Fifity years ago, when the Valley was a manufacturing hub, companies flocked here in record numbers, starting up businesses and establishing a bustling local manufacturing climate. But as the times changed, manufacturing picked up the stigma that it wasn’t glamorous, flashy, or appealing as a career choice. This trend is evidenced in the lack of younger manufacturing entrepreneurs that presumably would replace older Baby Boomers currently running these firms. Today, the Valley’s greatest problem may not lie in intense global competition or a lackluster business climate. Rather, the demise of Valley manufacturing may come from a lack of new younger generations interested in starting up new manufacturing firms. Walter Mosher, the chief technology officer and co-founder of San Fernando-based Precision Dynamics Corp., believes that American culture today just isn’t conducive to producing trained and highly qualified manufacturers. “There’s definitely a cultural problem in America. People are not willing to put the effort in to get the knowledge they need to be successful as entrepreneurs,” Mosher said. “While we have thriving immigrant populations that come here to study hard and acquire the tools required to get a good job, it just isn’t mainstream in what you’d consider the stereotypical American culture. And the only solution is sweeping educational reform.” Mosher is not alone in voicing such concerns, as similar arguments have been echoed by influential voices such as New York Times columnist Thomas Freidman and former NASA chief Sean O’ Keefe. Yet a small number of younger Americans are still going into the manufacturing industry. Just 35 years old, Mark Sommer is the managing director of Valencia-based race car components manufacturer Dell West Engineering. Having joined the company right out of graduate school 11 years ago, Sommer rose straight to the top of the company. While he may be bucking generational trends by entering the manufacturing world, Sommer’s youth doesn’t change the fact that he agrees with many of the sentiments echoed by other local manufacturers. “I think the future of manufacturing looks pretty bleak locally,” Sommer said. “There’s inequality with what companies in this region have to pay for electricity, wages and labor benefits. It’s going to be a downward spiral. And there are problems with the talent pool because you’ve got to pay good money for the talent. Inflation is rising higher than wages. I’ve had three people in the last three weeks tell me that they’re moving to Arizona because they want to be able to buy a house.” Yet while the future of Valley manufacturing is shaky, there remain several institutions working to keep manufacturing thriving. While many of the sources interviewed for this story repeatedly indicted the Los Angeles Unified School District for its failures to provide vocational training to its students, the College of the Canyons and Los Angeles Valley College were often cited as institutions that are helping to keep the industry afloat. Additionally, Pierce College has been active in this regard, recently establishing a NIMS certification course to train metalworkers. “We attempt to make sure that we develop and show people that manufacturing can be a solid career,” Lenny Ciufo, the director of job training at Valley College, said. “People don’t often realize that it can be a very good livable wage if they start young and progress in a company. It’s imperative that we educate them through our high schools and community colleges.” Pamela Welden, the director of the Employee Training Institute of the College of the Canyons, also believes that with vocational training falling by the wayside at many high schools, one of local manufacturing’s best hopes is education at the community college level. “Scientific-based manufacturing is going to be hugely important because many local manufacturers are making implantable biomedical devices,” Welden said. “Manufacturers will need to be highly trained as computerized programming aspects will be crucial, as will being bilingual, having good communication skills and being able to move to where jobs will be. It’s going to be a global manufacturing environment and where people will work for companies all around the globe and move often.” The lack of qualified youth might not be as crucial to the Valley’s future, if not for the other realities that compound the problem for local manufacturers. Many firms continually indict the pressures faced from global competitors, an underperforming educational system, a poor business climate and a lack of available industrial space. However, savvy manufacturers that can successfully fill a niche will undoubtedly continue to survive and in some cases even thrive, but the days of the Valley being one of the manufacturing capitals are likely over. While the death-knell of local manufacturing is not going to sound any time soon, David Goodreau, the chairman of the Small Manufacturer’s Association, sees consolidation in the industry’s future. “There will probably be a decline and consolidation of up to 20 percent of the local manufacturers in the next 20 years,” Goodreau said. “The industry is hampered by the effects of globalization. I’m not as scared of this globalization as other people might be, but it’s certainly a factor. People will just have to find niches to do well in.” Certainly local manufacturers are having difficulty competing in a more flattened world, where it becomes easier and easier each day for companies to get their products manufactured in Asia or Mexico. However, Goodreau points out that while globalization might be the elephant in the room that everyone’s talking about, manufacturers are often quick to shift their manufacturing overseas due to a lack of qualified local workers. “The only way Valley manufacturers can compete with $80-a-month wages are by hiring employees with smarts, competency, and technological skill. If you don’t have that you lose market share,” Goodreau said. “We definitely don’t have the younger generations ready. But the question remains: Should the Valley just give up on manufacturing and cede it to the past? Bruce Ackerman, the president and CEO of the Valley Economic Alliance, believes that the Valley needs to fight desperately to keep these well-paying jobs. “I don’t think we are and I don’t believe we can give up on manufacturing in the Valley. We need to be pro-active and not let industrial properties like the old Price Pfister site in the northeast Valley, shift to being big box retail stores,” Ackerman said. “We will not give up on manufacturing and it’s something that I’ve worked on with some of the local city council members. We just need to protect it and explore other avenues, such as one we’re currently working on: an industrial park specializing in biotech and biomedical devices that would be located in the northeast Valley.” Roberto Barragan, the president and CEO of the VEDC doesn’t share Ackerman’s optimism, as he believes that indeed we are giving up on manufacturing in the Valley, letting the high-paying manufacturing jobs be replaced by lower-paying food service and retail employment. Nonetheless, Barragan continues to work to try to save the slowly dying industry. “Seventy-four percent of the jobs in the state were lost because of closed businesses. We don’t have to worry about businesses moving out of state or out of the country, we’re doing a good job of killing the businesses themselves,” Barragan said. “We have an addiction to retail, and our municipalities and developers continually push out these good industrial jobs. We are giving up on manufacturing.”
