For more than a century, MSA Safety has never wavered from its mission: “That men and women may work in safety and that they, their families and their communities may live in health throughout the world.” Butler County is one of our communities, and it plays a substantial role in fulfilling this mission.

Since 1985, we’ve grown our presence in the county to include our global headquarters, an advanced manufacturing facility and our research and development laboratory in the Cranberry Woods development.

Glennis Williams

Our Cranberry manufacturing plant is home to our Gas Detection Center of Excellence, where we produce sophisticated sensors that power our industry-leading detection equipment. Over the years, we’ve expanded operations to address the growing demand for our products and to streamline detection manufacturing operations in this one location.

In 2021, we expanded our manufacturing operations by 18,000 square feet and are on track to add nearly three dozen manufacturing jobs as we increase the number of products we make in the plant.

But we just don’t produce products — we invent, we innovate and we create the next generation of safety technologies that help to keep workers safe. Because safety is all we do, this singular focus differentiates MSA Safety from other companies.

This means Butler County is playing a part in helping to make the world a safer place. It means our local workforce is making an impact on a global scale by taking our industry-leading products and enhancing many of them with technology and AI-powered systems. These are products that connect and detect for safety and for sustainability, helping to make work safer, easier and more productive.

For MSA, like many companies, one of our top business imperatives is attracting and retaining quality talent. As a manufacturing company, we must sustain labor participation rates that are as robust as the demand for our products. As a technology innovator, we must draw on the broadest pools of talent possible. That’s because we know that our people are as unique and innovative as the products we create. Those very differences can make all the difference as we design safety solutions fit for the diverse needs of workers in hundreds of countries, industries and applications.

Doing this hasn’t come without its challenges. We’ve been dealing with recruiting challenges, and with this continuing to be a worker’s market, the onus is on companies to attract and retain employees. The COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to many challenges within our operations, including those that many other manufacturing companies faced: supply chain disruptions, labor shortages and inventory challenges.

While some degree of these challenges still persist, the strain has eased, and throughout it all, our employees have risen to the challenge. It’s our employees and their skill sets who are driving the success of the company and doing it with our mission top of mind.

For us, it’s simple. Good people are good for business, and good business is good for people. And when it comes to creating value for all of our stakeholders, we know that innovation and growth do not happen without great talent. We’re modernizing our workplace and our workforce. We’re enhancing our utilization of technology to fully leverage innovative solutions for our customers, and it’s how we envision our Factory of the Future.

As we enter our 110th year in business, we’re excited to see what the future holds — not just for MSA Safety, but for the workforce in Butler County and southwestern Pennsylvania. The same reasons that attracted the company to Cranberry Township decades ago — the accessibility to Pittsburgh, highways and airport; the ample housing for our workforce; and the significant tax advantages for growth — continue to hold true.

We’re looking forward to being a part of what is to come, and looking more into technology and how it can be used for the benefit of our employees. We want to make the most out of what our employees and this region have to offer, and in turn, be an employer of choice in this area, as we develop and produce the safety products our customers rely upon around the world.

MSA Safety, located in Cranberry Township, has had operations in Butler County since 1985. Now, the MSA Safety campus in the Cranberry Woods development includes its global headquarters, the John T. Ryan Memorial Laboratory and a manufacturing plant. The Cranberry Plant is home to the company’s Gas Detection Center of Excellence, where it manufacturers sensors, gas detection instruments and circuit boards.

Glennis Williams is MSA Safety vice president and chief human resources officer.