April 2019
F
or manufacturers that survived the global
recession of the late 2000s, it can be hard to
believe a full decade has passed since many both
inside and outside the industry debated whether
manufacturing was a dying profession.
While manufacturing has bounced back across
the country, especially in Michigan with nearly
208,000 new manufacturing jobs created since June
2009, the memories of those dark days still linger
for the men and women who risked everything to
keep their companies in business.
“I have the privilege to travel across Michigan
and talk to manufacturers about the incredible
products they make, but many times we’ll end up
talking about how what they are doing today is a
direct result of lessons learned a decade ago when
people didn’t know if their next paycheck would be
their last paycheck,” said Chuck Hadden, MMA
president & CEO. “Those experiences stuck with
manufacturers and I think, in a lot of ways, that’s a
good thing. They can take what they learned — the
importance of being agile, using new technology,
connecting with their peers — and apply it to how
they operate their business today. With any luck,
those strategies can help protect them when and if
the next downturn happens.”
The 2000s were full of bad days as
manufacturers closed their doors and the
state’s best talent looked elsewhere for
work. Despite that, the combination of
those memories and a growing pessimism
for the future might be what prepares
current industry leaders to halt or, at least,
lighten the blow of future downturns.
And the next downturn is coming. Predicting
when and to what degree may not be a certainty but
any manufacturer with a few decades under their
belt will tell you the industry is cyclical and every
good day could be followed by a bad one. Evidence
of this growing uncertainty for the future was found
in MMA’s Annual Membership Survey, which asks
the question “How would you characterize your
outlook for the coming year?” In 2018, 82.0 percent
of respondents said optimistic. In 2019, that future
optimism was down to 51.3 percent.
The 2000s were full of bad days as manufacturers
closed their doors and the state’s best talent looked
elsewhere for work. Despite that, the combination
of those memories and a growing pessimism for the
Get More!
Learn how RCO Engineering, a leading supplier
to the high-tech aerospace industry, stays agile
despite ever-increasing customer demand in our
Industry Spotlight on page 18.
MiMfg Magazine
future might be what prepares current industry leaders
to halt or, at least, lighten the blow of future downturns.
What are the lessons a small- to mid-sized
manufacturer can pull from 2009 to serve their
business best in 2019?
Staying Agile from the
Facility Floor to the C-Suite
An essential starting point is to remain agile in
how you operate your business. A common thread
found among survivors of the last downturn was
their ability to change strategies quickly. They didn’t
live or die by a single product. They weren’t overly
reliant on a single customer or market. These were
also the manufacturers capable of changing with the
times — diversifying their product line when they
needed to or focusing on certain customers when
others were disappearing or canceling orders.
“Quick adjustment to the recession’s new reality
was key to our success — tough decisions were
made to ‘right size’ the organization for the lowered
volumes of sales during the recession,” said David
Joyce, director of business development for Gibbs, a
manufacturer of precision die-cast, machined and
assembled products for the automotive industry. “[We]
had to quickly adjust manufacturing operations, the
quantity of manufacturing plants and the proper level
of staffing in the manufacturing and support areas.”
According to Joyce, who will share more of his
lessons learned during the MFG Forum in Novi on
4/23/19, “as automotive sales slumped 40-plus
percent from 2007 to 2009, it created a lot of open
capacity. Once the recession ended and the OEMs
began reinvesting in their offerings, Gibbs was
prepared to make its own investments in the new
programs as a result of its adjustments during the
downturn” (learn more about the MFG Forum and
its focus on emerging industry issues on page 14).
The ability to adjust quickly and effectively is
perhaps more important now than it was a decade
ago. As we move further into the 21st century,
manufacturers are faced more and more with
customers who don’t require face-to-face contact to
purchase products, can review and comment
anonymously online, leave you suddenly and, even
when they love what you make, demand it be
produced faster, upgraded quicker, impact the
environment less and last longer than ever before. In
such a world, successful manufacturers need to
adapt in an instant.
Ask the Right Questions
Just as important as an agile mindset is the
ability to access outside help when you need it. As
successful manufacturers can tell you, improving
your business isn’t something that can be done
on your own. You need other voices, other
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