MSA Safety welcomes the public Thursday for Manufacturing Day
CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP — National Manufacturing Day serves as a way to recognize the workers of today in the industry, also while opening the doors to welcome in the workers of tomorrow.
Although this year’s National Manufacturing Day is Friday, Oct. 6, some employers, like MSA Safety, got a jump on the festivities. The Cranberry Township-based company hosted an open house Thursday at 1000 Cranberry Woods Drive.
“I think it's a great way to recognize the associates and the industry,” Anne Herman, vice president of manufacturing strategy, said. “For our associates we think it's fantastic to get that recognition. Not just from the company, but from the community.”
MSA Safety, established in 1914, is a leader in the development, manufacture and supply of safety products.
Its products are used around the world and integrate a combination of electronics, mechanical systems and advanced materials to protect users against hazardous or life-threatening situations.
“I think it's helpful to shine a light on manufacturing because it's harder to attract younger generations to manufacturing,” Herman said. “There is still an image that it's dirty and dangerous.
“We make safety equipment and we have been spending 109 years making it safer to work in manufacturing, but there is still that perception.”
Herman said MSA is looking more into technology and how it can be used for the benefit of its employees.
This is because as there are less people coming into the industry, MSA wants to make the most out of the employees they do have.
“One thing would be data management,” Herman said. “Every product we manufacture we test at least once. When I started here we wrote numbers down by hand and drew them on a piece of graph paper. Now you can get a software and have artificial intelligence do that for you.”
Herman said technology used on the floors of their facilities have helped employees focus more on critical thinking and problem-solving.
“In our circuit board area we have more sophisticated machines that are capable of telling the operator ‘this is what's going on’,” Herman said. “Then the operator can do that problem-solving.”
One of those operators at MSA is surface mount operator Estelle Atkinson-Hill, who has been with the company for 31 years.
Her job is to monitor and maintain the equipment used to create electronic circuits with surface mount technology.
“We have over 500 (circuit) boards that we do,” Atkinson-Hill said. “Even though these are small, they have a lot of parts on them because these are two-sided. We just make sure that the machines are programmed well.”
Circuit board components and other materials have all seen a spike in price over the past three years coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, which proved more costly for MSA.
“It has settled down,” Herman said. “Because we make our own circuit boards, that was a big strain for us in 2022. It's gotten better, but it's not back to pre-pandemic levels, and we don't expect it ever will be.”
MSA’s facility in Cranberry Township is one of its 17 facilities around the globe, spanning 10 countries, Herman said.
Brian Davy, group leader and cycle count coordinator, who has worked in fire departments for over 20 years, said he had used MSA fire safety equipment in the past.
He liked using it so much that Davy decided to help make it himself almost two years ago.
Davy explained how the work environment at MSA has been one of his favorite things about working for the company.
“It’s a big family here,” Davy said. “We may fight, but at the end of the day we still love each other.”
