The industry has come a long way from yesterday’s dark, dirty shop floor
By Guest Contributor Thomas Prince | program manager at ADEX Machining Technologies
I’ve been working in manufacturing for about 25 years now. When I started, straight out of a vocational school, the skills I had were adequate for the job I was doing. I tried to attend college, but I was working lots of hours, and eventually, I dropped out.
Five years later, I applied for a position with BIC Corporation in Duncan, and as a condition of employment, I returned to the machine tool technology program at Greenville Technical College to complete my degree. I have a lot of respect for the man who supervised me then. Without his urging, I don’t know that I would have gone back to school, and without the degree, I would have missed out on a lot of opportunities including the job I have now.
Currently, I serve as value stream program manager for ADEX Machining Technologies, a Greenville company that makes structural components for the aerospace industry. A member of the company’s leadership team, I’m in charge of project management, working with customers including Boeing, Curtiss Wright and General Electric to make sure that their projects are on task and on target for completion.
ADEX Machining was originally founded in 1987 in Greer as a small tool-and-die shop with just 13 employees. In 2007, the company was acquired by partners Sean Witty and Jason Premo, relocated to Greenville in 2009, and reinvigorated with new people, processes and technology. The focus is on value-added prototype and production machining services for the aerospace, defense and energy industries. With a current staff of 30, ADEX has twice been named to Inc. magazine’s list of the fastest-growing companies in the United States.
When people hear that I now work in advanced manufacturing, they often ignore the word “advanced,” while manufacturing brings to mind scenes from a movie. In that scenario, everything’s dark and dirty. The environment is rough and greasy. The skill level is low.
The reality is very different. Our shop is bright and open. Everything is neat and orderly. We run advanced equipment, and that requires advanced math skills. Opportunities in manufacturing have progressed significantly, and the skill level required has moved in the same direction. Today, a technical college education is not just encouraged, but required.
That education is just enough to get in the door. At ADEX, our staff now includes four graduates of Greenville Tech in addition to me. The field of advanced manufacturing is evolving so rapidly, with changing technology in terms of cutting tools and equipment as well as advances in the materials we use and the processes we employ. So it’s not a matter of earning a degree and checking education off your list. Instead, education prepares you for a lifetime of learning.
That’s one of the things I enjoy most about what I do at ADEX. The other is the creativity involved. Back in high school, I loved art classes, and sculpture appealed to me because it allowed me to make something. Machining is similar in that you’re taking pieces of metal and creating a component that will then be used in another creation. That component might be made of titanium and become part of a Boeing 747 jetliner. Or it might end up, as one of our ADEX components will, on the international space station.
One thing is certain. Advanced manufacturing is going to continue to advance, and the people who can take advantage of the strong opportunities in this field will need the right skills. Currently, my company and others are having to turn down business because we don’t have enough of those highly skilled people. At ADEX, we’re looking to Greenville Technical College and its planned Center for Manufacturing Innovation to help us build the pipeline of qualified employees. Education is essential for people who want to enter this field and essential for companies like ours that want to win more business and continue to grow.
