Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

2023 Offers Vibrant Opportunities for American Manufacturing

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2023

While some industry leaders are predicting continued supply chain disruptions and even an economic recession, I believe that American manufacturers are poised to enjoy vibrant opportunities in 2023 after nearly three years of economic turmoil and supply chain disruptions.

Americans had a wakeup call during the COVID-19 pandemic when we realized that we had become vulnerable because of our dependency on suppliers from other countries, particularly China.  Our national security and the health of Americans became at risk because of the supply chain disruptions of the goods we needed.

The Industry Week article, titled “Why the US Needs Manufacturing to Succeed”, on Dec. 16, 2022, stated, “With newly focused attention on supply-chain availability and resilience, U.S. manufacturing is at an inflection point. The recently passed infrastructure and CHIPS acts enable direct investment of billions of dollars into the manufacturing sector responsible for critical components, again to improve capacity and supply certainty.”

Manufacturing matters because the high-wage jobs it provides are the foundation of the middle class.  Besides these high-wage jobs, the Brookings Institution says it provides “commercial innovation (the nation’s largest source), a key to trade-deficit reduction and a disproportionately large contribution to environmental sustainability.” In fact, U.S Census data shows that manufacturing still ranks fourth out of the top five employment sectors in the country.

In their annual report dated April 26, 2022, the Reshoring Initiative reported that manufacturing added 1.3 million jobs to the economy between 2010 and 2019, after losing 5.8 million jobs over the previous 10 years. “For the second year in a row, reshoring exceeded FDI by 100%, continuing a recent trend not seen since 2013. Additionally, the number of companies reporting new reshoring and FDI set a new record of over 1,800 companies.” 

I predict that the reshoring data for 2022 will show a continued trend because with today’s heightened need for national security, sustainability and self-reliance, reshoring of U.S. manufacturing, has become, a matter of survival.

 I am not alone in predicting “vibrant opportunities” for 2023.  The Manufacturing.net blog of December 14, 2022, “Predictions for Manufacturing in 2023 – Part I,” provided thoughts on trends from several executives.

A few key thoughts on trends for the upcoming year shared by James DeMuth, CEO of Seurat Technologies, were:

  • “Localization of manufacturing near to customers will reduce economic and environmental costs. Currently, the cost to ship a 40’ container from Asia to the U.S. West Coast is 5X more than pre-pandemic levels.
  • Unpredictable policymaking and inflationary pressures will have less impact on companies that strategically place manufacturing of key components within the U.S. and near to assembly plants.
  • Domestic manufacturing will be emphasized as a matter of national security.”

A few of the key thoughts shared by Molex, a leading provider of electronic components and connectivity solutions, were:

  • Major investments in battery management, zonal architectures and EV charging stations will dominate.
  • Emerging demand for Infrastructure advancements is expected to escalate, which will place greater emphasis on the need for intelligent sensors and high-speed connectors.
  • Investments in Industrial IoT will grow. Robotics and AI will see a surge in usage, as businesses roll out investments made over the last few years.
  • The migration towards Extended Reality (XR) will move data processing to the Edge, allowing inferencing to happen more frequently in real time to match performance expectations. 

Another manufacturing.net blog article, “Key Trends to Remember for 2023,” dated December 29, 2022, predicts:

Continuing Supply Chain Disruption  – “The need to be flexible, and efficiently manage multiple sources of supply while managing overall profitability means sharing information not just within the organization but upstream, driving increased collaboration with suppliers.”

Smart Factories – smart factories encompass two domains:

  • “Improving the capture of data and the operational context to surface the information needed to inform better decisions.
  • Providing the insights and information to more stakeholders, in a more consumable manner, specifically, active rather than passive presentation of impactful data at, or even before, the time of need.”

Continued skills shortages – “Modular robotics in both the physical world and the data environment (through robotic process automation) are reaching levels of maturity that make them more accessible from the perspectives of both cost and complexity.”

Notice that investing and adopting new technologies such as IIOT, Robotics, AI, Industry 4.0 are incorporated into these predictions.  These are examples of “vibrant opportunities” that are happening now, but are not being widely scaled. 

Deloitte’s 2023 manufacturing industry outlookexplores five manufacturing industry trends that can help organizations turn risks into advantages and capture growth.”

      Technology – Investing in advanced technologies to help mitigate risk

“Manufacturers have increased their digital investment over the past few years and accelerated the adoption of emerging technologies. Companies with higher digital maturity have shown greater resilience, as did those that accelerated digitalization during the pandemic. Continued investments in advanced manufacturing technologies can help develop the required agility.”

  • Talent – Implementing a broad range of talent management strategies to reduce voluntary exits

“Addressing the tight labor market and workforce churn amid shifting talent models is expected to remain a top priority for most manufacturers in 2023. Despite a record level of new hires, job openings in the industry are still hovering near all-time highs…”

  • Supply chain – Relying on time-tested mitigation strategies with enhanced tactics to achieve supply assurance

“Of surveyed executives, 72% believe the persistent shortage of critical materials and the ongoing supply chain disruptions present the biggest uncertainty for the industry… Manufacturers are mitigating these risks not only with increased utilization of digital technology…building local capacity and moving from just-in-time sourcing to create redundancy in the supply chain.”

  • Smart factory – Taking a holistic approach to smart factory initiatives to unlock new horizons

“Many manufacturers are making investments in laying the technology foundation for their smart factories. One in five manufacturers is already experimenting with underlying solutions or actively developing a metaverse platform for their products and services.”

  • Sustainability  – Focusing on corporate social responsibility

“The fast-evolving environmental, social, and governance (ESG) landscape may require close monitoring in 2023 for manufacturers…regulators globally are also moving toward requiring more disclosures for nonfinancial metrics. Manufacturers are progressing toward their ESG commitments by making operational changes across their value chains.”

Deloitte’s recommendations are important for American manufacturers to adopt and implement into their company’s strategic action plans in order to take advantage of the “vibrant opportunities” of the future.  They illustrate that achieving the vision of Industry Reimagined 2030 will require a sea-change in the national narrative of the U.S. manufacturing industry to transform from a prevailing worldview of ‘inevitable decline’ to one of ‘vibrant opportunity.’ The vision of Industry Reimagined 2030 is for U. S. manufacturing to be revitalized, globally competitive and advancing societal interests by 2030.  The following goals will demonstrate achieving this vision through unprecedented collaboration and scaling:

  • 50,000 world-class domestic manufacturers (10x increase)
  • Additional 2+ million to the manufacturing-related, middle-income workforce (30%)
  • Reduce the environmental footprint to supply U.S. goods by 30%
  • Consumer purchases of US made goods increased by $500 million

To explore how your company needs to adapt to the disruptive trends that are taking shape, you may wish to participate in our Reimagine Dialogues. They are structured conversations to consider what the world will be like in 2030 and beyond. The purpose is to stimulate business owners and executives to reimagine their business and its environment in 2030. Why? Looking back on the past 10 years, there have been significant changes and disruptions which impacted business. Many companies were caught off guard and unprepared. Going forward, there will be further disruptions for businesses. Vibrant opportunities await those companies acting with foresight and preparedness. Distress awaits those companies caught reacting. There is no charge for participation and this it is not a free preview of another executive roundtable.  Here is the link for further information and to register. https://www.industryreimagined2030.org/

Manufacturing is the Engine of American Technology Development and Innovation

Tuesday, July 7th, 2020

The fourth reason why manufacturing is important is that American manufacturers are responsible for more than two-thirds of all private sector R&D, which ultimately benefits other manufacturing and non-manufacturing activities. Nearly 60 percent of new patents derive from the manufacturing sector and the closely integrated engineering and technology-intensive services.

Manufacturing R&D is conducted in a wide array of industries and businesses of all sizes. The heaviest R&D expenditures take place in computers and electronics, transportation equipment, and chemicals (primarily pharmaceuticals).

The competitive status of U.S. manufacturing had been increasingly challenged by the state-of-the-art technologies being developed by established nations such as Japan, Germany, Korea, and Taiwan. China has acquired advanced manufacturing capability through R&D tax incentives, incentives for direct foreign investment, and theft of intellectual property.

According to the 2018 annual survey conducted by the Industrial Research Institute (IRI), 59 percent of the companies responding said they plan to increase R&D spending in 2018; only 29 percent reported anticipating little or no change, and 13 percent are expecting a decrease in total R&D spending.” Note:  This is the last year that the report is available for free, 2019 and 2010 reports now cost $51.)

“The State of U.S. Science and Engineering 2020” report by the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation states, “Although the levels of federal R&D funding rose across performing sectors between 2000 and 2017, the share of total U.S. R&D funded by the federal government declined from 25% to 22%…By type of R&D, the shares of federal government funding for basic research and experimental development declined since 2000 despite rising levels of funding. The federal government is a major funder of basic research, and between 2000 and 2017, the share of basic research funded by the federal government declined from 58% to 42%. Federally funded applied research was an exception during this period, as both the level and share rose.”

America’s manufacturing innovation process leads to investments in equipment and people, to productivity gains, the spreading of beneficial technology to other sectors, and to new and improved products and processes. It is an intricate process that begins with R&D for new goods and improvements in existing products. As products are improved in speed, accuracy, ease of use, and quality, new manufacturing processes are utilized to increase productivity. Education and training of employees is required to reap the benefits of such improvements in manufacturing processes.

Innovation is the hallmark of U.S. manufacturing, and it requires a certain mass of interconnected activities, which, like a snowball rolling downhill, grows in size as it proceeds toward end users. Substantial R&D is required to keep the ball rolling to ensure more successes than failures.

Innovation and production are intertwined. You need to know how to make a product in order to make it better. “Most innovation does not come from some disembodied laboratory,” said Stephen S. Cohen, co-director of the Berkeley roundtable on the International Economy at the University of California, Berkeley. “In order to innovate in what you make, you have to be pretty good at making – and we are losing that ability.”

Manufacturing is an incubator for technology and science, which require proximity to facilities where innovative ideas can be tested and worker feedback can fuel product innovation. Without this proximity, the science and technology jobs, like customer service jobs, follow the manufacturing jobs overseas.

The ability to fund R&D comes largely from the profits that a company can invest back into its business. Thus, the available cash flow of manufacturing companies is closely linked to their ability to conduct R&D as well as make capital investments.

The process through which R&D promotes economic prosperity is complex and multi-faceted. First, there are direct benefits to firms from their own R&D investments. Second, other companies derive benefits from the R&D of the innovating company in a “spillover” effect. Third, the feedback from R&D and its spillovers improves other products, processes, and distribution networks. Fourth, one industry’s investment has a beneficial effect on other industries and the U.S. economy as a whole. “Spillover” effects are increased through sales transactions and knowledge transfers when the parties involved are interdependent and closer in geographic proximity.

Consumers have benefited greatly from the large selection and quality of manufactured goods available as a result of the innovative new products resulting from R&D. U.S. consumers now have a dizzying array of products from which to choose. Quality improvements in manufactured goods have also reduced the frequency of repair and reduced the cost of operation.

The maintenance of an effective U.S. R&D network is essential for attracting domestic and foreign R&D funds and the subsequent manufacturing that results from the innovation process, which increases U.S. value added, resulting in economic growth.

The problem today is that with the offshoring of so much manufacturing, certain tiers in the high-tech supply chain have disappeared in the U.S. When a tier in a supply chain has been moved offshore, domestic research and other supporting infrastructure are degraded, which can be a major problem for U.S. manufacturers transitioning to the next product life cycle.

In the past, technology would flow from new domestic R&D-intensive industries into the remainder of the economy, boosting overall national productivity. Today, such emerging technologies are flowing at least as rapidly to the innovators’ foreign partners or suppliers.

In the report “The Case for a National Manufacturing Strategy,” authors Ezell and Atkinson wrote, “manufacturing, R&D, and innovation go hand-in-hand.” They concur with my argument that “the process of innovation and industrial loss becomes additive. Once one technological life cycle is lost to foreign competitors, subsequent technology life cycles are likely to be lost as well.”

They add “[T]here is a deeply symbiotic, interdependent relationship between the health of a nation’s manufacturing and services sectors: the health of one sector greatly shapes the health of the other. In particular, the technology-based services sector depends heavily on manufactured goods.”

In my opinion, it doesn’t matter whether American companies do their R&D within their own facility or hire it to be done by outside American consultants or product development firms, but it does matter whether the R&D is done within America. We need to keep innovation within our country if we want to remain on the cutting edge of technology and maintain the critical mass of our manufacturing industry. Outsourcing R&D to China is like a mayor giving the key to his city to a would-be conqueror. We need to protect the key to our future security as a nation and keep R&D and manufacturing within the United States.  

This intricate process of R&D and product development generates greater growth and higher living standards than any other economic sector. But it requires a critical mass to generate this wealth. If the U.S. manufacturing base continues to shrink at its present rate, the critical mass will be lost. The manufacturing innovation process will shift to other global centers, and a decline in U.S. living standards will be the result.

Innovative Products Featured at San Diego Inventors Forum Invention Contest

Tuesday, November 6th, 2018

This year’s invention contest held on October 11, 2018 by the San Diego Inventors Forum was incredible. I’ve been attending the contests for nine years, and this year, there were so many unique, useful inventions that it was very difficult to vote for my favorite invention.

The mission of the San Diego Inventors Forum is to help inventors to become entrepreneurs to create new companies and jobs here in San Diego. Monthly meetings have been held on the 2nd Thursday of each month. Meetings are held at AMN Healthcare, 12400 High Bluff Drive, San Diego, CA 92130.The next meeting will be this Thursday, November 8, 2018.  Networking starts at 6:30 pm, and the meeting starts at 7:00 pm.

At the monthly meetings, inventors meet other successful, local inventors in many different fields and learn how they developed their marketable products. The give inventors the opportunity to network with fellow creative people and get guidance and encouragement to take their first or next steps necessary to turn their ideas into a reality.

At the beginning of each meeting, new attendees are able to introduce themselves and ask financing, business, licensing, marketing, legal and engineering questions.  They can present their ideas to private individuals or for focus group review.  They also get to ask for particular resources they are looking for so their needs can be matched.  During the “Who Needs Who?” portion of the meeting, service providers can personally introduce their services.

Inventors can pay $100 for a one-year membership or pay $10 for each meeting they attend. During the course of the year, program topics cover everything subject you need to know from capturing the concept to getting investors to marketing your product.

The 2018 contestants were:

  • Andrew Bataller,  iPad Case  
  • Gerry Klassen, New Painting Tool
  • Phillip Perez for his Impact Tool shovel
  • Eric Robinson for his Green Launch orbital launch service
  • Michael Rodgers, The One-Handed Hamper
  • Dave Schmoyer, Pill or Parts Pal
  • Scott Swaaley, MAKESafe Power Tool Brake
  • Greg Wawrzyniak, Super Dooper Cord Looper
  • Chris Wzysoczanski, T-Shots – Disposable Reactive Target
  • Ruth Young-Loaeza for her hybrid sheet collection

  The First Prize of $1000 was won by Phillip Perez for his Impact Tool shovel. Second place was Ruth Young-Loaeza for her hybrid sheet collection, and third place was Eric Robinson for his Green Launch orbital launch service.

At the end of the meeting, SDIF Chairman Adrian Pelkus said “good-bye” to attendees after 13 years of leading the group.  He said, “I’ve been privileged to meet hundreds of my fellow inventors over the years and mentored so many here in San Diego.  I’ve been delighted to see many of your ideas get to market and honored to have assisted some of you along the way.  I am indeed sad to leave the local community. My plans are to accomplish a lot more for mankind and the environment by working on my large backlog of such projects.

I am especially proud to have play a part in bringing together over 40 inventor clubs around the county into the newly formed organization of inventor club leaders and to have been part of our first meeting with Andrei Iancu, the new director of the USPTO, and participate in meetings with Congressional Representatives in Washington, D. C. to educate them about how the America Invents Act and PTABs are hurting inventors.”

He added, “Thanks to my dear friends that helped me keep SDIF going all these years. Especial thanks to long-time supporters and fellow board members:  Leslie Wagner, David Waller, Sidney Wildesmith, Ben Gage, Judith Balian, Jennifer Joe, and Michele Nash-Hoff.”

Several of the above, including me, gave heartfelt testimonials to Adrian for his brilliant leadership of the group for these many years and wished him continued success with his own inventions.

Adrian announced that he was also dropping off the board of directors for U. S. Inventors and the United Inventors of America, but he urged everyone to continue to support patent reform.  He reminded everyone that we need strong intellectual property laws to defend their innovations.  He said, “The patent laws have become so weak that the independent inventor can no longer count on an issued patent to protect his right to profit from the labors of their mind. This strikes at the heart of what our founding fathers knew was the way to make the country great and made a foundation Article in the US constitution. We American Independent Inventors must stand and demand our rights be restored. Our nation needs us to create the new ideas and subsequent new jobs to continue to grow and thrive. The present patent laws must be revised to bring back the confidence a patent brings to both the inventor and investor.”

He encouraged everyone to see the movie Invalidated: The Shredding of the US Patent System, if they didn’t attend the SDIF viewing in August. The movie raises public awareness of the problems inventors are having with the patent system. (Note: You can also see the documentary on Amazon, free with Amazon Prime subscription, or $2 otherwise.)

In this session of Congress, there have been bills introduced to the House of Representatives and Senate to protect inventors’ patent rights, such as the STRONGER Patents Act 2017 (S. 1390), introduced by Senator Christopher A Coons  (D-DE), and the Inventor Protection Act  (H. R. 6557), sponsored by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). The most comprehensive BILL is the Restoring American Leadership in Innovation Act of 2018 (H.R. 6264)introduced by Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY), an award-winning inventor and successful entrepreneur himself. It is co-sponsored by Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) and Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). Its goal is to roll back some of the “worst parts” of the America Invents Act of 2011 and reverts patents back to first to invent, not the first inventor to file. All three bills are stuck in the Judiciary Committee.

I encourage you to contact your Congressional Representative to urge them to become a co-sponsor of one or all of the bills mentioned above. These bills must not languish in committee for the rest of this session.  We must pass legislation to restore our once great American patent system that was the envy of the world. Right now, inventors in China have more protection for their patents than inventors in the U.S.  We cannot let China become the innovation leader of the world.

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MFG Day Motivates Youth to Pursue a Career in Manufacturing

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2018

Since 2012, thousands of manufacturers around the country open their doors to inspire and recruit the next generation of manufacturers on Manufacturing Day (MFG Day), which was held this year on Friday, October 5th.

MFG Day is produced by the National Association of Manufacturers and the Manufacturing Institute. MFG DAY had ambitious goals: “to change public perception of manufacturing, inspire students to pursue manufacturing careers, and strengthen the future of manufacturing by avoiding the talent shortage on the horizon.” According to the MFG Day website, “We wanted to correct the idea that manufacturing involved repetitive, unskilled tasks that happened in dark, dirty factories — a ridiculous idea to anyone who has actually worked in manufacturing — and show people what manufacturing really looks like.”

Those of us in the industry know that today’s manufacturing jobs are high skilled, and take place in clean, well-lit, technologically advanced facilities. The problem was that there was no way to know whether perceptions were changing until Deloitte became a sponsor of MFG DAY in 2015 and conducted surveys of attendees.

The results of the survey of 2015 showed:

  • 81% of students emerged “more convinced that manufacturing provides careers that are interesting and rewarding.”
  • 62% of students were “more motivated to pursue a career in manufacturing”

The 2016 survey results showed that the percentages rose to 84% and 64% respectively.

The 2016 Deloitte report said, “Projections indicate that roughly 600,000 people attended MFG DAY events in 2016 and that 267,000 of them were students. That means that nearly 225,000 students walked away from their MFG DAY 2016 event with a more positive perception of manufacturing, according to Deloitte’s findings…. Based on the 267,000-student attendance figure, that’s potentially 171,000 new members of a next-generation manufacturing workforce.”

The Deloitte surveys showed that “71 percent of student attendees both years said that they “were more likely to tell friends, family, parents, or colleagues about manufacturing after attending an event,” meaning that they weren’t just convinced — they were inspired.”

This year, the MFG Day website listed 2,739 events planned across the country. In California, there were events planned at more than 250 locations throughout the state. The CMTC October 9th newsletter stated, “This year, CMTC and its California’s Manufacturing Network were much more active in sponsoring, organizing and coordinating events statewide. CMTC was also very committed in pairing up schools wishing to attend Manufacturing Day events with manufacturers and other organizations hosting open houses, career fairs, and expos. CMTC and its California’s Manufacturing Network’s efforts directly resulted in over 50 schools attending these events. At these events, students received first-hand exposure about today’s manufacturing technologies in industries that employ highly-skilled and well-paid individuals while offering exciting, rewarding, innovative work environments.”

Since I moved up to Hemet, CA in September, I attended events in Riverside County instead of San Diego County.  There were five events in the city of Riverside, one in Menifee, one Murrieta, one in Perris, and one in Redlands.  This is in comparison to my former home county of San Diego with 22 in the city of San Diego, three each in Carlsbad and San Marcos, two in El Cajon, and one each in Chula Vista, Oceanside, and Vista.

I attended only three events in Riverside County because they were located so far apart, and most of the events were held in the same time period between 10 AM and 2 PM. I began my day by attending the event in Menifee at Mt. San Jacinto College to introduce their new Makerspace to students.  The auditorium was nearly filled with students form Santa Rosa Academy where a panel of business professionals and professors shared the value of their education to their careers.  The event was sponsored by the City of Menifee, the Menifee Valley Chamber of Commerce, and CMTC. The audience was welcomed by Major Bill Zimmerman and Tony LoPiccolo, Executive Director of the Chamber.

Fortunately, I was able to get a private tour of the MakerSpace by Hal Edghill, the MakerSpace specialist, before the students had finished listening to the panelists. The MakerSpace has 15 inexpensive 3D printers and two more advanced 3D printers for students to use for their projects, as well as a small laser cutter/engraver. Mr. Edghill said the MakerSpace just opened in August, so this is the first semester it is available for students to use for projects.

There were so many students that they were divided into four groups for their tour.  Afterward, the students enjoyed pizza and soda before returning to school.

I then drove up to Riverside for a tour of Aleph Group, Inc. (AGI). AGI builds custom bloodmobiles, mobile medical and dental clinics, container hospitals, emergency command vehicles, mobile command centers, and specialty trailers, modular units, and vehicles.  Founder and President/CEO Jales De Mello conducted the tour personally, and we saw four projects in various stages of construction.  One bloodmobile was completed, ready to ship to Saudi Arabia.  Another nearly completed project was a mobile medical/dental clinic being built for a northern California Indian reservation.  The largest project under construction was a modular clinic.

Mr. de Mello said, “I started the company in 2001 with the goal of “making a positive on people’s lives. Our mobile health clinics are custom designed from the ‘ground-up,’ and are fully equipped for turnkey operation. Sizes range from 28 ft. up to 50 ft., and all of our vehicles and units are 100% wood-free construction, so as to eliminate all possibilities of bacteria and fungus growth associated with the use of wood products. The all-aluminum construction is lighter weight, has greater performance and longevity, and improves fire safety.” He believes that “his industry and its leaders must take a proactive approach in solving the needs of mankind.”

Next, I drove to Phenix Technology, Inc., which manufactures high quality fire helmets and other fire safety products and collectibles.  I arrived early for my 2:00 PM tour, so while the formal tour of manufacturing was being conducted, I had the pleasure of getting a private tour of their collectible museum of fire helmets from around the world and memorabilia related to fireman and fire stations. Museum tours are available upon request.

Phenix Technology, Inc was founded in 1972 by Former California State Fire Marshall, Ronnie Coleman and former Assistant Chief of the California State Fire Training Division, Ray Russell to make higher quality fire helmets. Four decades later, Phenix is still a family business who continues to proudly manufacture in the USA, and Mr. Coleman and Mr. Russell “are still there and available to answer any questions you might have about firefighter head protection.”

Tyler Meyer conducted the formal tour, and I saw three different styles of fire helmets being made in the production area.  Tyler said they have gone through Lean training and greatly improved their productivity and reduced lead times.  He said, “We can now make up to 20 helmets per hour instead of four.  Our lead times for most of our products, except for handmade leather helmets. went from 6 weeks to 6 hours in some cases. Our sales went up 51%, and our Net Operating Income went up 1600%+. We reduced our inventory by over $100,000, and our inventory turns are almost unmeasurable as we do everything just in time. We haven’t had any significant price increases in three years though our COGS increased as much as 30% because our controllable costs are down.”

He referred me to their Director of Global Operations, Angel Sanchez, Jr., who emailed me that “it is more important to talk about how Lean has created a culture of continuous improvement and total employee engagement. How Monday is most of our people’s favorite day of the week, not Friday. How we have learned that Lean is about creating a mindset where you see waste in everything and how everyone works together to eliminate it. If you are encouraging people to start a Lean journey, the focus has to be on the pillars of Lean, not the metrics.”

I was happy to get another example of the difference a Lean transformation can make in company performance and how important it is for American companies to become Lean enterprises to help rebuild American manufacturing.

I encourage more manufacturers to plan to participate in MFG Day in 2019.  Open your company to a tour.  Invite the families of your employees.  Invite your customers.  Invite the students of local high schools.  Invite your elected officials.  Many of them have never been in a manufacturing plant.  Let’s make 2019 the most successful MFG Day to date.

 

New Material Technologies Spur Growth in San Marcos, Texas Region

Thursday, June 21st, 2018

During my visit to San Marcos in March, I visited a diverse group of manufacturers both as to products and size of company.  The first company I visited, Urban Mining Company, is still in Austin waiting to relocate to San Marcos when their 100,000-square-foot building is ready later this year.

Right after being picked up from the airport by my hosts, we met with Scott Dunn, who is the CEO of Urban Mining Company. Dunn said that he had attended the United States Naval Academy and then received a degree from the University of Southern California. He said, “I started the company in late 2015, and we moved into our first space in January 2016.

We sought major investors from around the county because we wanted to be able to commercialize our technology very quickly. Out of 90-100 investor groups, there were only a few that fit our bill.  We spent a lot of time and money protecting our Intellectual Property with patents. We knew that we had original technology and had to be able to protect it. In June 2016, we secured $25M Series A Funding for to build our recycled rare earth magnet manufacturing facility.  After careful consideration, we chose San Marcos because it offers the skilled workforce and infrastructure needed to support our fast-growing operation. Once the facility is complete, we will be adding more than 100 manufacturing and technology jobs to the region.”

He explained, “I spent a lot of time in China to build relationships and skills to be able to buy down time from factory owners in China that had over capacity. Because of where we are right now, we are able to get a supply of components to use for recycling the rare earth materials. We are the only company producing Neodymium Iron Boron (Nd-Fe-B) rare earth permanent magnets in the United States. Our company’s patented Magnet-to-Magnet process repurposes domestic source materials from end-of-life products, such as hard disks or motors, to manufacture high-performance Nd-Fe-B magnets, using zero chemical inputs and wastewater. The magnets are then used to support the development of technology applications across the consumer, medicine, defense, aerospace, clean energy, and industrial sectors.

He added, “Most people don’t understand the ubiquity of magnets. The only rare earth mine and production facility in the U. S., MolyCorp Inc., went into bankruptcy in 2010, and the assets were bought by Chinalco’s subsidiary, Shenghe Resources in 2011.  The equipment was dismantled and moved China.  It’s critical that we develop this technology because China has the goal of controlling the supply of rare earth products by 2025.  If they succeed, then they could control the world. “

He concluded, “We are working with Tesla, GM, Ford, and many other OEMs like Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing to develop products for the commercial and military/defense industries. I believe that reusing rare magnets is critical to a cleaner future, and we have created a closed loop supply chain to upcycle these materials into products that can have a positive impact.”

When we visited Texas State University’s incubator, STAR Park, we met with Dr. John C. Carrano, founder and CEO of Paratus Diagnostics, a firm that specializes in medical devices for point-of-care diagnostics.

 I asked Dr. Carrano how long he has been in the incubator. He responded, “We have been here just over two and a half years, but I actually founded the company in 2012. We are well past the startup phase and are about 18 months away from being cash positive. It’s a long and complex product development cycle for medical devices. Medical diagnostics is not viewed by investors as a get-rich-quick kind of venture, but it is going to be a $10 billion industry in the future. “

I asked him about his background that led him to start the company, and he said, “I retired from the Army in 2005 after 24 years. I am originally from Long Island, NY, but obtained my B.S. from West Point and my Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. I was recruited to teach at the United States Military Academy at West Point in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Then, I was recruited to be a program manager at DARPA where I led several major Defense Department programs related to bio-sensing after the Anthrax attacks occurred in Washington, D. C.  Prior to founding Paratus, I was Vice President of Research and Development at Luminex Corporation., a medical device company, and developed an implantable device to diagnose a medical threat.

He explained, “Our goal as Paratus Diagnostics is to develop point-of-care diagnostic solutions to make healthcare more accessible and affordable. Our hand-held Paratus PreparedNow® System and the ParatusSDS® Cartridge, allows clinicians to make decisions during a patient visit – resolving issues associated with lengthy delays waiting on lab results and improving patient outcomes. There is a big need to diagnose periodontal gum disease because of the serious health consequences if it goes untreated, so our first diagnostic test will be a periodontal test as there is zero competition in this market. Our device tests for the six highest risk periodontal pathogens and two key cytokines using saliva.  The results are provided in 20 minutes and displayed on a smart phone by color bar graphs.

We have 26 full-time employees and will probably be up to 37 by year end.  We have raised $5 million in private equity from angel investors. We also have grants and plan to launch the product into the marketplace in about 18 months.”

At the STAR Park incubator, we also met with Tim Burbey, President of Blueshift Materials.

He said, “Dr. Garrett Poe and I founded the company in 2013 with the mission to commercialize Polymer Aerogels. In July 2014, we became a member of the FLEXcon Holdings family of companies. In 2015, we officially launched our AeroZero® line of products, which consisted of rolled film and monoliths. This was the first commercially available Polyimide Aerogel in the world. Its creation derived from customer demand for a clean, lightweight, small footprint insulation material that can easily be incorporated into composites. We wanted to be ale to make the material in a continuous way as it had always been done in a batch process. We call the products aerogels because they are similar to a foam and are 85% air.  It starts out as a polyimide resin and through a proprietary process, it is transformed into the various aerogel products.”

He said, we moved into the STAR Park incubator in the fall of 2016 and also have an applications engineering lab facility in New Braunfels, TX (about 20 miles southwest). We also polymerize our own materials from polyimide at our facility in San Antonio, TX. We have a good relationship with the Materials Science, Engineering, and Commercialization (MSEC) program at Texas State University and have hired graduates.”

He showed me several different shapes and styles of the products they can make now, from blocks to film to powder. It had good properties for thermal management. Since it is 100% plastic, it is very good for incorporating into composites.

He explained, “Our product designs have applications across the aerospace, cryogenic, membrane separation, radio frequency, electronics, and automotive industries. We make a film for a Formula One race car by adding it to Kapton.  We work with a lot of electronics and RF product companies. Our materials have RF transparency, so will allow signals to go through, but they also provide thermal management.  Our polymer aerogels can withstand extremes of temperature from as hot as 300 degrees C down to as cold as -200 degrees C. Our polymer aerogel has a high strength to weight ratio, especially when bonded to other materials and as a composite core. Our new process for make aerogel film will only take minutes to make vs. weeks, which will greatly reduce cost and open new markets.”

He added, “We are developing new products by teaming with a research company in Palo Alto to look at using different polymers besides polyimide. In June 2016, we got a $3 million Department of Energy DOE grant to develop transparent and thermally insulating Aerogel for single pane windows as part of a project to restore historic windows in the Northeast.”

On the second day of my trip I also met with Paul Brown, President of Bautex Systems LLC, which is focused on transforming the building industry by providing builders and architects with smarter, stronger, more versatile building materials and solutions. He is a serial entrepreneur, who earned his undergraduate degree from the Plan II honors program at The University of Texas at Austin and his MBA at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He has enjoyed a diverse career working in industries ranging from technology and telecommunications to construction products.

He said, “I had moved back to Austin, TX during the dot.com bust and was involved in a VOIP company. I love to build and started building houses.  I found a technology very similar to the Bautex technology,” and he invested in the company. But, he wanted to do manufacturing in the right way, and that company needed a better manufacturing process. “Oliver Lee is my business partner, and we did the original research in 2007.

We found the right machine in Europe, so in 2008, we had some custom molds made and took them over to Europe. We rented factory time for two weeks and replaced the wood filler with polystyrene to make blocks. We mixed the ingredients together and poured it into the mold.  It was an expensive and slow process. We added sand to the blocks and reduced cycle time to 30 seconds to make four 32 X 16-inch blocks in the mold. We had a goal of a weight of less than 50 lbs.

We spent a couple of years doing R & D before we moved to San Marcos, TX. We started shipping products in 2013 and now have six plants along the I-35 corridor.”

He explained, “The Bautex Wall System, comprised of a proprietary cement mixture and expanded polystyrene (EPS), is used to build interior and exterior walls for commercial and residential construction. The benefits to the contractor is that it is complete system that simplifies construction by combining structure, enclosure, continuous insulation, and air and moisture protection in a single, integrated assembly. With the Bautex Wall System, architects can specify an integrated solution that can be installed by a single contractor, saving time, effort and cost.  We are two and a half times what the new building energy codes started requiring in 2016.  Our system provides 26% more energy savings.”

He said, “We need a new paradigm for construction in this country. The process of building has to be better. When you analyze building construction, 90% of the work to build a house is non-value-added.  We need to reduce the costs of construction, and the buildings need to perform better. We had five buildings that were within five miles of Hurricane Harvey, and they did well.”

He added, “Six of the ten fastest growing counties are in Texas, but the access to labor for the construction industry is not here. There is a shortage of masons in Texas. Panelization in construction is appealing to a new generation of contractors.  His concern with panelization is that the industry has stayed with the same old technology. In 2020, a new building code will take effect, and each code changes pushes the bar higher.

We are now building one- to three-story buildings, and we can build faster than traditional construction methods using our Bautex Wall System. We have been nearly 99% commercial, but now we are going after residential work.“

Notice that three of the four companies we visited have developed products using new materials for diverse applications. These companies are examples of the spillover of research in technologies related to the MSEC program at Texas State University.

Northeast Indiana Fosters Manufacturing for the Creative Music Community

Tuesday, May 15th, 2018

It’s interesting to find out how certain regions have become centers for specific industries. I recently had the opportunity to interview economic development and business leaders in northeast Indiana to learn about the region’s advantages for manufacturers and what types of industries have flourished in the region. One of these unique industries is musical instrument manufacturing.

During my interview with John Sampson, President and CEO of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership, I learned that the region is highly concentrated in manufacturing.

Sampson said, “We cover 11 counties and collaborate with other counties in the south and east.  The business climate is very favorable for the Midwest –  we rank #2 in taxes and are in the top ten for other factors.  We have a very supportive and responsive part-time state legislature to the interests of employers.  The corporate tax rate is down to 6% and is headed to 4.9% in 2021 in a tiered decline.

On our website, we list the target industries [see below]. Back in 2006, we partnered with the regional workforce investment board, Northeast Indiana Works, for a drive to improve skills training. We make sure that all the training is targeted to what industry needs and made sure that students get transportable certifications. We got a $20 million grant in 2009 for a Talent Initiative to align the region’s talent efforts to the direct needs of defense, aerospace and advanced manufacturing industries.  Ivy Tech is the principle partner in providing training, designing skills training for employers.  They have a center for advanced manufacturing and have career technical studies and apprenticeships for high school students.

We have united with other organizations and are trying to better connect students with the trades. We have a statewide organization, called Conexus Indiana, to organize the logistics of the programs devoted to skills training such as CNC machining, welding, etc.  Conexus Indiana brings together a diverse advanced manufacturing and logistics community to build tomorrow’s skilled talent through industry-endorsed classroom curriculum, experiential learning and earning opportunities, and industry partnerships.”

From their website, I learned that there are three major universities:  Purdue U. Fort Wayne (IPFW), Ivy Tech, Northeast, and Indiana Tech. The Indiana Manufacturing Extension Partnership (Indiana MEP) is in Indianapolis, but Indiana Purdue University is satellite MEP site, located about 100 miles from Fort Wayne.

Ivy Tech is the largest public postsecondary institution in Indiana — and the largest singly-accredited statewide community college system in the entire country.  The system has 45 campus and site locations in more than 75 communities, and serve nearly 160,000 students a year.

I asked if the region has any Makerspaces and he replied, “Yes, we currently have two Maker Lab locations as part of the Allen County Public Library: “The Main Library and Georgetown.  Both labs have 3D printers, 3D scanners, electronics workbenches and other specialized equipment.

We also have a new Makerspace in development at the former General Electric campus where GE made electric motors.  The campus and is now being redeveloped as a mixed-use campus, called Electric Works. There is an opportunity for another Makerspace to be incorporated into the 1.2 million sq. ft. campus.” 

From supplemental information I was emailed after the interview, I learned that it’s 47% more affordable to buy a house in Fort Wayne ($116,000) compared to the national average ($222,000), and property tax is capped at 1%.

The region has a high rate of employment in the manufacturing sector:  28.8% compared to the national figure of 8.9%. Also, Indiana was the first right-to-work state in the Great Lakes region of the U. S.

The supplemental information provided more information on training, saying that the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership is partnering with regional workforce development organizations like Northeast Indiana Works and WorkOne Northeast career centers to invest in the region’s talent. Northeast Indiana Works oversees 11 WorkOne Northeast career centers in northeast Indiana and provides Skill-Link training at little cost to employers. “Skill-Link is a program that offers certification-based training tailored to employers’ specific skill needs. Employers select high-potential employees for the training, which promotes talent retention, career-pathway development, and, in many cases, leads to promotions and pay increases. WorkOne Northeast assists employers in filling positions left open by the promotion of employees who complete Skill-Link training.”

The Northeast Indiana Regional Profile states that Northeast Indiana “serves as a strategic distribution hub for businesses targeting the Great Lakes and Midwest. The region is located only two hours from Indianapolis and three hours from Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, and Columbus, Ohio. The region is served by two major interstate highways, I-69 (North/South) and I-80/90 (East/West), also known as the Indiana Toll Road. Fort Wayne International Airport is home to four major carriers: Allegiant Air, American, Delta and United. There are also two Class I freight railroads, CSX and Norfolk Southern, servicing the region.

It states, “The region currently ranks eighth in best tax environments in the United States and the best in the Midwest based on the 2016 State Tax Environment Index by the Tax Foundation. This business-friendly tax climate creates a thriving community for innovative businesses and growth…Due to legislation in 2011, Indiana’s corporate income tax rate fell by 2 percent. This was the continuation of a scheduled multiyear reduction, which will ultimately see the corporate income tax rate reduced to 4.9 percent by 2022, which would make Indiana’s the second lowest corporate tax rate of any state levying the tax.” The current corporate income tax rate is only 6%, and the personal income tax rate is 3.23%.

The profile also states, “The region has an abundance of water and natural gas, as well as a reliable supply of electricity. “The region’s largest municipal water system, Fort Wayne City Utilities, has an excess water capacity of more than 35 million gallons per day. Our excess water supply is a competitive advantage that fuels our growing target industries, such as food processing and agriculture.”

According to a 2016 Target Industry report from Community Research Institute, research identifies the region’s target industries in Northeast Indiana as:

  • Advanced Materials
  • Vehicles
  • Design and Craftmanship
  • Medical Device & Technology
  • Food & Beverage
  • Logistics & E-commerce

 

The top industrial employers are:

 

COMPANY

 

PRODUCT

 

EMPLOYMENT

 

Zimmer Biomet

 

Orthopedic goods

 

4,370

 

General Motors

 

Truck manufacturing

 

3,900

 

Steel Dynamics

 

scrap metal processing & steel manufacturing

 

LSC Communications (formerly R.R. Donnelly)

 

 

Book & other specialized printing

 

1,935

 

BFGoodrich

 

Rubber tire manufacturing

 

1,580

 

TI Automotive

 

Motor vehicle parts manufacturing

 

 

1,388

 

Frontier Communications

 

Telecommunications carrier

 

1,355

 

 

To gain a better perspective about how the relationship of the creative community to musical manufacturing, I interviewed Dan Ross, VP of Community Development for Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne, Inc.

Mr. Ross said, “Arts United is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1955. We function as both a united art fund and local arts agency, much like a cultural affairs office for the arts community. Arts United provides arts advocacy and promotion, high capacity for creativity through grant support, the arts campus, and creative community development to more than 70 arts and culture organizations in Northeast Indiana. We own the three different facilities – the Auer Center for Arts and Culture, the Arts United Center, and the Hall Community Center for the Arts – and maintain and service the buildings. Arts United cross-promotes events held in our facilities and other arts and culture events available to the community. In addition, resident organizations housed in our facilities receive subsidized rates at about one-fourth of the typical cost for renting office space in Downtown Fort Wayne.

We provide a variety of back office services for 19 arts and culture organizations, including a health plan that provides affordable health care payroll services, and a shared box office.

Arts United works with economic development organizations to utilize the assets of the arts community, because a creative arts community is beneficial for employers to attract talent from other parts of the country. Arts and culture are an amenity and improve the quality of life in a place. Because of the vibrancy of our community, Fort Wayne is drawing more non-residents to the area.”

He added, “In 2016, we had support from the Indiana Arts Commission to commission the Community Research Institute at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne to conduct a review of the Creative Economy for the state of Indiana.

When I inquired as to how the creative community contributed to the concentration of musical instrument production in the region, he explained that Fort Wayne has one of the United States’ largest dealers in musical equipment for musicians, recording studios, schools, churches, concert sound companies — Sweetwater Sound. Ross, said, “The company was founded in 1979 by Chuck Surack in the back of his VW bus, and since then has outgrown several buildings and constantly expanded its staff to become the leading retailer that it is today.”

From their website, I learned that in 1995, “Sweetwater established an informational website: www.sweetwater.com, and by 1999, most of their inventory was available for purchase online.” The company grew to the point that in 2006, they had a new 44-acre corporate campus designed and built. “The new headquarters, consisting of corporate offices, a distribution center with warehouse, and a retail store, also includes the Sweetwater Productions recording studio complex and 250-seat LARES-equipped performance theater.”

Ross said, “Sweetwater now has over 1,000 employees. Sweetwater attracts employees from all over the country by providing high paying jobs and opportunities for extensive training.  Sweetwater employees are active leaders and performers in the arts community. Employees both gain valuable experience with the variety of arts organizations in the community, and contribute to their success.”

Sweetwater has attracted instrument manufacturers to the area because they are the number one online distributor of musical instruments nationally.  Also, Purdue University is establishing its first School of Music on its Fort Wayne Campus, including a music and arts technology degree program starting next fall housed on the Sweetwater campus.

Ross added, “The history of making musical instruments goes back over a hundred years in the region.  The majority of orchestra and band instruments are produced in northern Indiana.  One local company, Fox Products manufactures 80% of the world’s bassoons and oboes.  Hugo Fox played for the Chicago Symphony, and he moved back to his hometown of Fort Wayne and started to make his own bassoons and oboes.”  These jobs are highly skilled and highly paid because of the craftsmanship required to make many of the complex musical instruments. New technology and scientific research have improved the manufacturing processes.

As we ended the interview, Dan said that he was a musician himself, playing the trumpet.  He plays for the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, and his career has been a combination of arts administration, teaching and playing music. He studied music in college, so it feels good to combine his creativity with community development goals to enhance Fort Wayne’s history of the creative arts and craftmanship.

We can see that northeast Indiana offers a good business climate for manufacturing compared to other states in the Midwest. In my next article, we will learn more about how the region’s focus on design and craftmanship led the development of the musical instrument industry from interviews with three of the companies making musical instruments.

Innovation Spurs Growth in Piedmont Triad Region of North Carolina

Tuesday, December 5th, 2017

My last day in North Carolina began with a visit to The Forge Greensboro, a Makerspace that also functions as an accelerator for startup businesses. My hosts, Brent Christiansen, President and CEO of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, Loren Hill, President of the neighboring High Point Economic Development Corporation, Mary Wilson from the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, and I with Joe Rotondi, Executive Director, and he gave us a tour. He said, “The Forge was started in 2014 by Andy Zimmerman as an entirely volunteer-run organization in a 3,400-square-foot space building down the street. It was only open three nights a week and was completely volunteer run. As membership quickly grew beyond the capacity of the building, we moved to this 8,000-square-foot space in the fall 2016, and I was hired as the full-time executive director. We are the largest and most comprehensive of the community-type makerspaces in North Carolina. Other larger makerspaces are affiliated with universities”

He explained, “We are a non-profit and have about 190 members. We have about a dozen people who teach classes and help maintain the equipment. Our space is split up into office space, a conference room, and manufacturing space. Most of the equipment has been donated, and all members are given affordable access to machinery for woodworking, machining, welding, sewing, 3D printing, laser engraving, electronics and ceramics.”

We met two members of The Forge during the tour: Marc Pinckney and Sam Rouse. Marc is using the equipment to build custom entertainment centers, and Sam is building custom furniture. Sam said that he moved to Greensboro to start Sam Rouse Furniture specifically because of the woodworking equipment available at The Forge. He has been able to launch his company faster and get new clients. I was pleased to learn that he is even making some wood furniture for BuzziSpace that I visited on my first day.

When I checked out the website to write this article, I learned that The Forge Greensboro launched a “Forge Ahead” fundraising campaign last week on October 11th. “The Forge is an amazing outlet for creative people, as well as a resource for employers looking to hire skilled workers,” said Executive Director Joe Rotondi. “The “Forge Ahead” campaign will equip our makers with the tools they need to actualize their ideas, as well as expand our mentor and career development programs.”

Our next stop was Winston-Salem, one of the three major cities in the Piedmont Triad region. We met Robert Leak, Jr., President of Winston-Salem Business Inc., at Whitaker Park to tour of one of the buildings on the 125-acre, 1.7 million sq. ft. campus that was donated by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in April 2017. The recipient was the Whitaker Park Development Authority Inc., a nonprofit corporation created in 2011 by Winston-Salem Business Inc., the Winston-Salem Alliance and Wake Forest University.

Bob Leak and Loren Hill commented that the building we toured was the tobacco plant that hosted tours for elementary school children when they were young. Although the building has been closed for a few years, it had been maintained R.J. Reynolds, and the utilities were now being paid for by Winston-Salem Business Inc.  It was mind boggling to walk through this enormous 850,000 sq. ft. building and imagine the millions of cigarettes that had been produced in this plant. Fortunately, the layout will facilitate the building being redeveloped into space for seven to eight different companies as there are several entrances/exits and roll-up doors for deliveries around the perimeter of the building.  They already have five companies interested in the space already.

This set the stage for our drive into the heart of Winston-Salem where we drove by several much older buildings that were previously owned by R.J. Reynolds when tobacco production was in the heart of the city. The largest building was sold to the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in 1986, and the rest of the downtown plants’ land and buildings were donated at the same time to the City of Winston-Salem because R.J. Reynolds was moving to a modern manufacturing center 15 miles north of the city.

We had a brief tour and lunch at one of these former tobacco plant buildings that has been re-purposed as the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter by “a partnership between the city and state, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Wake Forest University and Wexford Science and Technology, a Baltimore-based primary developer.

At lunch, we met Allen Joines, Mayor of Winston-Salem and Eric Tomlinson, PhD, who wears three “hats”— President of Wake Forest Innovation Center, Chief Innovation Officer of the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, and Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology at the Wake Forest School of Medicine.

Mayor Jones said, “Winston-Salem began the course to become a knowledge-based economy in 1995. We started to focus on innovation, and there was strong collaboration in the city. The Wake Forest Innovation Quarter is becoming an economic engine for the state. A lot of the companies in the center were the relocation of companies already in Winston-Salem, but we are starting to see businesses forming around the research center. The Innovation Quarter has become a great place to Work, Live, Learn and Play because of the repurposing of some buildings as residential apartments.”

Dr. Tomlinson said, “We are the fastest growing innovation center in the U.S. by size and number of people employed. We are the new hub for innovation in biomedical science, information technology, digital media, clinical services and advanced materials. We have 1.9 Million sq. ft. of space covering 337 total acres, and currently, we have 3,453 people working here, 152 companies, five academic institutions with 1,395 students enrolled this fall. We have 619 research units, and the 78 service companies generate $4.8 million in revenue. Every high-tech job creates several support jobs. People like working at the center, and they have access to about 270 different events monthly. We celebrate Juneteenth, a yoga event, and a bicycle race.”

According to the website, the five academic institutions are:  Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem State University, Salem College, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and Forsyth Technical Community College. It also features the following highlights of the center:

  • ” Patented university technologies available for licensing
  • Cost-effective scientific services
  • An advanced telecommunications structure, with a fiber optic ring running throughout
  • Venture capital opportunities, with many top venture capital firms in North Carolina within a 75-mile radius
  • Business incubation, capacity planning, entrepreneurial counseling and training”

Dr. Tomlinson said, “We have weekly meeting of entrepreneurs in our center every Tuesday evening. We have program topics that benefit entrepreneurs.  Flywheel co-working innovation space located at the Center for Design Innovation was our first incubator, where people can come together to work on the fly, learn and share knowledge.  In January, we will add a Maker Space and “Tinker” shop with manufacturing equipment.”

Our last stop of day before going to the airport to return home was Thomas Built Buses, Inc. in High Point, where we met with Caley Edgerly, President/CEO.  Mr. Edgerly said, “Thomas Built buses is the largest bus manufacturer in North America.  “We built our Saf-T-Liner C2 plant in 2004, which was a state of the art $100MM investment by our parent company, Daimler. We produce thousands of vehicles each year across our two main manufacturing facilities in High Point, and we have approximately 1,900 employees at these locations.”

He explained, “The company was founded in 1916 by Perley A. Thomas to build streetcars. In just a few years after the company’s founding, Thomas streetcars were carrying passengers in many of North America’s largest cities —notably in New Orleans on the line that was the inspiration for “A Streetcar Named Desire,” the famous play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams. The company switched to building school buses in 1936. In 1998, Thomas Built Buses became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Freightliner LLC, and Daimler purchased Freightliner in 2000. Freightliner is now known as Daimler Trucks North America LLC, the largest heavy-duty truck manufacturer in North America. The chasses they use come from the Daimler Trucks plant in South Carolina.”

Then, Mr. Edgerly gave me a tour of the plant where I first watched six robots weld the front end of the bus and one robot stack the assembly.  The paint booth is large enough to fit their 30-ft. bus, and three robots do all of the painting. I got to watch a bus being matched and attached to a chassis.

I asked when they had transformed into a lean company, and he said that the plant was set up in a lean way, so this plant gave birth to the Lean Way for the company.   Now they operate under the Daimler TOS (Truck Operating System).

I asked what are the advantages of being in High Point, and he said, “Continuation of the heritage of the company, ability to have long-term employees, and good supply of new workers in the region.  When we had to hire 50 new workers, we had 1,000 applicants. We are also close to the center of our manufacturing suppliers, and we are located in the middle of the population centers on the East Coast. The traditions of manufacturing are passed down from generation to generation.”

As I ended my trip to North Carolina, I felt good about the potential for future growth of the more diverse manufacturing sectors that are now in the region.  With low tax rates, a favorable business climate, programs for apprenticeships and employee training, Maker Spaces, incubators, and innovation hubs such as the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter, North Carolina is poised for a manufacturing boom in the future.

Charleston Manufacturers Focus on Training Current and Future Workers

Tuesday, October 31st, 2017

After visiting the Charleston Port terminal and the Mercedes-Benz Vans Training Center, I had the pleasure of visiting several manufacturers during my two-day trip to the Charleston metro area. We first visited Ingevity in North Charleston, where I met Michael Wilson, President and CEO, Dan Gallagher, V.P., Investor Relations, Eric Walmet, Charleston Plant Manager, Jack Maurer, Director, Communications and Brand Management, and Laura Woodcock, Manager, P.R.

Ingevity is a leading global manufacturer of specialty chemicals and high-performance carbon materials that are used in a variety of demanding applications, including asphalt paving, oil exploration and production, agrochemicals, adhesives, lubricants, publication inks, and automotive components that reduce gasoline vapor emissions. The company creates high value-added products from renewable raw materials. The name is “coined” from the meaning of four words:  genuine, ingenuity, innovation, and longevity.

Ingevity was spun off in May 2016 from WestRock, which has a long history and many name changes going all the way back to 1846 when it was founded as Ellis, Chaffin & Company. Ingevity is headquartered in North Charleston, and has manufacturing plants in South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Virginia, as well as two in China. Ingevity has four sites in the Charleston region: its headquarters with 205 employees, the manufacturing plant with 214 employees, the Ashley Center with 109 employees, and the Innovation Center with six employees for a total of 534 employees.

Michael Wilson said, “We recently announced an agreement to acquire Georgia-Pacific’s pine chemicals business for $315 million. This will give us a stronger more competitive pine chemicals business. We also signed a supply agreement with Georgia-Pacific which in combination with our agreement with WestRock, will put 70 percent of our crude tall oil requirements under long-term contract. There is little customer overlap between the two companies. And, because we do business in 65 countries, we believe we can accelerate global growth for the Georgia-Pacific products.”

When I asked him his impression of the manufacturing sector in the region, he responded, “The manufacturing base is very diversified. The business climate of South Carolina is world class. The mindset of the government has been beneficial. It is a right to work state and has low taxes.”

Eric Walmet gave us a tour of the Charleston plant and Innovation Center, where we saw some of the activated carbon end-products made by Ingevity. The products include carbon honeycombs, granular carbons, and shaped carbons used to reduce automotive gasoline emissions. The activated carbon is made by combining sawdust and acid through a proprietary process.

I could see that the plant was laid out on the basis of a Lean value stream mapping event, and there were the obvious signs of the application of Lean tools and principles on the shop floor.

Our next stop was IFA North America in nearby Ladson.  We met with Mauro Amarante, President and CEO, and Ryan Loveless, Training Coordinator.  IFA North America LLC, formerly known as MTU Drive Shafts LLC., was founded in 2002 and operates as a subsidiary of the German company IFA – Holding GmbH.

IFA is one of the world’s leading and largest suppliers of drive shafts and side shafts for the automotive industry. In North America, IFA produces more than two million drive shafts a year and employs more than 600 people.

Mr. Amarante said he has been in the U.S. 11 years, having previously lived in Germany, Brazil, and Verona, Italy where he was born and raised. IFA is currently building a new plant in Berkeley County (still in the Charleston metro area) that will be 234,000 sq. ft., where they will be manufacturing constant velocity joints. They plan to consolidate all their operations and expand to about 400,000 sq. ft. by 2023.

Mr. Amarante said, “South Carolina is very business oriented, and former Governor Nikki Haley was very business focused.  We have all the business conditions we need here to secure our workforce.  We were one of the partners with VTL and three other companies to start an apprenticeship program three years ago to teach basic manufacturing skills like math, statistics, gauging, and machine operations.”

Mr. Loveless gave us the plant tour where we watched their production team turn purchased metal tubes into several designs of drive shafts.  Mr. Loveless said, “In addition to our full-time employees, we utilize about 120 temporary workers from a private agency.  These people work for us for about three-six months, and then we select the best workers to add to our full-time employees base. We would like to reduce the number of temporary employees. This is why we are investing time and money into the apprenticeship program to grow our future employment pool.”

Again, I saw the application of Lean tools and principles throughout the shop floor.  We even had to watch a safety video before we got to take the plant tour, and I was glad I was wearing my own Sears Die Hard steel-toed shoes instead of having to wear their guest shoes. Of course, as an automotive Tier 1 and Tier 2 supplier, they are ISO 9001:2008 and TS 16949 Certified.

Next, we visited the VTL Group, also in Ladson, where we met with Jeff Teague, General Manager, and Brian Glasshof, Account Manager.  Mr. Teague said, “The company was started in 1919 and changed its name to Valeo Transmission Ltd. in 1997. The management team, Bruno Joan, Chris Elliott, and a third man who has since been bought out and retired, did a leveraged buyout in 2001.  Chris started at the company as an apprentice when he was a young man.

He said, “I started in November 2011 when the company was in a turn-around mode after the recession. I came from the Greenville/Spartanburg area.  We are now running in a very tight workforce market because of the low unemployment.

We specialize in the design, development, prototyping, and manufacture of high precision components and sub-assemblies for automotive powertrain applications. We have expanded by winning several new contracts.  This plant makes variable geometry turbo parts for Cummins and make engine components for Borg Warner.  Everything we do is built around CAFÉ standards for emissions. VTL Group employs 275 globally, and has 48 employees in this Charleston plant.”

He went on to tell me about the genesis of the region’s youth apprenticeship program. “We were one of the six companies that showed up at a meeting in 2013 to discuss starting an apprenticeship program, which launched in 2014. We had a signing day event for 11 students. Now, this fall we’ll have 100 in the program.  Apprentices can start when they are 16 years old in high school. There are now nine industry sectors and 122 companies in the apprenticeship program. Industrial mechanics is the most requested training.”

Two of their new apprentices were brought in to meet me:  John Cody Geiger and Ty’Celia Young.  Both are high school students.  Ty’Celia said, “My high school engineering teacher encouraged me to apply when I was a junior.” Cody said, “I got an email from my high school principal and applied as a senior, so I graduated before starting at VTL.”

They go to high school in the morning, and then take industry-specific college courses a couple afternoons, and go to work the other afternoons during the school year. In the summer, they work full-time. When they complete the apprenticeship program, they will be Certified as Journeymen by the Department of Labor. They will also have two years of paid work experience on their resume. VTL has hired two past apprentices as full-time employees.

There are 26 schools in the apprenticeship program, public high schools, as well as charter schools and private schools. The Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce pays for the tuition, tools and supplies for all of the students, so the students are getting their training free of charge. The Charleston Metro Chamber focuses on in-demand occupations. Besides advanced manufacturing, Charleston is also becoming an IT hub.

When I asked about the curriculum, I was told that the community colleges already had curriculum, which the companies helped modify to meet their needs. The program has two main goals:

  • Fill the critical workforce needs.
  • Monitor the next generation of students to keep them in the region.

Apprenticeship training is not all the training provided at VTL. Every employee is allowed one hour a week for training, but it is up to them to take advantage of the opportunity. VTL uses ToolingU training modules for their in-house training program.

Mr. Teague gave us the plant tour, and I was amazed at how many robots they had doing various manufacturing processes and moving parts from one operation to another. No wonder that only 48 employees at this plant are able to maintain the work flow required of a Tier 1 and Tier 2 automotive supplier. The parts I saw in process were Variable Cam Timing engine components and turbo-charger components. Mr. Teague showed me their Lean scoreboard section where there are visual displays of all the metrics required for a Lean company.  Naturally, VTL is also ISO 9001:2008 and TS 16949 Certified.

From these tours, I could see why world class companies are choosing to locate or expand in the Charleston, South Carolina region. A very favorable business climate, excellent transportation options by truck, rail, and ship for both national and international destinations, a highly skilled, trained workforce, and apprenticeship programs make the region a desirable location for many manufacturing sectors, especially those that export their products.

North Dakota’s Northern Plains UAS Test Site

Wednesday, July 12th, 2017

When I was first invited to North Dakota, the plan was for me to visit the Northern Plains UAS Test Site in Grand Forks, but it was about 80 miles away from Fargo, and the Site’s Director was going to be out of town the week of my trip.

My first thought was questioning why North Dakota was selected as one of the six UAS test sites compared to San Diego, which is home to Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk and General Atomics’ Predator unmanned vehicles. I had given a presentation at the San Diego Lindbergh Chapter of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International in the spring of 2013 while they were collaborating to prepare a proposal for being selected as a test site and was surprised when San Diego was not selected.

I posed this question to my host, Paul Lucy, the first evening we met during my trip, and he supplied part of the answer. It turns out that the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks had a long history of training airline pilots starting in the late 1960s and more recently expanded into training pilots for unmanned vehicles.

In December 2013, the Federal Aviation Administration selected North Dakota to be one of the six test sites, officially known as the Northern Plains UAS Test Site. According to the website, the mission is:  “Collaborate with FAA and industry partners to develop equipment, systems, rules, and procedures to safely integrate unmanned aircraft into the NAS without negatively impacting existing general or commercial aviation.”

After I had written my other articles about North Dakota, I set up a phone interview with Nick Flom, Executive Director of the Northern Plains UAS Test Site. He took over the position in 2016 after the founding Executive Director, Robert Becklund, was promoted to Brigadier General and Deputy Adjunct General for the State of North Dakota. However, Nick is not new to the center since he was Becklund’s first hire when the site was established.

Nick provided me the rest of the answer as to why North Dakota was selected. He said, “When they were preparing for the selection process, the entire state went into what we called the “one voice” effort by the Governor, the North Dakota Department of Commerce, and the Office of the Adjunct General of the National Guard, the University of North Dakota, and other organizations in the state. Over $20 million was committed to establishing the UAS Test Site because the FAA test site designation did not include any Federal funding.”

As a point of reference, he told me that whole population of North Dakota is about 775,000, and there are only three Congressional Representatives. The population of the City of San Diego, California where I live is nearly double at 1.4 million.

He explained that “the wide open space of North Dakota was a big consideration, and there is no restricted air space because of population density. The FAA also wanted to diversify the test sites to reflect extremes of temperatures, and North Dakota has some of the highest and lowest temperatures of the U. S.”

The UAS Test Site website sums up the reasons why North Dakota was chosen as follows:

  • “Unequalled history, legacy, and culture of UAS.
  • Immediate access to uncongested airspace statewide and custom tailored to support your research.
  • Diverse climate and open terrain.
  • Unified commitment from North Dakota and congressional leadership, local industry, and key business decision makers.
  • State grant program to match funds from industry-academia research.
  • Strong relationship with Grand Sky, a UAS Business and Aviation Park at Grand Forks Air Force Base.”

When I asked what are his responsibilities, he answered, “We have a couple of different missions to integrate unmanned vehicles into the national air space:  supporting industry as rules are being developed, providing the test environment for application-based processes in agriculture, building inspection, insurance claims, etc., and as an economic driver for agriculture and energy. We look at unmanned vehicles as an opportunity to diversify the state’s economy. Grand Forks has an Air Force Base that has underutilized space, and there was 217 acres in Grand Forks available to establish a UAS business park. The first two tenants in the park are General Atomics and Northrop Grumman. General Atomics has a flight training facility for their sales of vehicles to foreign countries. They were training their pilots to fly in civilian air space. Northrop Grumman flies Global Hawks out of the Grand Forks Air Force Base to support some of their military customers. We help support these capabilities and have the goal of flying beyond the line of sight using the radar system at the Grand Forks Air Force Base. Right now, when General Atomics is doing flight training, they have a chase airplane following along. When they can fly beyond line of sight, they won’t have to have a chase aircraft follow along and will be able to execute their mission at a lower cost.”

Nick Flom provided me with more detail about UND’s history of pilot training. He said, “UND started with two airplanes in the 1960s, and then added a helicopter program in 1980. Now, they have 150 airplanes for commercial aviation pilot training. They were the first university to add unmanned vehicle pilot training in 2010, and are now filling the increasing demand for unmanned vehicle pilots. They are the first university to offer a four-year UAS Operations Bachelor of Science degree in the U. S. We have a close relationship with UND, and we can leverage a lot of their research. The President of UND established the Research Institute for Autonomous Systems on the campus. The top leaders understand the importance of unmanned aircraft.”

Nick explained, “UND offers specialized training and curriculum development for UAS crew training and certification that includes human factors, safety management systems. It has an indoor UAS flight laboratory, a Predator Reaper Integrated Networked Computer Environment (PRINCE) simulator, a Predator Mission Aircrew Training System (PMATS) simulator, as well as a UAS Scan Eagle aircraft and simulators.”

From the University of North Dakota Aerospace home page, I learned that UND specializes in Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) research, education and training for private industry, government, UAS researchers and UND graduates. The UAS research collaboration includes:

  • “UND Institute for Unmanned and Autonomous Research (IUAR)
  • John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences
    • Aviation, Atmospheric Sciences, Computer Sciences, Space Studies, Earth Systems Science & Policy
  • UND Aerospace Foundation
  • Northern Plains UAS Test Site (NP UAS TS)
  • UND School of Engineering
    • Unmanned Aircraft Systems Engineering Lab
    • Robotics and Intelligence Systems Lab
  • UND Department of Psychology
    • Northern Plains Center for Behavioral Research”

From all of this information, I could see that it was entirely appropriate for the UAS Test Site to be established in North Dakota near University of North Dakota.

I asked Nick about funding for the UAS Test, and he responded, “The state of North Dakota has appropriated dollars to support the test center. We also contract with government agencies such as NASA and the FAA as well as private companies to do services for which we are paid.”

Before ending our discussion, I asked Nick what were the future plans. He answered, “It depends on the needs of industry. The ability to fly aircraft beyond line of sight is very important, along with the ability to safely perform operations over populated cities. Right now, it is one pilot per aircraft, but it may be possible to have one pilot flying more than one unmanned vehicle.”

In retrospect, I realize that San Diego County would not have been a good choice for a FAA test site as we have too much restricted air restricted air space due to three military airports, San Diego’s Lindberg Field international airport, several small airports spread throughout the county, and the Tijuana, Mexico international airport right across the border. In addition, the population of San Diego County is 3.3 million, and there is only a small variation in temperature from winter to summer. There is no doubt in my mind now that North Dakota was a good choice for being selected as one of the six designated test sites.

North Dakota Focuses on Accelerating Growth of Emerging Companies

Wednesday, May 24th, 2017

The last week of April, I visited the Fargo, North Dakota region as the guest of the North Dakota Department of Commerce’s Economic Development & Finance Division, which is charged with coordinating the state’s economic development resources to attract, retain and expand wealth. My host was Paul Lucy, former director of the Economic Development & Finance Division, and we visited several companies and met with heads of organizations working to accelerate the growth of emerging companies and retain successful existing companies.

For many people, the only impression they have of Fargo is based on the movie and subsequent TV series of the same name. I never saw the movie and haven’t watched the TV series, but have a cousin in Fargo who is always bragging about what is happening, especially what celerity is coming to perform. I learned that the Red River is the boundary between North Dakota and Minnesota, and about 230,000 people live in the greater Fargo/Moorhead region. It has one private and two public four-year universities, along with several community, technical, and business schools. With nearly 30,000 college students, it is a college town that rivals any in the nation.

As we began our first day of appointments, Paul said, “There are development projects in motion that have  a vision of making downtown Fargo a more vibrant place to live and work, which could lessen urban sprawl and result in more efficient investment in city infrastructure and services. An added bonus would be the preservation of more of North Dakota’s fertile farmland for agriculture production.”

Our first appointment was a breakfast meeting at Emerging Prairie, a co-working space in downtown Fargo. We met with Greg Tehven, Executive Director of Emerging Prairie. He said he grew up on a farm and is a 5th generation North Dakotan. When he was attending the University of Minnesota, he remembers that one of his professors recommended that North Dakota be turned back to the prairie because from 1930 – 2000 there was a “brain drain,” when the best and brightest left the state.

Greg said, “I never intended to go back to North Dakota when I graduated, but while I was an undergrad at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota in 2003, I co-founded Students Today, Leaders Forever. After graduating, I joined the Kilbourne Group and worked on a variety of projects to stimulate growth and entrepreneurship in downtown Fargo.

He explained, “I burned out and worked my way around the world in 2010. I had a Rotary Ambassador scholarship and got accepted to the University of Manchester to study social change in 2011. I had a year before I started school, so I worked for Doug Burgum for a year and discovered “urbanism.” When I gave a TEDx Talk in Minneapolis, I made a conscious choice that instead of studying social change, I wanted to practice social change.”

He said, “Three of my friends and I founded Emerging Prairie in 2013 to turn Fargo into a vibrant startup community. Our mission is to connect and celebrate the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Fargo-Moorhead. We do so by operating a wide variety of events and initiatives, such as the Drone Focus Monthly, the Prairie Den co-working and event space Hackathon, Meetup groups, and the Intern Experience. We have TEDx Fargo, an independently organized TED event, and 1 Million Cups Fargo, the largest and most active 1 Million Cups program in the country.

We support tech-based entrepreneurs. We are not very involved with manufacturing – most of our entrepreneurs are in software. We provide entrepreneurs: (1) a founders-only retreat (2) a platform to share their work and investment opportunities, and (3) access to consultants. I believe in transfer of information, but not a formal mentor relationship. We have to make it a “cool” climate for college students. We host midnight brunches and do a lot of weird and strange things. We have 144 members of our co-working space, modeled like a student union. We have no desire to maximize profits, but to maximize impact. Millennials are wired to maximize impact rather than maximize profits.”

He expanded, “We host the Ted Ex Fargo and will have about 2,000 people at the event this summer where the CEO of the Kauffman Foundation will speak. We host an Ecommerce conference in Moorhead. We support the drone industry and run a drone conference that started two years ago with 240 attendees the first year and 330 the second year. We expect about 600 people this year on May 31st. We host different other events and also operate an online publication that highlights the regions entrepreneurs and innovators that are turning Fargo into a flourishing tech hub. In 2016, we became a 501(c) 3 non-profit.”

Our next visit put what Greg has said into perspective. We visited the Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corporation (GFMEDC) where we met with James Gartin, President, Mark Vaux, Executive V.P, Business Development, and Lisa Gulland Nelson, V. P., Marketing and Public Relations. Mr. Gartin said, “Our goal is to be a key catalyst for business growth and prosperity for the region. As far back as five years ago, we felt that we had a difficult situation because of our workforce and ability to attract new companies with our extremely low unemployment rate that is currently3.4%. Every time we get a RFQ, the first thing we get asked is:  Do you have enough employees? We made a commitment early on that we weren’t going to take away employees from our existing employers. While we still work to attract companies to our region, we realized that if we need to work with our two universities to change the philosophy from ‘research for papers’ to ‘research for commercialization’ to facilitate start-up companies.”

He explained, “We have funded Emerging Prairie since its inception and are helping them to support entrepreneurism. We attend and support 1 Million Cups, where the entrepreneurial community meets with K-12 superintendants, organizes manufacturing tours for high schoolers, and recruits companies to our community.

He added, “Governor Doug Burgum’s son, Joe Burgum, is committed to making Fargo the best place on earth to live. He founded Folkways that is a community-building collective dedicated to supporting the region’s culture creators. He created the Red River Market,  successfully lobbied to bring the ride-sharing service Uber to North Dakota, and puts on a course to help entrepreneurs launch local businesses.”

He said, “At North Dakota State University’s Research and Technology Park, there is great collaboration to make it a leader in developing Intellectual Property. Entrepreneur magazine ranked Fargo in the top 10 for entrepreneurism. We have a number of ‘0-60’ speed companies in operation, and a lot more that are on the cusp. The most important thing is that our senior leaders are seeing a difference in the growth of business. We modeled our approach after Brad Feld’s book, Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City, based on Boulder, Colorado. The start-up phase is ten years, and we are only 4-5 years into the program. Cities can’t push entrepreneurism. You can’t make people start companies, but you can help to build the ecosystem.”

The supplemental material I was provided revealed that the costs of doing business in North Dakota are around 15 percent less than the national average because of the following:

* Research and development tax credits

* Corporate income tax exemption

* Property tax exemptions for new or improved buildings

* No personal property or gross receipts taxes

* No sales tax on eligible services, manufacturing or computer/ telecommunications equipment

* Seed and angel capital investment tax credits

* Early-stage financing resources

* State-sponsored workforce training grants

The GFMEDC website states, “Some of our largest employers include divisional, regional, national and global headquarters & facilities for Microsoft Business Solutions, Bobcat Co., John Deere Electronic Solutions, Border States Electric Supply, RDO Equipment Co., Tech Mahindra, Titan Machinery, Nokia HERE and American Crystal Sugar.” The Microsoft campus came about when Great Plains Software, Inc. was acquired in 2001. There doesn’t seem to be a dominant manufacturing industry in Fargo, as the list of top manufacturers includes farm and construction equipment, power equipment, windows/doors, metal fabrication, steel, and composites.

We also discussed the challenges of solving the skills gap and attracting the next generation of manufacturing workers. Mr. Gartin said, “Tip Strategies out of Austin, TX did an economic development strategy study for us on how to grow economy and our workforce. We have funded the plan and are implementing it. We have some of the most unique workforce strategies in the country. Industry and education mesh. We have a very robust manufacturing Day that we handle. We have funded a Maker Space in Moorhead and helped NDSU create a Maker Space, job shadowing and internships. We have a Tri-College University consortium. Students can take classes and get credit at any of the colleges and pay the same rate. Last year, the two-year technical schools collaborated so that students can take classes at any one for the same rate.”

Tri-College University is a unique consortium that allows students enrolled at any one of its five member institutions to take courses at the others at no extra charge, and to apply the credits toward graduation requirements at the home campus. The five member colleges are:

  • Concordia College – Moorhead
  • Minnesota State University Moorhead
  • North Dakota State University – Fargo
  • Minnesota State Community & Technical College – Moorhead
  • North Dakota State College of Science – Wahpeton & Fargo

When I mentioned The Playbook for Teens program I have written about that mentors middle school girls to get them interested in STEM careers, he said, “We think it needs to start in elementary school in the second or third grade when students are starting to learn math. At NDSU, there is an Engineers in the Classroom program where engineering students work in classrooms to teach math. They matched first and second graders with an engineering student to work with them on project based learning. It was tested in an 8-week program, and every student jumped up two levels. This year, there is an engineering student in every classroom, and the students are about to be tested. This could be the opportunity to show that this works, so that we can apply for a Pew grant to fund the program.”

Mark Vaux said, “Our business development program is based on attraction, business retention, and expansion. We visit at least 150 companies on an annual basis looking for opportunities and challenges, so we can help them through the challenges and barriers to growth and recommend actions to take. If companies are buying new equipment or adding workers, there are state programs that will help them.”

Lisa Gulland Nelson described some of the Workforce programs they have:

  • Operation Intern – primary sector business are eligible for matching funds of up to $30,000 per legislative biennium or $3,000 per intern for hiring North Dakota college students or high school juniors or seniors.
  • New Jobs Training Program – matching grants to assist qualified North Dakota employers in training or upgrading their employees’ skills.

Overall, I was impressed with North Dakota’s policies to provide a favorable business climate for its businesses and wish that California would adopt some of these same policies. The Fargo region is smart to focus on emerging businesses to retain their college graduates and keep them from going to other states for jobs. My next article will cover the incubator at the NDSU Research & Technology Park.