Aluminum Case Company manufactures aluminum cases engineered to meet the needs of the most demanding customer.

In today's manufacturing environment, it is essential for building organizational talent to have an educated and skilled entry-level workforce.  There are many opportunities for companies to engage with regional and national resources to build the talent pipeline. Manufacturers can tap into local resources such as universities to gain access to newly graduated students. With new knowledge in the field and basic experience, manufacturers can mold an efficient and skilled employee out of recent graduates.

Kopp Welding & Laser Technology was founded in 1976 and is operated by craftsmen in the tool & die welding industry. Our certified welders have utilized the latest welding technology and processes to provide the best and most complete service to our customers.

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) makes competitively awarded grants that go to qualified small businesses to support high quality, advanced concepts research related to important scientific problems and opportunities in agriculture that could lead to significant public benefit if successful.

Phoenix is a manufacturer of custom-built modular elevators, which consist of welded steel hoistway, wrapped in drywall for fire rating, with all the elevator components assembled inside. Modular Elevators ship to the job site as a single unit, are craned into place and are fully installed in three days.

The Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center (IMEC) and the Kishwaukee College Center for Business Development and Continuing Education celebrated the successful completion of the latest Lean Continuous Improvement Series for manufacturers last week. This marks the fifth series for the two organizations since beginning the joint manufacturing outreach program in 2010.

The primary focus of the series is the continuous elimination of waste in the company’s manufacturing processes to maximize efficiency, improve quality and safety, and eliminate unnecessary motion and inventory. Over the duration of six weeks, participants attend the Lean toolkit courses one day a week and discuss topics including the Lean 101/Introduction, Lean Leadership and Change Management, Value Stream Mapping and 5S/Workplace Organization, Quick Changeover, Cellular/Flow Manufacturing, Pull/Kanban Systems and Total Productive Maintenance. Since the Lean series began, more than 65 local manufacturing participants have completed the courses with an enhanced knowledge of the Lean manufacturing toolkit.

Nationwide, the Department of Energy estimates that if commercial buildings could utilize sub-meters to identify energy savings of just 2%, it would represent actual cost savings of $1.7 billion.

As a result, the U.S. federal government, along with over 200 major commercial building sector partners, has recently issued a simple challenge to U.S. manufacturers to promote energy savings:

“If you can build wireless sub-meters that cost less than $100 apiece and enable us to identify opportunities to save money by saving energy, we will buy them.”

So far, at least 18 manufacturers have agreed to participate in the challenge.

This challenge helps to identify a problem and promote the necessary innovation. Electricity sub-meters can provide building operators with information to help them identify savings. For example, a wireless sub meter could be installed at various electrical panels throughout the building to give a more detailed picture of where the electricity is being used, helping to identify savings. And while wireless sub-meters are available, they typically cost about $1,000/installation. This challenge can help reduce the cost by about 90%.

Century Metal Spinning Co. is a contract manufacturing shop supplying custom, spun metal products to the Aerospace, Military, and Scientific Research industries, as well as industrial and commercial manufacturers.