Manufacturing 2009

Defense manufacturers and biomedical manufacturers are doing well, says Nancy Stephens, executive director of the Manufacturers Association of Florida. Overall, though, manufacturing is seeing layoffs and closures, particularly in businesses tied to construction and automotive. “Everyone is trying to keep the business they have and look for new opportunities,” Stephens says. “2009 will be a year for new ideas, new ways of doing things and making sure they have employees with the right skills poised for growth when the economic times are better.”

For example, Hoover Pumping Systems, a 45-employee Pompano Beach company that makes irrigation pumps for parks, schools, golf courses and commercial and residential developments, saw business drop 20% in 2008. “We were tied to the housing boom in a big way,” says Pete Lyons, production director. Commercial business remains good, he says. The company has ramped up service and rehab work while expecting a payoff from its development of an innovative high-tech system that allows remote monitoring of pump flow and pressure, a technology applicable beyond the irrigation market, he says.

Even with rising unemployment, though, Lyons reports that manufacturers like Hoover have trouble finding skilled workers. Dennis Segalewitz, quality control director for stamping and plastic components manufacturer Interplex Industries, which has operations in Fort Lauderdale and nearby Tamarac, is leading a group of 20 manufacturers in developing a four-year apprentice program for would-be toolmakers, welders and machinists in which students, beginning next school year, will work 2,000 hours per year for a manufacturer and attend a county school system training class for 144 hours. Segalewitz is hoping to expand the program.

Lyons says it’s needed. “It’s a dying art,” he says. “We’re actually bringing a lot of work back from China, and we need the skill-set. China’s getting too expensive.”