Manufacturing Day and Wenzel America

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Manufacturing Day was started with the mission to “empowers manufacturers to come together to address their collective challenges so they can help their communities and future generations thrive.”

MFG Event Growth Chart

With that goal in mind, Manufacturing Day has spread across the United States, Canada and Mexico. It all began in 2012 with 240 participating companies. last year (2016) that number had jumped to over 2800. Manufacturing Day was also honored by President Obama in 2014, 2016 and President Trump in 2017 when he proclaimed October 6, 2017, as National Manufacturing Day, asking “all Americans to celebrate the entrepreneurs and workers in manufacturing who are making our communities strong.”

Effects on Perception Infographic

For us at Wenzel, Manufacturing Day is a day we all feel pleased in the hope that we are inspiring young people to pursue education or training that will prepare them for a career in manufacturing.

According to the 2015 Skills Gap Report, they are expecting a shortage of 2 million skilled workers in the next 10 years. These jobs are good paying and form the backbone of the United States.

We need young people to see the value in manufacturing and that is a big part of what Manufacturing Day can accomplish. The second thing Manufacturing Day helps with is the change in perception, that manufacturing is dirty low-end work.

By bringing kids into manufactures they, and maybe more importantly their parents begin to understand what a clean, fast paced and high-skill environment modern manufacturing has become. The students and their parents can be proud to be a part of it.

Dr. Heiko Wenzel- Schinzer Chief Digital Officer and Dr. Heike Wenzel CEO, For Wenzel this was our second year and kids were just as excited. We started the day with some words of encouragement from Dr. Heike Wenzel our CEO, who wanted the teens to know hard work and persistence are the keys to success.Then Dr. Heiko Wenzel- Schinzer our Chief Digital Officer Explained industry 4.0 and how it is changing the manufacturing, and theworld.

Giles Gaskell and Alexander Bosch

As we moved to the next station Giles Gaskell discussed computed tomography and the benefits of knowing the “DNA” of your part. Alexander Bosch (last year’s CT intern) described his duties providing CT Scanning Services and how exciting it was to be a CT programmer.

Student and Jonah DeLongchamp

In the next station the students received one on one attention from Jonah DeLongchamp as they learned how to program and measure with a CMM.

At the final station, Alex Aull used a stripped down machine to present the main components of a CMM. He also provided an interactive demonstration on air bearings and  information on how to become a service technician.

Children listening to man speak about Manufacturing

The whole team had a great time showing the students what we do. Our hope is to spread the word so every student that is interested in manufacturing will have a chance to visit a facility next year. If you would like to know more about Manufacturing Day or would like to sign up for next year, please visit here