I have a lot of passions in my life. My family and faith are clearly at the top of the list, but it’s a long list. I also absolutly love Walt Disney World (13 family trips in the last 5 years). I even trained and ran a marathon just to get a chance to go to Disney! I love my Buckeyes. And believe it or not – I love manufacturing. I have since I was a kid. Of course, I didn’t call it manufacturing back then. I called it “getting my rear-end beat for taking stuff apart that I may or may not be able to get back together”. As I got older, I started to pay more attention to how that stuff came apart – so naturally I could more successfully put it back together.
Eventually, that curiosity led me to a degree in Welding Engineering from OSU, followed by a great first-decade of my working career at a major automotive company. Through events that are irrelevant, I was fortunate to end up here at EWI – where I get to see a TON of different products being manufactured in all kinds of different ways – which really feeds my passion.
I think it’s important to note, though, that as I’ve gotten older – that passion for manufacturing has changed slightly, and I’ve grown more and more enamoured with the thought of making manufacturing more cost effective in the USA. That’s why when I saw this video today, it really hit home. It’s an excerpt from an NBC News story talking about a special furniture maker who has re-patriotized jobs. I encourage you to take a look at it, and challenge you to think deeply about its implications on your business.
There’s one particular line in the video that keeps bouncing around in my head. Around the 6:35 mark of the video, Harry Smith says “They’re not waiting for the economy to bounce back. They’re pitching in to see that it does.”
So what about you? Have you done anything to influence the rebirth of manufacturing in the USA? If you’re on EWI’s site, reading this blog, I have to think that in some way – you can have an impact. Let us help you figure out how. It’s my passion.