It doesn’t take a fictional ad guru like Don Draper to let you know working in manufacturing has a branding problem with younger generations. The good news for the California economy is there’s a new image already being crafted.
“Manufacturing is cool. It’s not smokestacks anymore,” said Adam Hansel, president of DTL. At a recent meeting-of-minds, Hansel held up his iPhone to boast about how his company’s machines helped build the latest Apple smartphone.
And that was one of the big rallying cries at the event: find ways to tell the new story of manufacturing.
The place was the Advanced Manufacturing Summit hosted last week in Sacramento by the governor’s economic development office, GO-Biz, and the point was to get everyone on the same page about pumping up California’s advanced manufacturing sector.
“It’s never happened before: a meeting where all the universities, industry and agencies came together to talk about advanced manufacturing,” said Doug Henton, attendee and also Chairman and CEO of Collaborative Economics.
Advanced manufacturing, briefly put, means using high-tech methods to make specialized or high-tech products, hence the “no smokestacks” comment.
The forum was prompted by a
White House competition to create advanced manufacturing centers around the country and drop on them the funding that goes along with winning one in your state, almost $70 million.
“California raised its hand and said ‘We’re going to take the lead,'” said Kish Rajan, director of GO-Biz, AKA the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. “We’re going to be in the pole position.”
That seems like no-brainer, since California is the largest manufacturing state in the country with 1.2 million jobs in that sector. Rajan added that manufacturing as a whole contributes $230 billion to the state’s economy.
While story of manufacturing shown in the news lately has been how it’s on the decline, shown in colorful chart after colorful chart, boosters see a big opportunity for California.
“This is a different type of manufacturing,” said Henton. “A lot of these are things that we do better. We’re good at it, such as in aerospace. These are industries using advanced tools, like making biomedical devices. We’re a leader in that.”
California’s aerospace industry is still one of the state’s strengths and is represented in its
top 10 exports. While the sector might not return to the good old post-WWII or Cold War days, some see an opening in the unmanned vehicle market, of the land, sea and air variety.
“I think that’s a big place for California to play because, since it’s a knowledge-based economy, it’s about retraining workers that were already in the aerospace industry or bringing in new people to the aerospace industry around this new technology,” said Louis Stewart, deputy director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at GO-Biz.
But California has ahead of it–maybe not a cliff–but a bit of a workforce hill to climb: Older workers are retiring out of manufacturing and it’s difficult to find the youngsters with the right skills to replace them, thus the comments about making manufacturing cool to the kids these days.
One panelist jokingly mentioned creating an “MTV Cribs” to show off homes of CEO’s of advanced manufacturing companies.
Brandon Cardwell, VP of Programs at the i-GATE Innovation Hub, noted that boomers are now moving out of manufacturing workforce and workforce training isn’t keeping up with the changing labor market. Census figures from 2011
showed that 2.8 million manufacturing workers, or one-quarter of all manufacturing workers, were 55 or older.
“We need bring back shop class in high school,” said Gene Russell of the non-profit Corporation for Manufacturing Excellence.
A big bullet point was the need to get more students interested early and make a clear pathway for them to go from high school all the way to the advanced manufacturer floor. Of course, it might not hurt to let them know manufacturing jobs
can make an average of 39 percent more than the overall California average wage.
“I think now is the time that we need to start connecting the stories from industry and academia so that we understand what kind of workforce needs to be come about for these future trends and then basically rebranded and tell why this new wave of advanced manufacturing is where the students should be looking at, as opposed to looking at traditional manufacturing which is not necessarily the most appealing to the younger generation,” said Stewart.
On top of getting students interested, there’s the issue of getting them trained with the right skills for these high-tech jobs. Tim Rainey, the executive director of California’s Workforce Investment Board, said most training is still modeled for big, industrial manufacturing, but the sector is now made of clusters of smaller companies.
Getting people trained up has also been made difficult by employers decreasing spending on training as an employee benefit.
To do it right, panelists said it will be vital to convince employers to invest into training partnerships with schools with funding, donation of equipment and providing more apprenticeships.
Finally, attendees broke into smaller groups for brainstorming and Rajan wrapped up the day with some words on the new effort.
“If you keep this spirit going, California, as I said this morning, is unstoppable.”
New Gillette Store Fights To Sell Only Made in USA Goods
in News/by MAM TeamStore owners Rod and Susan Mathis, owners of My Made in America Store in Gillette, ordered American flags from Annin Flagmakers of Roseland, N.J. But Rod had to send back some of the poles because they were outsourced to a foreign country. He now sells poles from EZPole Flagpoles of Eastlake, Ohio.
They ordered cast iron cookware from Lodge Manufacturing Co. of South Pittsburg, Tenn. But Rod had to send some glass lids back because they were made in China. He also cannot sell the company’s cookbook because it’s printed outside the United States.
Rod Mathis has discovered labels can be deceiving. Companies will list products as made in the United States when sometimes nearly half of the product was made elsewhere.
For instance, he planned to sell mugs with logos for each branch of the U.S. military. But he had to give up the idea when he learned that, while the mugs were made in the United States, the logos were going to be made elsewhere.
Sometimes, buying American-made can be more expensive. After all, labor costs are higher in the United States than in China. But Rod held up an Annin flag and showed the quality. The materials were heavier. He believes the flag is worth the value.
“It’s hard to find an American-made flag,” he said.
The store is a place where you can find items of all kinds — including patriotic gear such as American flags, prisoner of war “Never Forgotten” wall hangings, fierce-looking eagles stitched on clothing, organic soap and raw honey.
Appealing to the camo-wearing biker daddy with some stuff for the earth goddess and people in between, Rod and Susan Mathis named their store for the obvious demographic: Shoppers who want to buy goods made in the United States.
“People are unemployed,” Mathis said. “Yet we’re buying stuff made in China.”
It’s not easy to find products made in the United States anymore. It’s even harder to stock a 900-square-foot retail space with solely U.S.-made goods, Mathis said.
Shoppers who want to support local businesses will find baskets and silvery jewelry made in Upton, wall art made in Moorcroft and Cheyenne, coffee tables from Hulett, soaps and lip balms from Douglas, tissue-box holders made in Gillette.
Five percent of the store’s profits will go in an account to assist wounded veterans, Rod said.
Military veterans receive a 10 percent discount at the store.
Recently, when the Star-Tribune visited the store, no one stopped by. But business is “good when they can find us,” Rod Mathis said. They’re located in a building at 203 Carey Ave., Suite 3, where Rod, who also owns Gillette-based D&P Electric, did electrical work in exchange for three months of free rent.
“We’re not quite six months into it,” he said. “It’s an experiment still.”
Most American Made Cars
in Uncategorized/by MAM Team“If you break down a single ‘American-made’ transmission, you’ll find many smaller parts, each stamped with its own country of origin. You may well find 80 percent of the parts inside that transmission didn’t come from the U.S.,” said Dubois.
To narrow down the options, DuBois’ team collected data from several sources, including recent American Automobile Labeling Act reports. The AALA was enacted in 1992 to inform consumers about the percentage of American content which comprises each car. AALA data specifies the percentage of U.S./Canadian parts content for each vehicle, including where the engine and transmissions were built.
DuBois’ index used these details as well as each vehicle’s overall AALA score, but also factored in:
— Profit margin; Where the automaker’s global headquarters is located
— Where research and development took place
— Location of production for the body, interior, chassis, electrical
Below, we’ve listed the top-five most American-made 2013 models from DuBois’ index. Several vehicles ended up with tied scores, resulting in multiple winners for each position. View the complete list here.
1. GMC Acadia, Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse
2. Dodge Avenger, Ford F-Series pickup
3. Chrysler 200
4. Jeep Compass, Patriot, and Wrangler
5. Chevrolet Corvette, Chevrolet Equinox, Ford Mustang, and GMC Terrain
How Walmart Plans to Bring Back ‘Made in America’
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamWhat Walmart sees is a way to lower costs while smoothing its supply cycle by looking more broadly at its distribution system. Although the company may be able to buy an item cheaper from China, the price it pays per piece doesn’t always reflect what it spends to get the product to the shelves. “When we buy from overseas, we may buy more than we need to fill the container,” says Mac Naughton. “We’re looking at carrying costs through the system in addition to landed costs.” (Walmart has recently been criticized for being out of stock on items, due to a lack of store employees, but the company says its in-stock position is at record levels and that it hasn’t cut employee hours.)
Walmart is also hitting some unexpected supply snags as local demand increases in the developing countries where it buys goods. Recently, it found itself short of memory foam for mattress toppers and had to add a U.S. supplier, Sleep Studio, to augment its foreign source. That need to increase capacity can only increase as the middle class grows in India, China and elsewhere. The company will still likely rely on foreign suppliers for those products, such as cut-and-sew garments, that have a very high labor input. But given the more robust regulatory environment in the U.S., domestic suppliers are far less likely to run shoddy plants that endanger workers, as some of Walmart’s overseas subcontracters have been accused of doing.
Which suppliers stand to benefit from Walmart’s strategy? The company says that products with a “high cube” (supply-chain speak for big and/or bulky, such as furniture) are candidates. So are products that have more highly-automated production, meaning lower direct labor, or products that have a less predictable sales curves and might have to be produced quickly to meet a sharp rise in demand. The company says items such as sporting goods, storage products, games and paper products are likely categories.
One of the first companies to benefit is 1888 Mills in Griffin, Georgia, which makes better-quality towels. Walmart’s version will be labeled “Made Here.” 1888 Mills had some spare manufacturing capacity, but since the size of Walmart’s orders can distort any vendor’s production, 1888 Mills needed a longer-term deal to be able to make the investment required to produce the needed quantities. “We made a commitment that was longer term than we would normally do. There’s transparency on the part of both parties: we worked with collaboratively with them,” says Michelle Gloeckler, Walmart’s senior vice president of home.
Camping, throwing knives and outdoor goods company Coleman is another participant. The firm, owned by Jarden Corp. is manufacturing its hard-sided coolers and personal flotation devices in the U.S., adding 160 jobs according to Walmart. Jarden, whose brands range from Quickie mops to K2 skis, has been ahead of Walmart on domestic manufacturing. Jarden has been on a reshoring kick for about two years.
Some of Walmart’s vendors will get a chuckle out of the idea that Walmart is willing to become more transparent. Walmart has a reputation for getting vendors into its buying rooms and beating the hell out of them on price, essentially leaving them with little margin. But Mac Naughton says that Walmart has to start thinking longer term, rather than season-to-season and that this kind of collaboration will reduce costs for both parties over time, paving the way for lower prices for consumers. For instance, a U.S. manufacturer can bypass Walmart’s distribution centers and deliver directly to stores, so-called “no touch” distribution.
Although $50 billion is a lot of goods, it’s about 10% of what Walmart will sell this year at retail. The company says the $50 billion is just a starting point, and that if other retailers joined the party the figure could be much, much higher, perhaps $500 billion. Walmart’s U.S. president, Bill Simon, suggested in a speech to fellow retailers that the power of their order books can help reshore U.S. production in textiles, furniture, pet supplies, some outdoor categories, and higher end appliances.
This isn’t Walmart’s first crack at a Made in America program. An earlier one fizzled, amid some bad publicity, because Walmart couldn’t get enough low-priced merchandise to sell. Americans may love their country, but they will buy Chinese if the price differential is too high. This time Walmart says consumers won’t have to pay up to buy domestic. “I hope the American consumer values this and we’ll make it easy for them,” says Mac Naughton. If not, consumers won’t make it easy for Walmart.
Is U.S. Manufacturing Really Back?
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamDoes this mean the end of the shrinking middle? After all, decently paid manufacturing positions were the core of the middle income jobs bracket since the 1950s; the hollowing out of the manufacturing sector is a key reason that workers in rich countries haven’t gotten a real raise since the 1970s. Democrats would like us to think so. With jobs and the economy still the major campaign issue, the Obama administration has been making hay with the numbers in various speeches and press releases. The rhetoric will likely increase if Mitt Romney gets the Republican nomination, and Obama tries to position himself as the defender of the 99% in comparison to the former Bain “quarter billionaire.”
The bigger issue is that the displacement of human workers by technology (arguably the largest factor in the shrinking middle) is far from over – in fact, it may have only just begun. A number of big thinkers I’ve talked with recently, including not only the folks at McKinsey Global, but scientists at MIT, Stanford, and macro-economists like Ken Rogoff, have spoken of a growing digital economy that will have profound changes on labor markets. Machines have already replaced humans in many factory jobs, and an increasingly number of white collar gigs, too (computers can now do journalism, write music, and come up with trading algorithms). The real seismic shift will be when they start talking to each other; refrigerators bypassing purchasing officers to order more milk directly from factories, air traffic controllers made obsolete by interconnected web based systems, etc., etc. It’s been the stuff of heady articles in tech magazines for years, but it’s starting to happen. Brian Arthur, an economist at the Sante Fe Institute, estimates that the activity generated by the digital economy (that is, the economy created by machines alone) could equal that of the $62 trillion real world economy within two decades. The shift would shake manufacturing and service jobs alike.
So where does that leave manufacturing, and more importantly, all of us? Optimists like Rogoff would argue that all this innovation will inevitably create new positions that we can’t even dream up right now. There will be a period of great disruption, but then, some time later, we’ll all be happier and more prosperous for it. But pessimists (which may be greater in number) are worried that we need to start circling the wagons, focusing on more self-interested trade policies to keep decently paid jobs at home. I’m hearing the word “industrial policy” a lot these days, and not just in hyper-liberal circles. The Council on Foreign Relations recently put out a report calling for a rethinking of global trade rules and enforcement as countries like the U.S. struggle to hold their own against emerging market giants like China. Bottom line: (1) the corporate giants that have brought jobs back to the U.S. can send them abroad again just as quickly; and (2) we’re at the beginning of some very interesting policy discussions about how the global economy should be structured and policed in the 21st century.
How ‘Made in the USA’ is Making a Comeback
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamThe past several months alone have seen some surprising reversals. Apple, famous for the city-size factories in China that produce its gadgets, decided to assemble one of its Mac computer lines in the U.S. Walmart, which pioneered global sourcing to find the lowest-priced goods for customers, said it would pump up spending with American suppliers by $50 billion over the next decade — and save money by doing so. And Airbus will build JetBlue’s new jets in Alabama.
Some economists argue that the gains are a natural part of the business cycle, rather than a sustainable recovery in the sector. But I would argue that the improvements of the last three years aren’t a blip. They are the sum of a powerful equation refiguring the global economy. U.S. factories increasingly have access to cheap energy thanks to oil and gas from the shale boom. For companies outside the U.S., it’s the opposite: high global oil prices translate into costlier fuel for ships and planes — which means some labor savings from low-cost plants in China evaporate when the goods are shipped thousands of miles. And about those low-cost plants: workers from China to India are demanding and getting bigger paychecks, while U.S. companies have won massive concessions from unions over the past decade. Suddenly the math on outsourcing doesn’t look quite as attractive. Paul Ashworth, the North America economist for research firm Capital Economics, is willing to go a step further. “The offshoring boom,” Ashworth wrote in a recent report, “does appear to have largely run its course.”
Today’s U.S. factories aren’t the noisy places where your grandfather knocked in four bolts a minute for eight hours a day. Dungarees and lunch pails are out; computer skills and specialized training are in, since the new made-in-America economics is centered largely on cutting-edge technologies. The trick for U.S. companies is to develop new manufacturing techniques ahead of global competitors and then use them to produce goods more efficiently on superautomated factory floors. These factories of the future have more machines and fewer workers — and those workers must be able to master the machines. Many new manufacturing jobs require at least a two-year tech degree to complement artisan skills such as welding or milling. The bar will only get higher: Some experts believe it won’t be too long before employers will expect a four-year degree — a job qualification that will eventually be required in many other places around the world too.
Understanding this new look is critical if the U.S. wants to nurture manufacturing and grow jobs. There are implications for educators (who must ensure that future workers have the right skills) as well as policy-makers (who may have to set new educational standards). “Manufacturing is coming back, but it’s evolving into a very different type of animal than the one most people recognize today,” says James Manyika, a director at McKinsey Global Institute who specializes in global high tech. “We’re going to see new jobs, but nowhere near the number some people expect, especially in the short term.”
Still, if the U.S. can get this right, though, the payoff will be tremendous. Manufacturing represents a whopping 67% of private-sector R&D spending as well as 30% of the country’s productivity growth. Every $1 of manufacturing activity returns $1.48 to the economy. “The ability to make things is fundamental to the ability to innovate things over the long term,” says Willy Shih, a Harvard Business School professor and co-author of Producing Prosperity: Why America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance. “When you give up making products, you lose a lot of the added value.” In other words, what you make makes you.
Boeing Planning $1 Billion Expansion in S.C.
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamThe state is providing $120 million in incentives for upfront expansion costs such as utilities and site preparation at Boeing’s North Charleston manufacturing complex that now employs about 6,000.
The first of the company’s 787 Dreamliners built in South Carolina rolled off the assembly line about a year ago. The plant assembles one of the planes a month and within six weeks will be assembling two a month, said Jack Jones, the vice president and general manager of Boeing South Carolina.
The Boeing plant also builds mid- and aft-body assemblies for 787s that are made in South Carolina and Everett, Wash. Jones said seven assemblies are put together each month and the number will increase to 10 this fall.
“We feel that with the Boeing commitment for a billion bucks and an additional 2,000 jobs created, the incentive the state is offering is commensurate with our commitment,” he said.
“With unprecedented demand for commercial airplanes — including a forecast of another 34,000 airplanes required over the next 20 years — Boeing is positioned for significant and sustained growth in the years ahead,” said a statement released by company spokeswoman Candy Eslinger.
Incentive bills were introduced in both the state House and Senate in Columbia on Tuesday.
Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman said he’s in awe of Boeing’s expansion plans. “Our state could very well become the aerospace hub, when you bring all these suppliers in here to supply not only Boeing but possibly Airbus in Alabama,” he said.
House Speaker Bobby Harrell issued a statement saying the state and Boeing have been good partners from the start.
“As a Legislature, it’s our job to create an environment that fosters economic growth so the private sector can do what government can’t, create sustainable new jobs,” he said.
Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt said the incentives are similar to those granted to BMW when its plant in Greer, S.C. expanded after opening in the 1990s.
“BMW made a big move about the same value we’re talking about here. You had to be able to improve the infrastructure to be able to grow and expand,” he said.
News of the expansion was first reported in The Post and Courier. Jones said the hiring will be spread over the eight years.
Last year, the Charleston County Aviation Authority began the process of selling 320 acres near the North Charleston assembly site. The agency also voted to give Boeing first rights of refusal on nearly 500 more acres, as well as an option to buy another 265 acres. Last year Boeing also bought the South Carolina Research Authority office site near its assembly plant.
“A lot of people are reading into that that it means we’re going to bring other programs on down,” Jones said. “There’s no commitment to that. What it does open up is flexibility. We don’t want to be landlocked.”
The 787 has been grounded since mid-January because of a problem with smoldering lithium-ion batteries. The company has proposed a fix to federal regulators and last week conducted a final test on the new design that includes more heat insulation and a battery box designed so that any meltdown of the battery vents hot gases outside of the plane. None of the 787s that reported battery problems were built in South Carolina.
U.S. Border Patrol Uniforms Manufactured in Mexico
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamThe CBP, which is responsible for protecting America’s borders, told CNSNews.com that items from VF Imagewear, a subsidiary of VF Corporation, are manufactured in a number of locations, “including Mexico.”
“There are no domestic preference regulations or statutes applicable to DHS/CBP that would prohibit the manufacture of uniform items in Mexico,” the CBP said. “In fact, United States obligations under International Agreements require that the Agency accept items manufactured in Mexico.”
“Consistent with the foregoing, VF is permitted to provide items manufactured in Mexico under the current contract,” the agency said.
According to the company’s 2012 annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), “VF operates manufacturing facilities in Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East.”
“A significant percentage of denim bottoms and occupational apparel are manufactured in these plants, as well as a smaller percentage of footwear,” the report says. Occupational apparel refers to uniforms made by VF Imagewear. The company supplies uniforms for a variety of industries, including transportation, hospitality, food service and for the NFL, MLB and Harley-Davidson.
Manufacturing for Major League Baseball uniforms, however, occurs in the United States, according to the annual report.
VF Imagewear also maintains websites for the uniform programs for the CBP, the Fire Department of New York City, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the National Park Service. “These websites provide the employees of our customers with the convenience of shopping for their work and career apparel via the Internet,” the report states.
According to VF Imagewear’s 2011 annual report, the manufacturing facilities located in Mexico, Central America and the Middle East are responsible for “cutting, sewing and finishing” of denim garments and uniforms.
The CBP said that they have recently concluded two contracts with VF Imagewear for uniforms, “a limited contract to provide uniforms for training academies and hardship and disaster situations and a contract to provide quartermaster services at the training academies.”
Currently, VF Imagewear has a contract for the short-term manufacture of uniforms and insignias, awarded in December. The contract is a result of the continuing resolution (CR) passed by Congress last year, which mandated the CBP to maintain specific levels of Border Patrol Agents, Field Officers and Air and Marine Agents.
The CBP estimated that it needed to enroll an additional 850 students in its academies to comply with the mandate, which would require 3,400 uniforms.
The agreement will also allow the CBP to replace uniforms for border patrol agents, according to the agency’s justification and approval for the contract.
“[B]order patrol agents are often called upon to chase illegal aliens into contaminated waters, such as the Rio Grande River,” it reads. “In these situations, CBP’s protocol provides that uniforms worn in those situations must be destroyed because they are considered hazardous materials.”
“This interim uniform contract will allow the uniformed personnel to replace ruined uniforms so that they may continue to perform their duties in the event of a disaster and/or hardship.”
The CBP adds, “This interim contract will ensure new agents and officers have properly fitted uniforms and therefore can assume their assigned mission-critical work without weakening our national security.”
VF Imagewear also recently secured a $50-million uniform contract with the TSA, which will be manufactured in the United States and Mexico.
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) has said manufacturing government uniforms in Mexico poses a threat to national security.
“There are also national security concerns,” Speier said in a press release in 2011, regarding a prior contract between the TSA and VF Imagewear. “Uniforms have a greater potential of being stolen in Mexico where it is more difficult to provide oversight of factories and cargo.”
The company does have concerns with its manufacturing sites abroad, according to its annual report, including “political or military conflict” and “heightened terrorism security concerns,” which “could subject imported or exported goods to additional, more frequent or more lengthy inspections, leading to delays in deliveries or the impoundment of goods for extended periods.”
VF Imagewear declined to comment about its dealings with CBP and the manufacture of items in Mexico, saying “VF does not discuss the specifics of its agreements.”
Artists Revitalize Rural Manufacturing
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamBut setting it apart from most other rural communities its size, Siler City is in the midst of a turn-around, one propelled by the arts, where redevelopment of its historic downtown has put artists and artisans at the core of local enterprise.
Because of the town’s commitment to creative individuals, the ability of its municipal leadership to accomplish community goals, and county and state resources that have been able to provide support and expertise, Art-Force’s Artist + Manufacturer Strengthening Place Program elected to work in Siler City.
Art-Force’s core tenet is that artists are highly trained and underutilized creative thinkers, visionaries, and problem-solvers. We believe America’s small cities and towns desperately need artists’ imagination to retool manufacturing and assist communities in their economic and social transformation. People build lives where there are jobs and where they feel a sense of belonging, and creative people, through both innovation and sensitivity to local heritage, can serve as community change-agents: their work demonstrably affects local economies.
Read the rest of the story at Daily Yonder:
http://www.dailyyonder.com/artists-revitalize-rural-manufacturing/2013/04/02/5749
New Showroom Opens Up World Of The All American Clothing Co. To Public.
in Uncategorized/by MAM Team“For made in America supporters and enthusiasts, the showroom will create a unique experience into the world of All American Clothing Co. and its belief in supporting the American worker.,” said Logan Beam, Director of Marketing and Communications at All American Clothing Co. “All American Clothing Co. has always cared about the United States and the people in it. Our founders started manufacturing USA made jeans with a passion to never trade USA jobs for foreign profits. We are now able to showcase our passion, products, and services while creating a strong relationship with our customers.”
Are you an ‘All American?’ Click here to subscribe to the All American newsletter.
A patriotic destination, the All American Clothing Co. showroom will provide customers the opportunity to discover the unique experiences they have to offer, like Traceability. Traceability is all about the truth of where jeans come from and offers some recognition to the hard working Americans who are involved in making jeans. All American Clothing Co. is one of the first jean companies in the world that allows customers to trace their jean all the way back to the American farmers who grew the cotton used. Each jean comes with a ‘Certificate of Authenticity’ that includes a traceability number. Enter the traceability number on the All American Clothing Co. website and they will tell you exactly which farmers and mill were involved in producing that jean.
How Does Traceability Work? Watch the video below:
About All American Clothing Co:
All American Clothing Co. produces high-quality jeans and apparel that are Made in USA Certified™. All American Clothing is a made in America success story in today’s economy. The entire company supports a “USA made passion” as they strive to foster loyalty among customers. All American Clothing Co. is proof that small business can grow and succeed in America today. To find out more about the passion and effort it takes to build a business in today’s economy go to http://www.allamericanclothing.com and read the tab “Our Story.”
Logan Beam
Director of Marketing and Communications
888-937-8009
Making Manufacturing Cool
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamAnd that was one of the big rallying cries at the event: find ways to tell the new story of manufacturing.
The place was the Advanced Manufacturing Summit hosted last week in Sacramento by the governor’s economic development office, GO-Biz, and the point was to get everyone on the same page about pumping up California’s advanced manufacturing sector.
“It’s never happened before: a meeting where all the universities, industry and agencies came together to talk about advanced manufacturing,” said Doug Henton, attendee and also Chairman and CEO of Collaborative Economics.
Advanced manufacturing, briefly put, means using high-tech methods to make specialized or high-tech products, hence the “no smokestacks” comment.
The forum was prompted by a White House competition to create advanced manufacturing centers around the country and drop on them the funding that goes along with winning one in your state, almost $70 million.
“California raised its hand and said ‘We’re going to take the lead,'” said Kish Rajan, director of GO-Biz, AKA the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. “We’re going to be in the pole position.”
That seems like no-brainer, since California is the largest manufacturing state in the country with 1.2 million jobs in that sector. Rajan added that manufacturing as a whole contributes $230 billion to the state’s economy.
While story of manufacturing shown in the news lately has been how it’s on the decline, shown in colorful chart after colorful chart, boosters see a big opportunity for California.
“This is a different type of manufacturing,” said Henton. “A lot of these are things that we do better. We’re good at it, such as in aerospace. These are industries using advanced tools, like making biomedical devices. We’re a leader in that.”
California’s aerospace industry is still one of the state’s strengths and is represented in its top 10 exports. While the sector might not return to the good old post-WWII or Cold War days, some see an opening in the unmanned vehicle market, of the land, sea and air variety.
“I think that’s a big place for California to play because, since it’s a knowledge-based economy, it’s about retraining workers that were already in the aerospace industry or bringing in new people to the aerospace industry around this new technology,” said Louis Stewart, deputy director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at GO-Biz.
But California has ahead of it–maybe not a cliff–but a bit of a workforce hill to climb: Older workers are retiring out of manufacturing and it’s difficult to find the youngsters with the right skills to replace them, thus the comments about making manufacturing cool to the kids these days.
One panelist jokingly mentioned creating an “MTV Cribs” to show off homes of CEO’s of advanced manufacturing companies.
Brandon Cardwell, VP of Programs at the i-GATE Innovation Hub, noted that boomers are now moving out of manufacturing workforce and workforce training isn’t keeping up with the changing labor market. Census figures from 2011 showed that 2.8 million manufacturing workers, or one-quarter of all manufacturing workers, were 55 or older.
“We need bring back shop class in high school,” said Gene Russell of the non-profit Corporation for Manufacturing Excellence.
A big bullet point was the need to get more students interested early and make a clear pathway for them to go from high school all the way to the advanced manufacturer floor. Of course, it might not hurt to let them know manufacturing jobs can make an average of 39 percent more than the overall California average wage.
“I think now is the time that we need to start connecting the stories from industry and academia so that we understand what kind of workforce needs to be come about for these future trends and then basically rebranded and tell why this new wave of advanced manufacturing is where the students should be looking at, as opposed to looking at traditional manufacturing which is not necessarily the most appealing to the younger generation,” said Stewart.
On top of getting students interested, there’s the issue of getting them trained with the right skills for these high-tech jobs. Tim Rainey, the executive director of California’s Workforce Investment Board, said most training is still modeled for big, industrial manufacturing, but the sector is now made of clusters of smaller companies.
Getting people trained up has also been made difficult by employers decreasing spending on training as an employee benefit.
To do it right, panelists said it will be vital to convince employers to invest into training partnerships with schools with funding, donation of equipment and providing more apprenticeships.
Finally, attendees broke into smaller groups for brainstorming and Rajan wrapped up the day with some words on the new effort.
“If you keep this spirit going, California, as I said this morning, is unstoppable.”