EVOLVE Business and Professional Magazine August 2019 | Page 12

become imperative that they technologize if they want to remain
competitive to not only sustain sales but also to attract and retain
talent at a time when there are fewer to hire.
American factory jobs plunged to a low of 11.5 million in 2010,
or 9% of the workforce, from a record high of 19.6 million in 1979,
or a fifth of the workforce at the time, according to the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics. The decline came as more people snubbed the
career as boring and dirty, heading off to university instead. At the
same time, many manufacturers shifted operations overseas, in
particular to China and Mexico, for lower wages, tax advantages
and other savings, focusing on design and functionality at home.
These forces have put manufacturers in a bind. They have an
aging workforce that’s starting to retire, but few youngsters want to
join their ranks.
The solution is to invest in automation to fill the hole left by a
decline in skilled labor, Fifer said. “They have no other choice.”
Lucky for manufacturers, there has been a “mammoth change”
in career mentality. More youngsters think it’s alright to skip
college and instead get certificates, even in high school, to land a
job, including in a factory. To be sure, manufacturing employment
has increased since 2010, reaching 12.8 million jobs this year.
It’s still a tight market. More manufacturers are moving
operations back to America, attracted by the fast advances in
technology. This is increasing demand for workers, including in
Volusia County, where the areas’ more than 450 manufacturers
make everything from aerospace products to batteries, boats,
communications equipment and semiconductors.
CHAD HAZEN
PRESIDENT
HAZEN CONSTRUCTION
HIGH ENTRY COST
Still, not all manufacturers can afford the leap into advanced
technology.
The Sparton De Leon Springs facility, has taken the jump to
automate some of its processes for making sonobuoys, a complex
product that is dropped from airplanes into the ocean to track
submarines with a sonar system.
The company has installed computers at each workstation to
improve the performance of its workers. For example, 3D modeling
software has made it possible to reverse engineer step-by-step
animated processes that workers can watch on the computers to
assemble the product. “These new animated processes replace
the long and painful activity of writing every assembly step, and
makes it easier to understand and faster for operators to learn,”
said Jim Lackemacher, Sparton Group VP.
Another software program collects performance data from
each workstation and summarizes it on a dashboard that can be
monitored on a computer or mobile phone. “That brings a lot of
gains in the cost to produce because you have a quicker alert that
you have a problem,” Lackemacher said. “The faster you see the
problem and react to it, the quicker you eliminate the cause.”
The cost reduction is helping Sparton to better capitalize on
the growth in demand, which is driving a 5% growth in annual
revenue, he said.
Can it automate more?
Where it makes sense. “It doesn’t make sense to fully automate
just for the sake of automating given that the high cost associated
BUILDING FROM THE
GROUND UP.
Chad Hazen mastered the building industry over his
twenty-year career. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in
Building Construction and a Master’s Degree in Business
Administration and is a licensed State of Florida General
Contractor. In partnership with his brother Marc Hazen, Hazen
Construction began as an underground utilities contractor.
Today, the firm is a complete site development contractor
working throughout East Central Florida. Community service
is a priority for Chad, a member of the Port Orange/South
Daytona Rotary Board, Daytona State College Facilities
Advisory Board, the Vistage CEO Advisory Group and of
course, the Team Volusia Economic Development Corporation
Board of Directors.
TEAMVOLUSIAEDC.COM
386.265.6332
INVESTOR SPOTLIGHT
| 12 | EVOLVE BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE