On Oct. 6 at the Gov. William A. O”™Neill State Armory in Hartford, the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT) throws open the doors to a daylong “Manufacturing Mania” event, envisioned as “a celebration of all that is Connecticut made,” in CCAT”™s words.
Between then and the close of “Manufacturing Month” in Connecticut, the question is how many manufacturers will open their own doors.
With a week to go in September, only a small handful of companies have taken CCAT up on its request for companies to “open their doors and tell their story” to kindle the interest of young people in pursuing careers in advanced manufacturing.
While the Bridgeport Regional Business Council has been hosting tours of local manufacturers of late, and with politicians regular visitors to area factory floors, few companies signed up immediately for the month-long Connecticut “Dream!t Do!t” initiative by CCAT, derived from a national program sponsored by the Manufacturing Institute affiliate of the National Association of Manufacturers.
Advocacy groups countrywide are marking Oct. 5 as “National Manufacturing Day,” leading into the Oct. 6 event at the state armory.
The Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA) wraps up the month”™s activities with a manufacturing policy forum scheduled for Oct. 30, which CBIA hopes will set the stage for the coming legislative session.
While United Technologies Corp. (UTC) is offering up multiple exhibits at the state armory, UTC as of late September was not offering any tours of its facilities, but was hardly alone on that front, with just a few of Connecticut”™s 4,800 manufacturers doing so, and as of press deadline, none in Fairfield County.
Connecticut manufacturers employed 165,000 people as of August, with the sector having shed 1,800 jobs in the past year and nearly 44,000 jobs over the past decade. If that latter figure represents a disconcerting 21 percent drop, Connecticut is in far better shape than Massachusetts, which has suffered a 38 percent fall over the past decade in its manufacturing employment base; New York, which has seen a 31 percent decline; and New Jersey, which has 30 percent fewer manufacturing jobs today.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, manufacturers nationally saw revenue increase 2 percent from a year ago, but profits are down 3 percent.
In Connecticut, federal and state legislators have redoubled their efforts to spur the sector here, with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro backing “manufacturing reinvestment accounts” that would allow companies to stash cash on a reduced tax rate against future capital expenditures, U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy promoting “buy American” legislation in Congress, and members of the Connecticut General Assembly forming a legislative manufacturing caucus in part to help companies find trained workers.
That is the mission of CONNSTEP, which provides training and consulting services for manufacturers on an ongoing basis. The nonprofit is supported by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, and is connected to the national network of Manufacturing Extension Partnership programs organized by the U.S. Department of Commerce”™s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
On a new Made in CT website, CONNSTEP will highlight the state”™s manufacturing industry and “celebrate the companies who continue to make it in Connecticut,” in its words. The initiative is not related to a separate Made in Connecticut Guild.
NIST has its own “Make it in America” program, weekly highlighting a “manufacturer of the week.” To date, six New York companies and two from New Jersey have been featured, but none from Connecticut and just one from New England, in Maine.
I’m not sure exactly what point you are trying to make. The fact that there have not been a large number of manufacturers participating in the Open Houses is due to a whole host of reasons – there are safety and liability concerns, transportation concerns, disruption of business but that doesn’t mean that we don’t care about educating our legislators and the public on what we do and what job opportunities are available in our companies. For years now, manufacturers in the state have partnered with CBIA to put together the giant Manufacture Your Future Expo where production equipment is actually rigged into the venue and set up to run and show students what real manufacturing looks like. There are videos, classes for the teachers and it takes a tremendous amount of time to put it all together. Thousands of students have attended these Expo’s and come away with a better understanding of what is out there for them if they keep up with their STEM studies. You can see videos from the Expo’s here: http://nextgenmfg.org/dvd/jan.cfm
Manufacturer’s throughout the state are extremely involved in supporting all areas of education year in, year out. My company and several other manufacturers including Alloy Engineering and Trumpf Laser participate in the annual “Girls In Tech” day at Housatonic Community College where Manufacturers meet with 7th and 8th graders to discuss future career opportunities in our industry. Manufacturers help sponsor and mentor teams in robotics at High School and College levels. We serve on TTAC (Trade, Technology Advisory Committees) at Vo-Tech schools all over the state. We help grade their NIMS projects and fundraise to send our students to the national SKILLS USA competitions. We facilitate job shadowing and internships at our companies as well as externships and summer jobs for faculty at our High Schools, Vo-Tech Schools and Community Colleges in order to instruct and prepare our teachers in the real world needs of manufacturers. We also work with CCAT on their Dream It, Do It initiative and appreciate the high tech resources that CCAT has available to us. We work with incubators at various Universities, we donate raw materials and equipment to schools AND we have plant tours. If we haven’t opened our doors, it’s not because we don’t care or are not involved. It’s because we are also trying to run our businesses and sometimes schedules just don’t jive.
Also, ConnStep is one of the premier MEP’s in the USA and they are a non-profit provider that we manufacturers hire directly and also sometimes are able to get matching training grants to pay for. They are not part of DECD but they do happen to be the preferred consultants for everything from Lean to Technology Scanning to Business Development by many manufacturers in the state because they have very talented people who truly understand our world because they came from it.
I agree totally with Kathy Saint’s response. There are many manufacturers participating in a variety of events around the state in support of Manufacturing Month. There are valid reasons that some companies are unable to participate in an open house or in the National Manufacturing Day events on October 5-6. There are often confidentiality agreements in place between manufacturers and customers that prohibit the manufacturer from showing the parts in process or even referring to the customer. Schedule conflicts are also an issue. During October 5-7, Sikorsky Aircraft is hosting a Boy Scout/Girl Scout event which provides middle and high school students the opportunity to learn about aviation and technology during a weekend campout. Sikorsky is devoting a significant amount of resources to this event. Many companies are also participating in local high school & community college open houses to promote career pathways in manufacturing. Many of us are small businesses who do not have the resources or manpower to educate the public, our primary focus is in building our businesses and trying to compete efficiently in an area with high costs. Acme Wire Products will be featured on the NIST Make it in America site on October 3rd.