Rollomatic Inc. is a subsidiary of Swiss-based Rollomatic SA and part of the Rollomatic Group which includes Strausak AG. Both are CNC machine tool builders for grinding and laser cutting. One of Rollomatic’s specialty is building 6-axis CNC grinding machines for the orthopedic and medical device manufacturing industry.
 
Bone cutting is one of the oldest surgical procedures, including trepanation of the skull plate. Nowadays, one of the most commonly used cutting procedures is drilling holes into bones for inserting orthopedic implants to hold fractures and prostheses. Other common cutting tools are blades for cutting, severing, and bone reduction. Surgical cutting tools, which are ground on a CNC tool grinder, usually have a positive cutting geometry and can be divided into rotary and flat tools. Most rotary tools are powered instruments, while the flat surgical cutters are used manually. One important and interesting fact is that a great deal of the research in metal cutting over the last 100 years has been applied to the geometry and design of surgical cutting tools.
 
Rollomatic continues the success and growth of its unique 6-axis kinematics incorporated into the GrindSmart series CNC tool grinding machines for the orthopedic market by announcing three new features:

In addition to the already extensive tool diversity in surgical cutting tools, the software packages, offered free of charge with each machine, has been substantially extended and covers all known orthopedic and surgical cutting tools such as burs, drills, reamers, shavers, cranial perforators, anchors, Trocar points, guide wires, saws, tweezers, forceps, scalpels, rasps and more.

Hello Fellow SABC Members!

As the work of the SABC continues on, I am happy to present you with the SABC Summer Newsletter. While it has been a rather trying past few months, I am pleased to report that the SABC has continued to be active in bringing value to our members. On May 20^th, the SABC hosted a Member Online Town Hall webinar presented by one of our new corporate members, Cleared4Work. The presentation about Cleared4Work’s services to assist companies monitor their employee’s Covid-19 symptoms was and is quite timely. Further information about Cleared4work can be found at www.cleared4work.com.

As we announced earlier, unfortunately the SABC will not be hosting its annual Swiss National Day event this year due to the current circumstances. We are monitoring the situation closely and hope to resume in-person events as soon as it is safe to do so.

Finally, in addition to Cleared4Work, I would also like to welcome to the SABC new corporate members, Bea 2 B Services, which is owned by Beatrice Weiss, and PB Connect and its co-founders, Pascal Grunder and Beatris Gonzalez! You can learn more about our new corporate members and their services below.

On behalf of myself and board of directors, I thank you for your continued support of the SABC. Without you, we would not be able to exist! While we will not be celebrating Swiss National Day together this year, there will be better days ahead and I am sure we will come out of these current times and even stronger organization.

All the best and stay safe!!!
Thomas W. Soseman, Chairman and President

We are currently working on another webinar in the near future that will bring together Swiss-American business executives to talk about their challenges, experiences and successes in navigating what constitutes the new normal during this pandemic. We will be sending out more information on the proposed webinar soon.

Bea 2 B Services is owned by Beatrice Weiss a Swiss native. She is a degreed professional with over 20 years of accounting experience and international business management. She was instrumental in setting up the operation for a Swiss Machine manufacturer who expanded from Switzerland to the U.S.A. Her personality combined with her strength in analytical and organizational structures led her to specialize in accounting management and consultancy for small businesses. Bea 2 B Services facilitates the set-up of the processes to help you drive your business. Accurate record keeping will improve your cash flow and free up your time to focus on your core business. We automate manual data entry and create paperless filing systems. We use cloud-based products to allow you to work anywhere.

We welcome Chelsea Health Solutions, and its VP Sales, NFP & Government, Markus Aerne, as a new corporate member. Their Cleared4Work Health Platform helps clients create and maintain safe spaces during pandemics, flu seasons, and other disease outbreaks. The company provides a physician-developed, automated workforce monitoring system that combines and integrates COVID-19 symptom self-assessment & monitoring with access control, contact tracing, testing, and sensible, discerning physical safeguard protocols. It ties smoothly into “Open Up America,” OSHA, State, and other regulatory requirements ensuring a safe work environment. Markus Aerne has an extensive international executive business management background, and is fluent in German, English, and French. He advises clients on business continuity strategies and establishing their return-to-work process to protect employee’s health and business’ compliance interests.

We welcome PB Connect and its Co-Founder & President, Pascal Grunder and Co-Founder & CEO, Beatris Gonzalez as a new Corporate Member. PB Connect brings their highest integrity, experiences, and extensive knowledge of the Chicago metropolitan area to facilitate a smooth transition and integration for those that are relocating from overseas or with in the U.S. The team provides support to their clients in the areas of housing & schooling search, orientation tours, and integration services. Pascal Grunder & Beatris Gonzalez are the Co-Founders of PB Connect, LLC. Pascal is originally from Switzerland moved to Chicago in 1998 and is fluent in the language of English and German. Beatris was born and raised in Chicago and is fluent in the language of English and Spanish.

It’s been 30 years since I started KAISER Precision Tooling USA, and I never imagined I’d be running this company from home again. Like most BIG KAISER employees, I’m working remote at least a few days each week to maintain required social distance. I can relate to the experience many are having now as they juggle work and family at literally the same time. Isn’t this the experience of parents everywhere who are also entrepreneurs working to start a new business?

Back in 1990, after living and working in the U.S. for nearly a decade, I started this company out of necessity. I knew we needed to change how we were selling the boring tools manufactured by father’s company in Switzerland, Heinz Kaiser AG. I had a vision to increase sales with better marketing, product deliveries and customer service, but my goals weren’t shared by the agents and partners we had at that time.

That’s how I found myself sequestered at home with two little boys regularly knocking on the door asking when I was going to come out and play. As much as I wanted to do that, I also needed to focus on setting up a new company from scratch. There was no building, no equipment, no staff.

Many late nights were spent working with a friend in his basement, writing a business plan, setting up systems for accounting and IT and making the first boring tool catalog. During the day I sought legal advice, met with lenders and looked for a facility that would house this new company.

In July of that year, I was joined by my long-time partner, and now BIG KAISER Vice President, Jack Burley. Operations Manager Tim Grosch also started in that first year. There were many other friends and influential people along the way, but these two have been with me on this adventure since the very beginning.

On August 1, 1990 – coincidentally also Swiss Independence Day – we opened the doors at our first facility in Elk Grove Village, IL. It was two minutes from my house so I could spend a lot of late nights at work after dinner with my family, just as my father did when I was little.

After 30 years, I’m proud to say we’ve had a good number of customers from the very beginning. Possibly the first was a Swiss-born machinist who carried Heinz Kaiser boring tools back from his vacation in Zurich to his job in the repair center at United Airlines in San Francisco. United remains a customer of BIG KAISER today. Unfortunately, some of those old boring tools are repairable and in still in service!

Many U.S. companies in defense and other industries bought SIP jig-boring machines made in Geneva, Switzerland. They also invested in precision boring tool kits – packed in a wooden case – from Heinz Kaiser AG. We’re grateful that companies like Bell Helicopter, Sikorsky, Caterpillar, John Deer, Metalex, Vermeer and Viking Pump – among others – are still with us to this day.

I look forward to reuniting with long-time customers, partners and friends at a 30^th Anniversary celebration sometime later this year. In the meantime, I hope we can all get back to the office and a more normal routine very soon. Seeing my grandson on FaceTime and Zoom is just not as good as going outside to play!

Until then, stay well and stay positive.
CK

BTW, is there any chance one of our readers still has a “PICCOLO” boring
tool in the original wooden box from that time? I would love to have a photo of it!

CASH FLOW FORECAST:  Cash flow management has never been more critical for businesses than in the current unprecedented disruptions caused by COVID-19. Shortages in cash flow can be seen across industries, particularly in manufacturing and automotive. We can help your business with its cash flow forecast by providing a uniform cash flow forecast template that gives you a framework for your projected income and expenses. As your trusted business advisor, Rödl & Partner USA will provide the uniform cash flow forecast template at no cost.  We can collaborate with you to complete the template at high-level or tailor and extend the template based on your needs to provide a more detailed cash flow forecast.
 
Please see our webcast on this topic (in German): https://www.roedl.us/trending/tax_matters/webcast-series-in-german
 
COVID-19 UPDATES:  Be always up to date on tax impacts of COVID-19 and related new legislation and relief for tax payers! Please visit https://www.roedl.us/trending/tax_matters/covid-19-tax-recources or follow us on LinkedIn to find useful articles and information, updated daily.
 
As an integrated professional services firm, Rödl & Partner is active at 109 wholly owned locations in 49 countries. Rödl & Partner USA has specifically tailored our accounting, auditing, tax and business consulting services to the unique needs of your foreign owned business in the United States of America. For more than 40 years our core practice has been serving the accounting and tax needs of primarily German speaking and other foreign owned “Mittelstand” companies operating in the U.S.

A new feature of BIG KAISER’s online Stock Check allows buyers to search for discounted demonstration inventory. This includes nearly 200 boring tools, tool holders and other accessories that have been lightly used for machining demonstrations or for trial applications and still perform like new.

“We want to be flexible in supporting our customers with lower cost options as much as possible,” said Jack Burley, VP Sales & Engineering at BIG KAISER.

BIG KAISER’s live Stock Check helps customers search products by catalog number or description. Use the filter to see all U.S. inventory or only the quantity of discounted demo units available.

“These are like dealer-certified pre-owned cars,” Burley said. “They have been in a machine or on display at a trade show and returned to inventory, but may have a small blemish or scratch so they can’t be sold as new”.  Each tool is carefully inspected and packaged with all the required spare parts and wrenches.  They are high-quality tools and tool holders that last for many years, so we decided to make this additional inventory available to our customers in need.”

Find the live Stock Check at bigkaiser.com/interactive-tools or contact your BIG KAISER representative.

As we start the second half of 2020, it is an ideal time to examine your current employee handbook to align with organizational goals, culture and applicable laws.

There are numerous other policies your company should consider, but here are five especially important areas to review:

Company Philosophy and Expectations
 These statements and policies are critical to informing your workforce about the company’s philosophy and the type of behavior or conduct that is desired and/or prohibited.

EEO/Harassment
Perhaps more important than ever, your harassment policies must be comprehensive and legally compliant, and inform employees how to report alleged violations of the policy without fear of retaliation.

ADA and Leave Policies
Companies often are challenged with employees who cannot continue to work due to illness or injury. This can be especially difficult if the company’s accommodation and leave policies are inadequate, and do not incorporate the interactive process contemplated by the EEOC.

Social Media
With the prevalence of social media platforms, companies are well advised to develop and maintain social media policies that inform their associates of the company’s expectations about communications involving the company.

Employment At-Will
Though there are exceptions and federal protections, the at-will doctrine provides companies protection from many wrongful discharge claims. Your handbook must include an effective pronouncement of the at-will doctrine.

Brian McDermott is the Managing Principal of the Indianapolis, Indiana, office of national labor and employment law firm, Jackson Lewis, and can be reached at brian.mcdermott@jacksonlewis.com or 317.498.6950.

 

Peripherals, by definition, are on the outskirts. But at LNS, that outer boundary is where we put all of our focus. Because there’s a secret: when CNC machine tool peripherals are so good that you don’t have to worry about them, you can turn your attention to the morale-boosting, business-growing stuff that you do best – making chips and making money.

That’s why we do what we do, and no one does it better. With five product categories and industry-best expertise, the passion and vision we have for CNC machine tool peripherals is unbeatable. So the next time you choose machine tool peripherals, you only have to remember a few letters: LNS.