I would like to think that NADCA has had a role in improving safety conditions in the die casting industry. We continually see our lost work day numbers from injuries and illnesses decline nationally. Since initializing our emphasis on “safety” in 1996, we charted a strategy to continually push safety in die casting operations. Our machine safety standard document is one of the most downloaded documents from our site and our YouTube videos on safety have been viewed by well over 5000 people. We also run an annual safety award program that recognizes our corporate members that have had perfect safety record in the previous year and also the members that have been below the national average for all manufacturing. Continue reading →
Posted in Die Casting, Education, Government Affairs, Heathcare, Marketing, Safety, Technology
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Tagged die cast, die caster, Die Casters, Die Casting, diecast, diecaster, diecasters, diecasting, Manufacturing, NADCA, North America Die Casting Association, North American Die Casting Association, Safety, techonology
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NADCA’s Annual Report summarizes our association’s activities in 2012. NADCA had an excellent year of superior membership participation, the (re)introduction of products and services, and technology implementation. It was all made possible by the support of the die casting industry. Thank you for your help in making 2012 such a good year.
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Posted in Career, Congress, Die Casting, Economy, Education, Government Affairs, Growth, Magnesium, Marketing, Productivity, Safety, Social Media, Technology, Webinar, Worldwide
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Tagged die cast, die caster, Die Casting, diecast, diecaster, diecasters, Manufacturing, metalcasting, NADCA, North America Die Casting Association, techonology
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It Doesn’t Matter Who You Voted For, These Are the Facts About Our Debt
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in its 2012 Long-Term Budget Outlook report issued in June 2012 states:
“In the past few years, the federal government has been recording the largest budget deficits since 1945, both in dollar terms and as a share of the economy. Consequently, the amount of federal debt held by the public has surged. At the end of 2008, that debt equaled 40 percent of the nation’s annual economic output, a little above the 40-year average of 38 percent. Since then, the figure has shot upward: By the end of this year (2012), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects, federal debt will exceed 70 percent of GDP – the highest percentage since shortly after World War II.”
If we are ever to get control of these large deficits and rising debt levels, we must get control of the principal cause of these deficits – federal spending.
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Posted in Die Casting, Economy, Government Affairs, Growth, Heathcare, Productivity, Technology, Washington
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Tagged Congress, die cast, die caster, Die Casting, diecast, diecaster, diecasters, diecasting, Heathcare, Manufacturing, NADCA, NAM, politics
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In order to make sure your company stays competitive in the current workforce, to recruit and retain a top-notch staff in today’s highly competitive job market, you have to be aware of common practices among your competitors. With the holidays in full swing and the start of a new year right around the corner, it’s a good time to take a close look at company policies on vacation and benefits.
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The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. With the elections behind us, it’s now time to focus on where they country will go with the same make-up of government. It is truly disappointing to think they will move on the same path that we have been traveling on and hope for a promising outcome.
I heard a great analogy regarding our debt that most people can relate to.
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Posted in Congress, Die Casting, Economy, Government Affairs, Growth, Productivity, Technology, Washington
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Tagged die cast, Die Casters, diecasting, Manufacturing, NADCA, North American Die Casting Association, politics
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My recent trip to Prague found me watching quite a bit of BBC and Sky-News. The big story on the news was the protesting in various countries over some short film called the “Innocence of Muslims,” which reportedly was made in California by a filmmaker whose identity is unclear. This protesting was more than a week after an incident in Benghazi at the American Embassy which resulted in the death of a U.S. Ambassador, Christopher Stevens. The most violent protests of the film seem to be occurring in Pakistan. It’s highly doubted that many, if any, of the protesters in Pakistan actually saw the film.
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Posted in Career, Die Casting, Economy, Education, Government Affairs, Travel, Washington
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Tagged die cast, Die Casters, Die Casting, diecasters, diecasting, NADCA, North America Die Casting Association
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All indications are that these upcoming elections will take our industry in very different directions depending on the balance of power in Washington D.C. If the Democrats control the White House, but lose the Senate and House, I believe the rate of our economic recovery will improve significantly. If the Democrats control the White House and gain control of one or both of the Senate and House, we are in for some rocky times ahead. It seems the former, rather than the later will occur.
The manufacturing community in the United States has led the country out of its last recession. The rate has been slowed by poor ‘socialistic’ policies which has caused our manufacturing base to suffer and allowed our trade imbalance to swell. So, we are buying more manufactured goods, but they are not being made here. This does nothing to help the unemployment situation.
The government’s most recent agenda of upcoming regulations issued in July 2011 lists 4,257 regulatory actions under development – more than 300 more than last year at this time. Of those, 219 are expected to impose costs of Continue reading →
Is it harder to manage today than it was to manage 10 or 20 year ago? The answer to the question lies in how you define successful management. It seems that if your company is profitable you would be a successful manager. So you want to do the same things to get the same results and remain profitable. So here’s the management test.
Fill in the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of the following:
• How to Educate
• How to Determine Business Conditions
• How to Network
• How to Manage Customers
• How to Determine Industry Trends
• How to Collaborate with Designers
I’m not sure what the correct answers are to these six questions, but it seems that Continue reading →
Posted in Die Casting, Education, Growth, Marketing, Social Media, Technology, Webinar
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Tagged die caster, Die Casting, diecaster, diecasting, NADCA, North American Die Casting Association
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With a great first half of the year under our belts, the second half looks to be even better. Some of the positive factors for the die casting industry are improvements in housing, strong automotive sales, decent consumer confidence and growth in the domestic markets of China and India.
Since the housing market tanked in 2008, I am delighted to report that it is finally beginning to recover. The national home price index (HPI) forecast improved significantly from last quarter’s 1.3 percent depreciation to this quarter’s slight depreciation of 0.85 percent. There are fewer significant drags across an increasing number of markets, many of which are Continue reading →
Posted in Congress, Die Casting, Growth, Webinar
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Tagged Congress, die caster, Die Casters, Die Casting, diecasters, diecasting, NADCA, Networking, north american die, North American Die Casting Association
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