News
PMPA Welcomes Melanie Webber to This Year’s Update Conference
Last week, David and Bill attended the PMPA Update Conference in Atlanta. Among this year’s many informative speakers was Melanie Webber of Fisher Phillips, an Atlanta based law firm representing employers exclusively in the areas of labor, employment, civil rights, employee benefits, and immigration law. As one the largest firms in the US, Fisher Phillps LLP has 33 offices nationwide with more than 400 attorneys.
Melanie Webber is a partner in the firm’s Cleveland office and serves as chair for the firm’s Women’s Initiative and Leadership Council. She represents and advises clients in all aspects of employment law, including harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and leave-related complaints.
Over her career, she has represented employers on traditional labor issues—such as union organizing campaigns, unfair labor practice charges and labor arbitrations
Melanie’s talk was entitled “Hiring Employees You Won’t Want to Fire,” a discussion which centered on the hiring process. Before joining Fisher Phillips, Melanie worked in Human Resource management with two Ohio manufacturing companies.
Melanie focused the conversation on how managers can develop positive, proactive employee relations programs and seek out the strong candidates who will remain as assets to the business for years to come. Throughout the discussion, Melanie provided valuable insight regarding potential human resource issues throughout the life cycle of employment.
Bricks 4 Biz: Team Building with LEGOs at the PMPA Update Conference
Last week at the Precision Machined Products Association (PMPA) Update Conference in Atlanta, David and Bill had an opportunity to attend seminars, panels, and workshops relating to the machining industry; they also participated in a fun and memorable team building collaboration with other attendees, hosted by Bricks 4 Biz.
Bricks 4 Biz® is an innovative company which utilizes LEGO® to provide fun, interactive and productive team building experiences to businesses of all sizes. The company’s team oriented activities utilize LEGO® Bricks to encourage participants to overcome obstacles and challenges. Participation in the program is proven to improve communication, boost morale and develop trust and respect among a group – a powerful asset for any business to harness!
In this case, the exercise involved small teams, divided into Senior Management, Middle Management, and Workers. The focus was learning to communicate in a precise manner in order to collaborate and build a prototype without relying on drawings or other non-verbal communication.
The ABF team had a great time laughing and sharing their struggles with other PMPA members. The end result was…interesting!
Overall, the entire conference was engaging and informative. To see more of the event, check out our second post.
Automating a Machining Business with David Wynn
Check out David Wynn as he discusses how to automate a machining business. One of our core values is “Automate Everything”. Humans should not be stuck doing mundane tasks. Humans should be out solving problems and doing tasks that we are uniquely qualified to do. When you have Team members running a secondary they are wasting their uniquely human talent. People need to be out creating.
Running a Machine Shop like a Tech Company
Check out David Wynn on SwarfCast. Talking about the unique way we run our company. It is all about the culture for us.
” You give them the keys to the building and a code”
Here at ABF we empower our people to be self starting. The Team knows what the numbers are and what is expected of them They know how to meet expectations. Our Team is self starters that don’t have to be told what to do. Our Team does not have to be told how to do it. The Team knows what must be done and goes out and executes.
Ep. 63 – Running a Machine Shop like a Tech Company with David Wynn
PMPA Member ABF Engineering and Machining Finds Success in its Product Quality and Internal Software Development
We were featured in an article in Production Machining Magazine. We discuss how we got started and where we are headed with the development of new technologies. Also how much a help the PMPA has been for us over the years. The PMPA has been a big factor in our success.
TS 16949:2009
After acheiving ISO 9001 certification ABF Engineering and Machining has decided to put TS16949 on our road map. In an effort to better serve our customers we plan to improve our processes and become more lean. A large part of this effort is lead time reduction to provide the best quality parts in the shortest amount of time possible. There will always be room to improve and it is that constant pursuit of perfection that will help maintain our competitiveness into the future.
ISO 9001:2008 Audit Complete
ABF Engineering and Machining has completed our stage 2 audit for pending ISO 9001:2008 certification. Once all the paperwork is complete we hope to be formally certified by the end of the fourth quarter 2013. This an exciting time at ABF as we are moving forward by having our QMS 3rd party audited for the first time. We feel that this will give us more opportunity to secure new business in the future, since ISO 9001 certification has become the gold standard for production shops in the last few years.
ISO 9001:2008 Certification
ABF Engineering and Machining is now pursuing the ISO 9001 Certification. We hope to be finished with our final audit by the end of the summer. At ABF we strive to remain customer focused at all levels of production and ISO 9001 is just the next step in making our organzation the best it can be.
New Website
We just are now getting our new website up and running. In an effort to make it easier to contact us and request quotes we started this project. Hopefully, everyone will enjoy the new layout and features that are to come. Thanks in advance for your patience.
