A: I appreciate your question. Over the last decade, I have presented a two-day training workshop on "Forging Technology -Achieving Continuous Improvement in the Forge Shop," at 17 different firms, and from one to seven times at each firm. I developed the first of these workshops while I was director of technology at FIA, and then presented customized versions after retiring from there in 1996. The customized versions were directed to: warm forgers, hot forgers, cold forgers, upsetter shops, press shops, hammer shops, ring rolling shops, etc. The focus of these workshops was tailored to the interests of the individual plants.
I have sent you an outline gives details on the topics I have covered in the workshops. About 10 of the topics would fill a two-day training session. The goal would be to have hourly and first-line supervisors present, since they are the intended audience of these workshops. I have leaned that as employees know more about the way they can make good parts, and also to identify when the quality of the parts is beginning to become questionable, the problems can be uncovered faster, and corrected. Waiting for an inspector to find defects often is too late. Worse still is when the defect is found at the customer's plant.
For more than 40 years H. James Henning held key technical positions in the forging industry, including as director of technology for the Forging Industry Association, and as president of Henning Education Services, a Columbus, OH, firm specializing in customized education and training in forging technologies.
Guidelines and recommendations offered in this column are based on information believed to be reliable and are supplied in good faith but without guarantee. Operational conditions that exist in individual plants and facilities vary widely. Users of this information should adapt it, and always exercise independent discretion in establishing plant or facility operating practice.