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In my estimation, for years Oakley was simply THE MILL! Oakley was Cincinnati Milling Machine. A couple of other companies such as Williamson Furnace also made their mark there, but by and large it was a blue-collar town from the get-go.
So when I hear Oakley now mentioned in the same breath as Hyde Park, I have to chuckle. Cincinnati Milacron's demise was not their fault. It was the US government's fault for letting the foreign competition come in and devastate them while operating under a government sponsored aura which was illegal in the US.
As I look back, THE MILL was the largest. But those of us who grew up in the machine tool business recognize LeBlond, American Tool Works, Lodge & Shipley. GAA Gray, Cincinnati Shaper, Cincinnati Incorporated near Harrison, Fosdick, Avey Drilling machines in KY, Cincinnati Bickford, and a number of other companies in the Cincinnati area which made us the CAPITAL OF THE FREE WORLD MACHINE TOOL INDUSTRY!
But it went far beyond that. The jobs they provided were the basis of the great American Middle Class. In my estimation when they disappeared so did the ability of the American Middle Class to have an exemplary life.
Unfortunately, our younger people will struggle to even maintain a standard of living coming close to their parents. And why is this, because our government continues to permit the export of our jobs to pad the pocketbooks of their wealthy contributors. Sad, but true.
I need to make a few more comments concerning Oakley and the machine tool business. One company I forgot earlier in my list was Carlton Machine Tool. I am sure there are others.
Technically Madison & Edwards Rds was in Norwood. But right on the border. Considering the location, I considered it more Oakley than Norwood. I drove down Madison Rd right smack through Oakley for years going to work.
But back to my remarks. By the late 70s LeBlond was experiencing financial difficulties. Big surprise. Virtually every machine tool builder in the US went through a period of financial difficulty, and most of them folded. The reason, foreign competition, particularly the Japanese. If you can't beat them join them. LeBlond sold 50% of their company to Makino of Japan, not the largest but a recognized builder of precision machining centers.
The game plan seemed solid, Leblond had a world class reputation in engine lathes. Makino had a solid reputation in precision machining centers. The products did not compete. Combined they offered a complete line to a customer. The products sold out of Cincinnati were labeled LeBlond-Makino, as was the company name.
Sounded good, the results not so good. Very quickly the LeBlond lathe line became a problem. The reason, sales volume, the foreign competitors were eating our lunch. And most of these were Japanese, Okuma, Mori Seiki, Mazak (US name, Yamazaki in Japan). I will never forget the day when we had machines in the shipping bay destined for IMTS in Chicago and they pulled the plug.
Well when half your product line is cancelled, what do you do? You regroup that is what you do. Makino purchased the 50% of LeBlond they did not own, likely at a penny on the dollar. How much is a company worth whose product line has been discontinued?
They made the big decision to sell the original plant in Norwood, which was obsolete, and now a shopping center. Frankly the property alone sold for more than the cost of the replacement factory in Mason. The facility in Mason was and still is a world class building. Completely environmentally controlled. And we actually produced some small machines there, using locally procured castings. But that also did not last long. We are talking company logistics.
Through this whole turmoil, I have only one thing to say. The Japanese treated me more than right. I retired from Makino some 11 years ago. My original pension is still there, month after month. The future? who knows?
But the Oakley connection, very strong in my mind. Particularly THE MILL, how can a company of that size just crawl up and disappear? Don't fault the company, fault the Government!
To further reinforce my contention the machine tool industry in the US was done in by the US government.
After LeBlond was purchased by Makino and then the decision made to terminate the LeBlond lathe line, I was obviously wondering about my job. A large percentage of the former LeBlond personnel were terminated. But my career had taken a different bent. Shortly out of UC I had switched from mechanical engineering to computer programming. The reason, to create computer programs to develop the data code required to feed the emerging CNC products. We were successful at it to the point customers asked us to supply computer applications for machines other than our manufacture. So we spun off a subsidiary tagged Manufacturing Software & Services and did quite OK for awhile meaning we made a profit, while the machine tool business is on the skids.
So the Japanese decided I might be worth something and to keep me on. I actually had some 5-axis machining center software superior to what they had. But I digress too much, need to get to my main point.
I am sent on trips to Japan. The main purpose is to learn about their most recent development, called a Flexible Machining System (FMS). This is the rage of the industry. It is a cluster of machines set up to perform a variety of tasks. The main point is the work materials are automatically delivered to the machines by a material transport system. The flexible part is the machines are capable of machining any part for which they have the required cutting tool complement. So the tool magazines on the individual machines are designed for automatic cutting tool replacement and replenishment, and to assist are becoming larger and larger in tool capacity.
Of course all of this automated miracle needs a brain behind it. Makino decided to install the first system in their own manufacturing plant. What a novel ideal, be your own guinea pig, rather than your customer. They had selected the most popular small scale computer brain of the day to supervise the operation of this modern marvel - the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) Vax computer. So I am sent to Japan to learn what this is all about since they have decided we will have a demo system in our facility, and I am in charge to keep it running.
But still digressing from the main point of this post. Let's get down to base facts.
I am on trips to Japan. Then is when I first find out about MITI, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, a Japanese government agency, charged with furthering Japan's interest in world trade.
So, because I am there, they request I stay after hours to answer a few questions - they want the American point of view. So fine, why not?
Then I suddenly realize, this is a government aqency meeting. They are not only discussing how to carve up the US market, but what Japan government grants will be awarded to various Japanese companies for R&D to accomplish the aim. And all of Makino's competitors are represented at the meeting.
Then I also realize at what a disadvantage the US machine tool companies have been operating under. Monarch Machine Tool in Sydney, Ohio. Made good products. If we even breathed discussing a mutual development to the benfit of both of us, here comes an Antimonopoly Suit. The second area of disrecognition was tax recognition.
The Machine tool industry was, and still is a very volatile industry. The US government has steadfastly refused to recognize the volatility of this industry. No recognition of economic upturns/downturns.
So is there no wonder the Machine Tool Capital of the Free World now lies in ruins?
In my estimation, for years Oakley was simply THE MILL! Oakley was Cincinnati Milling Machine. A couple of other companies such as Williamson Furnace also made their mark there, but by and large it was a blue-collar town from the get-go.
So when I hear Oakley now mentioned in the same breath as Hyde Park, I have to chuckle. Cincinnati Milacron's demise was not their fault. It was the US government's fault for letting the foreign competition come in and devastate them while operating under a government sponsored aura which was illegal in the US.
As I look back, THE MILL was the largest. But those of us who grew up in the machine tool business recognize LeBlond, American Tool Works, Lodge & Shipley. GAA Gray, Cincinnati Shaper, Cincinnati Incorporated near Harrison, Fosdick, Avey Drilling machines in KY, Cincinnati Bickford, and a number of other companies in the Cincinnati area which made us the CAPITAL OF THE FREE WORLD MACHINE TOOL INDUSTRY!
But it went far beyond that. The jobs they provided were the basis of the great American Middle Class. In my estimation when they disappeared so did the ability of the American Middle Class to have an exemplary life.
Unfortunately, our younger people will struggle to even maintain a standard of living coming close to their parents. And why is this, because our government continues to permit the export of our jobs to pad the pocketbooks of their wealthy contributors. Sad, but true.
The same can be said of Youngtown, OH and the whole Mahoning Valley...Youngstown Sheet and Tube employed several thousand employees between their 2 massive steel works plants (Briar Hill Works and Campbell Works)...2 of my great uncles worked at the Campbell Works and lost their jobs on Black Monday....Detroit is the same...Manufacturing made the middle class and then corporate greed....the atittude of cutting costs at all cost has ended that all.
IT's sad how great this state once was due to all the incredible manufacturing done here...one thing that always bothers me in how each part of the state seem to fight against each other and talk down the other when every corner of it has lost major manufacturing sectors that produced very high qualities of life....whether its steel in Youngstown...Steel and other metals in Cleveland, Rubber and Tires from Akron, Jeeps in Toledo...the plethora of auto parts manufacturers throughout the state and the machine tool industry in Cincy...how much greater could the state and country be if all this manufacturing remained creating a thriving middle class...especially since many foreign firms have since invested here as well...such as Honda in Marysville.
IT's sad how great this state once was due to all the incredible manufacturing done here...one thing that always bothers me in how each part of the state seem to fight against each other and talk down the other when every corner of it has lost major manufacturing sectors that produced very high qualities of life....whether its steel in Youngstown...Steel and other metals in Cleveland, Rubber and Tires from Akron, Jeeps in Toledo...the plethora of auto parts manufacturers throughout the state and the machine tool industry in Cincy...how much greater could the state and country be if all this manufacturing remained creating a thriving middle class...especially since many foreign firms have since invested here as well...such as Honda in Marysville.
But you are missing a very significant point. All the successful companies in Ohio where not fighting each other. What they were fighting was a US government hell bent on preventing them from even discussing or collaborating on a project which may be mutually beneficial to both. Not only did they not get any financial benefits such as tax breaks during cyclical economic downturns, they were threatened with anti-monoply lawsuits if they even communicated. And this in the face of foreign competition openly subsidized by government agencies to develop specific products to compete here in the US.
Honda is a very good example. I give them credit for building manufacturing capacity here in the US. They have done well with their endeavors. But go to Japan. Even today, Honda is not considered a top automotive producer, they build motorcycles.
But you are missing a very significant point. All the successful companies in Ohio where not fighting each other. What they were fighting was a US government hell bent on preventing them from even discussing or collaborating on a project which may be mutually beneficial to both. Not only did they not get any financial benefits such as tax breaks during cyclical economic downturns, they were threatened with anti-monoply lawsuits if they even communicated. And this in the face of foreign competition openly subsidized by government agencies to develop specific products to compete here in the US.
Honda is a very good example. I give them credit for building manufacturing capacity here in the US. They have done well with their endeavors. But go to Japan. Even today, Honda is not considered a top automotive producer, they build motorcycles.
In the very least the Federal Gov't should have levied high import tarriffs on all imported products...and they should have made them meet the same environmental conditions and workers pay/benefits/safety enforced here. The very least that would allow truly fair competition
High import duties was not the answer. That just makes other countries tax our exports. And I don't think foreign companies who built facilities here got away with anything regarding environmental issues or workplace safety especially. Now if American workers are willing to work for the pay scale and benefits offered I find no fault in that either.
What I find fault with is the US Government has not been an assistance to our businesses, they have been a detriment. I got to witness first hand in Japan how the government assisted their businesses. In fact they were the financier and coordinator.
To my amazement, I sat in meetings with representatives of my company, all of their competitors, and MITI. They were discussing how to divide up the American market. Competitors agreeing on government grants for product development and to not cut each other's throats.
The reason I was invited to the meetings was they desired an American's view on such a mundane thing as a machine model name. Did it have any negative connotations in the US? What might be the positives? Couldn't believe the amount of discussion over a model name. But that was the way they did everything. Discuss it, and then come back and discuss it again. Over and over ad nauseum. The typical American became frustrated. For Chr*st's sake make a damn decision and let's go one. I sat in many a meeting where it appeared a concensus had been reached. To what avail? The next meeting the same subject is again raised because someone had thought of a question.
They take frorever to make a decision, but the ones they make are usually sound.
But back to my main point. The foreign companies operate differently than we do, to our disadvantage. They collaborate. Our companies are strictly prohibited from collaborating.
Let me cite an example. Let's say YUM Brands and the big kahuna of the bunch, Mcdonalds, were allowed to sit down and discuss how they would completely snuff out the mon&pop restsurant business in Japan. Yes I know they both have major presences in Japan. My point is, what if they wanted to develop a plan which would actually obliterate the small neighborhood restaurant in Japan. Such a plan, by US law would be illegal. But guess, what that is effectively what the Japanese did to our machine tool business.
Location: livin' the good life on America's favorite island
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kjbrill
At one time, Cincinnati Milling Machine, before they got class conscious and renamed it Milacron, was the largest machine tool company in the world! Of course they had other holdings, with plants in England and Europe. The name Cincinnati stood for the epitome in machine tools world wide.
I worked for a smaller company, not really a competititor, by the name of LeBlond at the intersection of Edwards and Madison Rds, no slouch in its own right. The Rookwood Commons now occupies that property.
Cincinnati Milling Machine built what its name implies - milling machines. In later years these were changed into machining centers once CNC came along.
LeBlond built what were called Engine lathes. Never could figure out where the term engine came from. For years they advertised themselves as the world largest builder of a complete line of lathes. I will say it was complete. They built small what were called tool and die lathes to huge lathes used by steel mills to turn rolls. During the space race, I remember us building one huge lathe in a tent in the parking lot which was destined to turn the entire integrated body of a liquid fuel rocket.
They also had a specialty line of machines which turned automotive crankshafts for virtually every car builder in the world. I remember walking through the plant and seeing the names of the world's elite painted on the side of the machines. One of the most amusing points of my career was going through our plant and seeing this huge machine set up to produce a Briggs & Stratton crank.
The vast majority of the residents in Oakley will neither know, nor frankly care, that at one time this was the center of the machine tool capital of the free world.
Oh, BTW, in that era the workers earned wages which is what gave meaning to the term American Middle Class. Guarantee you the employees at Target are nowhere near there on the relative economic scale.
I know there is more to the story...and you could write a book. I've been in manufacturing (raw mtl sales) my professional life and pretty amazing the changes over the last 30+ years..and a little sad to see how much OH has lost (mfg) over those years..
I know there is more to the story...and you could write a book. I've been in manufacturing (raw mtl sales) my professional life and pretty amazing the changes over the last 30+ years..and a little sad to see how much OH has lost (mfg) over those years..
You speak a little too softly. It is more than a little sad, It Is An Outright DISASTER!
When I graduated from college in 1962, the future looked bright. It was the very early days of CNC, an exciting time of change in the machine tool business. The company I worked for and all of our competitors were scrambling to bring out new CNC machine designs. I switched my career course and went into writing computer applications to produce the coded data for CNC controls. At first it was put the data on the original punched paper tape (any of you remember that?). Near the end of my career we had Ethernet network interfaces directly to the machine controls and did everything electronically.
The MILL was holding up their end but running into a stiff competitor called the Milwaukee-Matic from the Kearney Trecker corp., in guess where Milwaukee. Of course the MILL responded with their Cintimatic. These were some of the first machines equipped with automatic tool changers. That was a revolutionary concept.
But in the midst of all this advancement, there was an apprehension of doom. As we went through the inevitable cyclical economic cycles, the US government did virtually nothing to assist the businesses. It rapidly became clear we were in big trouble. New developments like CNC had raised the level of capability, but they were also expensive. They required far more engineering and trained personnel to service them, and not just someone who worked for a Ford dealer last week. Not knocking Ford, but the products were vastly different and needed a different level of training.
I was fortunate and enjoyed a productive career, even through a foreign buyout. Granted I worked for LeBlond as a Co-op for 5 years, but you learn something about the business just through observation. That is the main reason I just stayed there. I knew they knew me.
So now my association with a single company extends to 57 years. Very few of you will ever see that stage. That is what I lament and object to in American business practice. My former company, Japanese owned, is now sending people I trained all over the world to do installations and training. Why? Because they realize the US worker is the most dedicated and reliable in the world.
The foreign companies realize it, why can't our US Government realize it?
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