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Getting real about manufacturing’s image

Optimism led the way at The FABRICATOR’s Leadership Summit earlier this month. Part of the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association Annual Meeting, the event featured panel discussions and roundtables about technological innovations, employee incentive programs, the future of leveraging data on the shop floor, and more.

For sure, plenty talked about the challenge in metal fabrication. Attendees said that customers, expecting higher interest rates to come, are pulling the trigger on big projects. True, industries related to commodity production and transportation, including oil and gas, mining, and rail, have seen better days. But if a fab shop’s customer portfolio is well-diversified, it’s likely poised for growth in 2017.

Manufacturing’s image problem came up now and then, but it wasn’t as dominant as it has been in years past. The new political climate has turned a lot of positive attention toward the industry. Manufacturers present opportunities and benefits for various people, especially for those with the right skills and, most especially, for those willing to work.

Marlin Steel, a Baltimore, Md., sheet metal fabrication, even made the cover of The New York Times business section late last year. It gave the people at Marlin, and by implication many custom fabricators like them, some well-deserved recognition about their immensely positive effects on society and the economy.

Then I saw the cover of this week’s Bloomberg Businessweek, which showed a man with one hand. The other had be mutilated by a hot stamping press at Matsu Alabama, a stamping supplier for Honda.

The story didn’t surprise me entirely. I have covered plenty of fabricators and stampers that implement new safety initiatives. Not long before, they may have been as dangerous as the auto part plants Bloomberg describes. Of course, I visit these plants after the safety turnarounds have taken place.

There’s no excuse for these auto suppliers and (according to deposition statements obtained by Bloomberg) the automotive OEMs that are pushing them so hard. I’m glad the stories are out there; perhaps market forces or, for that matter, basic human decency will change things for the better.

So what about manufacturing’s image? Like any other industry, manufacturing has good and bad players. The Marlin Steels of the world lift metal fabrication and manufacturing overall up, but the bad players drag manufacturing’s image back down to the dirt.

But to be honest, after reading the Bloomberg story, manufacturing’s image problem is small potatoes. It’s a first-world problem in the face of what seems like a third-world reality at some truly dangerous manufacturing plants right here in the United States. These situations may not be the norm, but they shouldn’t exist at all.

About the Author
The Fabricator

Tim Heston

Senior Editor

2135 Point Blvd

Elgin, IL 60123

815-381-1314

Tim Heston, The Fabricator's senior editor, has covered the metal fabrication industry since 1998, starting his career at the American Welding Society's Welding Journal. Since then he has covered the full range of metal fabrication processes, from stamping, bending, and cutting to grinding and polishing. He joined The Fabricator's staff in October 2007.