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April • May 2005 • Vol. XXIII No. 4 • An Arnold Publication |
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Industry News • Executive Hotline |
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Executive Hotline Boeing’s In News--Good & Bad, New 777 Freighter in Demand, Loses CEO, Sells 2 Plants Boeing lost its CEO Harry Stonecipher, forced to resign over scandal in March, an interim CEO named is Lewis Platt who is chairman. But actually, interim boss became CFO officer James Bell, 32-year veteran of Co. Boeing is selling two plants in Kansas & Oklahoma to Canadian investment group; part of Boeing’s strategy to focus on design & final assembly. Deal includes buyer Onex ($900 million plus $300 million in liabilities) Onex will provide Boeing with parts for four planes. They employ almost 9,000 workers. Boeing’s Wichita defense plant with 5,000 workers not involved. The new 777 jet freighter in demand with Air France interested to replace its 747-200’s. Xiamen Airlines, China, will buy 15 737-800 jets for $615 million. Ryanair, Dublin, wants 70 737s plus options for 70 more. A new Indian airline in New Delhi will buy 10 737-800 with options for 10 more worth $1.26 billion. Only 14 million Indians, a fraction of its 1 billion people, fly each year....Ethiopian Airlines buying 10 Dreamliner 787 jets worth $1.3 billion. Singapore Airlines Leasing ordering 20 737-800 jets worth $1.31 billion, with options for another 20....The Air Force lifting suspension on bids by Boeing after 20 months. It will compete again with Lockheed for share of $3 billion rocket business this year. Army seeks $3.9 billion to buy helicopters from Sikorsky unit of UT and Boeing in 2006-07. It world be $1.5 billion for Boeing for Apache copters....Gig-tronics of San Ramon, CA. says its Microsource subsidiary has a $7.6-11.6 million deal with Boeing for filter systems.
Mergers, Buy & Sell Firms Intel, Santa Clara, CA. is buying Oplius Technologies, digital TV of Yokkeam, Israel, designer of chips and software for flat panel plasma and LCD TVs, plus projection systems.....JDS Uniphase, San Jose, CA. fiber optic Co. is buying Lightwave Electronics, Mountain View, CA. for $65 million. Co. makes lasers for semiconductor and biotech firms...Akamai Technologies, Cambridge, MA., buying competitor Speedera Networks, Santa Clara, CA. for $130 million in stock....Consumer research firm J.D.Power & Assoc.,Westlake Village, CA., bought by McGraw-Hill Cos. No price noted but market value estimated at $400 million....Voting machine maker Sequoia Voting Systems, Oakland, bought for $16 million by Smartmatic Corp., Boca Raton, FL. Sequoia sales were $74.7 million.... Irvine, CA.’s Broadcom, microshipper to buy Santa Clara’s Zeevo for $32 million to speed development of wireless handsets for cellphones and music players...Avid Technology, Tewksbury, MA. buying Mountain View, CA’s Pinnacle Systems for $462 million to boost its line of editing products for consumers... Microsoft acquired PC pioneer company Groove Networks, Beverley,MA... National Semiconductor selling its PC Super I/O business to Taiwan’s Winbond Electronics... Yahoo of Sunnyvale, CA.acquired Canada’s Ludicorp R&D Ltd...San Jose-based KLA-Tencor to buy August Technology for $11.50/share....Blue Martini Software, San Mateo, CA., to be sold to Golden Gate Capital Corp. for $54 million. Golden Gate is in San Francisco...OmniVision Technologies, Sunnyvale, CA. buying CMD Optics, Boulder, CO. for $30 million cash & stock...Northrop-Grumman, L.A., buying Integic Corp. Chantilly, VA., software maker. Google, Mountain View, CA., buying Urchin Software, San Diego...Netig, San Jose, selling its Web Trends unit to equity fund Francisco Partners for $94 million cash. Web Trends is in Portland, OR.
NASA,DOD, Air Force NASA offers cash prizes for technologies innovations for space exploration. First competitions involve strong lightweight materials for ropelike teters and ways to transmit power wirelessly from one-point-to-another. NASA seeks to direct $80 million during next 5 years. Major challenges could be worth up to $25 million for low-cost space mission like a moon landing robot. NASA envisions moon-capable spaceship replacing aging shuttle fleet. Craft would be “crew exploration vehicle” (CEV) with 4 to 6 astronauts into earth orbit in 2014, land a crew on moon in 2020, establish moon base for human living for months at a time....Air Force grounded 30 old C-130 cargo planes and restrictions on 60 others, finding servere wing cracks...The 2006 defense spending bill covers ending output of C-130, in service since 1954...Air Force authority over 21 programs shifted to Pentagon involving plane, missile and space programs. They include Lockheed’s F/A 22 stealth fighter, satellite programs, Boeing’s C-17 cargo jet, and AF’s latest rockets for Boeing, Lockheed....Survival situation for Mountain View’s NASA/Ames R&D center may compete for funds it used to get automatically. It could lose 700 of its 3,000 jobs by end of 2006....Northrop settled rocket dispute with SpaceX of El Segundo, CA..It found Northrop engineers working on SpaceX still worked on Northrops own rockets....The U.S. still spending up to $4 million on useless warheads, maintaining 400 inactive nuclear weapons...For 14 years the military has'nt planned to build a missile to carry the W84 warhead....Boeing will resume offering commercial rocket, the Delta IV, after 2-year pause...Pentagon says spending on weapons will soar over next decade. It’s building 70 major weapons systems for $1.3 trillion. Cost overruns of $42.7 billion, or 41.9%, in R&D phase. Joint Strike Fighter program of 2458 planes for AF, Navy,Marine Corp and Allies will cost $248 billion or $99.6 million per aircraft..
Chip
Sales Up 18%, Sony, IBM & Chips are on the move moving into new “neighborhoods”. A new breed of computer chip is dubbed cell designed to supercharge digital media and computer graphics. It could send multiple streams of digital video around a home. It’s targeted for Sony’s next videogame machine, digital TVs and DVDs. Cell runs at clock speeds greater than 4 gigahertz, topping the 3.8 GHz of Intel’s top-speed chip. Intel is using dual topping the 3.8 GHz of Intel’s top-speed chip. Intel is using dual microprocessors for desk top computers. One is Pentium Processor D. Another uses “Extreme Edition” for computer games. Intel research reports new silicon laser discovery that could drive down cost of optical networking..Laser could make high bandwidth, light-based communication feasible for computer connections and link between components inside PCs. Intel is upbeat on chip demand, expects first quarter sales of $9.2 or $9.4 billion...Advanced Micro Devices, Sunnyvale, has new chip for computers that has equivalent of two electronic brains...Struggling Transmeta chipmaker of Santa Clara reducing workforce 24%. It has agreement with Sony to “accelerate and expand” adoption of its power management technology into Sony products... Qualcomm of San Diego forecast $1.35 to $1.4 billion second quarter...Cypress Semiconductor, San Jose, plans using solar power with silicon-based solar cells. Installing them on home rooftop would cost about $20,000...Wireless chipmaker Atheros Communications, Sunnyvale, CA., to diversify with single chip (AR 1900) for PHS/PAS cell phones...Newest chip combines fiber optics and electronics by Luxtera, Carlsbad...Chips reach data rates of 10 gigabytes a second Co. says Freescale Semiconductor, Austin, TX., will manufacture its chips. NEWSBRIEFS at Presstime More companies recruiting older workers--more Californians over 65--15%--join the workforce this year. It was only 10.9% in 1998....In regular jobs, nationwide, in Feb 262,000 payroll jobs were added. Calif. gained 27,600. Internet search firm Ask Jeeves, Oakland, sold for $1.85 billion by Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActive Corp...Bay Area defense firms serve as research powerhouse for the nation. DOD paid firms $2.4 billion in FY 2004 for R&D and testing in Bay Area and spent $5.7 billion on goods and services. For every dollar spent there 42 cents went for R&D and testing of military equipment. By contrast, only 14 cents of every dollar spent elsewhere for R&D. |
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Industry News 25 Years at Kenbil Engineering David Hauck CPMR, vice president general manager, of Kenbil Engineering Inc., is celebrating 25 years with the company. David has served in many positions with Kenbil, including the past 10 years as general manager. In that position he helped develop Kenbil Engineering into one of the premier manufacturers representative agencies on the west coast.Kenbil Engineering, Inc. has representing manufacturers of machine tool accessories for more than 42 years. Currently Kenbil represents Royal Products, Tapmatic Corporation, Hougen Manufacturing, Criterion Machine Work and Bondhus Corp. The agency has represented Tapmatic and Bondhus for more than 40 years. KMT Waterjet Systems Announces New VP Sales and Marketing KMT Waterjet Systems has appointed Wiktor Stepien as vice president of sales and marketing. He is responsible for all sales, marketing, customer service, and technical service departments of KMT Waterjet. Most recently, Stepien was the European Sales Manager for KMT Waterjet Systems GmbH in Bad Nauheim, Germany. He has worked for KMT since 1998. Stepien has been a sales manager with Waterjet in Scandinavia, Eastern and Central Europe. In addition to being a sales manager, he has experience as a project manager, marketing research consultant, customer service engineer, and as an engineering assistant. Stepien has an MBA from Butler University in Indianapolis, IN and a BS in Mechanical Engineering Technology from Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. He is fluent in English, Polish, Spanish, Russian, and German. Haas Automation Ships 50,000th Machine Haas Automation, Inc., reported the company’s latest milestone—production, sale and installation of the 50,000th Haas CNC machine tool. Machine number 50,000 —an SL-20APL CNC turning center with automatic parts loader—came off the production line February 16. Bearing a commemorative plaque, the machine went to Western Saw of Oxnard, California. A leading manufacturer of saw, tube and laser technology for more than 60 years, Western Saw is a neighbor of Haas. The SL-20APL is Western Saw’s fifth Haas turning center. Founded in 1983, Haas Automation’s first product—the HA5C fully automatic, programmable collet indexer—was a first in the industry. It was also a huge success, and over the next four years the company expanded its product line to include a wide range of CNC rotary tables, indexers and accessories. By 1987, the first Haas vertical machining center (VMC) was under development, and the VF-1 made its debut at IMTS 1988. Priced competitively with machine tools manufactured offshore, the industry’s initial skepticism that an American-made machining center could be sold for less than $50,000 was quickly dispelled. The first Haas horizontal machining center (HMC) shipped in 1994, followed by the first Haas CNC lathe in 1995. By September 2000, the 25,000th Haas machine tool was in service (in the Chicago area). In February 2001, Haas Automation Europe—a distribution center with a showroom, service training facility, machine inventory and full spare parts inventory—opened in Brussels, Belgium. Haas Asia opened in the summer of 2003, with an open house the following spring celebrating the completion of a fully equipped distribution center. Former NTMA President Steps Down The National Tooling & Machining Association’s (NTMA) executive board has announced the resignation of the Association’s long-time president Matthew B. Coffey, which was effective January 13, 2005. Coffey has served as NTMA president for 18 years, during which he played an active government relations role representing the association on important legislation affecting the U.S. manufacturing sector. In addition, during his presidency, NTMA established valuable member affinity programs such as the Grainger discount program. He was also successful in establishing the National Tooling and Machining Foundation. “Matt gave us many years of dedicated service and did honor to our association,” said 2005 NTMA chairman, David Dysinger, president & CEO, Dysinger Inc. Dayton, OH. “He’s a good man and we will all miss him.” Two senior managers have assumed responsibility for day-to-day activities and report directly to Dysinger. Financial controller Marjorie Carson continues the supervision of accounting/budgeting functions and has taken over management of the insurance programs. Bob Akers retains his role as director of operations that includes member services and sales, marketing, education/training, technology, conventions, and administrative support. “Moving forward,” explained Dysinger, “the NTMA will continue to work on its strategic initiatives by promoting and increasing the value of membership, positioning itself as the authority on manufacturing in the global economy, and helping to preserve and strengthen the U.S. manufacturing industry.” NTMA’s executive board plans to conduct an executive search to fill the president’s position. Delcam Acquires FeatureCAM Developer EGS
Delcam has consolidated its position as the leading world-wide supplier of specialist machining software and associated services with the acquisition of the US-based CAM software specialists Engineering Geometry Systems, the developer of the FeatureCAM CADCAM software line. FeatureCAM will continue as an independent product line, developed in the USA and marketed worldwide. “The only immediate difference existing FeatureCAM users will see is a change in the company name to Delcam USA,” said Delcam’s Managing Director, Hugh Humphreys. “I am pleased that all EGS’ management and staff have agreed to stay with the company. Both companies produced record sales in 2004, so it only makes sense to continue to strengthen both product lines and aggressively market them worldwide.” Introduced in 1995, FeatureCAM was the world’s first Windows- and feature-based milling system. The product range has grown significantly to include turning, wire-EDM, mill-turn packages and feature recognition for imported CAD files. “The acquisition will help provide the additional exposure and resources necessary to move FeatureCAM to an even higher level of automation to better serve our customers,” says Glenn McMinn, President of Engineering Geometry Systems. “Delcam is an experienced player in the CAM business and, as a result, the company has a much broader reseller network with more than 150 offices in 60 countries. Being part of Delcam will help us grow our sales significantly and increase our international market share.” With this acquisition, Delcam will provide an even broader range of quality products to address the worldwide need for CAM at various price points. “We recognize the importance of the FeatureCAM brand name in the industry and its unique position. The addition of the FeatureCAM family will accelerate our sales growth by giving us strength in automated and feature-based production machining. This will complement our industry-leading products for toolmaking and other complex manufacturing operations,” commented Mr. Humphreys. “In addition, FeatureCAM’s high reputation with its users will further raise Delcam’s profile and market share in the CAM industry, especially in the important North American market.” Cygnus Expositions and (AMTDA) Sign Partnership Agreement Cygnus Expositions, a division of Cygnus Business Media, announced that it will partner with the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association (AMTDA) to co-sponsor the Northwest Industrial & Machine Tool Show and the Pacific Coast Industrial & Machine Tool Show. The 300 machine tool distributor members of AMTDA represent over 80 percent of all distribution sales in the United States. “AMTDA is a vital organization within the machine tool industry and an important link that connects builders and end-users of machine tools and related products,” says Cygnus Expositions President Jeff Price. “The support of AMTDA’s members will help to draw key exhibitors and attendees to this event.”
AMTDA’s
California Machine Tool Show merged with Cygnus’ already established Pacific
Coast Industrial & Machine Tool Show in 2003. This year the show will
celebrate 25 years. A free, comprehensive three-day conference runs concurrently with each show introducing the industry’s latest applications and innovations. The scope of each conference is designed to attract the highest level of decision makers in machine tools, manufacturing and design engineering fields. Attendees include design engineers, machinists, top-level management, production managers, facilities and maintenance personnel, and other professionals. Makino Opens California Tech Center Makino is opening a new California Tech Center in greater Los Angeles to serve as a west coast regional sales, service and applications support facility. This 12,300 square foot location in Orange County will provide the machining and manufacturing process solutions from Makino that help reduce machining cost. This new Tech Center facility will serve manufacturers in the parts productions, aerospace, automotive, medical, semiconductor, die/mold and micromachining markets. The facility will be able to support Ram and wire EDM and high-speed milling requirements in these markets, in a variety of materials. Makino is the world’s leader in hard metals cutting, and will serve to demonstrate the value of investing in Makino Technology. The new California Tech Center is located at: Makino, Inc. , 17800 Newhope Street, Suites H-L, Fountain Valley, CA 92708, Phone 714-968-9294.
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