Why Trivium Packaging Celebrates Manufacturing Day (and Why You Should, Too)

The month of October marks a very special period of celebration for manufacturers operating in the United States, and for me, personally, as a third-generation manufacturer myself.  My grandfather was a supervisor in Leyland, Great Britain, making the very first Mini; my father built some of the first robots; and I’ve been working for the past 25 years in manufacturing in just about everything we use, eat, drive or fly.  

At Trivium Packaging, manufacturing is considered “the foundation of the generations.” It is the backbone of both wealth generation and the development of society. Manufacturing Day celebrates and showcases the Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow of Manufacturing, Trivium, and the industry overall.

A Celebration of Who We Are and How we Engage Our Communities

At Trivium, we want to celebrate who we are and what we’ve accomplished over time. Over the past two years, we confronted many challenges like many other manufacturers, not the least of which was a global pandemic.

During this time, we did not and could not back down. We continued to manufacture products crucial to America and Americans. Manufacturing Day provides the opportunity for us and our employees to show our families and loved ones how we spend our working hours, the impact we make in America, and the products we produce. By opening our doors, we are privileged to be able to engage with the community in a way we can’t during daily operations and in a way we haven’t been able to in the past two years.

This is important. I’m passionate about having people truly understand what we all do. There’s a huge difference between making a couple hundred cans and making millions in a day--making sure no matter the situation, that our customers put food and beverage products into safe, long life and sustainable containers every day. There’s beauty in being able to showcase the process and methodology behind making 7,890 cans per minute, 24/7 365 days a year.

Celebrating and Engaging a Future Generation

We are deeply proud to work in the manufacturing industry. The products we make touch the daily lives of people around the world: without manufacturing, we simply wouldn’t have the everyday comforts of our lives.

Part of the reason for joining the Manufacturing Day celebrations is to stand together as manufacturers and highlight the importance that this industry plays for our communities. A successful policy of social and economic development rotates around manufacturing because one job in manufacturing has the domino effect of creating five additional jobs throughout the supply chain.

We want to stand with the rest of the industry. This story is not only the story about Trivium, but manufacturing in the USA, and the value it adds to society. Inside our facilities there is innovation; there are high-tech machines; there is robotics. Exciting things happen on the shop floor, and we need to be able to display that.

Celebrating Manufacturing Day with events open to families, schools and the public shines a light on our workplace, and by default on the industry as a whole. We all face similar labor shortages; we realize we need to play a bigger role in elevating to the public the importance of manufacturing as a sustainable career path. For too long, the discourse has been focused only on the college journey, when college is not the only choice (or the right choice) for everyone. This, coupled with the chronic prolonged public disinvestment in workforce education and training, caused a massive decline in talent for the trade industries.

Hence what needs to happen is a paradigm shift, a push back against current norms as younger generations examine what they want out of life, how they want to live, and what makes them happy and fulfilled. At Trivium,  if we take a look at our plant managers, the majority of them started on the shop floor and now they are the managers of multimillion manufacturing facilities, lead large teams and make a significant contribution to their communities and colleagues. I honestly believe the flexibility of the career path is unparalleled.

The future of manufacturing as always relies upon fresh new talent and ideas, rising up and growing in the space, leaving a legacy for others as generations before us have left a legacy and opportunity for all of us. Manufacturing has far-reaching effects on industries, communities and society as a whole. It is something to be celebrated and should be fully brought into the limelight it so clearly deserves.

This is why we celebrate.

Damian Morgan currently serves as vice president, Operations & Engineering, Americas, for Trivium Packaging, and has more than 20 years of experience in organizational transformation across different industries and geographies. In his free time, he enjoys being active, cooking and spending time with his family.