New report shows manufacturing slowly on the rise – WKSU News

John Bader’s father started Ohio Gasket & Shim in 1959 in Akron. It’s a company straight out of the world of Frank Capra… for 50 years business hummed along, orders rolled in, John and his brother, Tom, joined up, employees held picnics and social events together, deals with the local bank closed on a hand shake, the firm expanded, and by 2009 they had three facilities in Akron turning out metal bits and pieces for companies like Volvo, Mack Truck and Lockheed-Martin. But in 2009, he says “I don’t think there was a month where we MADE money. My brother and I, we’d never been through this before, to any great degree, so we hung on for probably three or four months longer than we should have without layoffs.”

Manufacturing slowly returning 
The story of Ohio Gasket lines up perfectly with the new Brookings report. It notes that 30 years of outsourcing has cut manufacturing jobs throughout the U.S. The first decade of the millennium was the worst, with Akron and Cleveland losing about 40% of their manufacturing jobs. But a rebound started in the last two years, spurred in part by increased oil and gas production. Companies like Boeing, which saw its far-flung global supply chain disrupted by the Fukushima earthquake, are slowly moving to “re-shore” production to the U.S. And industry in major cities is now more specialized compared to 1979. Northeast Ohio was once home to a variety of manufacturing concerns. Today, the region is focused on machinery, chemicals and metals, like Ohio Gasket. After some layoffs in 2009, the company is now more productive with about a dozen fewer people.

“Prior to that we were making money. And so when you’re making money, you get in that rocking chair, everything’s going along fine, and you don’t question your processes. We went out into the shop, we looked at manufacturing processes, leaned them down as well, did what we can to create more throughput but with less effort. That should have been going on for years prior, but 2009 just reared its ugly head.”

Lean and mean production
Leaning is one way companies have survived. Another is going high-tech. The Brookings report shows that job loss was slowest in manufacturing involving high-technology. Touring the shop floor, Bader proudly points out the computerized presses churning out product.

“This is about 7 or 8 months old. This is our newest laser; it’s about a year old. We’ve invested in new equipment. This machine here we put a pallet of steel on there, it picks it up, brings it up, cuts it, puts it on here. Where we have our older model… it’s pretty much manual.”

High-tech is king
Back in his office, Bader says training on high-tech equipment is just half the equation.

“Attitude is number 1. If they have a 51 percent attitude, I can train the rest. It’s become must more technologically advanced, there’s no doubt about it. I would recommend anyone, if they don’t want to go through a college, they get some type of manufacturing ability, with computer-numerical-controlled operation, something to give them a ‘value add’ so when they go into a company they can hit the ground running and make a good wage.”

Just over 11 percent of Northeast Ohio’s jobs are in manufacturing – one of the highest rates in the country. But the portion of those jobs considered high-tech is less than half the national average. The Brookings report does show one area Northeast Ohio is at least staying competitive… manufacturing wages are mostly at, or above, the national average in non-high-tech industries.