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• The P-F curve and the path to capacity assurance

  By Gregory Perry, Fluke

  In their pioneering 1970s research to determine the most effective approach to maintenance, engineers Stanley Nowlan and Howard Heap created the P-F curve. Their focus at the time was to help United Airlines and the U.S. Defense Department proactively cut losses and downtime for aircraft.The P-F…

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• Manufacturing workforce development: Opportunity knocks

  By Deanna Nord, Nord Strategy Group

  How do manufacturers secure and develop reliable, long-term employees? They reconsider traditional employment requirements, train early, and hire locally. In their 2018 skills-gap study, Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute found that “prioritizing competencies and potential in job candidates…

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• Who will help build the robots?

  Sometimes, if you want something done—if you want to see change happen—you’ve got to do it (or at least start on it) yourself. That’s the position that Anthony Nighswander, president of APT Manufacturing Solutions in Hicksville, OH, found himself in a few years ago.Nighswander was…

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• Survey results: How is delayed retirement affecting the industry?

  Are your organization’s older employees delaying retirement? If so, how you feel about the phenomenon likely depends on how close you are to retirement yourself.A recent poll from the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research asked more than 1,400 adult workers whether they…

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• Supporting manufacturers by supporting students: What filling the skills gap looks like at OCTC

  By Christine LaFave Grace, managing editor

  For all of the talk across the U.S. about the need to invest in manufacturing education—the comments offered up by local industry leaders at city council meetings, the exhortations made by public officials to their legislative colleagues—what does a successful model of manufacturing training…

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• On-the-go asset condition monitoring

  By Sheila Kennedy, CMRP, contributing editor

  On-the-go asset condition monitoring is easier with smart, connected, and portable tools that allow for timelier and more-precise intervention before failure. In the first entry in this two-part series, we will look at new systems that automate condition monitoring, inspection, and nondestructive…

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