Metalworking Firms Research Articles

Innovative Coolant Concept

Coolant and machining fluid company Oemeta’s new two-component machining fluid concept HYCUT is proving a winner with metalworking firms of all sizes

Revisiting the relationship between art and industry in nineteenth-century Britain from the manufacturer’s perspective

The mid-nineteenth century critical discourse compartmentalized art and industry by crediting each with specific powers. Manufacturing was identified with the development of technologically advanced processes, materials and products, while fine artists were given authority over the aesthetic aspects of industrial design. The idea that the two sectors had separate areas of responsibility has proved extremely enduring, and continues to influence our perceptions of Victorian manufacturing. This article contributes to the wider task of re-evaluating the relationship between art and industry in nineteenth-century Britain by examining the role of design in potteries and art metalworking firms from the manufacturer’s perspective. It shows that contrary to the picture painted by Victorian critics, design was central to the ambitions and commercial operations of manufacturing businesses. Crucially, decisions about the recruitment of design staff were shaped by the close connection between the creation of new products at the drawing board, and their fabrication in the workshop. Since each branch of manufacturing had its distinctive characteristics, there were significant practical, aesthetic and commercial advantages for manufacturers in employing experienced designers who knew the trade, and were fully conversant with production practices. Unless a professional sculptor joined a firm, they were unlikely to have this inside knowledge, which made commissioning one-off designs from artists a riskier proposition. Manufacturers found that one of the best ways to get around this was to make reductions of sculptures, and initial demand for statuettes in Parian suggested they would be profitable for all concerned. In the end, the market did not live up to its early promise, but the publicity given to Parian statuettes compensated manufacturers and sculptors. Overall, it was this increased public exposure for art manufactures that was the prime benefit of the mid-nineteenth century critical discourse for the industrial sector.

26 Nationwide machine safety initiative for small metal fabrication businesses

Machine-related injuries are a persistent risk for workers in fabricated metal products manufacturing. Smaller establishments are of particular concern because these firms typically have limited access to safety and health...

Real wage cyclicality and the Great Depression: evidence from British engineering and metal working firms

Based on occupation-level payrolls from around 2000 member firms of the British Engineering Employers' Federation we examine the behaviour of real hourly earnings over the 1927--1937 Great Depression cycle. Pay and working time data cover adult male blue-collar workers within engineering and metal working firms. We attempt to tackle the problem of countercyclical aggregation bias linked to workforce composition by distinguishing between pieceworkers and timeworkers who are broken down into 14 occupations and 51 travel-to-work engineering districts. We test for the likely effects on our estimates of within-occupation heterogeneity. For pieceworkers we find significant, though modest, real hourly wage procyclicality. Timeworkers' real hourly wages are found to be acyclical. Due to procyclical fluctuations in weekly hours, the real weekly pay of both pieceworkers and timeworkers are strongly procyclical. We compare hourly and weekly pay outcomes with findings based on more recent micro data. Copyright 2013 Oxford University Press 2012 All rights reserved, Oxford University Press.

Real Wages, Working Time and the Great Depression

We have assembled two British data sets to re-examine the behaviour of real wages over the 1927-1937 cycle that contained the Great Depression. Both provide a degree of micro detail that greatly exceeds previous studies. The first consists of annual wages for 36 manufacturing industries. The second is based on blue-collar workers’ company payroll data within engineering and metal working firms. It allows us to distinguish between pieceworkers and timeworkers, 14 occupations and 51 travel-to-work geographical districts. We measure the cycle using national unemployment rates as well as rates that match our industrial and district breakdowns. The roles of standard and overtime hours are found to be crucial to the behaviour of real pay during the Depression. Real weekly earnings of both timeworkers and pieceworkers are strongly procyclical. Real hourly earnings of pieceworkers, who comprise over half of the engineering workforce, are also significantly procyclical. Timeworkers’ hourly wages are relatively unresponsive to the cycle. Annual wage measures are, at best, very weakly procyclical.

Flexible pay, firm performance and the role of unions. New evidence from Italy

This paper focuses on the effects of a shift in the firm pay strategy from a fixed wage to a flexible pay scheme on the performance of the “treated” firms. Theory predicts that the introduction of performance-related pay (PRP) may produce both incentive and sorting effects, making the incumbent workers more productive and attracting the most able workers from outside. Furthermore, productivity gains may be shared with the workers through higher wages and heterogeneous effects may be expected by union density. Matching estimates based on panel data for a representative sample of Italian metalworking firms in the 1990s show positive effects on labour productivity (around 7–11%) and to some extent on wages (around 2–3%), while worker sorting is negligible. Estimates by union density suggest that incentive effects are more present in low unionized firms, while wage effects are more significant in highly unionized ones. Extended sensitivity analysis shows that these results are overall robust with respect to the existence of unobserved confounding factors.

Owner-managers and Business Planning in the Small Firm

This article explores the ways in which the characteristics of the owner-managers of small firms influence whether or not those firms have a business plan. The focus is primarily on antecedent influences on owner-managers such as education and prior experience. Data are drawn from a survey of the owner-managers of small metalworking firms in Sheffield, UK. Around half the sample of owner-managers possess a business plan. Antecedent influences on owner-managers showing a significant association with the possession of a business plan include an above average level of education, previous work experience in a large firm immediately before setting up their firm and running firms in sectors outside their previous experience. Not surprisingly, possession of a business plan showed a positive association with those owner-managers with a growth orientation. It is concluded that owner-manager characteristics can be important in explaining the presence/absence of a business plan within the small firm.

Owner-managers, clusters and local embeddedness: small firms in the Sheffield (UK) metal-working cluster

The primary objective of this paper is to explore the ways in which the characteristics of owner-managers influence the extent to which their firms are embedded within local clusters of economic activity. Data are drawn from an interview survey of a random sample of small metal-working firms in Sheffield, UK. The data are analysed using non-parametric statistical methods to test bivariate relationships. Owner-manager attributes are found to have no influence on the extent of the use of local material supply networks but they do influence the extent of dependence on local markets. Owner-managers born and bred in the local region with limited formal education, working as an operative (rather than executive) prior to start up and with many years experience are more likely to rely on local markets. Owner-manager characteristics are also linked to participation in business networks. Those with most experience and those previously working for large firms are more likely to participate. It is concluded that owner-manager attributes can be important in explaining the level of embeddedness of small firms in a cluster of economic activity and that such attributes need to be built into theories of cluster behaviour.

Governing Decentralized Production: Institutions, Public Policy, and the Prospects for Inter-firm Collaboration in US Manufacturing

Much of the literature on the changing face of US manufacturing acknowledges that successful governance of decentralized production is vital to its future but questions whether in practice firms will engage in the collaborative relationships envisaged by optimistic theorists of a "new production paradigm". Our interview-based field research on large and small metalworking firms in the US upper Midwest shows that although large manufacturers are actively seeking to improve collaboration by sharing strategic information and engaging in joint design, pervasive organizational dysfunctions create systemic barriers to the fuller development of cooperative relations with suppliers. But these barriers do not appear insurmountable. The example of a Wisconsin policy experiment is used to demonstrate the viability of institutional solutions that can help resolve inter- and intra-organizational blockages, while encouraging manufacturing firms to follow through on the collaborative strategies they officially espouse.

Process innovation in small firms: Case studies on CNC machine tools

This paper reports the results of a study on the implementation of process innovations, and the benefits thereof, in a sample of small metalworking firms in a mid-Atlantic region of the US. No firm experienced serious organizational or technical problems in making substantial investments in CNC technologies and implementing them effectively. One reason for this discrepancy may be that the firms that were interviewed have had prior experience with CNC. The most compelling reason for introducing process innovations was the pressure exerted by large sophisticated customers with whom the interviewed firms have had long-term relationships. The implication is that government policies aiming at assisting small manufacturers to modernize should not overlook the strong ‘pull’ effect of the markets targeted by these manufacturers.

Patterns of Diffusion of New Technologies in Small Metal-Working Firms: The Case of an Italian Region

Programmable automation in the form of numerically controlled and computerized numerically controlled machine tools and flexible manufacturing systems has been commonly hailed as signalling a fundamental economic-technical paradigm shift similar to the shifts due to the introduction of the steam engine and the electric motor. This paper discusses the patterns of diffusion of microelectronics-based technical change in machine tools employed in metal-working or engineering firms in Italy. It is directed toward the segment of the production process involving the employment of metal-cutting milling machines. The paper builds a taxonomy linking innovative technological patterns to the competencies and strategies of firms. Copyright 1997 by Oxford University Press.

The Employment and Skill Implications of the Adoption of New Technology: A Comparison of Small Engineering Firms in Core and Peripheral Regions

This paper examines the direct post-adoption effects of the introduction of new technology, specifically CNC machine tools, by small independent metalworking firms in three regions of the UK, the South East of England, Scotland and Wales. The research reports upon the impact of CNC adoption upon employment levels; the skills of operatives; the effect of CNCs upon skills and pay rates; the organisation of work and job content; and training. A benign interpretation of new technology's effects upon employment and deskilling is substantiated. The impact of CNC adoption upon enskilling has been similar in both the core and periphery of Britain. Also, there is scant evidence that CNC adoption has led to an increasingly polarised workforce.

Application of finite element method in forging: An industry perspective

Over the last decade, the use of computers in the forging industry has increased at an incredible rate. Historical trends through the 1980's will be discussed leading up to the current “state of the art”. Prior to this decade, the industry was heavily experience-based. In the eighties, a number of factors including computer hardware costs, government funding, competitive pressures and ingenuity led to dramatic technical developments. The use of finite element methods for modelling the metal forming process, heat transfer and die stress analysis are becoming common among larger and more advanced metalworking firms. In this paper, the author intends to present a view of these events from an industry perspective, along with examples from the application of these tools.

The Impact on Absenteeism and Quits of Profit-Sharing and other Forms of Employee Participation

Using data on 52 engineering and metal working firms in the United Kingdom in 1983–84, the authors of this study investigate how employee participation affects absenteeism and quit rates. Included in the explanatory model are measures of union presence, formal schemes for employee involvement in decision-making, employees' perceived participation in decision-making (based on interviews), and the extent of employee financial participation through profit-sharing, share ownership, and fringe benefits. The results indicate that firms with participation schemes had significantly lower average absenteeism and quit rates than firms without such schemes.

An evolutionary pattern of innovation diffusion. The case of flexible automation

The aim of this paper is to provide evidence supporting an evolutionary model of the process of innovation diffusion. Relying on an extensive field study, the paper analyses the pattern of adoption of the entire set of innovations deriving from the flexible automation paradigm on the part of a large sample of Italian metalworking firms. Owing to the relevance of the technology examined and to the size of the sample, the case illustrates quite representatively the dynamics of the early stage of development of radical and complex innovations. The main results of the paper confirm the importance of firm size and market structure to explain the characteristics of the innovation/diffusion process. At the same time they emphasize that the localized search procedures on the part of potential users involve a step-by-step approach to adoption: namely, the technological and organizational profile of firms turns out to play a decisive role in favouring diffusion. Moreover, empirical support is provided for the existence of persistent market disequilibria along the diffusion paths, witnessed by the extent of the retrofitting phenomenon.

Entreprise et emploi dans une économie de partage

This paper is intended to discuss and test some of the principal theoretical arguments for profit-sharing. We outline here a rigorous theoretical foundation for microeconomic motivating effects of profit related pay. The empirical results confirm this theory of cooperation and give clear evidence of the role of profit-sharing and worker share ownership in explaining some variations of productivity and profitability in medium-sized metal working firms in West Germany. On the other hand, there is a lack of empirical evidence for the macroeconomic effects of profit-sharing on employment and stagflation : work- sharing or variation of hours per worker (and not profit-sharing) seems to represent the main reason for low unemployment in Japan. Furthermore, these wage flexibility benefits of a share economy depend upon explicitly overcoming the resistance of workers and unions to initial pay cuts (for Weitz- mans'model) or inequal pay for similar work (Meade's model). Only in this (quite unrealistic) case, could wage cuts, or two-tier systems in a share economy, together with work sharing and appropriate government policy, presumably solve the problems of unemployment and stagflation.

Profitability and Profit-Sharing

Claims that profit-sharing is a purely distributive wealth confiscation scheme without incentive effects (due to free-rider problems) are based on neglect of cooperation and interaction in the workforce. When these activities are difficult to monitor directly, group incentives such as profit-sharing can increase efficiency and maintain a superior Nashequilibrium with strictly individual optimization. With simultaneous WLS-Tobit estimates we find here strong effects of profit-sharing and worker ownership shares on residual owners' return on capital in medium-sized metal working firms in West Germany, complementing earlier results on productivity.

Real Wages over the Business Cycle: Evidence from Panel Data

One topic on which Keynes did not disagree with classical economists was the cyclical behavior of real wages. Keynes (1936) as well as various classical writers predicted that real wages should move countercyclically. Quoting the General Theory (p. 17): "in general an increase in employment can only occur through the accompaniment of a decline in real wages. Thus, I am not disputing this vital fact which the classical economists have (rightly) asserted as indefeasible." This prediction is based on the premise of competition and a given short-run capital stock. Increases in employment then correspond to more intensive use of capital and, through diminishing product, lower real wages. For this reason, evidence by Dunlop (1938) and Tarshis (1939) that real wages move procyclically was viewed as paradoxical. Both Dunlop and Tarshis based their findings on an observed positive correlation between real and money wages, which, given the procyclical movement of money wages, implies a positive correlation between

Taiwan

Two types of technology exports are examined: so-called plant exports (few of which are turnkey) and direct foreign investment. The latter are largely undertaken to secure raw materials and to protect foreign markets. The former appear to provide presumptive evidence of Taiwan's competitive strength in the production of machinery by quite skill-intensive, small-scale metalworking firms. One proposal to expand the export of small-scale plants envisions the standardization of basic designs to reduce unit costs and delivery times.

Industrial linkages and the dual economy: the case of Northern Ireland

Hoare A. G. (1978) Industrial linkages and the dual economy: the case of Northern Ireland, Reg. Studies 12, 167–180. Despite a large number of recent research papers, the study of industrial linkages is still deficient in two respects: in recognising the heterogeneity of linkage (especially input linkage) flows, and in examining the perceptual dimension of linkages, which, in turn, can take a number of forms. A sample of engineering and metal-working firms in Northern Ireland provides data to examine these further, and to consider their relationships to industrial growth and organisation. The nationality of firms seems particularly important in accounting for variations in the results, and this aspect is examined in more detail. Finally, some regional implications are considered.