Study Says Asia Leads Global Economic Super-cycle

With all the news of political upheavals, rising energy prices and natural disasters, it can be hard to believe that the recent spate of good economic news can last. Yet in the long run, a strong upward trend in the world economy may be the bigger stor…

Talent Drives Growth for Firms that Follow "Third Path"

John Hagel III had just 10 minutes to tell us how he’s found a "third path" to growth. Hagel was the Keynote speaker at the awards ceremony for Deloitte’s 2010 Greater Philadelphia Fast 50. The 10-minute limit was a self-imposed constraint Ha…

Upturn in Quality Acquisitions May Point to Upturn for Industry

In a recent phone conversation, Powder and Bulk dot com publisher Joe Taylor remarked on the increasing number of acquisitions that seem to be taking place in the industrial market. As we talked we did a quick search of acquisitions listed in the news …

Finding Comfort in Recession-Proof Industries

Earlier this week PowderandBulk.com publisher Joe Taylor told me of a conversation he had with a friend in the pneumatic conveying business. "They have had a whole series of big sales to the foods industry," he said. "I guess the sales focus changes to the industries least hurt by the recession."

Joe brings up a good point. If your only information about the economy comes from the nightly news, you might be persuaded that no one is doing business right now. But we’re dealing with a very large world economy, and there are some significant sectors that continue to function quite well.

Comfort in the Food Industry
As Joe suggested, food (including pet food) is one of those sectors that tends to fare better than others in a recession.

K-Tron Process Group’s Bob Barnett agrees. As vice president of sales and marketing, he has been through a number of economic ups and downs. He said, "People eat more comfort food when they’re feeling bad about the economy. Companies that make snack foods, cereals and convenience foods tend to grow in recessions."

Barnett noted that food’s robust growth even offers some sugar coating to an otherwise dismal plastics industry that is way down due to the auto and housing declines. Those industries making plastic film for food packaging or sheet for microwave food containers are adding process lines.

Healthy Business in the Pharmaceutical Industry
The Pharmaceutical Industry is another sector that keeps investing in production improvements in recessions. K-Tron’s Barnett told me the pharmaceutical industry has a very long development process that tends to keep on track despite the mergers and consolidation the industry is experiencing.

On April 30, I’ll be attending a seminar in King of Prussia, PA where I’ll learn more about the growing momentum for conversion from batch to continuous processing of pharmaceuticals. The seminar, Innovations in Pharmaceutical Processing, is hosted by K-Tron Process Group, Leistritz, Howorth Air Technology, Hosokawa Micron Powder Systems, K-Tron Premier and Quadro Engineering Corp.

At the Resume Bear, a blog for job seekers, a recent article listed medicinal and biological products as number 3 of the top 50 recession-proof industries with 7%, 2%, and 5% growth in the 1990, 2001, and 2007 recessions according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Many of those top 50 recession-proof industries in the Resume Bear article (especially in Part 2 which lists numbers 26-50) are actually government or educational institutions, but there are some additional industrial sectors that are worth noting. In my next post, I’ll look at another industry that remains strong in the face of recession.

Don Dunnington
Blog Moderator

Geometrica Uses Wiki to Implement ISO 9001 Quality System

While blogs and social sharing sites have gotten most of the media attention when it comes to the newer Web 2.0 applications, Wikis may have more practical application for business.

A good example was recently brought to our attention by Gerardo Méndez, the quality manager at Geometrica, builders of large column-free enclosures based on efficient geometric shapes. The company has posted an article that narrates their journey to ISO 9001 certification and describes how a wiki can actually help not only to comply with ISO’s requirements, but to capture volumes of tacit knowledge in an organization and manage it effectively.

Geometrica has its headquarters in Houston, Texas and its main plant in Monterrey, Mexico. Through seventeen years, the organization has provided affordable and environmentally-friendly dome and space frame structures worldwide.   

Don Dunnington
Moderator

It Takes Capital Equipment and Human Resourcefulness to Grow an Economy

I participated recently in an interview with a major magazine that is writing a feature article about Gundlach’s storied history as the first crusher manufacturer to figure out how to size coal at the mine in three dimensions. It reminded me of how much real growth comes from resourceful designers and engineers who create the capital equipment, that make the products, that grows an economy, that leads to real wealth. Here are just two brief examples from two companies I’m most familiar with.

In 1948 the U.S. had recently come out of the two great dislocations of the 20th century–the Great Depression and WWII. There was a booming market for coal sized to fit automated coal stokers, but most mines couldn’t supply the properly sized coal. Gundlach responded to that need with the first two-stage roll crusher that could size coal at the mine to fit in all three dimensions, delivering valuable stoker coal precisely sized at ¾ in. x ¾ in. x ¾ in.

Jump forward to the late 60s and early 70s, and it’s a plastics boom. Anyone who has seen 1967′s hit movie "The Graduate," remembers this prophetic cocktail party scene: 

Mr. McGuire (played by Walter Brooke): I want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman): Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.

Benjamin (the recent graduate) greets this revelation with a puzzled look, but those who figured out how to meet the needs for the capital equipment that make plastic production possible forged businesses that remain leaders in the world today.

Take for example the world’s first digitally controlled weigh belt feeder, introduced by K-Tron in 1972. Plastic compounders needed a feeder that could deliver material continuously and accurately to their extruders. The new extruders of the era demanded accuracy that previous feeders simply couldn’t deliver.

As the demands grew for greater process speed, more flexibility and ever more accurate feed ratios, the innovations continued. In 1976, K-Tron introduced the first loss-in-weight feeders with digital weighing. In 1989 they introduced the first modular feeders that let processors quickly reconfigure their K-Tron feeders for different materials. These ground-breaking modular feeders also featured the first Smart Force Transducer weighing technology, which delivered even greater feed accuracy.

The innovation at K-Tron goes on to this day with a wide array of gravimetric feeders, many of them fine tuned to feed minor and micro-ingredients, meter at high rates, or provide precise multi-stream ratio control.

Whether it’s growth in productivity for existing markets or growth in capacity for new markets, you’ll find capital equipment makers making it possible. Economies go up and down. But thanks in part to the innovations of our equipment makers, and the vision of the buyers of that equipment, the long term trend continues upward. That’s how real wealth is created.

We need to tell the stories of these creators of the small yet vital single pieces of equipment, the suppliers and designers of massive complete systems, and the manufacturers who invest in this productive capacity so they can finish the job of producing something of value for the world. We need to tell and re-tell these stories so that others can understand. If you have a story to share, send it to me here at the powderandbulk.com blog.

Don Dunnington
Moderator