Blogs

Tepid US Core Capital Goods Orders Point to Weak Business Equipment Spending

By Tom Morrison posted 04-25-2024
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New orders for key U.S.-manufactured capital goods increased moderately in March and data for the prior month was revised lower, suggesting that business spending on equipment likely remained weak in the first quarter. The report from the Commerce Department on Wednesday was published ahead of the release on Thursday of the government's advance estimate of gross domestic product for the January-March quarter. The economy is expected to have delivered another quarter of strong performance, thanks to a resilient labor market that is driving consumer spending. "From a narrow GDP accounting perspective, there should be no material impact on estimates ...
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Metal Treating Institute Meets on Decarbonization, Air Quality, and Technical Specs

By Tom Morrison posted 04-25-2024
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NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2024 Metal Treating Institute Meets on Decarbonization, Air Quality, and Technical Specs April has been an eventful and impactful month for the Metal Treating Institute (MTI), focusing on pivotal issues like decarbonization, air quality, and aerospace technical specifications—each significantly influencing the heat treating industry. On April 3rd, MTI held a regional meeting in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, convening prominent heat treaters and suppliers from the Midwest to explore the latest developments in rules be ...
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How to Make Employee Recognition Feel Unique, Sincere

By Tom Morrison posted 04-25-2024
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Keeping great employees engaged is pivotal in an era of job hopping; Marc Cugnon shares his advice for helping them feel sincerely valued. In the wake of a 2023 that was challenging for thousands of workers, with major layoffs across tech, professional services and life sciences , I came to the conclusion that it is as important as ever to honor the contributions of those in our circles. Moreover, as our workplaces become increasingly diverse, understanding how to provide employee recognition — unique, meaningful feedback to employees of varying ages, background and cultures — should be top of mind for more leaders. As a management consultant working ...
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Manufacturing Could be Short 1.9M Workers if the Talent Gap Isn’t Fixed

By Tom Morrison posted 04-18-2024
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Companies need millions of workers in operations and tech roles, according to a study. Experts worry the industry can’t keep up. Manufacturing is shooting past its pre-pandemic norms. The industry, aided by both massive private and public investments, has seen huge gains in employment and capital spending on new projects in the last five years. Employment reached 13 million as of January , while the number of manufacturing establishments in the U.S. rose by more than 11% between the first quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2023, reaching 393,000. And yet, the industry is staring down a major obstacle to all that growth — labor. ...
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Are You Leaving Intangibles on the Table? 5 Steps to Add Value

By Tom Morrison posted 04-18-2024
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Differentiators like longevity, experience, reputation can and should be included in your value equation. When products are commoditized, manufacturers must compete on services, business models and intangible dimensions of their value proposition. In many cases, intangibles are tie breakers when customers make choices among vendors and award contracts. That can no longer be the case. Today, intangible differentiators must be an integral part of value propositions. “Intangibles” typically refers to elements of an offering that are not physical in nature. They are part of the overall value propositions but cannot be physically touched by customers. ...
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How Anxiety Traps You and How to Break Free

By Tom Morrison posted 04-18-2024
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Leaders face many anxiety traps that can hobble their effectiveness, but LaRae Quy offers strategies to free yourself from four common ones. At the FBI Academy, new agents like myself spent five months role-playing, alternating between being the bad guy in need of arrest and the good guy whose job it was to take scum off the streets. The role-playing was meant to instill confidence in ourselves when we actually met one of these goons in real life. Fast forward to an arrest a few weeks after landing in my first office. I pulled a gun on a guy wanted for extortion and murder. He looked like a ham hock with a face, not a baby-faced agent who ...
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Work-life balance: A myth or reality?

By Tom Morrison posted 04-10-2024
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There are many myths about work-life balance, but Sandeep Gupta offers 11 ways to dispel those myths and find the perfect balance. Have you ever had the feeling that there is too much work and very little life? Have you ever searched for a job with a more favorable work-life balance? Work-life balance is a consistently elusive goal. This is because we approach this at a superficial level. We are spending too much time at work at the cost of our personal life, or the other way round. At the same time, the real issue is the desire to live life to its fullest. There are real challenges to a balanced and fulfilled life. WFH has blurred ...
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Hot Inflation Report Derails Case for Fed’s June Rate Cut

By Tom Morrison posted 04-10-2024
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Consumer prices rose 3.5% in March and underlying price pressures remained strong. The consumer price index accelerated at a faster-than-expected pace in March, pushing inflation higher and likely dashing hopes that the Federal Reserve will be able to cut interest rates anytime soon. The CPI, a broad measure of goods and services costs across the economy , rose 0.4% for the month, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 3.5%, or 0.3 percentage point higher than in February, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a 0.3% gain and a 3.4% year-over-year level. ...
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Ten Principles to Keep Our Anger in Check

By Tom Morrison posted 04-10-2024
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Anger comes down to a distortion of the self in relation to the world. It is the distorted view that we are the arbitrators of truth and justice. Anger assumes privilege. Anger exercised gives us a jolt of temporary superiority. It is fair to say that there is often much at work and the world at large to legitimately get angry about—when things are not working as we think they should. Anger always seems to be waiting in the wings. Our anger is too often out of proportion—that is to say, out of context—because our sense of self looms large. Not all anger is bad, but if we don’t deal with it appropriately, it will sap our conviction to do anything positive ...
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Why You Need to Prioritize Aliveness, Starting Today

By Tom Morrison posted 04-03-2024
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We all have a "voice of aliveness" within us, waiting to be uncovered. Executive coach Jack Craven offers 3 questions and 3 strategies to feel more alive. I realized how urgently something needed to change when I found myself at a leadership retreat in California and was asked by the facilitators if I wanted to scream to release pent-up anger. It was 2012, and I had been the CEO of a successful company for almost twenty years. On the outside, I was in a good place. On the inside…not so much. So I screamed, releasing years of frustration and unhappiness. I had never really considered that I was unhappy. I didn’t believe I had time for that ...
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6 Important Business Lessons I Learned from Failure

By Tom Morrison posted 04-03-2024
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Success breeds arrogance. Failure is the gift that keeps on giving. It was midnight the day before the big event. Midnight before all of my net worth, and more, were on the line. I had done everything I could to make it a success. I plowed everything I had into this venture, and planned for every contingency--except one that could wreck everything: The weather. I had researched the market thoroughly, and determined that my only competitor was weak and ineffective. Yet I had no backup plan if winter storms in the United States closed down airports where many of my potential customers were coming from to hear about my new venture. And a snowstorm ...
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ISM Report: Manufacturing Activity Expands Following 16 Months of Contraction

By Tom Morrison posted 04-03-2024
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Nine out of 15 manufacturing industries reported growth in March, up from eight in February. With a March Purchasing Manager’s Index reading of 50.3%, manufacturing economic activity expanded for the first time since September 2022. Compared to the February reading of 47.8%, the manufacturing PMI is up 2.5 points. “Of the six biggest manufacturing industries, four (food, beverage & tobacco products; fabricated metal products; chemical products; and transportation equipment) registered growth in March,” says Timothy Fiore, chair of the ISM’s manufacturing business survey committee. Both the new orders index and the production index moved ...
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MTI Launching New Website Enhancements in April

By Tom Morrison posted 03-28-2024
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The Metal Treating Institute has always strived to lead from the front when it comes to technology that can connect Members to each other, industry discussions, and resources in real-time, 24/7. MTI’s CEO, Tom Morrison states, “The market moves fast and changes happens overnight sometimes. It’s important in today’s climate that MTI provide Members the ability to get the resources and information they need to make sound business decisions…fast.” In April, MTI will launch new enhancements to its website, giving Members more power to manage their Member accounts, connect with each other, access important information, and make payments right from their ...
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MTI’s Jobs of Tomorrow Launching This Summer

By Tom Morrison posted 03-28-2024
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The Metal Treating Institute (MTI) is making significant strides with its Jobs of Tomorrow Workforce Development campaign, now rapidly gaining momentum. The initiative's cornerstone, a 6-episode docuseries crafted by MTI's Jobs of Tomorrow Task Force, is nearing completion, and the team is thrilled with the results. To convey the essence of heat treating and its career opportunities, MTI and its production partner, WorkerBee TV are creating a condensed 5-minute version of the series. To catch a glimpse of this engaging content, CLICK HERE for an exclusive 90-second preview. More than 25 MTI Members have already embraced the Jobs of Tomorrow ...
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This Is How to Be More Decisive: 20 Practices

By Tom Morrison posted 03-28-2024
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To live and lead well, we must be decisive. While this may come naturally for some, many people struggle with it for a variety of reasons. In our lives, what price do we pay when we’re stuck in “analysis paralysis” and unclear about how to move forward in the face of our options? In our organizations, do we want leaders who waffle, or ones who move forward despite uncertainty? There’s a lot going on when it comes to making decisions. The neurological mechanics are breathtaking. When we make decisions, we’re using our brain’s prefrontal cortex for what’s called “executive function.” We’re drawing upon many cognitive processes, including: attentional control; ...
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Release the Untapped Potential of Your Female Leaders

By Tom Morrison posted 03-21-2024
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Companies need to be more intentional to tap the talents of their female leaders. Joel Garfinkle offers a three-step process. Winning the talent war isn’t about finding the right employees. You already have the right employees. They are just waiting to be engaged, empowered, and leveraged. If you’re wondering how your organization is going to find its next rising stars in leadership, don’t have them rely on recruiters to identify outside talent when top talent exists within their organization. In my corporate training called “ The Invisible Leaders: How to Find Them and Let Them Shine, ” I discuss how you can uncover the undervalued female leaders in your ...
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The Power of Being Over Doing in Leadership

By Tom Morrison posted 03-21-2024
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The essence of impactful leadership lies not in the multitude of tasks we accomplish, but in how we show up each day to create the conditions for learning and continuous improvement. "Don't focus on how to do, but rather, how to be.” This was a simple yet profound answer to a question posed on one of my recent Japan Study Trips, where leaders from around the world join me to learn about kaizen and the Toyota Way. We were visiting a company in the foothills of the Japanese Alps whose purpose is “happiness .” Someone asked the company’s managing director how the organization maintains consistency of purpose—and continues ...
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Analyzing the Growing Number of IIoT Device Hacks

By Tom Morrison posted 03-21-2024
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Breaking down these vulnerabilities will be key to prioritizing and optimizing security. Manufacturers continue ramping up their procurement and deployment of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) equipment, sensors, and devices—and with good reason. Successful modernization depends on optimized supply chains, predictive maintenance, streamlined operating expenses, and other IIoT-device-enabling changes that directly affect manufacturers’ bottom lines. Yet for many, the rush into an IIoT future has left security on the back burner. Even with ongoing projects for IT/OT integration, gaps, and unmanaged devices remain, causing a need to understand ...
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Soft Skills Development: a Hi-Tech Solution to a Low-Tech Need

By Tom Morrison posted 03-14-2024
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You don’t have to look far to find an article or warning about the half-life of the workforce’s current capacity and the urgent need to upskill, reskill, and pre-skill workers to future-proof both their careers and their organizations. It seemed like hyperbole when, just a couple of years ago, the World Economic Forum predicted that half of all employees would need reskilling by 2025. But, given the pace and unpredictability of change, this is quickly becoming our reality, and this reality is not lost on employees. Gallup research finds that 48% of American workers would switch to a new job if it offered skills training opportunities. With today’s ...
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E-18 Hardness Testing Change – Your Input Needed

By Tom Morrison posted 03-14-2024
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The MTI Technical Standards Committee is weighing in on rule changes by the ASTM E28.06 Indention Hardness Testing committee on E-18 specification. MTI would appreciate it if you would read the following description of the rule change and answer a one question survey at the end. This survey will be used as part of determining the argument on whether this revision should be considered. MTI’s ASTM Task Force liaison, Steven Keckler from Thermtech in Waukesha, WI stated, “The ASTM hardness testing committees are in constant motion in making change to these specifications. Getting feedback from Members is very important so we can deliver recommendations to the ...
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