Robert Brooks, editor in chief of Foundry Management & Technology and American Machinist, has been a business-to-business reporter, writer, editor, and columnist for more than 20 years, specializing in the primary metal and basic manufacturing industries. Robert and his editorial team report on the manufacturing activities in the metal casting sector, including foundries and die casters, and the manufacturing technology sector, including machine shops and machining operations that are a part of larger OEMs. In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Robert defines some of the essential terms that podcast listeners who are unfamiliar with the world of foundries and machine shops should know and how these sectors impact the manufacturing supply chain.
Below is an excerpt from the podcast:
I'm making this effort to define things because as we hear so often, words matter and there's already too much misunderstanding about manufacturing and manufacturers. Over the past month, I've been corresponding with a young writer who aims to be a regular contributor to our pages and our sites. The initial pitch, “how can digitization reshape metal casting?,” seemed to be promising.
So I asked for an outline of this proposed essay. What I received showed me that her understanding of the subject was going to lead her in some unhelpful directions. So I revised and edited the outline and sent it back with some explanation of what I had done and some guidance about how I thought she should proceed with the research and composition.