 Q1 and its fifth straight quarterly profit. In addition,...
    05-17-2011, 8:01 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Can't have it both ways

    I have a copy of the latest manufacturing industry outlook from PriceWaterhouse Coopers, the consulting and accounting group, and it's somewhat encouraging. PwC's Manufacturing Barometer is based on a quarterly survey of U.S.-based executives in multinational...
    05-03-2011, 9:11 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Another flight delay?

    If Boeing's new 787 commercial jet didn't already have a snake-bit reputation, now it's got the federal government trying to bring it down. The 787, also called the “Dreamliner,” will be a wide-body twin-engine aircraft with long range and carrying capacity...
    04-22-2011, 3:01 PM by REB to REB Blog
  • A few bad apples

    Like many people, I suppose, I have seen and heard public service announcements from the Business Software Alliance that encourage listeners to report suspected cases of software piracy. I guess I supposed the bad guys were comparable to the designer-goods...
    04-19-2011, 8:47 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • The “skills shortage” gap

    I try to make good use of news feeds to deliver information about the industries and sectors I am supposed to know, so I didn’t have much reaction when I read today the following headline: “Foundry Industry Facing Acute Shortage of Skilled & Trained...
    04-12-2011, 8:24 AM by REB to REB Blog
More Posts Next page »

Popular Tags

No tags have been created or used yet.