Have you ever been doing something, saying something, and get the feeling nobody is listening? Over the last year, I’ve written nine blogs which in some way related to the rebirth of manufacturing in the USA. I’m pretty happy with most of ’em. Mostly because it’s something I’m passionate about – and I think it comes through in the tone and message of each one. Oh – what’s that? You missed some of them? Well – no, of course I don’t mind linking you to a list of them so you can catch up! Here you go!
Anyone care to guess what this blog will be about? Yep. That’s it. I read a great story on CNNMoney last night and it DRIPS with ties to my passion (manufacturing in the USA and the innovative steps we can take to help it along)! You can find the original article here.
The article first talks of a textile manufacturer (Four Seasons Manufacturing) who make products for many top US Designers. My first thought at reading this was all the fuss over our Olympic uniforms! Looks like Mr. Singh would have been happy to employ American workers to produce them.
One key problem the article brings up is a lack of qualified skilled labor. This is a topic very close to EWI’s heart, and something we’ve been hearing literally for YEARS from our member base. We listened, and worked hard to develop a training tool to drastically improve the welder training that is so critical to many of our client sectors. This training tool resulted in a spinoff company, RealWeld Systems, Inc. We’re very proud of our role in such an important innovation!
I, personally, am equally proud about the myriad other opportunities I have had to impact the flow of jobs back to America that I cannot talk about (yeah – confidentiality). What I can say is that, off the top of my head, at least half of the projects we have done in the last year in my groups have been either in support of rectifying sub-standard process controls by US Manufacturers in other countries OR developing new techniques to improve competitive advantages for our customers.
So while I may not have a the millions of Twitter followers like these folks, and I’m not all together certain my voice is heard by much of anyone, I’m glad that the message is coming out one way or another.