Remember that old “Knock, Knock” joke from when we were kids?

As the US job market becomes more competitive, parents, students, and even society as a whole seems increasingly hesitant to spend money on a degree they fear won’t help them get a good job. 

Math has never been my strong suit, but lately, even I am starting to think something isn’t adding up when it comes to manufacturing employment data.

As you know, times they are a’changing for all of us here in the metalworking nation. Welcome to the fourth industrial revolution, or “4IR” as it is being called.

As Jim and Jason always say on the MakingChips Podcast, “If you’re not making chips, you’re not making money!” We all know it’s true, yet few shops have formal systems for increasing their spindle uptime. 

It seems to me that following manufacturing news too closely is a bit like taking Nick’s mom up on her decade’s long offer of, “If you need a reason to cry, I’ll give you one.” It’s important to know what’s going on, but it’s also necessary to

In this week’s MakingChips news segment the guys took a look at a recent article, “10 Tips for Changing Your Company’s Culture—and Making It Stick”, published by The Society for Human Resource Management. This got me thinking about manufacturing

Martin Trunnion Tables began as a small family-owned garage shop I started in 1993. I like to say I made the original unit “out of laziness”, and that’s not far from the truth. Actually, I got tired of handling parts, so I designed and built the

Something we’re all proud of here at MakingChips is that each of us comes from a multi-generational, family-owned manufacturing business background. And  just as those who have come before us took the time to teach and guide us in this business, at

Our goal with this three part post has been to inspire the next generation of manufacturing leaders to think beyond themselves as they build their business. The mission and vision of MakingChips isn’t to grow Carr Machine & Tool, sell more cutting

Never underestimate the power of finding a few good mentors. Click Here if you missed Part 1:Dream Big but Take Little for Granted

 There’s nothing the Metalworking Nation needs more than young entrepreneurial manufacturing talent. Yet, the overwhelming narrative in the media is the manufacturing industry’s desperate search for skilled workers.

Manufacturing is a cyclical industry. When things are booming, it's hard to keep up. So we work more. Then, when things are slow, it's hard to survive. So we work more. The sales may fluctuate, the market may boom or tank, but the amount of effort

Hello, My name is Dietmar, and I’m a recovering workaholic. 

If you are at least vaguely familiar with “Search Engine Optimization” (SEO) then you probably know it matters for sales and marketing. However, it’s rare for me to find another manufacturing leader that thinks about link building.