Alan Kelsky

Alan Kelsky holds a master's degree in business administration and a bachelor's degree in comparative economics. He spent many years in the healthcare sector before becoming the owner of Electric Control Services (ECS). Electric Control Services uses innovative technologies to reduce utility consumption of manufacturing and commercial buildings. Most jobs have a payback period of three years or less. Alan lives in Folsom, California, with his wife Mary and rescue dog Jake.

Articles by Alan Kelsky

• Protecting pipelines — both inside and out

  Thursday, December 08, 2016

  Consider that there are about 2.6 million miles of pipeline that crisscross the United States. With that number of miles, the safety of pipelines is admirable. But people still don't trust pipelines. Protesters against the Dakota Access Pipeline have been in the news daily — even after their recent victory in stopping construction. At the same time, TransCanada — owner of the Keystone XL pipeline — is suing the United States government for its refusal to grant them a permit for the United States portion of the pipeline.

• How the Hanjin bankruptcy nearly ruined Christmas

  Tuesday, November 29, 2016

  ​As Hanjin Shipping was moving container cargo to ports all over the globe this summer, news broke that affected retailers worldwide. Hanjin, the world's seventh-largest container shipping company filed for bankruptcy Aug. 31 in Seoul, South Korea.

• The growing popularity of flexible packaging

  Wednesday, November 02, 2016

  Flexible packaging continues to overtake other forms of packaging as both consumers and brand owners often prefer it. Food packaging is designed to preserve and store contents while keeping products fresher, longer. Flexible packaging does even more, as it is great at achieving packaging goals and more eco-friendly than other forms of packaging because it takes less energy to produce — lowering CO2 emissions and their effect on the environment. Flexible packaging is also less expensive to produce than alternative packaging materials.

• What are the traits of the ideal manufacturing worker?

  Wednesday, October 19, 2016

  ​Frequently, the American public has been told by all kinds of media outlets that there are loads of vacant manufacturing jobs because U.S. workers do not have the skills needed by manufacturing employers.

• Big changes may be coming to how pharmaceuticals are made

  Wednesday, October 05, 2016

  Before there were drug companies, there were medicine men, shamans and doctors with limited training. Nevertheless, the manufacturing of drugs has remained virtually unchanged for centuries. Back in the days when drugs were first made from plant extracts, they were processed in a batch — albeit with limited ingredients. Today, we still make drugs in batches, but the batches are many times larger and have lots more ingredients.

• How M2M technology can transform your business

  Thursday, September 29, 2016

  ​Only a generation ago, manufacturing facilities saw the first use of computers on the shop floor to control some minor manufacturing scheduling tasks. Today, computers are ubiquitous in manufacturing plants. They are found as the source of instructions for robotics used in producing items as diverse as reeds for wind instruments to running complex internal analysis and diagnostics for machinery used daily in the manufacturing process.

• How to win the battle against rust on your trucks

  Thursday, August 04, 2016

  Rust is a major concern for small business owners who depend on their trucks for their livelihood as well as fleet owners for whom trucks are a major investment. Trucks with corrosion damage can lead to lost income as well as high repair bills.

• Implementing a sustainable manufacturing plan at your facility

  Thursday, May 26, 2016

  ​The goal of sustainable manufacturing is producing products in ways that have a minimal negative influence on the environment. In order to accomplish this, manufacturers use processes that reduce and prevent greenhouse gases, conserve natural resources and energy and do not harm workers or consumers.

• 6 questions entrepreneurs need to ask when choosing a manufacturer

  Thursday, May 19, 2016

  Congratulations, your success as an entrepreneur is on track, and the product you invented is ready to go into production. But you don't know any people in manufacturing and know of others who have reached this stage, only to find they could not find the right manufacturer for a long time — often for a year or more.

• What can the World Trade Organization get for $1 billion?

  Tuesday, May 03, 2016

  After 10 years of internal battling, Congress recently repealed the law known in the food industry as COOL, an acronym for Country of Origin Labeling. Congress had little choice but to repeal COOL after the World Trade Organization (WTO) threatened to implement sanctions against the United States, starting at $1 billion in the form of new tariffs on items exported from the U.S. to Canada and Mexico. Both Mexico and Canada said the U.S. COOL laws violated the WTO ban on discrimination against foreign livestock.

• Employee engagement emerges as a top priority across all industries

  Thursday, April 21, 2016

  ​According to ​a new survey of employers conducted by TalentKeepers, employee engagement is the top concern for employers for the fourth straight year. In fact, the most recent Workplace America survey tells us that a full 82 percent of employers in the survey feel this way.

• The US manufacturing industry is not bouncing back

  Thursday, March 31, 2016

  ​Since the Great Recession of the mid-2000s began, the American manufacturing industry has been contracting, despite the predictions of many economists and manufacturing experts. This was supposed to be the time for a Renaissance in the U.S. manufacturing industry. This manufacturing Renaissance was to be fueled by China experiencing rising labor costs as well as high costs for domestic oil and natural gas.

• Currency manipulation and the loss of US manufacturing jobs

  Wednesday, March 16, 2016

  This year has seen the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) become an integral part of the presidential primary discourse. Related news tells us the manufacturing sector inside the United States is — at best — psychotic.

• Has America’s manufacturing reshoring trend ended before it began?

  Monday, January 25, 2016

  At the end of 2015, A.T. Kearny Consulting issued its second annual ​U.S​. Reshoring Index. In 2015, the Index dropped to minus-115 — down from minus-30 in 2014. This represents the largest year-over-year decrease in the last 10 years.

• Report: US will surpass China as top manufacturing country by 2020

  Monday, January 11, 2016

  ​On Jan. 4, Reuters rang in the new year with a report stating the United States manufacturing and construction sectors can both look forward to "tepid growth." However, a report issued by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and the U.S. Council on Competitiveness — "2016 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index" — predicts the United States will regain its former position as the No. 1 manufacturing producer in the world, surpassing China by 2020.

• Benefits of embracing sustainability and green manufacturing

  Monday, November 09, 2015

  Sustainable manufacturing is past being something that's "nice to have." It is now a vital aspect of the manufacturing industry. When manufacturers change their processes to make their company more environmentally friendly, people often refer to the company as "going green." Sustainable manufacturing is practiced across the globe, and companies have invested billions to make "going green" the new business imperative. Why?

• How the federal government helps additive manufacturing costs

  Monday, October 26, 2015

  Manufacturing firms are using additive manufacturing (AM) more than ever before. The cost of the AM technology is motivated by a number of factors, including research and development tax incentives. Most businesses using AM, also known as 3-D printing, are eligible for large R&D tax credits.

• Report highlights perils facing US manufacturing and distribution

  Monday, October 12, 2015

  Chicago-based business services provider McGladrey recently released its annual Manufacturing and Distribution Monitor Report for 2015. The report covers the manufacturing and distribution industry based on information from 1,660 manufacturing and distribution executives across the globe.

• What is the true state of manufacturing in the United States?

  Monday, September 28, 2015

  Experts in manufacturing hold differing opinions about how well the sector is doing since the Great Recession. In fact, the same sources tend to be schizophrenic about the manufacturing sector's progress.

• Is solar energy viable for manufacturing plants?

  Monday, September 14, 2015

  Less than 1 percent of energy used in the United States comes from solar power, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. On a commercial level, there are a number of businesses, including manufacturers, who are using solar power as part of their operations, including Wal-Mart, Costco, Apple and Ikea.

• Arkansas shows how regulations can stymie manufacturing growth

  Thursday, September 03, 2015

  ​In 2004, Arkansas' manufacturing industry was ranked 34th in the United States. A decade later, it was still stuck at 34th. As the state's Economic Development Commission tries to woo new business to Arkansas with promises of a skilled workforce and business-friendly environment, folks who have studied manufacturing in Arkansas disagree.

• Wearable technology’s impact on the manufacturing industry

  Monday, August 03, 2015

  If you think wearable technology like Google Glass or the Apple Watch are just part of a fad, think again. According to a study released by Juniper Research, titled "Smart Wearable Devices: Fitness, Healthcare, Entertainment & Enterprise: 2013-2018," many people are already thinking of the ways to use wearable technology for manufacturing.

• Wage gap, benefits at forefront as UAW begins talks with Big Three

  Monday, July 20, 2015

  Negotiations with the Big Three automakers — Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler — ​began last week, and the advantage appears to be with the United Auto Workers (UAW) in what are ​expected to be contentious talks. The public is again turning to American-made cars, with sales continuing their upward trend for Ford and GM. In fact, both these manufacturers make more profit per vehicle than either Honda or Toyota.

• Scientists develop new applications for carbon nanotubes

  Monday, July 06, 2015

  Nanotechnology is great, and every day researchers are discovering new ways to use it in manufacturing. One of the leading frontiers in nanotechnology is the use of carbon nanotubes — superthin sheets of carbon rolled into a tube that demonstrate amazing physical properties.

• Export-Import Bank perilously threatened by politics

  Friday, June 19, 2015

  ​According to a report written by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, vice chair of the Senate Joint Economic Committee, there is no end to the importance of the Export-Import Bank to American industry. The report followed on the heels of a raucous summer in 2014 that featured a lot of discussion among legislators on the future of the Ex-Im Bank, with many wanting to shut it down. At the end of September, the Ex-Im Bank may not be continued by Congress, when its current authorization ends. The repercussions of this decision are staggering.

• Small manufacturers need agile and adept robots

  Monday, June 08, 2015

  Two industries that were important in the foundation and growth of the American middle class are the automobile industry and the steel industry. In the auto industry, Henry Ford is credited with creating the assembly line. Once it proved itself in Ford's factory, the assembly line was adopted by manufacturers in nearly every market. Steel was one of the few industries where the assembly line does not work, but hordes of workers were needed to make steel 24/7. After all, once the furnace cooled down, it was costly to turn back on.

• Wooing and helping manufacturing at the federal and state level

  Wednesday, June 03, 2015

  On May 7, the Obama administration announced that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which is part of the U.S. Commerce Department, approved 16 advanced manufacturing grant proposals totaling $7.8 million. The approvals were announced in Gaithersburg, Maryland, by NIST's Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia (AMTech).

• Businesses, local government work together to create manufacturing jobs

  Thursday, May 21, 2015

  ​From the federal to the local level, the government is supporting new ways to fill the 500,000 available manufacturing jobs that stay open because qualified job applicants are scarce. Companies large and small, making things from sheet metal to complex large machines, are joining with governments in pursuing this solution. What is that solution? Partnerships between government and industry.

• Do forecasts really matter in the manufacturing sector?

  Tuesday, April 21, 2015

  With so many factors in play, forecasting for a wide-ranging field like manufacturing is never easy. Yet many organizations from the government to the private sector make predictions almost every day. What we see in the results are a variety of expectations — and revisions — for how manufacturing will grow in the coming months and years.

• February shows slowing growth in US manufacturing — Will it continue?

  Thursday, March 12, 2015

  Economic headlines this month announced that the rejuvenation of the United States manufacturing sector is on the skids. But is manufacturing declining, or is this merely a blip on the radar?

• A perfect storm may be ready to destroy auto industry gains

  Thursday, March 05, 2015

  ​Even before the Great Recession, it seemed that the U.S. auto industry was in its death throes. Two of the big three automakers — Chrysler and General Motors — went bankrupt. Yet less than 10 years later, the auto industry is back on its feet and is on track to sell nearly 17 million light duty vehicles in 2015. Adding Canada and Mexico to the list, the number of cars and pickups will close in on 20 million.

• ‘Superdonors’ poised to change the world of transplant surgery

  Tuesday, February 24, 2015

  All too often we hear heartbreaking stories of a child needing a kidney or liver transplant, but neither parents match. Transplanting an organ that is not closely matched to a recipient's blood type, antibodies and other key markers generally means that the receiver of the donated organ will immediately begin to reject it. The human immune system is a master at doing its primary job — rejecting anything in the body that it does not recognize.

• Robots could cut US labor costs 22 percent by 2025

  Wednesday, February 18, 2015

  One of the most important technological trends taking place in the United States' manufacturing sector is the use of advanced robotics on the production line. Now that the economic recovery is a reality, U.S. manufacturers still need to be able to shut down cheaper manufacturers overseas. To accomplish this, they need to meet a goal of reducing costs and maximizing efficiency.

• Is the organ transplant cup half‑full or half‑empty?

  Tuesday, February 17, 2015

  On Jan. 28, JAMA Surgery released an original investigation called "Survival Benefit of Solid-Organ Transplant in The United States." The results are quite amazing, showing that organ transplants contributed to more than 2 million years of life saved.

• MES helps manufacturers get great quality every time

  Monday, February 02, 2015

  Wouldn't it be nice if the project manager of a newly redesigned product that is a best seller of the company could push a few buttons and find out a wealth of information about the product? Unfortunately, the system in many plants today for getting this information has the project manager walk all over the factory to find out the answers to these questions.

• 3-D printing outpaces the FDA

  Monday, January 26, 2015

  The watchdog in the United States for medical devices is the esteemed government agency known as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA, however, is flummoxed about how to handle 3-D printing of medical devices. It's not that the FDA has lost its smarts, it's just that the 3-D printing technology has spread so quickly, they are behind the curve.

• What 2 industry leaders see in 2015 for manufacturing

  Monday, January 19, 2015

  Whenever a new calendar year begins, industries and businesses like to reflect on the past year as well as look ahead at what's on the horizon. Since it's that time of year, let's take a look at what two manufacturing gurus have predicted about the industry's trends in 2015 that will create a stir in the sector.

• ‘Sweet’ self-healing corrosion materials are in field testing

  Wednesday, December 17, 2014

  Middle-aged men who attempt skateboarding for the first time are likely to come away from that experience with lots of abrasions and cuts. But, other than cleansing the wounds, they will heal if left alone. Imagine the engineering possibilities if materials such as steel and concrete had the same self-healing properties of human skin.

• Researchers use nanotechnology to enhance corrosion protection

  Wednesday, December 03, 2014

  ​Nanotechnology is one of the world's most rapidly growing fields across a wide swath of industries from pharmaceuticals to engineering. Within the material sciences, corrosion protection is an exciting area for the use and development of nanotechnology. Protecting materials from corrosion is a big challenge in the engineering and science world.

• ‘Dead’ hearts give life to transplant patients

  Tuesday, December 02, 2014

  A trio of breakthrough heart transplants made history in October as surgeons transplanted "dead" hearts into three patients. Two of the three patients are recovering nicely, the third had more recent heart transplant surgery and is recovering in the St. Anthony Intensive Care Unit.

• Dual laminates gaining in corrosive environments

  Tuesday, November 04, 2014

  When it comes to the handling, storing and distribution of all types of liquid solutions within chemical manufacturing plants, composites enjoy a well-earned place for durability. In general, they are among the most cost-effective anti-corrosion materials used in the chemical industry today.

• Keeping the US manufacturing industry on a positive track

  Monday, October 27, 2014

  ​As we approach the midterm elections, politicians from both parties are calling each other job killers and suggesting that outsourcing of jobs in manufacturing has permanently damaged the manufacturing sector. If they listened long enough to the news and experts in manufacturing, they might understand that manufacturing is alive and well in the United States and can stay that way.

• Report: Market for corrosion inhibitors expanding rapidly

  Tuesday, October 21, 2014

  The use of corrosion inhibitors is expanding rapidly across the world as more plants, refineries and drilling sites come online. ​In a report published earlier this month, Grandview Research disclosed that the global anti-corrosion market expects significant growth, especially in Asian countries, to $7.55 billion by 2020.

• Bioengineering creates new coatings for stainless steel

  Wednesday, October 01, 2014

  When we see the gleam of stainless steel, most of us don't suspect that it is a material on which bacteria thrive. Despite this fact, hospitals, restaurants and other places that prize cleanliness choose it, as it's easy to clean — but a lapse in environmental hygiene can spell disaster.

• 3-D printing and the future of additive manufacturing

  Monday, September 29, 2014

  In the United States, 3-D printing is ranked sixth among the top 10 fastest-growing industries in the United States. In fact, Goldman Sachs names 3-D technology as "disruptive" in its 2013 annual report on technology. The term "disruptive" is used in a benign manner to describe the technology as growing at a rate of 20 percent per year.

• US manufacturing desperately needs infrastructure upgrades

  Thursday, September 25, 2014

  ​America's public infrastructure is in poor condition. News stories rightfully tout how repairing roads and bridges is an opportunity to fix our aging infrastructure. However, what most people don't realize is that American manufacturing has seen no major capital investments in private infrastructure since the onset of the Great Recession.

• Turning the tide: Outsourcing, quality control and consumers

  Thursday, September 18, 2014

  Manufacturing companies are always looking for ways to cut costs and increase profits. One method often used is to outsource manufacturing and product assembly to countries with low labor costs. Outsourcing does lower production costs, but in many instances it lowers quality and diminishes the customer base.

• Researchers: Graphene dramatically affects corrosion resistance

  Tuesday, September 16, 2014

  ​A likely revolution in a corrosion protection is almost ready to launch, according to researchers of graphene at the University of Manchester. Their latest research shows that this thin coating protects substances coated with it from corrosion.

• 1 simple step in water treatment could save billions of dollars

  Tuesday, September 09, 2014

  ​Imagine you are the official in charge of sewers in a particular area. As "sewer commissioner," you are responsible for maintaining, repairing and replacing the miles and miles of sewer pipe under your authority. Sounds like a powerful position to have, right? Not so fast.

• What is the future of limb transplant surgery?

  Tuesday, September 09, 2014

  The ethics of transplanting life-saving organs such as the heart, lungs and liver from people who died in a trauma accident is well established. So are the life-saving gifts of a kidney or part of a liver from live donors. Without these extraordinary medical advances people die.

• An army of robots fighting corrosion

  Tuesday, September 02, 2014

  Robots are not new in the never-ending battle against corrosion. Perhaps, the news blitz about C2D2 is because the corrosion-fighting robot design was from a camera bot used by the Disney Company. Here is a look at a few places other robots dare to go.​

• Smart factories know how to use big data

  Friday, August 29, 2014

  ​Go to a meeting of any trade group or association and someone is going to mention "big data." I know of scores of companies that have scores of servers dedicated to storing all this data.

• Recovering lost profits by improving reverse logistics

  Friday, August 22, 2014

  Until recently, the most attention that the supply chain got was for product management centered on the new introduction of products or on the outbound shipping part, where volume shipping is part of the product life cycle.

• Apps that find the least busy ER are on the wrong track

  Wednesday, August 20, 2014

  Emergency departments would do well to tell their potential patient population that smartphone apps featuring which neighborhood ER is the least busy are generally a waste of money.

• Monitoring boiler feedwater cuts maintenance costs for power plants

  Wednesday, August 20, 2014

  Boilers make steam from feedwater, and most feedwater has impurities that accelerate corrosion in the boiler chamber — how much of any contaminant found in feedwater depends on the water source.

• Ethanol gasoline creates market for corrosion‑resistant additives

  Tuesday, August 05, 2014

  ​In an effort to reduce pollution, the United States federal government and all 50 states have passed laws encouraging the use of ethanol-blended gasoline. However, ethanol gasoline creates many problems for owners of older cars, classic cars, marine engines and small gas-powered tools.

• Do hospital-run urgent care centers reduce ER use?

  Tuesday, July 29, 2014

  The future of healthcare given by hospitals is changing. And that change is the opening of hospital-owned urgent care facilities. A 20 percent growth in urgent care centers is likely over the next five years, from about 10,000 currently to 12,000.

• Is no-growth anodizing the future of corrosion protection?

  Tuesday, July 22, 2014

  ​The processes for anodizing aluminum are more than 100 years old, and most in the anodizing industry thought we knew all there was to know about anodizing aluminum. Now we have learned that a company in Florida has developed a new way to anodize aluminum.

• Increased use of split-liver transplants can trim waiting lists

  Tuesday, July 22, 2014

  ​Recent research at the Cleveland Clinic found that a technique called a split-liver transplant has the same survival rate after five years compared to that of whole liver surgery (80 percent for split-liver transplants and 81.5 percent for whole-liver transplants).

• How the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan improved ER care

  Tuesday, July 22, 2014

  ​No matter where you stand politically, the reality of death and injury from war is a certainty. During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States military used innovative, advanced techniques for medical transportation and wound treatment that ultimately flow into the nation's hospital emergency departments.

• Staffing for the ER onslaught: A surprising consequence of the ACA

  Thursday, June 26, 2014

  ​One hoped-for outcome of the Affordable Care Act was the reduction of emergency department use for primary care reasons. Though that was the intent, the reality is that ER visits are rising, and ER administrators expect that rise to continue through at least 2015.​

• Energy efficiency opportunities in the manufacturing sector

  Tuesday, June 24, 2014

  One third of the energy consumed in the United States is by the manufacturing sector. Ninety percent of the manufacturing sector are small- and medium-sized businesses that use about half of the energy consumed in manufacturing.