Maybe There is a Future for Manufacturing

“Geoff Forester photograph, courtesy of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund”.

We’ve had a busy two weeks of visitors at Graphicast. Not from customers or potential customers, but from students. A class from our local high school is learning about career opportunities, soft and hard skills required for success in the workplace, and taking part in internships to gain some experience. I first visited their classroom to talk about all the different skills that are required to run a manufacturing company. The next day, they came by for their plant tour. This was the first chance for most of them to see an operating factory. They had no idea what was taking place within a few blocks of their school. As one student said, “This was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be”.

The second group was from a college industrial design class. This was the sixth or seventh year that this class has toured our plant. We’re part of the materials and manufacturing processes section of their training. and I’m always pleased to see so many students going into this area.

With all the negative news about manufacturing, much of it misleading or exaggerated, we manufacturers need to take every opportunity we have to bring community and educational groups into our operations and let them  know about the many positive things manufacturing still represents in this country.