he procession of gloom is endless. Every day, the television news and newspaper front pages report heart-wrenching stories of people out of work, of staggering unemployment statistics. The pandemic-fed fall in the economy has affected people that are seemingly immune to hard times. Not unnoticed are the bizarre images of families queueing up for free food boxes in their Mercedes-Benz or BMW SUVs.

And yet, there is the sense that a turnaround is in the offing. Current national unemployment is in the 10-percent range, a considerable improvement from just a month ago. Congress is wrestling over another financial stimulus, with some factions claiming that more stimulus money is a disincentive to work. But recent studies by both Yale University and the University of Chicago have shown that this is not the case, and people receiving stimulus payments are still in the job market. Americans, by and large, are spending on basics and necessities, delaying discretionary purchases and accumulating cash.

FOR OVER 40 YEARS, WB Indus-tries has manufactured custom machined and metal fabricated parts, tooling and equipment for a wide variety of industries, applying customer-specific requirements and working to several industry standards, such as NASA, Boeing, AMS, AISC, IBC, ASTM and MIL.

“We build things that solve certain logistic problems—equipment designed with the goal of moving things from one place to another effectively,” says Gary Bertolucci, president of the O’Fallon, Missouri-based fabricator.

ith a collection of presses ranging from a 15-ton mechanical press to a 600-ton hydraulic press, Synergy Prototype Stamping LLC can take on an order for a single part or 100,000 units. For customers in search of sources for low-volume production, it can be difficult to find companies that won’t charge high prototype piece prices or huge tooling expenses seen for high-volume jobs.

A manufacturer of aftermarket off-road vehicle parts turned to Synergy to manage parts from start to finish. “We can buy turnkey with finished weldments, fully coated and inspected and ready for our final packaging. That saves us time and additional management on our end,” says an engineering product manager at an off-road aftermarket vehicle part manufacturer.

he American Welding Society predicts the U.S. could see a shortage of 400,000 skilled welders by 2024. Older welders are reaching retirement age at a high rate while younger welders are not filling the gap fast enough. Experts suggest a couple courses of action to help solve the problem.

First, companies need to do more to entice younger people to consider the trades as an option to a four-year college education. Secondly, manufacturers and fabricators should look more closely at the latest advanced automation. FIM opted for the latter.

hen lead times ballooned from two days to more than two weeks, Ergonomic Solutions Inc. (ESI) in Wichita, Kansas, decided to invest in its own plasma cutter. “We engineer parts for customers and lead times are important,” says Bill Schnittker, president. “We realized if we had our own high-definition plasma, we could finish parts ourselves and not rely on outside sources.”

ESI installs, engineers and manufacturers custom material handling products. It also serves as a dealer for everything from jib cranes and hoists to storage racks and automated guided vehicle systems.