It is a great, but terrifying time to be a manufacturer in the United States. New manufacturing plants are popping up and existing manufacturers are pushing their capacity to the limit. The big issue that remains however, is the skills gap. Retiring baby boomers are vacating skilled manufacturing jobs. To complicate matters our culture tends to emphasize academics more than job … [Read more...]
Customer ingenuity Paul’s DIY Coolant Recycler
Some people are creative, Paul Price is one of those people. When he's not making high quality, innovative, visually appealing bike parts or riding bikes, you might find him dreaming up solutions to other problems. One of the problems he has recently tackled after 10 years of considering it, is recycling coolant. Check out this impressive process now in use at Chico, … [Read more...]
MDC Livescreen for World Cup 2018
A dilemma faced by soccer fans world wide, how do we keep track of World Cup soccer and CIMCO MDC? Some shops are making the tough decision, like Tech Five Machining in Tempe, AZ. Different cultures take their sports differently, we've seen entire shops shut down to watch soccer matches, especially finals, there is more to life than work, right? … [Read more...]
Getting Started With CIMCO MDC-Max Shop Floor Screens
It's official, CIMCO A/S has released Shop Floor Screens for CIMCO MDC-Max. This useful feature will allow you to visualize your environment and view real time status of your machines. Make sure you have active maintenance before upgrading to version 8.03.00 or newer to enable this feature. This is a video tutorial on how to get started, but before we get to that here are some … [Read more...]
How about Machine Simulation in an NC Editor
If you've ever done any CAM programming you will probably find this familiar. The post processor you spent money, time and a few caffeine fueled evenings trying to perfect produced some odd code and created a real problem for you in your complex CNC machine. For years CIMCO Editor users have spent a few minutes validating their post processed g-code using backplot. It looks a … [Read more...]
10 Ways to Eliminate Waste in Advanced Manufacturing using CIMCO Software
What is the ultimate result of improving efficiency in advanced manufacturing? The products coming out the door are of expected quality, in needed quantities, produced when needed, and margins are improved. Customers, stake holders, share holders and employees are all benefactors. This boils down to a competitive edge, a business that will survive through good and bad times, a … [Read more...]
SME CEO Jeff Krause EP11
Jeff grew up around manufacturing in the mid-west. In his youth, he had a job that involved delivering milk and refilling vending machines in plants that look nothing like what modern manufacturing plants do. Post-college he would go on to spend 30 years in the automotive industry. Today, he is now providing passionate leadership to one of the most important … [Read more...]
Education and Promotion of Advanced Manufacturing
When this podcast was just an idea to help manufacturing in the US, many a brainstorm of ideas occurred. During those sessions, the foundation of the Manufacturing Advocates Podcast was gradually emerging. The resulting notes contained ideas, such as how broadly to classify "manufacturing", who the possible guests might be, and even how long should an episode be. In those "the … [Read more...]
Proud Advocate of the US Made Brand Al Stimac EP10
This week's episode showcases a gentleman who has an impressive list of accomplishments. Al Stimac is a champion for the "Made in America" brand, Florida manufacturing, and US manufacturers in general. He possesses a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge and unlike some big thinkers, he puts what he learns to work rapidly. Listen to hear how he has helped US … [Read more...]
Shop Floor Screens for CIMCO MDC
This feature is now live and available with CIMCO MDC. At the end of March we shared with you the next generation CIMCO Web MDC Client. This week we have some really cool news about another feature that will be available soon, Shop Floor Screens. These customized representations of your plants or departments allow you to see the status of all your equipment based on where it … [Read more...]