EXECUTIVE INSIGHTS: TOM DILLON

CRITICAL ISSUES
Clearly, both machine tool builders and our customers are facing tough economic conditions. But I see this as a relatively short-term challenge.

The real critical issues that we will all face after the economic recovery are related to resource utilization, especially a shortage of skilled labor. Although we have high unemployment rates in the U.S., our customers still cannot find enough people with the right skills to support their growth plans.

TRAINING & TECHNOLOGY
We are addressing this problem from two sides, through workforce development and technology solutions. Both represent significant investments and commitments on the part of our company.

For example, Mori Seiki University is now nearly two years old. In addition to our Chicago University, we are adding faculty and classes in Dallas. Our interactive online training, called ?Education On Demand?, is unmatched in this industry. It helps our customers train and certify CNC operators at their own pace with no lost production time. In November we completed translation to four additional languages, and introduced EOD in Europe.

Of course, it takes time to train and develop experienced machinists. For many of our customers, the solution is to improve machine utilization, making the process more robust and less dependent on highly skilled operators. We can no longer rely upon traditional machining practices and expect to compete long term. Using the unique part-processing capabilities of multi-tasking machines is one way to create a competitive advantage.

In the correct application, multi-tasking machines enable a remarkable increase in efficiency and global competiveness in manufacturing. The effect on part processing, and therefore cycle time reductions, truly increases the speed in which business can be done. Multi-tasking and automation may be our biggest hedge against labor-advantaged countries.

CURRENT TRENDS
One of the opportunities we face is stagnation in some areas of technology. For example, cutting conditions have not improved dramatically over the past 50 years. And in some cases, existing technology simply doesn't meet our customers' expectations, particularly in applications using new materials. So we need to pursue the next generation solutions.

That is the mission of our Machining Technology Lab (MTL) in Chicago. This group of engineers is focused on process solutions. That may be some completely new tool we haven't even named yet. Or we may have to design new capabilities into the machine tool to power and enable new cutting tools.

Our company doesn't look at the development cycle from a narrow perspective – as only the machine builder. We have to look at the entire process and find or create the enabling technology.

I think this is a good time for us to think about the future, and the development of new machine models. We can take advantage of this temporary slowing in orders to entirely redesign the machines to get more performance in the future. Our company has over 450 design engineers worldwide, and we will be working on 30-some new models over the next two years.

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