Making it Here: Rotor Clip and US Manufacturing

What to Do With the Skills Gap?

2012-02-23T10:50:00.000-08:00

A recent survey revealed that only 37 percent of respondents

said they would encourage their child to seek a career in

manufacturing. (Photo—Rotor Clip Press Room)

Out of all the elephants in the room that is “American Manufacturing”, perhaps the biggest one is not the economy, nor unemployment, but something that directly ties to both: the lack of skilled American workers needed to meet the demand of the new global manufacturing standard. After a full decade of outsourcing patterns as well as a university system focusing its recruitment around “knowledge jobs” in areas of finance, service and academia, most business communities in the country are discovering that even when they want to pursue labor options at home, the pool is not very impressive at all. Consider a recent study done by Manufacturing Institute. Excerpts include:

“Overall, our survey findings are remarkably consistent with previous Skills Gap studies, with 67% of respondents reporting a moderate to severe shortage of available, qualified workers and 56% anticipating the shortage to grow worse in the next three to five years. In addition, our survey indicates that 5% of current jobs at respondent manufacturers are unfilled due to a lack of qualified candidates. These results underscore the tenacity of a worsening talent shortage that threatens the future effectiveness of the U.S. manufacturing industry.” - Manufacturing Institute, 2011 Skills Gap Report.

Yowsers. That last part makes an economist want to shove a pencil in his eye. All the stimulus programs, tax cuts and incentives in the world can't really make up for the fact that if not enough people know the trade, the trade is left undone.

So, in my opinion, we're back to education. This subject surfaces in mainstream media once a year as everyone blitzes in with their input on how to fix the system, or reform the system, or throw the system away and get all you need to know from Old Fashioned Guy. Then, after we all realize that real changes to education would mean putting investment into programs and learning development that wouldn't show results for years, we realize our good ol' American instant gratification itch ain't gonna get scratched anytime soon and we move on to bashing Snooki.

But as we see here with a study like this, kicking the can down the street is having a real effect on solving multiple problems in this country right now. Manufacturing is doing better than anyone else right now, and yet it will not be able to meet its full potential not because some other country is getting unfair advantages, or because our government is squabbling. No, potential will not be met because none of us are really pushing to pass on the trades. Consider another report done by the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte on the public perception of Manufacturing:

“While Americans believe manufacturing is of vital importance to the country, they are reluctant to pursue jobs in the industry.”

-Public View on Manufacturing Report, 2011, Manufacturing Institute, Deloitte

The report goes onto show that in surveys that asked whether they would encourage their child to seek a career in manufacturing, 37 percent of respondents said “Yes”. More telling is how many respondents state that their local school system encourages its students to pursue manufacturing, 19 percent.

Now we're getting to the root of this.

Perception is always established by the previous generation, and it seems we're back to the same stigma that I've written about on here before. Only according to studies such as this, it seems the stigma has been institutionalized.

If you're asking me for solutions to this, go get me a good publisher and I'll work on a good five years of research to do so. The truth is there are tons of pathways to take. One that did interest me somewhat lies in what Korea is doing to address issues in their much-ballyhooed school system. Consider this article from Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post:

“South Korea’s government has decided that too many people are going to college. It is working to restore the luster of a high school diploma as a stopping point for some and to establish a vocational track for others.”

-Fred Hiatt, Washington Post

Obviously different cultures call for different measures, but as the article goes onto state, huge investment by families into their children learning “knowledge occupations” when trade jobs are in demand not only puts a wear on the family's income, but it also greatly diminishes the priorities that culture puts on trade jobs altogether. If this is an issue we're dealing with as a nation, perhaps the solution lies in closer cooperation between corporate communities and their local technical and vocational schools. I always thought the Army did such a good job recruiting off campuses and neighborhoods because an ROTC program has a direct result it can point to: if you do this, you will end up like that guy you see on the commercial, or saluting the President as he walks into the Rose Garden. If manufacturers can find a way to make their livelihoods more apparent and attractive as an alternative to the kinds of jobs a BA, MFA or MBA demand, they may find themselves tapping into an undiscovered demographic.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

Spider Silk Still Has Us Beat

2012-01-30T11:14:00.000-08:00

What substance has the greatest tensile strength

on the planet? Ask a spider.

Recently I wrote about UC Irvine and HTL Labs researchers’ unveiling of a new metal composed 99.9 percent of air with the capacity to absorb half its mass in force. This is just the tip of the iceberg in utilizing the fairly new wave of nanotechnology, which seems to be all the rage these days.

The promise of nanotechnology entails more than just even faster software, or turning all of us into miniature Dennis Quaids. It could also, ironically, contribute to discovering methods for stronger, denser construction materials, resulting in even bigger, longer, stronger buildings and bridges as well as armor capable of resisting the most horrific assaults imagined and unimagined.

While there are already breakthroughs out there for venture capitalists to chuck checkbooks at, the Holy Grail of micromaterial potential is, in my opinion, still the one that’s been around the longest. Longer than carbon nanotubes, longer than Dow Chemical, longer than even Mickey Rooney.

I’m talking about spider silk. That ol’mainstay of your overstuffed basement. The stuff you shriek like a girl at when you run into it. After a few hundred thousand years of mankind discovering tools, building with them, fighting each other with them, then building with them some more, then fighting each other some more, then finding oil and making each other rich, then fighting each other over oil, then discovering the internet and dropping everything to Google why they were fighting in the first place, we still have not developed a substance with as much diversity and potential as spider silk. Breaking it down, its tensile strength beats steel and rivals Kevlar (although one type made by Darwin’s bark spider is ten times tougher than what our Marines wear in battlefield scenarios). Carbon nanotubing stretches longer but is not nearly as flexible, and spider silk stays solvent in both extreme freezing and boiling temperatures.

The idea to mass produce Charlotte’s web has been kicking around for quite awhile. The problem of course is the amount of spiders one would need to compose enough silk for anything significant. Back in ’08-09, a textile research team successfully wove an 11 x 4 foot cloth derived from 80 feet worth of silk firmament. That cloth alone took roughly one million, two hundred thousand Madagascar golden orb spiders to produce. Now, despite those numbers seeming rather astronomical when applied to manufacturing and construction, I have faith the US could make something like this happen. Certainly there’s a scenario where we could sign a trade pact with Madagascar and spend billions of dollars building spider farms, raising spider colonies to maximal health and training them to spin their silk cost-efficiently through measurable certifications such as vocational school and graduate programs.

OR, we could just make it ourselves.

AMSilk is a German biopolymer company clearly devoted to the latter. They’ve already come up with a way to grow spider silk by feeding its proteins to E.coli bacteria (if that was all we needed to do I could’ve made spider silk out of my fridge years ago). Although this gets the spiders out of the way, it doesn’t quite amount to a system conducive to mass production. So they’re teaming up with Fraunhofer IAP, a company that specializes in spin processes for biopolymer materials, to put their methods on a grander scale.

It’s not like the US doesn’t have groups developing their own method of harnessing natural silk. Nexia Biotechnologies has been funding research at the University of Wyoming to derive spider silk from goat milk, and Clemson University believes they can cultivate it from plants.

This is the kind of breakthrough that merges many different kinds of imaginations. Think of how lighter bulletproof material could be. How far could we build a suspension bridge? Could cars bounce off each other when they crash? Remember, toughness and strength is only one aspect that goes into choosing materials that need to hold up over a long period time in a harsh environment. Flexibility, as any architect will tell you, is key in finding material that will last. I suppose synthetic metals and nanotubes hold their own promise, but natural substances like spider silk have another advantage; they’re confirmed as not toxic. The same can’t be said for stuff that hasn’t been around long enough for adequate testing. If you snapped your Achilles tendon in two, what would you want replacing it, material made from spider silk or a lab beaker? Yeah, me too.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

Light as a (Synthetic Micro-Latticed Metal) Feather

2012-01-20T13:08:00.000-08:00

Researchers have developed a metal that is strong yet as light as styrofoam

Southern California's “light and airy” reputation may give the perception it isn't the most industrious region in America. Of course, the perception of “light and airy” as non-industrious may have just been proven wrong altogether.

Researchers at UC Irvine, along with help from HTL Laboratories and the California Technology Institute of Technology recently announced the development of a metal (ish) material 99.9 percent composed of air and 100 times lighter than styrofoam. The project was funded by the government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

You can read the rest of the details in Product Design and Development's article. It goes onto delve into the secret of the material's light weight (a “micro-lattice” cellular makeup) as well as its intended use (battery electrodes, shock absorption).

William Carter of HTL is also quoted as saying this:

“Modern buildings, exemplified by the Eiffel Tower or the Golden Gate Bridge, are incredibly light and weight- efficient by virtue of their architecture. We are revolutionizing lightweight materials by bringing this concept to the nano and micro scales.” -William Carter, manager, HTL Labs

I'm under the suspicion this quote in particular was a juicy one to cite because of the inference that a synthetic material like this may one day be used to build future generations of skyscrapers and bridges. While the thought of how many resources a nearly-lighter-than-air building material could save global supplies, it's probably wise to keep a few things in mind:

PC World released its own take on the new material; highlighting, for one, the material's incredible compressive strength and noting that “[if] you were to squash the material more than halfway it would just rebound back into its original shape.” Okay that may be true and it's an excellent quality if we're thinking along the lines of software protection or more durable electronics. Certainly, I'd sleep safer at night knowing my smartphone had some sort of synthetic material in it to prevent my clumsy self from dropping it into permanent slumber mode. Shock absorption, however, does not translate into tensile strength, which is what we're really after here.

Yes, this stuff is lighter than carbon nanotubes, which you can read about here. But while being able to recover from high energy impact of over 50 percent is very noteworthy, nobody speaks of how this material holds up if you pull it apart with an equal amount of force (although to be fair, carbon nanotubes have the opposite problem in that they have tremendous tensile strength but buckle easily under compression). And what about its toughness? Does its strength on the nano level translate into durability with the right amount of flexibility on the macro? Moreover, just how expensive was it to make that tiny amount and is there a prayer of mass-producing it cost-efficiently?

I don't mean to rain on the ridiculously tiny, super-dense parade over here. It's just that I'd like news like this- that gets coverage from the internet to NPR to MSNBC- to come with details that bridge the gap between our ambitions and the real world just a liiiiitle more.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

Basketball Player Involuntarily Demonstrates Texas’ Cryotherapy Potential

2012-01-09T08:06:00.000-08:00

Basketball player Manny Harris gets Cryogenic therapy from

US made Cryon-X machine.

I watched Manny Harris play his rookie season as a professional basketball player last year and thought he was decent. Not exactly star material, but could definitely develop over a few years into a solid NBA player. He had a smooth stroke, pretty decent hops, couldn’t really play defense (Although who does anymore?) and was a tad bit undersized to deal with the grind at the Pro level. The Cleveland Cavaliers recently decided to part ways with Manny and sign someone else to round out the bottom of their roster. Harris will most likely bounce back with another team, and most experts usually frame getting cut as a learning lesson for young athletes.

The reason why he was cut, however, is not exactly a lesson he could have prepared for, in any reasonable way.

Apparently, Harris has been slow to recover from a severe burn on his foot he received in Cleveland’s brand new cryogenic chamber. Darren Rovell from CNBC.com explains:

“In November, Cleveland Cavaliers guard Manny Harris got into a Cryon-X machine on Nike's campus in Beaverton, Ore. When he came out, he had a nasty freezer burn on the side of his right foot…

The machine is the new age version of an ice bath and is the latest in athlete recovery methods. In just three minutes, the company that makes it, Millennium ICE, says the machine cranks the temperature inside to minus 166 degrees Fahrenheit, thus oxygenating the blood, helping to reduce fatigue and muscle soreness.

But the waiver that each athlete has to sign before getting into the stand-up tank specifically says that the briefs and socks that are worn while in the machine cannot be wet. Sources told CNBC that Harris got in with wet socks, which resulted in the freezer-type burn. It's not the first time this has happened. Sprinter Justin Gatlin also got in with the socks he had just worked out in when he entered the Cryon-X machine at ESPN's Wide World of Sports in Orlando.”

-Darren Rovell, CNBC.com, Yahoo!Sports The PostGame
Ow.
I mean, when I was a kid I fell into an icy puddle in January and ran back inside howling in pain as I felt my legs being jabbed with what must have been a thousand needles. Poor Manny Harris wore wet socks in temperatures one hundred times colder than a puddle in winter. At that point, it’s like you don’t know where the sock ends and your flesh begins. Like one big merged clump of fabric and skin meshed togeth- okay, I’ll stop with the grossness. Just watch what happens to Jeff Goldblum in the last scene of The Fly. You’ll get the idea.

Freak accidents with wet socks aside, technology like the Cryon-X is being used more and more in pro-sports. That’s because of a new method called “whole body cryotherapy” clinics are now developing. The method involves immersing a person’s whole body in a chamber cooled with liquid nitrogen at temperatures around -120 C (-220 F) for a quick three minutes; any longer and the cryogenic chamber turns into a human icicle machine. Cryotherapy specialists claim the effect causes the body to work a number of mechanisms in chemical release that boosts the immune system, oxygenates the blood and speeds up fatigue recovery. So far, the pro sporting world is buying into the hype: the Dallas Mavericks apparently used cryotherapy last season when they won the championship, as well as rugby players preparing for the World Cup.

Texas seems to be a favorite location of cryotherapy believers, as several labs and clinics who deliver the process are located there. Cryo-USA is a new company based out of Texas Sports Medicine in Dallas and seem to focus mainly on athlete recovery. Perhaps the most interesting story of development comes out of Cryo-Studio in Austin, founded by former Soviet track coach Galina Bukharina. After coaching at Texas State University, Bukharina, who was a fan of cryotherapy even when she was coaching the USSR national team, opened Cryo-Studio with her children in April of 2011. She’s been working with athletes since and she believes enough in cryogenics as physical therapy to make it her later-life legacy.

So what does the future hold? The science is very new but if it holds up, the broad application of cryogenic hardware could be very promising and lucrative. Cryotherapy chambers could come in handy anywhere fast recovery is necessary, not just in pro sports, but in the military, construction, firefighting, law enforcement and occasional baby-sitting job (because some children are literally going to drain your life energy; this should be taken as fact). The demand for keeping up with today’s fast-paced work schedule could pose the kind of opportunity for this kind of technology to be produced on a large-scale.

And it’s all thanks to Manny Harris forgetting to change his socks. Even if his career in hoops only lasts as long as Clay Aiken’s in American Idol-ing, that’s an accomplishment to hang your hat/footwear on.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

Manufacturing Gives Arkansas a Reason to Celebrate this Holiday Season

2011-12-15T10:29:00.000-08:00

New Millennium Building Systems, a maker

of steel joists, is one of several companies

adding employees to factories in Arkansas.

It hasn't been the best of times for “The Natural State.” Unemployment officially hit 8.3 percent back in August and like most Americans, its residents list the economy as the chief source of concern right now.

Look, I'm not going to sit here and profess some long-lasting bond with Arkansas. Truth is the only connection I share with the state is that I used to room with a former Razorback drop-out who never cleaned the kitchen.

However, I am very heartened to read about the local manufacturing there, which is showing some very promising signs of generating much needed jobs and revenue for the state. Some important developments:

-Unilever, maker of food, home care and personal products, announced it will spend $40 million to expand its plant based in Jonesboro, Ark, adding 125 jobs to the 400 already in place.

-After acquiring facilities from Commercial Metals in Hope, Arkansas last September, New Millennium Building Systems, which builds steel joists, has installed $4 million worth of equipment and hired 58 employees at its new location. It hopes to hire 120 more as it reaches full capacity.

-Arez LLC, an Irish-based printing ink resin company, is only a month away from completing construction of its new headquarters in Crossett, Arkansas. Announced last year, the company is expected to create 121 jobs and receive a 3 percent payroll income tax credit for its employees the first five years.

-Last month, American Railcar announced it would hire 700 workers throughout Marmaduke and Paragould, Arkansas, as well as Kennett, Missouri. The company needs more workers to construct around 1,000 completely new freight cars for the expanding natural gas industry in the region, as well as 30, 000 cars overall for the year.

-The Fed's annual “Beige Book” economic report listed Arkansas as part of the key regions where manufacturing output increased.

Okay, so even with four companies moving to set up shop and the Fed listing Arkansas as a manufacturing hot spot, we've only knocked that unemployment number down to 8.27 percent.

However, this story may be the best news yet for Arkansas:

“Four students from the University of Arkansas have launched a startup company around technology developed by University of Minnesota biochemist Simo Sarkanen that would produce biodegradable plastic shopping bags.

..."Our product will biodegrade in 150 days," says [Nhiem Cao, president and CEO of cycleWood Solutions]. "Instead of having a growing problem, the problem will gradually go away."

– Daily News, Oct. 17, 2011

A homegrown start-up that wants to stay home, is environmental friendly, and has potential to skyrocket in demand (I can literally pull off the internet hundreds of community retail businesses in the city of Los Angeles that would order something like this in a heartbeat) is a light at the end of the tunnel.

It may only be as bright as a match, and that tunnel may be the Bobby Hopper, but if it takes off, it bodes well for Arkansas's future employment opportunities.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

‘TIS THE SEASON FOR US MANUFACTURING

2011-12-08T09:01:00.000-08:00

Rotor Clip plans to export retaining rings to China.

Rotor Clip Gears up to Export; Other Companies Bring Jobs Home

It sounds like a cliché to say we should be thankful for what we have this holiday season. But it happens to be true for US manufacturing. 2011 was truly a turning point for a once beleaguered sector of our economy many saw as down for the count.

Rotor Clip, a manufacturer of retaining rings and related products (and the creator of this blog) is poised to begin exporting to China. You heard it right…exporting. It appears there is a need for a volume producer of retaining rings who can also guarantee quality. That’s where we come in and we are looking forward to shipping full container loads of our products East for a change.

Here are some other notable events that have taken place in 2011 for the US manufacturing sector:

· Ford Motor Company recently announced it will invest $128 million in a northeast Ohio assembly plant, and by 2013 medium-duty truck production will be moved here from General Escobedo, Mexico, near Monterrey. "What's a better Christmas present than hearing about this,” said Ohio Governor John Kasich. He said Ford's announcement showed a positive trend for manufacturing.—Manufacturing. Net—12/6/11

· The State of Maine is open for business and is actively rebuilding its manufacturing base. This conclusion was reached as hundreds of former millworkers in northern Penobscot County recently learned they will have mill jobs once again. The mill was resurrected through the collaborative effort of government, organized labor and business, an operation that will have a significant positive impact on Penobscot County’s regional economy--Bangor Daily News—9/26/11

· The good times for "Made in America" are just getting started, according to a new study from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). BCG predicts 2015 will be a tipping point of sorts, when global manufacturers will view the U.S. as equal to if not better-than China. According to BCG senior partner, Harold Sirkin, “We’re not saying the world's going to suddenly change and U.S. companies are going to manufacture here for shipment to China. But the U.S. will be a very important place if you're going to sell into the U.S."—Yahoo! Finance—5/13/11

· Welding supplier ESAB supplies core materials for a range of industries, and is expanding its operations in the US rather than abroad. The company has been manufacturing in China, but when it decided to replace a plant in Ohio, it settled on South Carolina rather than China-- Manufacturing Economy Daily—5/6/11

· Boathouse Sports in Philadelphia, PA got a large apparel order from the Dartmouth College Rugby team last spring. The team usually purchased its requirements from a garment factory in Asia, but the typical eight week wait was unacceptable to the team’s coach. Boathouse Sports delivered in four weeks at the same price.—Bloomberg Business Week—4/11/11

Here’s to an even more successful year in 2012 for US manufacturing!

Joe Cappello is Director of Global Marketing for Rotor Clip Company.

Mississippi Site of New Clean Energy Factory

2011-12-05T07:55:00.000-08:00

"Smart" windows by Soladigm change color to adjust to light

making it possible to cool or warm a room.

In the fight to entice green manufacturing jobs to set up shop in their corner of America, I always thought it'd be Texas that was going to give California the biggest run for its money. The race to lock down budding cleantech companies of the future was, for a pretty long time, between these two heavyweights.

And while Rick Perry and UCLA duke out how much damage the Lone Star really did in Cali job loss, the more interesting story lies in clean start-ups heading off to a state not usually noted for embracing these types of companies.

That'd be Mississippi. From Dana Hull of San Jose Mercury News:

“Soladigm [a company that makes “smart windows”] chose to locate its manufacturing in Olive Branch, Miss., after Mississippi offered an enticing package that included a $4 million grant and a $40 million long-term, low-interest loan. The upshot is that 300 manufacturing jobs are being created in Mississippi instead of California. Mississippi has also lured San Jose solar startup Stion, which will build manufacturing facilities in Hattiesburg..” - Dana Hull, Silicon Valley, Mercury News.com

(Note: The technical term for smart windows is “Electrochromic windows,” which, according to Soladigm’s web site, are so called because they change colors to reflect or absorb light when a low-voltage electrical current is applied. The ability makes it possible to cool or warm up a room and thereby save energy costs).

As Ms. Hull's article goes onto state here, Mississippi is not the only one successfully peeling off new green businesses from the Golden State, which still has a fourth of the nation's solar industry. That being said, it's pretty interesting to me that a state currently ranking 41^st in total renewable electricity generation per year just grabbed two, count 'em, two clean companies right out from under the state with the highest energy standards, as well as a clean energy public investment fund worth $30 million.

Still, I love this story for two reasons: one, a competitive public investment environment is beginning to develop around the clean industry, and two, states that weren't even on the map a couple years ago are putting enough capital behind their interest to make the frontrunners have to change their game a little. It may be annoying for California in the short run, but it could absolutely serve their clean energy policies well in the long term.

And hey, I'd rather read about jobs going from Silicon Valley to Olive Branch than from Massachusetts to Wuhan.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

It's a Start

2011-11-22T13:41:00.000-08:00

GFS expansion plans will result in 111 new jobs at its Osseo,

WI, facility in the next three years, and transfer production

here from its current Mexico plant.

Global Finishing Solutions, a company that leads the world in paint booths and industrial finishing, is not exactly a household name. Although their product is all around us and everywhere one looks, it’s perfectly understandable if you’ve never heard of them. Such is the nature of manufacturing companies in America, which have to compete for mainstream attention with the sexy ostentatiousness of software, the fleeting trend-setting of entertainment, and the addictive emotional roller-coaster of national politics.

Companies like GFS are the tiny success stories you never hear about. I don’t know why; well I know why but I don’t particularly like it. I recently told an inquiring couple at a café I wrote about American manufacturing.

“Well, you must have NOTHING to write about”, the xx chromosome part of the pair remarked. I wanted to go off on a long diatribe about all the stories of progress I read about in US manufacturing. I wanted to rant about how an ill-informed public is fed the same crap in a 24 hour news cycle about recessions and protests and the Euro and elections and no one gets access to what’s really happening in the industry that affects all of us more directly or importantly than any other

Instead I just sipped it, shrugged my shoulders and half-smiled. When you see me do this to you, know that you are Fredo, and I am giving you the kiss of death.

GFS's success story is more promising than anything else you've watched on cable news the past few months because last September it announced it was bringing jobs it sent out to its location in Mexico back to its headquarters in Osseo, Wisconsin. As the AP reports:

“Global Finishing Solutions is completing a $10 million expansion at its headquarters in Osseo (AHS'-ee-oh) that's expected to create 111 new jobs over the next three years. The addition will allow the company to move production from Monterrey, Mexico and consolidate its manufacturing operations in Osseo, where it currently employs about 270.”

– Associated Press, from Manufacturing.Net, Sept. 22, 2011.

Sure it's only a handful of jobs. And sure, Osseo, Wisconsin is not exactly the epicenter of American enterprise (although Foster Cheese Haus at the intersection of Rte. 53 and County Road, according to Yelp, comes close. Look, nothing under four stars!!) However, it doesn't seem that this is an isolated incident. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor for The Telegraph has been paying attention to US manufacturing's storm weathering and makes a pretty formidable list of stories like GPS's:

“The list of 'repatriates' is growing. Farouk Systems is bringing back assembly of hair dryers to Texas after counterfeiting problems; ET Water Systems has switched its irrigation products to California; Master Lock is returning to Milwaukee, and NCR is bringing back its ATM output to Georgia. NatLabs is coming home to Florida.”

- Evans-Pritchard, The Telegraph, Oct. 25, 2011.

Clearly, we're seeing a nation-wide trend here. And if that is the case, then the less than two thousand residents of Osseo, Wisconsin can officially consider themselves trend-setters. At least far more than any cable news company or pretentious espresso drinking couple I know.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

Kentucky College Prepares Students for Manufacturing Jobs

2011-11-10T15:09:00.000-08:00

Student participates in Machine Tool Technology program at

Gateway Community and Technical College in Florence, KY.

I’ll be honest and admit when I was ten years old and started actually thinking about what I wanted to be when I grew up, “working on a factory floor” did not come across my mind. Not at all saying other ten year olds never had the urge to work in the manufacturing industry when they grew up, but I never came across any who lived in the upper-middle class suburbs of rural Jersey (most of them just wanted to get paid to play “Madden NFL”.)

Just to be clear, I’m not jumping on the often-ridden “Kids These Days Are Lazy” bandwagon, made popular by most 50+ year-olds with two cars in the driveway and nothing to do on Sunday but devour a bag of Lay’s while laughing at Tony Romo blow 4^th and 1. I’ve seen firsthand what the next generation knows about the world, and I believe they are going to do some very, very uplifting and interesting things.

That being said, I do believe American manufacturing, while the rumors of its demise have been greatly exaggerated, does have one massive hurdle moving forward to shrug off; the pesky stigma that it’s an industry mired with lesser, plebian, “dirty” jobs.

It’s not true of course. Manufacturing is probably one of the most fulfilling, modern and sanitized professions you can find these days (I know we’re supposed to view finance in this country as somewhat high-brow but uhm, no.) Not to mention with the addition of alternative energy industries as well as new innovations in natural gas, there remains the opportunity for it to become the most consistent and dynamic way to make a living in the US.

Yet, making a living at a trade usually requires one very important step: knowing your trade. Inside and out. And while there are people out there ready and able to do this, apparently they’re not enough. This is the unfortunate and borderline absurd dilemma we face as a nation these days.

Manufacturing.Net provided a microcosm example of this a couple weeks ago in a piece about Gateway Community and Technical College’s new Manufacturing department in Florence, Kentucky. As the article states:

“The school has about 115 manufacturing technology graduates a year, but officials acknowledge that manufacturers need 300 or more.

Gateway President Ed Hughes says the school is ‘moving as fast as we can.’

Trouble finding enough trained workers has machine tool maker Mazak looking at options to expand locally and around the world.

Mike Vogt, vice president for human resources, said the lack of enough graduates has led to ‘a little bit of the frustration out there in the manufacturing community.’” – Manufacturing.Net, Oct. 10, 2011

That part about Mazak looking to expand “locally and around the world” is a cute way to avoid the dreaded O-Word, I’m guessing.

I suppose one can comment on this story in a positive light, noting that aggregate demand for manufacturing know-how is out there, meaning companies are in a hiring mood during an employment crisis. It is certainly good to know that one of the few bright spots in this economy continues to be a sector that depends on tangible, homegrown resources.

I say “borderline absurd”, however, because I honestly don’t understand how a country with the most, THE most complex and far-reaching university system in the world (sure, Cambridge and Oxford came first but they’re a little outnumbered in alumni) finds itself unable to properly utilize that system to funnel desiring minds directly, quickly and efficiently into an industry that is not only a mainstay of this country’s short history, but also “kinda, sorta” a necessary mainstay of civilization as a whole. It’s pretty simple in my book: the more talent you have in an area, the better chance your business has at being broad and successful. This is a region that for the better part of this century and the last has been home to multiple mid-size locations belonging to companies such as Hahn Automotive, Schwan’s, Sara Lee and Cincinati Machines (oh yeah, it happens to be neighbors with Cincinnati.) It’s also a region that has grown a sixth of its population since 2000, and that’s not counting the greater Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati Metropolitan Area.

And GCTC can just about muster 115 graduates for the surrounding population and manufacturing community.

Meaning about as many people that showed up to my cousin Louie’s wedding disperse every year through Northern Kentucky looking to add to a skills-starved community. No offense to Lou, he obviously knows more people than I do (I would like to point out here that I have my cousin beat in this subject on Facebook), but not enough to keep regional companies worrying about their recruitment pools.

My above opinion about the stigma of a manufacturing job is also shared in Manufacturing.Net’s article. However, I refuse to believe that with a 9% national unemployment figure, there aren’t more people out there willing to, pardon the expression, “get their hands a little dirty”. If there is, as Gateway Board Chairman Rick Jordan states it, a “pipeline issue”, perhaps the disparity lies not in how prospective students view a manufacturing job, but in how vocational schools and academia in general choose to effectively communicate what a manufacturing job entails.

Kicking Into the Wind

2011-10-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

Football season is finally here and at last I have something else to do on Sunday besides laundry (ok I haven’t done laundry in like two weeks but STILL…).

The most interesting storyline in this young season so far? Well in my opinion, that’d have to be the University of North Texas’s recent announcement that they’ll be installing three wind turbines to contribute power to the campus’s Apogee “Mean Green” Stadium. The turbines are one part of a collective strategy the college has implemented to keep the stadium relatively green and sustainable. Up until this point that meant non-toxic paints and local raw materials, but the addition of wind energy is a first. The three 121 foot turbines are expected to offset 6 percent of the campus’s energy output and generate a third of the campus’s annual 2million kilowatts average. That’s a pretty decent contribution for three wind turbines, and it got me thinking: what else could wind power in football? A few ideas:

The Jumbotron...

The Halftime Show...

Field Goal Defense...

Touchdown Pylons...

Blitzing...

Jay Cutler's pocket protection...

Jay Cutler's inevitable post game anti-social-ness...

An actual way of stopping Tom Brady...

And, of course, Brent Musberger.

Honestly, I don’t understand why we haven’t thought of these things already…progress takes patience, doesn’t it?

Enjoy the season, y’all!

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

US Tidal Power: Lunar Truce

2011-09-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

Another potential US Manufacturing enterprise takes shape

ORPC’s RiveGen power system that generates electricity

from the rise and fall of the tides.

The Moon has always been a source of misery for me. I look up at it now as I write this and all it makes me think of are lost romances, failed attempts at poetry (don’t act like you never tried either), my mother reading “Goodnight Moon” in a not-so-subtle way of getting me to go to bed, or just morbid thoughts of lifelessness in general. I mean, it’s a dead rock floating in the air, I get it. It glows. “Wooo”. It’s still a piece of rock. Why am I supposed to be so fascinated?

Recently, Ocean Renewable Power Co. (ORPC) announced plans to install what would be the US’s first tidal-powered turbine that lies in the grid. The turbine, called the TidGen power system, would be placed deep in the waters of Cobscook Bay, near Eastport, Maine. The turbine is a Tidal Energy Converter (TEC), mounted turbines that extract energy through the power of Earth’s tidal system, which of course revolves around the gravity of the Moon’s orbit.

NOW, you’re starting to interest me, Moon.

Tidal power is almost non-existent in the US, yet it is a powerful and extraordinarily consistent method of generating electricity through renewable energy. Because it relies on tidal patterns, it’s more reliable than wind and solar energy, where abundance of either can vary daily due to weather shifts. Once they’re installed, they cost next to nothing to maintain as well. Unfortunately, the downsides to tidal power have stopped serious investment in its tracks: it poses several environmental risks, needs ideal conditions in underwater locations and costs a boatload of initial capital to establish (one proposed tidal plant for the UK would amount to $15 BILLION altogether. Music to Congress’s ears, n’est ce pas?)

However, recent innovations in technology, specifically the advent of cross flow turbines, have proven that tidal power can generate more energy at a lower cost than previously thought. Apparently other countries have already concluded the resource is worth investment. Right now, according to Renewable Energy Development (Renewableenergydev.com), there are seven major tidal energy projects underway in Canada, the UK, New Zealand and Korea. These tidal grids are projected to harness energy from 1 to 300 MW worth of electricity.

Now compare that to ORPC’s initial model, which is slated to produce a whopping 60 kilowatts, enough to power 50 homes. Clearly, the US is not exactly enjoying a comfortable lead in creating a tidal power grid, but it’s a step in the right direction both for this new technology and our quest to establish more US manufacturing jobs. ORPC’s president and CEO said it best:

“This isn't theory because we're actually doing it. We have equipment in the water, so it's a fact. We think this is a highly desirable new industry for the state of Maine-Chris Sauer, CEO and President, ORPC

So here’s what I am willing to do, personally, as my part for the American tidal power industry and the country as a whole: I am willing to forego my grudge with the Moon. I’ll visit my local observatory, I’ll read more Greek mythology; I’ll even howl late at night (like my college days).

While it has its risks, tidal power is a potential manufacturing opportunity that can pay off in the long-term.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

Profile: 350Green and the Future of American EV Networks

2011-09-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

350 Green works with municipalities to develop charging

networks for electric vehicles in their areas.

Charging station infrastructure demands can lead to US Manufacturing jobs

Recently I wrote about the lack of a national charging infrastructure being a key obstacle to more widespread interest in use of EV’s like the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf. Private companies like Walgreen’s and Ikea are taking the first necessary steps to make this happen, planning to build Level Two charging station operations on the premises of their stores. This is a much-needed step in the right direction, but it’s also a drop in the bucket when you compare it to just how much of an “American highway system” there is, and how many stations need to be in proximity if we’re all going be able to stay on the road with lightning in our respective fuel tanks.

In order to get a better gauge on how all this can feasibly happen, I decided to interview 350Green (you can learn all about them on their website, 350green.com) , a company founded in Washington DC in 2006 and now based in San Diego, California that develops charging networks in urban areas all around the country. If you’re looking for who’s “on the floor” of the transition from gas stations to electric-based recharge centers, it doesn’t get any better than these guys. Mariana G, a spokesperson for the company, answered my questions:

Me- “-I am particularly interested in who you work with in both the manufacturing of
EV chargers as well as the installation. Do you do this on your own or do you
facilitate between other companies? And if so, who?”

Mariana- “We are equipment agnostic and work with several manufacturers. We always bring and install the best equipment that is available on the market. We’ve been installing [from] AeroVironment and will be announcing other manufacturers shortly.”

Me- -“Where is the equipment usually made? Do you import the parts and then
assemble them here?”

Mariana-“Most of our contracts require [parts and products] to be made in America. We work with manufacturers that have the ability to manufacture in US.”

Me- “Do you see charging infrastructure and its need for EVs
to thrive as potential for job growth in construction or some other industry,
like retail (considering what Walgreen has just announced)?”

Mariana-Infrastructure will definitely spur [growth] in the job market, 350Green is hiring installers, engineers and managers. Our retail partners, subcontractors and suppliers are hiring as well. The job demand goes further than just the EV industry, and reaches solar, steel, copper, software and many other industries.

Me- “Are there any ways in which the typical urban/suburban landscape will adapt in
reaction to charging infrastructure that may not have been anticipated in design
and research stages?”

Mariana- There are many theories out there on how the market will adjust to infrastructure. I would imagine one of the hypotheses will eventually prove right. I doubt our crystal ball is better than everyone else's, so we keep a close tab on the pulse of the consumers and will react to whatever [the] market dictates.

That last part is what we’re all skittish about. For all the presumptions and hope that this kind of infrastructure makeover will trickle down (up?) to other sectors and industries unseen, they’re just that: unseen. But all the pieces for a growing industry that will create economic opportunity seem to be there with 350Green: they’re part of several supply chains, specialize in areas with a massive number of potential consumers, work with many different industry sectors like construction and engineering, and the best part: most of their contracts are homegrown. This is a system that’s truly localized. Hopefully, companies like 350Green keep improving their networking systems and we wind up reaping the benefits in the near future. It sure sounds like they’re onto something!

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

Ronpack Bags Louisiana

2011-09-08T08:39:00.000-07:00

Ronpak makes a variety of bags from paper to foil including the cookie

bags pictuired above, all 100% Made in the USA.

Its Commitment to US manufacturing continues as it opens its new factory

Ronpak, a bag company based in South Plainfield, NJ, is expanding its operations to the Port of Shreveport-Bossier in Louisiana, according to their press report released July 28^th. The company specializes in bags used in tons of major industries, from liquor stores to hospitals, and you’ve no doubt unwittingly used their product when buying a pack of Wrigley’s at the grocery store or a box of munchkins at Dunkin’ Donuts (I have so many of those particular boxes strewn on the floor of my car I could pass as one of their warehouses.) This will be their third plant, having another one all the way out in Mira Loma, CA, giving them more of a license to the title of a true “national” company.

That’s important for them when taking into account the part of their mission statement that includes, “We are responsible to our employees, the men and women who work with us throughout the United States…We are responsible to the communities in which we live and work and to the world community as well.”

So details on the expansion into Bayou country: Ronpak will receive a $3.55 million grant, contingent on performance standards, to buy equipment and set up payroll. Hiring begins in September, and they’re banking on a labor force of 175 jobs, while construction on the new plant plans to finish in early 2012, a fairly speedy set-up process so it appears RonpaK is ready to hit the ground (or bog) running.

I love these guys for two reasons. First, they make it a point to mention that all of their bags are made from reusable or recycled products. Secondly, Ron Sedley, the company owner, chose Louisiana out of three other states in a site selection competition. No location outside of the country was considered, keeping Ronpak true to their mission statement. Of course, Louisiana’s promise of tax rebates for job creation and state-supported training maaaay have played into that, but I’m still giving them a thumbs-up. Post-Katrina Louisiana needs more of these stories, and a manufacturing company that can now truly call itself “multi-regional” is good news for us all.

So get a move on with those bags, PSB, LA! Because I am now craving an extra powdered-chocolate frosting-filled donut, and without you guys I’m going to look like a disaster area before I even bring it to the car.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company, Inc.

What Mainstream Media Could Learn From A Doctor Visit

2011-08-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

THE HEART WITH NO BEAT—Researchers
have developed a heart that circulates blood
without the typical heart biorhythm.

Like most Americans, I don’t work too hard for my news. I flip through the channel cycle on my flatscreen like three times and consider that a satisfactory exploration of the daily information spectrum. Four times and I’m an expert. Five? I could be God’s gift to Columbia’s School of Journalism.

Of course, the downside to this method of getting my news is that it’s chock full of personality sources; people who throw broad statements about important issues in this country without- y’know- “knowing what they’re talking about”? There are those who insist the US’s biggest problem is that it “doesn’t make anything anymore”, and then enough people on the air and in periodicals take their lead and before you know it, perception has become reality: we don’t make anything anymore.

Outside of the hundreds of companies who may want to refute that, America’s medical manufacturing community has the biggest case against this “news”. According to the Federal Reserve, industrial production of medical equipment and supplies has doubled since 1990 in a steady incline that makes a graph-plotter’s job mighty easy. Not only is the sector churning out products that are used in medical communities around the world, but it’s developing technology and devices that receive little media attention yet are rivaling iPhones and video games in innovation, ingenuity and invention. And are, or most likely will be made right here. Some highlights:

-An artificial heart developed by Doctors Billy Hunt and Bud Frasier, both of the Texas Heart Institute, that has no beat. The device consists of two centrifugal tubes with a rotor in each one, steadily pumping blood at a more fluid rate than previous artificial hearts but without trying to mimic the heart’s biorhythm. The heart is currently working its way through experimental volunteers and has shown no signs of failure.

-A new bioglass material developed by Missouri State University and licensed by the Mo-Sci Corporation of Rolla, Missouri that is used to treat unhealed wounds. The material’s use of boron instead of silicate glasses as used in previous products has been proven to cause wounds left unhealed for three years to repair themselves in a matter of months (Phelps County Regional Medical Center).

-A prototype-invented by a team of researchers at the University of Maryland- of a “brain cap” that produces motion with thoughts, making it a very real possibility that soon paraplegics or amputees will be able to move prosthetic limbs by simply thinking.

I confess I’ve been one of those 24 hour cable news cycle-fueled zombies who bought into this trending group-think about US manufacturing not making anything of value anymore. It’s easy to fall into that mindset when so many foreign-made products are immediate and right in front of us, with shiny buttons and logos to constantly draw our attention (do I really have to name examples here? I do? Okay, you phone, your car, your clothes) while, as Professor Mark J. Perry says in his economic blog, Carpe Diem:

“You probably won't see or notice a ‘Made in the USA’ label on a heart pump or a lot of other high-tech medical equipment manufactured in America like MRI machines, CT Scans or X-ray equipment, but they are all part of America's thriving and growing high-tech manufacturing sector.” (Prof. Perry, June 13, 2011)

Here’s hoping more of us try to look through the cracks between cable news pundits and Chicken Little headlines to see the realities of manufacturing sectors like these. The heartbeat of mass media is certainly in full effect these days, but the real news is underneath.

And apparently, has no beat at all.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company, Inc.

Delphi’s EV Wireless Charging Tech Ripe for Practical Innovations

2011-08-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

Delphi's wireless charging system features no cord, and
is ease to use

Previously, I wrote about the need for US manufacturing to concentrate on products and technology that were broader in implementation and had innovation needs that weren’t so specialized so that more people from across the economic spectrum could be recruited. Delphi recently debuted what I believe to be a spot-on example of this in its wireless EV recharging system. In a nutshell:

A wireless charging system eliminates the need for a charging cord. Drivers can simply park their electric vehicle over a wireless energy source situated on the garage floor or embedded in a paved parking spot. Other wireless charging systems under development make use of traditional inductive charging, the same technology used in electric toothbrushes, which is based on principles first proposed in the mid-nineteenth century. These systems only work over a limited distance range, require precise accurate parking alignment and can be very large and heavy, making them impractical for widespread use on electric vehicles.

"The Delphi Wireless Charging System offers more practical and flexible installation than traditional inductive systems because it uses highly resonant magnetic coupling, a modern technology that safely and efficiently transfers power over significantly larger distances and can adapt to natural misalignment often associated with vehicle positioning during parking," – Randy Sumner, director of global hybrid development, Delphi Packard Electrical/Electronic Architecture.

The implications of this are pretty exciting…and kind of making the little hairs on my arms and neck…..okay and back, I have a hairy back….stop laughing.

I mean, not only has Delphi completely jumped over the dilemma of having no national electric charging infrastructure- an issue frequent travelers using the Chevy Volt find themselves dealing with-not only did they do it using a more sophisticated version of the inductive charging we use for camera batteries and toothbrushes(!), not only is this a potential game-changer in making electric vehicles FYYYnally more economically viable without government assistance in the form of tax incentives- but this is something that can still be IMPROVED upon.

Forgetting the potential prosperity in manufacturing the systems and then installing them in every American garage or driveway (or the possibility of construction and utility job growth if urban areas want to install them on roads), there’s lots of room to make the initial designs even better. The chart may look nice, but there’s clearly going to be on-the-ground issues of driver accuracy, as well as wear-and-tear for the actual magnet plates. Not just on the surface but also the one under the car. I mean, how many times do you hear that THUNK-A-THUNK sound as some unknown object/animal rolls under your car while you’re doing 65 on the highway (because you never go over 65 mph. And you slow down at the yellow light instead of speed up)? What is that going to do to the magnetic plate under there that has to have a perfect surface for optimal energy absorption?

These are just a few possible monkey wrenches I can think of off the top of my head; just imagine what qualified workers can discover as the logistics of this technology begin to unfold.

As we see more leaps being made in energy and resource shifting for manufacturing- and trust me, we will- the nation’s slow-but-necessary makeover of its infrastructure and energy grid are going to reveal opportunities like this for both the recently unemployed and the next generation of employment to get on board in the transition. That’s enough to get anybody’s hairy back in a tizzy.

PLEASE stop laughing….

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company, Inc.

O is for “O-Rings, “Opportunity”..umm “Octopus”

2011-08-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

“… when it comes to US manufacturing, I see this as a golden opportunity.”

Photomicrograph of green algae. The airline industry is testing fuel made from this substance to save energy costs and reduce emissions.

When the first American commercial flight using algae biofuel took off a couple years ago, the results were very promising. The fuel had the same energy output and a lower freezing point.

Of course the flight wasn’t completely relying on the jatropha-derived bio-fuel; more like a 50-50 mix with petroleum…….in one engine…..for two hours…..yaaay….but still….

Bio-engineering algae so that it produces the same energy output as petroleum-based fuel without being so expensive is a stop-gap issue, and is being addressed right now. If there was more funding, it would have been solved before Lost had ended. Airline companies stand to benefit the most from this resource, as its light weight alone could make substantial cuts in its travel budgets.

So why don’t they cough up the cash?

According to Jennifer Holmgren, a chemist for UOP of Honeywell, algae fuel is apparently missing a key ingredient:

“… jet fuel from petroleum contains so-called aromatics—hydrocarbon rings—that interact with the seals in current engines, helping swell them shut. "We don't make aromatics through the vegetable oil route," she says. "If we wanted to fly on 100 percent [biofuels], there are issues around O-rings and things like that."- Jennifer Holmgren to David Biello, Scientific American, Dec. 30, 2008.

So the engine sealing design isn’t structurally compatible with the- and I believe I’m using the terminology here- “little green plant stuff what makes the energy go boom”, right?

Now, there are tons of other issues surrounding bio-fuels in general right now. Shell recently ditched their division because it proved too costly to mass-produce. However, when it comes to manufacturing, I see this as a golden opportunity. O-rings are already being improved through the use of nanotechnology. With a mondo investment in R & D, there’s no reason why the standard airline engine can’t be modified so that it’s less dependent on fuel to assist in sealing.

If that happens, not only would airline companies have a cheap source of fuel to power their jets, the manufacturing industry would have a new engine to build and refit planes with immediately (with the amount of money airlines could save on this fuel, they wouldn’t want to waste time). Presto. New stuff to make, new jobs needed to make them!
Sure those are tons of steps to take. But the ethanol industry in Brazil has been taking those steps for almost the whole decade now. They had to spend capital and make a public/private coordination to convert their engines to handle E85, and they’re booming right now. A similar effort could be done here with algae biofuel instead.

Contrary to what people like to say these days, I don’t think we should be looking for “the next big thing” to jumpstart our country’s economic identity. I see more added improvements and innovations to things that already exist and are, in some cases, pretty little.

Like an O-ring.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company, Inc.

Manufacturers See “Green” Benefits, American Consumers See “Idol”

2011-07-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

(Editor’s Note: Rotor Clip blog contributors, Don Thoms-Cappello and John Hardee, have very different views of the environmental agenda as it applies to business.

Don TC thinks consumers should be urging companies to do more to push the “green” agenda.

John Hardee thinks the movement is nothing more than a misguided series of government mandates.

Read the next two blog entries as our verbal pundits square off on the subject. Be sure to weigh in with your comments as well.)

A recent study by IFS North America polled manufacturing professionals about what specifically is driving their companies to explore options in the green industry, the majority of them listed “management directive” first and foremost. After that, “social responsibility”. Third on the list? “Customer demand”, with 50% saying customers were generating interest and advocacy.

At the same time, Fox’s American Idol finale generated a 6.2 on the Nielsen Rating scale, which means that 95% of its 18-48 adult viewers have continued to faithfully stay tuned to the show.

So despite all the hubbub and hoopla about the green movement being grassroots, the majority of management, at least in this study, believe interest for green initiatives is primarily generated in-house…. and more Americans are consistent in their television watching than they are in advocating the green movement.

Now why is this bugging me? Half of manufacturing officials in this kind of poll saying they feel outside pressure from their customer base is nothing to sneeze at. Half is solid.

Half, however, is not a mandate. Half will not move the business world into action right now. Half won’t win you a music contract off a reality show, either.

With a stumbling recovery, a bloated unemployment rate and a US government hampered by tough decisions like “how to break the 14^th amendment in a way that scores political points”, the last interest group left that has any hope of changing the American manufacturing landscape quickly in an environmentally conscious way is the consumer base.

And to be honest, they’re (we’re) missing a golden opportunity right now. Studies like this prove there is a business community out there that is truly open to exploring the clean tech landscape. Most execs look at the numbers and know green conversion in their products, services and operations are going to save money in the long run. The problem, as always, is that when every dollar is so directly tied to a business’s actions, the safer choice is always to lean towards status quo. Not to mention, the bigger the company, the harder it is to change at all. Consequently, big innovations need to be prodded and pushed by the outside world more than anything. Business needs to see bags of letters dropped on the boardroom table, a la Mister Smith Goes to Washington, in order to rally every department (and scare shareholders into going along with the inevitable price fluctuations when a company changes course.)

Hell, with the “innernet” you don’t even have to write a letter anymore (although I’m of the conviction it makes more of an impression than ever these days.) All I’m saying, Consumer Joe Shmoe (and I mean “shmoe” with the utmost respect) is that you literally have the keys to a prosperous future for our country at your fingertips. Instead of using them to vote for that kid on the TV with the golden pipes, how about using them to push for the future to get here faster? Call your favorite auto company and ask how they’re currently planning to top the Prius or the Volt. Go to your local business center and ask the guys in the big building what they’re doing to convert to a carbon-neutral operation, and if they’re using other local companies to do so. If you want to play hardball, call your local congressman (or the intern who will most likely answer) and let them know your vote is heavily influenced by tax incentives to local manufacturing companies who adopt and incorporate energy alternatives.

An active customer breeds a smarter business. Trust me, Simon Caldwell would agree.

(And yes, I’m aware he’s not on the show anymore.)

(….And no, I will not watch Glee with you afterwards. If I want to relive high school, I’ll dust off my copy of Beastie Boys’ Ill Communications and hit up the fro-yo stand at the mall, thank you very much…)

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company, Inc.

A Toast: To CFCs, SUVs, DDT, GHGs, and Everything Else the EPA Wants DOA, ASAP. OK?

2011-07-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

I feel it necessary to begin by stating that I share my colleague's opinion on two points: It is the individual's responsibility to make their wants known and to be more proactive with whatever entity--be it business or government--able to effect those desired changes; and American's are not very interested in pushing the green movement forward. Although, regarding this last point, only statistics can prove if it's because they're sedated by trite entertainments or because they haven't fallen for the green lobby's promises of unicorn-infested utopia.

The problem with the green movement is that it isn't an individualistic grass-roots movement; it's legislated mandates fraught with burdensome restrictions and financial punishments designed to either bankrupt the worst offenders or force them into Cap-and-Trade schemes, whereby they may continue to be naughty but must pay for the privilege. It's an economy based on Chicken-Little-hysterics, radical ideology, and government subsidies, rather than one driven by the free-market.

It is understandable that "management directive" tops the list as the greater motivator of green conversion amongst the companies responding to the survey. They would be the ones receiving all of the notices from Washington that they had better make the switch before stricter and stricter regulations force their companies to face financial consequences. However, what sorts of things should the Greens be asking them to do?

Switch to those energy-efficient CFL bulbs?

Aside from containing enough mercury to pollute 528 gallons of water, they are so potentially dangerous that they require an eleven-step process to clean safely if broken; among which is a recommended "airing-out" of one's home to remove any airborne toxins. A broken incandescent bulb requires just three steps: Tell the kids to stand back; sweep it up; and throw it out

Plugging into a wind farm grid?

Windmills are only as reliable as the weather: which is to say, "Not very." When factoring in the noise pollution and dead birds, even environmentalists have a love-hate relationship with the unsightly fans.
The government subsidies [$23 per MWh for wind versus $0.50 for coal] needed to create and sustain this unproved industry have resulted in higher utility bills in states where renewable-energy mandates exist.

"The Institute for Energy Research has found electricity prices are almost 40 percent higher in states with mandates (in New York they are double) and although mandates may not be the only reason, they clearly contribute. In New Mexico in 2010 consumers were fighting a 21.2 percent increase in electric rates as a result of a 2009 law that set renewable mandates at 10 percent for 2011 (and 15 percent by 2015). In Montana the legislature is already considering repealing its mandate after a study by the American Tradition Institute and the Montana Policy Institute found Montana’s mandate would cause the loss of 1,874 jobs by 2015 and cost an additional $225 million in electricity bills for consumers." (Link)

And, as for asking automotive companies how they plan to top the Prius or Volt?

Shouldn't be hard, with Prius topping the 2011 Car Complaint Index and a little issue with Volts only reaching the promised 40 miles per charge under ideal circumstances--ideal circumstances being that it is neither too hot nor too cold. Who knew batteries could be so fickle?

So, as we look to the various green options offered Joe Shmoe, we find that he is not wasting an opportunity to make his wishes known. He is making his wishes known; it's just that the green lobby is too blinded by smug to see them.

John Hardee is a Marketing Commuincations Specialist for Rotor Clip Company, Inc.

PROPOSED GAS MILEAGE STANDARDS ACHIEVABLE

2011-07-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

New fuel standards currently under discussion will bring

challenges to our automotive industry that we can meet.

The Obama administration has been pushing a rather ambitious gas mileage standard on the automotive industry of roughly 56 miles per gallon by 2025.(NYT July 3, 2011). This has far reaching implications on the way automobile components and assemblies will be manufactured to meet any new mileage requirements.

For example, Rotor Clip has long contended that our line of retaining rings is an ideal way to reduce fastener costs by eliminating multiple fastening systems and costly shaft/housing preparation. In fact, auto makers are generally in agreement that they and their suppliers could similarly do the things necessary to meet a reasonable mileage standard.

The more pressing question is what effect will the new requirements have on the overall cost of the vehicle? The consensus among industry observers is that the resulting vehicle will be smaller and come with a much higher price tag, two factors that may turn off consumers.

Still, let’s not second guess American manufacturing's ingenuity to make components that will ultimately reduce the weight of vehicles along with our dependence on foreign sources of energy. Here are four good examples of manufacturing breakthroughs right here in America:

Steel—Inventor Gary Cola recently devised a process of heat treating steel that makes it 7 % stronger than martensitic high-strength steels. Once perfected, Cola believes this steel would enable automotive companies to build frames 30% thinner and lighter than conventional ones (Design Daily, Friday, June 10, 2011).
Batteries—MIT researchers are in the middle of a 3 year program launched in 2010 to develop a lightweight battery for hybrid vehicles. They have come up with a unique prototype battery that they believe already meets these requirements. The scientists are also looking to develop the battery so that it could be “refueled,” like changing a car’s oil thus enabling it to function like a brand new one.
Ceramics—Manufacturers are even testing lightweight engines made from ceramics. Engine blocks made of these materials have been produced but costs so far have been high and unlikely to be easily mass produced for today’s modern automobile. There’s much work to be done, but it’s a sure bet that research will continue in this critical area.
At Rotor Clip we are always expanding our R&D efforts to experiment with new, exotic materials that deliver the required performance at lower weights and overall costs.

Regardless of where one stands politically on the issue, I’m certain of one thing: US manufacturing will step up to the challenge for the benefit of our economy and our environment.

Craig Slass is Co-President/Owner of Rotor Clip Company, Inc.

CEO BOOK OFFERS DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON GOVERNMENT/BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP

2011-07-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

Author and CEO Andrew Liveris stresses the need for our

government to come to the aid of US manufacturing.

“If you picked (this book) up thinking this was another long complaint by another CEO who wants nothing more than for government to back off... then I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed.” So begins Andrew Liveris, CEO of Dow Chemical Corporation, in his treatise on the importance of US manufacturing and the role government should play in its revival, entitled, “ Make It In America: The Case for Re-Inventing the Economy.”

As CEO of one of the largest corporations in the world, Liveris uses his book as a platform for re-defining the roles of government and business in addressing the needs of the US economy. He believes that in certain key areas, “…we actually need more government, not less,” striking a chord for government to become more involved as a mutual partner in the effort to strengthen our economy in the wake of a rising global competitiveness.

He does bring the usual complaints against government: too much regulation, a burdensome and a costly corporate tax rate that encourages companies to locate off shore. But he rejects the idea that governments should butt out and let markets alone set the course for our economy. By their very nature, markets aren’t always wise in building solid economic foundations. According to Liveris, “…thorough, long-range, strategic thinking…is the responsibility of government. Only governments can create the kind of framework that will move markets to respond.”

He makes a strong case for the importance of manufacturing to our society and why there needs to be a healthy presence of manufacturing in our country. Service jobs alone can’t deliver the volume of jobs necessary to keep Americans employed. Liveris notes that in the 1950’s manufacturing made up 28% of GDP; today that number is just 11.5%, with over 42,000 factories having closed their doors in the last 10 years.

The toll on employment doesn’t stop with the loss of manufacturing jobs only. Rather, Liveris reports to a ripple effect, quoting an analysis from the Manufacturing Institute: “…every dollar in final sales of manufactured products supports $1.40 in output from other sectors of the economy.” These are reportedly high paying jobs that we lose every time we move a plant offshore.

Liveris presents convincing examples of how governments in other countries are supporting their industries in ways that are anathema to American capitalist sensibilities. The German government vigorously pursued a private sector initiative in renewable energy, passing the Renewable Energies Act in 2000. According to Liveris this created a “feed-in tariff,” which paid individuals and corporations four times the market rate for selling renewable energy back into the grid. The results created an entire industry with over one million jobs and an export business in renewables that accounts for more than half of the installed solar panels in the world.

China

also entered the renewable energy race by mandating that 70 percent of all the equipment used in Chinese wind energy projects come from domestic manufacturing. That government sponsorship was eventually lifted as foreign countries cried foul accusing the Chinese of over protecting their market. But by the then their domestic industry was firmly established and it was Chinese manufacturing companies who reaped the benefits of their governments’ actions. The Chinese government also provided an upfront subsidy of $3 per watt for solar projects.

Amazon’s extremely successful Kindle was a product of research and development conducted by the company and its partners in Silicon Valley. According to Liveris, the key to the products feasibility was the special ink process made by only one company, E Ink, in Massachusetts. Yet, when it came to producing the unit, there was no viable place to do so in America. Taiwan got the call and Prime View was selected as the manufacturer. The company decided it could shorten the time to produce the Kindle if it had the special ink process at its facility. So it purchased E Ink virtually taking over all production of a product that could have (and should have) been made in America.

The choice for Liveris is simple: we either choose to get into the game and counter foreign government intervention in their respective markets or be sentenced to following our own rules, “no matter how outmoded and outmatched those rules may be.”

Liveris’ book is intriguing and daring in that it doesn’t fall back on the same worn out arguments about big bad government and an accepted view of the demise of American Manufacturing. He speaks as a businessman in favor of entrepreneurship and in the power of capitalism to foster our way of life.

“But I do not agree with those in the business community,” he concludes, “who think that our future success depends on government shriveling up and dying on the vine.”

Check out Andrew Liveris' book

Joe Cappello is Director of Global Marketing for Rotor Clip Company, Inc.

New GE Power Plant Combines Utility and Renewables

2011-07-06T13:25:00.000-07:00

Future power plants may well feature wind and solar power

additions.

I give a lot of grief to my friend Andy for sinking all the money he’s saved these past few years into buying a Prius. Yes, I’m one of those who likes to characterize consumers like Andy who invest in hybrid technology as, for wont of a more graceful label, “suckers”. As in “You’re a sucker for buying that thing because something more energy-efficient that doesn’t rely on gas nearly as much is only a few years away.” Of course, the thought only occurs to me while I’m riding with Andy in said Prius, and so his usual response to my rant is to come to a screeching halt, and suggest I ride the bus.

The truth is we can look down on bridge technology as temporary, trendy or ripe for monetary manipulation all we want, but it is absolutely necessary if we have any hope of keeping energy production on pace with American population growth (which, by the way, is accelerating faster than any other first-world country’s.) This not only means merging clean technology with our everyday surroundings like cars and roofs. No, we need to think deeper, closer to resources; more at the heart of the matter.

Oh snap, someone already has:

“Utilities are eyeing adding solar as a power source for conventional plants. Augmenting natural-gas-fired power plants with cells that capture the sun’s heat can boost a generating station’s total efficiency and increase its peak capacity.By using the plant’s existing infrastructure…steam turbines, transmission lines…they can produce renewable energy 30% cheaper than stand-alone solar installations.”

Kiplinger Letter, June 24, 2011

Of course, utility companies make a lot of hubbub these days over integrating clean tech but not exactly stepping up to the plate in any real scenario, right? Eyeing potential hybrid power sources is not exactly shelling out the investment to manufacture one, and we don’t see anyone doing that anytime soon, right?

Oh, double-snap, someone already did:

“General Electric Co. (GE) said its new turbine designed to pair gas and renewable-power generation was chosen by Turkey’s MetCap Energy Investments

for the first combination solar-natural gas plant.

The site will use technology from closely held eSolar Inc., wind and the “FlexEfficiency” gas turbine GE announced last week. The combination will be able to operate at a fuel- efficiency rate of more than 70 percent, greater than the rate of 61 percent for the combined-cycle turbine alone, GE said. It also makes solar more cost-efficient.”

Bloomburg.com, June 7, 2011

That’s the Gee-to-the-E putting its money where the collective advocacy’s mouth is and adding solar AND wind technology to a 530 Mw power plant in Karaman, Turkey.

Now, this move has “publicity” written all over it, and the folks at depletedcranium.com take a well-deserved gut-punch at how this project is being advertised to the general public here. But even though I do agree with them that the solar-wind augmentations are “window dressing” at best, I have to take issue with their assertion that “A bridge to renewable energy is a bridge to nowhere.” Sure, there are hurdles in attaining profit in alternative energy. And sure, if there’s no dependability on that alternative energy, GE is basically dipping half of a pinkie toe in the water. But the fact that wind turbines and a solar tower are anywhere near a natural gas plant shows a willingness to create a template for different energy sources being constructed simultaneously. That alone is huge. Solar and wind may not be profitable now; but as more and more companies drive the costs of manufacturing down with each investment, they will be. Having technology embedded in the construction process instead of added later makes it easier to augment when (not if) these sources become profitable. It’s also important not to underestimate the value of a company like GE holding a vested interest in multiple energy resources. It means less of a possibility that company will choose one over the other sooner rather than later.

Bridge technology is messy and its temporary status is frustrating, but a company like GE putting capital into it can never be overlooked. They’re taking the first steps to something bigger. Let’s hope others follow suit instead of standing still.

Like I am….waiting for the downtown line….sorry Andy.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company, Inc.

US MANUFACTURING SET TO MODIFY THE TIME/DISTANCE EQUATION

2011-06-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

Transportation has always been taken for granted.

I recently re-united with an old flame who happens to live on the other side of the country. When I returned to my end of the Earth the inevitable cooling of passions happened and she started complaining that I wasn’t “making myself more available for her”. I think I replied, “I’ll try to do better,” but I said it in a tone that made it sound more like because I live on the other side of the country, lady! We are literally battling space-time curvature just to bounce signals off a couple satellites to talk between two plastic-silicon rectangles! Seriously!

Distance has cooled the public passions of US manufacturing as well, thanks (or no thanks, depending on where you are on that space-timeline) to consequences of the global economy. It seems jobs and plants have been eking farther and farther away from the American consumer for decades. Now we get the news that American manufacturing companies… “such as Caterpillar, NCR and Wham-O….have either repatriated some manufacturing operations or are planning new operations in the US.” (Manufacturing Economy Daily- July 6, 2011)

It’s not just the big boys like Caterpillar either. In a recent survey done by the global consulting firm Accenture, 61% of manufacturing respondents said they were highly considering moving supply location to demand location. What’s clear is that with worldwide shifts in the perception of traditional energy resources come shifts in profitable manufacturing methods. Off-shoring was the name of the game for the latter part of last century. Ironically, with institutions like the IMF throwing around the “End of the American Century” title these days (Apparently they predicted our century to end for 2016. I had no idea we owned a century. Thank you, IMF for giving CNN a new Anderson Cooper-prime-time-segment-title), the end of “our” century may just mean a re-shoring of US manufacturing assets and operations, which can only mean an overall, more healthy American economy.

Of course this won’t happen overnight. And there are concerns that may stall these trends. In the same survey, 74% of respondents cited labor costs as their chief worry to relocate stateside. Another 67% said proximity to the customer, and 64% cited lack of skilled workers. Yes, these are issues, but the issues are evolving as we speak. The discrepancy between labor pay here and in other superpower countries like China is already shrinking. Software companies will be the first to tell you that being closer to the customer almost always results in a more informed customer, which means products are scrutinized and made more efficient. Finally, American skill and innovation can be found in America’s ace up its sleeve; its closely nurtured university-private sector relationship. A relationship that, with President Obama’s latest pledge to supply manufacturing with campus department information and programs, will only grow more over the next few years.

Bottom line: when things get unpredictable, businesses simplify, and a simple distance is the logical move for these unpredictable times.

(Unless, of course, you happen to be a certain girl on the other side of the country, who constantly drinks frappacinos and thinks Justin Bieber is a legitimate musician. No. No he is not. What did I ever see in her, anyway?)

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company, Inc.

CAN GOVERNMENT BE PART OF THE SOLUTION?

2011-06-20T13:43:00.000-07:00

The U.S. government is an easy target: it taxes too much, spends too much and wastes too much. As businesses like Rotor Clip strive to compete in a global marketplace, it’s tempting to find fault with our government for the undue burden it sometimes places on us through its tax and regulation policies.

But the constant vilifying of our government as the only source of our problems has gotten old. It has become a focus of our frustrations and hatreds that have only succeeded in spawning a venomous kind of rhetoric that grows more poisonous with each passing day.

I’m all for free speech, but while we’re busy taking our government to task for real (or imagined) trampling of our corporate and individual rights, other countries are utilizing their governments to gain a leg up on the competition. Here are some examples of how they’re using that clout:

Several years ago, the government of Germany offered every individual and corporate entity a generous subsidy for every kilowatt of energy fed back into the power grid. This spawned enormous investment in solar energy. As a result, the Germans developed advanced photovoltaic technology surpassing the Japanese as the world’s leading exporter of these products. Also, it is estimated that over 1 million jobs were created as a result of the government’s action. (Source--Make It In America: The Case for Re-Inventing the Economy, Andrew N. Liveris)
The Chinese decided to promote the wind power industry in an effort to meet that country’s future energy needs. As part of the effort, the Chinese government mandated that 70% of all parts used for production of wind turbines come from domestic companies. There were cries of foul from foreign companies and after two years the government relented and lifted the rule. But in that period of time, the country’s domestic suppliers to the wind power industry were well established and ahead of foreign competition. (Source--Make It In America: The Case for Re-Inventing the Economy, Andrew N. Liveris)
The government of Argentina is pursuing foreign food processors like Cargill and ADM for tax evasion. It doesn’t appear to be an attempt to nationalize this industry; rather, it seems that the government is putting pressure on foreign companies and is “interested in having local businessmen in certain sectors it considers crucial.” (Source--Bloomberg Businessweek—April 18-April 24, 2011)
Walt Disney recently opened a resort in Shanghai, China. Despite owning a 43 percent stake in the 963 acre resort, it is sharing ownership with three other state owned companies. (Source--Bloomberg Businessweek—April 18-April 24, 2011)
Japan’s ruling Democratic Party has pledged to increase dramatically the role the Japanese government plays in promoting Japanese companies’ interests overseas. To that end it is assisting Japanese companies with developing a port in North Vietnam and is also considering a major airport project to serve the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City. (Source--Financial Times, March 3, 2011)

It’s time for a government and business partnership to start solving problems and promoting a worldwide, pro-business agenda that looks out for our interests around the world.

Joe Cappello is Director of Global Marketing for Rotor Clip Company.

CLEAN ENERGY INVESTMENT UP 21%

2011-06-15T15:58:00.000-07:00

I recently heard Sugar Ray Leonard being interviewed on the radio and thought of his classic fight with Tommy Hearns. Leonard’s quick movement and death-by-a-thousand-cuts style always seemed to be more fun to root for over the kind of style used by The Hitman: powerful focused jabs that came out one-by-one and weren’t pretty but landed like slabs of concrete. In fact, it was the predictable effectiveness of those jabs that ironically made Hearns so un-rootable. Leonard, on the other hand, made victory seem overwhelmingly entertaining. Where was he gonna' hit next? What punch was coming out? The possibilities were endless.

As clean energy gets a 21% increase in venture capital investment this quarter, a trend that only looks to accelerate in the short and long-term future, it’s clear one reason why the market is so hot is the possibilities. Like watching Sugar Ray, no one has any idea what’s coming next. Wind, solar, battery, hydroelectric and geothermal alternatives are all having their day in the pardon-the-expression-“sun,” with everything from retaining rings to specialized hardware rounding out a new and growing supply chain. Exxon is even experimenting with drawing energy from algae tanks in Northern California. Just one of these resources getting the attention of VC firms, Google, and US manufacturing giants like Ford would be considered a sign that the business world is on the cusp of change; all of them drawing this much investment at the same time means it already has changed.

And yet, is it such a good thing to have all these scattered options? If we rely on the same old resources, in fifteen years the world will have a 40% gap between demand and supply. Tommy Hearns was predictable and boring, but also mighty effective at getting the job done. No frills, no complex strategies. Just a feint, counter-step, and then a big ole’ punch. If investment firms collaborated, looked at the most profitable method of clean energy harvesting (right now that looks like wind turbines, which have a capacity factor of 30-40%, far more than solar’s 12-15% and more convenient than hydroelectricity) and decided to throw one massive, Tommy Hearns-hook-super-investment into that method, we would absolutely be able to meet the world’s energy demands and boost manufacturing before 2030.

Then again, Sugar Ray was fun to watch, wasn’t he?

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company, Inc.

SERVICE VS. MANUFACTURING JOBS: OVERCOMING THE PERCEPTION BARRIER

2011-06-13T12:59:00.000-07:00

It’s no secret that the food and service industry is doing quite well these days. A twenty-something fresh from moving into his or her first apartment finds a favorite restaurant or café down the corner (as opposed to the local

manufacturer who may not be so easy to locate) and quickly realizes it’s the most immediate option for steady income. Grocery chains like Trader Joe’s and Gelson’s have caught on to Starbucks’ recruiting middle-class youth for employment with the trump card of benefits and health plans and have used it successfully.

With short and flexible hours available, I could pull a morning barista shift at the nearby hipster café (where they charge five dollars for the labor of pouring the froth just so it makes a little heart in your espresso), get out at noon, have a few hours to enjoy myself with the finer things in life like Twitter or World of Warcraft, and then wrap up the evening with a night shift bartending at my local Fuddruckers. If all goes well, I could come home with two hundred dollars total in tips alone for the day.

Yes, service provides the fuel to immediate income and a flexible, stable lifestyle Of course, being in my second decade, I don’t really know what “stability” is. If I did, I’d never look at having two jobs in the service business as stable. In fact, back when the American economy was supposedly all hunky-dory in 2006, the Food Sector still had a 56.4% turnover rate. In a job market that depends on the average consumer having a little extra cash to spend on a night out or an extra bottle of wine, there’s no such thing as “job security”, especially now. Not only that, most service jobs require all employees to be up close and personal with the customer. Most people know how to carry a tray, many can deduce a 20% tip, but there are precious few of us out there who know how to deal with our fellow man when he’s hungry, impatient, and demanding to know why there isn’t a line of busboys continuously refilling his bread basket.

Manufacturing, on the other hand, doesn’t demand as much on the diplomatic side and while it may get a bad rap these days by pundits and comedians, no other industry has been able to sustain its productivity so consistently. Unlike food and services which is seasonal in its customer base, there’s always a relatively high demand for durable goods like computers, automated devices or engine parts year-round. Good luck trying to sell all that authentic European gelato when winter comes rolling in, or selling out the beer in the middle of July when hockey and basketball are over, football is in camp and baseball is…well…baseball. And those tips I brought home? Well I better pray I keep running into generous people and that I never get in a bad mood at work, because that extra income is masking my minimum wage-to $10 an hour rate. Yes, no one tips a factory worker for making sure their air purifier lasts as long as advertised, but making a decent rate plus benefits, he’s not exactly calling them to make sure they had no trouble opening the box either.

After expressing so much passion about alternative energy, I asked the barista at my local café why he didn’t quit his job making liquid cocaine for the rush hour and go work in a solar panel plant outside of LA. He laughed and said “I dunno. This job sucks, but it’s better than being a slave in some gulag lifting [lazy expletive] all day.” I suspect this is the only barrier the manufacturing sector needs to break down to get those potential employees; the perception barrier. The Obama generation is inclusive and collaborative, yet ironically seems to view factories as crude Cold War relics, where everyone wears gray jumpsuits and solemnly carries massive hunks of steel parts while vats of liquid iron boil all around them. “Labor isn’t my ‘thing’, man” my barista continued, “I’m really an idea person”. Wonderful! I explained to him two-thirds of the research and development in this country stems from the manufacturing sector. Innovation? Improving on what came before you? That’s what makes the industry go. “Honestly”, I raised my eyebrow at him, “how much can you really improve the act of running hot water through espresso grinds?”

This is where a job in making durable goods will always beat out the lure of the quick-fix service gig. It appeals to a different, but self-affirming life priority; developing and honing a personal craft. It’s an instinct we’ve had since the days of Homo Erectus, to find a task in this world and do it better and longer than anyone else. Part of what made Henry Ford’s little experiment so successful was not just the amount of people who took pride in owning an automobile, but also the amount who took pride in making one. A lasting product that not only made you and your bosses money, but seemed to move the world into the next age of man. Maybe a job in services allows for more World of Warcraft, but the sooner a young adult gets into manufacturing, the sooner a craftsman enters the world.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company, Inc.