Manufacturing Day was held nationwide on Friday, October 3, 2014. JB Cutting was proud to host an event at our facility for local students. Manufacturing Day is all about clearing-up common manufacturing misconceptions and giving manufacturers an opportunity to open their doors to show, in a coordinated effort, what manufacturing is – and what it isn’t.
The day started around 8:30am as 30 students were dropped off at our East Facility. These students were from the Utica School District – specifically Eisenhower High School. Most students were from construction/woodworking classes, however there were a few business and AutoCAD students in attendance as well. The first item on the agenda was a PowerPoint presentation by the president of our company, Debra Behring. The presentation started out with a little history about JB Cutting, continued into what we do and finished with how we do it. We also touched on the importance of taking STEM (science/technology/engineering/mathematics) classes.
After the presentation, students split up into 2 groups for shop tours. One group went to our Homag Router and the other group went to our Panel Saw.
Saw operator Jake Bobbitt demonstrates cutting more than one sheet at a time.
Students look on as CNC programmer Tony Molaroni loads a drawing and begins running parts on our Homag Router.
After seeing how raw parts are produced, students moved on to the secondary processes we apply to our parts at the dowel insertion Weeke ABD and our pod and rail Weeke Venture.
President BJ Filthaut demonstrating our drilling capabilities.
The students got a chance to load and process a cabinet component.
After leaving our JB Cutting East Facility, the tour continued at our main plant.
Here the students look on as parts are cut loose from the table of our Wemhoner Press.
Plant Manager Jim Roth assembles a finished cabinet from all of the parts the students saw processed during the plant tour.
After a quick stop in the break room for water and donuts and a question and answer session, the students boarded a bus back to school. We consider this event a necessity to promote the woodworking industry and to get young people interested in manufacturing. All of the students were very attentive, asked good questions and even participated in running some parts. The future is looking very bright. In fact, one of the students is going to start working as a co-op student with JBC!
A great big “THANK YOU” is owed to all of our employees. The shop was cleaned from top to bottom with everything put away and it looked terrific! In addition, their interactions with the students portrayed JB Cutting and manufacturing in a positive light and encouraged the students to consider a career in manufacturing.
To anyone considering hosting a manufacturing event next year, we would whole-heartedly encourage you to do so. By working together during and after Manufacturing Day, we will begin to address the skilled labor shortage we face, connect with future generations, take charge of the public image of manufacturing and ensure the ongoing prosperity of the whole industry.