Northwest Aerospace News August | September Issue No. 4 | Page 44

T
o help fill his local gap for work-
ers with mid-range skills, Johnson said
he’s working with local high schools
on a plan to establish a one-year certif-
icate program that could start students
on a path toward good-paying manu-
facturing jobs, like operating computer
numeric controlled machines.
“The high schools don’t have the reve-
nue to buy CNC equipment,” Johnson
said. But the idea is that if schools and
employers can work together they can
expose Missoula’s young people to
the career opportunities that exist in
manufacturing. 
Johnson’s also looking at the pluses
and minuses of automating more of
his processes. “It may make sense,
(given) the scarcity of resources, and
the resource is labor.”
But at the same time,
“Automation’s not cheap,”
Johnson said. “To put a
robotic cell in you can talk up
to $150,000 to $200,000.»
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