Swarfcast

After serving in the Navy SEALs for nine years, Bill Berrien retired from the military in 1999, ready for a new chapter in his life. He attended Harvard business school where there were six other SEALs in his class. After graduating from Harvard, Bill worked as a Six Sigma Blackbelt at General Electric Health Care, which brought him to the Milwaukee area in 2002. Rather than climb the ladder at a large corporation, Bill’s ambition was to eventually acquire his own business.  Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.  You can also view the podcast in video form on our YouTube Channel.     Follow us on Social and never miss an update! Facebook: https://lnkd.in/dB_nzFzt Instagram: https://lnkd.in/dcxjzVyw Twitter: https://lnkd.in/dDyT-c9h Main Points Preparing to Acquire a Business  After working at G.E., Bill worked in private equity in the health care field to gain experience and earn the capital needed to purchase a company. Bill often advises people starting their careers to take a similar path to his. First, get a job at a large established company like G.E. that has opportunities to get training and exposure to different areas. This can help people figure out their interests and strengths, which may pay off in future endeavors. He says that today, running Pindel, he uses a lot of the principles he learned at G.E., such as root causing, critical thinking, and numbers orientation. After he finished working in venture capital, Bill spent a year searching for the ideal business to purchase. He looked at around 120 potential companies, about 75% of which were related to manufacturing. In the end, he chose Pindel, a successful 75-year-old family company in precision machining with about 80 employees. He liked the company’s customer base and ownership, and he saw areas in the business that he believed he could improve and grow.  Bill’s Start at Pindel Bill says when he first came to Pindel he didn’t have a set game plan. He had no prior experience in precision machining, so the first thing he did was take the time to learn the business from the company’s former owner, Mark Pindel, who stayed on several years.  Bill believes he gained some respect and trust from the company’s employees because he was a former Navy SEAL. He jokes that he did not tell anybody he went to Harvard, and some people at the company might find that out for the first time if they listen to this podcast. Evolution of Equipment at Pindel When Bill purchased Pindel it was primarily comprised of good old Acme-Gridley multi-spindles and some CNC equipment for doing secondary operations. Bill has kept the Acmes going, but he has also gotten big into Swiss, so he can run complex parts complete for the aerospace and medical industries. He has kept the company’s production in the medium volume range, with runs of 1,000 to 1,000,000 pieces. There were only three old, underutilized Swiss machines when Bill arrived at Pindel. He realized that the company was outsourcing its most complex parts and saw expanding the Swiss machining department as a way to bring more work in-house. The company bought new Tsugami Swiss machines to run formerly outsourced work, and there was still capacity leftover for more Swiss work. Many of the parts that had been blanked on multi-spindles and finished on CNCs could was put on the Tsugamis to machine parts complete.  Pindel’s cam multi-spindles are still used for making parts for the industrial sector. What is noteworthy about the company’s multi-spindle department is that the average age of its operators is around 31, rather than the stereotypical multi-spindle operator age that is close to retirement. A New Separate Company Specifically for CNC Machining Bill has found that medical, aerospace, and defense customers prefer a “pure play” supplier for the CNC components. They don’t want a supplier that also runs Acme-Gridley parts.  Meanwhile industrial customers don’t want costs associated with expensive CNC equipment that raises part prices. To solve this issue, Pindel incubated a new company called Liberty Precision dedicated to customers for CNC parts. Military Parallels to Advanced Manufacturing Since Bill bought Pindel 10 years ago, he has observed some similarities between advanced manufacturing and the Special Operations community. Both are composed of small, highly cohesive, trained teams enabled by advanced technology. They both strive to do outsized things—to punch above their weight.  Under Bill Berrien, Pindel has taken a page from the military with its Pindel Professional Development program. The program has six levels of multi-spindle machinists and six levels of CNC machinists, four levels of quality technicians and four levels of industrial maintenance. Each level incorporates Tooling U classes, shop floor qualifications, and NIMS credentialing. Such a comprehensive training program allows the company to hire for attitude and train for skill.  To encourage new recruits to choose the multi-spindle track versus the CNC track, the first three levels of multi-spindle machinists are paid more than the first three levels of CNC machinists. I ended the interview, asking Bill one of my favorite questions, “When you think of happiness, what does that mean to you.” Bill explained a scientific concept called “freudenfreude,” which means taking joy from other people’s good fortune. This is the opposite of the more well known concept, “Schadenfreude,” which means taking pleasure in other’s misfortunes.  Bill takes pleasure from others around him succeeding. Question: What did you learn in college that helped you in your manufacturing career?

Bill Berrien has had an extraordinary professional journey. He earned an MBA at Harvard, worked for General Electric and then in private equity. Ten years ago, he purchased Pindel Global Precision, a successful two-generation machining company near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which he has modernized and grown over the past decade. Oh, I forgot to mention, he was also a Navy SEAL officer for nine years. Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.  You can also view the podcast in video form on our YouTube Channel.     Follow us on Social and never miss an update! Facebook: https://lnkd.in/dB_nzFzt Instagram: https://lnkd.in/dcxjzVyw Twitter: https://lnkd.in/dDyT-c9h Main Points Bill attended Princeton for undergrad, majoring in political science, and he was captain of the school’s water polo team. During college he had internships on Wall Street, but chose to follow up graduation by becoming an officer in the Navy SEALs in 1990.  Bill chose to join the SEALs for the small team dynamic. He wanted to develop as a leader, and he liked the challenge. Only 21 out of 121 applicants in his SEAL class successfully passed, and his classmates nominated him for the Fire in the Gut honor. Bill served as a SEAL for nine years, leading operations in South America and Bosnia. He explained to me that the ‘90s was a very different time to serve in the US military than post-9/11. It was a time of preparation for war, rather than constant fire fights. He says the US military is in a similar period right now, keeping itself sharp and preparing for future conflicts. Bill says the US military is one of the best in the world because of its incredible problem-solving abilities and adaptability. Also, the US military is special for having an exceptional NCO Corps (non-commissioned officers). The NCO Corps is made up of enlisted soldiers who have significant leadership duties in fighting units on the ground. A strong NCO Corps system has enabled enlisted soldiers to have more fulfilling military careers with potential for upward mobility. This has attracted more talented people to join the military. One criticism of the Russian army is that it lacks a good NCO Corps. No NCO Corps on the ground has led to poor organization on the battlefield and many high ranking Russian officers being killed in the line of duty. Bill suggests that when the US military developed its NCO Corps in the ‘70s as it became an all-professional volunteer army, the advanced manufacturing field had a parallel development of its management units. Americans in manufacturing experienced a new type of upward mobility in their careers.  However, in the ‘80s and ‘90s some of the potential for career growth in US manufacturing stalled as factories moved overseas and manufacturing education was removed from high schools. This trend seems to be reversing now, but Bill suggests that advanced manufacturing could learn from the US military’s NCO Corps system about how to create a path for manufacturing jobs to be sustainable professions. Question: If you have been in the military, how did it prepare you for your current profession and civilian life?

Today’s guest on the podcast is Jon Perin, owner and President of Perin Industries, a young CNC machining company in Webster City, Iowa. Jon, started Perin Industries in 2018, after a 12-year career as a hospital administrator. Like many entrepreneurs, Jon has had to face some daunting challenges. Starting out, he aggressively bought new state of the art CNC equipment to make parts for the medical sector. When he had trouble penetrating that market he successfully pivoted to fire arms work. Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.  You can also view the podcast in video form on our YouTube Channel.     Follow us on Social and never miss an update! Facebook: https://lnkd.in/dB_nzFzt Instagram: https://lnkd.in/dcxjzVyw Twitter: https://lnkd.in/dDyT-c9h Main Points When Jon Perin started Perin Industries in 2018, he planned on making parts for the medical industry. Early on, Perin Industries devoted a lot of resources to obtaining ISO 9001 and AS9100D certifications. Achieving those certifications was costly, so before the company could start the process of obtaining medical work certifications it had to start producing revenue. Also, Jon realized that medical customers prefer to work with companies who have established track records and experience, so he steered the company to work in more general industry.  Jon grew up around his father’s screw machine shop and learned to run ACME multi-spindles in high school. His shop is right across the street from his father’s shop, which is now primarily managed by Jon’s sister. Jon attended college in Florida and after graduating went to work as a hospital administrator for 12 years. Working in the hospital environment played a part in Jon’s interest in making medical parts. Jon says he appreciates the manufacturing business’s simplicity compared to that of the health care field. He says it is easier to quantify success working in manufacturing because success can be measured by the quality of parts produced. Perin Industries has eight full-time employees. In addition to managing the company, Jon does CNC programming and setups. He jokes that he is also the janitor. He says his employees are becoming more capable to perform setups, which will free him up to focus on more administrative tasks in the future.  When Jon started his company, intending to do medical work, he purchased state of the art complex CNC equipment, including an INDEX C200 twin spindle/3-turret lathe he bought new for around a million dollars, and a Traub TNX65/42 twin spindle/4-turret lathe that he bought used for around $500,000. He says that after attending Design-2-Part trade shows around the US he concluded that the opportunities for Swiss work and traditional screw machine work were extremely competitive and dominated by established companies. This influenced him to invest in sophisticated turning centers. After being unsuccessful in penetrating the medical sector, Perin Industries pivoted to the fire arms business, primarily making parts for Glock barrels and slides. Jon says that many companies produce the same parts using Haas machines. However, using his turning centers Jon can single-op the parts, making them in less than a third of the time as his competitors. Getting into medical work is still Jon’s longterm goal. He also aspires to one day buy his dad out, which would open his company up to many new types of customers. Jon says he preferred to start his own company rather than go into business with his dad, but he says one of the main reasons he has been able to keep his startup company going is having good mentors such as him. Jon’s first year in business he made some costly mistakes, many of which experienced companies are also guilty of. Sometimes he took the wrong types of jobs, he bought equipment too early, and some jobs took him twice as long to set up than he had planned. Through it all, Jon’s father and another mentor have guided him to stay resilient. Jon says he’s grateful his company didn’t make enough bad decisions to fail. He plans to keep learning from the past and push forward. Question: If you could go back in time and give yourself advice, what would you say?

Do you know what is really going on with your machines? Have you actually listened to them lately? Today’s guest on Swarfcast is Jeff Rizzie, Director of Digital Enablement at Sandvik Coromant.  Sandvik is renown for its cutting tools, but the company has branched out into selling cloud-based machine monitoring software called CoroPlus Machining Insights. Machining Insights measures the overall equipment effectiveness, or OEE, of a factory’s machines, collecting data such as spindle speeds, axis feed rates, and spindle override frequency. Rizzie estimates that 90% of shops who have used Machining Insights believed their OEE was significantly higher than what it was in reality. Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.  You can also view the podcast in video form on our YouTube Channel.     Follow us on Social and never miss an update! Facebook: https://lnkd.in/dB_nzFzt Instagram: https://lnkd.in/dcxjzVyw Twitter: https://lnkd.in/dDyT-c9h Main Points Machine Monitoring collects data through an ethernet connection with machines. It shows all data collected since the machine was connected, from the standpoint of the machine, the components being produced, as well as the cutting tools on the machine. The system takes metrics such as spindle speeds, axes feed rates, load meters, machine alarms, and position of feed rate override switches. It also tracks when the machine in Automatic mode, MDI mode, or when it is executing programs. Rizzie says shops often estimate that they are in the 60%-75% range of OEE, but then CoroPlus reveals they are actually in the 30% range or even lower.  The standards for OEE in shops changes depending on the type of components the shop makes. A shop doing high volume automotive parts needs to have a much higher OEE to be profitable than a shop doing lower volume parts. Rizzie says the highest OEE he has seen was at an automotive shop in mid-80% range. Rizzie says that often when a shop has low OEE it’s because little problems on a lot of machines add up. Often operators are not getting peak performance from machine tools because they are hacking through errors created by underlying problems in the equipment. One possible cause of this scenario is that operators are under such pressure to make parts fast that they don’t take the time to stop machines to address the roots of problems. When Monitoring Insights shows feed rate override switches being used frequently it’s important to examine why. Operators might be slowing down machines to stop chatter, rather than correcting the underlying cause of it. Maybe the machine’s firmware needs to be updated. Maybe the program has a glitch. Maybe the machine is dirty. If these simple problems can be identified and dealt with properly, a company can save huge money. Rather than leave customers on their own to interpret the data and come up with their own solutions, Sandvik offers consulting services. They advise the company on technical issues as well as lean management.  Question: What’s the strangest problem you have seen with a machine?

At IMTS 2022, I stumbled upon a booth with an impressive 28 foot rocket on display, constructed by students from the Purdue University Bechtel Innovation Design Center. Anirudh Pal, an operations manager at Bechtel, and Xander Wells, an undergraduate teaching assistant at Bechtel, told me the story behind the rocket’s creation when I interviewed them for today’s podcast. The Bechtel Innovation Design Center is a makerspace, where undergrad students of all different majors have the opportunity to work together on creative manufacturing projects, incorporating a wide variety of manufacturing processes. Participating in the makerspace is completely voluntary, and students at the design center learn production skills primarily from each other. Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.  You can also view the podcast in video form on our YouTube Channel.     Follow us on Social and never miss an update! Facebook: https://lnkd.in/dB_nzFzt Instagram: https://lnkd.in/dcxjzVyw Twitter: https://lnkd.in/dDyT-c9h Main Points Background of Anirudh Pal and Xander Wells Anirudh Pal lived in Dubai from fifth grade through high school before attending Purdue, majoring in computer science. He says that one of the main reasons he chose to go to Purdue was Bechtel. After undergrad and further education, he came back to work at Bechtel as a faculty member. Xander Wells grew up in Chicago and also lived in China for five years before attending Purdue. He is a sophomore, majoring in aerospace engineering, but actually making physical stuff is his passion. Overview of Bechtel Innovation Design Center Students of all majors at Purdue have access to Bechtel. They primarily learn manufacturing processes and machine maintenance from each other. In the interview, Xander told the story of an English major who participated at the Bechtel Center, who after getting her masters degree, went on to work as a manufacturing engineer. Students use the makerspace to work on projects for classes, participate in design competitions, create prototypes for entrepreneurial pursuits, or just make stuff for their own enjoyment. At Bechtel, students have the resources to do 3D printing, metal working, waterjet cutting, wood working, laser cutting, CAD/CAM, electronics, assembly and prototyping, and work with fabrics. Bechtel brings in industry experts to further expand the students’ knowledge of manufacturing, such as representatives from Kennametal, one of the Center’s sponsors, who come in several times a semester to train students to use their tooling.  Rocket on Display at the Booth I met Xander and Andirudh when I noticed a rocket on display that was built at the Bechtel makerspace. The rocket is around 6.5 inches in diameter and 28 feet tall. It weighs 90 lb when dry, 130 lb with fuel. It uses liquid methane and liquid oxygen as propellents, which Xander told me is the same fuel that SpaceX uses for its rockets. It produces around 900 lb of burn force for over 10 seconds continuously. For two and a half years, Xander and fellow students from the Purdue Space Program club (PSP), mostly engineers of a variety of specializations, designed the rocket, and produced and assembled its components. The rocket was launched in the Mojave desert twice in a period of 24 hours. Xander said this may be a record for turnaround time for a liquid methane rocket built by college students, and it would be an impressive turnaround time for any rocket relaunch. Perspective on Skills Shortage I asked Xander and Anirudh to give their take on the skills shortage that the manufacturing world continuously laments. They told me they hope that Bechtel can play a role in creating manufacturing experts who can pass on their knowledge to other aspiring manufacturers. They said that YouTube is having a positive impact on attracting a younger population to manufacturing. They rattled off ton of channels about manufacturing and designing created by passionate and entertaining YouTubers.   Anirudh, said he has observed in some manufacturing shops that the most experienced people can be stuck doing things the way they’ve always been done. He said he hopes new young people coming into the workforce will introduce new open-mindedness to improve the way companies approach processes. Question: If you had access to a deluxe makerspace and abundant spare time, what would you build?

At IMTS 2022, I had the privilege of interviewing Bryan Stusak and Steve Vanderink, two product specialists from Iscar Metals, world renown seller of cutting tools for machining. We talked about the latest developments in cutting tool technology that enable faster changeover, and how to save money by using inserts properly when removing small amounts of material. If you’ve been wishing for a more technical episode of Swarfcast, this is the one for you. Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.     Follow us on Social and never miss an update! Facebook: https://lnkd.in/dB_nzFzt Instagram: https://lnkd.in/dcxjzVyw Twitter: https://lnkd.in/dDyT-c9h Main Points I chose to highlight several video clips from the interview because Bryan and Steve gave great visual demonstrations. There is a ton more great information in the podcast, which you have the option of watching on the Today’s Machining World YouTube channel or on todaysmachiningworld.com/videos/. Inserts Designed For Shallow Depths of Cut (See videos below) The production of 3D printed components is booming, yet still the parts are usually not 100% complete after printing. They require light machining to reach a desired finish. It’s important to use a different type of carbide insert if one is cutting near net shape material rather than cutting a block of material. Producing very small parts on a CNC Swiss lathe also requires inserts designed for light cutting because it often entails taking off a small amount of material from thin bar stock. In both cases, if you use the right type of inserts, meant for taking off less material, you will wear them out less and machine more efficiently–saving you money.   What is Carbide? After all these years hearing tooling companies tell me about carbide cutting tools, I decided to ask the dumb question, “What is carbide?” Bryan explains that carbide is created when tungsten powder is mixed with a binder or glue such as cobalt. The mixture is then compressed in a die set or a mold in the shape of the insert. When the insert in a green state is baked in an oven it hardens. The hardened carbide metal is up to 80+ Rockwell hardness, which is harder than the material than it needs to cut.   Saving Money Using an Indexible Feed Mill Bryan explains Iscar’s Indexible feed mill called a NANMILL, which goes down to 5/16” in diameter (2 flute effective). The insert has a trapezoidal design at its top that allows the screw to dovetail the insert into the pocket. Typically, an insert screw goes through the center of the carbide to clamp it in place. The NANMILL’s design is more user-friendly because the user does not have to back the screw completely out of the cutter body to index the insert. Instead, one loosens the screw and pulls it out of the pocket with a wrench (included with the product) that has a magnet. Then you rotate it to a fresh cutting edge.  Bryan explains that this gives a user a cost per edge advantage over a solid carbide tool because they get several cutting edges. A solid carbide feed mill can only be used once. A user can’t regrind it because the geometry is too complicated, so it gets tossed. 

Our guest on the podcast today is Shawn Gaskin, owner of Swiss Technologies of New England and Stone Medical in Plainville, Massachusetts. Shawn started Swiss Technologies over 20 years ago, with one L20 Citizen making parts out of sterling silver for Tiffany and Company. Over the years, his company has grown into a diversified shop, doing a significant amount of medical work. If you want to learn about the medical Swiss components business I recommend you check out this interview. Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.     Follow us on Social and never miss an update! Facebook: https://lnkd.in/dB_nzFzt Instagram: https://lnkd.in/dcxjzVyw Twitter: https://lnkd.in/dDyT-c9h Main Points After high school, Shawn worked for a friend of his dad’s who owned a jewelry factory. The company purchased a Citizen L20 Type V Swiss lathe to make parts out of sterling silver for Tiffany and Company, which went into items like key rings, pill boxes and whistles. Shawn characterizes machining sterling silver as across between machining aluminum and titanium. It produces chips like aluminum and the has the abrasiveness of titanium.  The jewelry company rented space for the Citizen in a nearby machine shop, where Shawn was tasked with learning to run it. After several years, Shawn’s boss gave him the opportunity to find more work for the Citizen, giving him a 15% commission on what he brought in. Eventually, Shawn started his own company, borrowing $40,000 from his parents and $80,000 from his former boss, who he then supplied parts for. He built Swiss Technologies starting with the original 1997 Citizen he had learned on.  Eventually, the jewelry job slowed down, so he was forced to find new work. He caught a huge break getting a job running parts that went into ATM machines. In a single purchase order, Swiss Technologies went from doing $450,000 in sales to $2.4 million. Unfortunately 60% of the company’s business came from one customer. In 2015, when the ATM machines got a new design, the work went to China, taking away 35% the company’s revenue. Shawn knew he needed to diversify, so he increased Swiss Technologies’ sales and marketing and obtained ISO 9001 certification, which increased the company’s customer opportunities. In 2018, the company obtained ISO 13485 certification for medical work. Shawn characterizes this big move into medical as an overhauling of the business. Medical Swiss Parts Business Swiss Technologies got its first medical job when a shop nearby had an overflow of work. Shawn says he realized medical work was a good place to be when he went from jobbing machines at $50-$60 per hour to $125-$150 per hour.  Shawn says Medical work is generally categorized as external or internal. External medical work signifies making parts for medical devices such as IV pumps or syringes, while internal medical work refers to implantables, parts that are put into the body, such as bone screws.  He says external medical work is lucrative, but internal medical work is generally more lucrative. Doing internal medical work requires significant investment, such as purchasing liability insurance. As a company doing $3.5 million in revenue with 17 employees, Shawn says he pays around $25,000 per year for insurance, and there are only four or five companies who offer the insurance.  Often medical customers want suppliers to have all of their processes in-house, such as anodizing, passivating, deburring, and laser marking. Swiss Technologies and Shawn’s other company Stone Medical don’t offer all of those services, which adds to the challenge of competing in the medical parts arena. Advice for companies wanting to get into Swiss Machining Shawn says “bigger is not always better” for a Swiss machining company. He thinks a company can be successful with three or four employees and four to six machines. He encourages ambitious people to not be afraid to start with one machine making parts in the garage because there is a lot of work out there for companies who have low overhead.  For companies trying to break into medical work, he recommends trying to get Tier 2 work to begin with. Shawn says if he could go back and time and do things differently at his business he would have trained his people better. When he was making high volume parts for ATM machines, the shop’s machines needed few change-overs, so his people didn’t develop their skills setting up new jobs. He says today he has the best crew the company has ever had. He makes a point of training his people to think independently by giving them time to struggle with problems in shop, even if it means machines are down sometimes. Shawn says he usually gets on the shop floor two and half to three hours a day. He says it’s good to show his employees he is with them in the trenches, to help them solve problems and for him to understand what is going on in the shop. But more than that, he is on the shop floor because of his passion for Swiss machining. He loves the equipment and the processes. He needs to get his hands covered in oil like he did when he started on his first L20, which is still in use today.  Question: What are your favorite type of parts to make?

Our guest on today’s podcast is Adar Hay, co-founder and CEO of Jiga, a company providing a web platform for manufacturing buyers and suppliers to communicate and establish new relationships. It’s ironic how in today’s world, in which we have so many channels to communicate and network, it’s still complicated to do those things well. Jiga’s mission is to simplify those processes. Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.     Follow us on Social and never miss an update! Facebook: https://lnkd.in/dB_nzFzt Instagram: https://lnkd.in/dcxjzVyw Twitter: https://lnkd.in/dDyT-c9h Main Points An Online Platform to Centralize Sourcing Jiga provides a subscription based online platform for buyers and suppliers to work with each other. When multiple manufacturing companies work together on a project using Jiga, RFQs, drawings, files, and documents are all located in a central, automated, standardized platform. This eliminates the need for using confusing email chains to send project components piecemeal when coordinating jobs. A Matchmaker for Buyers and Suppliers Jiga provides an international network of vetted manufacturing suppliers for companies looking to source work. It has purposefully kept its supplier network relatively small and features automated filters so buyers can locate quality candidates for partnerships quickly. Sourced work on the platform ranges from one-off prototypes to runs of hundreds of thousands of pieces. Mediation Service   Jiga offers a service to be an intermediary for transactions between buyers and sellers, generally charging parties 4-6%. It provides assistance in negotiation, a support team to update buyers on job progress, oversight for quality control, and buyer protection. Adar’s Advice for Buyers and Suppliers to Create Solid Partnerships Adar says one of the biggest mistakes suppliers make when quoting jobs is taking too long to communicate with their prospective customers. He says even if suppliers are inundated with RFQs and don’t have time to quote a job right away, they should still give feedback to their potential buyers in the meantime, showing they value them as a potential customers. Adar also advises suppliers to not be too quick to discount new buyers based on requests for small jobs. Sometimes small jobs turn into larger ones down the road. Buyers may be trying to evaluate suppliers with a small project before they jump into something requiring more commitment. Entrepreneurship in Israel Adar is 30 years old. Before co-founding Jiga he ran his own online B2B marketing company.  He says Israel is a great place for entrepreneurship, which is evident by the small country’s huge number of startups and large venture capital investment.  I asked him why the country produces so many interesting startup companies. He said Israel is a culture that encourages risk. He even went as far as saying that the country celebrates entrepreneurs who fail because it means they tried to do something difficult or something that has never been done before.  I asked him if he thought Israeli culture’s comfort with risk and failure may stem from the country’s mandatory military service. I suggested that perhaps in the military people gain perspective that the pain caused by a failure in a business venture is insignificant in the full scheme of life. He said it was possible there was something this theory, but he had not analyzed it extensively. Adar says what fuels his entrepreneurial pursuits is the view that when people look back on their lives they seldom regret what they tried, even if they failed. They are much more likely to regret what they decided not to try. Question: What is a business venture you would like to try? Adar is the host of the podcast, Design to Product.

I came into contact with Edwin Nyuysever Mbinkar a month ago, when he sent an email to Graff-Pinkert inquiring about an expensive Mikron 5-axis machining center on our website. He explained that he was the manager of a High Tech Centre (British spelling of “Center”) in Cameroon, and he wanted his school to have the first 5-axis machining center in the country. I was intrigued by his story, so I looked for a reasonably priced machine for him. I located a Haas 5-axis in Wisconsin and then queried some dealers and industry experts about the practicality of exporting a machine like it to Cameroon. Everyone told me that it was illegal to send a machine that powerful to an African country (other than maybe South Africa), so I dropped the project. Even so, Edwin was still gracious enough to be interviewed for our podcast. Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.                                Follow us on Social and never miss an update! Facebook: https://lnkd.in/dB_nzFzt Instagram: https://lnkd.in/dcxjzVyw Twitter: https://lnkd.in/dDyT-c9h Main Points Edwin Nyuysever Mbinkar is the Director of the High Tech Centre of the National Advanced School of Engineering at the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon. It is an engineering school that offers students access to technology such as CNC machines, robotics, and state of the art 3D Printers, which were recently supplied by the Israeli government. Currently, Cameroon’s economy is almost exclusively based on natural resources and agriculture, mainly timber and mining. Edwin says that everything in Cameroon made of iron is imported. The one domestic Cameroonian manufacturing company is a glass bottler. Cameroon’s government has a stated a goal of becoming an industrialized economy by 2035. Edwin doubts this is possible because of the country’s old regime. There have only been two presidents in Cameroon since its founding over 60 years ago. He says the elderly rulers are out of touch with modern technology, so until there is change in the country’s government, the economy will not modernize significantly. Cameroon has a highly educated population. As of 2010, its literacy rate was around 80% (comparable to that of the US), but the country still has few quality jobs available. Many of the engineers studying at Edwin’s school may not be able to find work in their field in Cameroon. Some will leave to work in other countries, others will work for foreign companies that are investing in Cameroon. Edwin says it is extremely difficult for entrepreneurs to start manufacturing companies in Cameroon because the necessary infrastructure and capital equipment are unavailable. Cameroon’s economy has been bolstered by investment from foreign companies and governments, such as France, China, Germany, the U.K., and the United States. Edwin says the nations investing the most and also exploiting Cameroon the most are France followed by China. They receive a lot of natural resources and agricultural products in return for building roads and other infrastructure such railways and damns to create electricity. The United States invests in Cameroon’s mining sector, which includes oil and natural gas, some of which has not yet been tapped. Since 1967, Israel has had a close relationship with Cameroon. Edwin says Israel sought out Cameroon because it is strategically located in the crossroads between central and west Africa. The country boarders Nigeria and the Republic of Congo, which is adjacent to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Israel recently donated 13 state of the art Stratasys 3D printers to Edwin’s technology center, which are likely the most powerful 3D printers in all of Africa. Edwin spent 10 months working in Israel in 2018. Cameroon has a bright spot for entrepreneurship, known as Silicon Mountain. It is a group of startups from young engineering graduates, concentrated in the city of Buea. These companies specialize in software, programing and robotics, areas which require minimal expensive capital equipment Edwin’s personal story demonstrates that even in a poor African country like Cameroon, upward mobility is possible. His parents were farmers, but they still paid for him and his siblings to get an education. He has two sisters and one brother who are US citizens. He has PhD, and teaches in Cameroon, Nigeria and Burkina Faso. He also owns his own company, designing molds for plastic bottles that are produced in China. He says there is a lot of bureaucracy to start a business in Cameroon, but he knows how to navigate it. Edwin says Cameroonians need a little push if they want to change their standard of living. Most people in the country are poor, but they have just enough to survive, so they don’t have the motivation to force a messy change in their government. He looks at Rwanda as a model of how an African country can reinvent itself. Following the genocide in the early ‘90s, in which 800,000 to 1 million people were killed, the country has become the fastest growing economy in Africa. In the coming months Edwin says his engineering school will purchase a German made 5-axis machining center from a French seller. Question: What have you produced on a 3D printer?

Today’s podcast is an American Dream story. Our guest is Dulio Arellano, owner of Premier Swiss, a Tornos shop in Addison, Illinois, which he founded in 2017. Dulio came to the United States from Mexico when he was 18 years old. After working in various machine shops, Dulio got a job as a technician at Tornos USA. At Tornos, Dulio developed skills and relationships that gave him the foundation to start his own business at the age of 34. Scroll Down to Listen to the Podcast Main Points of the Interview: (3:20) Dulio discusses his company, Premier Swiss, a job shop with three Tornos Swiss lathes, a DECO10, DECO13, and DECO20. (4:25) Dulio talks about immigrating to the United States from Mexico when he was 18 years old in 2001. His father had already been in the United States for years, but the immigration process took a long time.  (6:00) Starting at age 20, Dulio worked for eight years at a company that makes pressure pipes. While working there, his older brother repeatedly told him that he should look into a career in CNC machining. It took his brother independently enrolling Dulio in a CNC machining class to get him to try it. Dulio Arellano, Owner of Premier Swiss (9:30) After working in CNC machine shops for several years, Dulio landed a job as a technician at Tornos. While at Tornos he learned about the latest Tornos equipment. Just as importantly, he also made a lot of close contacts in the Swiss business. (10:10) After four years working at Tornos, Dulio knew that he wanted to eventually go into business for himself. One day he went to a customer to give a training class. The customer told him that he had a used DECO10 for sale and asked him if he knew someone who would be interested in buying it. Dulio bought the machine at a bargain price in the low $20,000s. (14:10) Dulio’s first challenge was to find a place to put the machine. He rented a heated 5-car garage on Chicago’s westside for $500 per month that he found on Craigslist. The business later moved to St. Charles, IL. (19:00) While continuing to work at Tornos, Dulio started experimenting making a few parts he hoped to sell online, such as an arrowhead he had seen on eBay that was made in China.  (21:00) On a Tornos service call to a huge customer, the customer told Dulio he was trying to find some good nozzles for coolant on his machines. Dulio told him he would make some over the weekend on his machine. He returned the next week with some sample parts, but unfortunately the customer had thought he had been joking when Dulio said he would make the parts. The customer had already agreed to buy 2,500 nozzles from a vender. Though he was quite frustrated, Dulio admits it was great learning experience about the importance of being clear in business deals. (27:40) Not long after the frustrating nozzle incident, another customer called Dulio for help on a machine. After Dulio helped him, the customer complained that he did not have enough capacity for some of his jobs. Dulio told him that he had a DECO10, and the customer gave him the opportunity to make some parts for him. Since then, the customer has given Dulio enough work for him to buy a DECO13 and DECO20 and quit his job working at Tornos. (32:10) Dulio believes that his business has a bright future going into 2020. He says he believes that America is the land of opportunity. Question: Is this a good time to start a machining business?