Building skills to be competitive

Marcia LaBelle, vice president of operations at Nameplates for Industry Inc., already sees positive results forming from an introductory lean manufacturing course employees are taking.
“They’re already looking at changing procedures, looking at waste reduction,” she said. “Every hour they had a 10-minute break, every time we came back, each had one or two things … so I know that it sunk in.”
The New Bedford manufacturer is one of five sharing a $499,923 grant awarded to the Greater New Bedford Workforce Investment Board for its Greater New Bedford Advanced Manufacturing Initiative, which aims to make the regional manufacturing sector more competitive by enhancing the work force’s technical skill set.
The grant came from an $11 million Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund created last year by the Mass. Legislature to grow the skilled work force in critical and emerging industries across the state.
The GNBWIB applied for the grant because it recognizes manufacturing as a critical industry for the greater New Bedford area, said Craig Baker, director of resource development and planning for the board.
About 16 percent of greater New Bedford jobs are in the manufacturing sector, according to the grant application. And about one-third of the state’s primary metals manufacturing reside in the region.
Many are meeting the demands of a technology-driven economy by manufacturing computer and electronic products and electrical and communications equipment. The problem is that these companies require specific skill sets that many residents in the area lack.
Only 57 percent of New Bedford students graduated from high school in 2006, according to the application. And less than 10 percent of New Bedford’s population has earned a bachelor’s degree, compared with 41.1 percent of state residents.
Mike Walther, president and CEO of New Bedford-based Precix Inc., another recipient of the grant, said there is several skill set problems in the area.
“One is do they have familiarity with lean processes,” he said. “Students emerging from high school or colleges are not well trained in these concepts.”
That’s why built into the grant are plans to train 84 potential workers from the area. The work force investment board will identify about 60 candidates from a core group of job-seekers who utilize career centers in New Bedford and Wareham, Baker said.
The job seekers will take a 25-hour training session that focus on work readiness skills, basic manufacturing concepts and communication skills for a manufacturing environment.
“What’s super exciting,” Baker added, is that 24 of those people are receiving benefits through the Mass. Department of Transitional Assistance. “These are folks that would have been classified in the past as Welfare recipients.”
The DTA people will be identified through LifeStream, an organization that provides work readiness and job placement services to DTA recipients in the region, he said.
To prepare them for work in manufacturing, the participants will receive 44 hours of training in work readiness for manufacturing and lean manufacturing concepts, Baker said. In addition, they will partake in a lean business simulation.
“They will receive certificates of completion that are recognized in the industry,” he said. “These candidates will be viewed as having the highest set of skills employers are looking for,” so there is a higher likelihood that employers will consider hiring them.
The grant will also train 550 employees in lean manufacturing specific to individual workplaces. It will also provide 45 employees with English for Speakers of Other Languages courses. And several employees will be selected for special courses in Six Sigma Green Belt Certificate training.
For those who participate in green-belt training, “their value stake goes up,” Walther said. They are more apt to be promoted.
About 80 of Precix’s 300-person work force will receive training. The company manufactures seals and O-rings for the automotive and aerospace industries.
For Precix, the most valuable aspect of the training is that the better part of of it is tailored to each individual company, Walther said.
“It deals with real situations in the individuals’ work space,” he said. “It deepens the comprehension and increases their effectiveness.”
These things are crucial for manufacturers today, he said, because “we have to work that much smarter in order to stay competitive.”
Walther said he applauds the work force investment board for its focus on strengthening companies in the area, instead of only focusing on attracting new companies to the area.
“It sends a strong message to the local business community that this is important,” he said.
For smaller companies such as Nameplates for Industry, streamlining manufacturing processes will have a big impact, LaBelle said.
The industry for nameplates used to be quality-driven, she said. Today it’s more price-driven.
“Anything we can do to reduce our cost helps us keep our price in line,” LaBelle said, adding that she hopes the lean concepts reduce the company’s costs by 2 to 10 percent.
Eleven of the company’s 50 employees are being trained through the grant.
“We’re hoping to give them leadership opportunities,” she said.
In addition to providing much of the classroom space for the training, the five manufacturers contributed $234,152 of their own money to match part of the grant.
“We try even as a small company to stay on top of what’s happening in the greater Massachusetts area,” LaBelle said. “To be competitive, you have to.” •