After years of uncertainty, metal-cutting companies and other industrial manufacturers are gaining confidence about future market prospects. Even with this renewed confidence, industry leaders know that continuous improvement activities can’t be placed on the backburner. Lenox Institute of Technology’s benchmarking study reveals four key sources of frustration for today’s industrial metal-cutting organizations and recommended strategies for attacking each challenge.

The following paper identifies the top five operational challenges managers face in a metal-cutting environment, the impact they can have on the bottom line, and best-practice approaches for achieving operational excellence.