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Diverse Industries Drive Diverse State

Manufacturing success comes from ingenuity, hard work

by Gerard MacCrossan

Texas has fared comparatively better than most states as the U.S. and most other world economies struggle through recession. The state’s manufacturers and industrialists didn’t just shut up shop: rather, they looked for opportunities to develop their employees skills, sought new markets and consolidated their existing business.

New Braunfels – Energy

Finding their niche and building an order book were the keys to allowing The Salof Companies to ride out the worst of the recession. The New Braunfels companies design and build equipment that convert natural gas to liquid, mostly for export to countries around the globe, including China, the United Kingdom, Mexico and the Middle East.

“2009 was a bad year for everyone,” says Lance Remington, who handles international business development for the companies. “Exports fell off and that was the work we've been doing more of since 2004.”

The company also constructs plants that convert industrial gases and carbon dioxide to liquid. Remingon says that the company has sold almost a dozen plants to convert coal seam methane flare gases, both to alleviate environmental concerns and to monetize the gas. And Salof recently took its 100th order for a liquid carbon dioxide plant.

The small- to mid-scale plants are built and shipped on skids to hard-to-reach locations for assembly. Remington says the company has become well known in its market segment, which isn’t competing with global giants, such as Shell and Exxon.

“All processes use mechanical refrigeration,” he says. “They are tried and true practices that we just apply in a more ingenious way.”

While many companies accept incentives in return for locating in a community, it was market-driven economics that prompted Salof’s owner to relocate to Texas from Kansas in the late 1990s. Over time, the company developed its product and market to the point it had a solid order book for its product, which generally can be delivered in between 34 and 54 weeks.

“It was the ability to work off the backlog that we’d accrued. That’s what kept us afloat,” Remington says. “A banner year for us would be 16 jobs. As of the start of April, we are about to sign job number 5. We hope that success will continue as we push through the year.”

Victoria – Petroleum Refining and Chemical Products

Take a look at the numbers and it’s easy to see how, even statistically, work force training grants have benefited the Victoria area’s petrochemical manufacturing industry.

Workers trained: 2,345.

Training hours completed: 109,000.

Skills served: Process Technology; Leadership and Management; Industrial Hygiene, Lean Manufacturing; and a host of others.

“It’s a phenomenal program,” says Donna Brandes of Formosa Plastics, whose company employing 1,500 is the largest in the petrochemical consortium that successfully partnered with Victoria College to obtain $1.1 million in 2006 from the Skills Development Fund (SDF) and a further $1.7 million in 2007.

“It offered a wonderful opportunity to form a partnership with other petrochemical companies in the area,” says Brandes. “We found we were all wanting the same thing. Because we are in a rural area, being able to get these courses within a 50-mile radius has been difficult.”

Partnering with other companies for the SDF grant, which is distributed by the Texas Workforce Commission, has allowed employees from large and small companies to learn together at times that are convenient to workers and the companies. That means work can continue at the plants and training can be offered at times when workers are available.

“When an outside vendor is brought in to teach/train, often times a minimum number of students/attendees are required or they will not come,” says Brandes. “An operating plant cannot deplete the unit of personnel and continue to operate, so working and coordinating together the other partners we can get the class/classes formed. Victoria College has been very accommodating and helpful in coordinating the space availability, books, tools, etc. that they have.”

Naturally some training focuses on skills that will aid the work force, but other training has benefits beyond the manufacturing operation, too. Brandes says the emergency response training benefits communities where trained employees live and volunteer with local fire departments and emergency response teams.

The SDF grants, which have gone to diverse recipients around the state, allow recipients to tailor training to their needs.

“We work with the partners to establish a training plan,” says Victoria College Sponsored Programs Officer Danette Johnson. “It’s typically a year long. Probably, the most needed and important training to the companies are various safety and tactical skills.

“It is customized training that has really run everything from computer training to soft skills, leadership to very technical skills that apply directly to types of equipment within each of the plants,” she says. “That’s one of the requirements of the grant, that it goes beyond the scope of regular training.”

Brandes says the positive effects of the SDF training are felt through the companies’ successful operations, including work force retention and employee morale. The benefits seen from the first SDF grants have prompted the Victoria companies to apply for another, the largest request yet. The application is for $2.9 million that would train more than 1,000 employees during almost 75,000 contact hours.

Learn more about the Victoria College petrochemical training consortium and work force training opportunities by contacting Sponsored Programs Officer Danette Johnson at danette.johnson@victoriacollege.edu.