Michigan Manufacturing:Growing Again

Manufacturing grows again in Michigan. A Grand Rapids-based group is looking at more than $5 million in capital equipment investment and plans to hire 56 people over the next year, all of whom will make, on average, better than $29 a hour.

Knoxville, Tennessee’s loss is Grand Rapids, Michigan’s gain. Hot Stamp Tooling Systems (HTS), which is managed in Grand Rapids, but manufactures in Knoxville, is going to move a new production line to Grand Rapids instead of expanding in Tennessee.

HTS builds hot-form stamping die sets for the auto industry and is one of several companies affiliated with Tooling Systems Group, a family of mold and die stamping, tooling, assembly system, machinery sales and contract machining companies.

According to paperwork filed at Grand Rapids City Hall, HTS will be investing close to $5 million in capital equipment for its new line in Grand Rapids. That includes a 1,000-ton hydraulic stamping press, two industrial ovens, and a robot to move materials from the ovens to the press.

This means HTS will have to hire ten people and will move 68 jobs from Knoxville to Grand Rapids with an average wage of more than $28 an hour.

The Grand Rapids City Commission has already approved an Industrial Facilities Exemption Certificate for that project along with expansions at four other manufacturing operations that fall under the Tooling Systems umbrella.

Advanced Tooling Systems (ATS), the flagship company of the Tooling Systems Group, will be investing in $500,000 in new equipment over the next year and hiring 10 people who will be making an average wage of $29.59 an hour. ATS designs, builds, re-engineers, and services medium to large-sized sheet metal stamping dies and tooling systems. 

Yet another company that is part of the Tooling Systems Group on the northeast side of Grand Rapids is also expanding. Concept Tooling Systems, a designer and engineer of small- to large-progressive, transfer and line sheet metal stamping dies, is planning a $50,000 expansion. As a result, 5 more people will be added to the company’s 34-person payroll.  The average starting wage is $33.34 an hour.

One more hiring plan: Ultimate Gaging Systems, another of the Tooling Systems Group companies, is going to be hiring 12 people over the next year.

By end of their meeting Nov. 13, 2012; Grand Rapids city commissioners are expected to ask the Michigan Strategic Fund to put all of that into a Tool and Die Recovery Zone. State officials will look at that request later this week, Nov. 16, 2012.

The news that a company is going to invest more than $5 million—a relatively small amount when you compare it to the giants of manufacturing, and hire fewer than four dozen people might not seem like much to you.

But you have to look at this as another small step in the journey of bringing Michigan manufacturing back and think about this: Tooling Systems Group would not be growing if its customers up the supply chain were not also doing better.

This is the Manufacturing Renaissance, and I will have more on that in my next book, scheduled to be published before the end of the year.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is now available in hardcover, paperback, or e-book formats at all of your favorite online retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Abbott Press.  Or you can ask your favorite bookseller to order a copy for you.

Of course you can also click the Buy Now button at the top of this page.

To find out more about Last Chance Mile and sample some chapters,  please visit www.rodkackley.com.