 |
|
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
President's Message
Larry Difatta
President of Granco Clark
As they say at Disneyworld, “It’s a small world, after all.”
ET ’08 in Orlando brought together exhibitors and attendees from more than 50 countries around the world, all eager to show and see the best in extrusion. Even ET’s theme, “A World of Ideas”, reflected just how global this expo has become.
There were lots of great presentations at ET, but one that really hit home for me was Mike Mullane’s keynote speech. Mullane, a former NASA astronaut, talked about the cause of the 1986 Challenger disaster: the failure of an O-ring seal, which triggered the space shuttle’s complete disintegration.
The seal’s failure came with plenty of warning: there had been evidence of damage to O-ring seals on 14 out of 24 previous missions. But NASA had never gone back to re-evaluate or correct the issue. This flaw had become accepted as standard design.
The Challenger disaster could have been prevented if the problems with the seals hadn’t been rationalized as “normal”. As Mullane summed up the key take-away, “Don’t normalize deviation.”
It’s an important message for every business, and one we take to heart at Granco Clark. We’ve staked our reputation on quality and reliability: equipment that delivers maximum performance day in and day out, year after year.
We recognize even the smallest details of our technologies’ design and fabrication can have a lasting impact on long-term performance. That’s why, for example, you’ll find Granco Clark furnaces that are two or three decades old in plants around the world, still performing reliably.
In this issue of Profiles, you’ll read about our growing Chinese operation. As we’ve expanded in a new country, we’ve had to make changes, of course—adapt to a new culture, adjust to new ways of doing business. The way we build our equipment, though, remains the same. Equipment that comes from our China facility is held to the same standards as equipment from our Belding plant. Cutting corners isn’t an option.
No one can predict exactly how our industry might change by the time the next ET rolls around four years from now. But one thing you can count on is the same performance and productivity from any Granco Clark equipment—no matter where in the world you find it!
Two-Piece Billets are History!
BENCHMARKS: The Ninth International Extrusion Technology Seminar, ET '08 Part I
Granco Clark Exhibits at ET '08, Presents Two Technical Papers
The Granco Clark Hot Saw: A Clear-Cut Advantage
President's Message: Same Performance – Anywhere in the World
Profiles: Serving the information needs of the international aluminum extrusion community
