|
Crawford County |
 |
|||
|
Crawford County |
|
|||
|
Bucyrus is just a half-hour drive from I-80/90 via State Route 4, or I-71 via U.S. 30. Bucyrus is well within the just-in-time range for auto plants along I-75. Shippers can reach the Port of Toledo in an hour and a half. Double that time and you're in Windsor, Ontario. Columbus is 60 miles south. In other words, Bucyrus and Crawford County are central to most of Ohio's main shipping lanes.
Rail-using industry in Bucyrus has the advantage of Triple Crown Services at nearby Crestline. The door-to-door service includes pick up of trailers at the plant and loading on "Roadrailers," with delivery the next morning to destinations in Missouri, or the second morning in Kansas, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. For a town of its size, Bucyrus (pop. 13,400) seems to get more than its share of new industries. In fact, the community captured three nice facilities in the last year. Bucyrus Precision Tech (BPT) settled in Bucyrus after investigating 300 potential sites. The company, a unit of Kaneta in Japan, invested $30 million in a new 92,000-sq. ft. plant on 23 acres in Crossroads Industrial Center. BPT will produce automatic transmission shafts for the Accord and for motorcycles, replacing parts that formerly came from Japan. U.S. production of the parts helps Honda meet the 80 percent domestic content requirement. After meeting the business requirements of highway access, good infrastructure, proximity to Honda of America Mfg. and incentives, it was the area's work ethic and community vitality that sold the company on Bucyrus. "I was very impressed to learn the industrial park was built with community donations," says Keiji Nishio of BPT. "It showed strong community spirit." Bucyrus has an available work force which industry can draw on without putting undue pressure on existing businesses. While the unemployment rate in Crawford County is not high, BPT received 1,258 applications in the first three days after putting out the notice that it was hiring for 80 jobs. BPT wanted employees that are flexible as to shifts and eager to learn. And Bucyrus' labor force, still deeply rooted in agriculture and the values inherited from the German immigrants who settled the area, met expectations. Another transportation equipment company -- Arctic Cat -- recently located its new distribution facility in Bucyrus. A primary need was to find a location from which to service all of the company's North American dealers in the most efficient, cost-effective manner. Another important factor was immediate availability of industrial property with infrastructure in place because of the company's tight time frame. |
|
Arctic Cat, which makes snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles and jet skis, found the site to meet both requirements in Bucyrus' Crossroads Industrial Center.
|
Imasen Electric Industrial, through its I-B Tech unit, also selected a site in Crossroads Industrial Center. The company makes a variety of parts for the auto industry, including relays, horns, lamps and seat adjusters. |
But for many industries, the list of Crawford County advantages goes far beyond land and labor. Arctic Cat found Bucyrus a safe, progressive community with the kind of "stable, productive employees" it was looking for.
It also discovered the Bucyrus style is pro-business. Says CEO Chris Twomey. "We were extremely impressed by the strong, aggressive, pro-business attitude projected by the Crawford County Development Board, the mayor and other members of the business community. They made sure no obstacles became roadblocks. It was an impressive attitude which made us feel that our business would grow and prosper in Bucyrus."
|
Those are the same attributes that keep Crawford County's existing industries happy, as well. Many of them are globally recognizable names. They face fierce competition on a worldwide basis and wouldn't remain in an area that couldn't match expectations for worker productivity and flexibility.
Timken, one of the largest employers in Ohio, makes tapered bearings in Bucyrus. The company, which operates in 23 countries, has been manufacturing in Bucyrus for half a century and distributing worldwide from the town for 40 years. The manufacturing operation supplies the automotive industry, but the distribution center serves the world with all sizes of bearings. The company employs about 1,000. |
"Bucyrus is performing very well, and we're expanding our processes," says Robert Arbogast, manager of human resources. "We currently make 120-130 million bearings a year, but we continue to improve the process, so in the future we'll be making even more. We compete all over the world, and we compete well. That means we're here for the long run -- it's a great place to be."
Timken likes the quality of the people it recruits from the area. A surprising number have post-high school education in such areas as welding, machining or electrical technology. The work ethic is impressive, says Arbogast, citing the instances of employees who work a full shift, then take to their tractors to farm.
"Our plant and our people make a wonderful combination, and we click," says Arbogast. "They're a great group of people who can handle the constant change. We've changed our processes more in the last two years than in the previous 50 years, with new technologies and new equipment. The employees realize they don't farm the same way they used to, so they accept the business changes." The company has invested millions in its Bucyrus plant.
Another Crawford County long-timer is GE Lighting. The manufacturer of fluorescent lamps has been in Bucyrus 55 years. The company, which turns out 130 million lamps a year in this world's largest fluorescent lamp plant, has invested over $150 million in new equipment in the last 10 years.
"But machines don't think and can't make decisions-- it takes people to do that," says Stan Cichanowicz, manager of human resources and community relations. "Our work force has been very flexible and receptive to change, which is what you need to survive in the global economy today. We went from a very labor-intensive operation with a lot of material handling to highly automated equipment which required people to rise several notches in their levels of mechanical skill. Our employees jumped to take advantage of the several educational opportunities available in the area, including the vocational school and the two- and four-year colleges in Marion and Mansfield."
| Cichanowicz also cites the value of a work force that can juggle the demands of a manufacturing job and farm a few hundred acres. "Because so many are involved in their own farm operations, they have an appreciation of a company's need to make a profit and to keep costs down," he says. |
|
To keep worker skills sharp, Crawford County companies use the services of Pioneer Technical College. The school will customize training programs for each industry, and also drives its mobile unit to plant sites to conduct computer training.
