Suppliers specializing in one type of service used to be able to compete with other providers by excelling at that service and delivering top-quality products. That isn’t the case anymore. In today’s dynamic economy, OEMs are focusing on supplier consolidation initiatives in an effort to reduce administrative, quality audit and product audit costs that come standard when working...

From 2016 to 2025, there will be 2 million manufacturing job openings nationwide. Today, students and their parents hear repeatedly that attending a four-year college is in the best interest of the children, regardless of which career path they are considering. What many may not realize is that a four-year degree is not the only option for a successful career. Sadly, today, many...

The following feature story was published in the Star Tribune© newspaper (April 24, 2016), on the creative ways rural manufacturers are finding workers. By Dee DePass, Manufacturing Business Reporter Rural factories spend big on perks, even buy companies to find workers Spiraling retirements and shrinking unemployment in rural Minnesota are driving worried factory owners to...

In their ongoing struggle to find and keep employees, rural Minnesota manufacturers are assembling new kinds of perks. One such company is taking a creative approach to its benefits package: It’s opening its own clinic. This summer, Alexandria Industries, located in the central Minnesota city of the same name, will open its Family Health & Wellness Clinic for employees and their...

Spiraling retirements and shrinking unemployment in rural Minnesota are driving worried factory owners to get creative so that current workers stay and future workers come. After years of chronic worker shortages, plants statewide are taking aggressive...

While U.S. Aluminum extrusion demand continues to step up, demand growth is expected to moderate somewhat this year at the same time as certain supply issues and concerns about future economic growth keep the market very...

The skills gap has been a growing problem with manufacturers for years, at one point even inspiring legislation to encourage on-the-job training and ongoing analysis of the issue... During an interview, Al Sholts, chief operating officer for the Minnesota-based company, Alexandria Industries, explains how manufacturers can take the initiative to train employees and work with schools to...

Suppliers are already seeing significantly strained capacities generated by ever-increasing product demand. As 2016 develops, the solar market could see unprecedented sales volumes for photovoltaic system suppliers. There are even indicators that great demand will continue into 2017 and beyond based on cost-reduction trends. With all of the action in the market, mounting and racking...

The following article was published in the Echo Press© newspaper (Oct. 21,2015) By Al Edenloff, EditorPeople working together for the common good — not laws — can play the biggest role in closing the gap of getting skilled workers to fill high-tech manufacturing jobs. That was one of the lessons the Center of the American Experiment learned from a public meeting in Alexandria...

The annual statewide Tour of Manufacturing running through October featured Alexandria Industries’ Not So Heavy Metal Tour on Saturday morning. Alexandria Industries’ director of organizational development Lynette Kluver stated that this tour functions to highlight manufacturing careers within the community via local businesses and the Alexandria Technical and Community...