U.S. manufacturing is on a roll, for multiple reasons that when combined add up to great things if you make something in America.
It also goes without saying we could make more if we were better connected. A U.S. supplier network well aligned with OEM demand will absolutely fuel domestic production.
The good news is that everyone, it seems, wants to help connect us. A new generation of networking tools and databases is coming online to help you get connected – and prosper.
The most visible effort, with backers like NAM, the National Association of Manufacturers, and NIST’s MEP system, is the CONNEX Marketplace. It’s the data engine for NAM’s national Manufacturers Marketplace, and the company is striking new data management deals with MEP state centers. In those states, like Utah, CONNEX is angling to be the single data platform that NAM and MEP state-level affiliates use. The goal is a single, searchable national database of suppliers.
It’s a formidable data vision – hundreds of thousands of company records. And that’s a good thing as far as search goes: the more the better. Need a machined part? Search the nation.
It’s also expensive — hundreds of thousands of dollars for participating MEP centers — and the model hasn’t really worked yet, or at least not met expectations. Manufacturers need to breathe life into their data and participate in the digital marketplaces. So far, they really haven’t.
Maybe Manufacturers Marketplace data will evolve into a community that it’s not today — or other platforms will, like Sustainment, a regional networking tool percolating in Oklahoma and Texas.
Sustainment’s approach is to wrap location and connectivity tools around a smaller user base (for now) with large OEMs driving the interest and participation from suppliers. It holds promise, and the focus on “local” may be a game-changer.
SCoP is the database of CompanyWeek manufacturing features — 1,600 or so company profiles. SCoP knows a lot about fewer companies. It’s a community though, where the large data platforms aren’t. New companies are added every week, and they’re connecting with each other today.
Nothing’s doing it all. Long term, a combination of services, technology and automation, and AI, will connect the sector, but more, a community will form around it — multiple communities will form around it. It has to be food at the same time it’s aerospace, and bioscience. All manufacturing is essential or none of it is.
Poke around what’s taking shape. It’s worth a trip.
Also know you’ll be asked to “own a listing,” or “enhance a listing,” or “complete this RFP” — or in our case, send info this month to be included in our Industrial Automation content.
https://mfginsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MFG-INSIDER-word-logo2.png00Bart Taylorhttps://mfginsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MFG-INSIDER-word-logo2.pngBart Taylor2021-12-29 16:15:102023-08-10 09:10:58Supply-chain scramble: the race to connect you with suppliers and OEMs
Let’s first stipulate the two reasons why thousands of American companies source products and services in China: lower labor costs, and the expertise to build or develop products can’t be found in the U.S.
And outsource we have. Cheap labor, a sophisticated manufacturing ecosystem, and Chinese leadership that caters to the needs of American brands and manufacturers have compelled U.S. companies to invest billions of dollars every year in China’s production ecosystem, its workforce, and in its communities.
A decade ago, a move to China was an easy business decision. Today, not so much. As Harry Moser and others have pointed out, the cost difference of operating in China vs. the U.S. has moderated. And while it still can be hard to find the right mix of production capabilities and skills onshore, America’s tech-fueled manufacturing commons is improving.
Other variables complicate a China engagement. Today we care about where products engineered and designed in the U.S. are made. Offshore manufacturing is often at odds with brand promises companies make to their customers. And corporate investments in Chinese communities, against the backdrop of middle-class struggles and the hollowing out of America’s rural economies, are tougher pills to swallow.
“China’s strengths and the threats it presents to U.S. interests are considerable. . . . At stake in this clash of identities and sovereignty is the safety and security of the United States and its partners, friends, and allies. The CCP is a long-term, consequential, menacing adversary determined to end the economic and political freedoms that have served as the foundation for security and prosperity for billions of people.”
Today, companies evaluating a business engagement in China are faced with the prospect of partnering with a “menacing adversary.”
One outcome is that companies will now run headlong into growing calls to limit not only public sector engagements with China — the diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing seems only a start — but increasingly, business-related ties.
Kuttner notes: “Among its 15 priority recommendations, the report calls for controls on U.S. private investment in China, as well as creation of a new government authority that could review and block investments harmful to the national security. It faulted the Commerce Department for failing to perform this function as required under existing law.”
The language is precise — limits on U.S. private investment and those harmful to national security — and the implication is pretty straightforward: Investments by U.S. firms in China’s production ecosystem run counter to America’s national interest.
Companies should take note: Engagements in China may soon be filtered by discerning customers; a populist, nationalist movement in the U.S.; and government regulators. Voices in the West have been speculating that China is poised to accelerate the “decoupling” of the world’s two largest economies. There are signs today that America may lead the effort.
Revisiting U.S. options may never be more important.
https://mfginsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MFG-INSIDER-word-logo2.png00Bart Taylorhttps://mfginsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MFG-INSIDER-word-logo2.pngBart Taylor2021-12-12 16:38:032021-12-12 16:38:03Sourcing in China is entering a precarious new phase
CompanyWeek profiled more than 200 manufacturers in 2021, most of them based in the four states where we publish regular e-publications: Colorado, Utah, California, and — as of November 2021 — Texas. Of those, these 20 profiles stand out for a variety of different reasons: Some are industry leaders, others are trying to disrupt markets, and others yet are rethinking manufacturing and ignoring the status quo.
For a recap of the last 12 months in manufacturing, these stories are a great place to start.
California
Checkerspot (Berkeley)
Using algae-derived oils as the building blocks for better materials, Checkerspot aims to upend the supply chain with sustainable innovation. CEO Charles Dimmler sees a global market of manufacturers of all kinds, but the company started its own ski brand — Utah-based WNDR Alpine — to showcase the performance of its polyurethane alternative.
The company is a leader in the market for inkjet-ready coated fabrics, supplying artists, small and mid-sized businesses, and big apparel brands. “We produce fabrics that can be printed on any inkjet printer,” President Hunter Ellis told CompanyWeek contributor Glen Martin earlier in the year. “That’s our main selling point. No specialty printers are needed.”
Angela Rose, CompanyWeek‘s California editor, profiled the manufacturer of plant-based protein alternatives to meat when the company was in the midst of building a new 30,000-square-foot plant in San Diego. “Once we’re up and running, we will have 20 million-plus pounds per year capacity out of that facility alone,” said founder Danny O’Malley.
CEO Ivan Madera has fostered the company as a production partner specializing in additive manufacturing for aerospace companies. As the industry gravitates to additive’s many features and benefits, Madera said the rising tide lifts all boats. “We continue to certify components, but we also view production as an expansion of our certification services,” he explained to CompanyWeek contributor Glen Martin. “As an industry, we need to standardize processes, and that’s not a simple thing to do by any evaluation.”
The startup is working to produce honey via a fermentation process, without the help of bees. When editor Angela Rose interviewed CEO Darko Mandich, he said the company was aiming to start producing 40,000 pounds of bee-free honey daily sometime in 2022.
Bees are critical to the health of the planet, he added. “If we lose them, it will be looking like the surface of Mars. But that’s pressure for us to work as hard as possible to replace every pound of honey that’s coming from commercial beekeeping with honey that is produced using science so that wild and native bee species are not pushed back any further.”
Founder Randy Bloomer saw an opening for a better horse trailer, and went after it with gusto upon launching his eponymous manufacturer in 1998. R&D has guided the company since day one, and that has sometimes involved Bloomer getting his boots dirty. “We found this stuff out by riding in the back of a trailer, personally doing it,” said Bloomer in the interview.
The company’s communications infrastructure is bringing a cellular model to satellite communications technology, with staggering results a cost that’s just 10 percent that of legacy technology. “The cost of infrastructure — everything you can imagine from cell towers to electronic equipment to antennas, everything — there’s a [metric of] dollars per bit of information,” said CEO Shey Sabripour. “I think these technologies will drastically reduce the cost.”
President Brad Farbstein’s career is a microcosm of the craft brewing industry. After his early days as a sales rep, he bought Real Ale in 1998 with his life savings, when annual production was around 300 barrels. Nearly a quarter-century later, the company is brewing more than 50,000 barrels a year, with plenty of room to grow: The brewhouse’s capacity is 250,000 barrels.
Tom Whiting launched his feather supplier for the fly-fishing industry in the late 1980s. His 27-acre ranch is now home to about 75,000 chickens at any given time, as Whiting Farms supplies about 80 percent of the feathers for dry flies.
As the company’s name implies, founder Slade Gardner’s company makes additive manufacturing technology that’s designed to print big metal parts — parts as big as a car — that are often better than those made with legacy processes.
From the interview: “There are some structures that casting just can’t do and welded assembly just can’t do, and a lot of these advanced design software packages and advanced design technologies, they create geometries that look more like a dinosaur skeleton than a stick-and-plate engineer’s design. Those kinds of geometries, you almost need additive manufacturing to build them.”
CEO Kerry Siggins has pushed the manufacturer of waterblast tools towards automation and the Internet of Things in a big way. Case in point: StoneAge’s Sentinel Automation Technology now runs equipment that cleans heat exchangers, with faster and better results. The company plans to integrate Sentinel into other existing tools.
Founder and CEO Jason Osborne has come up with an approach to metal injection molding that is competitive with CNC machining. He’s scaled up contract manufacturing as part of a turnkey operation that also helps clients with design for manufacturability and prototyping. Neota is also working to change industry perceptions about metal injection molding. “It’s a black art type of thing,” said Osborne during the interview. “We are really trying to change that stigma.”
President and CEO Mitch Wiens’ aerospace supplier has carved out a niche manufacturing membrane-based antennas and solar arrays for ever-smaller satellites. “Being able to put something that deploys really big but packaging it really small is enabling,” Wiens explained during the call. “Instead of launching a much larger spacecraft that we would have done in the past, we can now put a similar capability on a much smaller vehicle, which brings down cost and allows you to fit more spacecraft on a launch vehicle.”
Sam Perry is breathing new life into ghost orchards in Montezuma County. While Perry planted trees on his own land that should start bearing apples by the middle of the decade, Fenceline is leaning on legacy farmers for a wide range of unique apple varieties in the meantime. “We have the bins and the picking team, and we go around from orchard to orchard basically,” explained Perry.
CompanyWeek contributor Gregory Daurer’s midyear profile of Edward Victor Dick’s hybrid shop/lutherie/school captures the compelling craft — and the business — of stringed instruments in detail. He’s repaired and built countless guitars and banjos, and even invented a cross between the two: the banjola.
Executive Director Matthew Seefeldt, Ph.D., discussed the unique model as a contract manufacturer that supports the needs of researchers and medical practitioners on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus as well as outside clients in the biopharma industry. “There’s a definite financial piece to what we do — we can’t just live off of grants, for lack of a better description,” he said during his interview with CompanyWeek. “But then at the same time, we take that capital we pull in from the external biotechnology companies to make our systems better, then use that to support early-stage development work to get more drugs into the clinic.”
Three generations of the McCloud family work at “VORSHEER complex,” encompassing 18,000 square feet of space and equipped with a plasma cutter, CNC brake, and welding and wood shops. “We try to keep as much manufacturing in-house as we can for one primary reason: We can control quality,” says Steve McCloud, the company’s president.
Founder and company namesake Don Roundy found his calling making cowboy boots in the mid-1970s. Nearly 50 years later, he’s crafted boots for a long list of ranch hands, wannabes, and celebrities. “It all comes down to craftsmanship,” Roundy told CompanyWeek writer Gregory Daurer. “My business makes them the quality that they used to be in the ’20s, ’30s, and ’40s.”
CEO Spencer Loveless strategized to control the destiny of his vacuum manufacturer’s supply chain by starting a second company, Merit3D, to 3D-print parts for Dustless products in-house. “Our game plan going forward at Dustless is to design all of our new products around additive manufacturing,” Loveless explained during the interview. “We can produce hundreds of thousands of components very quickly without the time frame, the tariffs, the molds, and everything else that comes with outsourcing.”
The Allen family business is the go-to manufacturer for NBA mascots. About 70 percent of the league’s teams — including the Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz, and Denver Nuggets — outfit their mascots with Alinco’s performer-friendly products.
https://mfginsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MFG-INSIDER-word-logo2.png00Bart Taylorhttps://mfginsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MFG-INSIDER-word-logo2.pngBart Taylor2021-12-06 22:42:452021-12-06 22:42:45The Year in Review: CompanyWeek’s Best Mfg. Profiles of 2021
We first published this column in November 2021 as we launched the TX Manufacturing Report. It’s highly relevant today as we launch the AZ Manufacturing Report.
We’ve learned from companies we report on that answers or solutions to production challenges often arise from, well, other manufacturers. Leave it to a manufacturer to explain why:
“A lot of this manufacturing is just like anything else,” says Mark Grubis, the founder of Durango Artisan Foods. “The essential, basic principles are the same, whether you’re making spaceships or jars of salsa. Many of the skill sets you learn are the same; people are people, products are products, manufacturing is manufacturing, finance is finance. They all operate on the same principles.”
Grubis would know. He was an aerospace engineer before launching a food co-manufacturer in the Four Corners region of Colorado.
We hope to facilitate more connections with the TX Mfg. Report, by reporting onmanufacturers that are crushing it — companies finding new ways of solving old problems or positioning for the future. In a 2017 column, I thought leading manufacturers were:
Offering employment opportunities that appeal to a Millennial workforce.
Utilizing advanced manufacturing techniques and materials, with at the same time flashing a profound connection to the craft.
Building products at the forefront of a resurgent Made in America movement.
Renewing an American commitment to reclaim industries offshored or otherwise abandoned in pursuit of low-cost labor or services or materials.
Providing primary jobs in communities in need of new employers and diversified economies, while at the same time investing in the local supply chain to build a foundation for other manufacturers and makers.
Inspired to embrace the mantle of U.S. manufacturing exceptionalism.
At the time, I thought Colorado cycle-maker Moots checked all the boxes. In 2017, very few cycling OEMs were manufacturing frames in the U.S. More are today, but if today’s shortage of cycling components or bicycles is an indication, Asian outposts still have a hammerlock on the sector.
I thought as much reading Ben Wiese’s feature today in the TX Mfg. Report on Austin’s Dor Korngold and his e-bike up-and-comer MOD BIKES. Korngold relies on an Asian ecosystem to manufacture components he designs then assembles in Texas.
We write about MOD BIKES because unless we know why entrepreneurs like Korngold outsource a key component, our supply chains here can’t fill a need. If our goal is to make more here, we need to know what to make. Or, Korngold’s supply chain will remain offshore.
Mark Grubis might pivot from aerospace to food to electric vehicles. Or a Blanco beer maker or Houston tank maker might fabricate parts that fuel an outdoor industry supply chain. (Read this week’s profiles of Real Ale Brewing and Cedarstone Industry.) We need to know.
Our goal every week is to uncover what else we need to know to drive more domestic manufacturing, by reporting on companies like yours. There are NO FEES. This is what we do.
https://mfginsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MFG-INSIDER-word-logo2.png00Bart Taylorhttps://mfginsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MFG-INSIDER-word-logo2.pngBart Taylor2021-11-15 17:36:292023-08-10 09:10:58Brewer, welder, bike-maker, and a community in the making
“OEDIT prioritized manufacturing by establishing CAMA — the Colorado Advanced Manufacturing Alliance — at a time when confidence in the Colorado Association for Manufacturing and Technology, then CAMT and now Manufacturer’s Edge, had waned. CAMA’s now an important advocate for regional manufacturing. Manufacturer’s Edge has also benefited, free from obligations of a trade association to operate true to its federal charter as a service provider to industry.”
I also thought the new association held promise to cut through the confusion around the Blueprint’s 14 Key Industries. “Advanced Manufacturing” — CAMA’s namesake — was labeled a Key Industry, even though it’s not an industry, and most Colorado manufacturers weren’t “advanced” at all, as much they aspired to be. For me, the upgrade to the Blueprint was that CAMA would build a true statewide, industry-wide, coalition of manufacturers — including low-tech producers in Colorado’s high-growth industries.
The model that made most sense to me was one in place across the U.S., then and now. CAMA would represent a cross-section of manufacturing interests as the state lobbyist for manufacturing, and from this clear mission grow and develop, much like CMTA in Sacramento, UMA in Salt Lake City, and TMA in Austin.
That didn’t happen. I’m sure that CAMA architects Ken Lund and Noel Ginsburg had good reason.
One explanation is that Chuck Berry, the influential CEO of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, was already doing it. Berry had assembled a powerful but small group of manufacturers — blue chippers like Reynolds Aluminum and Ball Corporation — in a manufacturer’s council. Whatever the reason, the model prevailed.
In my opinion, it’s not the best approach. CACI lobbies for multiple industries and sectors, on issues important to business. They do great work. But the most effective way to strengthen Colorado manufacturing and compete on a national level is to have the industry trade association working the statehouse, in a coordinated manner, around issues important to manufacturing. More, CAMA and Colorado are at a disadvantage without the alignment.
Timing may be on CAMA’s side. Chuck Berry is retiring. CACI will have a new CEO.
CAMA and OEDIT must seize the moment and work with CACI’s new leadership to effect a change that benefits both entities.
The Polis administration can also leave its mark on Colorado manufacturing with a sector “blueprint” of its own. I’m rooting for the following:
Relaunch CAMA along with the clear and exclusive mission of lobbyist for Colorado manufacturing. Require more transparency and accountability.
Establish a new Advanced Industries grant program for consumer brands including the outdoor industry. This was articulated clearly by local manufacturers to leaders of the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office in a meeting I hosted in August. In a manufacturing ecosystem of small businesses, companies are desperate for new technology and need help in acquiring it. Rama Harris’ AI grant program is so important. It should be expanded.
Update the current blueprint: Colorado’s spectacular food and food manufacturing sector is a Key Industry, fully independent of Agriculture. Outdoor Recreation is more — it’s Outdoor Industry. And what of manufacturing’s Enabling Technologies?
Embrace the cannabis sector to create a new manufacturing workforce. I’ve heard manufacturing leaders say they don’t “support marijuana.” Wishing cannabis would go away isn’t a responsible policy position. Hundreds of Colorado young people are today cannabis manufacturing employees. Let’s keep these kids in manufacturing by providing alternative industry career paths, if they choose, that leverage their experience. Manufacturing is desperate for their services. Celebrating, not vilifying, their chosen industry, is a first step.
Other ideas? Send them to me. We’ll provide the platform to showcase a wave of modern thinking around the sector.
https://mfginsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MFG-INSIDER-word-logo2.png00Bart Taylorhttps://mfginsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MFG-INSIDER-word-logo2.pngBart Taylor2021-10-31 21:05:352021-10-31 21:05:35CAMA must seize the moment and alter course to advance Colorado manufacturing
Eight years ago this fall, we launched CompanyWeek to report on Colorado’s over-performing manufacturing economy. Along the way, we added Utah and California editions of CompanyWeek Mfg. Reports.
Last week we opened a new chapter. With the launch of theTX Mfg. Report, we land in America’s most talked-about manufacturing ecosystem. A business-friendly reputation, access to labor, a rich R&D ecosystem, and a foundation of industrial acumen are combining to attract companies and entrepreneurs here. Texas assets are working like gravity to tug manufacturing companies into the state.
And people. I recently moved from Colorado to Texas.
Location matters, but then again, it doesn’t. The folks reimagining U.S. manufacturing share a bond that often transcends state lines.
Randy Bloomer thought he could build a better horse trailer. And did. Eric Wallace and his pals couldn’t stomach American beer. So he launched Left Hand Brewing and a craft beer revolution, along with others like Justin Gold, whose eponymous Justin’s Nut Butter helped change America’s staid food industry. Tony and Terry Pearce watched traditional mattress companies gouge consumers and launched Purple — from Utah.
Job shops operating in Tesla’s supply chain, like Hale Foote’s Scandic, are as transformational and agile as their OEM, as are Heather Bulk’s Special Aerospace Services and Pamela Kan’s Bishop-Wisecarver. Innovation is rampant. Entrepreneurial acumen is off the charts.
They’ve also all been featured in CompanyWeek. We write about manufacturers. And manufacturers are our readers. We’ve profiled more than 1,600 companies to date and over 15,000 comprise our region-wide readership.
We’ll profile three or four companies in every edition of the TX Mfg. Report, and do so twice a month to begin, and every week sometime in 2022. If Texas manufacturing is informed by people like Randy Bloomer, our success is guaranteed.
More, we’ll showcase manufacturers to each other across our publishing footprint, and use our SCoP supply-chain portal to connect companies with each other. Across the West. If your company can’t find a fabricator or producer across town, we may be able to help you locate one in your state, or the region. Either way, let’s keep that job in the U.S.
So buckle up and come along with us as we tell the story of Texas manufacturing through the companies and people leading it today. From California to Utah to Colorado to Texas, our reporting is showcasing the front lines of American manufacturing.
As in all our markets, if you’re a Texas-based company reading this for the first time, have your company featured — there are NO FEES. Or sponsor and advertise your brand. Manufacturers need your services.
Sew Studio
/in General/by Bart TaylorSupply-chain scramble: the race to connect you with suppliers and OEMs
/in General/by Bart TaylorU.S. manufacturing is on a roll, for multiple reasons that when combined add up to great things if you make something in America.
It also goes without saying we could make more if we were better connected. A U.S. supplier network well aligned with OEM demand will absolutely fuel domestic production.
The good news is that everyone, it seems, wants to help connect us. A new generation of networking tools and databases is coming online to help you get connected – and prosper.
The most visible effort, with backers like NAM, the National Association of Manufacturers, and NIST’s MEP system, is the CONNEX Marketplace. It’s the data engine for NAM’s national Manufacturers Marketplace, and the company is striking new data management deals with MEP state centers. In those states, like Utah, CONNEX is angling to be the single data platform that NAM and MEP state-level affiliates use. The goal is a single, searchable national database of suppliers.
It’s a formidable data vision – hundreds of thousands of company records. And that’s a good thing as far as search goes: the more the better. Need a machined part? Search the nation.
It’s also expensive — hundreds of thousands of dollars for participating MEP centers — and the model hasn’t really worked yet, or at least not met expectations. Manufacturers need to breathe life into their data and participate in the digital marketplaces. So far, they really haven’t.
Maybe Manufacturers Marketplace data will evolve into a community that it’s not today — or other platforms will, like Sustainment, a regional networking tool percolating in Oklahoma and Texas.
Sustainment’s approach is to wrap location and connectivity tools around a smaller user base (for now) with large OEMs driving the interest and participation from suppliers. It holds promise, and the focus on “local” may be a game-changer.
SCoP is the database of CompanyWeek manufacturing features — 1,600 or so company profiles. SCoP knows a lot about fewer companies. It’s a community though, where the large data platforms aren’t. New companies are added every week, and they’re connecting with each other today.
Nothing’s doing it all. Long term, a combination of services, technology and automation, and AI, will connect the sector, but more, a community will form around it — multiple communities will form around it. It has to be food at the same time it’s aerospace, and bioscience. All manufacturing is essential or none of it is.
Poke around what’s taking shape. It’s worth a trip.
Also know you’ll be asked to “own a listing,” or “enhance a listing,” or “complete this RFP” — or in our case, send info this month to be included in our Industrial Automation content.
It’s a small price to pay to crank up the engine.
Bart Taylor is founder and publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.
CompanyWeek’s Supplier Update
Supplier Update is a regional report on OEM supply-chain opportunities and featured suppliers across a dozen industries. Publishing monthly.
We seek OEM calls and suppliers listing for the January 27 issue:
Jan. 29 | Industrial Automation
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Calendar
January | Industrial & Equipment Automation
February | Food & Beverage
March | Building & Construction
April | Aerospace & Transportation
May | Consumer Products
June | Agriculture & AgTech
July | Workforce
August | Cannabis
September | Brewing & Distilling
October | Bioscience & Medical Device
Detail
CA: 16,379
CO: 4,432
TX: 11,776
UT: 4,337
Sourcing in China is entering a precarious new phase
/in General/by Bart TaylorLet’s first stipulate the two reasons why thousands of American companies source products and services in China: lower labor costs, and the expertise to build or develop products can’t be found in the U.S.
And outsource we have. Cheap labor, a sophisticated manufacturing ecosystem, and Chinese leadership that caters to the needs of American brands and manufacturers have compelled U.S. companies to invest billions of dollars every year in China’s production ecosystem, its workforce, and in its communities.
A decade ago, a move to China was an easy business decision. Today, not so much. As Harry Moser and others have pointed out, the cost difference of operating in China vs. the U.S. has moderated. And while it still can be hard to find the right mix of production capabilities and skills onshore, America’s tech-fueled manufacturing commons is improving.
Other variables complicate a China engagement. Today we care about where products engineered and designed in the U.S. are made. Offshore manufacturing is often at odds with brand promises companies make to their customers. And corporate investments in Chinese communities, against the backdrop of middle-class struggles and the hollowing out of America’s rural economies, are tougher pills to swallow.
And now a new complication threatens Chinese engagements. Consider the strident language in the 2021 Report to Congress of the U.S.-China Security Review Commission, authored by the bipartisan panel charged with reporting on China’s economy and ambitions:
“China’s strengths and the threats it presents to U.S. interests are considerable. . . . At stake in this clash of identities and sovereignty is the safety and security of the United States and its partners, friends, and allies. The CCP is a long-term, consequential, menacing adversary determined to end the economic and political freedoms that have served as the foundation for security and prosperity for billions of people.”
Today, companies evaluating a business engagement in China are faced with the prospect of partnering with a “menacing adversary.”
One outcome is that companies will now run headlong into growing calls to limit not only public sector engagements with China — the diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing seems only a start — but increasingly, business-related ties.
Robert Kuttner’s “Time to Limit U.S. investment in China” in The American Prospect provides a clue.
Kuttner notes: “Among its 15 priority recommendations, the report calls for controls on U.S. private investment in China, as well as creation of a new government authority that could review and block investments harmful to the national security. It faulted the Commerce Department for failing to perform this function as required under existing law.”
The language is precise — limits on U.S. private investment and those harmful to national security — and the implication is pretty straightforward: Investments by U.S. firms in China’s production ecosystem run counter to America’s national interest.
Companies should take note: Engagements in China may soon be filtered by discerning customers; a populist, nationalist movement in the U.S.; and government regulators. Voices in the West have been speculating that China is poised to accelerate the “decoupling” of the world’s two largest economies. There are signs today that America may lead the effort.
Revisiting U.S. options may never be more important.
Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Email him at btaylor@companyweek.com.
Suppliers and services featured in November Mfg. Reports | Search by capabilities/companies HERE>>
Contract Manufacturing:
Co-packing and product development for the food industry
Packaged foods and co-packing services
Stainless steel tanks and vessels
Hempcrete and hemp-based insulation
Jellies, jams, preserves, sauces, and co-packing
Industrial automation
Custom EMI filters and filter connectors
Diagnostic testing technology
Sewn-product development
Brewing and distilling
Original Equipment Manufacturers:
Performance headwear and apparel
Horse trailers
Dairy-free protein bars
Cornmeal and polenta
Cannabis flower, pre-rolls, elixirs, and muscle salve
Vaporizers and cannabis accessories
Mascot costumes
Custom knit fabrics
Video routers
Headwear, socks, and apparel
Honey made without bees
Electric bikes
Beer, spirits, and hard seltzers
Pick-to-light cloud display devices
Leak detection technology and related services
Orchids and bromeliads
Ready-to-drink milk tea
Visit CompanyWeek’s SCoP Supply Chain Portal>
The Year in Review: CompanyWeek’s Best Mfg. Profiles of 2021
/in General/by Bart TaylorCompanyWeek profiled more than 200 manufacturers in 2021, most of them based in the four states where we publish regular e-publications: Colorado, Utah, California, and — as of November 2021 — Texas. Of those, these 20 profiles stand out for a variety of different reasons: Some are industry leaders, others are trying to disrupt markets, and others yet are rethinking manufacturing and ignoring the status quo.
For a recap of the last 12 months in manufacturing, these stories are a great place to start.
California
Checkerspot (Berkeley)
Using algae-derived oils as the building blocks for better materials, Checkerspot aims to upend the supply chain with sustainable innovation. CEO Charles Dimmler sees a global market of manufacturers of all kinds, but the company started its own ski brand — Utah-based WNDR Alpine — to showcase the performance of its polyurethane alternative.
Read the profile (Jan. 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/checkerspot
Jacquard Inkjet Fabric Systems (Healdsburg)
The company is a leader in the market for inkjet-ready coated fabrics, supplying artists, small and mid-sized businesses, and big apparel brands. “We produce fabrics that can be printed on any inkjet printer,” President Hunter Ellis told CompanyWeek contributor Glen Martin earlier in the year. “That’s our main selling point. No specialty printers are needed.”
Read the profile (July 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/jacquard-inkjet-fabric-systems
Before the Butcher (San Diego / Irvine)
Angela Rose, CompanyWeek‘s California editor, profiled the manufacturer of plant-based protein alternatives to meat when the company was in the midst of building a new 30,000-square-foot plant in San Diego. “Once we’re up and running, we will have 20 million-plus pounds per year capacity out of that facility alone,” said founder Danny O’Malley.
Read the profile (Aug. 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/before-the-butcher
Morf3D (El Segundo)
CEO Ivan Madera has fostered the company as a production partner specializing in additive manufacturing for aerospace companies. As the industry gravitates to additive’s many features and benefits, Madera said the rising tide lifts all boats. “We continue to certify components, but we also view production as an expansion of our certification services,” he explained to CompanyWeek contributor Glen Martin. “As an industry, we need to standardize processes, and that’s not a simple thing to do by any evaluation.”
Read the profile (Oct. 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/morf3d
MeliBio (Berkeley)
The startup is working to produce honey via a fermentation process, without the help of bees. When editor Angela Rose interviewed CEO Darko Mandich, he said the company was aiming to start producing 40,000 pounds of bee-free honey daily sometime in 2022.
Bees are critical to the health of the planet, he added. “If we lose them, it will be looking like the surface of Mars. But that’s pressure for us to work as hard as possible to replace every pound of honey that’s coming from commercial beekeeping with honey that is produced using science so that wild and native bee species are not pushed back any further.”
Read the profile (Nov. 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/melibio
Texas
Bloomer Trailers (Salado)
Founder Randy Bloomer saw an opening for a better horse trailer, and went after it with gusto upon launching his eponymous manufacturer in 1998. R&D has guided the company since day one, and that has sometimes involved Bloomer getting his boots dirty. “We found this stuff out by riding in the back of a trailer, personally doing it,” said Bloomer in the interview.
Read the profile (Nov. 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/bloomer-trailers
CesiumAstro (Austin)
The company’s communications infrastructure is bringing a cellular model to satellite communications technology, with staggering results a cost that’s just 10 percent that of legacy technology. “The cost of infrastructure — everything you can imagine from cell towers to electronic equipment to antennas, everything — there’s a [metric of] dollars per bit of information,” said CEO Shey Sabripour. “I think these technologies will drastically reduce the cost.”
Read the profile (Nov. 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/cesiumastro
Real Ale Brewing Company (Blanco)
President Brad Farbstein’s career is a microcosm of the craft brewing industry. After his early days as a sales rep, he bought Real Ale in 1998 with his life savings, when annual production was around 300 barrels. Nearly a quarter-century later, the company is brewing more than 50,000 barrels a year, with plenty of room to grow: The brewhouse’s capacity is 250,000 barrels.
Read the profile (Nov. 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/real-ale-brewing-company
Colorado
Whiting Farms (Delta)
Tom Whiting launched his feather supplier for the fly-fishing industry in the late 1980s. His 27-acre ranch is now home to about 75,000 chickens at any given time, as Whiting Farms supplies about 80 percent of the feathers for dry flies.
Read the profile (Jan. 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/whiting-farms
Big Metal Additive (Denver)
As the company’s name implies, founder Slade Gardner’s company makes additive manufacturing technology that’s designed to print big metal parts — parts as big as a car — that are often better than those made with legacy processes.
From the interview: “There are some structures that casting just can’t do and welded assembly just can’t do, and a lot of these advanced design software packages and advanced design technologies, they create geometries that look more like a dinosaur skeleton than a stick-and-plate engineer’s design. Those kinds of geometries, you almost need additive manufacturing to build them.”
Read the profile (Feb. 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/big-metal-additive
StoneAge (Durango)
CEO Kerry Siggins has pushed the manufacturer of waterblast tools towards automation and the Internet of Things in a big way. Case in point: StoneAge’s Sentinel Automation Technology now runs equipment that cleans heat exchangers, with faster and better results. The company plans to integrate Sentinel into other existing tools.
Read the profile (Mar. 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/stone-age
Neota Product Solutions (Loveland)
Founder and CEO Jason Osborne has come up with an approach to metal injection molding that is competitive with CNC machining. He’s scaled up contract manufacturing as part of a turnkey operation that also helps clients with design for manufacturability and prototyping. Neota is also working to change industry perceptions about metal injection molding. “It’s a black art type of thing,” said Osborne during the interview. “We are really trying to change that stigma.”
Read the profile (Apr. 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/neota-product-solutions
MMA Design (Louisville)
President and CEO Mitch Wiens’ aerospace supplier has carved out a niche manufacturing membrane-based antennas and solar arrays for ever-smaller satellites. “Being able to put something that deploys really big but packaging it really small is enabling,” Wiens explained during the call. “Instead of launching a much larger spacecraft that we would have done in the past, we can now put a similar capability on a much smaller vehicle, which brings down cost and allows you to fit more spacecraft on a launch vehicle.”
Read the profile (April 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/mma-design
Fenceline Cider (Mancos)
Sam Perry is breathing new life into ghost orchards in Montezuma County. While Perry planted trees on his own land that should start bearing apples by the middle of the decade, Fenceline is leaning on legacy farmers for a wide range of unique apple varieties in the meantime. “We have the bins and the picking team, and we go around from orchard to orchard basically,” explained Perry.
Read the profile (May 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/fenceline-cider
Victor Guitar (Denver)
CompanyWeek contributor Gregory Daurer’s midyear profile of Edward Victor Dick’s hybrid shop/lutherie/school captures the compelling craft — and the business — of stringed instruments in detail. He’s repaired and built countless guitars and banjos, and even invented a cross between the two: the banjola.
Read the profile (July 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/victor-guitar
Gates Biomanufacturing Facility (Aurora)
Executive Director Matthew Seefeldt, Ph.D., discussed the unique model as a contract manufacturer that supports the needs of researchers and medical practitioners on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus as well as outside clients in the biopharma industry. “There’s a definite financial piece to what we do — we can’t just live off of grants, for lack of a better description,” he said during his interview with CompanyWeek. “But then at the same time, we take that capital we pull in from the external biotechnology companies to make our systems better, then use that to support early-stage development work to get more drugs into the clinic.”
Read the profile (Oct. 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/gates-biomanufacturing-facility
Utah
VORSHEER (Springville)
Three generations of the McCloud family work at “VORSHEER complex,” encompassing 18,000 square feet of space and equipped with a plasma cutter, CNC brake, and welding and wood shops. “We try to keep as much manufacturing in-house as we can for one primary reason: We can control quality,” says Steve McCloud, the company’s president.
Read the profile (May 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/vorsheer
Roundy Boots (Toquerville)
Founder and company namesake Don Roundy found his calling making cowboy boots in the mid-1970s. Nearly 50 years later, he’s crafted boots for a long list of ranch hands, wannabes, and celebrities. “It all comes down to craftsmanship,” Roundy told CompanyWeek writer Gregory Daurer. “My business makes them the quality that they used to be in the ’20s, ’30s, and ’40s.”
Read the profile (June 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/roundy-boots
Dustless Technologies (Price)
CEO Spencer Loveless strategized to control the destiny of his vacuum manufacturer’s supply chain by starting a second company, Merit3D, to 3D-print parts for Dustless products in-house. “Our game plan going forward at Dustless is to design all of our new products around additive manufacturing,” Loveless explained during the interview. “We can produce hundreds of thousands of components very quickly without the time frame, the tariffs, the molds, and everything else that comes with outsourcing.”
Read the profile (Aug. 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/dustless-technologies
Alinco Costumes (Murray)
The Allen family business is the go-to manufacturer for NBA mascots. About 70 percent of the league’s teams — including the Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz, and Denver Nuggets — outfit their mascots with Alinco’s performer-friendly products.
Read the profile (Nov. 2021): https://companyweek.com/article/alinco-costumes
Eric Peterson is editor of CompanyWeek. Contact him at epeterson@companyweek.com.
Q&A: Tim Reeser, CEO, Lightning eMotors
/in General/by Bart TaylorBrewer, welder, bike-maker, and a community in the making
/in General/by Bart TaylorWe first published this column in November 2021 as we launched the TX Manufacturing Report. It’s highly relevant today as we launch the AZ Manufacturing Report.
We’ve learned from companies we report on that answers or solutions to production challenges often arise from, well, other manufacturers. Leave it to a manufacturer to explain why:
“A lot of this manufacturing is just like anything else,” says Mark Grubis, the founder of Durango Artisan Foods. “The essential, basic principles are the same, whether you’re making spaceships or jars of salsa. Many of the skill sets you learn are the same; people are people, products are products, manufacturing is manufacturing, finance is finance. They all operate on the same principles.”
Grubis would know. He was an aerospace engineer before launching a food co-manufacturer in the Four Corners region of Colorado.
We hope to facilitate more connections with the TX Mfg. Report, by reporting on manufacturers that are crushing it — companies finding new ways of solving old problems or positioning for the future. In a 2017 column, I thought leading manufacturers were:
Offering employment opportunities that appeal to a Millennial workforce.
Utilizing advanced manufacturing techniques and materials, with at the same time flashing a profound connection to the craft.
Building products at the forefront of a resurgent Made in America movement.
Renewing an American commitment to reclaim industries offshored or otherwise abandoned in pursuit of low-cost labor or services or materials.
Providing primary jobs in communities in need of new employers and diversified economies, while at the same time investing in the local supply chain to build a foundation for other manufacturers and makers.
Inspired to embrace the mantle of U.S. manufacturing exceptionalism.
At the time, I thought Colorado cycle-maker Moots checked all the boxes. In 2017, very few cycling OEMs were manufacturing frames in the U.S. More are today, but if today’s shortage of cycling components or bicycles is an indication, Asian outposts still have a hammerlock on the sector.
I thought as much reading Ben Wiese’s feature today in the TX Mfg. Report on Austin’s Dor Korngold and his e-bike up-and-comer MOD BIKES. Korngold relies on an Asian ecosystem to manufacture components he designs then assembles in Texas.
We write about MOD BIKES because unless we know why entrepreneurs like Korngold outsource a key component, our supply chains here can’t fill a need. If our goal is to make more here, we need to know what to make. Or, Korngold’s supply chain will remain offshore.
Mark Grubis might pivot from aerospace to food to electric vehicles. Or a Blanco beer maker or Houston tank maker might fabricate parts that fuel an outdoor industry supply chain. (Read this week’s profiles of Real Ale Brewing and Cedarstone Industry.) We need to know.
Our goal every week is to uncover what else we need to know to drive more domestic manufacturing, by reporting on companies like yours. There are NO FEES. This is what we do.
Email me for more information.
Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Email him at btaylor@companyweek.com.
CAMA must seize the moment and alter course to advance Colorado manufacturing
/in General/by Bart TaylorYou could argue that CAMA — the Colorado Advanced Manufacturing Association — was kneecapped before it got started.
The association was formed just before I launched CompanyWeek in 2013. I said this in an August, 2014 column, “Change at Colorado’s OEDIT an opportunity to upgrade Hick’s Blueprint”:
“OEDIT prioritized manufacturing by establishing CAMA — the Colorado Advanced Manufacturing Alliance — at a time when confidence in the Colorado Association for Manufacturing and Technology, then CAMT and now Manufacturer’s Edge, had waned. CAMA’s now an important advocate for regional manufacturing. Manufacturer’s Edge has also benefited, free from obligations of a trade association to operate true to its federal charter as a service provider to industry.”
I also thought the new association held promise to cut through the confusion around the Blueprint’s 14 Key Industries. “Advanced Manufacturing” — CAMA’s namesake — was labeled a Key Industry, even though it’s not an industry, and most Colorado manufacturers weren’t “advanced” at all, as much they aspired to be. For me, the upgrade to the Blueprint was that CAMA would build a true statewide, industry-wide, coalition of manufacturers — including low-tech producers in Colorado’s high-growth industries.
The model that made most sense to me was one in place across the U.S., then and now. CAMA would represent a cross-section of manufacturing interests as the state lobbyist for manufacturing, and from this clear mission grow and develop, much like CMTA in Sacramento, UMA in Salt Lake City, and TMA in Austin.
That didn’t happen. I’m sure that CAMA architects Ken Lund and Noel Ginsburg had good reason.
One explanation is that Chuck Berry, the influential CEO of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, was already doing it. Berry had assembled a powerful but small group of manufacturers — blue chippers like Reynolds Aluminum and Ball Corporation — in a manufacturer’s council. Whatever the reason, the model prevailed.
In my opinion, it’s not the best approach. CACI lobbies for multiple industries and sectors, on issues important to business. They do great work. But the most effective way to strengthen Colorado manufacturing and compete on a national level is to have the industry trade association working the statehouse, in a coordinated manner, around issues important to manufacturing. More, CAMA and Colorado are at a disadvantage without the alignment.
Timing may be on CAMA’s side. Chuck Berry is retiring. CACI will have a new CEO.
CAMA and OEDIT must seize the moment and work with CACI’s new leadership to effect a change that benefits both entities.
The Polis administration can also leave its mark on Colorado manufacturing with a sector “blueprint” of its own. I’m rooting for the following:
Relaunch CAMA along with the clear and exclusive mission of lobbyist for Colorado manufacturing. Require more transparency and accountability.
Establish a new Advanced Industries grant program for consumer brands including the outdoor industry. This was articulated clearly by local manufacturers to leaders of the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office in a meeting I hosted in August. In a manufacturing ecosystem of small businesses, companies are desperate for new technology and need help in acquiring it. Rama Harris’ AI grant program is so important. It should be expanded.
Update the current blueprint: Colorado’s spectacular food and food manufacturing sector is a Key Industry, fully independent of Agriculture. Outdoor Recreation is more — it’s Outdoor Industry. And what of manufacturing’s Enabling Technologies?
Embrace the cannabis sector to create a new manufacturing workforce. I’ve heard manufacturing leaders say they don’t “support marijuana.” Wishing cannabis would go away isn’t a responsible policy position. Hundreds of Colorado young people are today cannabis manufacturing employees. Let’s keep these kids in manufacturing by providing alternative industry career paths, if they choose, that leverage their experience. Manufacturing is desperate for their services. Celebrating, not vilifying, their chosen industry, is a first step.
Other ideas? Send them to me. We’ll provide the platform to showcase a wave of modern thinking around the sector.
Bart Taylor is publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.
READ MORE on the topic from this author:
CAMA turns a corner
CAMA on SMART/FourFront: A Q&A with Tim Heaton and Karla Tartz
Colorado’s myriad trade groups compete to promote. A MFG partnership promises collaboration
Change at Colorado’s OEDIT an opportunity to upgrade Hick’s Blueprint
Stage is set for manufacturers to advance their interests
Time is now for a cohesive regional manufacturing strategy
Colorado is flunking manufacturing. Or is it?
Thinking big: CompanyWeek launches in Texas
/in General/by Bart TaylorEight years ago this fall, we launched CompanyWeek to report on Colorado’s over-performing manufacturing economy. Along the way, we added Utah and California editions of CompanyWeek Mfg. Reports.
Last week we opened a new chapter. With the launch of the TX Mfg. Report, we land in America’s most talked-about manufacturing ecosystem. A business-friendly reputation, access to labor, a rich R&D ecosystem, and a foundation of industrial acumen are combining to attract companies and entrepreneurs here. Texas assets are working like gravity to tug manufacturing companies into the state.
And people. I recently moved from Colorado to Texas.
Location matters, but then again, it doesn’t. The folks reimagining U.S. manufacturing share a bond that often transcends state lines.
Randy Bloomer thought he could build a better horse trailer. And did. Eric Wallace and his pals couldn’t stomach American beer. So he launched Left Hand Brewing and a craft beer revolution, along with others like Justin Gold, whose eponymous Justin’s Nut Butter helped change America’s staid food industry. Tony and Terry Pearce watched traditional mattress companies gouge consumers and launched Purple — from Utah.
Job shops operating in Tesla’s supply chain, like Hale Foote’s Scandic, are as transformational and agile as their OEM, as are Heather Bulk’s Special Aerospace Services and Pamela Kan’s Bishop-Wisecarver. Innovation is rampant. Entrepreneurial acumen is off the charts.
They’ve also all been featured in CompanyWeek. We write about manufacturers. And manufacturers are our readers. We’ve profiled more than 1,600 companies to date and over 15,000 comprise our region-wide readership.
We’ll profile three or four companies in every edition of the TX Mfg. Report, and do so twice a month to begin, and every week sometime in 2022. If Texas manufacturing is informed by people like Randy Bloomer, our success is guaranteed.
More, we’ll showcase manufacturers to each other across our publishing footprint, and use our SCoP supply-chain portal to connect companies with each other. Across the West. If your company can’t find a fabricator or producer across town, we may be able to help you locate one in your state, or the region. Either way, let’s keep that job in the U.S.
So buckle up and come along with us as we tell the story of Texas manufacturing through the companies and people leading it today. From California to Utah to Colorado to Texas, our reporting is showcasing the front lines of American manufacturing.
As in all our markets, if you’re a Texas-based company reading this for the first time, have your company featured — there are NO FEES. Or sponsor and advertise your brand. Manufacturers need your services.
Email me for more information.
Bart Taylor is founder and publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.
Bloomer Trailers
/in General/by Bart TaylorStitch Texas
/in General/by Bart Taylor