A Tale Of Two Cities: Great Michigan Manufacturing 新闻 From Opposite Corners Of The State

Recent announcements about new industrial facilities in two very different towns have bolstered the lauded 密歇根州制造业的实力.

底特律是该州的工业中心, and the worldwide home of the legacy auto industry – won the competition in the U.S. for the site of a new electric commercial vehicle battery plant. 德国AKASOL公司(点击这里了解更多), which produces high performance lithium-ion battery systems for a variety of different EV applications, had launched the search for the best location for their first American factory last year. 6月26日，他们宣布底特律地铁胜出. 新工厂, 位于黑兹尔公园, 预计明年开始生产, 并将在未来五年内创造200多个新的就业机会. The State of Michigan provided support for the plant by awarding AKASOL a $2.24 million Michigan Business Development Grant for the construction of the facility.

AKASOL was founded as a non-profit in 1990 at the Technical University of Darmstadt focused on solar car racing. 该公司将业务扩展到电动汽车零部件, and eventually spun off as a for-profit battery systems firm in 2008. They completed an IPO last year, and have a current market capitalization of nearly €239 million.

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The new facility continues the Detroit area’s diversification, in which they continue to capitalize on their enormous base of automotive capital and talent, while branching out into new areas involving transportation and related businesses.

杰夫•梅森, the President and CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), was pleased with the opportunity the company is bringing to the state. “AKASOL对密歇根来说是一个很好的补充，”他说. “我们非常看好电动汽车和移动出行市场.”

As far away from Detroit as you can go and still be in Michigan is the small Upper Peninsula (UP) town of Ironwood, right on the Wisconsin border and just 18 miles from Lake Superior. A mining and logging boom town in the early and middle 1900s, Ironwood已经承受了多次坏的商业消息. 这些煤矿几十年前就关闭了, and late last year the Michigan Department of Corrections closed the Ojibway Correctional Facility in nearby Marenisco, 损失了200多个工作岗位. So the grand opening on July 8 of the new Ironwood facility for Waupaca铸造, Inc., was a welcome reversal of fortunes for this town of 5,000.

日本日立金属有限公司旗下的威尼斯注册送38元., is a producer of gray and ductile iron components based in Waupaca, Wisconsin. 先锋铸造厂, 它最早的前身, 可以追溯到1871年, 威尼斯注册送38元成立于1955年. 他们生产工业用铸铁件, and they also offer post-production finishing and complex supply chain solutions. 但最近他们遇到了麻烦.

“We were faced with workforce availability challenges in the Waupaca area,约翰·维斯布洛克说, 公司的销售执行副总裁, 市场营销和供应链管理. “We began a search in Wisconsin and our neighboring states for areas with higher unemployment, 我们了解到Ojibway关闭了.“在医疗中心的帮助下, Waupaca铸造 held job fairs in Marenisco and had great success identifying potential candidates.” They made the decision to open a new casting cleaning and finishing facility in that part of the UP.

When the company then went looking for available buildings in the area, officials in Ironwood pointed them to suitable facilities in their industrial park. “我们找到了可以翻新的建筑，让它们变得更有吸引力, 留住人才,维斯布洛克说. “我们找到了同样的工作需求.”

威尼斯注册送38元获得了1美元的奖金.2 million Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant from the Michigan Strategic Fund in December of last year, 然后迅速开始工作. Wiesbrock praised the local contractors who renovated the building for the company. “他们为我们做得很好，”他说. 他们提前完成了任务.“他也赞扬了其他球员. “Between the State of Michigan, the MEDC, and the local government, we just had great support.”

在准备场地的时候, the company moved forward with hiring workers they needed initially, 也没有等到开始训练他们. “We hired the first group in December 2018,维斯布洛克说. “We contracted a bus service to bring them to Waupaca to train. 他们星期一下来，星期五回家, so already the money they were making came back to the local area. Every week we had a full bus, from December until the July grand opening.” Waupaca铸造 now employs 42 people at the Ironwood facility, 并计划在不久的将来将员工人数增加到61人.

Wiesbrock看到了新设施的巨大潜力. “为北方邦做点什么真的很棒，”他说. “在盛大的开幕式上，我告诉他们，‘看着我们成长!他说，目前我们还没有确定的消息, but I definitely foresee the need for additional finishing services there in the future.”

Waupaca铸造 makes up about $2 billion of the total sales of $9 billion in worldwide sales at Hitachi Metals. Their diverse product mix – they have customers in transportation, 农业, 石油和天然气, infrastructure and rail – allows them to weather economic storms well. “If one sector is down, others will be up,” Wiesbrock explained.

The MEDC’s Mason thinks the new Michigan workforce will help with that future potential. “制造业是我们的基因，”他说. “这与我们州悠久的制造业历史有关, 但对我们的工人也一样——我们知道如何制造东西.”

维斯布洛克同意这种以人为本的做法. “We believe – here at Waupaca, and at Hitachi as well – that our #1 asset is our employees.他觉得这种尊重是相互的. “It’s great to be in a community that welcomes 制造业 jobs, and that welcomes Waupaca铸造.”