After launching CompanyWeek in 2013, I fought a running editorial battle with a cadre of business writers about the state of U.S. manufacturing. The narrative from the national writers was that manufacturing was no longer essential, a quaint vestige of an earlier economic era. Columnists from Forbes, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal — most all had bought into the narrative that globalization had won the day, that it didn’t matter where America’s uber-talented tech and engineering class manufactured their products. China? Sure. Vietnam? OK. Anywhere but here.
It’s not that my adversaries were wrong; U.S. companies had indeed chased cheap labor overseas. Vast sums of capital followed as American brands built a manufacturing ecosystem offshore, employing millions of foreign nationals to work in factories entirely removed from the communities where products were inspired and headquarters based.
In retrospect, we could have guessed this was a model that inevitably would develop leaks. But the mistake of my adversaries was a fixation on the numbers. At the time, they were staggering. As we’ve documented, America lost millions of manufacturing jobs — about 4 million from 2006 to 2012 alone — leaving total U.S. manufacturing employment around 12 million jobs, or about half the number at its peak.
Even today, there’s still an “enthusiasm gap” among the business intelligentsia because many of these jobs won’t come back — here or anywhere. Technology is transforming the sector. And without high employment numbers, manufacturing will continue to be underestimated.
But it’s a reasonable guess that manufacturing employment, at its current level of 12 million jobs or so nationally, has found a new equilibrium. Losses to automation will be offset by gains from growth industries powering today’s manufacturing economy and a new national enthusiasm for domestic production. In Colorado and elsewhere, the sector is also proving uber-resilient in today’s “crisis” economy.
The fixation on numbers also never took into account the societal implications of sending the production of American-inspired products offshore. We’re a country of builders, of makers, of doers. If Main Street wasn’t home to a factory, it provided a direct path to one. Along with our lunch boxes, we shipped our national identity offshore when we decided others could make our products for us.
But just as the crowds that return to ballparks will raise the roof and replace the strange silence that today attends a touchdown, so too will the business punditocracy celebrate the return of America’s manufacturing ethos, in loud and boisterous terms. Watch for it.
https://mfginsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/iMFGF_web_logo.png00Bart Taylorhttps://mfginsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/iMFGF_web_logo.pngBart Taylor2020-10-06 16:44:172023-08-10 09:11:11When the sound of winning is silence: Manufacturing quiets its critics
In a March 2014 column, I encouraged Cory Gardner to run on manufacturing to win a Colorado Senate seat. Six years ago, a Republican hadn’t won a statewide election for governor or U.S. Senate since 2002, and from my vantage point, the GOP was fishing about for a compelling electoral strategy:
“Gardner’s yet to articulate a platform but early pronouncements from the gubernatorial field provide strong clues. They suggest the GOP ticket will run on the repeal of Obamacare, Dem overreach on gun legislation, opposition to same-sex marriage and economic sluggishness — a slow recovery.
Will this platform appeal to young voters, women and minorities and social moderates in Colorado who increasingly decide elections? It’s principled. It’s also similar to what’s been defeated here before. And Gardner’s ‘Battle for the Future of America’ theme runs headlong against a few economic realities.
Contrary to the gloomy tone of the GOP’s economic assertions, growth and vitality are on display here. Energy is feeding an industrial comeback. Entrepreneurship is thriving. . . . On balance the Colorado economy is a formidable engine and compelling story, a national model in some respects. As Brian Burney, CEO of Oliver Manufacturing . . . told me, ‘It’s a good time to be a manufacturer.'”
So much has changed. And yet is hasn’t.
For one, it’s still a good time to be a manufacturer, and still a good idea to run on manufacturing.
David Hansen, senior economist at Development Research Partners, notes that “manufacturing seems to be one of the best performing industry supersectors so far [in 2020] in Colorado. Based on seasonally adjusted CES data, employment in Colorado’s manufacturing sector is down 1.3 percent YTD compared with 4 percent across all industries. Encouragingly, manufacturing employment was actually up slightly over the year in July. Our forecast for 2020 was 1 percent growth. The [CU Boulder Business Research Division’s] current forecast for manufacturing in 2020 is a -0.5 percent employment contraction.”
Yet still, both Gardner and his adversary, John Hickenlooper, don’t run on Colorado manufacturing, though they both could, each from a different point of view. Hickenlooper was a manufacturer, and Gardner’s been a quiet if effective advocate of Colorado’s sector.
Frankly, I’m not sure what either candidate is running on today. Perhaps each should revisit findings I referenced in the same 2014 column:
“Last week, Manufacturing & Technology News summarized research that, according to the publication, concludes, ‘There is a wide disconnect between the American public and policymakers in Washington, D.C., on the importance of manufacturing to the U.S. economy and the need for action to restore American industrial competitiveness.’ Or more succinctly, ‘Americans want Washington to deal with manufacturing, but Washington is not responding.’
When asked, ‘which of the following industries is the most important to the strength of the American economy?’ 32 percent of Americans said ‘manufacturing,” followed by 19 percent saying “high tech and knowledge industries,’ 12 percent saying health care, 11 percent saying agriculture, 8 percent saying housing and construction, 6 percent saying finance, and 4 percent saying services and retail.
Voters reject the idea that other sectors like high tech or services can replace manufacturing. Only 34 percent of Americans agreed with the statement that ‘the strength of the American economy is innovation and competition — and if manufacturing leaves, we will move into new areas like high tech or services which will take its place in the future.’
With 88 percent of Americans agreeing with the statement that ‘American manufacturing means American jobs,’ the survey found that ‘support for American manufacturing and manufacturers is nearly universal.’
Most Americans (84 percent) support the adoption of a national manufacturing strategy that is focused on tax, education, and trade policies (with 7 percent opposed to such a policy).”
As I noted in 2014, “Manufacturing may provide an opening for any candidate willing to make it a campaign issue.”
https://mfginsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/iMFGF_web_logo.png00Bart Taylorhttps://mfginsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/iMFGF_web_logo.pngBart Taylor2020-09-22 21:56:402020-09-22 21:56:40“Are manufacturing jobs Cory Gardner’s path to the Senate?” Why a column from 2014 resonates today
CompanyWeek turns seven this September. Twice in the past seven years, we’ve ranked Colorado’s top manufacturing communities, most recently in early 2017. Our criteria then: a growing, compelling industry or cluster of maker industries, supported by purposeful public/private efforts to build a robust manufacturing economy.
Here’s the 2017 list, followed by the 2015 ranking:
Fort Collins/Loveland (2015 ranking: 3)
Denver (2015 ranking: 2)
Boulder County (2015 ranking: 1)
Grand Junction/Palisade (2015 ranking: 5)
Colorado Springs/Pueblo (2015 ranking: 4)
A couple things immediately stand out: However you cut and slice the geography, Northern Colorado, especially if you include Boulder County, is a production mecca. Fort Collins/Loveland/Windsor, Boulder/Longmont/Frederick, and parts in between or adjacent all flash nation-leading sector attributes.
Combining Colorado Springs and Pueblo into a single community was a mistake. Each is intent on carving its own path. We’d also marry Aurora with Denver. The synergy is self-evident, even as Denver’s northwest neighbors are carving more autonomous tracks.
Along with those geo-adjustments, we added two important criteria: high-profile manufacturing OEMs, brands, or contract manufacturers that call a community home; and sector diversity, i.e., the prevalence of multiple manufacturing industries. Manufacturing’s modern personality is shaped by multiple growth industries.
Here, then, is the 2020 list:
1. Fort Collins/Loveland/Windsor
The economic engine in northern Colorado is powered by a manufacturing sector that crushes all of our criteria: a powerful mix of growth industries, anchored by national and global OEMs, upstart brands, innovative contract manufacturers all supported by enthusiastic economic development professionals and civic leaders who see value in a vibrant manufacturing economy. The Northern Colorado Manufacturing Partnership touches more companies than any sector trade association in the state. There’s the NoCo powerhouse, and everyone else.
Denver wants it all, and why not? The city continues to attract brands and companies from across the economic spectrum. But its high-tech production ecosystem lags, and interest in food and beverage, outdoor industry, consumer and high-tech brands often begins and ends with corporate relocations.
Adding Aurora changes the calculation. Its cadre of companies, more expansive real estate opps, and emerging bioscience cluster combine to provide the east metro a ton of potential to locate more manufacturing. If Denver would shake off it’s ambivalence to prioritize advanced manufacturing, it might keep its brands from outsourcing production to distant places and rewrite the history of manufacturing in the Rocky Mountain region.
Top Industries: Building & Construction; Food & Beverage; Brewing & Distilling; Aerospace & Transportation; Consumer & Lifestyle; Cannabis & Hemp
Readers were only mildly surprised when we anointed Boulder County the top spot in our 2015 ranking. There wasn’t much to argue: Boulder’s natural and organic food sector, powered by production innovators like Fresca Foods, was leading a national revolution to tip over America’s vast industrial food play. Wall Street investors now dot the funding landscape here.
Today, an innovation ethos continues to inform growth in powerhouse industries like aerospace, outdoor industry, and cannabis, where Boulder companies are among first movers that have established Colorado cannabis manufacturing as the most healthy and stable ecosystem in the nation. A thriving ecosystem of capable contract manufacturers feed off the area’s rich R&D legacy. Longmont is a perfect complement and home to a growing number of fabricators and producers across the industry spectrum.
Mix in Broomfield, Boulder County’s autonomous-minded neighbor with its bevy of high-profile manufacturing brands, and Colorado’s industrial character continues to tilt down U.S. 36.
It seems we’re always writing about great manufacturers from Arvada. Barber-Nichols’ high-flying fabricators are winning awards at the same time the company adds space and people to accommodate growth, to name one.
Arvada EDA and Jefferson County officials are always quick to mention manufacturing and despite the cut-and-run by Molson Coors, the area largely retains an impressive beer manufacturing footprint. Leaders in this eclectic manufacturing enclave continue to piece together a cogent, enthusiastic message that both supports current bellwether brands as it appeals to new industry players.
Leaders in Colorado’s second-largest city seem intent on building an economic brand around two industries: cybersecurity and tourism. Manufacturing is an important corollary to the defense industry here including cybersecurity, but the town has not fully rallied to tourism-related opportunities like outdoor industry manufacturing, or cannabis, which Mayor John Suthers openly undermines, despite the presence of national heavyweights like Hemp Depot and Folium Biosciences.
Yet the city’s mix of capable contract manufacturers, global OEMs in industrial/equipment and bioscience manufacturing, and an intrepid craft sector anchored by successful brewing and distilling brands, land Colorado Springs in the top five.
Honorable Mention: Grand Junction/Palisade/Montrose
We can only hope for a united Western Slope manufacturing corridor, but too much water has flowed under the bridges that cross the Gunnison and Uncompahgre rivers. The combined assets would fuel a regional economic renaissance: industry diversity, a legacy but innovative industrial base, global brands, the latent talent and promise of a rural workforce, agriculture’s auspicious influence, and more. All framed by the allure of lifestyle and the promise of the trillion-dollar outdoor industry.
Like Denver, Grand Junction is more covetous perhaps of a tech economy than an industrial awakening after years of boom-and-bust cycles with oil and gas. Who can blame them? Montrose is more purposeful around manufacturing, with energetic economic development that’s lined up behind the outdoor industry in the form of the forward-looking Colorado Outdoors development.
We’ve ranked Grand Junction in the top five before. It’s left to business and civic leaders to thread the needle and find a way to rally around manufacturing as it matures as a high-tech outpost. And, possibly, lead a deliberate effort to align with Montrose, Steamboat Springs, and Durango to onshore the vast Asian production ecosystem that manufacturers the toys of America’s outdoor industry brands. Many are located in Colorado.
Top Industries: Energy & Environment; Industrial & Equipment; Consumer & Lifestyle; Brewing & Distilling; Food & Beverage
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The haphazard way we’ve managed the pandemic continues to add new wrinkles to manufacturing’s workforce challenge. The latest is the trend of parents leaving work for good to stay home with kids as schools remain shuttered. A month ago, it was only a possibility. Today, it’s a reality. Companies are losing key employees.
Whether schools would reopen wasn’t supposed to be a variable in the fall of 2020. But there’s good news ahead: Kids will go back to school. And communities will turn to science to keep the public safe. They’ll have to. “If we don’t test, we won’t have more cases,” is a ruinous path.
In fact the science seems straightforward: Test more and faster, and innovate to make places safer. Until there’s a vaccine, and even after, how we interact with each other will change.
Manufacturing’s role will be threefold: 1) Make and assemble the solutions that will help us manage social interactions in our places — tools that measure and monitor biometrics, distance, density, etc.; 2) Deploy those tools in our factories, as stores, bars, restaurants, and schools do the same; 3) Lead a workforce wellness movement that highlights the healthiest and safest locations in our community. Our maker spaces and places should lead the way. It’s a natural corollary to manufacturers’ role as essential businesses.
The outcomes for business will mean everything. Companies able to create safe spaces will do more than just keep employees healthy and happy, they’ll be at the center of a new focus on wellness that distinguishes communities and its best companies. The ubiquitous “best companies to work for” contests will take on new meaning as the stakes become higher.
The flip side is that companies that don’t take steps to ensure employee health will lose out in the long run. Innovation in workforce wellness will become as important as investments in the latest production equipment and technology. To put it another way, IoT and Industry 4.0 is today changed forever, to include the monitoring and management of human capital.
Successful companies will win the competition for employees as they change our public places. Manufacturers can lead, or lag. There’s no doubt the sector will lead. American manufacturing has a long and distinguished record of transforming a crisis to a new more productive society.
The three finalists for 2020 Cannabis Manufacturer of the Year represent the diversity of operations in the cannabis sector, but more, the high bar being established by companies for quality and safety.
Nominations were judged on the achievement of national quality and safety certifications and best practices.
Products: Beverages and edibles infused with THC and CBD
Photos by Jonathan Castner
Stillwater Brands’ innovations extend beyond their extensive product and process testing protocols to product development, where the patented water-soluble Ripple brands of CBD and THC products have captured the imagination of cannabis consumers.
Trusted suppliers in the company’s raw material supply chain provide continuity that translates into consistent product quality for both CBD and THC lines. THC distillate is quality-control tested “before receipt” for potency, color, and aromas pursuant to highly transparent protocols.
CBD products are third-party tested for pesticides, heavy metals, residual solvents, potency, and microbiology. Raw materials sourcing is from U.S. providers only, with a focus on Colorado.
Finished goods manufacturing focuses on maintaining low formulation tolerances in the manufacturing process, targeting thresholds common in the food industry that ensure product consistency, quality, and safety. Shelf stability testing has been a staple of Stillwater protocols to verify dosage control.
Products: Cannabis edibles, extractions, and equipment
Sustained success — staying power — is at the center of MedicallyCorrect’s stellar reputation in the cannabis market.
The company follows an operational path that reflects a deep food background, with emphasis on quality ingredients, refined processing, transparent packaging, and for cannabis, dosage management. The company’s consistently safe and quality-focused product line earned trust for Colorado’s industry early on, critical in the industry’s run-up.
Community involvement and industry and product education effort also distinguish the company. Medically Correct’s influence — and sales — will only increase as the company attains cGMP and other certifications. Yet there’s little doubt the company is already an elite operator.
Hemp Depot topped off impressive growth with an NSF Dietary Supplements GMP certification in 2020, increasingly the de facto standard for cannabis manufacturing operations. (View the Gold List of GMP certified manufacturers.)
Yet the company’s innovative and persuasive model also set the business apart. It’s in a catbird’s seat — touching much of the hemp CBD market, vertical integration in developing, growing, formulating, and wholesaling CBD seeds, clones, and an array of CBD oil. Many of cannabis leading brands deal in Hemp Depot products.
It adds up to a powerful position in a fast-changing hemp CBD world — a singular mission to certify and professionalize operations to feed a blue-ribbon list of brands. It’s a market position that also comes with responsibilities. The company has been up for the challenge thus far.
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That seems to be the approach of Colorado Springs mayor John Suthers, who argued recently to prevent voters from deciding whether recreational cannabis could be sold in the city. His “sharp criticism” of the option dissuaded the city council from approving a ballot measure this fall.
Suthers position was summed up by the Colorado Springs daily newspaper, The Gazette:
“Suthers also argued the promises made by recreational marijuana proponents when it was legalized statewide in 2012, such as reigning in the black market, have not been kept. ‘We are spending infinitely more time and effort regulating marijuana than when it was illegal,’ he said.”
It’s an obtuse statement for the ages. We’re spending more time regulating marijuana, because we’re regulating marijuana. Plus, not only have proponents kept their promises, the dark, dystopian future forecast by opponents of legalization hasn’t materialized.
Suthers shouldn’t be held to account for opposing legal marijuana. He’s been consistent in his opposition to it. That the mayor would instead relegate a billion-dollar industry to the black market is unconscionable for the leader of Colorado’s second largest city. Meanwhile, Colorado’s cannabis locomotive rolls down the track. Every month, the state’s residents demonstrate new and unwavering support for the industry’s products.
It’s a sparkling industry at that. Tomorrow we’ll announce the winner of the second Colorado Manufacturing Awards Cannabis Manufacturer of the Year. One of the finalists, Hemp Depot, is a Colorado Springs company that’s brought dozens of jobs to the city. They’re a national leader, one of a select few cannabis companies to receive an FDA-endorsed GMP certification for professional operations. They bring much needed science, transparency, and operational acumen to a legal hemp CBD market that further legitimizes the cannabis space.
Not that the mayor would know the difference between THC and CBD. For cannabis deniers, it’s all the same.
For the city, it’s more of the same. The professed need of denying citizens their vote is to protect the defense economy. Or as The Gazette surmised, “Opponents argued legalizing recreational marijuana could hurt the town’s chances of becoming the next permanent home for U.S. Space Command because the military would likely weigh the drug laws in competing communities in its decision.”
Left to generals, the U.S. military would do no such thing. Time and again, military brass sloughs off a conservative stereotype with progressive, modern leadership that reflects the makeup of their standard bearers — soldiers, sailors, airmen and women, and scientists. If the U.S. Space Command seeks a cannabis-free zone to host operations, they’ll need to look outside the U.S.
In the real world, if those in Suthers’ camp would embrace regulation and not work to undermine the industry with misleading nonsense, the black market would fade away.
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Innovation comes in many forms, and in this inaugural Colorado Manufacturing Award for Innovative Product of the Year, companies were asked to submit products distinguished by design-centered manufacturing, with the following criteria:
Integration: degree to which manufacturing considerations are incorporated into the product design.
Advanced processes: the use of advanced manufacturing processes
Denver’s Guerrilla Gravity has earned a reputation both as an innovative cycling manufacturer and outstanding business, flashing important operational achievements including a $250,000 Advanced Industries grant from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
Yet a tightly integrated design-to-manufacturing process is the company’s calling card. Highly configurable designs, inspired by local talent, take into account the unique challenges of frame manufacturing. The use of proprietary carbon-fiber technology, in-house molds and printed parts are among the innovations that enable manufacturing of cycle frames in Denver, tipping over an industry paradigm that for decades have sent cycling OEMs offshore.
The improved manufacturability of the final product is further reflected in leading aesthetic functional attributes of the product, like impact resistance in demanding terrain.
The innovative HCC10X control unit was inspired by a customer request to improve safety on the job site.
The company’s successful response started with a design process driven first by meetings with relevant manufacturing departments to address design concerns and simplify the manufacturing process. Design engineers were then available to shop managers once production started, to address issues that were missed in the concept phase.
The product’s rapid development required the use of additive manufacturing to meet the tight deadlines of the project. A working prototype was operational within two weeks, bypassing a longer lead time required with traditional tool and die processes.
The control unit is also functional with multiple excavators, enabling customers to utilize the product with rented equipment, potentially saving thousands of dollars in transportation costs alone.
The notable medical device manufacturer has been awarded multiple patents for spring-free couplers that improve user functionality while maintaining high levels of flow with lower line pressure.
A highly integrated design-to-manufacture process is distinguished by the use of additive manufacturing to rapidly prototype products, facilitate customer feedback, and move products to final production.
The shortened product manufacturing cycle enables a robust design process that results in enhanced usability, including improvements in latch mechanisms and mating features, that have set the product line apart.
SeriesLock innovations have also enabled the company to diversify from the biomedical industry to life science, automotive, and industrial food and beverage applications.
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The same day this week the Washington Postreported the Trump administration was “trying to block billions of dollars for states to conduct testing and contact tracing in the upcoming coronavirus relief bill,” Colorado Governor Jared Polis was encouraging the opposite, stating flatly, “The national testing scene is a complete disgrace,” while slamming the federal testing strategy as “almost useless from an epidemiological or even diagnostic perspective.”
For a Western governor to be sideways with President Trump isn’t unusual. From Oregon to California to New Mexico, COVID-19 continues to widen the Grand Canyon-like political divide in the West.
Ironically, COVID also provides a means for political adversaries to rally around shared interests. Manufacturing has emerged as one. However unlikely it is that President Trump will work with Polis, or California Governor Gavin Newsom, or New Mexico’s Michelle Lujan Grisham in an election cycle, in theory each state has much to offer a Trumpian “get tough” strategy on China, namely by helping companies locate more production here.
Governors can’t set U.S. trade policy, but they can provide a road map for federal policymakers. Here are three things western Governors can do to support local manufacturing and chip away at China’s stranglehold on hosting U.S. companies.
1. Work with local companies, one by one, to develop domestic productions strategies. America’s governors are in a unique position. They interact with influential companies — every day. It’s part of the job description.
What’s been lacking are sustained conversations about why local companies and brands offshore production. If this wasn’t the case, there would be more local manufacturing.
A new approach would first acknowledge the uncomfortable truth that U.S. brands have made China a manufacturing superpower. If U.S. companies and brands were key to China’s manufacturing ascendance, so too are they at the center of any American renewal.
Governors can be local manufacturing’s most powerful advocates. One company at a time.
2. Make manufacturing-related R&D a priority. America’s research ecosystem is formidable, but to assume technology acumen translates into manufacturing-related leadership in automation and robotics is misguided.
Arthur Herman’s Wall Street Journal op-ed this week referenced a 2015 Strategy& and PwC study that found “found that U.S. companies were steadily moving their research-and-development centers to China to be closer to production, suppliers and engineering talent.”
It’s a troubling conclusion. The lesson for governors is that a strong manufacturing base is vital to maintaining a world-class R&D ecosystem.
Ensure there’s a connection between universities, labs, and manufacturers. Host events. Facilitate conversations. Put our R&D ecosystem to work for manufacturing.
3. Encourage and subsidize local buying. Products made in the U.S. are often more expensive than those made offshore. Why? Because labor is less expensive.
But the cost of not supporting jobs and infrastructure here, to save a few dollars, can’t be measured. Governors have a bully pulpit to educate and rally citizens to buy locally made products and legislators to subsidize local production. They should use it. It’s a winning, bipartisan issue.
“Getting tough” on China is election-year sloganeering. Deep, strategic partnerships shape Sino-American business and economic ties. Yet for every U.S. brand that leaves China to invest in American workers and communities, China’s influence wanes.
Presidents Obama and Trump both used the office to advocate for domestic production. It’s left to governors and local officials to fill in the gaps and drive a U.S. manufacturing resurgence that works to shift the balance of economic power to America’s shores.
https://mfginsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/iMFGF_web_logo.png00Bart Taylorhttps://mfginsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/iMFGF_web_logo.pngBart Taylor2020-07-21 22:12:502023-08-10 09:11:14How Polis, Newsom, and other Western governors can “get tough” on China
For the CompanyWeek team, July feels like January. We’ve used the COVID-19 disruption to invest in both a redesign of CompanyWeek.com and a new supply-chain portal — SCoP. We launched our new site Monday, as the summer turned and as many companies look to the second half of 2020 as a new beginning. SCoP’s around the corner.
If the site is better — improved search, less clutter, better organization of our content, and with SCoP a fundamental realignment of how suppliers are sourced — our efforts are also a response to the shifting ground for U.S. manufacturing.
A common sentiment today is that COVID disruptions will translate to opportunity for domestic manufacturing. And to be sure, factors have aligned to favor U.S. production.
Yet for many companies, across multiple industries, shortening supply chains or locating domestic factories is more talk than reality. As much as we’d like, and despite the interests arrayed to bring back pharmaceutical and PPE manufacturing, many U.S. brands and buyers will fall back on trusted, cheaper suppliers in Asia.
The bar is even higher for other industries.
In a terrific expose on the challenges facing outdoor industry brands, Outside writer Christopher Solomon’s “How the Outdoor Industry Responded to Coronavirus” points out OI’s China addiction, one we’ve reported on for years:
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Last April, after years of encouraging former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper to lean on his industry experience to take up the cause for manufacturing, I gave up. At the time, Hickenlooper’s presidential campaign, devoid of even a mention of his manufacturing experience, had crashed.
I lamented the missed opportunity: “John Hickenlooper was a craft-brewing pioneer. He helped reimagine craft manufacturing in Colorado and make it fashionable again, demonstrating its power to reshape urban economies, create opportunities for passionate entrepreneurs and reshape entire industry sectors. . . . I envisioned talk of the virtues of shortening supply chains to bring jobs home, of providing pathways for families and kids into the trade, and of a new economy where U.S.-engineered and -designed products are increasingly made here.”
But I was wrong about Hickenlooper’s affinity or connection with manufacturing. If not wrong, judgmental. Advocacy for manufacturing is a cause I share with some, but not everyone.
Today, candidate Hickenlooper harkens back to his “restaurant experience,” not his beer-making chops, when talking of his business acumen. He identifies with his service background more than any manufacturing pedigree.
And that’s OK. I look back on my rather harsh pronouncements and cringe a bit.
Would a Hickenlooper campaign focused on manufacturing be relevant and powerful now? Yes. COVID-19 has thrust these very issues to the forefront of the national conversation. A different choice in 2019 might have positioned him perfectly for a Senate run.
It is heartening, I admit, to witness the wave of legislative efforts and business initiatives to reshore manufacturing, or promote more domestic production, in light of COVID-related disruptions. Tariffs, or IP theft, or other challenges that companies encounter managing global supply chains might have been the trigger, but weren’t. Whatever it takes.
For those inclined to jump the bandwagon, I’d encourage a wide view. Sure, rebuilding America’s manufacturing supply chain is about competing with China. But more, it’s about investing in American towns and cities and workers; about recapturing the unseen virtues of family-owned companies that span generations; about supercharging American ingenuity and sustaining a legacy of invention and innovation that only manufacturing fuels; about Ford and John Deere and Hewlett-Packard and Coca-Cola and the hundreds of American-made brands that brought us this far.
It’s these positive attributes that must shape our perspective on U.S. manufacturing, just as incentives, not tariffs, should guide efforts to convince American companies to reshore production, or cite it here in the first place.
We won’t be endorsing a particular candidate for the Senate, or for president for that matter, but we’ll certainly point out when elected officials distinguish themselves as manufacturing advocates, or not. It’s not too much to ask of any elected official to articulate their strategy to sustain manufacturing, both nationally and in our local communities.
For my part, more support and less snark seems an appropriate tactic, given the times. A different outcome would be a just reward.
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When the sound of winning is silence: Manufacturing quiets its critics
/in General/by Bart TaylorAfter launching CompanyWeek in 2013, I fought a running editorial battle with a cadre of business writers about the state of U.S. manufacturing. The narrative from the national writers was that manufacturing was no longer essential, a quaint vestige of an earlier economic era. Columnists from Forbes, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal — most all had bought into the narrative that globalization had won the day, that it didn’t matter where America’s uber-talented tech and engineering class manufactured their products. China? Sure. Vietnam? OK. Anywhere but here.
I hit back in columns like A report proclaims the manufacturing “renaissance” a hoax, and the national media follow suit; and Is manufacturing great again? Don’t ask. We stopped counting.
It’s not that my adversaries were wrong; U.S. companies had indeed chased cheap labor overseas. Vast sums of capital followed as American brands built a manufacturing ecosystem offshore, employing millions of foreign nationals to work in factories entirely removed from the communities where products were inspired and headquarters based.
In retrospect, we could have guessed this was a model that inevitably would develop leaks. But the mistake of my adversaries was a fixation on the numbers. At the time, they were staggering. As we’ve documented, America lost millions of manufacturing jobs — about 4 million from 2006 to 2012 alone — leaving total U.S. manufacturing employment around 12 million jobs, or about half the number at its peak.
Even today, there’s still an “enthusiasm gap” among the business intelligentsia because many of these jobs won’t come back — here or anywhere. Technology is transforming the sector. And without high employment numbers, manufacturing will continue to be underestimated.
But it’s a reasonable guess that manufacturing employment, at its current level of 12 million jobs or so nationally, has found a new equilibrium. Losses to automation will be offset by gains from growth industries powering today’s manufacturing economy and a new national enthusiasm for domestic production. In Colorado and elsewhere, the sector is also proving uber-resilient in today’s “crisis” economy.
The fixation on numbers also never took into account the societal implications of sending the production of American-inspired products offshore. We’re a country of builders, of makers, of doers. If Main Street wasn’t home to a factory, it provided a direct path to one. Along with our lunch boxes, we shipped our national identity offshore when we decided others could make our products for us.
But just as the crowds that return to ballparks will raise the roof and replace the strange silence that today attends a touchdown, so too will the business punditocracy celebrate the return of America’s manufacturing ethos, in loud and boisterous terms. Watch for it.
For today, their silence speaks volumes.
Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.
“Are manufacturing jobs Cory Gardner’s path to the Senate?” Why a column from 2014 resonates today
/in General/by Bart TaylorIn a March 2014 column, I encouraged Cory Gardner to run on manufacturing to win a Colorado Senate seat. Six years ago, a Republican hadn’t won a statewide election for governor or U.S. Senate since 2002, and from my vantage point, the GOP was fishing about for a compelling electoral strategy:
“Gardner’s yet to articulate a platform but early pronouncements from the gubernatorial field provide strong clues. They suggest the GOP ticket will run on the repeal of Obamacare, Dem overreach on gun legislation, opposition to same-sex marriage and economic sluggishness — a slow recovery.
Will this platform appeal to young voters, women and minorities and social moderates in Colorado who increasingly decide elections? It’s principled. It’s also similar to what’s been defeated here before. And Gardner’s ‘Battle for the Future of America’ theme runs headlong against a few economic realities.
Contrary to the gloomy tone of the GOP’s economic assertions, growth and vitality are on display here. Energy is feeding an industrial comeback. Entrepreneurship is thriving. . . . On balance the Colorado economy is a formidable engine and compelling story, a national model in some respects. As Brian Burney, CEO of Oliver Manufacturing . . . told me, ‘It’s a good time to be a manufacturer.'”
So much has changed. And yet is hasn’t.
For one, it’s still a good time to be a manufacturer, and still a good idea to run on manufacturing.
David Hansen, senior economist at Development Research Partners, notes that “manufacturing seems to be one of the best performing industry supersectors so far [in 2020] in Colorado. Based on seasonally adjusted CES data, employment in Colorado’s manufacturing sector is down 1.3 percent YTD compared with 4 percent across all industries. Encouragingly, manufacturing employment was actually up slightly over the year in July. Our forecast for 2020 was 1 percent growth. The [CU Boulder Business Research Division’s] current forecast for manufacturing in 2020 is a -0.5 percent employment contraction.”
Yet still, both Gardner and his adversary, John Hickenlooper, don’t run on Colorado manufacturing, though they both could, each from a different point of view. Hickenlooper was a manufacturer, and Gardner’s been a quiet if effective advocate of Colorado’s sector.
Frankly, I’m not sure what either candidate is running on today. Perhaps each should revisit findings I referenced in the same 2014 column:
“Last week, Manufacturing & Technology News summarized research that, according to the publication, concludes, ‘There is a wide disconnect between the American public and policymakers in Washington, D.C., on the importance of manufacturing to the U.S. economy and the need for action to restore American industrial competitiveness.’ Or more succinctly, ‘Americans want Washington to deal with manufacturing, but Washington is not responding.’
M&T News reported on some of the findings:
When asked, ‘which of the following industries is the most important to the strength of the American economy?’ 32 percent of Americans said ‘manufacturing,” followed by 19 percent saying “high tech and knowledge industries,’ 12 percent saying health care, 11 percent saying agriculture, 8 percent saying housing and construction, 6 percent saying finance, and 4 percent saying services and retail.
Voters reject the idea that other sectors like high tech or services can replace manufacturing. Only 34 percent of Americans agreed with the statement that ‘the strength of the American economy is innovation and competition — and if manufacturing leaves, we will move into new areas like high tech or services which will take its place in the future.’
With 88 percent of Americans agreeing with the statement that ‘American manufacturing means American jobs,’ the survey found that ‘support for American manufacturing and manufacturers is nearly universal.’
Most Americans (84 percent) support the adoption of a national manufacturing strategy that is focused on tax, education, and trade policies (with 7 percent opposed to such a policy).”
As I noted in 2014, “Manufacturing may provide an opening for any candidate willing to make it a campaign issue.”
It’s never too late.
Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.
Colorado’s Top Manufacturing Communities, v. 2020
/in General/by Bart TaylorCompanyWeek turns seven this September. Twice in the past seven years, we’ve ranked Colorado’s top manufacturing communities, most recently in early 2017. Our criteria then: a growing, compelling industry or cluster of maker industries, supported by purposeful public/private efforts to build a robust manufacturing economy.
Here’s the 2017 list, followed by the 2015 ranking:
A couple things immediately stand out: However you cut and slice the geography, Northern Colorado, especially if you include Boulder County, is a production mecca. Fort Collins/Loveland/Windsor, Boulder/Longmont/Frederick, and parts in between or adjacent all flash nation-leading sector attributes.
Combining Colorado Springs and Pueblo into a single community was a mistake. Each is intent on carving its own path. We’d also marry Aurora with Denver. The synergy is self-evident, even as Denver’s northwest neighbors are carving more autonomous tracks.
Along with those geo-adjustments, we added two important criteria: high-profile manufacturing OEMs, brands, or contract manufacturers that call a community home; and sector diversity, i.e., the prevalence of multiple manufacturing industries. Manufacturing’s modern personality is shaped by multiple growth industries.
Here, then, is the 2020 list:
1. Fort Collins/Loveland/Windsor
The economic engine in northern Colorado is powered by a manufacturing sector that crushes all of our criteria: a powerful mix of growth industries, anchored by national and global OEMs, upstart brands, innovative contract manufacturers all supported by enthusiastic economic development professionals and civic leaders who see value in a vibrant manufacturing economy. The Northern Colorado Manufacturing Partnership touches more companies than any sector trade association in the state. There’s the NoCo powerhouse, and everyone else.
Top Industries: Food & Beverage; Brewing & Distilling; Industrial & Equipment; Consumer & Lifestyle; Aerospace & Transportation
Top Companies:
2 (tie). Denver/Aurora
Denver wants it all, and why not? The city continues to attract brands and companies from across the economic spectrum. But its high-tech production ecosystem lags, and interest in food and beverage, outdoor industry, consumer and high-tech brands often begins and ends with corporate relocations.
Adding Aurora changes the calculation. Its cadre of companies, more expansive real estate opps, and emerging bioscience cluster combine to provide the east metro a ton of potential to locate more manufacturing. If Denver would shake off it’s ambivalence to prioritize advanced manufacturing, it might keep its brands from outsourcing production to distant places and rewrite the history of manufacturing in the Rocky Mountain region.
Top Industries: Building & Construction; Food & Beverage; Brewing & Distilling; Aerospace & Transportation; Consumer & Lifestyle; Cannabis & Hemp
Top Companies:
2 (tie). Boulder County
Readers were only mildly surprised when we anointed Boulder County the top spot in our 2015 ranking. There wasn’t much to argue: Boulder’s natural and organic food sector, powered by production innovators like Fresca Foods, was leading a national revolution to tip over America’s vast industrial food play. Wall Street investors now dot the funding landscape here.
Today, an innovation ethos continues to inform growth in powerhouse industries like aerospace, outdoor industry, and cannabis, where Boulder companies are among first movers that have established Colorado cannabis manufacturing as the most healthy and stable ecosystem in the nation. A thriving ecosystem of capable contract manufacturers feed off the area’s rich R&D legacy. Longmont is a perfect complement and home to a growing number of fabricators and producers across the industry spectrum.
Mix in Broomfield, Boulder County’s autonomous-minded neighbor with its bevy of high-profile manufacturing brands, and Colorado’s industrial character continues to tilt down U.S. 36.
Boulder County and manufacturing? Uh, yeah.
Top industries: Aerospace & Transportation; Food & Beverage; Bioscience & Medical; Consumer & Lifestyle; Cannabis & Hemp
Top Companies:
4. Arvada
It seems we’re always writing about great manufacturers from Arvada. Barber-Nichols’ high-flying fabricators are winning awards at the same time the company adds space and people to accommodate growth, to name one.
Arvada EDA and Jefferson County officials are always quick to mention manufacturing and despite the cut-and-run by Molson Coors, the area largely retains an impressive beer manufacturing footprint. Leaders in this eclectic manufacturing enclave continue to piece together a cogent, enthusiastic message that both supports current bellwether brands as it appeals to new industry players.
Top Industries: Aerospace & Electronics; Food & Beverage; Industrial & Equipment
Top Companies:
5. Colorado Springs
Leaders in Colorado’s second-largest city seem intent on building an economic brand around two industries: cybersecurity and tourism. Manufacturing is an important corollary to the defense industry here including cybersecurity, but the town has not fully rallied to tourism-related opportunities like outdoor industry manufacturing, or cannabis, which Mayor John Suthers openly undermines, despite the presence of national heavyweights like Hemp Depot and Folium Biosciences.
Yet the city’s mix of capable contract manufacturers, global OEMs in industrial/equipment and bioscience manufacturing, and an intrepid craft sector anchored by successful brewing and distilling brands, land Colorado Springs in the top five.
Top Industries: Bioscience & Medical; Industrial & Equipment; Aerospace & Electronics; Brewing & Distilling; Cannabis & Hemp
Top Companies:
Honorable Mention: Grand Junction/Palisade/Montrose
We can only hope for a united Western Slope manufacturing corridor, but too much water has flowed under the bridges that cross the Gunnison and Uncompahgre rivers. The combined assets would fuel a regional economic renaissance: industry diversity, a legacy but innovative industrial base, global brands, the latent talent and promise of a rural workforce, agriculture’s auspicious influence, and more. All framed by the allure of lifestyle and the promise of the trillion-dollar outdoor industry.
Like Denver, Grand Junction is more covetous perhaps of a tech economy than an industrial awakening after years of boom-and-bust cycles with oil and gas. Who can blame them? Montrose is more purposeful around manufacturing, with energetic economic development that’s lined up behind the outdoor industry in the form of the forward-looking Colorado Outdoors development.
We’ve ranked Grand Junction in the top five before. It’s left to business and civic leaders to thread the needle and find a way to rally around manufacturing as it matures as a high-tech outpost. And, possibly, lead a deliberate effort to align with Montrose, Steamboat Springs, and Durango to onshore the vast Asian production ecosystem that manufacturers the toys of America’s outdoor industry brands. Many are located in Colorado.
Top Industries: Energy & Environment; Industrial & Equipment; Consumer & Lifestyle; Brewing & Distilling; Food & Beverage
Top Companies:
Grand Junction/Palisade:
Montrose:
Workplace wellness is manufacturing’s imperative — and opportunity
/in General/by Bart TaylorThe haphazard way we’ve managed the pandemic continues to add new wrinkles to manufacturing’s workforce challenge. The latest is the trend of parents leaving work for good to stay home with kids as schools remain shuttered. A month ago, it was only a possibility. Today, it’s a reality. Companies are losing key employees.
Whether schools would reopen wasn’t supposed to be a variable in the fall of 2020. But there’s good news ahead: Kids will go back to school. And communities will turn to science to keep the public safe. They’ll have to. “If we don’t test, we won’t have more cases,” is a ruinous path.
In fact the science seems straightforward: Test more and faster, and innovate to make places safer. Until there’s a vaccine, and even after, how we interact with each other will change.
Manufacturing’s role will be threefold: 1) Make and assemble the solutions that will help us manage social interactions in our places — tools that measure and monitor biometrics, distance, density, etc.; 2) Deploy those tools in our factories, as stores, bars, restaurants, and schools do the same; 3) Lead a workforce wellness movement that highlights the healthiest and safest locations in our community. Our maker spaces and places should lead the way. It’s a natural corollary to manufacturers’ role as essential businesses.
The outcomes for business will mean everything. Companies able to create safe spaces will do more than just keep employees healthy and happy, they’ll be at the center of a new focus on wellness that distinguishes communities and its best companies. The ubiquitous “best companies to work for” contests will take on new meaning as the stakes become higher.
The flip side is that companies that don’t take steps to ensure employee health will lose out in the long run. Innovation in workforce wellness will become as important as investments in the latest production equipment and technology. To put it another way, IoT and Industry 4.0 is today changed forever, to include the monitoring and management of human capital.
Successful companies will win the competition for employees as they change our public places. Manufacturers can lead, or lag. There’s no doubt the sector will lead. American manufacturing has a long and distinguished record of transforming a crisis to a new more productive society.
A guns-to-butter moment has again arrived.
Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.
2020 CMA Preview: Cannabis Manufacturer of the Year
/in General/by Bart TaylorThe three finalists for 2020 Cannabis Manufacturer of the Year represent the diversity of operations in the cannabis sector, but more, the high bar being established by companies for quality and safety.
Nominations were judged on the achievement of national quality and safety certifications and best practices.
Stillwater Brands
www.stillwaterbrands.life
Commerce City
Founded: 2014
Privately owned
Employees: 19
Industry: Cannabis & Hemp
Products: Beverages and edibles infused with THC and CBD
Stillwater Brands’ innovations extend beyond their extensive product and process testing protocols to product development, where the patented water-soluble Ripple brands of CBD and THC products have captured the imagination of cannabis consumers.
Trusted suppliers in the company’s raw material supply chain provide continuity that translates into consistent product quality for both CBD and THC lines. THC distillate is quality-control tested “before receipt” for potency, color, and aromas pursuant to highly transparent protocols.
CBD products are third-party tested for pesticides, heavy metals, residual solvents, potency, and microbiology. Raw materials sourcing is from U.S. providers only, with a focus on Colorado.
Finished goods manufacturing focuses on maintaining low formulation tolerances in the manufacturing process, targeting thresholds common in the food industry that ensure product consistency, quality, and safety. Shelf stability testing has been a staple of Stillwater protocols to verify dosage control.
CompanyWeek profile: https://companyweek.com/article/stillwater-brands
Medically Correct / incredibles
www.medicallycorrect.com
Denver
Founded: 2010
Employees: 101
Privately owned
Industry: Cannabis & Hemp
Products: Cannabis edibles, extractions, and equipment
Sustained success — staying power — is at the center of MedicallyCorrect’s stellar reputation in the cannabis market.
The company follows an operational path that reflects a deep food background, with emphasis on quality ingredients, refined processing, transparent packaging, and for cannabis, dosage management. The company’s consistently safe and quality-focused product line earned trust for Colorado’s industry early on, critical in the industry’s run-up.
Community involvement and industry and product education effort also distinguish the company. Medically Correct’s influence — and sales — will only increase as the company attains cGMP and other certifications. Yet there’s little doubt the company is already an elite operator.
CompanyWeek profile: https://companyweek.com/article/incredibles
Hemp Depot
www.hempdepotco.com
Colorado Springs
Founded: 2015
Privately owned
Employees: 85
Industry: Cannabis & Hemp
Products: CBD-infused products
Hemp Depot topped off impressive growth with an NSF Dietary Supplements GMP certification in 2020, increasingly the de facto standard for cannabis manufacturing operations. (View the Gold List of GMP certified manufacturers.)
Yet the company’s innovative and persuasive model also set the business apart. It’s in a catbird’s seat — touching much of the hemp CBD market, vertical integration in developing, growing, formulating, and wholesaling CBD seeds, clones, and an array of CBD oil. Many of cannabis leading brands deal in Hemp Depot products.
It adds up to a powerful position in a fast-changing hemp CBD world — a singular mission to certify and professionalize operations to feed a blue-ribbon list of brands. It’s a market position that also comes with responsibilities. The company has been up for the challenge thus far.
CompanyWeek profile: https://companyweek.com/article/hemp-depot
Colorado’s cannabis economy leads the nation. The mayor of its second-largest city pretends it doesn’t exist
/in General/by Bart TaylorIf you wish hard enough, maybe it will go away.
That seems to be the approach of Colorado Springs mayor John Suthers, who argued recently to prevent voters from deciding whether recreational cannabis could be sold in the city. His “sharp criticism” of the option dissuaded the city council from approving a ballot measure this fall.
Suthers position was summed up by the Colorado Springs daily newspaper, The Gazette:
“Suthers also argued the promises made by recreational marijuana proponents when it was legalized statewide in 2012, such as reigning in the black market, have not been kept. ‘We are spending infinitely more time and effort regulating marijuana than when it was illegal,’ he said.”
It’s an obtuse statement for the ages. We’re spending more time regulating marijuana, because we’re regulating marijuana. Plus, not only have proponents kept their promises, the dark, dystopian future forecast by opponents of legalization hasn’t materialized.
Suthers shouldn’t be held to account for opposing legal marijuana. He’s been consistent in his opposition to it. That the mayor would instead relegate a billion-dollar industry to the black market is unconscionable for the leader of Colorado’s second largest city. Meanwhile, Colorado’s cannabis locomotive rolls down the track. Every month, the state’s residents demonstrate new and unwavering support for the industry’s products.
It’s a sparkling industry at that. Tomorrow we’ll announce the winner of the second Colorado Manufacturing Awards Cannabis Manufacturer of the Year. One of the finalists, Hemp Depot, is a Colorado Springs company that’s brought dozens of jobs to the city. They’re a national leader, one of a select few cannabis companies to receive an FDA-endorsed GMP certification for professional operations. They bring much needed science, transparency, and operational acumen to a legal hemp CBD market that further legitimizes the cannabis space.
Not that the mayor would know the difference between THC and CBD. For cannabis deniers, it’s all the same.
For the city, it’s more of the same. The professed need of denying citizens their vote is to protect the defense economy. Or as The Gazette surmised, “Opponents argued legalizing recreational marijuana could hurt the town’s chances of becoming the next permanent home for U.S. Space Command because the military would likely weigh the drug laws in competing communities in its decision.”
Left to generals, the U.S. military would do no such thing. Time and again, military brass sloughs off a conservative stereotype with progressive, modern leadership that reflects the makeup of their standard bearers — soldiers, sailors, airmen and women, and scientists. If the U.S. Space Command seeks a cannabis-free zone to host operations, they’ll need to look outside the U.S.
In the real world, if those in Suthers’ camp would embrace regulation and not work to undermine the industry with misleading nonsense, the black market would fade away.
Wish for it. Maybe it will come true.
Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Email him at btaylor@companyweek.com.
2020 CMA Preview: Innovative Product of the Year
/in General/by Bart TaylorInnovation comes in many forms, and in this inaugural Colorado Manufacturing Award for Innovative Product of the Year, companies were asked to submit products distinguished by design-centered manufacturing, with the following criteria:
Guerrilla Gravity
Consumer product, cycling frames
www.ridegg.com
Denver’s Guerrilla Gravity has earned a reputation both as an innovative cycling manufacturer and outstanding business, flashing important operational achievements including a $250,000 Advanced Industries grant from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
Yet a tightly integrated design-to-manufacturing process is the company’s calling card. Highly configurable designs, inspired by local talent, take into account the unique challenges of frame manufacturing. The use of proprietary carbon-fiber technology, in-house molds and printed parts are among the innovations that enable manufacturing of cycle frames in Denver, tipping over an industry paradigm that for decades have sent cycling OEMs offshore.
The improved manufacturability of the final product is further reflected in leading aesthetic functional attributes of the product, like impact resistance in demanding terrain.
CompanyWeek profile: https://companyweek.com/article/guerrilla-gravity
TEI Rock Drills
Commercial product, HCC10X Control Unit
www.teirockdrills.com
The innovative HCC10X control unit was inspired by a customer request to improve safety on the job site.
The company’s successful response started with a design process driven first by meetings with relevant manufacturing departments to address design concerns and simplify the manufacturing process. Design engineers were then available to shop managers once production started, to address issues that were missed in the concept phase.
The product’s rapid development required the use of additive manufacturing to meet the tight deadlines of the project. A working prototype was operational within two weeks, bypassing a longer lead time required with traditional tool and die processes.
The control unit is also functional with multiple excavators, enabling customers to utilize the product with rented equipment, potentially saving thousands of dollars in transportation costs alone.
CompanyWeek profile: https://companyweek.com/article/tei-rock-drills
Eldon James
Commercial product, SeriesLock disconnect coupler
www.eldonjames.com
The notable medical device manufacturer has been awarded multiple patents for spring-free couplers that improve user functionality while maintaining high levels of flow with lower line pressure.
A highly integrated design-to-manufacture process is distinguished by the use of additive manufacturing to rapidly prototype products, facilitate customer feedback, and move products to final production.
The shortened product manufacturing cycle enables a robust design process that results in enhanced usability, including improvements in latch mechanisms and mating features, that have set the product line apart.
SeriesLock innovations have also enabled the company to diversify from the biomedical industry to life science, automotive, and industrial food and beverage applications.
CompanyWeek profile: https://companyweek.com/article/eldon-james
The winners of this year’s Colorado Manufacturing Awards will be announced online from 2:30 to 5 p.m. on Aug. 6, 2020. REGISTER HERE>
How Polis, Newsom, and other Western governors can “get tough” on China
/in General/by Bart TaylorThe same day this week the Washington Post reported the Trump administration was “trying to block billions of dollars for states to conduct testing and contact tracing in the upcoming coronavirus relief bill,” Colorado Governor Jared Polis was encouraging the opposite, stating flatly, “The national testing scene is a complete disgrace,” while slamming the federal testing strategy as “almost useless from an epidemiological or even diagnostic perspective.”
For a Western governor to be sideways with President Trump isn’t unusual. From Oregon to California to New Mexico, COVID-19 continues to widen the Grand Canyon-like political divide in the West.
Ironically, COVID also provides a means for political adversaries to rally around shared interests. Manufacturing has emerged as one. However unlikely it is that President Trump will work with Polis, or California Governor Gavin Newsom, or New Mexico’s Michelle Lujan Grisham in an election cycle, in theory each state has much to offer a Trumpian “get tough” strategy on China, namely by helping companies locate more production here.
Governors can’t set U.S. trade policy, but they can provide a road map for federal policymakers. Here are three things western Governors can do to support local manufacturing and chip away at China’s stranglehold on hosting U.S. companies.
1. Work with local companies, one by one, to develop domestic productions strategies. America’s governors are in a unique position. They interact with influential companies — every day. It’s part of the job description.
What’s been lacking are sustained conversations about why local companies and brands offshore production. If this wasn’t the case, there would be more local manufacturing.
A new approach would first acknowledge the uncomfortable truth that U.S. brands have made China a manufacturing superpower. If U.S. companies and brands were key to China’s manufacturing ascendance, so too are they at the center of any American renewal.
Governors can be local manufacturing’s most powerful advocates. One company at a time.
2. Make manufacturing-related R&D a priority. America’s research ecosystem is formidable, but to assume technology acumen translates into manufacturing-related leadership in automation and robotics is misguided.
Arthur Herman’s Wall Street Journal op-ed this week referenced a 2015 Strategy& and PwC study that found “found that U.S. companies were steadily moving their research-and-development centers to China to be closer to production, suppliers and engineering talent.”
It’s a troubling conclusion. The lesson for governors is that a strong manufacturing base is vital to maintaining a world-class R&D ecosystem.
Ensure there’s a connection between universities, labs, and manufacturers. Host events. Facilitate conversations. Put our R&D ecosystem to work for manufacturing.
3. Encourage and subsidize local buying. Products made in the U.S. are often more expensive than those made offshore. Why? Because labor is less expensive.
But the cost of not supporting jobs and infrastructure here, to save a few dollars, can’t be measured. Governors have a bully pulpit to educate and rally citizens to buy locally made products and legislators to subsidize local production. They should use it. It’s a winning, bipartisan issue.
“Getting tough” on China is election-year sloganeering. Deep, strategic partnerships shape Sino-American business and economic ties. Yet for every U.S. brand that leaves China to invest in American workers and communities, China’s influence wanes.
Presidents Obama and Trump both used the office to advocate for domestic production. It’s left to governors and local officials to fill in the gaps and drive a U.S. manufacturing resurgence that works to shift the balance of economic power to America’s shores.
Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.
COVID-19 provided an opportunity to rebuild CompanyWeek.com. What’s your plan?
/in General/by Bart TaylorFor the CompanyWeek team, July feels like January. We’ve used the COVID-19 disruption to invest in both a redesign of CompanyWeek.com and a new supply-chain portal — SCoP. We launched our new site Monday, as the summer turned and as many companies look to the second half of 2020 as a new beginning. SCoP’s around the corner.
If the site is better — improved search, less clutter, better organization of our content, and with SCoP a fundamental realignment of how suppliers are sourced — our efforts are also a response to the shifting ground for U.S. manufacturing.
A common sentiment today is that COVID disruptions will translate to opportunity for domestic manufacturing. And to be sure, factors have aligned to favor U.S. production.
Yet for many companies, across multiple industries, shortening supply chains or locating domestic factories is more talk than reality. As much as we’d like, and despite the interests arrayed to bring back pharmaceutical and PPE manufacturing, many U.S. brands and buyers will fall back on trusted, cheaper suppliers in Asia.
The bar is even higher for other industries.
In a terrific expose on the challenges facing outdoor industry brands, Outside writer Christopher Solomon’s “How the Outdoor Industry Responded to Coronavirus” points out OI’s China addiction, one we’ve reported on for years:
Jump on the manufacturing bandwagon — or else!
/in General/by Bart TaylorWe’re all righteous in our indignation.
Last April, after years of encouraging former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper to lean on his industry experience to take up the cause for manufacturing, I gave up. At the time, Hickenlooper’s presidential campaign, devoid of even a mention of his manufacturing experience, had crashed.
I lamented the missed opportunity: “John Hickenlooper was a craft-brewing pioneer. He helped reimagine craft manufacturing in Colorado and make it fashionable again, demonstrating its power to reshape urban economies, create opportunities for passionate entrepreneurs and reshape entire industry sectors. . . . I envisioned talk of the virtues of shortening supply chains to bring jobs home, of providing pathways for families and kids into the trade, and of a new economy where U.S.-engineered and -designed products are increasingly made here.”
But I was wrong about Hickenlooper’s affinity or connection with manufacturing. If not wrong, judgmental. Advocacy for manufacturing is a cause I share with some, but not everyone.
Today, candidate Hickenlooper harkens back to his “restaurant experience,” not his beer-making chops, when talking of his business acumen. He identifies with his service background more than any manufacturing pedigree.
And that’s OK. I look back on my rather harsh pronouncements and cringe a bit.
Would a Hickenlooper campaign focused on manufacturing be relevant and powerful now? Yes. COVID-19 has thrust these very issues to the forefront of the national conversation. A different choice in 2019 might have positioned him perfectly for a Senate run.
It is heartening, I admit, to witness the wave of legislative efforts and business initiatives to reshore manufacturing, or promote more domestic production, in light of COVID-related disruptions. Tariffs, or IP theft, or other challenges that companies encounter managing global supply chains might have been the trigger, but weren’t. Whatever it takes.
For those inclined to jump the bandwagon, I’d encourage a wide view. Sure, rebuilding America’s manufacturing supply chain is about competing with China. But more, it’s about investing in American towns and cities and workers; about recapturing the unseen virtues of family-owned companies that span generations; about supercharging American ingenuity and sustaining a legacy of invention and innovation that only manufacturing fuels; about Ford and John Deere and Hewlett-Packard and Coca-Cola and the hundreds of American-made brands that brought us this far.
It’s these positive attributes that must shape our perspective on U.S. manufacturing, just as incentives, not tariffs, should guide efforts to convince American companies to reshore production, or cite it here in the first place.
We won’t be endorsing a particular candidate for the Senate, or for president for that matter, but we’ll certainly point out when elected officials distinguish themselves as manufacturing advocates, or not. It’s not too much to ask of any elected official to articulate their strategy to sustain manufacturing, both nationally and in our local communities.
For my part, more support and less snark seems an appropriate tactic, given the times. A different outcome would be a just reward.
Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com