A manufacturing leader argues that opening factory doors to students and community members is the only way to change how people see these jobs. When visitors see women operating machinery, handle parts made for Tesla and NASA, and experience a clean modern shop, they become advocates who spread the word.
As a leader in this industry, I cannot complain about the stigma that's out there if I'm not willing to expose others that are not inclined to come into manufacturing, to come into my shop and see how it really is. And so I can't complain about it if I'm not doing anything about it. And there's resources nowadays through associations and schools and, you know, even officials are involved right now that we can promote the industry. And it's not every student or teacher or person that walks through my doors that have never been in a manufacturing facility will be interested in joining a manufacturing, but they will leave with a sense of knowledge and maybe even become advocates for the industry. They can be our mouthpieces and say, hey, I went and I saw parts being made for ventilators during COVID I saw parts for Tesla. I saw parts— for aerospace. I saw parts for the Navy or NASA. We make parts for all these different industries. And we leave those parts when we can. Sometimes because of NDAs, we're not able to share all the parts, but the parts that we are able to share are on our conference room table. So some of them are able to take a part home with them, or at least play with them when they're there. And so they leave with that sense of, Wow, oh, a woman is running this machine. Oh, it doesn't look as grimy. Oh, it doesn't— it's not what I expected. Mm-hmm.
