May 2008 Edition

THE LAST WORD

All is Not Lost

Contrary to what the media says, manufacturing is still alive and well in America

We have been told by the media for many years now that manufacturing is going away in America. As a large manufacturer, we were beginning to think we were alone. I must have been listening to the naysayers for too long, for it is not so. Everything is not going to China. I have done some careful research on where our components come from, and these companies are proof that manufacturing is alive and well.

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit one of our suppliers in Northern California. It is a foundry – the kind of place that makes and pours iron. They are doing well even despite the fact that they are in the middle of a large city – Oakland, CA.

The foundry makes a lot of pipe using up-to-date automated equipment. Consider a sand-casting line where no one touches the sand until they pull the finished pipe casting out of the broken-up molds.

That same day, we visited a smaller foundry that was making some aluminum casting for us. It was not quite as automated, but it survived because of its efficiency. Both of these companies are key players in keeping manufacturing working in this country. We rely on them, as do many other companies, for what they provide.

Outsourcing is Bad for the Environment

Consider for a moment what was necessary for these companies to survive what we all know is a tough manufacturing environment. The regulatory environment in California does not make that any easier, but – let’s be specific here – that does not make it impossible to manufacture in the state. As is always the case, the efficiency of an operation will ultimately decide whether it survives or not. It is also important to keep aware that the regulations under which we operate are – mostly – those that the people want. We want to live in a clean state and to have jobs within it.

The iron foundry used a cupola to melt scrap iron. It uses coke fuel as a heat source. Electric heating might result in less CO₂ generation, remember that a large part of the electricity we use today comes from burning coal. If a foundry, such as this one, were to move to China, they would still be using the same fuel source while they would certainly not be meeting the U.S. emissions standards.

Automation Doesn’t Mean Unemployment

Our company builds industrial machinery in Oxnard, CA. It is not one of the lowest-cost locations in California in which to operate, but we still can attract and keep the proper mix of people to design and build machinery. What has helped us to survive in this competitive world, like what helped the foundries we were visiting, is automation. In our case, it is automation added to our machine shop where CNC machines already dominate. We are now adding robot-arm loading and unloading to as many of our machines as we can.

But, some would say that adding automation or robots would be against the best interest of the workers. The truth is that while we are doing more, we still are using the same number of people. We are presently shipping about the same number of CNC machines per month as there are people working here – a number approaching 1,300. We work to keep a good relationship with all of our employees and we think that they understand and appreciate what we do for them. We certainly understand and appreciate what they do for us – they keep us in business.

Kurt Zierhut is director of electrical engineering at Haas Automation and has been with the company since 1987

What do you think?
Let us know by e-mail from our website at www.ModernApplicationsNews.com
or e-mail the editor at pnofel@nelsonpub.com.