- [Narrator] Live from your public media studios, WVIA presents "Keystone Edition Business," a public affairs program that goes beyond the headlines to address issues in northeastern and central Pennsylvania.

This is "Keystone Edition Business."

And now moderator, Steve Stumbris.

- Hi, I'm Steve Stumbris.

The manufacturing industry is a huge driver of the Pennsylvania economy.

There were close to 20,000 manufacturers in the state as of 2020, contributing almost 10% of the state's workforce.

Your favorite products might be made in your own backyard.

So why does Pennsylvania have such a robust manufacturing industry?

And what makes a business decide to make Pennsylvania its home?

We have experts here to answer those questions and share their stories.

If you have questions, you can email us at keystone@wvia.org or tag us on social with the hashtag keystone business.

But first, Paul Lazar has more on what manufacturing businesses mean to our region.

(gentle music) - [Paul] Of the manufacturers in the state, more than 2,000 of those are right here in northeastern and central Pennsylvania.

According to the Pennsylvania Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the top five manufacturers in the state are chemical, food and tobacco, fabricated material, primary metal and machinery manufacturing.

Two large manufacturers, InterMetro Industries and Bridon-American, both in Wilkes-Barre, manufacture metal products.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, more than 52,000 people worked in manufacturing jobs last year.

So what makes northeastern and central Pennsylvania attractive to the manufacturing industry?

The easy access to major cities and transportation hubs through the interstate system is a huge factor.

New York City, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Syracuse are all about two hours away.

There's also a strong available workforce and plenty of educational opportunities at the area's colleges, universities, and trade schools.

A low cost of living also benefits companies that are looking to attract and retain employees.

For "Keystone Edition Business," I'm Paul Lazar.

- Hi, I'd like to introduce our panelists here to share what they know about manufacturing in Pennsylvania.

Nick Gilson is the founder and CEO of Gilson Snow, a snowboard and ski manufacturer in Winfield, Pennsylvania.

Lauren Bryson is the executive director of Focus Central Pennsylvania, a regional resource for corporate location and expansion decisions.

Jeff Comitz is the director of operations at Thermal Product Solutions in New Columbia, Pennsylvania.

Thank you everyone for joining us.

I'm really looking forward to this conversation about how things and what things are made in Pennsylvania.

Great conversation topic for me.

As I've shared with each of you, I come from a background in manufacturing, so this one is really near and dear to my heart.

I'm looking forward to hearing and helping you share your stories.

So Nick, looking forward to starting off with you and asking you to tell us about the start, about Gilson Snow as a company that launched in central Pennsylvania.

Tell us a little bit about that start and why Pennsylvania.

- Yeah, well thank you, Steve, for having me on the show.

It's great to be here.

Thank you, Pennsylvania, for all of the support over the years.

Our story's a little atypical.

I was a middle school science teacher, and what started as a school project with our students, we then launched out of the classroom.

We moved into a donkey and horse stable in central Pennsylvania.

We moved into a cabin in the woods with no running water or electricity with our early team.

And we hiked out of the woods each day to build our first shop in this stable.

And one thing that's really true about our manufacturing process to this day is that cleanliness is a super important part of it, and so having processes layered up on top of each other, and a donkey and horse table wasn't the easiest thing.

But now we've grown over the last decade, believe it or not, here in central PA. We're deeply committed to this region and to our people and are now shipping out all over the world.

So got a lot of gratitude here.

- [Steve] It's an amazing story of how quickly and how broadly Gilson Snow has grown as a company, the manufacturing capability and as a brand all throughout the world.

- Yeah, I think this year, today we've shipped to over 43 countries around the world from central PA, all with locally grown and sustainably harvested Pennsylvania poplar.

And we've gotten the chance to work with some of the coolest and most incredible creators from all over the world, and certainly a number right here in Pennsylvania.

And one of our most successful artists to date is based in the Poconos.

Trippydraws is an unbelievable partner of ours.

And so it's really fun to create something that's relevant globally, but then also come back and do really cool things in the local scene and be a part of this community that's supported us since the get-go.

- It's amazing to know that indeed local artists are featured.

The snowboard and skis, they are essentially a canvas for them.

- [Nick] Right, and when we first started the company, I told our team that, look, it's all about the performance.

It's just about the technology.

No artwork.

And it was the first time I had to look our team in the eye a couple months later and say, "I was completely wrong."

- [Steve] You've learned.

- Yeah.

I've said that many times since the founding of this company.

But lucky to listen to our people who really had their finger on the pulse of what mattered.

- That's great.

So much more to come about your company, what's ahead.

But I also wanna bring Jeff into the conversation and learn about Thermal Product Solutions or TPS.

Could you tell us about, well, the products, some of the places or types of applications they're used in?

- [Jeff] Sure.

Once again, thank you for having me, Steve, and for letting me represent Thermal Product Solutions.

TPS or Thermal Product Solutions is an environmental testing chamber, industrial oven and space simulation manufacturer.

We build a variety of different ovens for the aerospace, pharmaceutical, automotive, and pretty much any industry that exists out there.

- [Steve] So tell us about some of those industries.

I know, okay, electronics need to be tested across a wide range of temperatures.

Can you expand on that?

What other industries might use the ovens and the testing equipment?

- Big that every user would be able to identify with are lithium batteries, any type of electronics, anything automotive.

Basically anything that you see or touch throughout the day of your daily life, it's tested in some type of environmental testing chamber or it has a heat treating process, an industrial oven.

Anything from a contact lens that you put in every day that you don't think about, how does that come to life?

How does that become what it is to the end user?

Your automobile, you get in every morning.

You anticipate that it's gonna start no matter what the temperatures are, whether it's the middle of winter, and it was minus 10 the night before, or if it's 90 degrees in the summer.

All of those products are proven out in some sort of testing chamber or are produced and manufactured and go into an industrial oven of some sort.

- [Steve] And designed and manufactured right in central Pennsylvania.

- Absolutely.

We do all our own engineering and design work.

We have a fully standard line for most of our products, but we also specialize in custom solutions, and that's where we're able to differentiate ourselves from some of our competitors.

- [Steve] I'm curious to hear, how did you get to that point?

You've been with the company for almost- - Eight years.

- Eight years now.

- Yes.

- What was that path like for you?

- I started out, I was a non-traditional college student.

Basically went back to school to try to forge a career path, provide a better living.

I went for refrigeration engineering.

I started as an intern working in our test and quality department at TPS.

When I graduated college, I started in the engineering department, and then I ventured into sales engineering.

And I started to learn as much as I could about the business all the way around from finance, to shipping and logistics, to engineering, to how to assemble and put things together.

And I became a good fit to run operations, which involves all of those departments.

- A small job, just operations.

- Very small.

- So their facility is insane.

Jeff showed us around a little while ago, and TPS is absolutely nuts.

What you guys are doing there is extraordinary.

- Thank you very much.

- I love that you've had a chance to visit.

And Lauren, I understand you've also had some familiarity with Thermal Product Solutions.

Could you tell us about your role in industry for the region?

And as you talk about manufacturing, TPS comes up as an example.

Tell us about your role at Focus Central Pennsylvania.

- [Lauren] Yes, thanks Steve and thanks for having me on.

So Focus Central Pennsylvania is a regional marketing alliance and nonprofit.

And our mission is to attract investment that cultivates economic growth in central Pennsylvania.

So we're the regional economic development group out telling the central Pennsylvania story.

And one of our key markets and audiences that we try to attract are manufacturers, advanced manufacturing for a lot of reasons.

But we work with our colleagues in other economic development groups to do that.

It's certainly a team effort.

And at the end of the day, the kudos goes to the manufacturers that are making those investments and the leaders in those manufacturers that are committing to these communities and making that investment.

So we really try to listen to their stories because it was mentioned in the intro that a lot of the key reasons companies invest here is because of our strategic location, proximity to markets, access to that market with our infrastructure, our energy, our natural resources.

Those are all key things.

But each manufacturer, regardless of their size, has a story and has some key components that are gonna make their strategy and their vision successful.

So we try to listen to that story, understand what they're trying to accomplish, and match them with advantages in central Pennsylvania, because we want them to be successful.

We want our existing companies to grow.

'Cause when they're successful, the talent is successful, they have career opportunities, pathways, and the communities are successful.

Our manufacturers are some of the best community members in terms of volunteer and giving back.

- I've seen that over and over again.

The manufacturers, well, the people who work there are members of the community.

And when its, when the leaders of that company, likewise, they see the impact that that good paying job has on the health of a community, the health of their employees and their families, it's a win-win all around.

So Lauren, as you talk to manufacturers who are seeking, okay, where they're considering an investment in Pennsylvania, or existing manufacturers considering expanding, investing and growing here, what are some of those top topics that they need to know about?

- [Lauren] Yeah, so like I said, it's unique to each one, but some of the key ones are talent.

So talent is number one, not only access in terms of number, but quality, productivity, innovation, and then the training, what training is available to them.

Because the advancement of technology and the equipment and machinery, it's a constant learning process.

And manufacturers have to stay innovative.

They have to continuously improve, continuously be flexible.

So they have to have the training in order to do that.

But certainly location, site and building that fits what they're looking for, infrastructure to support what they need to produce their product.

And I just sum it up that our region, Pennsylvania, we can make and move product.

So at the end of the day, it's coming up with those key things, talent, proximity to their markets.

And then it's specific, access to raw materials, supply chain, those kind of things.

- [Steve] So thanks for sharing that.

And WVIA had an opportunity to visit one manufacturer of northeast Pennsylvania and learn about their, well, long history.

Manufacturing has an exceptionally long history in Pennsylvania.

WVIA visited the oldest children's shoe manufacturer in the country, Kepner Scott in Orwigsburg, to find out what has kept them going since 1888.

(soft flowy music) - [Audrey] Kepner Scott was started in 1888.

We have always been located in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania.

We love this town and we love Pennsylvania.

This has always been our home.

(machines whirring) What makes us unique is everything is made here and handmade.

We are still making shoes almost the same way we were 100 years ago.

It really is a dying art.

Shoemaking in general is very labor intensive.

A lot of the footwear companies have gone overseas.

From start to finish, there's 125 steps to each pair of shoes roughly.

Every single person in this factory touches this pair of shoes.

There's love poured into every pair.

And the other thing that made us different and still makes us different today is traditional widths, B, C, D, E and triple E widths.

My great-grandfather Milo, came on board in the early 1960s.

He ultimately came up with this rubber sole instead of using a hard leather sole.

This is actually the original pattern that my great-grandfather made for this style.

When I was little, I remember walking and running around the shoe factory and I thought what our family did was such an art and so beautifully done.

And I knew one day I wanted to be a part of it.

A lot of shoes that we have in our line are named after family members.

This is the Audrey sandal.

So because we hand make everything and because we've always used traditional sizing methods, we're in boutiques and retail shops all over the world.

We send shoes to hospitals all around the world.

It becomes this family heirloom that is so important to people where they save our footwear over time.

And they'll send us photos, and it's our shoes made in this factory and made by these people.

We always say handmade with love from our family to yours, and it's true.

- An amazing story of what is made right here in Pennsylvania.

Who would know, 135 years?

But even in that tradition, in that history, in that handcrafted nature, I hear there have been innovations.

Okay, adapting to new materials available, new innovations in the soles, the materials of construction for those shoes.

I'd like to hear from our panelists about innovations in manufacturing, whether they be materials or technology.

And Jeff, over the course of the years that you've been at TPS, what technologies have you seen that have facilitated the growth or the reach of TPS' products?

- The big, everything's a green initiative these days, so they want the equipment to be lighter, better insulation values, thermal properties.

Everyone's worried about power consumption, carbon footprint, so we try to do everything we can on the technology side to use the latest and greatest components in all our equipment.

Also, technology software, everyone wants to basically have Alexa or Siri.

I hope your phone doesn't go off, I'm gonna say Siri.

- Some kind of technology embedded into it.

- So people want that, want all that right-at-your-fingertips technology where no matter if it's an automobile or a thermostat at your house or your watch or your environmental testing chamber, industrial oven, everyone wants that technology to be able to control it remotely, program it remotely, customize it to how you want it to be.

So we have to get on the boat or we're gonna be left behind.

So we're always advancing in those areas to make sure that we're keeping up with everyone else and doing what we can to separate ourselves from others.

- Nick, can you add to that?

What kind of technology or other innovations over the 10 years since founding Gilson Snow?

- [Nick] Yeah, certainly.

One of the things that I'd point to that has been really important is the amount of time from what we're making, to when it's on our customer's doorsteps around the world.

And so the vast majority of our competitors are producing from eight...

They're placing orders 18 months to three years from the time when it's actually actually in your hands.

There's just so much time between when it goes into manufacturing and when it reaches the customer.

For us, we're three to 10 days, which just totally changes how we can think about building relationships in our community instead of producing for a warehouse shelf, and then shipping once the order comes in, and really having to measure the success of our business of how many of these things that we already made can we now sell to whatever customers, right?

We're thinking about this, like let's build relationships, let's go out there, let's have unbelievable community experiences.

Let's actually build for human beings instead of warehouse shelves.

Let's build for our customers.

And so that's allowed us that rapid manufacturing, going from three years to 10 days or faster has allowed us to say, "Okay, let's do a really cool drop with NHL," or, "What if we worked with this artist in the Poconos," or, "What if we did this cool project with Slayer or Pink Floyd?"

And we go to these folks and they're like, "Well, how long is it gonna take?

What are the minimum guarantees?"

All these historical hoops that people had to jump through in manufacturing.

We're like, "No, forget that.

We're only gonna make it if it has a home."

And so we're not gonna build up all this inventory and we're not gonna create potential waste.

Instead we're gonna only build products that actually have a home.

And in this way we can create much more meaningful snowboards and skis for people, whether it's got their kid's art or their dog's face on it.

But we can also go to potential collaborators and say, "Look, if we sell one together, it's successful, and if we sell 500 together, it's successful."

And that allows us to be much more nimble and also make sure that we have a much, as Jeff pointed out, no overstock waste, building products that are actually in demand.

- So speed to market, responsiveness, responsiveness to consumer demands.

You're moving into an almost on demand type of world.

- [Nick] Totally.

Yep, and that's led us into the art world, right?

And I was joking about it in the beginning, thinking that, look, we're all about tech and fluid dynamics and three-dimensional design.

And the reality is, is that artwork and having really world-class, high quality artwork fast has been something that's become incredibly important to this business over the last couple of years.

- [Steve] So Lauren, I wanted to shift the conversation to you.

That kind of consumer demand, as well as keeping up with technology must face, must pose a lot of challenges for manufacturers.

Can you talk about some of the challenges that you've seen or challenges that you can see in the future that manufacturers are gonna have to grapple with?

- Sure.

Yeah.

So innovation's scary, right?

It's all about reducing the risks and increasing speed to prove that that product's marketable.

One of the great advantages I think Pennsylvania offers to manufacturers is the access to resources.

We have an incredible ecosystem of resources to help in innovation.

And it's not just product innovation or material innovation, it's process innovation.

It's market innovation.

So there's so many great things.

But I think data is gonna be a challenge.

So more and more people wanna know information, where it's at, what it's used for.

So sensor technology, manufacturers figuring out how to leverage that mass amount of data to be beneficial for them, to be profitable, but ultimately to have a better end product or service for their customer.

So I think definitely data, I believe too with the advancement in artificial intelligence is gonna be significant in figuring out how that fits in a manufacturer's business model or future strategy is gonna be significant too.

But the cost, the cost to get into that advancement in technology is huge to consider that capital investment.

- [Nick] AI literally went from a hypothetical to a reality in the last three months.

I mean, that is really on the cutting edge now.

And your point about data is so well taken, and it's not so much about even having the information, it's about what you do with it.

And we often think like, oh, that business had the information before this business.

But the reality is, is that almost everyone has...

It's pretty democratic in terms of who has access to the information.

It's what you do with it, how you analyze it, and what role AI plays in that that actually makes the insights and the actionability coming out of it so important.

- Everybody's heard the internet of things.

- Yes.

- The IOT.

So we have an initiative at our company where we've developed a product that we put on our equipment, and we send it out to the customer in the field, and it takes diagnostics and it transmits it to a cloud, into a database, and then we create personalized dashboards, and then we can monitor all the equipment.

So it's a great diagnostic tool.

So you can see preventative, predictive failure we call it.

So if you see things that show that your motor is drawing more amps than it should, or your refrigeration compressor, the PSI is too high, you could see a pattern trending and you could say, "Hey, we need to get a technician in there and we need to do some maintenance on it before your, before their equipment goes down."

Before it goes down, and then you have no production.

So that's where it's all going.

- You can roll that out in our healthcare system next.

That'd be great.

(all chuckling) - All of this points to... And Nick, I'm gonna turn it back to you for one important topic that I know is alive for your company.

But you participated in a WVIA panel about careers and talking about pathways to say a manufacturing career.

These changes in technology are pointing to different roles in manufacturing for Pennsylvania residents.

Can you expand on that and what kind of skills are needed for the future?

- [Nick] Totally.

I think that, look, you look through the history and even the way we... A middle school science teacher here, right?

So the way that we teach in our school system is, can you memorize this information and can you spit out the answer on a multiple choice test?

And can you follow directions?

And those were really good skills to have for factories a hundred years ago, but these days what we really need are people who are thinking on the forefront of it solving problems.

Because any repeatable task can get automated.

And that's exciting, that's a good thing.

It means that people are going to be able to have jobs where they're deeply intellectually stimulated and deeply curious about the work that they're doing.

And we can start to create jobs where people are really excited about the future and the change that they're a part of.

So when you look at the way that we've run our facility over the last 10 years, there's no one who just sits here and just does this process over and over and over again.

It's this hybrid between pairing truly a phenomenal, phenomenally talented workforce here in central Pennsylvania with precision tooling that's now available to us, and then having people lead the process.

And if we wait for me to suggest how to make our process better, we're gonna be waiting a really long time.

Because unfortunately, I'm so disconnected from it now.

It's the people on the shop floor who are the builders of our snowboards and skis who are so genius with this stuff.

And they're like, "What if we move this tool over here?

What if we reverse this process?"

And we're seeing that it's just a much more exciting future.

I mean, I think when people talk about automation and technology, it can feel threatening at times.

But at least the folks on our team in every position, we're really excited about this reality.

- Now we're coming to the close of our conversation, but since that panel, I know that Gilson has experienced a fire at your facility.

You're in the process of planning to rebuild.

Can you quickly summarize why are you choosing to make it in PA again?

- So, I mean, we really have to put our money where our mouth is here, right?

We've been saying for years that we're deeply committed to this region for all of the reasons that we really believe and know in our heart, right?

And this has forced us to take a step back, take stock of what we've built.

I mean, our facility, we watched our whole team gather, it just burned to the actual ground on November 18th.

It was just a wild life experience for me and everyone on our team.

And this extraordinary outpouring of community support after was just amazing.

And as we went back to the drawing board, we heard this messaging that we've been saying over the last year, just like, yes, it's all about the people.

It's access to the outdoors.

We've got beautiful riverways and amazing hikes and the new Office of Outdoor Recreation in Pennsylvania, which is extraordinary, and the ability to ship out all over the world.

And so for real moral reasons and commitments, but also for real business reasons, we're choosing Pennsylvania again and we always will.

- I thank you for doing that, and I would like to thank all of our guests for participating tonight, and thank you for joining us.

For more information on this topic, please visit wvia.orgkeystonebusiness.

And remember, you can rewatch this episode on demand anytime online or on the WVIA app.

For "Keystone Edition," I'm Steve Stumbris.

Thanks for watching.

(low upbeat music)