Manufacturing Challenges and Opportunities - With Ann Franz

Did you know Wisconsin ranks second for manufacturing? We are more than just cows! That said, manufacturing is an important part of our economy. It needs to grow and thrive. For years young employees looked to college or elsewhere because they didn't understand the opportunities available. Nineteen years ago, Ann saw the need and started the NEW Alliance. Today she tells us about the exciting things happening in the state today.

About Ann Franz - Ann is the executive director of the Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance. She has led the organization, since its inception in 2006. The over 400 members, mostly manufacturers employ 52 percent of the entire manufacturing workforce in the 18 counties of the region. Her past experience includes working in both the private and public sectors.

The NEW Manufacturing Alliance has been recognized nationally and internationally as a best practice in public/private partnerships. Mrs. Franz has presented at conferences throughout the nation on how to develop and grow industry sector partnerships. She spoken at an international conference in Italy on sector Alliances. The Alliance has received both state and international awards including from the Department of Public Instruction, ACTE’s Business & Education Partnership award and Frost & Sullivan’s Manufacturing Leadership Council’s Talent Management award. Mrs. Franz received the ATHENA Leadership award from the Greater Green Bay Chamber of Commerce. She also was recognized by Insight Publications’ 2022 Women of Influence Lifetime Achievement Award winner‘. She has been quoted in local, state and national media including Industry Week, Washington Post, USA Today, Forbes and Gannet newspapers.

Ms. Franz earned her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh and her Bachelor of Science degree in Public Relations from Northern Michigan University. Ms Franz serves on several local and statewide advisory committees and Boards. A few examples include she was appointed by Governor Walker and reappointed by Governor Evers to serve on the Wisconsin’s Governor’s Council on Workforce Investment, appointed by Governor Evers to serve on the Wisconsin Rehabilitation Council, Greater Green Bay Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Development Board, Wisconsin Technology Education Association Advisory Board, commissioner of the Brown County Port Authority and served as the Vice Chair of the National Shipbuilding Research Program’s Workforce Development Panel.

[00:00:11.880] - Alice

Hello. Welcome to Books in the Biz, a podcast that looks at both the financial and operational sides of success. Please welcome our hosts, Dan Paulson and Richard Veltre. Dan is the CEO of Envision Development International, and he works with leaders to increase sales and profits through great cultures with solid operations. Rich is CEO of the Veltre Group and a financial strategist working with companies to manage their money more effectively. Now on to the podcast.

[00:00:44.850] - Dan Paulson

Hello, and welcome to Books and the Biz. Thank you, Alice, for that wonderful introduction. Rich, how are you doing today?

[00:00:50.420] - Rich Veltre

I'm doing well. Doing well.

[00:00:53.630] - Dan Paulson

Doing well. Doing well. Getting through text time as the recording of this is taking place. So I'm sure you're having a blast there. And we got a guest. So we're going to welcome Anne France. Anne, how are you?

[00:01:06.300] - Ann Franz

I'm great. Thanks.

[00:01:07.670] - Dan Paulson

Good. Well, just so I don't screw anything up, I'm going to let you introduce yourself and give a little bit of your background before we get started. How's that?

[00:01:15.070] - Ann Franz

Sure. Well, I'm Anne France. I'm the executive director of the Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance, or we say new Manufacturing Alliance or NUMA. And I helped start this organization 19 years ago. Started with 12 companies in northeast Wisconsin, and now we have over 400 members, over 250 being manufacturers in the region.

[00:01:42.110] - Dan Paulson

So what prompted you to start this?

[00:01:44.650] - Ann Franz

Well, fortunately, sometimes you're just at the right place at the right time. So I was hired by Northeast Wisconsin Technical College to fulfill a grant it had with the area Regional Workforce Board. And they provide a lot of tax dollars for people to go back to college. And they're like, it'd be really good to know if there's these jobs after these people finish their degree. So they wanted somebody to go out and talk to CEOs about their current and future workforce needs. And I was hired for that role in November of 2005. Well, not many CEOs wanted to talk to me. But fortunately, in January 2006, I I finally had somebody who wanted to talk to me, and it was a company out of the Green Bay area. And the owner was like, I have great jobs, but nobody wants them. And is there anyone trying to change the image of manufacturing? So we brought some people together, and it was really one of the college presidents in our region that said, You know what? This is your problem, manufacturers, and you need to fix it. And this President, Paul Raucher, said, You know what?

[00:02:58.240] - Ann Franz

You're right. I've been my fingers at everybody except for myself. And manufacturers are really good problem solvers, and we have a problem, so let's get down to it and solve it. So because I was early on in the job, the director of the Bay Area Workforce Development Board said, Hey, Anne can help you. And so long story short, we had a few meetings, and that's when in June of 2006, we started the organization with 12 companies. Our footprint is the counties of northeast Wisconsin. So from Fondalack, Sheboygan, all the way up to the UP border.

[00:03:37.030] - Dan Paulson

Got it. Great. So what are some of the, I guess, initiatives or projects that you've been working on through that?

[00:03:45.050] - Ann Franz

Yeah. So one of the first things we did was I used to go out to schools and talk to kids about being a welder. And if it's such a great job, why aren't I a welder? So why not have real people who are really doing How do these jobs talk about their career? So we started a program called the All Stars 16 years ago, where we had companies nominate their employees between the ages of 18 and 35. And then we spotlight them in a careers magazine. We print 20, 25,000 copies that go to schools, teachers, parents, kids. The electronic version has videos of each person talking about their career. So now we have over almost 200 career videos of real people. They're not scripted. Just asking them, what did you get excited about in your job? Why do you like working the field? Another thing we found with K12 is a lot of times we work with high schoolers, but they've already decided, some of them, where they want to go. So we needed to reach down lower. So a couple of things that we did was we created videos that show how math and science are used in the real world.

[00:05:03.080] - Ann Franz

Because we had a math teacher once say to me, she's like, I'm so tired of kids raising their hand in my class saying, When am I ever going to use this in the real world? And I was one of those kids. I feel a little guilty. So we're like, Hey, well, we want kids to see manufacturing every day. So now we have about 100 math and science videos from fourth grade to high school level. So one of them is, what does math have to do with toilet paper? So do you know what math has to do with toilet paper?

[00:05:39.040] - Dan Paulson

I do not.

[00:05:41.000] - Ann Franz

I do not. Well, to make toilet paper and put it on the rolls, you definitely need some math. So that video shows a big parent roll come off a paper machine. It's seven tons. And we give the dimensions of that. And then we ask the kids, how many rolls of two-ply toilet paper does that machine make every day? Any guesses?

[00:06:05.710] - Dan Paulson

No idea. Seven tons roll?

[00:06:09.860] - Ann Franz

Yep, that's how heavy that big parent roll is. Okay.

[00:06:14.050] - Dan Paulson

How many feet?

[00:06:15.990] - Ann Franz

And you have to watch the video to get that information. I'll tell you the answer. It's 1. 2 million rolls of toilet paper that machine makes every day.

[00:06:28.790] - Dan Paulson

That's a lot of toilet paper.

[00:06:30.080] - Ann Franz

That is a lot. During COVID, they needed to make more.

[00:06:34.040] - Dan Paulson

That is true.

[00:06:38.510] - Ann Franz

That's, again, what we want to do is show kids manufacturing throughout their education to get them excited. And then we try to get our teachers excited, too. So we do lots of tours with educators. But for our tech Ed teachers, after a full year of school, they can be a little burned out, and we need to keep them engaged. So we do a big event each year to just thank them for all the work they do. So the first year, we had boats. So they could see how a million-dollar yacht was built, and then we took them on the bay in that Million dollar yacht. This year is going to be vitamins and toilet paper, so they're going to see how vitamins are made and toilet paper.

[00:07:27.620] - Dan Paulson

The yacht sounds a lot more exciting to me, I'll be honest with you.

[00:07:31.630] - Ann Franz

So that's some of the things we do around K-12. But another area is colleges, right? These students. And we're really trying to encourage our companies to do college internships. And we do an innovative job fair called Internship Draft Day at Lambo Field. So we invite college students from all over Wisconsin and upper Michigan. And The students walk into Lambo and see their name on a draft board, which is so aproposal with the draft coming to Green Bay, based on their student club participation and GPA. And then they get interviews throughout the day And they get points for how well they interview. And at the end of the event, Mark Murphy, the President of the Green Bay, packers, announces the number one draft pick, and we give away college scholarships. And everyone leaves with a jersey. And since we've started, we've given over a half a million dollars in college scholarships. So again, investing in those students, working with our colleges, identifying what are those The next career fields where we're going to need degrees in. Those are some of the things that we're doing around talent.

[00:08:54.300] - Dan Paulson

I mean, that's impressive. I'll let Rich jump in here in a second. But one of the things I want to highlight, so some gold nuggets that I really think other people should be taking away because I work in the trades. I work with manufacturing. You make it entertaining. So I hear a lot of companies say, well, we're talking to kids in high school, and some say we're going down even as far as grade school. But they're just talking about the job. They're not really talking about a way that intrigues somebody to go, hey, maybe I want to learn more about this. At least I'm not experiencing that. So I really love what you're doing and how you're putting a play on it that would actually get kids excited about wanting to pursue these careers. Rich, how about you?

[00:09:38.650] - Rich Veltre

I want to come to the event at Lambo. That's my first thought. But my second thought is, wow, that's just so engaging. There has to be a way to translate that into other universities also, getting them to do something similar. I mean, Lambo is tough to beat, right? But you can think of switch sports, go to college basketball or NBA basketball. You can go to hockey. You can go to a whole bunch of different ways. How do you get it where these people can be engaged? They're engaged because they're coming to something that's somewhat sport-like. And then it becomes a little bit more career connection as well, which I think we're going to see the need for that. I'm coming from the vantage point of being in accounting, where we're already experiencing a shortage of people. How do you get more people engaged in becoming accountants? So now you take the accountant side of it and you see that problem. You can translate to the same thing about nursing. You can translate the same thing to the manufacturing, and you can carry it across the country. So for me, I'm sorry, I'm on my soapbox, but this is a very engaging part of the conversation because you start to think, how do you start to address the problem, as opposed to just announcing that there's a problem?

[00:11:07.700] - Rich Veltre

Because for the last few years, that's all we've been doing.

[00:11:11.590] - Dan Paulson

Yeah. I think the key to that is you've also switched What are the focus is. The focus is on the prospective employee, versus on the company. Because many companies go out there and talk about how great we are, what work you're going to be doing, what culture you're going to be in. But really, I mean, when you go in to draft at Lambofield and see your name on the board. That's pretty impressive. And like Rich said, I don't think it matters what venue it is to put the focus back on the person who's going to be filling that job, makes them feel special and important. And let's face it, we're a social media society, so those are the things they want to see. So great job with you guys. Congratulations on what you're pulling together there. How about this, though? What are some of the challenges you're seeing with me manufacturing right now? We know the employment side is a challenge. It sounds like you got a pretty good handle on that. What are you hearing from your members that run a similar theme that most companies should be aware of?

[00:12:12.850] - Ann Franz

Well, we don't have a total handle on I mean, it's made- You seem to be doing pretty good.

[00:12:18.450] - Dan Paulson

So it's not perfect, but you're- Thank you.

[00:12:20.250] - Ann Franz

But there's a lot more to do, a lot, lot more to do. I think other challenges are around technology. And a lot of times, because of not having enough people, companies don't have the time to do the research and understanding of technology, but they really need to because they're not just competing with the guy down the street, but globally. And so several years ago, we started working on Industry 4. 0, helping our companies understand those technologies. We have a task force. So I have task forces, no committees, because I've been on too many committees that sit around a table and just talk. So we're doing. And so technology and just helping them understand how AI can help their companies. Half of our companies don't think they'll ever use AI, and that means half of them don't know. They don't know what they don't know, right? And so over the last year and a half, we've trained several hundred of our member companies in generative AI. Now, I think companies are like, wow, we have a lot of data because a lot of these machines are connected and spewing out this data. But we're Data rich, but information poor.

[00:13:48.440] - Ann Franz

And so it's really important that companies in all areas within a company, from marketing to HR to plant floor to supply chain, know how to use that data to make better decisions. So we have been offering a training the last five years, where the first time we offered it, we had 40 people enroll. The 10th cohort I've had, I had over 100 people in Rome. So we're really seeing companies saying, hey, we really need to get a better handle on data, and so we can make better decisions.

[00:14:28.560] - Dan Paulson

Is that what they're primarily using iFore, is to better manage their data information, or are there other uses?

[00:14:37.340] - Ann Franz

Yeah, more so making business decisions around the data that they have from predictive maintenance to your inventory control, right? So there's so many utilisations. A lot of times people, like myself, we know how to use an Excel spreadsheet, but we're not pulling out really strong bits of information. So what we're trying to do is really help upskill where they can use power our query and really developing that visual story that they can bring back to their companies. So that's one area that we're seeing companies. The good news is the supply chain has gotten a lot better. No, it's not perfect. We do an annual study each year of our members. We pull companies that have 25 or more employees and have three million or more in revenue. So 25 or more employees and 3 million or more in revenue. And in northeast Wisconsin, there's actually 600 companies that fit that metric. Wow. Surprising. Yeah. And so So we have usually a little bit over 100 companies take that study. And during COVID, 95 % reported that, Gosh, I can't get the supplies in, where that is now 45 %. So that's been an improvement, still an issue, but significantly better than it was.

[00:16:22.660] - Ann Franz

But because of my organization being focused on workforce, what I hear most about is workforce issues.

[00:16:31.220] - Dan Paulson

Right. But as you point out, that automation, I think we're going to see more of that just simply because our population is starting to drop, and it's going to be tougher to fill those positions, because bottom line is we're not going to have enough people.

[00:16:45.940] - Ann Franz

Right. It's a people thing. And every industry sector, like you said in the construction, every industry sector is all buying for this small pie of people. And we know that a The birth rates are lower. So there's not as many kids coming out of those high schools, right? So we're all competing with them. So one of the things that we're trying to do is say, okay, you have employees now. Do they have the skills you need in order to increase your productivity? Because there's not enough people.

[00:17:23.540] - Dan Paulson

Yeah, definitely. Rich, I know you had some questions before we jumped on the podcast You remember? Because I don't want to ask them for you. Of course. Of course. I put them on the spot. He does like it.

[00:17:42.920] - Rich Veltre

No, I have to remember what I said.

[00:17:44.320] - Dan Paulson

All right. I'll let you ponder that because I do have another question while he's thinking about that. So we also know labor is one side of it. The other side, to me, is also ownership and future ownership of these companies. As you mentioned, there's what, 600 some companies up in your neck of the woods, not to mention across the entire state. That's a lot of small to medium-sized manufacturers. And I'm guessing some of these owners are probably starting to think about what's next in their life. And that's something that Rich and I have been talking about in other episodes and talking with other people about what's going to happen when they're starting to think about retirement or selling their business What are you hearing from your members or the people up there when you talk to them about that? Do they see opportunities, or are they preparing for that?

[00:18:37.710] - Ann Franz

Yeah. It's interesting being in this role for 19 years, a lot of the people that I've worked with over the years are now retiring, and a lot of those are those business people that own their company that are retiring, which is sad to me. And so that is definitely a topic of conversation. We do... The last couple of years, we have an annual summit where we focus on a hot topic. The first one was, it's called Future Work, and then the hot topic. And so this Two years ago was on childcare, because we have enough childcare facilities and so forth. Last year was mental health in the workplace. Was our hot topic. And we have a task force that is of industry saying, what That should be our hot topic this year. And succession planning is the hot topic. So on May second, we have a half day summit on succession planning. And some of the breakout sessions are for that owner of a company in making those decisions, right? The best time to sell your business is not when you need to sell it. Sometimes it takes a lot longer than expected. It's good.

[00:20:00.670] - Ann Franz

Often people have a higher dollar value because they put in all their heart, sweat, and all that other. But unfortunately, that sometimes does not equal how much you can get for that company. And so the time to really start thinking about selling a company is really before you want to sell it, right? Because there's so much you really need to prepare, and also just the emotional impact of selling your baby, right?

[00:20:32.830] - Dan Paulson

Yes, definitely. Rich, have you remembered what your- Do you have any sense of the rumblings?

[00:20:42.650] - Rich Veltre

Because we use the word sale a lot. And sale really is only maybe one avenue of where the business might go if you want to keep the business alive. Yes, definitely selling is one thing. Transfer to your kids, transfer to the employees. There's other options. Are you hearing anyone thinking about the other options, or is mostly the conversation around selling?

[00:21:08.550] - Ann Franz

I think mostly around selling, or ESOPs, right? And again, sometimes they just don't know.

[00:21:19.660] - Rich Veltre

Okay.

[00:21:20.820] - Ann Franz

They don't know what they don't know.

[00:21:23.280] - Rich Veltre

That's my curiosity. That definitely been. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to- Go ahead.

[00:21:27.660] - Dan Paulson

Oh, that's fine.

[00:21:29.070] - Rich Veltre

Yeah. I thought that, to me, it's somewhat, they don't know what they don't know, which is always part of the problem. And I think if they all want to sell, then they actually have an influence on price if they all do it at the same time. So it becomes a little bit of an interesting concept or something that definitely has to be spoken about or discussed. It doesn't have to be a lecture. It has to be an open discussion on, do you know that there's other options? So that's where my curiosity comes from. What are you hearing? So selling, okay, that makes sense. But I think another part of it is just make sure that it stays alive, because as Dan and I have been talking about, manufacturing is so important. And it's become one of those things where we really want to make sure that somebody's putting a strong enough foothold in manufacturing in the United States, not just in North Central United States, all of the United States. So I think that's my point here. I want the listeners to know, reach out and figure out this is something that you need to think about because there's more than one option.

[00:22:45.080] - Ann Franz

Most definitely. I don't think people realize how important manufacturing is to the state of Wisconsin. In terms of facts and figures, we rank number two in the country for Our percentage of manufacturing jobs as a whole, at 16 % of all the jobs are in manufacturing. And Indiana is number one. They're at 16. 2 when we're 16. 1. So they're pretty close. But as a country, it's 10 %. So it is such a huge focus in our area because it's even higher. It's 23 % of all the jobs are in manufacturing. And so back 19 years ago, they did an economic study in our region, and they were like, oh, you really need to diversify. Get away. Get out of manufacturing. Well, good thing we didn't do that. I It's some academic from a different state came up with a study. You can visit http://www.newmfgalliance.org/ to learn more.

[00:23:53.800] - Dan Paulson

But anyway- Probably California. They wanted more manufacturing.

[00:23:58.290] - Ann Franz

And we happier cows.

[00:24:01.550] - Dan Paulson

Yes, we do. Yes, we do.

[00:24:04.800] - Ann Franz

So, yeah, it is such a huge importance to our region and our lifeblood. And these are good paying jobs with benefits. And that's why our state can withstand the ups and downs of inflation to all these other things, these different crises, because we have a strong base here.

[00:24:30.620] - Dan Paulson

That's an important point to bring up. And so as we're wrapping up here, how would people get a hold of you, whether they're in Wisconsin or elsewhere, maybe learn about some of the programs you're doing, or maybe get involved if they're in the northeast part of the state?

[00:24:45.180] - Ann Franz

Yeah. So you can just one, Google new manufacturing alliance, and all that contact information is there with contact form. And happy to talk with anyone about how to create these nonprofit private public partnerships in your area. I've had the opportunity to speak in 15 different states, and bringing people together, and even Italy. So if you're from Italy, I'd love to go back again.

[00:25:16.270] - Dan Paulson

Why not, right? Great. Well, thank you. Rich, how do they get a hold of us?

[00:25:26.630] - Rich Veltre

Let me an email, rich@xcxo.net.

[00:25:29.800] - Dan Paulson

Great. Great. And I should probably throw in here that since we were talking about succession, shortly after we air this, we're going to have a succession workshop. So we're going to be doing a webinar on April 24th. At what time, Rich? Well, 7 AM central time.

[00:25:46.830] - Rich Veltre

I think it's noon Eastern.

[00:25:48.980] - Dan Paulson

Noon Eastern. Yeah. And we'll be talking more about some of the things that we've alluded to here is, what do you not know that you need to know? And then we've got a workshop, a series Following that, that we'd love to have you part of. You can get a hold of me at dan@xcxo.net, and I'll let Bob take it away. Take it away, Bob.

[00:26:10.260] - Bob

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