At the ceremonial ribbon cutting of its new office space located in Waltham, Mass., Dave Lechleitner, principal at Exact and chair of the Software Technology Council for the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, impressed upon the audience the essential role manufacturing has played in New England.
In the spirit of Manufacturing Day Dave provided an overview of the long and storied history of manufacturing in New England and how it has paved the way, and continues to pave the way, for a bright future.
Dave explained how today’s environment is characterized by small manufacturers and entrepreneurs who are powering significant economic growth not only in New England but also for companies conducting business around the globe.
He discussed five crucial challenges that the manufacturer of tomorrow will face and provided advice and solutions for tackling those issues.
"As the [manufacturing]workforce continues to age and retire, I believe that THIS challenge is probably the most critical.... To remain competitive, small and mid-sized manufacturers need to attract and retain the best of the best<' Lechleitner said.
Although the New England region has seen employment return to pre-recession levels, Massachusetts remains the only state in the region to have regained all of the manufacturing jobs it lost in the Great Recession."
Check out IndustryWeek's complete coverage of Manufacturing Day 2014.
