Manufacturers eager to break down stereotypes

A NEW DAY: Robot technician Stacey Weeden assembles electronics in Yushin America’s robot-assembly bay. The company will host tours for Manufacturing Day. / COURTESY JESSICA VARONE
A NEW DAY: Robot technician Stacey Weeden assembles electronics in Yushin America’s robot-assembly bay. The company will host tours for Manufacturing Day. / COURTESY JESSICA VARONE

Dan Shedd, president of custom-packaging design studio Taylor Box in Warren, is eager to hire workers who are ready to apply themselves in a challenging, well-equipped environment – a place not always associated with manufacturing.
“The classic impression of manufacturing is somewhere between the dark ages of child labor and unlit factories and Henry Ford’s production line and the old textile mills of New England,” Shedd said. “The stereotype was poor pay, unsafe working conditions and uninteresting, redundant work.”
Advanced manufacturing today is “the antithesis of that,” he said. “What you find is really highly varied work assignments, above-average compensation opportunities and well-lit, very safe, modern facilities. The workplace is less hierarchical and [there’s] more team problem solving than there ever was in the past.”
Shedd is not alone in wanting to erase those old stereotypes. He is one of several firms and schools participating in Rhode Island’s celebration of a national event targeted for Oct. 3 dubbed Manufacturing Day. In Rhode Island that series of tours and virtual “field trips” has expanded into a week of 14 events, beginning on Sept. 29.
Spearheaded by the Rhode Island Manufacturing Association, whose planned event is targeted for Oct. 1, many offered by individual manufacturers or schools to the public, chiefly educators, students and parents, are set for Oct. 3. Other events are scattered through most of the week, and the list at www.mfgday.com/events?country=US&state=RI#filter is constantly being updated.
According to RIMA Executive Director Bill McCourt, last year was the first time Rhode Island participated, in a much more limited way.
RIMA is affiliated with the National Association for Manufacturers, which is the national host, and is working with the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which includes MEP Polaris in Rhode Island, and the Fabricators & Manufacturers’ Association International, McCourt said. The national event has been in place for more than five years, he said. “Manufacturing Day is one day, but the national guidelines say not everybody can do everything on the same day,” McCourt said. “In Rhode Island, we’re making it ‘Manufacturing Week.’ ”
One of the manufacturers who participated last year and is involved again with 30-minute tours set for Oct. 3 from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at company headquarters is Yushin America Inc. of Cranston. Raising awareness of the value of the industry, particularly for new, young employees, is the primary goal of the national and state initiative, said McCourt and Jessica Varone, Yushin’s marketing coordinator.
“You can only learn so much in the classroom through book work,” Varone said, when asked why the company would be inviting in students, who, as at other facilities, must be accompanied by parents. “Hands-on learning and seeing what a real-life company looks like will help put students in a better position to be prepared when they decide to enter the workforce and their first job or internship.”
Concern about the skills gap that exists for advanced-manufacturing workers is not a new message, McCourt and Shedd said.
Yet, although McCourt said this is not typically a day to come bearing a job application or resume, Shedd noted that as far as his company is concerned, that would be acceptable, since such effort shows initiative. With 45 employees, Taylor Box has no entry-level openings but does have two vacancies for technicians, Shedd said.
“We have two important audiences,” Shedd said. “One is prospective employees and influencers of potential employees. We’re talking about young people in career training looking for a future in advanced manufacturing. Influencers are educators and parents. The message is: there are real career opportunities perhaps not understood or appreciated due to a systemic lack of understanding and awareness.”
The other audience includes policymakers, elected officials and government administrators, he said.
Advanced manufacturing provides workers an opportunity to earn more than minimum wage at the outset, said Shedd and Karen Paolucci, Yushin’s human resources manager. “We do a little speech,” she said, regarding what happens during their 30-minute tours. “‘Education is important. This could be the future for you.’ ”
So far, schools hosting events include the Community College of Rhode Island, the University of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island School of Design. URI’s audience on Oct. 2 is targeted at bringing manufacturing-business owners and managers in to see its engineering labs, said Katharine Hazard Flynn, executive director of URI’s Business Engagement Center.
“It’s an opportunity for companies to come here and learn more about what is going on in our engineering programs specifically,” said Flynn. “In our engineering program, the demand for these students is quite large.”
Voters in November will consider a $125 million bond request that would be used to update URI’s College of Engineering, she said. Dean Raymond Wright will be on hand to answer questions and guide a tour of five labs, she added.
“That’s the other reason to have all these companies on campus: for them to see the need for these facilities,” she said.
At CCRI, which has two new certificate programs for Computer Numerical Control, or CNC manufacturing, a 5,000-square-foot lab has new lathes, grinders and 3-D printers “that we’re very excited about sharing with the public,” said Peter Woodberry, CCRI’s dean of business, science and technology.
“We’re going to try and target career and tech people and veterans,” Woodberry said. “We just really want to get the word out about what a wonderful state resource this is and have people learn more about our programs and how we’re working together to help students make choices to go into manufacturing.”
The idea is to convey to students that there are “viable jobs” and to employers that there’s “valuable talent,” said Woodberry, adding that it takes time and effort to “get that [message] out.”
The virtual field trip, one of several national events included in Rhode Island, is being hosted by Alcoa and Discovery Education of Davenport, Iowa. •

No posts to display