b'labor costs and improve the qualitytime of global economic disruption. chine shops to be in contact with of manufactured parts. The informa- Decision-makers have realizedpotential customers that have been tion revolution led to CNC and ro- that lean, flexible manufacturingout of reach. Give a fair price and botics. I started as a machinist andand 10,000-mile-long supply chainsquality with service that they cant shop owner in 1977 with a manualare incompatible. Its time for ma- get offshore.CTEmill and lathe. What I can do today with CNC tools is amazing from the perspective of 1977.In the United States, the labor content as a percentage of manu-facturing costs has decreased con-tinuously since 1980. I believe that the tipping point occurred around 2010, when the labor costs saved from offshoring became equal to the incurred costs of the global supply chain. Since then, the re-shoring of manufacturing has gathered pace.Automation has kept reducing the labor content of machines and components, so supply chain strat-egy has been reconsidered. Sourc-ing parts or assemblies from coun-tries where the rule of law is weak or, worse, where the government actively steals intellectual prop-erty has lost economic justifica-tion. Physically long supply chains have reliability issues and inherentULTIMATE EDGE STABILITY monetary costs. A supplier locatedIN CNC GRINDING across town who speaks the sameOF ROUND TOOLSlanguage both linguistically and cul-turally is bound to be more respon- Norton Winter V-PRIME has been designed to sive than a supplier located in a dif- provide excellent edge stability in gashing and clearance angle grinding of round ferent country who thinks that notools. Combining the extreme edge stability means maybe. of a hybrid or metal bond with the free cutting and easy to dress properties of Then came the pandemic. Manu- a standard resin bond, V-Prime offers facturers need to be nimble in thisincreased output and improved quality.about the author Brandt Taylor is owner of Berlin, Massachusetts-based Taylor Engineering, a machine shop and manufacturer of lathe chuck jaws. He can beLearn more at https://nortonsga.us/vprimereached at 978-838-2979. ctemag.com/cteguide.com13 MachinistCorner.indd 13 11/13/20 10:55 AM'