How many times have we heard
shop owners complain about training their workers only to see them leave to
work for other shops or even start their own businesses? If you're like me, the
answer is "plenty". But what
if we didn't train our machinists? For my money, Milt Thomas, president of Wire
Cut Company in Buena Park, CA has the right answer:
"We have a choice:
train them and maybe they’ll leave, or not train them and maybe they’ll stay”.
Well put.
In Los Angeles, we seem to have the “Right Stuff”
when it comes to workforce development. Our NTMA Chapter (actually,
it was the Southern California Tool & Die Association back then) established a training center
here in 1968 to train skilled machinists.
Shop owners with exceptional vision worked together and created
what has become
one of the premiere machinist training facilities anywhere in the country.
Since 1987, the NTMA has
awarded the William E. Hardman Award for Excellence in Training. It’s awarded on an almost-annual basis to companies,
organizations or individuals who have
consistently
demonstrated strong support and active participation in structured training for
the precision custom manufacturing industry.
(I’m proud to say that of the 23 awardees over the years, I personally
have known 13 of them.)
The Los Angeles Chapter is home to the most winners
of this award, narrowly edging out the St. Louis Chapter and several
others. The past winners from Los
Angeles were:
1993 Leo
Holder Brown-Covey, Inc.
2001 Dan
Watts Woodruff Corporation
2010
Michael Kerwin LA/NTMA
Training Centers of Southern California
Add Milt Thomas to the
list! At the annual NTMA conference last
month in Kona,
HI, the Los Angeles Chapter was thrilled
to see Milt win this prestigious award. If ever there was a person with a laser-like
focus on training while running a small contract manufacturing company, it
would be Milt.
Milt has been serving as an advisor to the LA/NTMA
Training Centers since 1983, while chairing the Southern California
Tool &Die, Mold, Machinist & Metal Working Trades Apprenticeship
Committee for most of that time. And he has
provided his vision and leadership on the chapter’s Board of Directors since 1993,
serving as president in 2002.
He led the LA/NTMA
Team that hosted the 2002 National Apprenticeship Competition and he continues
to oversee the Apprenticeship Program through the NTMA Training Centers.
Finally, Milt was elected and served
as a Training Center Trustee from 2007 through 2012. Pretty
awesome résumé, if you ask me.
So
here's one who really gets the concept of taking personal responsibility for
training the next generation of machinists.
Thanks, Milt, from your friends here in Southern California and from a
grateful industry.
Congratulations,
Milt, for all you have done – and I’m quite sure will continue to do – to
assure that our industry is well-prepared with skilled workers for generations.
Until
next month…
John

