Projects: Today's Machining World

Moving from Help Wanted to Help Found

Driving around among the windowless, steel-sided buildings in South Bend, Ind., I missed, at first glance, the faded sign for Value Production, Inc., but not the hand-stenciled sign on the front lawn, its slightly crooked letters spelling out: “HELP WANTED CNC PROGRAMMERS.”

Women In Machining

As a girl, Francisca Mancia never imagined that someday she'd be stationed at a Mazak 200MSY, making parts in a Long Island machine shop. In Ecuador she'd studied psychology. Now, at 31, she stands peering through wire-rimmed glasses at her misbehaving machine. Her long red hair pulled back in ...

Welcome to Warsaw

A timeline tracking the development of the orthopedics industry reads like the Book of Genesis: DePuy begat Zimmer. Zimmer begat OEC. OEC and Zimmer begat Biomet. And so on.

The Death of a Factory

While I wasn't watching, my little brother transformed from a kid into a machinist. Unfortunately I'm realizing it too late. In eight years he went from being an apprentice to running his own jobs start to finish, working raw materials into usable parts according to blueprint specifications.