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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Industrial Talk, manufacturing, Penn State Erie, metallurgical engineering, apprenticeship, metal casting, forging, heat treatment, workforce development, hands-on training, industry collaboration, career fair, manufacturing competitiveness, skill set, generational culture.

00:03

Scott,

00:04

welcome to the Industrial Talk podcast with Scott Mackenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting-edge, industry-focused innovations and trends, while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So, put on your hard hat, grab your work boots and let's go.

00:22

All right, once again, welcome to Industrial Talk. Thank you very much for joining the number one industrial-related podcast in the universe that celebrates you, industry professionals all around the world. You're bold, you're brave, you dare greatly, you innovate, you collaborate, you're solving problems, you're making the world a better place. That's why we celebrate you on industrial talk, we're here broadcasting. If you're out on the video, you can see there's a lot of industry around this particular location, and, and we're broadcasting from Erie, Pennsylvania. Penn State Erie is the location, and we're celebrating and talking a lot about their program called Metal - it's an acronym, and I always have to look up, so just hang with me, metallurgical engineering trade apprenticeship and learning, it's a mouthful, but it's pretty cool. In a hot seat we have the individual that is actually sort of administering this particular project and program, and I got to tell you, it's been an absolute, absolute delight being a part of this program, and being here in Erie, Pennsylvania, his name is Paul Lynch, Dr. Paul Lynch. Let's get a cracking. Yeah, this has been fun, because things are happening, and you're wandering around, and you're just looking around, and people doing things, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a program of action and meaning and purpose. I like that. And how you feeling?

01:53

All right, Scott, it's been an interesting week, but I want to say something that you just brought up about things happening, going back to when I interviewed for the position here, so I've been here 11 years, and I'll never forget one of the gentlemen who was actually during the interview, he said to me, Paul, if you can't make it in Erie, Pennsylvania, you can't make it anywhere,

02:16

there's a sound or song about that, but

02:20

honestly, and now, over 11 years, it's a true statement. I mean, it is, you know, manufacturing in this region is rich, it really is. And that was one of the things that attracted me to come here, because I work in industrial manufacturing engineering, but I work in manufacturing and metals, and that we're in the heart of it right now. You saw it, Scott, this week.

02:40

Where are you from originally?

02:42

So, originally grew up, I was my brother and I were actually the first ones to be able to go off to go off to four year college. We actually grew up in the anthracite coal region in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, about an hour north of Harrisburg. I always tell people, right in Yngling country. So, I grew up 15 minutes from Yngling Brewery, small little coal and railroad town, Little Borough, Gordon, Pennsylvania, probably 700 people there growing up, and you know, a lot of my, you know, grandparents, ancestors worked in the anthracite coal mines and on the railroad, that's really the region I grew, I grew up in. My father, when he's alive, father was a mechanic. My mom, my mom is in her mid 70s, she's still operating a little beauty salon out of our house. Shut up, yep, yep, yep,

03:34

that's pretty cool.

03:36

Got it, man. I said that was there, were my beginnings, but they were great, because the people there, you know, hard working, close knit, you knew everyone in a little community, and by the time I came along, you know, I'm in my mid 40s, it's you know, it was, it was basically manufacturing then, you know, that kept it kept the economy kind of moving forward, and I can honestly say that the there were there were three main manufacturers in that, in that region, that kind of kept those little coal towns going, and I, and there's probably others, but I just distinctly remember three were most of our, you know, you know, family members, folks that friends of ours from the local Little League, somebody worked there, and there was three that I distinctly remember, one was the big foundry, still there, still, still there in Ashland, Pennsylvania. They probably had 500 people at one time when I was growing up, and that wasn't that was the driver, right in the region. There were two others. There was a factory that made envelopes, that was, you know, they employed a few 100 people, and then right in a little community, little community that I grew up in, right outside of Ashland, Gordon, Pennsylvania. There was a lumber company, and that was the only kind of the only place in town, right? They had a lumber company, made components for, you know, brought the lumber in, treated it, also made a lot of components, roof rafters, wall panels, floor joists, and I actually had the opportunity, my first my. First job internship in engineering, actually they gave me my first opportunity to work as a design engineer and got great experience there. And then when I graduated, my undergraduate degree in industrial manufacturing engineering, I went to work for them full time as a regional production engineer, and I'll never forget, and I'm forever thankful for Universal Arts products, they gave me my first opportunity, and then after some time I decided to go back to graduate school, and went on and did a master's and doctoral degree, and that's when I really got into the heavy, the metal industry, and been working there ever since. So it's been over 20 years now, you know, doing research, teaching specifically in manufacturing and metals.

05:38

You know, it's interesting, Brad, I interview interviewed Brad, and of course he's with or was with Erie Bronze, and what, what was interesting was because of manufacturing, because of the how it's anchored communities, it was always fascinated by the second, yeah, yeah, his grandfather worked here, and then his dad, dad worked there. Oh, here, there's a son right now, and it's generational, and that whole generational culture in a community meant something, because you always knew, you just always knew who was, and when we were, when we were tooling around yesterday, and we were at these sites, that's what struck me. Outside of the fact that many of these manufacturers are passionate, they still have the fire in the belly, they still want to deliver a product that just meets the market needs and meets surpasses expectations, but it's, it's that community, that family, that to me is a beautiful thing.

06:47

Yep, that kept, that kept the those small towns moving forward. That was the economic engine. I mean, honestly, I think probably at one time that one foundry probably had four to 500 people working there. There's probably today you go in there, and then, oh, I still know a lot of folks when I go back home to visit, that's very important to me, you know, to make sure that you know they stay there, still there, stay strong, because it's driving those communities and driving exactly what you just said, I guarantee you go there, there's people that their grandfather, they're working there now, their grandfather worked there, guaranteed,

07:19

oh yeah, yeah, and here's the funny thing about Brad, Brad, because I'm always into history. I love history. I love the story about community, so every time when I arrive in a community, I always like, hey, what's the food to eat? You know what, what's what's typical, what's unique, right? But then also, especially in this part of the country, in this part of the United States, that rich manufacturing history, so Brad's taking me down the, you know, Erie Road, and say this was this was a company, and this was a company, and they did this, and they manufactured that, and I just, you think back on Erie, and how it must have been when it was at its peak of just, you know, there's GE 25,000 people at GE at one point, right? That's just come on, I can only imagine what it was like,

08:10

and that drove, you know, around it all the the industry in manufacturing alone that supplied right supplied services and components to them, and then outside of that, the service-based industry, right?

08:22

Yes,

08:22

I just.. I always go back to one example of growing up, you know, in the coal region, and my father, growing up, had a small mechanic shop, and he honestly, Scott, he could honestly tell you when the local foundry was doing really well and when they weren't doing so well, people would come without a car, and they'd put off maybe maintenance,

08:45

yeah,

08:46

or other things, you know, we're not getting overtime, or maybe laid off when they're doing well. Hey, mate, you know, yes, we're gonna, we're gonna do this, that maybe we'll be upgrading, buy another used car, you know? He could honestly tell you that's how important manufacturing is to the service,

09:00

so, so, now that's sort of a great segue to, let's say, metal, the program, the metal, metal, but I think more macro view is manufacturing, so here's what's taking place in the country, and this is this is the beef, here's where everybody's sort of, you know, screaming and having a hard time because it's about solving problems, so here I am. I want to bring more manufacturing back the United States. I want to reshore near shore, all I want to bring it all back. I like that strategy. I want manufacturing to be here, wherever here is in the United States. I want that, that comes at a price, and the price is that we've done, and in the United States, a great job at discouraging and moving manufacturing out of the United States, and not being diligent in developing the workforce that could be in manufacturing. So that's that's the world we live in, that's the pickle that we find ourselves in. Here is a program that I think here and others we have to, in the United States, have to support, because I think, because we can't find young talent trained skilled and everybody's screaming for it. We've got, we've got a big hill to climb. Tell us, you know, give me your thoughts on that.

10:31

Yeah, you hit it on the head. Unfortunately, I don't want to talk on the negative side, talk about positive, but no, no, no. But on that's

10:39

an opportunity,

10:39

right? There's an opportunity, and you know we had it, and we gave it away. Did when I say we would talk about our great nation, United States, we gave this away, and it's not only, you know, a piece of equipment or a facility, you know, it's it's the skill set. So now when you bring, you know, we're trying to bring it back. Well, where are the skills? That's that's the part that we're really trying to hit at the center of, right, with this program.

11:07

Yes, we do it because

11:08

we gave that away too, along with the other stuff, right. So, so now it's like we are through this program number one trying to get interest, that's the first thing.

11:18

Yes,

11:19

right. And awareness,

11:20

awareness,

11:21

you know, awareness and interest first, beyond anything, and then you know what, this level one is, we ran this week, this level one camp, give some basic right hands on skill sets here, and let people decide, hey, is this something that that I want to do, and most, you know, you see the people coming out of the program, most people, their eyes are wide open,

11:40

yeah,

11:40

12:36

yeah, and see what's interesting about this whole skill conversation is that whether we, here's the analogy, here's here it is. So I'm in Cuba. There was a transition between what Cuba was and then now communism, but the the that the clock stopped at one point. So they have all these old cars, that's where they're at. They're not at the new cars, they just know these old cars, the same thing existed in manufacturing. We stopped manufacturing locally. Manufacturing has progressed. We're over here now, and we're trying to bridge that, that gap, that that skill set gap, and it's it's a challenge, but I think to your point, is that, and I saw it on the face, so we're at those foundries, and you know they've been in the classroom, and they're on the whiteboard, and they're doing stuff, and it's just cool. They got that classroom type of thing, but it's when they went out and they said, there it is, there's the application, there, I'm actually doing it, I get it. Yes, I'm capturing that lightning in a bottle. I like manufacturing, and it's because of this metal program.

13:47

Yep, yeah, you hit it on the head. And what's very important, and what you just said is the hands-on part. That's that's the part right there that when we develop, we were asked to develop, so we did the initial development work here between Penn State in Erie and Penn State at the University Park campus. We were asked two things: let's develop some of the stuff online, so people can get a little bit of a background, right? But then we really want them hands on, right? And that's what this boot camp is all about, is the hands on part, right? The hands on part, so, so really, what you know, whether they're depending on what camp they're actually taking. Okay, most of this runs, you know, we run them four or five days, and they, it's a boot camp, they're learning a lot in those few days, right? And at the end of it, I really think they're going to have a sense of, is this something that I want to, I want to do, right at the end of it. But I, most people, when they come out of it, they're going to say they learned a ton, and their eyes are wide open, which is a good

14:43

sign, and it's all available here. Yep, what's that? That is great, you know. We're right across from the CNC, right there. There it is. I've popped in there, took care of some stuff, talked, took some pictures, just because I like taking the pictures. It's great right there. It's great. And then you also have a lot of. Other skills, it's all here. One of the things, and I think you brought it up, I think you pointed it out, is if I look at it specifically from a process point of view, I'm a company, I'm Acme, I have the same problem as all the other companies, where I'm trying to, I'm trying to maintain my business in such a way that makes sense, and I need people. Yeah, I've automated, I've done a lot of technology, but I still need people, skilled individuals. That's one. So I'm going to try it. I've got it. I have that problem. You bring up metal and the program that is inspiring these young people, I'm saying that this company needs to support this effort, because it benefits them. And then the third component is that we industry sadly, that we don't do the awareness part as well as we could, I mean, we should. This should be something that is strategic and pushing out this information all the time, and you know, I'm posting stuff because, doggone it, it's cool, but I agree with you. Let your, your professors, your teachers do what they do best, they know their stuff, right? And figure out how to get that, and let and bring it, bring more eyeballs to it. That's that's what I think,

16:30

and that's huge. Because huge, as I said, it over those 11 years that I've been here, the one of the things that I said when I first came here was my job is not going to be sitting here, in my opinion, at this desk is not going to get done. We need to be out, we need to be working directly with industry, we need to be given, we need the awareness piece, we need just, we need industry working with the academics together to rebuild this thing and get this going. When I first came here, you know, it's 11 years ago, it was, as you know, you know, just, just look at it in the media, manufacturing at a different flavor, right. We had to kind of get past that. We worked with very, very closely. We still do very closely with the Northwestern Pennsylvania American Foundry Society chapter, and we sat down, and I said, you know, we need two things. I said, we need two things, we're all going to work together here, but I need two things. One is a strong positive message. Yes. Number two, please give the students an opportunity. You know, no matter what the fiscal this fiscal year looks like, please every year promise me that you're going to bring in an intern in the summer. Please, I said give the students an opportunity, and it took a few years, but now the pipeline is open, and all of a sudden we have a different mentality about manufacturing, and all of a sudden we're starting to put students over the years it back where they need to be into industry, and now you know we're working, we work side by side right with our local manufacturers, but it took time to get to the point where we're all working together, we're all on the same page, we all got the same message, and we're opening up those job opportunities now. We actually offer here, in addition, so we have a lot of our companies we work with come to our biannual, twice a year. We have a huge career fair here. Okay, they come there, but we also, in the spring, we also bring in some of the metal and ace companies in the spring, just for a small manufacturing event that has been very, very successful. We've done that five or six years now, and, but it took bridging that gap, right, coming back together, and everybody sitting down, and but you got to see the positives coming out of it. So now we're sitting at a board meeting, and people are talking about, hey, I hired this person from, you know, up at up at Penn State Baron, and they've done this for me, and that for me, and that for me. And then the next person's like, you know, what I should bring on an intern, and all of a sudden it started to catch on, right? And we all are working together, and we're going in the right direction right now. And then we brought metal in.

18:54

I love it. We

18:55

brought metal in this metal program, and that brought us, honestly, it brought us financial resources to get some new equipment in here.

19:03

Yeah,

19:03

bring people here to see what this area is all about, see what Penn State Behrend is all about. And I couldn't ask for more right now, in terms of where we're going, and I don't know what's been talked about this this week, but we're supposed to open here, probably within the next 18 to 24 months. We're going to open a new center for manufacturing competitiveness right here, you know, right off of our campus, and in the center of that is metals, metal working, that's been needed for a long, long time, for decades. People will tell you they've been talking about that. We have a wonderful plastics lab here, probably, probably the largest in the country, and now we open this new center for manufacturing, right in the heart of metal casting, forging, and machining. We're going to open a brand new lab, and the centerpiece of it is going to be the metal casting in our metals lab.

19:53

That's, that's exciting. I, that's exciting,

19:58

but again, it's everybody working. Working together right to try to, we're making it happen,

20:03

yeah. And, and I like that, and it has to be that way. He, I don't think you can be an island, you can't just say, "Hey, I'm going to blaze my own trail. This is definitely a, a collaboration solution. Apprenticeships, and I bring apprenticeships up because, as a aligned alignment, I went through a four year apprenticeship program. It was hands on. I had some classwork over here, but no, I was out on a crew, and I was doing crew stuff. But do you see, in in just the education system, the ability to bring back apprenticeship programs, a pretty stout apprenticeship program being yelled at by old guys that have been around the block or two. So,

20:49

the another big piece of this program, as we talked about, attract folks in, train them at different levels, and another big piece of this wrapped around is working directly with industry, so the folks that are, you know, our sponsor, you know, you noted earlier, IACME,

21:06

yeah,

21:06

they, they have, I'm working with also with folks from other entities, all right, jobs for the future, right here in Pennsylvania, with Keystone Development Partnership, working with our local industrial resource center here, Northwest Industrial Resource Center, and what we're trying to do on that side is now we got people interested, we got young folks in the field that want to learn,

21:28

you have to deliver now, get that interest, you got to deliver, got

21:32

it now, you got them, they're interested, get them through a good training program, give them a good mentor, that's an apprenticeship, yeah, so that is the other piece that we're really, really working on, and there's, you know, this program has also helped some of the companies come back in. They provided some financial resources for them to start, you know, jump start some of these programs, and that's a part we have to bring back, because we were our own enemy for years as well. I'm, you know, I'm a faculty member, industrial manufacturing, you know, engineering, we talk about lean manufacturing, right. Well, when that, you know, said that, "Hey, get them back in there, let that old guy yell at them, right? That stuff that that person knows for 30 years. Well, the problem is they're in the hip pocket of that person, right? That man or woman has been there for 30 years, and they're in the hip pocket, and they're learning. All of a sudden, we started to look at, especially for manufacturing, we've faced a lot of competition, and we're looking at cost-cutting, you know, measures, things like that. Well, all of a sudden, that person, that apprentice that was in the back pocket, was maybe, maybe waste, right? Or what people weren't looking at as a positive, they weren't looking five years out when that person retired, right? So now they did away with the apprenticeship programs, and then when they needed somebody, they go down to the local technical school, and they just think that they're just, you know, going to replace that 30 years. Well, we realized that wasn't the case,

22:48

not at all,

22:49

not at all. You need everybody needs to work together, you need exposure at the trade schools, you need exposures at the colleges, right? And now bring them in and get them in a good apprenticeship program to learn right the skills for those jobs, and we left that go, and that is a cornerstone of this program, is launching, getting the companies to buy back in, getting the folks coming out of metal, all right, people that are going into the industry to get them in an apprenticeship, get them to continue to learn and drive, get our skill set back and drive our industries forward. That is, that is at the heart of this program. We got to continue to do more of it. We're doing some of it. We've got some apprenticeships going on. We need to do more of

23:25

it. And I think what I would like to see is that, and you guys embody this. I have to say, when I went to the foundries, the instructors' passion, there is a, there is a distinct passion, they love what they do, that is infectious, and that is transferred to the students that say, look at that, they're all, they've got mad skills, and they're excited about it. We have to, as an industry, as professionals, be able to deliver this in a passionate way. This is nobody wants to join a team that's they want to join a team that is like we have, we have vision, we have purpose, we have meaning. That to me is really important, and driving that forward all the time. You can't let up, you can't have a inspire somebody to get involved, and then drop the ball, you're obligated, morally obligated.

24:28

You got

24:30

it. It

24:30

is, it's huge, and, like I said, and you hit it, it's the buy-in from everybody, right? Everybody, all got to work together, everybody. I mean, it's, it's, it's vital. I mean, it's vital to this nation, you know. It is our national security depends on it, and that's not a joke, you know. Not, it's not hyperbole at all. It is so important because you look at this week, what you witnessed with, with, you know, materials and casting and forging, they're the skeleton of other manufacturing, right?

24:57

Yeah,

24:57

I think it's 90% of durable goods in cash. Thing embedded in them, right? So, so that is, you know, they're they are important. They're the backbone of manufacturing, right? It all starts right with that casting, whether it's an ingot or it's a, it's a forging, or it's a cast component, right? It most of it starts right there, right? So if we don't have that piece of it, we're in a lot of trouble. We

25:19

are,

25:20

so that's why, so important,

25:23

so I always, I don't want to sort of curl up in a ball, and you know what was what was me type of mindset, it's I just I want everybody to capture that, to be passionate about, I don't care where you're at in the world, in in this whole industrial model, I want you to see the importance, because whenever I hear somebody saying, yeah, we're going to reshore, we're going to nearshore, we're going to do all of that stuff, all I hear is people, people, people train people, and, and, and, and to your point about messaging, you it's when I was growing up, it was different. Here it is, it's sophisticated stuff, it's interesting, it's cool, and I just.. I'm so passionate about it. I just think it's so important that, yeah, I can keep on going. I'm just so thankful that you guys do what you do, and I gotta tell you, I am, I'm just tickled pink at the quality, like every student is just, they're all in, they're all in.

26:35

Yeah, it's been, it's been a great week. You've got to see it, you got to see the industry, got to see the students. The other thing that you brought up there is the talk versus do. I actually, I'll remind you, know our group about that sometimes. I said, you know, I want to go when I retire, I want to be known as a doer. I don't want to be known as a talker. I said, we want to get stuff done, we want to make sure we're pushing, you know, we're getting people in the industry, and we're actually doing it. We're not going to stand at some meeting, stand up in front of people, and talk about, we're going to do this, we're going to do that, and then never produce. I said, we are going to be a bunch of doers, and we're going to get things done, like you said, people can stand anywhere and tell you about reshoring and this and that, listen to talks, no, get your hands on it, let's do it, let's produce numbers, and let's go out and give that positive message, show those numbers, show that that program's working, and drive this forward, and that's so important,

27:27

and I think I think we can compete, I think that whole comp, that that whole argument about well, if I manufacture it here in the United States, I can't compete, I want cheap, no, I think we can, I think we're that good, I think that we're that efficient, and we can solve these challenges in a way that benefits everybody. That's that's how I look at it. And Paul, as we wrap up, what is the best way to get a hold of you?

27:59

The best way to get ahold of me personally is my work email address,

28:03

got it, PCO 120 and that is at Penn state.edu and then the website,

28:14

if we have a, we have a website at Penn State Baron Baron Ace and metal.com that outlines our specific programs here and at University Park for the metal program, and then you also can go to the Medal for America website as well to sign up for the online training, but Baron Ace and Metal outline all of our programs here and at University Park.

28:37

The other thing that we didn't touch upon is that here is a program metal that can be duplicated for other universities as you continue to just sort of push it out, you've got the curriculum, it's all there, it's tested, it's proven. Anyway, I like that too. You were great. Yeah, working on it this week. Actually, we have faculty here this week from from another school that are rolling it out at their school. Yeah, I interviewed him. Yep, all right. He's Paul, Dr. Paul, Dr. Paul Lynch. He's delivering something special. This is an incredible program. I'm living proof. I'm here to just sort of share you with you that this is what we need here in the United States, and it's inspiring. Anyway, reach out to him, you need to make him a part of your.. you just need to know more about it. All right, again, we're broadcasting from Erie, Pennsylvania. Penn State Erie is where we're at. The program is Metal, and it's an acronym, but I'll have it out there. We're going to wrap it up on the other side. Stay tuned. We will be right back.

29:39

You're listening to the Industrial Talk Podcast Network,

29:50

Dr. Paul Lynch, that was Penn State Erie. The program was Mebel. It's all capital. Guys, by the way, check this out. If you're out there, we casted this. It was, we made this while I didn't. I was just taking pictures of the students making this, but that's cool. They poured this videos out there on on LinkedIn, and you check it out. It gave me this handy dandy little wood holder, too, as well. I'm telling you, the future is bright. The passion is there, the necessity to be able to train the next generation of industrial leaders being led by that program, by Team Metal, everyone, and I mean everyone, you know, sometimes you think they're just sort of just coasting through it. No, everyone is one passionate to just excited about what they do. It's just, and they want the best for the students, and it was clear, absolutely clear. We've got a number of conversations. However, this is Paul. You need to reach out to him, because he will not be disappointed. All right, Industrial Talk again is here for you. We're going to take this platform, this voice and be able to help organizations and programs like Metal across the country. They need help, they need attention, and we want you to be a part of that. We want you to tell your story. We want you to inspire that next generation. What you do matters. What you do is important for manufacturing, for just industry in general. Do not, do not just squash it down. Tell your story. You go out to industrial talk, you click connect, you connect with me. Let's do it. You get everything that we, we've got to, as industry, do a better job at inspiring and getting people to just get all engaged in industry. We need to do that, or this dream struggles, and I don't want that this dream to struggle. All right, as I always say, be bold, be brave, dare greatly. Hang out with Paul, hang out with Team Metal, change the world, change lives. That's what they are doing. We're going to have another great conversation shortly, so you know, stay tuned,

32:35

you.