Report Lifts Outlook For Central Mass. Manufacturers
When the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University released a report last month measuring the health of manufacturing in Massachusetts, industry champions had reason to feel encouraged. The number of Massachusetts firms actually increased in 2011, after declining steadily since 2002.
And while jobs are expected to decline as companies become more efficient over the next 10 years, the rate of decline has slowed considerably, according to Barry Bluestone, lead author of the report.
"This industry is stabilizing, and it's not just stabilizing in Greater Boston, but statewide, including Worcester," Bluestone said.
According to the Dukakis Center, there is reason to believe that, in terms of output, manufacturers in Worcester and surrounding communities might even fare better than Massachusetts as a whole over the next five years. Seventy-four percent of manufacturers surveyed here said they expect their production to increase during that span, compared with 66 percent statewide.
Executives from Central Massachusetts manufacturers echoed those conclusions in the report. But they said the reasons for growth are more nuanced than a simple economic turnaround.
Jim Bisson, owner of Bisson Tool & Dye in Fitchburg, which makes injection molds for plastics sold to the medical industry, has seen improved sales this year compared to the previous three. Though he's not sure why, he said it might be the mood of his target market.
"I can't point to any one thing, unless the medical companies have just reached the point where they've gotten used to the economic climate," Bisson said.
Bisson said he's still "a little gun-shy" because of his industry's losses in recent years, but employment levels at his 15-person operation are back to pre-recession levels, and he hopes it stays that way.
While the report doesn't predict employment growth, the number of jobs that forecasters expect to become vacant due to retirement in about 10 years is a force to be reckoned with. Bisson said tool shops such as his that require skilled labor will be scrambling to fill jobs when older workers retire, creating new opportunities for a younger generation of workers.
At the same time, manufacturers are finding ways to increase production with smaller workforces. Al Cotton, spokesman for Nypro, a precision plastics manufacturer with operations in Clinton, said this approach is crucial to survival in the industry. These days, Nypro is using automation, robots and advanced tools whenever possible.
"You take all the modern technologies that are effective in your manufacturing and you use them," Cotton said.
Nypro also makes products for the medical industry, which Cotton said is just not as susceptible to economic twists and turns as other industries. With 900 employees in Clinton and 15,000 worldwide, Cotton doesn't expect the company to lose or add jobs in the near future, even though production has potential to grow.
"It's a time to really get better, not bigger, right now," Cotton said.
The Importance Of Niches
Improving products is important, but finding a niche is vital, according to Paul Osenar, president of Southborough-based Protonex.
The company makes advanced fuel cell power solutions for military and commercial customers, and Osenar said the company will grow, and hire more employees, because of its highly specialized products.
This year, Protonex has added 10 employees, which is sizeable considering it had only 50 at the start of this year. One reason is that the company is relatively young — 12 years old — and is developing hot new technology its customers need.
"What I would say is if businesses in high-priced places like Massachusetts want to succeed in manufacturing, they need to find niches in manufacturing that are high technology," Osenar said.
That means the days of pumping out mass amounts of product may be little more than a memory in the Bay State.
Osenar said his company probably won't hit a thousand units of product this year, but the cost of each — none is worth less than a few thousand dollars — makes up for it.
"If we're going to make a million of something a year, we're probably not going to make it in Massachusetts," Osenar said.
The Impact Of Exports
The growth that companies like Protonex, Bisson Tool & Dye, and Nypro predict will be mirrored across the Central Massachusetts manufacturing sector, according to Eric Nakajima, senior innovation advisor at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.
Nakajima said growth in exports — particularly of medical equipment and defense products — has helped lead the state out of the recession.
He pointed to Nypro, as well as Saint-Gobain, which recently expanded in Devens, as examples of recent manufacturing success in Central Massachusetts. But, like officials at local manufacturing companies, he said the industry is certainly changing as companies do more work with fewer people.
"If you have the impression that manufacturing is declining, I'm not going to blame you," Nakajima said. "We're still making hats and gloves and baseball bats, but we're making them in the most innovative ways possible."
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