Apprentice of the Year
JAMA launched the Academy for Manufacturing Careers in 2005 in response to the training needs of our community’s manufacturers. To date, the Academy has graduated 251 journeypersons through our U.S. Dept. of Labor Registered Apprenticeship program.
Osias is the first completed of JAMA’s entry level Advanced Manufacturing Technician apprenticeship track and has started his second “specialist” apprenticeship occupation (Tool & Die Maker) through JAMA’s Academy. The AMT apprenticeship was designed to be a “stackable” apprenticeship and Osias is the first AMT completer to take advantage of this opportunity to fast-track to the next level. Osias was a JAC3 student at Concord High School and TAC Manufacturing, the decision to pursue JAC3 was a huge decision for him being that he was valedictorian of his class, incredibly involved in FIRST Robotics and the Concord HS Band. However, the decision has greatly impacted his life and his plan to pursue a manufacturing engineering career. Osias’ nominators explained “Osias is a person of humility and integrity that interacts well with anyone he meets.”
Student of the Year
Evan participated in the JAC3 program as a Northwest High School and Jackson Area Career Center student. Evan also participated in JAMA’s MI Enterprise youth manufacturing company program, starting out in the production department, and then becoming Production Manager and company President. Evan is currently continuing to work at Great Lakes Industry, his JAC3 sponsoring employer, while completing his apprenticeship program. As one of Evan’s nominators explained “Evan is an overall outstanding person, his genuine and sincere approach to life is so amazing and really separates him from other students. Evan is a reliable and dependable as a student leader and mentor to others, he truly owns the “leadership” role!)
Educator of the Year
Randi Watts is the College and Career Coordinator at Northwest High School. She has done many things during her career at Northwest! In 2021, Randi took things to the next level, she developed an online tool, initially for Northwest teachers but it is now available to all of Jackson County high school teachers. The tool provides educators with a step-by-step implementation guide for the Jackson County Employability PACT. The tool, available via Xello, is a system that teachers use to track and monitor students’ progress, it includes lesson plans and links to supplemental materials (videos, career exploration guides, etc.) as well as month-to-month schedule breakdowns for teachers. This is an incredibly useful tool for Jackson County School and teachers as it makes it easy for them to build the Employability PACT into every classroom for grades 9th-12th.
Manufacturer Of the Year
Brian developed ELCo Enterprises company initiative as they call, “The Core 4”. The initiative outlines the “family” mentality established throughout the company, as well as defines where the company will go in the future.
In addition, to this focus on company culture, Brian has been leading ELCo’s continuous improvement efforts. It started with an extensive 5S project to organize the company’s warehouse and improve process flow and then worked to reduce and standardize machine changeover time to boost efficiency and quality. Business metrics were established along the way to measure productivity and accountability in the plant.
Brian Cooper is also one of the co-founders of “The BenjaMen,” a group designed to make a significant financial impact for under-funded Jackson County-based 501c3 organizations. Over the past three years, the organization has donated more than $190,000 to worthy organizations serving the Jackson community.
Peter F. Hurst Manufacturing Innovator
Dr. Elmer Lee has a strong background in research and development, underpinned by an education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a Ph D. in mechanical engineering and manufacturing. Much of his early business experience stems from his role as chief technology officer at AxleShoX, a company he founded after graduating. At Caster Concepts, Dr. Lee developed CasterShoX a patented shock-absorbing technology integrated into heavy-duty industrial casters.
Dr. Lee and his team have recently developed Omni-Directional Motorized Drive caster system (ODDC). This is a drive that allows the user to steer any piece of equipment in any direction with no effort. It is a self-contained, motorized caster that can be retrofitted onto existing carts and work stands or added to new carts/work stands. ODDC is a turnkey system that includes drive pods, a motor control box and a wired or wireless pendent that controls the drive in all three degrees of movement. Drive pods can be combined to achieve high load moving capacity. These are ideal for companies making large pieces of equipment that are difficult to move or that require larger tractors or even air casters to move.
What started off as an idea for a FIRST Robotics team has turned into the potential future way that Boeing moves aircraft tooling around their facility. This product has also attracted interest from other large aerospace businesses, as well as NASA.
Heritage Hall of Fame
The JAMA Heritage Hall of Fame Award is a special honor given to individuals who have made significant historic contribution to the success of manufacturing in our region. In 2022 we added Richard H. (Dick) Dobbins, co-founder of Caster Concepts Inc.
Dick was a graduate of Michigan State University’s College of Engineering and began his manufacturing career in 1951 with Albion Malleable Iron Company, which later merged with Hayes Industries. Not liking how management was treating workers on the foundry floor, Dick resigned, spent a couple of years looking for the right fit and ultimately took on the role of president of Albion Industries. Under Dick’s leadership, Albion Industries became the top industrial caster manufacturer of its day. Dick ran Albion Industries, which was then owned by Household Finance, until he was forced by the company’s mandatory policy to retire at age 65. But Dick was not ready to retire. Along with Jack Turner, then Albion Industries’ National Sales Director, Dick and the Dobbins family founded Caster Concepts.
With Dick’s leadership and manufacturing knowledge and Jack’s ability to sell, Caster Concepts grew rapidly, serving as a foundation on which the company continues to build today. Because of Dick’s passion, dream and vision, Caster Concepts is today “THE leader in industrial caster and wheel solutions for virtually every industry!” |
