0820_AUG Comstock's Magazine 0820 August | Page 42

ECONOMY
MANUFACTURING
California
Manufacturers
Are Innovating
for the Pandemic
by Lance Hastings
As we continue to navigate the coronavirus
pandemic, California manufacturers
have done what they can to remain operational,
while introducing strict physical
distancing and health protocols in their
facilities. California’s 1.3 million manufacturing
workers have helped keep our
state’s economy afloat. While other sectors
lost large portions of their job base,
the state’s manufacturers have sustained
only 9 percent losses so far.
For the last century, California’s
manufacturers have trailblazed, modified
and innovated operations to help get
this country through crises, including
wars, the Great Depression and Great
Recession, creating opportunities of
advancement in extremely difficult times
along the way.
This pandemic is no different,
revealing how manufacturers can
pivot and innovate quickly to make the
products we need, keeping our critical
supply chain going and producing safety
gear to support the entire state economy.
Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, CEO of
Instrumental, wrote in Forbes that the
country’s manufacturing sector will experience
five years’ worth of innovation
in the next 18 months.
Take for example, Sacramento-based
Interstate Plastics’ story of reinvention
and resiliency. The company was
Lance Hastings is the president of California
Manufacturers & Technology Association,
which works to improve and enhance a strong
business climate for California’s 30,000 manufacturing,
processing and technologybased
companies. Before joining CMTA in
2018, Hastings held several leadership roles at
MillerCoors for more than 15 years.
mostly a raw-materials producer before
COVID-19, but it leveraged its limited
fabrication capabilities to produce new
products in demand. Now it is filling
orders for partitions, desk shields,
drink-dispenser shields, face shields
and other types of personal protective
equipment for retail businesses and
workplaces. The demand has ballooned
since California’s phased reopening, but
it was not long ago, as unprecedented
quarantine rules went into effect, that the
company’s future looked murky.
“I met with all our employees in our
warehouse, and everyone was concerned
whether we were essential or not, and
whether we would stay open,” says
Mark Courtright, president of Interstate
Plastics. “So we didn’t know what impact
it would have for us, but we were concerned.
But then, suddenly, we started
getting inquiries, putting up shields for
the grocery store chains, and that just
kind of kicked off the entire thing.”
Nobody told Interstate Plastics, “Hey,
there’s this crisis. Can you pivot your
operations?” The company volunteered
— and it certainly made business sense to
do so and stay resilient in difficult times.
Producing the products we need
Californians must navigate new guidelines
to ensure the health of our employees
and the public. To that end, the
California Manufacturers & Technology
Association recently announced, in partnership
with Gov. Gavin Newsom, the
Governor’s Office of Emergency Services,
and Governor’s Office of Business and
Economic Development (GO-Biz), a new
protective-gear initiative called Safely
Making California. The portal is set up so
industry sectors can connect with regional
manufacturers of PPE and purchase
and receive products quickly.
Public health guidelines require
some form of PPE for all industry sectors.
We know the challenge many have faced
in acquiring protective gear. At the same
time, hundreds of manufacturers in California
are ready to produce and supply
those sectors, and it’s imperative that we
work to connect the supply side with the
demand side regionally.
The marketplace is in its early
stages and will expand in the coming
months through a partnership with Intel,
which has donated services to help
the portal evolve into an even more
dynamic exchange.
Developing a workforce
Before the pandemic hit, California manufacturing
was long struggling with skills
development in our industry, which was
seeing technical advancements and innovation
at breakneck speed. This coupled
with a “silver tsunami” — workers of the
baby boomer generation retiring in large
numbers — continues to hit our sector
harder than most, leading to a deep gap
in our skilled workforce.
We must address this with our policymakers
in the Capitol who can fund
critical career technical education programs
in our high schools and community
colleges, subsidize training for our
employers who need to skill-up existing
employees, and help new workers enter
exciting careers. It’s more important than
ever that Californians see manufacturing
as a viable and stable career path as
unemployment reaches record highs.
Staying competitive
This pandemic also underscores how
operation costs in California create
a competitive disadvantage for our
manufacturers. We learned a face shield
on average costs $4.50 to produce in
California, while it costs on average $3.50
in other states. This is driven by a range of
issues, and there is no silver bullet to fix
the problem. But we can look to reform
our high energy rates and bold labor and
environmental mandates. California is at
the forefront of many workplace regulations
and requirements, but we must find
ways to keep our 30,000 manufacturers
and 1.3 million workers competitive,
skilled and safe — all at the same time.
42 comstocksmag.com | August 2020