Ray Coombs, chief executive of Plainfield aerospace and medical device supplier Westminster Tool, is busily recruiting manufacturers to collaborate in voicing their concerns as an industry.
As president of the Quinebaug Manufacturing Institute, Coombs has great success — increased production and profits — working with QMI’s other 23 members to convince area colleges, especially Quinebaug Valley Community College in Danielson, to offer courses to better the existing and future workforce.
QMI is eyeing expansion the southeastern corner of the state, encouraging manufacturers around Three Rivers Community College in Norwich that it is better to advise the colleges as a group instead of leaving them to guess what courses area industries need. Coombs hopes to grow membership to 60 companies in two years.
“There is a lot of potential, but a lot of manufacturers are trying to go it alone,” Coombs said. “In the last 10 years, we’ve been trying to survive, not think about collaborating for the future.”
With 4,800 Connecticut manufacturers spread across diverse geographies and disciplines facing a still tough economy, getting individual companies to collaborate is a challenge. Even for issues that impact the entire industry — workforce development, foreign trade — manufacturers don’t have one, unified voice to help pursue solutions. Instead, advocacy is left to smaller groups or state agencies.
“There is some need to recognize, to create a statewide organization, but there is no way to fund it,” said Jerry Clupper, executive director of the trade group New Haven Manufacturers Association. “There is no obvious leader, and no one with deep enough pockets to be considered the leader.”
The manufacturing industry really needs a central repository of staff and activities, Clupper said.
Such is the case on the national level with the National Association of Manufacturers, along with other state industry organization such as the Connecticut Bankers Association, Connecticut Restaurant Association, and the Connecticut State Medical Society.
“The big thing you have in manufacturing is duplication of efforts and overlap of efforts,” Clupper said. “There are a number of organizations that look inward as opposed to statewide.”
Increasing networking and collaboration among Connecticut manufacturers is a key component of the state’s plan to build its economy on advanced manufacturing. That effort — sponsored by the National Governor’s Association and in partnership with six other states — focuses on workforce development, legislative advocacy, and connecting manufacturers together to produce more research and development, along with business opportunities.
“We view advanced manufacturing as one of the cores of the state’s economic strategy,” said Catherine Smith, commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development.”
Of of 27 participants who took an active role in developing that state strategy, two were from manufacturing companies — Clupper and Chris DiPentima, president of Pegasus Manufacturing in Middletown. The rest were government, education and finance officials, along with representatives from non-member manufacturing groups such as ConnStep and the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology.
Participation from the state’s manufacturers in planning is vital to the long-term health of the industry, Smith said, especially on the topic Coombs is pushing hardest — workforce development.
“What works the best in your education system is when you have the manufacturers at the table giving their input on curriculum and on other decisions,” Smith said.
At the State Capitol, DECD worked to create a Manufacturing Caucus of legislators, led by State Sen. Gary LeBeau (D-East Hartford) to make key changes to state law to support advanced manufacturing.
“Manufacturing is in the pantheon of industries we should be supporting,” said LeBeau, who also includes insurance, education, health care, and biomedical in the pantheon. “These are the keys to the future of the state.”
Even without a unified manufacturing association advocating for the industry in Hartford, the General Assembly has absorbed the importance of manufacturing, LeBeau said. Groups such as the New Haven Manufacturers Association and the Connecticut Business & Industry Association have grown the presence of the industry at the State Capitol.
“It would be great if they had one group, but they need more than one group because they have different interests, different needs,” LeBeau said. “Manufacturing, like business, is a big term, but there obviously are some commonalities.”
All manufacturers take raw materials, process them into a product, and sell that product at a higher price. Industry advocates need to push the state to help that process continue as smoothly as possible, LeBeau said.
CBIA was the original statewide manufacturing advocate, formed from a merger of a state chamber of commerce and a state manufacturing association. The association still puts on a variety of manufacturing events, holds a manufacturing day at the State Capitol, and links political candidates to individual companies.
CBIA works closely with the National Association of Manufacturers to address issues of industry importance in Connecticut. CBIA President and CEO John Rathgeber is on NAM’s board of directors.
“We are really the voice of manufacturing up on the Capitol,” said Peter Gioia, CBIA vice president and economist.
The problem with forming a statewide, member-driven manufacturing association is individual companies must see the value and fund it, Clupper said. Right now, companies prefer groups specific to a geography or an industry subsector because they have easier access and know more about specific needs.
“Industries have such different issues, beyond some common denominators. Aerospace and automotive are very different,” said Allen Samuel, executive director of the Connecticut trade group Aerospace Component Manufacturers. “I don’t think one size fits all, which is why we tend to focus on our core competency.”
To address issues such as workforce development or simple networking, individual manufacturers would prefer to visit somewhere close by — instead of driving across the state — because all are working on their day jobs of producing products as efficiently and profitably as possible, said Kevin Burns, president of North Haven catalytic manufacturer Precision-Combustion.
“It is good for such things to be locally based,” Burns said. “It would take the membership to support another statewide organization, and I don’t know if the financial support is there.”
Manufacturers are wary of those outside the industry, such as state agencies, telling them how to address their needs, Coombs said. That is why unifying companies’ voices is important.
“It has to come from within, and someone has to step up and get it going,” Coombs said.
Even for issue as simple as scheduling courses at colleges, several companies working together say more than a single firm, Coombs said.
“By collaborating like that, it gives me a bigger voice,” Coombs said. “I’ve seen the benefits.”
