Manufacturing Day: Putting Industry on Display

You’ve heard the litany of problems. Manufacturing is going away. Manufacturing can’t keep up with foreign competition. Manufacturing doesn’t provide good career opportunities. Manufacturing isn’t safe. Manufacturing won’t ever attract young people.

Yes, manufacturing has had—and still has—its challenges. But those blanket statements, simply put, are wrong. They are misconceptions voiced by people who don’t know today’s manufacturing or the passion and tenacity of those involved with it. The true challenge has been—and still is—educating the members of every community about manufacturing’s reality by showing them what goes on behind the walls and telling them how technology has changed the way industry functions.

Manufacturing Day, the North American initiative co-produced by the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association Intl. (FMA, the parent organization of CIM-Canadian Industrial Machinery), NIST, NAM, Industrial Strength Marketing, and The Manufacturing Institute, was developed to change the misconceptions. Think of it as a grassroots show-and-tell designed to squelch negativity that prevents young people from embracing manufacturing careers and to create an understanding of the role manufacturing plays in the economy.

The event’s roots are rapidly taking hold. Last year five events in British Columbia and eight in Ontario joined those in 48 states to total 832 participants hosting more than 35,000 guests. That was nearly triple the number of company participants and attendees from 2012, its inaugural year.

More Open Doors in 2014

This year, on October 3, those numbers are expected to nearly double according to Pat Lee, FMA marketing manager. Approximately 1,500 manufacturers, educational institutions, industry associations, and government entities are expected to coordinate efforts and open doors to share the manufacturing environment with 60,000 students, parents, educators, and community members.

“A lot of this started with small, individual companies,” said Lee. “The biggest growth last year was seen where there was a local organizer— a chamber of commerce, economic development organization, or a community college that would assist in coordinating efforts of a group of manufacturers.

“If one person in a small industrial park says, ‘Hey, let’s all do this and invite the local school students to come over for some tours,’ that gets it started.”

The most coveted group of attendees are the students, followed closely by their parents who strongly influence career choices.

“Manufacturing Day companies are conveying that industry has room for all sorts of people with advanced skills. Those people have to be smart, skilled, and creative—all things that young people aspire to be—and they can be those things in manufacturing,” said Lee. “As soon as you expose students to what is possible and to what is right under their own noses, they see the possibilities for their own involvement in industry.”

Jason Ouellette, senior CMM operator (in dark-framed safety glasses) at A.V. Gauge & Fixture Inc., Oldcastle, Ont., explains the importance of accuracy in gauges to a group of students during a Manufacturing Day 2013 tour. Photo courtesy of A.V. Gauge & Fixture.

Get Involved

Invite the people within your community to tour plants and show them the exciting technologies; the challenges that keep employees engaged in their work; the myriad employment opportunities; and the clean, safe environments. Then tell them how industrial shops, even small operations, compete successfully on an international scale.

Manufacturing Day’s dedicated website, www.mfgday.com, offers suggestions and guides to help plan an event. Those registered as hosting companies will benefit from extensive event promotion. It also provides a venue for registering attendees to your event so you have an idea of how many visitors will be stopping by.

Not ready to host? Consider getting involved as a sponsor or registering to attend an open house event this year.

Workforce WindsorEssex Windsor, Ont.

Workforce WindsorEssex, a workforce development board in Ontario, coordinated an event last year involving six manufacturing facilities, including tool, die, and mold shops. Each group of students visited two companies. Over 200 students, from university students down to a group of grade school students from a local private school, participated. The school board worked with the individual schools and guidance counselors to select what classes and students would be included.

“We were fortunate to work with great, supportive manufacturers for the day. They went beyond what we expected them to do, providing snacks, takeaways, everything they could to show the students about the opportunities they have because they see the migration of youth away from our region following secondary education,” said Michelle Beemer, career pathways educator at Workforce WindsorEssex. “Our employers were so passionate about manufacturing— you could really see it when they were interacting with the young people.”

Tanya Antoniw, executive director at Workforce WindsorEssex, said, “In advance of the event some people in our community had seen newspaper articles about what we were planning and wanted to know how to get their children involved. So we were able to make arrangements for those students.”

This year they plan to expand their Manufacturing Day with an element designed for parents. “We’re brainstorming about getting parents involved,” said Antoniw. “We recognize that it is one of the key areas because of the huge role parents have in their children’s career decisions.”

A.V. Gauge & Fixture Inc. Oldcastle, Ont.

A.V. Gauge & Fixture, designer and manufacturer of gauges, fixtures, assembly tools, and composite and machined parts, included Workforce WindsorEssex’ 2013 Manufacturing Day as one of the ways they work to attract young talent to manufacturing. Twenty-two students from Lajeunesse Catholic School toured the shop.

A Workforce WindsorEssex student group toured Radix Inc., Tecumseh, Ont., a systems integrator that offers design, programming, build, and installations services. Photo courtesy of snapd Windsor.

“We supplied the students with a flowchart that depicts our process from point of sale, to engineering, through where the product is created to help them visualize where they were with each department,” said Inna Turkova, human resources coordinator at A.V. Gauge. “All our positions were listed by each department so they would understand the jobs involved— that it’s not just general labor in the shop. We wanted to give them an understanding of the employment opportunities they should be interested in.”

Turkova said that she sees interest in the skilled trades coming back. “I don’t know if it’s due to overall efforts or just getting our name out there, but now we don’t have a problem getting a supply of good candidates. We ensure that channels are open for us through cooperative education, the Youth Apprenticeship Program, a youth summer employment program, and events like this.”

Intercontinental Truck Body, Surrey, B.C.

Intercontinental Truck Body, manufacturer of custom truck bodies, trailers, and enclosures, welcomed students and suppliers into their facility on Manufacturing Day 2013. Before each tour, guests queued in the boardroom where monitors featuring the company’s web page and videos gave them a preview of what they would see while they enjoyed some light refreshments.

“It’s never a bad experience to show people what you do,” said Nathan Van Seters, general manager of ITB. “We have so many service industry jobs that it is exciting when people see opportunities that are very tangible, very hands-on, with a different kind of focus.

“The most excited people we saw were probably the students from the drafting and design programs. Schooling is focused on how to program and use software to model small discrete parts. When students saw the big picture, the result of all the little parts coming together, their eyes lit up,” said Van Seters.

He added that suppliers who took advantage of the tour opportunity were also surprised by the scope and range of the processes and the final products. “You can pass a manufacturer every day and never know what goes on inside,” he said. “This was a good reminder to us that we have to do a good job of telling people about what we do.”

This year’s ITB Manufacturing Day participation will be similar to last year’s with one exception: More guests are anticipated.

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