Create Better Ideas

ISSM 2012 Team Challenge

This years International Sales and Service Meeeting was full of company culture with a March Madness twist as 20 teams gave their best presentations to reinvent the sales and service relationship. 

In heat 1, teams broke into (4) rooms with (5) groups to compete for their spot in round 2 by room audiance vote. For heat 2, the final 4 went head to head making their prentations live infront of all of ISSM for a chance to place 4th, 3rd, 2nd and to take the ISSM crown for 1st place and each member bringing home a cold $1000.00 cash. Congratulations to all of our teams and see you at the next International Sales and Service Meeting.

Visit our site: http://www.phillipscorp.com/

Partnering to Create Better Ideas

Attached is a link to an article about RFAST-C.  This facility (Rapid Field Assistance in Science and Technology Center) is located in theatre at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and is used to solve warfighter’s technical problems more quickly and efficiently.

 

RFAST was conceived through collaboration of a group of RDECOM facilities, including Detroit Arsenal, Tobyhanna, Picatinny, and Aberdeen Proving Grounds.  Key personnel at each facility helped to define the type of equipment needed to populate this shop.  It was important for the team to get the right equipment to the facility, as many of them will be manning the facility on 6 month rotations.

 Terry Stewart and I worked alongside our product managers (Tim McClanahan, Jason Blair, and Bryan Pax) to ensure that our customers (who were located at multiple facilities) understood the value in partnering with Phillips Federal.  The facility is equipped with a Haas VF-7 Vertical Mill, Haas TL-3 Lathe, an Omax waterjet, an LVD Brake and Shear, an NVISION laser scanning arm, and 2 HEM saws.

While many have played key roles in the success of this project, special thanks are in order for John Phillips, who took the lead in coordinating the shipments.  John has run point on all post sale inquiries, and has responded to hundreds of emails over the course of the project.  Projects like this show the true power of the Federal Division in managing complexity.

 

 RDECOM Article

There is also a video of the Nvision running on Youtube if you search RFAST-C.

 

http://youtu.be/-I7SeWsfpwY

 

Federal Division looks forward to more partnerships with the D.O.D. to support our fighting forces, in country and in theartre.

 

 

 

Make Hay While the Sun Shines !

Sounds easy enough but do we actually see the actual value of this statement? We talk and hear about depleting fossil fuels, increasing population, shortage of food and water, colossal energy demands and the list goes on.  A few forward thinking communities and businesses are switching to a greener and sustainable energy source.  However, are we seeing enough when it translates into actual jobs, opportunities and business sustenance?

They say that economically, solar energy pays for itself over time. Due to the fact that fossil fuels and traditional energy production is going up in cost at the same time that solar technology is coming down in price, a trade-off occurs. A buyer pays an upfront cost to install solar equipment, but then he reaps immediate savings being able to substitute from the traditional energy source. Additionally, extra energy produced in facilities can be bought back, so solar energy begins to produce revenue for its owners.

Now, talking about the science behind it, the sun radiates energy equally in all directions, and the Earth intercepts and receives part of this energy. The power flux reaching the top of the Earth's atmosphere is about 1400 Watts/m². 
This measure simply means that on the average, one square meter on the side of the Earth facing the sun receives energy from the sun equal to that from fourteen 100 Watt light bulbs every second! The sun is in a relatively stable state, and as far as we can tell, will continue to be so for about another three billion years!

Here is an interesting study by NASA about simulating the suns effect in space by creating a thermal test facility.  An interesting read.  http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/10-144.html

Now, if one were to read between the lines, the actual evolution of tapping solar potential is a bare fraction compared to the human dependency on conventional energy sources.  There is a strong need for us to break out of our comfort zones!   Thoughts??

Sunil Abraham, PET

Water water everywhere, but not a bloomin' drop to drink !

Water water everywhere, but not a blooming drop to drink!

Approximately 66% of the population of the world will face a shortage in available freshwater by the year 2025. Are we prepared with the right technology to overcome this requirement of a basic life source? In this present day, we seem so hung up at fuel savings and battery operated cars, which is good but we seem to overlook the underlying needs for the survival of humanity!

I have read about a few companies coming up with innovative technologies to bridge this gap; however the requirement of fresh water compared to what is available is still too wide to fill. What then are our options?  I am amazed at some of us who take for granted and stay in our showers till our skins are “pruned” for lack of a better word!  Maybe the close vicinity to the Great Lakes makes this crucial issue too trivial to even reckon! However the sad reality is that Yes,  People still die of thirst today, so wake up “Mr Lakesider” and tell us  how can we team up to help offer a drink of water to our fellow humans?

I recently came across a brilliant article about the “Sea kettle” and thought such innovations will help meet some of our fresh water requirements. Please check it out at: http://news.discovery.com/tech/life-raft-makes-seawater-drinkable.html

Sunil Abraham, PET

Nobility in its own small way....

We talk and hear about commitments, loyalty, dedication and good deeds. Perhaps the one that struck me the most in recent years was when I came about this strange incident, off the coast of Taichung in Taiwan, on the South China Sea.

I saw a couple of local people loading a boat with a large catch of fresh, live mussels, almost half a ton! Usually we see them unloading their catch as opposed to loading boats at the dock and puzzled, I enquired and came to realize that they were purchased for about 450 USD by a local school teacher.

Cho Ming Hui is an elementary school teacher who merely passes off as a student! One of her pastimes as I understood was to purchase the catch of mussels from local fishermen on the Taichung coast and throw them back into the sea. The reason- to fulfill a personal sentiment !  I was appalled and did not know what to say! A total environmental commitment to say the least!

The next thing I did was to help her empty out these bags and send the mussels back where they belong!

No matter what - Environmental cause, religious practice, cultural event, - whatever you call it; to me, this absolutely was a noble gesture from someone with frugal income to take on such an act. I then realized how much of a forward thinker Cho Ming was! She was in fact doing her small part to sustain the otherwise fragile ecosystem which was subject to the ever greedy needs of humanity. These are the individuals that deserve true recognition of their efforts. Or in other words, one does not have to be a celebrity to take on tasks noble in nature. I salute her for her commitment.

My question then was how can we as individuals or as an organization collectively think of contributing our part to sustain this precious planet of ours? ....Thoughts????

Sunil/ PET/ Toronto

Creating the Better Idea... with our customers and suppliers!

I am very excited to inform you that the Federal Division has made the FABRICATOR magazine... well, indirectly!

In the May 2010 edition there is an article called Finding the sweet spot in fabrication automation  on pages 50 - 52. Within the article is a picture of the Tobyhanna Army Depot laser machine with reference focusing on its automation via the load/unload station and tower system. While the DoD security requirements limited our ability to publicize the application directly, here are a few excerpts from the aritcle that captures the essence of this machine's cutting edge design:

"Earlier this year a massive piece of laser cutting automation sat in a testing bay at LVD headquarters. The flying optics, driven by linear motors, performed some eye-popping rapid traverses. It was a unique experience to stand near the protective glass and see the cutting head roar toward you, then stop inches from your face."

"The system was a monster. The two-tower behemoth even could be expanded to feed into a second laser cutting system. Its price tage was in the seven figures, ripe territory for sticker shock. Surely, this system was going to a European operation - right? Wrong. It was headed to a manufacturer in the US (The company name was withheld because of confidentiality agreement)."

This machine and project is an excellent example of the Phillips community striving to be the best supplier of manufacturing technology ever!  It is these types of projects that allow us to "Create the Better Idea" with our customers and suppliers!

 

Get your surfboards ready !! Ride the wave !

Crystal ball gazing is not one of my strengths but if I am reading the writing on the wall, the machine tool industry is on the verge of a rapid comeback, bringing with it several opportunities. Global commodity markets have been indicating a "yo yo" effect and now with the Eurozone markets seemingly shaken, it is about time we capitalize the benefit of better pricing for precision components that we source from Europe, paying Euros ! The Euro apparently seems to compete to reach parity levels with the USD and one should say it is doing a good job there !

Interestingly enough is the bill passed in Ohio on renewable energy. Check this link:
http://www.brighterenergy.org/11525/news/wind/ohio-assembly-passes-renewable-energy-tax-reform-bill/

This is a major breakthrough for manufacturers and the one question that we need to ask " Are you ready to ride the wave? " If you don't see the wave and appear to see only the calm waters, beware of the sharks that will do anything to take away the opportunity !! In other words, North American manufacturing is getting well poised for a come back and if we are not ready, the entire Eurozone will compete alongside  India and China to bite hungrily at a big chunk of the pie........Are we ready??