The US has expressed concern over the escalating tension around the Diaoyu (China’s name) –Senkaku (Japan’s name) islands. The most recent issues sprung from China’s assertion that these islands come under the Chinese air defense zone. This claim immediately drew responses from Japan, the US, Taiwan and South Korea. The...
While we still have a month or so left in 2013, it is interesting to take a look at what transpired over the last 12 months in terms of lumber prices. The beginning of the year saw some significant increase in lumber prices as the supply chain continued to show...
There are a number of programs that have helped businesses achieve growth with improved profitability. Some programs are focused mainly on manufacturing such as Total Productive Maintenance, Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and Quick Response Manufacturing. There are other programs that are applicable to any business such as EOS, (Entrepreneurial Operating...
Most companies spend a lot of effort on the planning of their product build, but often, once the product is ready to ship, businesses seem to forget about the shipping and just assume that the job is done. Unfortunately, the customer is not satisfied until they have the product in...
If you work for or are associated with a maintenance department, then you probably work on some sort of preventative maintenance program. Total Productive Maintenance is a step up from preventative maintenance. The lowest level of maintenance is “wait until something breaks”. While initially it seems to require the least...
Why can’t things be the way it was 30 - 40 years ago? Manufacturing jobs were abundant, wages and benefits were great! Unions had long term, safe contracts and layoffs were minimal. There seem to be many ideas floating around out there blaming corporate greed, poor taxation policies, NAFTA etc,...
J.C. Younger manufactures and refurbishes industrial chillers. They sell or rent chillers of different sizes and capacities for a variety of industrial applications and ship them to all parts of the US. Transporting chillers to the customer destination has been an issue as 20 % of shipments were sustaining some...
Long term storage can present a number of challenges for electro-mechanical systems such as aircraft or vehicles. Even under the most ideal storage circumstances, moisture will permeate into just about anything and ultimately cause problems. Often times with larger objects, outside storage is required.For Engines, one needs to consider moisture...
Most of our major allies are peace loving societies where going to war or conducting any major military action is the last thing that a nation wants. Yet most of these countries have substantial military assets that with good fortune will never be used in action. While having military assets...