Why metal fabricators should share their manufacturing success stories

Getting young people to consider a career in metal fabricating is a lot easier when you are dealing with a pool of potential candidates that actually know what the trade is. To get the word out, fab shops need to share their success stories. Getty Images

Editor's Note: You can enter your submissions for The FABRICATOR's 2022 Industry Award here.

What if you build it and they don’t come?

That’s what one community college has found out. After building up a program that had a focus on metal fabricating, administrators are finding out that students aren’t signing up for that particular emphasis in its manufacturing technology track. Students sign up for welding classes, but they don’t show the same interest in metal fabrication. (We won’t name the educational institution because we don’t want to handicap its plans to build up more interest in its own program.)

That scenario is believable because I’m regularly reminded about metal fabricating’s identity crisis. The question that starts the conversation is something like “What do you do for a living?” The short answer should be “I write about the metal fabricating industry.” The real answer is “I work for an association that provides educational support to the metal fabricating industry, which is basically any company that is involved in bending, cutting, forming, and welding of sheet metal parts. And we also cover those businesses that make parts or products out of tube and plate, which is basically a flat sheet of metal at least 0.25 in. thick.”

That’s typically met with the same type of head nodding that my wife gives me when I’m explaining the snake method of stacking coals in a charcoal grill for some low-and-slow smoking of pork products. She kind of understands the gist, but she has no real visual in her head how it comes together to create a mouth-watering meal.

That’s the same for most people with metal fabricating. If you mention “manufacturing,” most people have a general idea of what you’re talking about. They have seen pictures of an assembly line, typically from a vehicle production facility, on the news, and that’s what it means to them. Raw materials come in one door and a final product rolls out another door on the other side of the plant. They absolutely have no concept about job shops and the many customers they serve, and they don’t know what’s involved in cutting blanks and forming them. (While we’re on this subject, please check your company website to correct the blog posts related to “press breaks.” Thank you.)

It’s understandable that metal fabricating and manufacturing companies don’t have public relations teams. In many instances, they don’t even have full-time human resources or quality control personnel. But that doesn’t mean that these companies can’t take the time to share their successes, which is both good for them and for the metal fabrication industry at large.

The FABRICATOR and its sister publications welcome that news. New facilities, expansions, equipment acquisitions, anniversaries, and promotions—all are tidbits that we want to share with our community. It keeps people informed and even motivated, wanting to attain the same level of success.

We all know that a lot of metal fabricators have been very busy in 2021, and we’d like to learn how they have leveraged those opportunities. We highly encourage fab shops to submit their entries for The FABRICATOR’s 2022 Industry Award, which honors those companies that have demonstrated huge improvements in shop floor and safety performance; enjoyed recent business growth in new market segments or with existing customers; and promoted manufacturing as a career choice through support of local vocational programs and camps and hosting company tours. These are the folks that need to have their stories shared with the rest of society. (You can enter your submissions for the 2022 Industry Award here.)

The Industry Award winner will be the cover story in the February 2022 edition of The FABRICATOR. Representatives of the company also will be invited to the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association’s Annual Meeting March 1-3 in Miami.

When we start promoting this type of story—and other leads that we get from other company submissions—people see them and share them via email and social media. Sometimes local media pick up on the story and follow up with requests for interviews. These types of success stories have a great reach and help to grow metal fabrication’s awareness with the general public.

Metal fabricating is a great career choice and an exciting part of the manufacturing economy. We know you feel that way because in our 2021 edition of the “What Keeps You up at Night?” survey, 80% indicated that they would recommend metal fabricating as a career choice to someone in their own family.

Why not give that chance to someone else? Let’s expand that metal fabricating family. Let the world know how your metal fabricating company is making a difference.