Archive for May, 2008
May 13th, 2008
The Council on Competitiveness is urging lawmakers to focus on growing “middle skills”—skills that require training and education beyond high school.
While the group’s revelation may not be new to some, it illustrates workforce education is a dynamic entity requiring cooperation between many stakeholders. I believe Rockford is moving in a positive direction with respect to workforce education. As principal of District 205’s upcoming Academic Career Education High School (ACE High School) I will be focused on our students learning core academics along with the “middle skills” put forth by the Council on Competitiveness.
The full article can be found at http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/25/51/29.html
May 11th, 2008
Today’s story by Alex Gary and quotes by John Lewis need further expansion. John is right about the local economy and the impact of manufacturing. As it stands now, 21% of the Rockford MSA workforce are employed in manufacturing. If you use a conservative multiplier, another 21% support manufacturing. So around 42% of the regions economy are directly impacted by the manufacturing sector.
Why is manufacturing holding up so well? If you review the Department of Commerce data, exports of Capital Goods have increased by 34% from 2004 through 2007. And the YTD data through March show Capital Goods are 9% ahead of last year. If a company is directly exporting or selling to companies that export, then you will benefit.
Why is this so? The Euro has strengthened against the dollar by 24% from January 2004 through March 2008! That goes a long way in making our products more competitive against the European companies. Going unnoticed is the strengthening of the Chinese Yuan against the dollar by 18% since mid-2005 when up until then, the Yuan was fixed.
Also helping our companies has been the drive to improve productivity through a variety of process improvement strategies. Nationally, Output per hour has improved by 11.6% since 2004, with a +4.1% in the first quarter 2008!
So my message is…get into the export game, either directly or sell to customers who export and keep on making productivity improvements. It’s a good formula for keeping our local manufacturing economy growing.
Bob Trojan
May 8th, 2008
It is great to participate in the Rockford Area’s blog about Manufacturing….electronic conversations about manufacturing has been going on in Groove or via large e-mail lists but this is an open forum for anyone who derives all or part of their paycheck from Manufacturing in the Rock River Valley—-a bigger percentage and more people than many want to admit. I have been learning to love Manufacturing for 31 years—-15+ from the sidelines and 16 growing a small company based on providing a service or working with a network of suppliers to provide a finished product. The processes are fascinating, the people are the best —–they love to talk about what they do, they are proud, they are hard working—–they are the backbone of our country! It is always an honor to go into their facilities!
Here is a call to all the experts out there on topics related to manufacturing. —–you know who you are! Experts that can help all of us be better at what we do everyday. You are invited to write in about a topic of interest to you or to comment on what I or the others have said! It won’t be fun without you! Be sure to inform us about what you have to offer about strengthening Manufacturing in our region and the USA! Events, training, questions, new ideas, new technologies, new opportunities….let’s focus on the positive….but sometimes we have to comment on the tough stuff….it’s all about manufacturing and how it can survive and thrive, even today, even here!
May 7th, 2008
Bob,
I would like to relay an example of Manufacturing Reinvention that I had the opportunity to see first hand, Trumpf lasers. Trumpf started as a manufacturers of small hand tools for sheet metal work. As the business grew they branched into more stationary machines like press brakes and punches. In the early 80’s they started to add lasers as part of their machines in cutting sheet metal. Today, the lasers have become a large portion of their business to the point that they now are a laser manufacturing company with recent acquistion of a “chip” maker that builds the diode that is the basis of the laser system. The GOOD NEWS: They recently opened the largest laser development building in North America in Farmington, CN USA!! Just in time to cash in on the favorable exchange rate to export lasers from the US. This is an exciting story and shows that manufacturing never really dies but can transform and reinvent itself.
May 7th, 2008
Our team of manufacturing experts will discuss many of the issues important to our manufacturing community. We hope you will let us know what you think as we begin our postings.
Stay tuned!
Bob Trojan
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