Manufacturers Newsletter

July 2017

Your One Source Newsletter For All Things Manufacturing...Current and Future!!!

Making The Workforce Great

Again!

With our June meeting on training grants, an earlier regional consortia meeting focused on training, our advanced summit last month, the President signing a new Apprenticeship Act and a host of other state and local initiatives we thought a primer on as much as we can find on what's out there and how to access it might be useful. However, we're smart enough to know that we don't know everything so this article is intended to be interactive. That is if you're an employer looking to hire and find something here is missing, confusing or misleading we want to know. If you are a provider or supplier of workers or in the taring sector and find shortfalls in this, again we want to know. Depending on comments and feedback maybe this will wind up being a consolidated resource or forum for making the workforce great again. One thing for sure, we

ALL need to get involved in this to get better and sustain this. It took us years to get in this position; there is not an overnight fix. We all need to be in it for the long haul. All comments gratefully accepted just email us here. Continue to primer

Upcoming!!!

Mark your calendars. We're trying to look ahead a bit.

August 17 Half Day Seminar. 8-Noon. Topic: Quality: A Culture That Pays Off! Check flier for details.
October 5 Annual Manufacturers Dinner. Never too early to make plans for this one. Great speaker lined up. Check flier.
October 7 Third Annual Manufacturers Month Fun Run for Charity. Join with Mastercut Tool and support scholarships to grow our regional workforce. Check out the flier. Sponsors needed and welcomed!
NO JULY MEETING. TIME TO HIT THE BEACHES!

Leveraging Grants To Hire

Our June meeting focused on the use of Incumbent Worker (IWT) and Employed Worker Training (EWT) Grants to develop your workforce. We did this with a focus on the practical aspects of this process through an open discussion involving both users and providers. Let's just say the discussion was lively and various aspects from the national to local level seem to be adding even more options (and complexity from the user viewpoint) leading us to try and put together some kind of primer on this to help us maximize the opportunities. As far as IWT and EWT the consensus was that both can be very useful and the application and approval process is easy enough. However, the devil is in the implementation details...read more...also info on how to in lead article.

Growing Our Workforce

This issue has been dedicated to the resources we have in our region to grow our skilled workforce, various grants and incentives to assist, and how to access them. This section contains even more information on what's happening statewide, nationally and within national manufacturing organizations to build and sustain momentum. The biggest news of course is President Trump's signing Apprenticeship legislation. We've already had some questions on how we leverage that. We are in contact with our local Congressional offices but lots of actions need to be put in place for implementation so stay tuned. Keep current on the breaking news here and pick you place. Includes getting ready for Manufacturing Day

A Picture of US Manufacturing

Came across this excellent infographic of US manufacturing state by state. Cycle through it and it also has additional data to drill into. It reflects the strength of Florida (and Utah) in medical equipment and supplies. Florida also shows strength in Aerospace Parts and Production as well as Printing and related support activities. However, Florida is not in the top 20 states in any given product line. From another angle, hiring was up in 9 states last month while jobless rates continue to fall. Florida led the pack adding nearly 30,000 jobs last month, the most of any state, followed by New York with nearly 28,000 and North Carolina with almost 19,000. Now we need to continue to work on our regional manufacturing canvas.

Lost In Space

Southern Manufacturing Technologies is stealthily involved in some interesting projects. Take a look at this article on Raytheon's developmental Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV). The EKV is based on years of developing expertise and is designed to destroy incoming ballistic missiles by kinetic force - that is a direct collision as opposed to an external explosion. Well SMT has a role in this, they make the Valve Bodies that are part of the cooling system. Now, wonder how it fared in its first high speed collision. Can you just imagine the technology involved in tracking and colliding with a speeding bullet in outer space?

We Do Round Tuits

Have anything that nags you routinely in you r operation but doesn't q uite get up the priority scale to make it go away permanently? Stuff that may cross some management lines and isn't quite worth the battle? These are irritants you never get around to. No more excuses, we're here to take them on. A great one is us of IWT and EWT grants to offset training costs. The next round of applications starts July 1. Contact Patrick Baymont for more information.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm????

Trump and his crew continue to make news. Dropping out of the Paris Accords had no impact on business. Meanwhile, China, Turkey, Germany and Samsung are all planning to open factories in the US. And, we're selectively working on trade agreements. Other things worth a quick check that you don't hear about it on TV. Click here.

Time Savers

Here are links to additional information on various important topics

COMMUNITY CALENDAR and NEWSLETTERS Click Title to Access

With the help of Becky Burton, BAMA, we're trying to pull together a single calendar of all regional manufacturing events to include BAMA, UTBMA, and professional associations like SME, APICS, NTMA, etc. Access the calendar here. If you you would like to input your organizational calendar contact Becky Burton or Jerry Custin.
One Voice - great national level insights on a variety of hot topics from NTMA and PMA Advocacy Clips...
this is a must browse

July 1 First National Reshoring Award
July 2 Manufacturing Settles Into Solid Pace of Expansion
July 3 Trump Brings Skills Gap Debate To The Fore

White Papers...you either lead, follow or get run over. Some excellent white papers on challenges, opportunities and solutions. Don't forget, we can help when you want to get a Round Tuit. Click here....

Jobs Corner and Marketplace

Hiring

Assembler. Medical, surgical, photonics

Seeking

Marketplace

Association Update

We appreciate those of you that have joined either the Upper Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce or the Florida Suncoast Manufacturers Association. We request that you consider formal membership at this point. We are attaching a brochure outlining the service activities we provide as well as an application form. We appreciate your consideration and support and look forward to advancing the cause of manufacturing in the Upper Tampa Bay in 2017 and beyond!

Manufacturers Association Resource Guide

At the roundtable we heard many comments along the lines of 'I didn't know that', 'I wish I would have know that' and how do find out about that'. So we have developed a resource guide which will have a permanent spot on this newsletter to try and help out. This is a 'work in progress' so any suggestions on making it more robust and useful are welcome. Access the guide by clicking here.

Issue: 7