NC State of Business

Undoubtedly, the challenges for manufacturing are great. Global competition places enormous pressure for companies to survive. The job loss is painful! However, when is the last time you saw these facts in the national headlines:

• U.S. manufacturing produces more goods than any other country and is 21% of the world’s total.

• Manufacturers account for two-thirds of all private research and development in the United States.

• Twenty-two manufacturing occupations have expectations of “average” to “much faster than average” growth nationally.

And I suspect you have not seen these North Carolina manufacturing facts in the headlines:

• The seventh largest manufacturing state in the nation.

• Manufacturing is the largest contributor to the gross state product at 18.6%.

• Manufacturers provide 98% of all state exports, or $21 billion.

• Average annual manufacturing earnings per job is $59,964 - 46 % higher than the statewide average.

Indeed, productivity enhancing technologies are eliminating routine work positions while simultaneously increasing the required skills for the remaining positions. Consequently, companies become more competitive and we have the results above. Note that certain occupations are anticipated to be high growth jobs. We regularly hear about job loss in manufacturing but rarely do we hear the message that good job opportunities will continue to be in manufacturing.

So, the next time you hear manufacturing is going away, share some of the facts above. And turn the conversation into how we can help manufacturing become even more competitive and successful.

Let’s not forget that manufacturing matters. It matters a great deal to all of us!!

Last week I visited a meeting in Williamston hosted by the Northeast Alliance for Agricultural Biotechnology. There was a buzz around this group as they received a check from the NC Tobacco Trust Fund and as we where shown some preliminary design and location analysis models for an area Pilot Extraction Facility. This project will allow the Alliance to attract research and development activities into the eastern NC area leading to important breakthroughs in agricultural biotechnology. From food to medicine to fragrance, we rely on the extraction process to convert the important ingredients from specialty grown plants to chemicals ready for use by production processes.

I was intrigued by the emphasis placed on establishing a formal quality management system in support of the development and operation of this new facility along with the interaction between local biotech growers and agricultural biotech companies to safely grow new genetically modified crops. We have been asked to support their efforts in creating the appropriate quality management system processes to align with the emerging USDA Biotechnology Quality Management System (BQMS) program.

It seems like just yesterday when business owners more often than not spoke of ISO 9000 and its quality management system standard requirements as a relic destined for extinction. As I look at the draft version of the BQMS, I see the familiar structure and basic quality management system requirements of the ISO 9001 standard as it was released in its new process-focused format during 2000. We now see the biotechnology industry join what now appears to be a worldwide consent that the fundamental guidelines of ISO 9000 represent a successful blueprint for consistency, quality, and safety.

So from the brink of perceived extinction, certified quality management systems based on ISO 9001 requirements now appear to have amazingly proliferated so much so that emerging industries are investing in establishing appropriate standards as part of new process commitments. What an evolutionary concept!

Cleanliness in the workplace may be subjective among your employees. OSHA requires good housekeeping, as 29 CFR 1910.22 indicates, “All places of employment, passages, store rooms and service rooms shall be kept clean, orderly, and in a sanitary condition.”

However, if your organization contains combustible dust hazards, one of the best methods to avoid the potential for a combustible dust explosion is to enforce good housekeeping rules. This is not subjective. NFPA 654 warns that a dust layer >1/32 of an inch accumulated on surface areas of at least 5 percent of a room’s floor area presents a significant explosion hazard. The Chemical Safety Board found that the West Pharmaceutical explosion in Kinston, NC in 2003 was caused by dust accumulations primarily under ¼ inch.

Materials that may form combustible dust include metals (such as aluminum and magnesium), wood, coal, plastics, biosolids, sugar, paper, soap, dried blood, and certain textiles. Since 1980, more than 130 workers have been killed and more than 780 injured in combustible dust explosions.

OSHA has not only identified a National Emphasis Program on combustible to educate employers of combustible dust hazards, it recently announced that an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will be issued. Stay tuned for this regulatory agenda, and start evaluating your worksite for combustible dust hazards. Find more information here.

Finally, to all of you in the profession of protecting workers, happy North American Occupational Safety and Health week. Check out the safety posters created by children of members of the American Society of Safety Engineers!