Industry Insight 2020: Q&A with Jim King

Recently we had the opportunity to sit down with Jim King (President and COO of Okuma America Corporation) to get his thoughts on current market trends and where our industry is headed. Below are some of the highlights from our conversation. There’s one key takeaway when it comes to the future path for manufacturing: it’s ripe with opportunity for those who have the vision to chart the right course. Here we share thoughts from Jim on the state of the marketplace for the months ahead.

What are some of the key issues manufacturers should focus on in 2020?
Today the coronavirus COVID-19 has impacted travel, supply chain and almost every industry. Additionally, the Boeing 737 MAX continues to have a chilling effect on tier one suppliers down to the job shops that supply the smallest parts for Boeing. Even with the troubling news on our news feeds and cable television the rest of the market is extremely busy. Shops are looking to take advantage of manufacturing reliance on supply from China to expand their market presence.

As customers start to try to expand into new markets to fill the void of the aerospace business our short- to mid-term priority should be focused on automation. This is especially true because of the ongoing lack of skilled labor in the marketplace, which challenges our customers.

The key question is, how can shops remain competitive and continue to win new business and retain existing contracts, when they’re encumbered with significant constraints on their ability to run machines? Adding automation, whether it’s machine tending, part handling, gaging or other areas, will have the biggest impact in the near term because it provides an immediate solution.

Automation will also drive a need for more highly skilled labor to maintain these advanced types of equipment. This represents opportunity for workers. Those who update their skills and training will be able to secure higher paying jobs and a more lucrative career path.

At the same time, I think manufacturers must have apprentice programs. What I’m encouraged to see in the marketplace is more of our customers aligning themselves with technical and vocational schools, while investing in educational feeder programs in their local markets.

With IMTS 2020 on the horizon, what are you excited to see at this year’s show?
With all the uncertainty right now Okuma is hopeful that the show will go on. This could be great timing for our industry. The 2018 show had a heavy emphasis on automation, and I expect that will continue. Automation in some form will be a main theme in nearly every booth.

Okuma will continue with our large booth presence and emphasis on industry-relevant part demos. We’ll also be showing two new automation solutions called Armroid and Standroid that represent something unique into the marketplace: automation within the machines. This is a leading-edge technology for our industry right now.

Where do you think we’re headed in terms of utilizing machine data?
As we continue to evolve and learn about utilizing machine data, I believe the turning point will come in the arena of predictive and preventive maintenance (PM). Here the opportunity to monetize data is clear and immediate. When we can pull data that allows us to predict things from a PM perspective – such as imminent failure of a ball screw or a spindle – that will be a scenario shops will want to embrace.

This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) starts to become a game changer for shops. You have AI right in your machine tool that can provide a couple weeks’ notice that some form of maintenance is going to be needed. This will deliver significant savings because now you can have planned downtime instead of a surprise down machine, plus other efficiencies can come into play.

It becomes extremely relevant if your machine can start telling you that the bearings are starting to wear, or your coolant PH is getting off balance, and you may be starting to heat up parts. This is where we can start predicting performance degradation that can become expensive, and therefore the value is evident.

With AI, as we start to understand what’s really happening inside the machine, we can help our customers keep their machines running longer, more productively. This is where Industry 4.0 starts to gain a foothold.

What else are you seeing as an important trend for 2020?
There are some really interesting developments coming out in the area of remote troubleshooting. Imagine having a call on your smartphone where you and a service technician can look at things together from distant locations, pointing out and circling things on a screen. We’re working on developing these types of tools. Imagine how much time and cost you can take out of the service equation by using remote assistance. This is another area where I envision shops will create efficiencies that give them a competitive advantage.

What advice would you give shop owners for 2020?
To me the answer is simple in concept, but profound in impact: keep up with technology by making incremental investments over time. Some of the most successful shops we see are willing to invest in upgrades, in technology, in robots, barcode readers, scheduling software, tool presetting…the list goes on. There are so many things you can do to streamline your processes, but it takes a mindset of investing along the way.

If you’re a job shop, it can be unrealistic to think you’re going to make a sudden large leap like automating your entire plant in a short time frame. But you can make incremental improvements to your “turtle technology” that will carry you forward. As an example, this might mean having a vision that says, “OK, with our next machine tool purchase we’re going to make sure it’s automation-ready so we can easily add a robot when the time is right.”

It’s important to envision where you’re “growing”, so the path is intentional and you’re building for the future, even if the future doesn’t get here right away. What I see time and time again is, the shops that do this are the winners