Manufacturing in the USA. Plastics seem to be something widely available.

[JRouche]

Was watching the news tonight and they interviewed Dale Evans from the Co. Evco. They have 1000 employees in 9 locations. 5 US, 3 Mexico and 1 in China (no, the story did not break up the workforce of the 1000 into which plants, I am not interested in that).

What is interesting, I do see more plastics manufacturing within the US (the last 8 years noticeable for me). That seems significant and a good thing.

Any-hoo. Mr Evans(sp?) seems to think manufacturing is alive and well in the US. As long as it is with higher education in advance. He is prolly correct. Larger Companies dont appear to have the want or capabilities to teach on the Job folks anymore. I get that part. Dont like it, but get it.

Mostly robots in the plant video they showed but this one caught my eye. Couple of Machinist among all the robots. JR

Busy web page https://www.evcoplastics.com/




P.S.
Oh yeah, Mr. Bulliss, if you happen by . . Spell check for the "Title" when making a topic would be nice for my unspelling ape of a self JR

[v860rich]

P.S.
Oh yeah, Mr. Bullis, if you happen by . . Spell check for the "Title" when making a topic would be nice for my unspelling ape of a self JR

You even spelled the moderator's name wrong!!!!

THANX RICH

[J Tiers]

Now, chack up on where the raw plastic comes from.

You might well find that the molding plastic pellets come from china. It's actually quite likely. Part of the industrialization of china, that we paid for through Walmart, Target, etc. (NO, that is not a political comment. it is an economic comment if you simply must put a label on it).

[wierdscience]

Now, chack up on where the raw plastic comes from.

You might well find that the molding plastic pellets come from china. It's actually quite likely. Part of the industrialization of china, that we paid for through Walmart, Target, etc. (NO, that is not a political comment. it is an economic comment if you simply must put a label on it).

Some probably does come from China,but most is produced here from oil and natural gas which are abundant.It is a process industry where the actual labor input is small compared to the infrastructure required to produce it.

I build a fair many parts and pieces for compounding and pelletizing equipment for several local plastics and support industries.All of the plastics plants have been in an expansion mode for the last decade and it shows no sign of letting up.

As for jobs,the plants themselves do have a fair number of employees,one local plant has around 300 at any given time,with about 100 being high school dropouts,175 high school or better graduates and the remaining 25 being management and IT techs.
Most of the automation consists of process monitoring and material handling,there are many jobs that require human operators and control techs and that is not likely to change anytime soon.

I would add that nearly ALL of these news articles downplaying the numbers of jobs that will be created are fairly short sighted.Few if any of the articles take into account all the support industry jobs and local service jobs that are created and depend on these plants.The knock on employment from that one plant is probably 10:1

[Puckdropper]

P.S.
Oh yeah, Mr. Bullis, if you happen by . . Spell check for the "Title" when making a topic would be nice for my unspelling ape of a self JR

I don't know what browser you're using, but on the ones* I use, you can right click a single line text box and check "check spelling" and it will do it. It just doesn't do it by default for some reason. (I can guess... the textbox is the same core thing used for usernames, passwords and file uploads, and it doesn't make sense to spellcheck those.)

*Seamonkey and Pale Moon.

[browne92]

I can tell you that not all the plastic pellets come from China. A friend of mine in Texas works at a plant that manufactures acrylic pellets. He tells me that use of the "P" word is strictly prohibited at his work place. That being "plexiglass". They are only allowed to use the word "Lucite".

[J Tiers]

Not "all"..... but even the pellets carrying a US brand may NOT be from the US. You need to look carefully for country of origin.

[Highpower]

Was watching the news tonight and they interviewed Dale Evans from the Co. Evco.

--------<snip>-------

Mostly robots in the plant video they showed but this one caught my eye. Couple of Machinist among all the robots. JR

I saw that too. I also noticed that the only discussion heard between the two was "Do you think that next robot will be ready to put online soon?"
And yes Mr. Evans definitely made it a point to basically say if you want a "manufacturing" job with his company you better have a degree or two, otherwise don't bother to apply....

[Max McGrumpy]

Mostly robots in the plant video they showed but this one caught my eye. Couple of Machinist among all the robots. JR

Busy web page https://www.evcoplastics.com/

Those be mold straps. Very similar in principle to holddowns for mill tables. This is my "trade" I've been doing it for a very long time now. Thing is companies have no real interest in skilled workers with college, certifications and licenses. That's an outright lie. Every plastic company I've applied at wants general laborers at state minimum to bust a nut lifting and palatalizing product... dozens of nospeakem english trimming flash and deburring product... middle managers who don't know anything about molding or automation but know how to cut costs... it goes on and on.

I read the trade rags, I see news-reels like this go past... I apply to the companies highlighted and I get offers to join as a janitor, cafeteria worker, general laborer or worse. End run around HR, work with HR, talk to recruiters, head-hunters it's all the same. The idea worker for these companies is something of a mystery as there are hundreds of thousands of plastic professionals out there, out of work, all applying to these jobs and getting offered landscaping and food-service positions. It's really quite... silly. Utterly and unfailingly... silly.

But hey it's not all lost. We just passed a milestone this week in the workshop.... I paid off both of my diode-laser engraving machines and put a PO in for a 60-watt laser-cutter/engraver. Working for OTHER PEOPLE as a peon is not in wheelhouse any longer. Either tell me exactly what you want for qualifications and experience and I will provide you with that, or stop whining about a shortage of workers.

[softtail]

"One word......."

[wierdscience]

I saw that too. I also noticed that the only discussion heard between the two was "Do you think that next robot will be ready to put online soon?"
And yes Mr. Evans definitely made it a point to basically say if you want a "manufacturing" job with his company you better have a degree or two, otherwise don't bother to apply....

Which is actually stupid since an "education" doesn't in anyway assure the applicant is educated or has any aptitude for the position.

[Max McGrumpy]

Which is actually stupid since an "education" doesn't in anyway assure the applicant is educated or has any aptitude for the position.

I have experience, I have the degree(s) I have the offline training certs (Paulson, Roustis) completed, I am Scientific Molding, Good Molding Practice and Lean Process (!) certified, and did I mention 25+ years experience? I am also trained in tool repair/cleaning/upkeep, material drying/mixing/handling, Yushin Netliner robotics, sprue-pickers, sonic welding, and a few other things that I'm sure I forgot to mention.

Companies do not want to hire people like us. Period the end. They want the fresh-out-of-school-in-debt-no-experience kid or the minimum-wage import foreigner with a degree.

As Doug Larson at Lenco-PMC said "we don't need to keep someone like you on staff, we can buy the answers we need from Roustis and download it into E-Dart."

That sentiment was echoed at other shops too. One went so far as to tell me "All that learning isn't going to do you any good. We have Google and it costs nothing to look things up."

[Westline]

One went so far as to tell me "All that learning isn't going to do you any good. We have Google and it costs nothing to look things up."

I know I should probably keep quite on this topic since I'm from South Africa hence I don't have a horse in this race but this quoted part above upset me so much I had to sit up in bed and do this reply....
It is absolutely moronic that a employer thinks he can substitute an experienced employee / tradesman with Google. It just tells me he has no clue... Experience earned the hard way can never be beaten by some person spending time on google to try and figure something out.
Experience does not just include knowledge in what can be done but also confidence in what that person has done and the lessons learned along the way.... Sorry I know I'm ranting... Any how count yourself lucky that they were dumb enough not to employ you, working for someone with that attitude will drive a experienced employee nuts.... Just my 2c

[Max McGrumpy]

I know I should probably keep quite on this topic since I'm from South Africa hence I don't have a horse in this race but this quoted part above upset me so much I had to sit up in bed and do this reply....
It is absolutely moronic that a employer thinks he can substitute an experienced employee / tradesman with Google. It just tells me he has no clue... Experience earned the hard way can never be beaten by some person spending time on google to try and figure something out.
Experience does not just include knowledge in what can be done but also confidence in what that person has done and the lessons learned along the way.... Sorry I know I'm ranting... Any how count yourself lucky that they were dumb enough not to employ you, working for someone with that attitude will drive a experienced employee nuts.... Just my 2c

I love the opinions of folks outside the USA, you're not the first person to sit up and go "why do you DO that, don't you have --" Last time it was worker-rights protections.

The astounding thing is "land of the free home of the brave" lags far behind in workers rights and worker protections. When I explain the 90-day temp-to-fired benefit-and-retirement avoidance scheme that most companies run these days, my overseas counterparts look at me like I've lost my stuffing. "doesn't the government protect you against that sort of thing?" No they do not, they were paid off by industry to allow it.

I explain cultures like the "goggle-engineering" nonsense above and other situations that counterparts and I see routinely and we run into astonishment, derision and confusion.

Substituting lowest-cost inexperienced workers for experienced seasoned workers is old hat in this country. Time and again managers will tell stories about how Company X declined and went out of business because of the high cost of pensions and healthcare and the ONLY WAY to avoid that is to hire and fire on a 90 day cycle while paying for pre-digested engineering and technical answers on demand. Only way. Where I come from it was Kodak, Kodak went out of business not because they somehow managed to misread the market and continue to market obsolete film technology in the face of the digital revolution. It was the workers fault, not management, not leadership. And it's the worker's fault that costs spiraled out of control at the automotive companies. Not the fact that management/leadership continued to push products no one wanted at a price point that was off the chart.

I could go on, but it would get political real quick and no one wants that. Suffice to say, people who have jobs are blessed indeed. There are some of us who will never get to work to retirement because the systems in place to block that from happening.

[Westline]

That is really sad...
Jip not going political is kind of challenge since Nov 8 but I'll steer clear.
I'm currently busy working on a product mainly for the US market so I have been following US news quite a bit.. What about the "skills gap" Mike Rowe is on about that US companies can not find skilled labour to fill manufacturing jobs ..is that the case or more a case of they can't find cheap skilled labour?