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The Stuttgart fastener show is taking place this week.  I have never been to the show but I have heard a lot of people talk about it so I decided to dig in a little and find out a little bit more about it.  I went to the Stuttgart Show website and did a little exploring.  It was interesting.

If you were to look at the list of exhibitors, heck, you’d think the show was held in a foreign country or something. 🙂  I found only ten exhibitors listed as attending from the U.S.  Of those, there were only two fastener suppliers – Alloy & Stainless and Elgin Fastener Group.  There were two U.S. based fastener news agencies – Fastener Tech International and Global Fastener News.  Several of the other U.S. based firms deal in tooling or inspection including Mectron Engineering, Phillips Screw, R.T.M.Products, Vlier Products and Wrenthan Tool Group.  Last but not least, the NFDA is listed as an exhibitor for the show.

A couple familiar names on the list, Brighton Best and Earnest Machine, are represented by their UK branches and they are not registered as U.S. based companies.

I’m sure many other U.S. based companies are sending people over there to either explore the show or to visit or look for suppliers.  Our friend Daniel Rivalin from Bazibaza has let us know via Twitter that he will be at the show and has promised to post a few reports.  I’m sure John Wolz and Mike McNulty will be providing coverage through their trade magazines and social media sites.  It still strikes me that U.S. based suppliers have challenges breaking into the European market or I think you would see more of them exhibiting there.  Also, I imagine there are still a few barriers because of our continued use of inch product while I’m guessing just about everything in Europe is metric except maybe replacement parts on old machines.

There are numerous other fastener shows all over the world and I imagine the U.S. based suppliers are about equally involved in those shows.  We have our shows like the Vegas Show, Fastener Tech’15, the All American Fastener Show and several regional table tops.  Rather than travel overseas, I see more U.S. based suppliers participating in customer specific shows like the Fastenal trade show or those put on by Grainger or Endries.  I understand why the customer based shows are popular and valuable but it still seems like it would be interesting to put up a booth in Stuttgart just even for one year.  I hope someone attending the Stuttgart show can comment on whether or not there would be value to more U.S. based manufacturers making that trip and setting up a booth in Stuttgart.  Maybe that is something the NFDA visitors are exploring and will be able to comment on.

and Cardinal Fasteners shutting down….the Vegas Show booth layout is going to look a bit different.

And it’s only early March.

I was trying watch LeBron James and Steph Curry as the Cleveland Cavaliers played the Golden State Warriors, when my wife asked me, “what color is this dress”?

“What?”

“What colors do you see in this picture?  What color is the dress?”

“Gold and white.  Why?”

“You see gold and white?  I see blue and….”

So it went.  My wife told me later I that I snapped at her for interrupting the game (and, I might have) but I had no idea why she was asking me about some dress.  Next day, the news, Twitter, Facebook, you name it…they were all talking about the color of some striped dress.  I still don’t get it, really.  But, once I realized how quickly this phenomenon spread, I quickly thought, “Wow, think of the publicity for the company or website that sells this dress???”  Why was this dress thing so popular?

Why was the ice bucket challenge so popular?  I get that it was for a really good cause, but how on earth did that whole thing just take off like wildfire?  There was not anything really fantastic about either the dress or the ice bucket drop, so why did those particular things catch people’s attention?

And then, almost immediately, I thought, “Can you imagine how much it would cost to try to pay for this kind of advertising?”

Somehow I stumbled across an article on the Huffington Post by Andy Campbell regarding the striped dress.  According to this article, this image was originally posted by a 21 year old singer named Caitlin McNeill who was arguing with friends about whether it was gold and white or blue and black.  I read down, and found that the dress is by Roman Originals, and, according to the article, the company DOES know its garment is now famous.  You think this has been good for their business??  I would think so.

These types of stories that go viral can appeal to just about anyone on social media.  Trying to sell products into the industrial marketplace, it would seem much more difficult to capture the attention of a target audience.  But, what if you could come up with a way to get a bunch of people to your website by having a story go viral.  Nucor or Ifastgroupe should have taken pictures of hex cap screws and asked, “what color are the threads?”  Threads look like stripes.  Imagine if a creative distributor came up with and ad or picture that would draw millions of people to their website.  Want to tap into foreign markets?  Don’t hire a consultant, come up with logo that goes viral.

Send me your ideas, I’ll get them posted and let’s see if we can get something to go Fastener Viral.

Several of the fastener industry publications do a nice job of using Twitter to publicize articles from their sites or magazines.  I was just scrolling down Twitter and saw Bazibaza Tweeting links to articles from their site, which seems to happen pretty often on Sunday evenings.  LINK frequently put up links (no pun intended) to articles from their most recent publication, and Fastener News Desk has made an art form out of this with more Twitter links than most.  Yet, the one that caught my eye this morning was a Tweet from Global Fastener News.  The link was to an article, “47 Years Later, Articles Give Glimpse of NFDA’s Role in Industry History”.   I’m not entirely sure why I clicked on this one as I am not an NFDA member, but it turned out to be a pleasant surprise.  Rather than talking about the NFDA, Global Fastener News listed 30 different news headlines from past articles that had some connection to the NFDA.  The dates of the articles ranged from 1979 to 2014, and by clicking on the headline you could pull up the old articles.

The first headline from 1979 stated “329 Attend NFDA Autumn Meeting”.  329 to a meeting??  Wow, that better than most regional trade shows.  Very interesting.

The next article from 1983 read “10 Fastener Associations Representing 1,000 Companies with 30,000 Employees Hold First Joint Meeting”.  So, our industry has been trying to do this since 1983??  The Fastener Industry Coalition (FIC) is still working on this today.  Check out their website at www.fastenercoaliton.org to see more about this organization and their current efforts at “working together” as the 1983 article put it.

The list of headlines was like a walk down fastener memory lane.  A 1994 article headlined “Marbacher & Unferth:  Metric is Coming” made me smile.  I remember the countless “Metric is Simple” seminars I sat through with Bruno Marbacher, back when Bossard, Metric & Multistandard and maybe Zeleda were the major metric suppliers.  While two of those companies were absorbed into other companies, Metric & Multistandard is still around supplying fastener distributors with those pesky, difficult to find metric parts.

How about this one from 2002: “Why Does The Internet Scare Distributors?”  In 2003, there was an article “Enter the Dragon:  China Emerges as Industrial Superpower”.  Yeah, I’d say that article accurately foreshadowed some things to come.    As recently as 2006 there was an NFDA panel discussion that caused FIN to write the headline, “NFDA Panelists:  No Question About Globalization”.  You think?? But it 2006, I guess there must have been questions about this before the panel set everyone straight.

Almost all of the major fastener industry publications do a nice job of using Twitter to direct readers to specific articles.  I enjoy reading from all of them, including Fastener Technology International and American Fastener Journal, which I had not mentioned earlier.  But, for looking back at fastener history, I have found Global Fastener News to be particularly enjoyable.  And, I suppose as I grow older and have more history in the fastener business, these articles become more interesting.  Nostalgia!!  Please let me know if the other publications have similar archival capabilities because I do find it enjoyable to look back and see what has changed and what continues to stay the same.

Just saw a link to an Industrial Distribution magazine article saying that Anixter’s fastener division has been sold for $380M to American Industrial Partners.  Let the google searches begin!

Global Fastener News reported this week that Fastenal intends to develop an abandoned industrial site in Indianapolis, Indiana and start producing fasteners that they currently import from Thailand.  I know they manufacture parts in Winona near their headquarters and they also own Holo-Krome so this is another interesting development from one of the industry’s more powerful distribution companies.   It is always nice to see more product being made domestically and the Fastenal people are smart, so it must make financial sense for them to do this.  I will be interested to hear what kinds of parts they intend to make at this new facility.

At this particular moment in time, I’m guessing that Fastenal wishes they already had this plant up and producing.  I just read an article, dated February 5, that quoted the Pacific Maritime Association President, James McKenna, as saying the “union-led work slowdowns could shut down the 29 U.S. West Coast ports in five to 10 days”.    If you are not feeling the impact of this development yet, keep close tabs on how this is affecting the material flow from your suppliers of import products.  If you directly import yourself, you already are feeling the affects.  Domestic manufacturers should have a unique opportunity to run fill in orders during this period.  Distributors need to get out that list of cold headers and other manufacturers and keep them handy in case of emergencies.

Speaking of domestic manufacturers, I just had the opportunity to tour The Auto Bolt factory in Cleveland, Ohio.  It was a terrific tour and I have posted a few pictures on the Photo section of this site.  Thank you to the North Coast Fastener Association for setting up this tour.  On the topic of fastener associations, I recently got a copy of the current Fastener World magazine, and the Pac-West organization had a news release about their upcoming Spring Conference.  I found this interesting for a number of reasons.  First, it was the only U.S. based regional fastener organization with a news release in the entire 565 page magazine, so give credit to Vickie Lester for getting that advertisement out there.  Secondly, the overall coverage of the U.S. market is kind of a hodgepodge of articles and news snippets.  One specific article was a report that Fastenal was moving its branch location in Sydney, Ohio to a 40% larger facility.  Hmm, interesting, but not quite the news breaker that they plan to soon be manufacturing in Indianapolis.  It just seemed like kind of a small news item to be reported on in the international fastener magazine.  Fastener World is a 565 page magazine filled with colorful ads and every kind of fastener imaginable.  It is interesting to get the Fastener World perspective on the world market and the Asian market in particular.  If anyone from Fastener World reads this site, I enjoy your magazine and glad I get my copy. Also, if you would like a contribution from the U.S. side of the fastener business from a slightly unconventional source, just give me the word and I’m there for you!

I keep getting a lot of interesting reading from various websites, publications and Twitter fed stories.  Almost too much to get through but fortunately these things come to me and I do not have to go searching for them.

First, I read in Kiplinger Report an interesting comment on lower gas prices.  The report said, “Cheaper oil is effectively a tax cut, worth $100 billion to consumers this year.  Generally, each penny decline in retail gasoline prices adds $1.4 billion in purchasing power to the economy if it is sustained over the course of a year”.  Of course, I am already seeing prices creep back up in my area, but the facts are still pretty staggering.  That’s a lot of money that goes back into the economy.

Next, an article from Autocar Professional’s January 21, 2015 issue caught my attention.  Nothing that we have not heard about before but this headline was still quite interesting –  “India poised to drive ahead of China as world’s fastener growing economy: IMF”.  The article states that India is set to become the world’s fastest growing major economy by 2016-2017, which is right around the corner.  It notes, “The slowing Chinese economy is grappling with overcapacity in its export-dependent manufacturing sector and also bearing the brunt of slowing orders from Europe”.

You might be able to find the entire article if you go looking but I will make things easier for you.  I somehow crossed paths with an industry site called strategise.in which is a leading Global B2B Marketplace & Sourcing Platform for the fastener industry based in India.  Their site had many interesting articles and links and is worth checking out.

Finally, I stumbled across an article in Industry Week titled “The False Narrative of the US Manufacturing Renaissance” which suggested that while some companies have moved manufacturing back to the U.S., there were still 15,000 fewer manufacturing establishments in 2013 than there were in 2007.  The article references a report from Harry Moser of the Reshoring Initiative (an often mentioned resource on Fully Threaded Radio) that stated that “at present around 30,000 to 40,000 manufacturing jobs are reshored while 30,000 to 50,ooo jobs are offshored annually.  This is still a vast improvement from the 2000’s when the U.S. offshored as many as 150,000 annually but we still have a ways to go.  One last quote, “To be sure, U.S. manufacturing has been growing since 2010, adding 520,00 jobs and expanding 2.4% in real value added growth.  But, almost all of this growth represents cyclical recovery from the lows of the Great Recession”.

OK, well with all that being said I will add one more comment.  Each Friday, there are several fastener industry members who use Twitter to communicate and discuss random topics.  The topics change each week but this week’s was “How’s business so far in 2015?”  Short and sweet when you have 140 characters to work with.  There were maybe 15-20 responses this morning and every one of them was very positive with many reports of significant sales growth.  If the fastener industry is a barometer of what is in store for the economy, then this would indicate things should be very good in the upcoming months.  If you are new to Twitter, search #fastlink and you can pickup and join in the conversation.

As most of you know, I have participated in the FTI training courses both in person and on their webinar.  Without hesitation, I would like to share with you their 2015 Webinar Schedule:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 5, 2015

2015 FTI Webinar Schedule

The Fastener Training Institute is pleased to announce our Fastener Product Training Webinar schedule for the first half of 2015.

Carmen Vertullo will return as our guide through this continuing series of high-content instructional webinars. Carmen is the founder of CarVer Consulting, a San Diego-based consulting, engineering and training company specializing in fasteners and bolted joints. He is a primary trainer at FTI and he holds a BS in Manufacturing Engineering Technology from National University, San Diego, CA.

We began these web-based programs late last year and were very pleased with the high interest and great attendance. These interactive webinars are 60 minutes in length plus a 30 minute Q & A period. All you need is a computer with high speed internet access.

Here’s the schedule:

Friday January 23^rd                              Understanding Fastener Materials – Beyond the Basics

Friday February 20^th                            The Use, Misuse and Abuse of Washers – Types, styles and applications

Friday March 13, 20 & 27^th                Fastener Basics – A Three Parts Series – You asked for it and we’re responding

Friday April 17^th                                   Choosing the Correct Strength of Fastener – When is too much not a good thing?

Friday May 22^nd                                    The Right Torque & When it’s not – A primer for all and introduction to our advanced class

Friday June 19^th                                    Vibration Resistant Fasteners – OK, Now It’s tight but how to keep it that way

Webinars begin promptly at 11:00 AM PST. To register, please visit http://www.fastenertraining.org/webinars/  for details.

We are working on the webinar schedule for the second half of the year. We would love to get your suggestions for future programs. Please contact Jo Morris, [email protected] with any ideas, comments or questions about our classes.

In addition to our new web-based training, FTI will be offering our traditional in-person fastener product training classes. There will be over 30 classes in 10 cities throughout the US. Please visit http://www.fastenertraining.org/events/ to find a class for you!

“The objective of the Fastener Training Institute is to elevate the level of technical understanding and expertise of the individuals in the fastener industry by providing a variety of training programs presented by industry experts. Our core purpose is to enhance fastener use, reliability and safety by providing product training at all levels”.

I just finished Tony Robbins’ newest book, “Money: Master The Game”.  You know Tony Robbins, the high energy coach, author, guru.  Hard to describe him.  Anyways, this guy has access to anyone and everyone so when he writes a book about a topic, needless to say he gets to interview and pick the brains of some above average individuals.  The book was very good.  I actually learned a lot.  But, this post is not about the book.

Near the end of the book, Tony Robbins wrote a section about technological advancements that will be shaping our lives in the future.  The chapter title is “The Future Is Brighter Than You Think”.  This chapter alone was worth reading. But, on page 561, in his discussions on 3-D printing, he included the following:

“Perhaps even more importantly, NASA has partnered with America Makes, a network of 3-D printing companies, to sponsor a worldwide competition to address one of humanity’s greatest challenges; the need for shelter especially emergency shelter, in times of natural disaster such as hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes.  Imagine 3-D printers printing out homes on the spot, using local materials in hours, not months.”

Did Mr. Robbins just say “America Makes”??  We were just there with the North Coast Fastener Association doing a tour that was set up by our good friends from Hudson Fastener and the team at Fastener News Desk (Twitter @FastenerNews).  How ironic.  International best selling author and personal coach Tony Robbins sneaks in a comment on America Makes.   We even had former Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel speak to us before the tour (the newly elected college football hall of fame member, Jim Tressel).  I guess the Hudson Fastener team must have a research staff comparable to that of Tony Robbins – or at least they are on the same wavelength.

The book is good and worth reading.  But the paragraph on page 561 reminded me to once again to thank Lisa, Cris and Shelby of Hudson Fasteners for all their hard work setting up the tour.