More than 150 people attended the State of Manufacturing: A Southern Virginia Perspective event Oct. 9, where regional leaders discussed manufacturing’s future, emerging technologies and workforce challenges.
The event was hosted by GENEDGE, the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce and the West Piedmont Higher Education Center.
U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said Martinsville and Henry County have a long history of manufacturing, particularly in the furniture and textile industries.
“While the region has diversified the types of products that are made here, and manufacturing is still a big driver of economic development, it’s exciting to look as we’re moving forward” at businesses currently in place, he said.
Griffith added that the event was to celebrate businesses that have brought jobs, economic opportunities and tax revenue to the region.
“We need to continue to do that as we need to continue to look to the future because we’re going to have all kinds of things that frankly with AI, I’m not sure I can even imagine. I hope somebody in the room can, because we need to bring those jobs here. We need to have the thought processes being made in Southwest Virginia, and the goods and services that they bring forward need to be done in Southern Virginia and the rest of Southwest Virginia,” Griffith said.
During a panel discussion, manufacturing and business leaders addressed the challenges facing the industry, including automation and workforce preparation.
Kelsey Coleman, director of Virginia Tech’s Center for High Performance Manufacturing, said many of the challenges manufacturers face today are the same ones encountered for years.
“So yes, there’s a lot of things changing, but not always as much as the headlines suggest,” she said.
For example, Coleman said automation does not necessarily mean replacing an entire production line or warehouse operation. Instead, manufacturers can use technology to streamline time-consuming daily tasks.
“When I think about my time in various operations and roles, I was constantly looking at data and cycle times, trying to do root cause analysis on quality problems and pulling reports to get them out for tiered processes for our senior leadership. There’s a lot of tools and technologies that are available now at reasonable costs that can help automate a lot of those processes so your leaders can be out on the floor, doing what you really want them to be doing and having more eyes on the operation,” she said.
Coleman said more of Virginia Tech’s industry partners are expressing interest in collaborative robots, known as cobots, and robotic automation. However, she cautioned that manufacturers must first identify the problems they are trying to solve.
“I think the focus still needs to be on identifying the right problems. Automating the bad process will not make a good process, so it’s really important now to look at your entire system and determine if you want to invest in technologies, where is going to be the biggest impact to your organization and how can you eliminate some of that non-value added work,” Coleman said.
Education and workforce preparation was another major topic during the discussion.
Ben Lawhorn, president of Global Metal Finishings, said the region has some of the workforce resources manufacturers need, but he’s not sure from an education standpoint how to install curiosity and critical thinking into students to prepare them for the workforce.
“What I look for is critical thinking and somebody that’s curious. There seems to be a lack of that, at least in some of the younger applicants that come by our organization,” he said.
Lawhorn said he was uncertain how educators could instill those qualities in students.
“I need problem solvers, I need people that aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and look at a problem and say, ‘we can make this better.’ That’s what I need as a small-business manufacturer in the state of Virginia. I need a workforce that wants to learn,” he said.
Michael Scales, western regional business analyst for the Longwood Small Business Development Center, agreed that critical thinking is difficult to teach.
Scales said students often focus on studying, passing a class and moving on rather than learning how to approach unfamiliar problems.
“If you give them a difficult problem or something they have not experienced before, you get blank stares. How do we focus on energy, on getting people to think critically? You can do case studies and things and do problems, but it really” takes someone “with the enthusiasm to want to do it,” Scales said.
Jim Spencer, Mid-Atlantic regional administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration, said schools should begin developing critical thinking skills at an earlier age.
“I think that critical thinking sometimes has an entrepreneurial spirit, so why are we not starting with our kids in elementary school and starting exposing them to things like that,” he asked.
Spencer said manufacturers have also told him they struggle to find employees who can read rulers.
“I think we need to get back to some of the basics of things that we need to teach and make sure our children are aware of that,” Spencer said.
He also emphasized the value of young people gaining work experience and learning responsibility.
“We need to make sure our kids can learn to work,” he said.
The event also recognized five regional manufacturers for more than a century of operation: The Lester Group, founded in 1896; Bassett Furniture Industries, founded in 1902; Virginia Glass & Mirror, founded in 1913; Wabtec Graham White, founded in 1914; and Hooker Furnishings, founded in 1924.
