Management

It should be assumed that companies with blue-collar positions are social organizations looking to employ goofballs with troubled pasts.

The dynamics at play when a machine shop is a family affair.

Shop growth is much easier when your credit is solid, even with slight profitability, suggests Keith Jennings in his Manager's Desk column for the April 2014 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

The steel comes in late, she shop is overloaded, due dates are regularly missed and the last quote was blown because no one has a clue about actual operating costs. These are just a few of the daily problems encountered by shops that manage their businesses through Excel spreadsheets and low-cost accounting software. There is a better way.

Presented here is the second part of the Manager's Desk column about Web-based marketing. The first part appeared in the February issue.

Keith Jennings, our Manager's Desk columnist, this month responds to readers asking for tips to increase sales, and, yes, his answer emphasizes the need for a Web presence and social media.

Manager's Desk Columnist Keith Jennings reflects on the ups and downs of the previous 12 months, with a nod to the “classroom of reality,” which he says continues to educate him and his team. As a result, his shop created a list of goals for 2014.

Like many in the machining world, I've dealt with more than enough serious issues in 2013, so it's cool to have been part of a fun experience.

I'm a big a supporter of my local community college's machining programs. There's one facet of machine shop management a classroom can't prepare a student for, though: the constant, yet unexpected, gear shifting that goes on when you're running a shop.

After working in the machining and fabrication business for 21 years, Keith Jennings, the Manager's Desk columnist for Cutting Tool Engineering, has concluded that million-dollar jobs don't guarantee big profits.