Let It Snow

For most of the United States, it’s been a mild winter. There hasn’t been a lot of snow to clean up, or for that matter, to have fun in. However, while most of us have been warm and dry, places like Cordova, Alaska (and more surprisingly Seattle, Washington) have experienced historically harsh and snowy winters. With this crazy weather, it comes as no surprise that the demand for items like snowblowers has been high. And since nothing goes right 100% of the time, it’s also not a shock that some of the factories that make those snow blowers have had production breakdowns that have left them scrambling for help.

This is exactly what happened to one our snowblower manufacturing clients. They were in the middle of their busiest season, when all of a sudden one of their machines decided to call it quits. Thankfully, at Ohio Valley Manufacturing we are experts in plant assist production.  The customer rushed us the tooling from their malfunctioning machine. We quickly evaluated and modified the tooling so that it would fit perfectly with our own state-of-the-art machinery.  To our client’s great relief, we were producing their critical snow blower parts the next day.

We hope you never have to face a last minute production emergency like our client, but just in case you do, give Ohio Valley Manufacturing a call and we would be happy to handle your low and high volume temporary production runs.

The Capital of Know-How

There is no question that things have been tough for the US manufacturing sector over the past 10 years.  Nevertheless, our home state of Ohio and the rest of the country are starting to fight back. With a number of multinational companies bringing jobs home again, Made in the USA is making a big comeback.

Helping this renaissance along is Cleveland’s The Manufacturing Mart, which offers a place for buyers and sellers to find a wide variety of business resources.  The Manufacturing Mart hosts permanent exhibits for North American manufactures making components, equipment and consumer products. While they cover all of North America, they have a special focus on the region known as the Capital of Know-How™, an area with a 600-mile radius that has Cleveland at its center.  On February 14th and 15th, because of their experience and understanding of the current industrial climate, The Manufacturing Mart is producing the inaugural International Manufacturing Conference and EXPO.

At Ohio Valley Manufacturing, we are proud to be a part of this innovative and groundbreaking event. Speakers and companies from all over North America are coming to Cleveland to share their knowledge and insights about the state of manufacturing. Industry leaders including Grady Cope (NTMA Chairman) and Roger Kilmer (U.S. Department of Commerce) will be discussing the latest developments in international cooperation and North American manufacturing policy. There will also be a special focus on intellectual property law and how the newly passed Leahy-Smith America Invents Act will affect our industry.

Whether your manufacturing business is located in the Capital of Know-How™ region, or elsewhere in North America, don’t miss out on the informative and interactive International Manufacturing Conference and EXPO.

If you do decide to make the trip, make sure to pull us aside and so we can tell you about how we are helping re-invigorate the manufacturing industry with our outstanding heavy gauge stamping, precision blanking, and customer service.

Plant Assist Production: Helping Our Neighbors

For the layperson, an equipment failure means a trip to Home Depot, or maybe even just a run to the corner store for new batteries (if we’re lucky). In large-scale manufacturing, though, the stakes are a little higher and the remedies are a little different. From the moment of shutdown, every minute of downtime means lost productivity and wasted money. This doesn’t even take into account issues of late delivery, production schedules for other projects, expedited delivery, and so on.

And then there’s the opposite problem: machinery is running at top efficiency, orders are rolling in – and there just isn’t capacity to fill them as quickly as promised. An enviable predicament, on the surface – but client goodwill is not fostered by such stories used as explanation for late deliveries. Whether the former problem or the latter, Ohio Valley Manufacturing’s plant assist production services are available to our partners in manufacturing, providing production space and equipment capabilities to make sure those orders to get out on time and as promised. One of these projects involved a full 500,000 units over two weeks, which we were pleased to provide services for. Strengthening those who might be considered our competitors actually strengthens our industry as a whole. With such obvious benefits, we’re pleased to continue to offer this service to other facilities – contact us for more information.

Closing the Skills Gap: Solutions to the Worker Shortage

Our last blog shed some light on the looming issue in American manufacturing over the last few years: jobs are there, waiting to be filled, but a lack of skilled, interested workers makes this impossible. Surprising news at first glance, given the dire state of unemployment today, but with a little more digging, it makes sense. For years, we’ve heard that the future of American is in service, consultation-type jobs. It makes sense that schools and students, then, would orient themselves toward this type of educational and career path, rather than vocational and technical training. Further, those who do pursue STEM (scientific, technical, engineering and mathematics) tracks are entering fields other than manufacturing, or not pursuing line work. What are some possible solutions? Ohio Valley Manufacturing has a few ideas, many of which are already in effect at our company:

Start early: This pharmamanufacturing.com article discusses starting at the K-12, primary education level, instilling a strong math and science base for students. These subjects should be contextualized: not equations on a blackboard or formulas in a book, but real-life applications. Once students see the advanced ways they can use this knowledge, interest is sure to rise.

Apprenticeships: Ohio Valley partners with North Central State College on an apprenticeship program, recruiting promising engineering students to work in our shop, increase their knowledge, and get to see first-hand how a modern machine shop operates. The success of this program speaks for itself: once students get a look at the work we’re doing, most can’t help but want to stick around. Many of our most promising young experts are products of our apprenticeship program.

Community Involvement: We believe that our location and area are one of our greatest resources. Beyond our apprenticeship program, we also take an active role in donating equipment, time, and expertise to local educational programs, ensuring that they have the best resources available to train students. Whether they end up working at Ohio Valley or not, a strong, knowledgeable, young base of workers across the industry is about as strong an investment in the future of manufacturing as we can make.

And there you have it. We’re excited about the places that technology and machining have yet to take us, and we’re ready to take a strong role in ensuring that that happens close to home. Stay tuned to our blog, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for more information!

Where Have All the Workers Gone?

A grim picture of American manufacturing has been painted in recent years: by the media, by politicians, even by a misguided few within the industry. “All the jobs have left,” you may hear, or, “America’s future is as a service provider.” For those of us on the ground, though – the machinists, the engineers, the foremen – filling orders, building products, and witnessing the resurgence of the factory right here in our own country, we know that this is not the case. With vast leaps in technology, efficiency, and safety, manufacturing has the potential to be stronger here than ever before – provided that we can train and attract qualified and skilled workers to fill the positions.

That’s right: in news that may be surprising to those of us inundated with reports of rampant unemployment and jobless graduates, the fact is that a large number of unfilled manufacturing jobs do exist.  What exactly is going on here? Here are a few factors:

Safety: This is a no-brainer – untrained workers are a danger to themselves and other employees. Partial or incomplete knowledge of a machining process is not enough of a basis to hire someone, not when the stakes are as high as they are with this type of hands-on work.

Training and Use of Resources: For most firms, it just isn’t cost-effective to provide on-the-job training. Companies may not have the proper personnel, equipment, or space to bring new hires up to speed on the required knowledge.

Lack of Interest: As mentioned in this article, young graduates, even if they’ve gone through engineering programs, may not see work in a machine shop as fulfilling or exciting. Of course, this isn’t the case – not with the cutting-edge work going on in shops throughout the Midwest and the nations.

And this leads to our next point: how do we solve these problems? How to raise interest, and find trained, skilled workers? Keep an eye out for our next blog to read about some possible solutions.