Penn United Technologies’ apprenticeship program has about 30 people in it at any given time with roughly six new people joining a year, according to Dan Casey, manufacturing manager of the tool division.

The manufacturer, headquartered in Jefferson Township, works closely with the local vocational schools to help fill some of the gaps in the labor shortages that the manufacturing industry is seeing, Casey said.

“You hear people complaining about the youth today and how they don't want to work,” Casey said. “I just don't see it. The kids that we're getting through here through the local vo-tech schools are phenomenal.”

He noted that fewer people are coming through the apprenticeship programs than in the past, which is creating a labor shortage that, he said, other manufacturing leaders are seeing.

It especially affects Butler County — of the 67 counties that make up Pennsylvania, it has the highest number of manufacturers. The county has more than 300 manufacturers, according to the Tri-County Manufacturers Consortium.

“It could be related to work ethic,” he said. “I just think this area has a really strong work ethic.”

The quality of the people who are coming through the programs and schools are on the high-end, Casey said. What helps them meet the deadlines is the fact that the workers now know more around the shop than ever before.

“We try to do some cross-training, so people can follow the work through the shop,” Casey said.

Penn United’s apprenticeship program takes four years to complete, Casey said, which he is a “huge advocate” for because of the benefits that come with it.

“If you can get into an apprenticeship somewhere, you're going to learn while you're working, and they are going to pay you,” Casey said. “Then, at the end, you have a job with no student loans to pay back. It's a win all the way around.”

Most of the people who work at Penn United like to work with their hands, Casey said, and their attention to detail is just how they are wired.

Casey feels the future of manufacturing is in good hands moving forward, as the vo-tech schools continue to teach students the latest innovations in the industry.

“I think manufacturing is strong,” Casey said. “We're busy. I'll travel to the vo-techs, and it's neat to see the turn out. Not even just for machining, the turnout is pretty good.”

Casey, a graduate of Butler High School, said he oversees all manufacturing for the tooling division, which designs, manufactures and assembles the products.

Since the trades fall into the service industry, the products made can help serve a variety of other industries, he said.

“The things we manufacture for energy, automotive, aerospace, consumer goods and medical — there are always a need for those things,” Casey said. “The demand is always going to be there.”

Penn United provides manufacturing solutions for customers needing precision components or precision-assembled products, he said.

When customers come to Penn United with something they need, the process starts with designing the die, which is a specialized machine tool used in manufacturing industries to cut and/or form a finished product to a desired shape or profile.

“We might only have eight weeks to make all the components for the dies,” Casey said. “We’ve got multiple dies going through at any given time.”

Casey said he got his start at Penn United 28 years ago, after graduating from Butler County Community College with an associate degree in business.

Following graduation, he entered into Penn United’s apprenticeship program. From there, he began working in various areas throughout the shop, which gave him the knowledge he needed to be in the position he is in today — overseeing all those areas.

“I was project coordinator for all of our new die builds,” Casey said. “I would say this die needs to go to the tooling room or machining center. I would route every detail for that die, and then track the progress of all those details.”

Casey said he normally starts his work day at 7 a.m., and the first thing he will do is make a checklist for what he wants to accomplish throughout the day.

He will check in on certain projects from the many team leaders in the building and see if there are any needs he can help meet that they might have.

“There is a lot of fielding questions as far as how to do a certain thing or what to prioritize,” Casey said. “We may have a bench full of work, and you might have to figure out the order of what needs done first.”

Casey typically has the answers to just about any questions the team leaders might have, because, chances are, he has dealt with the same situation before when he was in their shoes.

Certain projects, Casey said, are more challenging than others due to changing materials. This is more prevalent in projects that involve products for the chip industry.

“It used to be just you take a block of steel, mill it, heat treat it then grind it, and the part is done,” Casey said. “It seems like there are a lot more exotic materials now.”

Those exotic materials include silicon carbide, which Casey said can be tricky to work with.

“Some of those parts get small and thin,” Casey said. “Some of the silicon carbide is more stable than granite. They are building components out of it to put in these machines because they are not affected as much by temperature.

“As temperature goes up, steel is going to grow, and as it gets colder, it's going to shrink. We can't have that material growing or shrinking. It has to be stable. We try to maintain 68 degrees in the shop for that reason.”

Keeping the shop clean and at an optimal temperature is something Casey said people are surprised about when they come in.

He believes people still think manufacturing facilities are “dirty old machine shops,” which, he says, couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Dirt is the enemy,” Casey said. “It has to be clean, or we won't hold the tolerances that we hold.”