🔒With workforce development, industry collaboration focus, Marion Manufacturing’s Johnson emerges as leader of CT’s small manufacturers

It’s been a few years, but Douglas Johnson still bristles when he thinks of the day former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy got it so wrong.

Addressing a crowd of small manufacturers, Malloy proclaimed Connecticut doesn’t make widgets anymore.

Johnson, owner of Marion Manufacturing in Cheshire, looked around and saw lots of people like him — all Connecticut widget makers.

Today, leadership has changed at the Capitol and Johnson is having quite a year as the de facto face of the state’s widget makers.

A few weeks ago, Johnson was presented an innovation and leadership award by the American Manufacturing Hall of Fame. He said he’s honored, but “I don’t consider myself an innovator.”

And, at the end of March, Johnson wrapped up his term as board chair of the national Precision Metalforming Association (PMA). He traveled the country and was “a great ambassador” for the industry and association, said PMA President David Klotz.

Johnson’s message included a hearty endorsement of workforce development, a pressing issue for the industry, Klotz said.

Companies — particularly automotive-parts suppliers — are eager to bring work back from China but are being stymied by a labor shortage. The jobs may end up going to Mexico unless something changes soon, Klotz said.

Johnson urges a new generation to consider work in the trades and embrace education.

Each is an issue that has played a special role in Johnson’s career.

As he tells the story, his career took off after an encounter with the head of a metal-stamping firm where Johnson was a young employee. The boss asked him about his career goals.

“I brashly told him I wanted his job,” Johnson recalls. “The boss said, ‘follow my instructions and you’ll have a shot.’”

Those instructions included going back to school to learn about business and management. So, by day, he worked in metal stamping, and by night, he became a student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s School of Industrial Management.

Eventually, he got the job and learned a new lesson: When a company is sold, the boss is often the first one out the door.

When he had the opportunity to join Marion Manufacturing as vice president of operations, he covered that contingency by negotiating a deal that allowed him to buy the company if it was ever put up for sale. And that’s just what happened in 2015.

Diversification play

Marion Manufacturing got its start in 1946 when Scovill, overrun by orders in the post-war economy, started outsourcing work to its own employees. For one family, that was a life-changing opportunity.

The Cramers started manufacturing clock hands for IBM in the basement of the family home on Marion Street in Cheshire.

The Marion name stuck as the family business grew into a metal-stamping power, serving the booming automotive industry. But, by the time Johnson arrived in 2010, Marion had fallen on hard times. Supplying the automotive sector was 85% of its business and the market had become more competitive.

Johnson, whose background was in supplying precision metal parts for the medical industries around Boston, saw the need to diversify, and he reached out to some old contacts. Work in telecommunications and aerospace followed, and soon Marion Manufacturing was back.

Today, Marion does small-batch precision work for Collins Aerospace’s guidance systems, Johnson said. But the sweet spot for the company is in high-volume, high-speed metal stamping. At one point, Marion was turning out 10 million parts a week for a telecommunications company.

But for a contract supplier, customers come and go. Structural challenges don’t go away.

Marion’s workforce was aging and Johnson needed to find a new generation of skilled workers. He turned to programs like Naugatuck Valley Community College’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center.

Soon, he had a line on new talent. He proudly said the average age of his two dozen employees — once 62 — is now 32. Experience has been replaced with energy and a thirst for technology.

Two of the people Johnson hired are his children. His son heads the machining and tooling operation, while his daughter handles marketing and social media from her home in North Carolina. Marion Manufacturing has always been a family business, Johnson said, and he’s proud to continue the tradition.

Industry connections

One of Johnson’s favorite sayings is: “You can’t do business from within your four walls.” He put that into action by joining a host of industry and community organizations, learning from others and sharing his knowledge.

He is a board member for the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center at Naugatuck Valley Community College. He served as president of the Small Manufacturers Association of Connecticut and recently completed 10 years of service on its board of directors and as co-chair of its education committee.

Regionally, he served as a board director of the New England Spring and Metal Stamping Association and Connecticut Business & Industry Association.

Nationally, he completed his term last year as chair of the national Precision Metalforming Association.

In the community, he has been chairman of the Connecticut Community Foundation, where he still serves on several committees. He serves on the campaign leadership cabinet of United Way of Greater Waterbury and is a past board member of both the Cheshire Chamber of Commerce and Palace Theater in Waterbury.

Johnson also is a volunteer for the American Lung Association, Smilow Cancer Hospital, Special Olympics cycling events, and other nonprofits.

In advocating for the industry, Johnson notes progress in the view from the governor’s office.

Gov. Ned Lamont, he said, recognizes Connecticut is a leader in producing widgets. After all, Johnson said, “every battery can in America is made in Waterbury.”

He said under Lamont, small business has made gains, but even greater stability in the regulatory environment is needed.

“Just give us a year without changes,” he said.

He’d like to see a greater focus on workforce development and trade-specific training. There are 4,000 manufacturers in the state and employees average $1,200 a week, according to Naugatuck Valley Community College data.

But thousands of manufacturing jobs remain unfilled in the state.

He’s heard — and acknowledges — the challenges of doing business in Connecticut, but said the state would help itself if it focused on the good things it has to offer.

“Things like the quality of life and the education system,” Johnson said.