Supporting the metal fabricating industry through FMA

Jason Hillenbrand, executive general manager of products, AMADA AMERICA, is the current chair of the FMA board of directors.

Editor’s Note: If you have interest in joining the FMA board of directors, the annual nomination deadline is June 30, 2024. Please reach out to Deana Hill at 815-227-8238 if interested.

Jason Hillenbrand started his metal fabrication career on the shop floor. Almost 30 years later, he’s now serving as chair of the board for the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association (FMA), which is dedicated to promoting and growing the sheet metal business in North America.

For the past 25 years, he has worked for AMADA AMERICA Inc., a manufacturer of sheet metal fabricating machines, rising to the position of executive general manager of products. That means he’s spent more than two decades listening to metal fabricators talk about their pain points and helping to solve them with the right technological answer. Along the way, this job in the metal fabricating industry turned into a manufacturing career.

To further support his passion for the North American metal fabricating community, Hillenbrand got involved with the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association and its board of directors. For a little over a decade, he’s helped provide guidance for not only FMA’s overall operations, but also the association’s foundation, Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs, which helps to fund summer camps that introduce young people to manufacturing-related skills and technologies and scholarships for students interested in pursuing manufacturing careers.

The Fabricator reached out to Hillenbrand shortly after the FMA Annual Meeting, held this year in Clearwater Beach, Fla., at the end of February, to learn about his thoughts on being part of the association and his role as its chair. He will be turning over the gavel to Sarah Richards of Jones Metal Inc., based in Mankato, Minn., at the FMA board meeting this fall.

The Fabricator: What made you want to get involved with the FMA board of directors?

Jason Hillenbrand: I've been in manufacturing for 32 years now. I got involved right after high school, and I’ve just kind of built my way up. I’ve been involved in just about every aspect of fabricating, from programming, running all the different types of fabricating machines, and even doing quality control inspections. Then I moved to the OEM side and installing machines. So I’ve seen all the different aspects of the industry.

Over the years, a shift happens in your brain. This has become more of a passion for me. You want to make it better, and you want to do better yourself. Then you hit that point where you understand, “Well, to do better yourself, you need to facilitate others.” This is not a single-person sport. Everybody is involved.

So when I was approached to be a part of the board, it was the perfect opportunity for me to take everything that I had learned over the years and be a part of another team. We come from all different kinds of backgrounds, and we are all working to further promote manufacturing here in North America.

It’s all about wanting to make things better for the industry. That’s really what it’s about.

Joining the FMA board of directors is a good way to give back to the metal fabricating industry.

FAB: What has it been like so far as chair of the FMA board?

Hillenbrand: It’s fun. I’ve enjoyed it.

There’s a learning curve being on the board. But by the time you get to the chair position, you’ve met a lot of people. This board that we have right now is a great group of people. They interact very well. Everybody is there to help each other and to feed off each other.

As the chair, it’s been easy simply because of the group of people that we have. Everybody contributes so well.

The other thing as the chair is that you need to have some influence on the directions of discussion during meetings. I’m one that tends to sit and listen. But I talk a lot during the board meetings because in that chair role it kind of forces me to speak out a little bit more. That’s been a good experience as well.

FAB: What’s been a memorable highlight from the past few months that stands out?

Hillenbrand: The exposure that FMA is starting to get now is exciting. The notice that we’re getting with FMA’s rebranding is a huge part of that.

I think FMA as an organization has a more cohesive message to put out there to the people who are saying that they really didn’t know what FMA did or they thought FMA only did FABTECH. Now they’re understanding, and we know how to explain it to them better about what the organization offers and what we can do for them. We can explain to them how they can utilize FMA’s resources to improve their companies, to better train their employees, to learn how to find employees, and to keep abreast of the turbulent economic waters that might be heading their way. FMA funnels all of that information to them.

The rebranding of the organization is allowing us to deliver that messaging in a cohesive way. We always knew what FMA did, but we’re doing a better job of spreading it out to the masses. But there’s still lots of work to be done. This is going to take time.

FAB: Do you feel like the worker lifecycle messaging will resonate with the North American metal fabricating base?

Jason Hillenbrand

Hillenbrand: I think that’s perfect. That’s one of the main things that we have to continue to push to the forefront. Every time we do a show or an event like the Annual Meeting, the logo has to be there, and we have to continue to explain it.

Look, I was just writing an email the other day to somebody, and I made reference that we’re no different from the metal fabricating companies we work with in that we have difficulty finding people as well. What the FMA is now doing is making that potential labor pool bigger. It’s trying to lead more people to manufacturing careers.

FAB: Any other favorite moments?

Hillenbrand: It’s just being around the people. It becomes personal, which is a good thing.

This is about building relationships, and I think that’s one of the great things about being on the board of directors with FMA—the friendships that you create. You just learn who these people are, and they’re great people. At the end of the day, everybody’s pulling in the same direction.

FAB: Any advice for the chair that will succeed you?

Hillenbrand: First of all, enjoy the time because your time with the board is now limited. Second, focus on the relationships with the people on the board.

Third, continue to listen. The people out there on the board are going to have a wealth of knowledge to help contribute to the direction of FMA. So just continue to listen, and when it’s warranted, be the leader.

FAB: For those unfamiliar with FMA, can you describe why it makes sense for a metal fabricator to become a member of the organization?

Hillenbrand: It really boils down to the simplest thing: If you want your business to do better, and if you want to remain knowledgeable with the most up-to-date information about all things that will impact manufacturing, that is why you join FMA. It provides all of the resources that we talked about: training materials, publications, economic outlooks, conferences, annual meetings, and FABTECH. There’s no other organization specifically geared to metal fabrication that does all of that.

So if you are involved in fabrication of any type, FMA has all of these resources that are, quite honestly, underutilized.

That is why you want to become a member. And then when you become a member of FMA, your problems and struggles are shared, and that helps to better inform and improve FMA. Your voice will be heard.