Times have changed in manufacturing
Butler County is home to more manufacturers than any other county in Pennsylvania, with an average employee salary of $46,000, according to the Tri-County Manufacturing Consortium.
Two of those manufacturers — Butler Technologies and Penn United — used National Manufacturing Day to showcase new opportunities Friday.
“It's really not a dirty, gross environment," said Courtney Houtz, Butler Technologies marketing specialist, in an attempt to dispel the outmoded stigma that often surrounds the manufacturing industry.
Yes, times certainly have changed in the nation’s manufacturing sector.
Factories no longer belch smoke into the sky as workers toil around the clock producing goods sold here and worldwide.
Today’s factories are well-designed models of efficiency. Because of advancements in technology, employees work smarter and not necessarily physically harder.
Penn United, which specializes in high-precision metal manufacturing, used the day’s platform to showcase its new manufacturing facility in Buffalo Township, across from Lernerville Speedway.
Bill Jones, Penn United president, said the new building cost nearly $10 million, with a new assembly line in place and a second identical one that should come early next year.
Butler Technologies, which specializes in making custom user interface products and printed electronics, is seeing steady growth, thus giving the company the need to expand its manufacturing floor.
Houtz said the company hopes to break ground next door to its current location — at 231 W. Wayne St. in Butler — within the year.
"The manufacturing floor will move over to the new building, and the old building will be more office space,“ Houtz said.
The expansion means jobs will need to be added and filled, and this will strengthen the county’s already strong workforce. From July to August, Butler County’s seasonally adjusted labor force gained 1,200 workers to 99,400 workers, according to the state Department of Labor and Industry. And in August, Butler County had the second-lowest seasonally adjusted rate in the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Industrial production has come a long way, and there are so many more career opportunities in the field, especially on its home turf, Houtz said.
"Manufacturing is not what it used to be,“ said Mike Wagner of Butler Technologies, ”It's new, and it's advancing. We make really cool different products."
—JGG
