Feb 14 2016

MCCC’s Center For Workforce Development Offers Scholarships For Online Manufacturing Fundamentals Course‏

Blue Bell/Pottstown, PA — As a result of technology and automation, today’s manufacturing jobs require more advanced skills for employees, as well as an overall understanding of the processes.

To assist people who are seeking first-time employment in manufacturing or who recently entered the industry, Montgomery County Community College’s Center for Workforce Development (CWD) is offering scholarships for an online, non-credit Manufacturing Fundamentals course to help them gain a basic understanding of today’s manufacturing environment.

Thanks to a generous gift from the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC), the College’s CWD can offer $100 scholarships to cover the course fee for the first 100 participants who register. The scholarships are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The six-week Manufacturing Fundamentals course covers the role of production design, process planning and 13 different manufacturing processes. The course will help participants understand and master product development concepts such as the voice of the customer, quality function deployment and failure mode and effects analysis, among others.

While participants will not need to purchase any textbooks, they will need Internet access, email, and Internet browser (Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0 or above, Google Chrome or Safari) and Adobe PDF plug-in (a free download is available at Adobe.com).

For more information about the course, visit http://www.ed2go.com/mc3/online-courses/manufacturing-fundamentals?tab=syllabus. To register and receive the scholarship, contact Geraldine Rossetti at 215-461-1127 or grossett@mc3.edu.

The scholarship program for the Manufacturing Fundamentals course is one of the workforce training initiatives MCCC is able to offer to the community as a result of receiving a matching grant of $2,177,471 from MCEDC in 2015. This exceptional gift established an endowment supporting MCCC’s expertise in educating and training students for regional jobs and careers. Since it is a matching grant, donations have double the impact in funding vital workforce development initiatives.

The first distribution from matched funds is supporting four initiatives: an Innovation and Sustainability Hub Learning Lab for Hydroponics and Aquaponics, Advanced Manufacturing training and support, Workforce Skills Modules in Information Technology and Manufacturing and a Software Developer Academy.

MCEDC’s grant started a new chapter in community college philanthropy and its matching gift challenge presents the community with the opportunity to invest in tomorrow’s workforce. To discuss funding opportunities or personal goals in making gift in support of the match, contact the Foundation at 215-641-6529.

Jun 11 2015

Royal Paper Ready To Introduce Its New Chester County Facility

WEST WHITELAND TOWNSHIP, PA – Royal Paper Products is pulling up stakes and moving — but the vans didn’t have far to travel.

After 65 years on North Caln Road in the Coatesville area, Royal is ready to welcome guests to its new Exton area facility on Clover Mill Road in West Whiteland. It is holding a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday.

The company makes more than 1,000 disposable products for the foodservice, hospitality and janitorial industries.

The new production plant and headquarters is located on 22 acres, giving the company ample room for its 45 employees and providing 16,500 square feet of much needed office space.

Apr 17 2015

Gov. Tom Wolf Preaches ‘Gospel Of Manufacturing’ During Lehigh Valley Visit (Video)

Gov. Tom Wolf said Friday that students educated at Lehigh Career & Technical Institute and Lehigh Carbon Community College will power Pennsylvania’s economic engine.

“If we’re going to have a future in manufacturing in Pennsylvania, what you learn here is really, really important,” Wolf told students after touring LCCC and LCTI, which sit on neighboring campuses in North Whitehall Township.

“I’m preaching the gospel of manufacturing,” he said. “Manufacturing is making a comeback…Part of the reason manufacturing has a great future in Pennsylvania is because we have really good workers.”

PPG Axes 1,700 Jobs As Part Of Global Restructuring

PPG Industries Inc. is trimming 4 percent of its global workforce as the world’s largest paint and coatings company tries to reduce costs related to a spate of recent acquisitions.

The Downtown-based company said it was cutting 1,700 jobs as part of a restructuring that also includes reducing production capacity. About 40 of PPG’s 2,500-person workforce in Pittsburgh will lose jobs, the company said.

PPG is aiming to achieve $100 million to $105 million in annual pretax savings by 2017 from the restructuring. Further details of the capacity reductions were not available, the company said.

PPG spent about $2.4 billion buying companies last year, part of a long-term strategy to grow through acquisitions.

Mar 22 2015

Gov. Wolf Says Manufacturing Tax Credit Could Boost Pennsylvania Jobs, Industry

Pittsburgh may not be the steel town it once was, with the economy of the state’s second largest city these days tied more to hospitals and higher education than smoke stacks. But manufacturing is still a huge part of Pennsylvania’s economy.

The sector employs more than 571,000 people in the commonwealth — including more than 30,000 in the York-Hanover area alone.

The average compensation for someone who works in manufacturing, not just assembly line workers but plant managers and other executives, is more than $69,000. That’s well above Pennsylvania’s median household income, which was $52,548 in 2013, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

With manufacturing’s above-average wages, new Gov. Tom Wolf has identified increasing the number of manufacturing jobs as one of his top economic priorities.

http://www.ydr.com/business/ci_27743500/gov-wolf-says-manufacturing-tax-credit-could-boost

Mar 13 2015

Bethlehem In Line For 300 New Manufacturing Jobs At Newly Approved Facilities

Two new manufacturing facilities with a likely 300 total jobs will soon be opening in Bethlehem.

The Bethlehem Planning Commission on Thursday approved two new mixed-use manufacturing and office buildings on former Bethlehem Steel Corp. land within Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII.

Fountain Hill-based Reeb Millwork will occupy one of the facilities, a 175,000-square-foot building on Gilchrist Drive, a new road off Commerce Center Boulevard. Reeb’s new Bethlehem facility will be in addition to its current Brighton Street building, but the company plans to consolidate all operations there in the future when an expansion is built, said Ed Detmer, Reeb’s vice president of corporate development.

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2015/03/bethlehem_in_line_for_300_new.html

Mar 6 2015

Alcoa May Close Or Sell Some Aluminum Plants To Cut Costs

Alcoa Inc. may close or sell 14 percent of its smelting capacity and 16 percent of its refining capacity in a move to lower costs in the face of falling aluminum prices and higher production in China.

New York-based Alcoa, which has significant operations in Pittsburgh, said it will review high-cost operations across its global system of aluminum production facilities over the next 12 months.

Oct 17 2014

PPG Profit Soars 64 Percent In Third Quarter

Acquisitions remain a focus for PPG Industries Inc., which has $3 billion in cash that it can spend to increase performance, CEO Charles E. Bunch said Thursday when the company reported a 64 percent jump in third-quarter profit.

“We have a very active acquisition pipeline,” Bunch said. “Including the pending acquisition of Comex, we will likely spend at or above the top end of our previously announced range of $3 billion to $4 billion of cash in 2014 and 2015 on acquisitions and share repurchases.”

PPG’s latest deal is the purchase of Consorcio Comex S.A. de C.V., a leading paint company in Mexico, for $2.3 billion. The deal announced June 30 is expected to be completed by Dec. 31.

Sep 20 2014

Higher Aluminum Prices Help Alcoa

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Allegheny County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of Alcoa’s biggest initiatives in recent years has been shuttering outdated, inefficient smelters and focusing on more lucrative downstream markets like aerospace and automotive.

Just as that strategy is bearing fruit with the introduction of the aluminum-intensive Ford F-150 pickup truck and long-term supply agreements with Boeing and Pratt & Whitney, strengthening aluminum prices are making Alcoa’s aluminum production business less of a poor stepchild and more of a diamond in the rough.

Aluminum spot prices reached $2,100 per metric ton recently, up from as low as $1,700 earlier in the year, according to Morningstar analyst Andrew Lane.

Sep 19 2014

Harley-Davidson Open House Draws Guests From All Over The World

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting York County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A world map stood out among hundreds of motorcycles in front of Harley-Davidson‘s York Vehicle Operations.

Pins marked hometowns of bike enthusiasts who had traveled to visit the manufacturer’s annual open house.

John Minor pushed a pin through Hartford, Wis., a closer ride than two open house guests who made the trip from India.

Thursday marked Minor’s first visit to the Harley-Davidson factory in Springettsbury Township.

Aug 16 2014

National Tube Works Shuttered In McKeesport

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Allegheny County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At the last vestige of the old National Tube Works in McKeesport, 117 years of pipemaking came to a quiet end on Friday.

U.S. Steel‘s McKeesport Tubular Operations, an electric resistance weld plant producing standard line pipe, will be “idled indefinitely,” company officials said.

In small groups throughout the day, employees filed out, carrying literal pink slips marking the end of U.S. Steel’s operation there.

Several approached for comment waved off a reporter.

May 13 2014

U.S. Small Business Confidence Back At Pre-Recession Levels

WASHINGTON – U.S. small business sentiment jumped to its highest level in 6-1/2 years in April, which should bolster hopes of an acceleration in economic activity in the second quarter.

The National Federation of Independent Business said on Tuesday its Small Business Optimism Index rose 1.8 points to 95.2 last month, the highest reading since October 2007, when the economy was on the cusp of its worst recession since the 1930s.

“April’s reading took the index to a post-recession high and a recovery high level,” the NFIB said in a statement.

It adds to data such as employment and surveys on the manufacturing and services industries that have shown the economy regaining steam early in the second quarter after growth braked abruptly in the first three months of the year.

May 5 2014

Philadelphia’s World Trade Center Seeks Higher Profile

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Philadelphia County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To most, the World Trade Center is a reminder of terrorism’s evil: two jetliners commandeered on a gorgeous September morning, bringing down New York’s landmark twin towers, killing more than 2,700 and unhinging a nation.

In Philadelphia, the World Trade Center is a bistate nonprofit fighting to be better known.

The attention the World Trade Center of Greater Philadelphia (WTCGP) especially seeks is from the region’s small businesses, a sector it says is missing tremendous growth opportunity by not exporting.

“Ninety-six percent of the world’s consumers lie outside our borders, so it’s a tremendous opportunity for companies to look to global markets,” said Ron Drozd, manager of WTCGP’s export services.

May 2 2014

US Gains 288k Jobs, Most In 2 Years; Rate 6.3 Percent

WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. employers added a robust 288,000 jobs in April, the most in two years, the strongest evidence to date that the economy is picking up after a brutal winter slowed growth.

The Labor Department also said Friday that the unemployment rate sank to 6.3 percent, its lowest level since September 2008, from 6.7 percent in March. But the drop occurred because the number of people working or seeking work fell sharply. People aren’t counted as unemployed if they’re not looking for a job.

In addition to the burst of hiring in April, employers added more jobs in February and March than previously estimated. The job totals for those two months were revised up by a combined 36,000.

Employers have now added an average of 238,000 jobs the past three months, up from 167,000 in the previous three.

Apr 11 2014

Armstrong Starts $41M Expansion Of Dillerville Road Plant

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Armstrong World Industries formally started an expansion Friday of its Lancaster floor plant, so it can begin making luxury vinyl tile there.

The $41 million project, announced by the company in October, is expected to create 60 jobs.

Shipping of luxury vinyl tile from the city plant is expected to begin in mid 2015.

The product made in the 1067 Dillerville Road plant will replace product made for Armstrong by a manufacturer in China.

Apr 5 2014

US Steel Curtails Operations

U.S. Steel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Production halts at U.S. Steel’s two largest mills could dent what is usually a good quarter for the Pittsburgh steelmaker and lead to higher steel prices.

On Wednesday, U.S. Steel informed customers of its Gary, Ind., mill that it was curtailing blast furnace and steelmaking operations at that plant because icy conditions on the Great Lakes are delaying shipments of iron ore from its Minnesota mines. The letter gave no word on how long those delays could last but was hopeful that shipments will improve with warming temperatures.

“It is possible that our ability to timely fill your orders will be temporarily impacted,” the company wrote, adding that it is trying to mitigate any impact of customers.

The announcement follows an incident last week at U.S. Steel’s Great Lakes mill near Detroit that forced the company to halt steel production there. Media reports indicate a large pipe damaged the roof covering one of its steelmaking furnaces.

Additional story: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/homepage/20140405_ap_a889ebee36a145ab8b177a5801db63ef.html

Feb 27 2014

A Major Chunk Of PNC Tower’s New Glass ‘Skin’ Being Built In Pittsburgh

In a nondescript building in a city industrial park near Crafton, a big part of PNC’s $400 million Downtown skyscraper is being assembled piece by piece.

Permasteelisa Group, one of the world’s top contractors in the manufacturing and installation of building shells and interiors, has set up a mobile factory in the 80,000-square-foot warehouse to put together the 33-story Tower at PNC Plaza‘s “double skin” glass facade.

Roughly half of the building shell is being assembled at the site, with the rest being done in Windsor, Conn., Permasteelisa’s North American headquarters.

Feb 15 2014

Business Forum: Steel, Health Dare And Future Wealth Of Our Robotic Region

Locator map of the Greater Pittsburgh metro area in the western part of the of . Red denotes the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area, and yellow denotes the New Castle Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Pittsburgh-New Castle CSA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A city that doesn’t make things can never be a real city.

The Steel City got its name and built its international reputation by making the best metal products in the world. For Hollywood, wealth and fame came from making the greatest motion pictures the world has ever seen. Silicon Valley earned its place in history by giving us the personal computer, the cell phone and just about every other indispensable high-tech gadget you can think of.

In the aftermath of the dismantling of the steel industry, Pittsburgh was especially fortunate to have a world-class health care and university system. These gems allowed us to sidestep the ruinous fate that has befallen other Rust Belt cities such as Detroit and Gary, Indiana.

However, in the long run those regional assets will not be enough to elevate this metropolitan statistical area and its wealth back to the level it enjoyed during the middle of the last century.

Feb 15 2014

Economic Slowdown Widespread

INDICATOR: January Industrial Production and Import/Export Prices

KEY DATA: IP: -0.3%; Manufacturing: -0.8%/Imports: +0.1%; Nonfuel: +0.3%; Exports: +0.2%; Farm: -0.5%

IN A NUTSHELL: “The current economic slowdown, that hopefully can be blamed on the weather, is widespread.”

WHAT IT MEANS: January can be a cruel month and this year it is especially so. Job gains were mediocre, unemployment claims are above where we would like to see them, retail sales were pathetic and not surprisingly, manufacturers reacted by cutting back production sharply. Industrial production was off moderately in January but only because utilities had to produce massive amounts to heat our homes, offices and plants. Manufacturing output tanked as fifteen of the nineteen industry groups posted declines.

Jan 30 2014

US Economy Grew At 3.2 Percent Rate In Q4

Seal of the United States Department of Commerce (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. economy grew at a 3.2 percent annual rate in the October-December quarter on the strength of the strongest consumer spending in three years, an encouraging sign for 2014.

The fourth-quarter increase followed a 4.1 percent growth rate in the July-September quarter, when the economy benefited from a buildup in business stockpiles.

For 2013 as a whole, the economy grew a tepid 1.9 percent, weaker than the 2.8 percent increase in 2012, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Growth was held back last year by higher taxes and federal spending cuts.

With that drag diminished, many economists think growth could top 3 percent in 2014. That would be the best performance since the recession ended in mid-2009.

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