State on path to industry success
Postcrescent
By Rich Ryman
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers
BRILLION — Manufacturing in Wisconsin has taken a beating in recent years, but it’s been a beating based more on transition than extinction.
“Our message is Wisconsin manufacturers can win,” said Mike Klonsinski, chief executive officer of Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership. “This can be the manufacturing capital of the country for a lot of good reasons.”
Klonsinski spoke Friday at a manufacturing forum at Ariens Co.’s museum in Brillion. The forum was hosted by Ariens Co. and state Rep. Terri McCormick, R-Greenville.
Klonsinski said Wisconsin has the experience, the skills and the infrastructure to continue to succeed as a leading manufacturing state, but it also has challenges.
Those include a growing shortage of skilled workers, a regulatory and tax climate viewed as bad for manufacturing, a shortage of industrial research and development compared to the rest of the country and productivity that trails the nation as well.
He said Wisconsin companies must focus more on applying new technology to existing industries than trying to attract manufacturers of new technology, something on which economic developers often spend a lot of time.
“We have a department of tourism and a department of agriculture, but we don’t have a department of manufacturing, even though it’s bigger than both of them,” he said.
The Extension Partnership has been one of the foremost proponents of lean manufacturing, which seeks to remove waste from manufacturing processes.
Ariens Co. adopted the lean approach five years ago when it was facing severe financial problems. The company has significantly reduced both waste, inventory and production lead-time.
“If we aren’t taking care of our own business, driving the waste out, becoming more lean, we aren’t going to survive,” said company president Dan Ariens. “Flexibility is going to become the competitive weapon of business in North America.”
Rich Ryman writes for the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
