Changing Gears

Manufacturing has been at the center of the Midwest’s long-term decline, shedding some 8 million jobs over the past three decades. More recently, it has been at the forefront of the region’s economic recovery.

In October, manufacturing was the leading sector in the Midwest Economy Index, which measures economic activity in the region. It was, in fact, the only sector to make a positive contribution to the index, produced monthly by the Chicago Fed.

Changing Gears reporters Kate Davidson and Dan Bobkoff examined the current state of manufacturing in the Midwest recently for American Public Media’s Marketplace. They found that today’s successful Midwest manufacturers look “more like startups than smokestacks.”

In the first of two parts, Bobkoff profiles Cleveland-based Thogus Products, a once-traditional manufacturer that made money through mass production. Now it’s producing specialized orders and creating prototypes, services that are harder to accomplish from China.

“I don’t consider us a manufacturing company,” Thogus owner Matt Hlavin said. “We’re a technology and services company.”

In the second piece, Davidson examines “lights-out machining,” the practice of programming milling machines to continue running long after workers have left for the day. There aren’t statistics that quantify how many manufacturers utilize the practice, but industry experts see a growing trend.

“There’s really an explosion of lights-out machining in the small-and-medium-sized manufacturers,” says Debbie Holton with the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. “They’re using this to compensate for the fact that they’re having trouble finding skilled workers. They need to get more from less, and they’re increasing their productivity with this technology.”