U.S. Department of Commerce rep tours Forward Township plant
Machinery banged in rhythm while workers produced ductwork at a Mon Valley factory Friday, which is actually a down day at this plant along the Monongahela River.
It’s even noisier at this DMI Companies shop on Mondays, when production resumes at full speed at the largest heating, ventilation and air-conditioning accessories manufacturer in the United States, Stephen Nachreiner, the company’s marketing manager, said Friday, when DMI gave a top U.S. Department of Commerce official a tour of the plant.
“American manufacturing is alive and well,” said Karen Dunn Kelley, an undersecretary at the department, during her visit to the factory in Forward Township, Allegheny County.
“I’m pleased to be with a company that cares about its products and employees,” said Kelley, who came here to draw attention to National Manufacturing Day, which takes place on the first Friday of every October.
This plant, also known as Ductmate, celebrated Manufacturing Day Wednesday with about 80 students from local school districts to give them a taste of what it’s like to work in a factory, said Doug Gudenburr, director of operations at DMI.
The day draws attention to research that shows the average salary for manufacturing workers is $77,000 a year and that they have the highest job tenure in the private sector. Ninety percent of these workers have medical benefits, according to the Manufacturing Institute.
DMI has four factories in the country and employs more than 400 people, said Raymond Yeager, the company’s president and chief executive officer.
“This is the largest,” Yeager said. “Our headquarters are in Charleroi.”
Kelley said she chose to visit DMI, in part, because of its commitment to the department’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
The partnership has members in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, who work from the “grassroots up” to help small and mid-sized manufacturers grow, solve problems and improve technologies, she said.
“Why not come here and say thank you for what you do,” Kelley said.
Her first stop in the factory was at its recycling center, where DMI has been working toward having a zero-waste rating by 2020, Nachreiner said.