So here’s the deal… I am SUPER excited that manufacturing in the USA is going through this “re-birth.” I think it’s great that one thing Congress and President Obama can agree on is the fact that we need to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US (not so awesome is the fact that this may be the only common view between them – but I’ll avoid further digression on that). I’m so excited, in fact, that I’ve blogged about this topic in one form or another in the past.
Check out previous examples:
- Plant Vogtle – Thirty-Four Years in the Making
- Rebirth of Manufacturing
- How Do You Make Jobs? Innovate!
Here’s where I need to come clean, though. I actually jumped on the manufacturing bandwagon after joining EWI. Our corporate mission statement when I joined the company back in 2007 was to “Advance our customers’ manufacturing competitiveness through innovation in joining and allied technologies”. Back then, the rave leading up to the 2008 presidential election was about “change versus experience” in Washington, with some of the late-election focus switching to the economy. I don’t remember anyone in the media or government at that time, though, joining the manufacturing movement.
As we build (bad pun intended) towards the 2012 presidential election, many Washington type folks are stumping about Job Creators and the importance of the Manufacturing Industry in the US. They’re all jumping on the bandwagon now. It’s not too late, and I’ll gladly slide over and make room for anyone who will share my passion. I was especially encouraged by the bandwagon momentum generated at a recent event hosted by my company.
I’ll end by sharing one more example of real people who are not just talking the talk, but are walking the walk to revitalize and revolutionize our manufacturing industry. CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod recently published this segment about a company in Canton, Ohio. The company is Suarez Manufacturing, and they make Edenpure space heaters at this particular factory. They recently redesigned their product (or portions thereof) and brought its assembly back to the US from overseas. This meant 450 new jobs at the plant alone, as well as a number of jobs at upstream suppliers. I’d like to give a special thanks to the operations manager, Hope Paolini, quoted in the piece for her hard work to make all of this happen!