I admit that I do not keep up with all the magazine articles and current publications as I should or as I want to, but I know enough people who do that I am constantly surprised when a magazine turns up on my desk with an article I should have read or at least heard about weeks ago. A coworker has just dropped a copy of the April 2006 Machining magazine on my desk with an article on page 30 circled in the Index. The article is titled "How smart modernization bests offshore competition."

This is the story of D&G Machine Products, Inc., of Westbrook, ME. The company has increased productivity and competes with low-cost offshore labor by applying several key principles:

1. The fastest route to productivity is with retooling
2. Smart Modernization strategy can win out over lower overseas labor rates
3. Targeted-training keeps the work force effective and productive.

These boys in Maine never let up. As you read the article, you see that to Duane Gushee and the others at D&G Machining, productivity is based on constant improvement. Complacency has no place in their shop. The sharpest tool in the shop is often the one that fits under the owner's hat. As I finish this article about U.S. competition with China and India by avoiding complacency, I can see that the pile of magazines on my desk has grown even bigger. There must be something to it.