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“Dirty floors and oily machines?” “That’s my grandpa’s age,” said Yuchieh Lou, a student from Harper College. Manufacturing students from Harper College in Palatine, Illinois received first-hand exposure to today’s manufacturing as a high tech field and hopefully, are considering manufacturing as a viable career option. On Wednesday, April 6^th, 14 students who are enrolled in the Manufacturing Technology Program at Harper College visited OSG’s carbide tooling factory in Bensenville for a field trip.  This was conducted as part of OSG’s ongoing Manufacturing Day programs to inspire and support the next generation of manufacturing personnel.

Students started the day hearing presentations about OSG and available career paths. Our HR Generalist, Paul Wilhelm, explained to the students that the retirement of baby boomers is opening up positions for the younger generations in manufacturing. However, it is also creating a skills gap between the skills manufacturers are losing but require and the skills younger people have. Today’s manufacturers require new personnel to have more expertise in manufacturing such as STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematic) skills at an earlier stage of their career to close this gap. 

The students also learned about OSG products through tooling demonstrations in our R&D center. Lukasz Gaca, Machining Applications Engineer at OSG, showed various OSG tools in action. Students also tried hand tapping in a block of aluminum to provide them with some hands on experience with tapping tools.

“One of the exciting things about manufacturing is to create something from raw material,” said Dan Jack Combs, a Harper College student. 

After the tooling demonstrations, the students were taken on a plant tour. They were able to see OSG’s manufacturing floor in action with more than 60 CNC machines and in-house coating vessels for patented OSG CVD Diamond and AlTiN/TiAlN coating.

“From this visit, I realized that modern manufacturing does require higher technical skills,” said Billy Tsiveriotis, a Harper College student.

Harper College’s manufacturing department focuses on career readiness using a combination of classroom theory and hands on training with state-of-the-art machines that students will likely to encounter in the industry.

“Our goal in the manufacturing program at Harper College is to improve the caliber of students coming out of the program and getting hired by manufactures,” said Aaron Kolb, an instructor of the Manufacturing Technology Program at Harper College. “Manufacturing has become a high-tech career path with many options, and we work hard to make sure our curriculum matches the needs of manufacturers.”

OSG’s production team is hopeful and excited about the future of manufacturing as they interacted with the student and experienced their motivation and interest in manufacturing.

“Some of the students asked me what constitutes the best employees,” said Chuck Abate, Plant Manager of the OSG Bensenville factory. “I stressed teamwork, integrity and ability to continually learn in addition to technical skills.”

In order to help students get additional experiences and prepare for their manufacturing career, OSG offers an internship program at the Bensenville factory.

1. Composites helmets

A new helmet made of composites, Half Cap, was introduced to Major League Baseball (MLB) for its 2016 Spring Training. Boombang, a company based out of Los Angeles, developed the Half Cap which is constructed with fiber composite, an advanced energy-absorbing impact layer, a foam liner and a breathable moisture-wicking cover. About 20 pitchers are trying out the new helmet during training camp.

Photo Credit: Composites Manufacturing

2. Storm proof house with composites

Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ won the 2015 Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon by designing and constructing “SURE HOUSE” to prevent damage from hurricanes. They incorporated shutters made of composites for “SURE HOUSE” which was the biggest challenge for them. Not only did the shutter have to be lightweight, but also easy to pull down and lock in case of a storm. Utilizing composite materials was their solution as they provide high strength while being lightweight.

Photo Credit: Composites Manufacturing

3. Composites could detect bombs

A new type of fiber composite was developed by the engineers at the University of Utah to make a portable scanner for detecting alkane vapor (an ingredient of gasoline, airplane fuel and a homemade bomb). According to them, the only thing available currently for detecting alkane is a large heavy device in a lab. In order to make the portable scanner, they developed a new type of fiber composite with two nanofibers that transfers electrons from one to the other, but when there is alkane, alkane adheres to the materials and prevents electrons to transfer between the materials. The newly developed composite materials will be utilized in the sensor array of the portable scanner.

Photo Credit: Composites Manufacturing

Sources:

http://compositesmanufacturingmagazine.com/2016/03/major-league-baseball-players-could-benefit-from-protective-composites/?utm_source=Real%20Magnet&utm_medium=Publication&utm_term=Industry%20Digest%20-%203/7/16&utm_content=Major%20League%20Baseball%20players%20use%20composites%20at%20Spring%20Training%202016!&utm_campaign=Industry%20Digest

http://compositesmanufacturingmagazine.com/2016/02/building-a-storm-proof-house-with-composites/

http://compositesmanufacturingmagazine.com/2016/04/utah-composite-material-detect-bombs/

Photo credit: ©Todd Winters, All Rights Reserved

Annually, a 401(k) magazine, PLANSPONSOR, honors leading companies that offer the best retirement plans. The magazine announced the winners of the 2016 plan sponsors of the year awards. OSG is the winner of the asset class 25 million to 50 million in the Corporate 401(k) category!

What exactly is the Plan Sponsor of the Year Award?

Each year the PLANSPONSOR magazine recognizes the finalists of the 401(k) plan sponsors in 6 asset classes, and determines the winners for each class. In order to be considered for the finalists, 401(k) plan sponsors have to be nominated by financial advisors. We were nominated by our partner, Dan Peluse from Wintrust. This year, the PLANSONPOSIR magazine received 300 nominations and selected 5 finalists per asset class. OSG was one of the 5 finalists in the 25 million to 50 million asset class and we were chosen as the winner of the asset class!

OSG’s 401 (k) plan design and retirement preparedness

Total plan assets/participants: $ 25.1 million/440

Participation rate: 96.3%

Average deferral rate: 8%

Default deferral rate: 6%

Employer contribution: 100% on 6%

At OSG, all employees including new hires are automatically enrolled at 6%. Employees are able to adjust their deferral rate, but we utilize an auto-escalation system which increases deferral rate of each employee by 1% at the beginning of each year. This increase happens at the same time with the annual salary increase, so that employees see the small changes in their paycheck.  Any employees who are contributing less than 6% are re-enrolled at 6% at the beginning of the year.

OSG’s 401 (k) plan was carefully selected and designed by its 401 (k) Committee. The committee members include:  Jeff Tennant, the Chief Financial Officer, David Kwon, the Executive Vice President, Kelly Turk, Compensation and Benefits Specialist, Jennie Stephens, the Corporate HR Manager and Donna Gialo, the Business Intelligence Manager.

Turk said “our mission is to promote and encourage employees to achieve their financial savings goals by providing a flexible plan design, a variety of education options guidance tools and investment choices.”

In October, we hosted a Financial Wellness Fair with our financial advisor, Wintrust, to help our employees better understand financial planning. We went over 529 College Savings, budgeting, estate planning and social security, and employees were able to ask questions to our financial advisors.  

Responsibility to support employees

As our parent company, OSG Corporation, is based out of Japan, we inherit their Japanese value of protecting and taking care of our employees. In this sense, we are responsible for supporting our employees by providing resources for financial wellness and retirement. In exchange, we are rewarded with long-term employees who are dedicated, and bring in valuable skills and knowledge to grow our business.

“It is a generous plan compared to what I hear in the market,” said Dan Dimenza who has worked for OSG for 36 years.

Anna Oczkowski has worked for OSG for over 8 years. She found OSG’s Financial Wellness Fair very beneficial.

“We have a lot of questions about financial wellness and retirement, but we do not really get an opportunity to ask,” Oczkoswki. “At OSG Financial Wellness Fair, I was able to get answers to all of my questions and I feel more clear idea for my retirement planning.”

Learn more about the award from here. 

Feeling lucky? Try your luck with our St. Patrick’s Day raffle for an Amazon Echo!

How to Enter

• Take a picture showing your St. Patrick’s day spirit (Picture of you, your awesome t-shirt or anything green) 

• Post the picture as a comment on our contest post

• Only one entry per person

Submission Period

• Submission period begins at 12pm on March 17^th and ends on 9pm on March 17^th (CT)

• You must post a picture on our contest post during the submission period to be entered into a raffle

Eligibility

• Our sweepstakes is open to legal residents of United States

Prize

• Grand prize: 1 Amazon Echo (It will be shipped from our IL office)

• Amazon Echo is a wireless speaker/voice command device

Winner Selection

• One winner will be randomly selected from the submissions

• The winner will be announced by noon on Friday, March 18^th (CT)  

• Announcement of the winner and instructions to receive a prize will be done through the contest post on Facebook

• You are responsible for monitoring your Facebook account for winner notification

• If the original winner does not respond to our message within 2 days, or if the prize is returned to us as undeliverable, that original winner will forfeit the prize and another winner will be chosen

Facebook is not sponsoring, endorsing or administering this sweepstakes and Facebook cannot be held liable for anything related to this sweepstakes.

Did you know that some college students design and manufacture mini-baja vehicles and submarines? Not only do these students take engineering classes, but also they get to implement their knowledge by designing, machining parts and assembling a vehicle. We at OSG believe that such opportunities to actually manufacture a complete vehicle will inspire these future manufacturers and will develop their skills and creativity.

To help these students in their efforts to manufacture these vehicles, OSG donated over $30,000 in new cutting tools to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Mini-Baja Racing Team at Purdue University and the Human Powered Submarine Team at the University of Michigan.

“Through our tooling donations to the Purdue University’s Mini-Baja Racing Team and the University of Michigan’s Human Powered Submarine Team, we hope to help these engineers better understand metal cutting through the use and applications of OSG’s advanced and innovative cutting tools,” said Mike Cotton, Marketing Manager at OSG.

The SAE Mini-Baja Racing Team at Purdue University designs, manufactures and races a one-person off-road vehicle.  The team participates in three regional competitions annually. The Human Powered Submarine Team at the University of Michigan also designs and fabricates their submarines to participate in national and international competitions.

Students of the Mini-Baja Racing Team and the Human Powered Submarine Team received the tooling donations last week, and they are getting ready to install the tools in their machines. 

“These end mills are very high quality, and we are excited to put them to good use,” said Tasha Gillum, a student from the University of Michigan’s Human Powered Submarine Team.

We were glad to see the students open the boxes of new tooling with big smiles on their faces. Seeing them excited to use our tools made us realize how important it is for us to be a part of educating manufacturing students. We continue to actively work with technical colleges and universities to demonstrate our commitment to inspire the next generation of manufacturers.   

Our very own, Scott Daggett, better known as an OSG aerospace expert, will be presenting “Milling High Speed vs. Surface Finish in Composites” at AeroDef in Long Beach, California on Wednesday, February 10^th. AeroDef is the most recognized trade show in the aerospace industry where numerous aerospace innovations are presented.

During Scott’s presentation, he will compare various common and commercially available end mills and routers for composites. By examining various geometries, attendees will learn which style of end mills and routers are the best for achieving high feed rates, superior surface finish and lower cutting temperature. Scott’s presentation will assist you in choosing right the geometries for machining specific types of composites.

Scott has been with OSG for 16 years and has diverse experience providing customer support, training and developing products. He has previously spoken at AeroDef, AeroCon, Boeing Symposium and IMTS. Currently as a National Aerospace Specialist, he will be hosting OSG’s 2016 Aerospace Seminars which cover composites and high temp alloys.

Scott’s AeroDef presentation will begin at 3PM on Wednesday, February 10^th in room S-7 during the Machining & Drilling of Composites session. Be sure to also stop by OSG’s booth #237 to speak with our industry experts and learn about our latest innovations!

OSG USA, INC. announced that it has acquired the assets and proprietary manufacturing technology of IMU Dies. Effective immediately, OSG is the exclusive source for IMU branded dies globally.

“IMU has produced and sold dies for almost 40 years, so we are excited to now be able to sell them as an OSG brand and manufacture them at our fastener products plant in Parma, Ohio,” said Mike Grantham, President of OSG USA. 

Customers can order IMU branded dies by contacting OSG USA at the following:

OSG USA, INC.

12502 Plaza Drive

Parma, OH 44130

Phone: (216) 267-1300

(800) 533-1300

FAX: (216) 267-3356

OSG Corporation held a press conference today at the Hotel Arc Riche Toyohashi to announce its sponsorship with Astroscale, a Singapore-based private space company founded in 2013, on the world’s very first in-situ micro satellite “IDEA OSG 1” to collect and monitor data on sub-millimeter sized debris in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) region in real-time.

The mission of the “IDEA OSG 1” sponsorship aims to contribute to the sustainable use of the space environment by actively developing solutions against space debris. OSG’s corporate tagline “shaping your dreams” summarizes its passion for new challenges and commitment to assist clients accomplish their goals. With the new “IDEA OSG 1” mission, OSG strives to utilize its know-how and resources to protect the environment beyond earth, shaping your dreams for space.

Featured Employee: John Taylor

Title: Pacific Northwest District Manager

Tenure with OSG: 3 years

John Taylor was named OSG’s 2015 Salesman of the Year. He is a rookie with just 3 years of experience in sales at OSG. You are probably wondering if he really has what it takes to be the top salesman. What makes him different is that he utilizes various people to further his knowledge. When he wasn’t making calls and customer visits, he listened and asked questions. Yes, it is that simple.

For John, a coffee break with a colleague can turn into a training session. “One time I spent 3 hours at Starbucks with an indexable expert from OSG to learn milling techniques, trouble shooting and calculations without realizing how many hours have passed,” said John.  He believes that’s how he gets better at selling even if it requires tremendous time and effort. “I pushed myself out of the comfort zone to grow through failures and successes,” said John.

This top salesman doesn’t stop pushing himself further. He is already on a mission to achieve his next goal. “I would like to become an expert in indexable tooling,” said John. “Its versatility and complexity of the industry excites me.”