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Sustainability Touches All Industries and is More Than a “Trend”

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Read today’s headlines in the news and you’ll see that the topic of “sustainability” is a popular one, and it touches just about every industry out there. From the global mining industry to the food and beverage industry, to the transportation and construction industries, there really isn’t an industry or business in the world that isn’t somehow affected by what many people call “the sustainability trend.”

What does it mean to be “more sustainable”? To be more sustainable, businesses in all industries are focusing on reducing waste and using resources – energy, water and materials – more efficiently. They’re employing closed-loop processes to help protect the environment. Manufacturers are being much more conscientious about considering a product’s entire life cycle, and they’re practicing ways to restore renewable resources and their communities.

How do companies implement sustainability strategies? According to the Sustainability Learning Centre, “There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategy for implementing sustainability… Some companies need to start with considering ‘whether they want to pursue sustainability’ while others know that this is a priority and want to know ‘how to implement sustainability.’”

Sustainability is here to stay! We predict the topic of sustainability will continue to be popular around the world, and all industries will do their part to employ sustainable practices. Businesses and organizations are gathering together and planning trade shows and expos to highlight sustainable practices. A few examples are the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week which took place earlier this year, and, in the U.S., the University of Pittsburgh is hosting Engineering Sustainability 2013, and the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP) is hosting their conference in Chicago in the coming months – and there are many other sustainability-related conferences planned this year.

We believe sustainability really is more than a trend: It’s a new way of life and a new way of doing business for everyone.

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Should you use Warehousing and JIT Delivery Services?

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What are warehousing and JIT delivery services? Warehousing products is a streamlined form of manufacturing, where production is done for a high volume of products, though these products are distributed by the supplier in a periodic timeline. Specifically, a given number of products needed for a year can be supplied on a monthly or quarterly basis, as the manufacturer would have produced the larger volume at once before holding the inventory for the time period. JIT delivery, then, allows for the supplier to distribute the products exactly as they are needed.Warehousing services

When do warehousing and JIT delivery services prove to be beneficial? There are a number of occasions where you will find warehousing advantageous:

  • Low pricing: Are you looking to receive high quality products at a low cost? Mass production pricing is less than manufacturing a smaller amount of products continuously over a period of time. Depending on your project, the inventory can then be released to your facility on a monthly or quarterly basis.
  • Inventory turn assistance: Does your facility need help with inventory turns? By utilizing warehousing services, you won’t need to hold your whole inventory, and you can receive your parts exactly when you need them.
  • Flexibility in products: Will you need one amount of a specific product this month and a different amount next month? No problem—warehoused inventory allows for flexibility in your parts’ shipment. Need a shipment pushed back? That can be arranged as well.

With our warehousing and JIT delivery services, we know firsthand the benefits to our customers. For the manufacturers, like us? It is more efficient on our manufacturing end to allow a machine to produce an annual volume of products, since the tooling and machines are already up and running. Do your particular needs fit the criteria for warehousing and delivery services? If so, ask us how we can help!

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Our New Year’s Resolutions Revolve around our Customers!

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Happy New Year to you and all your friends and family – from all of us here at Chicago Nut & Bolt!

Did you make your New Year’s resolutions this year? According to various studies and polls, there are personal resolutions that come up again and again each year. People also say they plan on losing weight… quit smoking… learn something new… spend more time with family… save money … and be less stressed. Chicago Nut & Bolt made a few New Year resolutions, too! (Keeping our customers in mind, of course.)

  1. Improve services any way we can. We’ve got 20 years of experience under our belt with custom-made fasteners, warehousing, engineering and prototype work, as well as short lead times, and even the ability to accommodate an emergency rush order overnight, but we are always looking for ways to give our customers even more. Please let us know if there’s something we can do for you!
  2. Reach out to new customers. Because we offer custom fasteners and standard fasteners for all application types, and we have the capability to sell single quantities — or up to hundreds of thousands of pieces at a time — Chicago Nut & Bolt is the right supplier for every company, large or small.
  3. Improve efficiencies. That speaks for itself, doesn’t it? We are constantly looking for ways to improve! How else to stay relevant in the market place?
  4. Decrease lead times. This goes hand-in-hand with resolution #1. So whether you need your order on a moment’s notice, overnight or within hours, we’re able to get it to you. Even without “RUSH” marked on the purchase order, standard delivery is just one week.
  5. Hold inventory and release it as needed. For example, we can ‘warehouse’ a year’s product volume so it doesn’t pile up on the job site. That’s a lot more convenient for our customers!

It’s the New Year and while our resolutions here at Chicago Nut & Bolt can’t help you quit smoking or lose weight, our top five resolutions can help your company save time and money! Here’s to 2013!

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Test us out for your Prototype Needs

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Prototype: A first or preliminary version of a device or vehicle from which other forms are developed[1].

Essentially, prototyping is a form of short term production that enables customers to test run components or pieces prior to full production. This allows for changes and modifications to be made to a specific part prior to a full production run. Rapid prototyping is something we here at Chicago Nut & Bolt are very familiar with.

Although some machine shops can only work on larger volume runs, we have the capabilities to run smaller numbers of pieces, which makes us good candidates for prototyping services. How does the prototype process work with us? First, our customers present us with blueprints of the specifications they require and ask for a small number of pieces to be machined. Since we stock many bolts, screws, and other fastener blanks, we can perform machining processes on a rapid basis. Need a specific material? We work with a variety of materials, including carbon steel, alloy steel, raw steel, and stainless steel, and can assist in choosing a material that meets all environmental and corrosion requirements. Once the prototype is created, you can test it to your specific applications and ensure that it complies with your specific geometry, joint design, and structure.

What happens once the final prototype is machined? In many cases, we can turn the prototypes around into a larger volume—we work with our customers from the prototype phase through the final production run. Why choose numerous manufacturers when you can come to us, with our experience of engineering prototypes into your final products?
[1] Prototype definition provided by Oxford Dictionaries.

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National Manufacturing Month puts the Focus on American Manufacturing

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Manufacturing matters! The reports are all in – a strong manufacturing sector is vital to the recovery and the continued growth of the economy. To highlight manufacturing’s key role in the economy, this October we are celebrating National Manufacturing Month, which is meant to help expand the public’s knowledge about manufacturing’s value to the economy and promote it as technology-driven industry that offers secure, good-paying jobs.

There are abundant benefits associated with using a U.S. manufacturer. The first one that comes to all of our minds is that it creates jobs and helps put more Americans back to work. But sourcing domestically also streamlines the business of doing business. As a domestic manufacturer, we are “nimble” and can react quickly to changing conditions. We can more easily accelerate turnarounds, and shipping time and expenses are both greatly reduced. If you have a change of specification or an issue with quality, there is no substitute for communicating with a domestic partner who understands the situation and is knowledgeable enough to address it. Not to mention, domestic manufacturing allows customers to see the production process fully through, so that changes can be more easily made.

We are proud contributors to “Made in America.” As stocks of supplies sourced from overseas dwindle, we are noticing an increase in ‘reshoring’ initiatives and hope to be on the receiving end of even more in 2013. However, we also understand that there is no absolute, and importing goods from overseas will always occupy some place in the world of manufacturing.

In the recovering economy, the benefits of manufacturing in the U.S. continue to far outweigh the once lower costs of going overseas. Supporting American manufacturers supports growth, and we are happy that October has been set aside as a time to reflect on the success of American manufacturing and what it means to improving economic conditions.

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Cheers to Twenty Years!

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Happy 20th birthday to us! In October of this year, we will be celebrating 20 years in business—and some 20 years it has been. Although we have seen industries and technologies change and improve, we have been able to keep up, evolve, and maintain lasting relationships with our clients (some who have been with us since day one!).

How have we been able to achieve two decades worth of success? We credit that to our arena of expertise—our custom fasteners. While other companies primarily focus only on standard fasteners, we have concentrated 95 percent of our company on customization, something we decided when we first opened the business. Since our company’s fundamentals are inherently in customization, our capabilities are vast. Think about it this way—whatever an engineer or designer can dream up, we will figure out how to do it and provide you with the perfect fasteners. This has allowed us to further penetrate into additional applications, as well as deepen the industries we have worked in for many years. We assure custom products, custom packaging, and custom delivery—what more could you ask for?

Our twenty years in business has promised our customers this: custom, quality, and speed. For the next twenty, we will continue to provide any shape, any size, and any quantity of custom fasteners made at the highest quality in the shortest turnarounds. Trust us—everyone else has for the past 20!

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Two Decades of Quality Products and Quality Service

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Greetings from Chicago Nut & Bolt. Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog pages, a new channel of communication between us and you, our customers, and all those interested in the essential and practical details of the fastener industry! As we approach our 20th birthday, it’s time to look back on how we got to where we are today as a trusted manufacturer of both standard and custom fasteners used throughout heavy industry.

We began essentially as a generalized fastener manufacturer and supplier to many different types of customers. Over the years, we identified a niche that married well with our capabilities (in providing custom products for heavy industrial customers), and refined our company accordingly—our custom capabilities are now what we are most recognized for! We can provide any fastener per your request, sizes ranging from ¼ in. to 3 in. diameters and up to 72 in. lengths (meaning extra-long and extra-large sizes!). What else can we do? We can get you the nut, bolt, or screw you need on rush orders, small to large volume orders, with special flats or body diameters, down to every detail you draw up on a blueprint! Want more? We can warehouse those orders for you!fasteners, custom fasteners

Need proof that our custom fasteners are the golden products in our industry? Our work can be found all over the country, including Biosphere 2, Arecibo Observatory, King’s Island’s “Son of Beast” roller coaster, Golden Gate Bridge, Seawolf Submarines, IMPSA Container Cranes, City Center in Las Vegas, and various wind tower projects (and trust us, these are only a handful!).

When you think Chicago Nut & Bolt, think “custom, quality, speed.” If you would like to know more, visit our website and we welcome your return visits here!