In the past 20 years, manufacturing plants have become leaner and leaner, in part to compete with low-wage countries. As a result, manufacturers employ fewer – if any – metallurgists and engineers devoted to troubleshooting and process improvements. Shop-floor supervisors, engineers and machine operators have time for just one thing: production. Consequently, in-house technical expertise has slowly evaporated, resulting in lost production, a lack of innovative improvements and an inability to quickly address technical problems.