Tis the season for some industrial cheer and some fun, so check out my new song the 12 Days of Maintenance. Would love your feedback and input sent to Joel@skilltv.net.

And I wish you a safe and joyous season ahead and hope you get some personal downtime to spend with your families.

On the twelfth day of Maintenance,
my boss-man sent to me
Twelve machines broken ,
Eleven pipes a leaking,
Ten motors busted,
Nine compressors smoking,
Eight power lines peaking,
Seven cuss words spoken,
Six more hours of overtime,
Five old timers quit,
Four new untrained workers,

Two weeks ago, I wrote about Bremen Castings (www.bremencastings.com), a family-owned foundry and machine shop in Bremen, Indiana. It was on the cusp of hitting 500 days without lost-time injury. That milestone was met, so I thought some safety advice and insights from JB Brown, the company president, might be highly valuable. Here's what I found out, in Q&A format. Listen up, and take notes. He did not disappoint.

Every day, more than a dozen workers die on the job in the United States.

That bit of information comes from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics' "Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary" (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htm).

China's State Administration of Work Safety reports more than 200 work-related deaths per day, while other countries fall somewhere in between the two.

It seems that many people have an interest in industrial recycling, reusing, repairing, rather than buying new. Sometimes these options have a positive return on investment. It all depends on the distance between the scrap and the recycler's facility. The last thing one wants to do is spend more in moving the scrap than its value. It's a matter of ROI.

If American manufacturing is to maintain its competitive edge, it will need to keep pace with the industrial innovations being developed in other lands. To achieve that goal, we'll need to have more than our proportionate share of skilled vocational workers, youth who can excel at activities other than video games and instant messaging.

Over the weekend, while many of you were sleeping and some of you were shooting off bottle rockets, a world record fell. The largest burger in the world, a 777-lb monstrosity, was served to Alameda Country Fair goers and Guinness World Records officials in California. The previous record holder, a puny 590-pounder created in Canada, saw its reign come to an end.

I have no doubt that you've observed that some people can't seem to walk anywhere unless they are holding a smart phone. It doesn't matter if they're using it. It's a strange addiction or fashion statement or something.

Technological advances are making life easier as well as establishing the environment in which people are expected, perhaps forced, to be a lot more productive than they would be otherwise. So, I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and add my potential burden to your backpack.

Are you at a loss for words? FMA Communications' industry glossary is just what you need.