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Featured in the Indianapolis Recorder

Major Tool & Machine was recently featured in the Indianapolis Recorder, with an interview given by our own Gene Davis and Kendra O’Brien discussing changes they’ve experienced in the manufacturing industry and the current labor shortage.

Read the article here: http://www.indianapolisrecorder.com/business/article_b1bc3406-ca5b-11e9-bed3-f3478525aa2a.html

The article goes on to discuss the impact of manufacturing in Indiana and some of the skills required for the industry.

Just as when Davis started his career 52 years ago, manufacturing is a bedrock of the Indiana economy. According to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD), the state has 541,846 manufacturing jobs, equaling 17% of all employment in Indiana. The Indianapolis metropolitan area has over 88,000 manufacturing jobs, equaling 10% of the area’s jobs.

Manufacturing requires new skills, but Berger said due to the labor shortage employers often are willing to teach those skills. For example, Major Tool and Machine has a six-month machinist training program that builds upon lessons from certification courses, teaching blueprint reading, math, safety procedures and how to operate machines. Berger said companies also often offer competitive salaries to encourage people to take these courses and start a career in manufacturing. According to the DWD, the average salary for mechanical engineers and industrial engineers, two common jobs in manufacturing, are both around $75,000.

“I love my job, and I love the people I work with,” Davis said. “… I have good memories here. It hasn’t been all ice cream and cake, but it hasn’t been all bad either.”
— Gene Davis
“I’ve spoken to many different employers in the last few years, and everybody is looking for a way to fill open positions,” O’Brien said. “… In the younger generation the number of people is simply not there, so how do we try to get people interested in those careers? If the schools are not doing it, then employers will start to fill in some of those gaps.”
— Kendra O'Brien
News, PublicationTimothy Schummhiring, Gene Davis, Indiana, Manufacturing, labor shortage
Featured in Indianapolis Monthly Magazine

The road to Mars goes through Indiana and Major Tool & Machine! We are thrilled to announce that MTM was featured in the July 2019 edition of Indianapolis Monthly. Major Tool & Machine continues to be a proud partner and supporter of the American space industry supporting the Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engine program for NASA.

Four astronauts are awaiting launch in Orion’s crew module—a cone, the infrastructure, and panels of which were milled and machined at Major Tool & Machine in downtown Indianapolis. On board, the crew flips and toggles any number of switches that were fabricated just down I-65 in Southport at JFW Industries. Outside the spacecraft, mechanics and technicians perform last-minute checks on the service module atop aerial lift platforms made at Lift-A-Loft Corporation in Muncie.

Ignition. At Mission Control’s command, four RS-25 rockets, also made at Major Tool, ignite, creating a massive rumble that puts stress on the craft’s nuts, bolts, screws, and rivets, some of which were forged at Indiana Aircraft Hardware in Fortville. Any potential damage that rattle might cause is being mitigated by vibration-damping materials from Damping Technologies in Mishawaka.

The article also highlights our country’s growing need for skilled trades, and the ways that Major Tool & Machine is working to address these needs.

On its sprawling 600,000-square-foot Hillside neighborhood campus, the same facilities where the Orion rockets and crew module were built, the company has dedicated half of an entire structure, Building 4U, to classrooms and workshops. They’ve brought on two full-time on-staff instructors to give busloads of young men and women hands-on training in welding and machining. Major Tool also sends representatives out into communities, urban and rural, to let young adults know opportunity is out there. “Not every person understands that there are alternatives to college,” says Kevin Bowling, senior vice president at Major Tool. “Not everyone knows that they can earn a very good living in manufacturing. We engage at the high school and even middle school level to provide information for these kids to make the decision to be in manufacturing. We see it as a necessary investment to make sure we’re strong for the years to come.”

Click here to view the entire article.

Courtesy NASA

News, PublicationTimothy SchummIndianapolis, Indianapolis Monthly, NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Space, RS-25, Skilled Trades, magazine, major tool machine