How busy is the world of Manufacturing?

Just wondering how busy everyone is, and where you're located. Where I work is extremely slow right now but it has to do with our main customer going through their own issues--but I also don't see much other work coming in either...

Might just be my shop, but maybe the industry is slowing down?

Let's just say that all the 1 week or less turn around stuff I can't do time wise, always has someone else able to do it. I'd say it's actually been busier the last couple months compared to early this year. There's still some customers I've only heard of 2-3 times this year, some not at all, others are working hard on new products since the old stuff ain't selling. I think there's not many who aren't struggling in some way and wondering where things are headed. There is a few nice projects on the way that I hope will work out, time will tell.

Yesterday I spent my spare tooling order on a new rifle, I guess that market is still doing ok for now...

Doing my best to stay positive, but being careful with the $ otherwise, definitely not adding more space this year.

No overflow work from linamar? They seem to be doing well in Guelph.

We have done overflow work for Linamar in the past but I haven't seen any recently. Our toolroom in the next building over may be doing some but not in the main production shop. But one day last week the Toolroom Manager said he had nothing to do... Then went home early and took the next day off.

By the way my company slammed with oil and gas work.

Apparently the mining industry is slow and that is dragging things way down in this area. Things are slow. Real slow.

They tell us in another year things will be back. I thought they said that a year ago.

DyeGuardian said:

We have done overflow work for Linamar in the past but I haven't seen any recently. Our toolroom in the next building over may be doing some but not in the main production shop. But one day last week the Toolroom Manager said he had nothing to do... Then went home early and took the next day off.

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There is work out there just need to get it.

ewlsey said:

Apparently the mining industry is slow and that is dragging things way down in this area. Things are slow. Real slow.

They tell us in another year things will be back. I thought they said that a year ago.

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Our main customer is a global mining company that is taking a huge hit right now.

MBG said:

There is work out there just need to get it.

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Everybody at the shop has their doubts about the owner looking for new work.

He won't or doesn't know how?

Well... you can always apply direct at linamar I guess, heard a few times now they gotta import machinists since there's none left in Canada.
I would imagine this machinist shortage in ontario means there's good wage$ to be made. Probably some neat stuff to be learned from any place that big, maybe even a new language.

SND said:

Well... you can always apply direct at linamar I guess, heard a few times now they gotta import machinists since there's none left in Canada.
I would imagine this machinist shortage in ontario means there's good wage$ to be made. Probably some neat stuff to be learned from any place that big, maybe even a new language.

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I did hear they "can't find enough".

MBG said:

He won't or doesn't know how?

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Well he's been the owner since the beginning over 20 years ago, but someone told me we've had the same customer base (minus 1) since he started there 7 years ago.

We are staying busy here in Oregon. Not quoting a lot of new parts, but doing a good amount of repeat work. We just secured a 3 year contract with our best customer, that's a nice feeling.

I am happy so far. Someone asks me to built the prototype of an apparatus he needs and I am free to counter-design what he thought out. Also I’m selling a machine which brings in a little money to relieve the financial situation but on the other hand my circular motor saw must be replaced.

SND said:

Well... you can always apply direct at linamar I guess, heard a few times now they gotta import machinists since there's none left in Canada.
I would imagine this machinist shortage in ontario means there's good wage$ to be made. Probably some neat stuff to be learned from any place that big, maybe even a new language.

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I agree, he has a book out that I read, they want to triple sales. I think they like using Makino machines, but nevertheless it's a 3 billion dollar job shop, I think that's the biggest job shop out there, very impressive.

Linamar

Linamar opened a shop here a couple years ago at a site where Volvo formerly built wheel loaders and trackhoes. They've expanded twice since opening and I think they've got a new building under construction to add more capacity.

Originally they announced the plant was going to produce drive axle parts for a new Cat plant in Winston Salem, NC. Obama was here several months ago and spoke at the Linamar site. In the background there was a display of stuff they machine there and the most surprising thing to me was an engine block. The cameras followed him as he got the ten cent tour of the plant, and at one point he was up on a platform looking in the doors of a big HMC that had a block in a fixture on the pallet, so I assume the other block on display was an actual part they're running rather than just some fluff for the pic.

Pay at their facility here for shop help averages about $38K, which is good pay for this area considering the bulk of the shop jobs would be pure operator jobs rather than ones for actual machinists. Beneficial for this locality as we have a much greater need for decent paying operator jobs than for skilled machinist or tool and die jobs as there's just not enough past history of highly skilled type work around here to produce an excess of truly skilled workers looking for jobs. OTOH, there's plenty of people with a past of textile or furniture industry work who are very familiar with putting in a day's work for a day's pay, and a place like Linamar offers far better work conditions than they've had in their past jobs that have now been offshored, so their presence here seems to be a good match for both the company and the available labor pool.

Supplying the medical industry, I expect to see more double-digit growth despite the horrific economic problems in Europe.

Many other industries seem to be deep down the toilet, though:

- John Deere laid off major numbers in eastern Finland.
- The multi-industry machine manufacturer Metso is a kind of joke by now. They make things for mining, paper factories, energy industry etc., aaaand they lay off people every week it seems.
- Wärtsilä is doing OK in the marine engine business.
- Konecranes is trimming fat to remain profitable.
- Outokumpu took a beating in the steel industry.

There's a subcontractors' expo this autumn that will shed more light on how smaller companies are doing. I expect to see some grim faces.

But like someone said here, machine shops are like cockroaches, they never die out...

Not sure if this is the right place to mention this, but I spoke with a Mechanical Engineering teacher at one of our local Universities and asked him who was signing up for what. He said enrollment was generally down across the board, except for a few isolated areas, and the biggest uptick in enrollment was seen in Mechanical Engineering! For comparison, Electrical Engineering enrollment continued its dramatic decline. He predicts manufacturing will rise again when the new ME's start graduating.

borne2fly said:

Not sure if this is the right place to mention this, but I spoke with a Mechanical Engineering teacher at one of our local Universities and asked him who was signing up for what. He said enrollment was generally down across the board, except for a few isolated areas, and the biggest uptick in enrollment was seen in Mechanical Engineering! For comparison, Electrical Engineering enrollment continued its dramatic decline. He predicts manufacturing will rise again when the new ME's start graduating.

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I don't know if I agree with that, the reason being is manufacturing requires electrical, chemical, industrial and mechanical engineering..