Tour of Manufacturing 2016

THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2016 • 3:00-7:30P.M.

THIS EVENT IS

FREE!

www.tourofmanufacturing.org

INDEX

ALL TOURS ARE

FREE

2016 TOUR OF MANUFACTURING

THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2016 3:00-7:30P.M. 

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Tour one or all four companies on Thursday, March 31.

Information on each company, its tour and parking is available in this publication.

Please note dress codes and safety recommendations for each location.

Bring a friend!

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BTD Manufacturing................................ page 5 Lakeshirts............................................... page 6 SJE Rhombus......................................... page 7 TEAM Industries, Audubon................... page 8

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TO SJE RHOMBUS

• 2  MANUFACTURING TOUR MARCH 31, 2016

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Greetings: On behalf of the City Council and all of the citizens of Detroit Lakes I would like to extend a warm welcome to our city. We are located just 40 minutes east of Fargo-Moorhead in beautiful Minnesota lake country. With the combination of adjacent prairie, abundant woodlands and lakes it makes an ideal place to live and work. In addition to the wonderful setting, Detroit Lakes features a top rated school system, excellent medical facilities, adequate housing and numerous parks and recreational facilities.

Our economic base is solid and stable with a good mix of manufacturing, tourism, agriculture and retail. In addition, we are a regional hub for many service type businesses. Detroit Lakes has achieved the status of “Minnesota Star City” due to our many economic development programs.

Detroit Lakes is the home to the Northwest Water Carnival, We Fest Country Music Festival, Pine to Palm Golf Tournament and Polar Fest. In fact, our community averages one special event per week throughout the year! With the many attractions offered by Detroit Lakes, I encourage you to take some time to explore our website and its links. One thing you don’t want to miss is our famous mile long city beach!

If there is anything I can do to help you become better acquainted with Detroit Lakes, please give me a call or an e-mail.

Sincerely, Matt Brenk, Mayor

www.VisitDetroitLakes.com

Your Chamber is Naturally Your Resource for...

• Business Development • Community Development • Economic Development • Business Resources • Visitor Information • Vacation Planning

FOR MORE INFORMATION

P: 218-847-9202 1-800-542-3992 700 Summit Ave. Detroit Lakes, MN

HOURS: Monday-Friday 8am to 5pm MANUFACTURING TOUR MARCH 31, 2016  3

LEARN MORE. EARN MORE. Minneesota State Community and Technical College is proud Minnesota to support sup pport local manufacturing through workforce development. developm ment.

Get in. Get out. Get hired.

With more than 70 career and technical programs, M State puts you on the fast track to success in high-demand careers in technology, trades and business in two years or less.

Manufacturing related programs include: Accounting Architectural Drafting & Design Business Business Management Civil Engineering Diesel Equipment Technology Engineering Graphic Design Industrial Maintenance

IT Systems Support Management Information Systems Marketing Mechanical Drafting & Design Network Technology Administration Sales and Marketing

Skills and technology training for the future.

Custom Training Services has supported business and industry growth in Minnesota for more than 20 years by providing regional workforce training.

Certificates and courses available: Commerical Vehicle Inspection Cosmetology-Continuing Education Electrical Continuing Education Fire Training Health Continuing Education Industrial Mechanical Maintenance LEAN principles Motorcycle Safety

Plumbing Precision Machining Safety Training Steam Plant Engineering/Boiler Supervisory Leadership Train-the-Trainer Welding

Discover your future at

www.minnesota.edu Member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System. An equal opportunity educator/employer. Un educador/empleador de oportunidad igual.

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BTD Manufacturing BTD provides a complete spectrum of custom metalwork services to some of the world’s top brands. These services include metal fabrication, forming, welding, tool & die work, machining, powder coating, prototyping, laser cutting, robotic welding, stamping, cutting, tubing, CNC, EDM and much more.

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TD was founded in 1979 as Bismarck Tool and Die Co. While our core is still strongly rooted in a tool and die background, our company has grown to provide a complete spectrum of custom metalwork services.

Today, we currently serve some of the world’s top brands from four different locations in Lakeville, MN, Detroit Lakes, MN, Washington, IL and Dawsonville, GA. But, we’re not stopping there. Looking forward, we plan to strengthen our company with expanded facilities and added services to deliver more value to our customers. Explore everything we have to offer and see what makes our metalwork first-class.

Job Information

In 1995, BTD became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Otter Tail Corporation. This provided our company with the opportunity and resources to grow our business and better serve the needs of our customers. In addition, it helped expand our management expertise, and strategic planning. It also allowed us to hire and train the best people in the business to make products for our customers.

CURRENT OPENINGS

BTD is not just a job, it is a career. We care about our employees and our employees care about BTD. We are proud of the work we do and we know you will be proud to be a part of our team!

BTD will train the right candidates who enjoy working as a team with great work ethics and believes in safely producing quality work. Come and learn the skills of Manufacturing.

We offer Competitive Pay and Benefits!

• CNC Operator • Tool Design • Tool Maker • Maintenance

• Welder • Robot Welding • Production Operator

YOUR TOUR n Each tour will take approximately 30 to 40 minutes. n Tours of 6 to 10 visitors will take place every 15 minutes as warranted. n Tours require long pants and close toed shoes or boots. Putting safety first in mind there is no shorts/skirts or open toed shoes allowed on the shop floors. n Safety Glasses will be provided. n Refreshments and cookies will be served. n Parking and Entry Door are located on the North Side of the Main Office.

BTD 1111 13th Ave SE Detroit Lakes, MN 56501 www.BTDMfg.com

HAND WELDING

Apply online: www.btdmfg.com 1111 13th Ave SE • Detroit Lakes, MN-56501 Phone: 218-846-4444

ROBOT WELDING

MACHINING

BTD LOCATIONS • Detroit Lakes, MN • Lakeville, MN • Washington, IL • Dawsonville, GA

MANUFACTURING TOUR MARCH 31, 2016  5

Lakeshirts, Inc.

he Lakeshirts story starts over 30 years ago when two high school friends, Mark Fritz and Mike Hutchinson, started printing t-shirts to sell on the beach. At that time, the company consisted of a plywood printer, two secondhand kitchen ovens with a couple of cookie sheets, two dogs and two teenagers. The product line consisted of a handful of screenprint designs that were distributed to local resorts and the small beach store.

country. Lakeshirts is also one of only eight companies in the country licensed to provide NCAA championship apparel.

As sales continue to grow, so does our building. Lakeshirts is now a 275,000 square foot facility. We are currently undergoing construction of our offices. A brand new art department has been completed, as well as the human resources wing.

There is no other domestic facility with the production capacity or capabilities of Lakeshirts. Our state-of-the-art equipment includes 36 screenprint presses, 28 multi-head embroidery machines, six 60-foot laser applique bridges, three sublimation presses and four digital-to-direct garment presses.

Lakeshirts production runs 20 hours per day, allowing us to ship over 30,000 units per day from our in-house inventory of over 2,000,000 garments.

My how times have changed! Today, Lakeshirts has grown to over 350 employees with 80 sales representatives nationwide, and six dogs. Our 10,000 satisfied customers are located throughout North America and include names such as Caesars Casinos, the Space Needle, Kennedy Space Center, Bristol Motor Speedway and many national parks across the

After 32 years of business, our goal is to be an exceptional company. Exceptional companies are very rare. There are thousands of good companies, but very few exceptional ones.

We strive to exceed not only our customers’ expectations, but bring value to all our stakeholders – customers, employees, vendors, owners and the community we call home.

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LAKESHIRTS

YOUR TOUR n Lakeshirts will be offering exciting 45 minute tours of our 275,000 square foot manufacturing facility. n You have seen clothing decorated using our screenprint and embroidery techniques in every popular retail market, now you will get a fascinating “behind the scenes” look at the equipment and processes used to decorate our sweatshirts and t-shirts. You will be amazed all of this happens right here in Detroit Lakes. n Please use the main entrance and parking area on Randolph Road. No special attire is required. n Stop by to sign up for our door prizes! Light refreshments will be available. n Please check our website, www.lakeshirts.com, to see our list of current job openings.

Lakeshirts, Inc. 750 Randolph Road Detroit Lakes, MN 56501 www.lakeshirts.com

BLUE 84 WAREHOUSE

The whole crew

National school color day 6  MANUFACTURING TOUR MARCH 31, 2016

Over 375 ink colors!

S

JE-Rhombus is a 100% employee-owned leading control solutions provider, combining over 40 years of expertise in pump controls with the latest technology to deliver the most robust water/wastewater product offering in the industry.

SJE-Rhombus offers a complete line of Sump, Effluent and Sewage Controls for residential and commercial applications, including control panels, alarms, and float switches for pump control and alarm notification. SJE-Rhombus designs, tests and builds Embedded Controls for a variety of OEM applications. These Embedded Controls provide innovative engineering solutions for software, firmware and hardware designs using printed circuit boards for high and low volume OEM applications in many markets. In 2013, SJE-Rhombus combined its Engineered Control Solutions businesses to unify under the new brand PRIMEX. PRIMEX specializes in custom designed control solutions built to specifications for municipal and industrial applications featuring VFDs, remote monitoring, PLC/HMI, SCADA and more. In April 2015, SJERhombus acquired ICS Healy-Ruff™, an integrator of control systems for municipal use, to further expand the PRIMEX brand capabilities.

SJE-Rhombus

Corporate Headquarters, Detroit Lakes, MN, 2016 (above).

Original S.J. Electro Systems, Inc. Building, 1980 (right)

With over 380 employees, SJE-Rhombus has seven locations across North America and Asia, including corporate headquarters located in Detroit Lakes, MN; New Hope, MN; Plymouth, MN; Ashland, OH; Milford, OH; Clearwater, FL; and Suzhou, China. In 1998 SJE-Rhombus became a 100% employeeowned company. Each employee has a vested interest in the success of the company and shares in the company’s success through stock ownership. From engineering to production to customer service, each and every employee is a working partner, motivated to be engaged in the day-to-day operation of the business. This involvement and commitment has continued to be the catalyst for the company’s growth.

At SJE-Rhombus, we own our future and you can too! In addition to a full benefits package that includes competitive wages, 88% company paid health insurance, Employee Stock Ownership Plan + 401(k) plans, and up to 22 paid days off during the first year, SJE-Rhombus also offers employee-owners the opportunity to grow through an extensive corporate training program for career advancement. To learn more or to apply, visit www.sjerhombus.com.

5 Fun Facts: 1. S.J. Electro Systems, Inc. (now known as SJE-Rhombus) originally started by Steve Johnston in his garage in 1975.

Steve wanted to develop a way to warn homeowners when their septic system needed pumping.

2. Close to 2 million Tank Alert® alarm systems (the company’s first product) have been sold since its introduction in 1975.

YOUR TOUR n Tour hours: 3:30 – 7:00 pm; Tours will be every 30 minutes with first tour scheduled at 3:30 pm. n Parking available in upper East parking lot. n Follow signs to visitor entrance (southeast corner of building). n Street shoes. For safety reasons open toed/heel shoes are not allowed on the production floor. n Safety glasses will be provided.

SJE-Rhombus 22650 County Highway 6 PO Box 1708 Detroit Lakes, MN 56501 Toll Free: 888-DIAL-SJE (888-342-5753) Phone: 218-847-1317 Fax: 218-847-4617 Web: www.sjerhombus.com

3. The company uses almost 30 million feet of cable per year to produce float switches.

4. First year sales were approximately $2000 for switches and alarms and have grown to $75M. 5. SJE-Rhombus products can be found in a variety of applications including these high profile locations: President George Bush’s vacation home in Crawford, TX; Cher’s estate in Malibu, CA; Disney Land in Anaheim, CA; Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL; Michael Jordan’s estate in IL; Oprah Winfrey’s estate in MD; Kix Brooks (Brooks and Dunn) Winery in TN; Johnny Cash’s Cabin in TN; and George Lucas’ production offices in MT.

• Control Panel Production (above left) • Float Switch Production (above) • PRIMEX Custom Engineered Control System (left)

MANUFACTURING TOUR MARCH 31, 2016  7

TEAM Industries

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EAM Industries is a vertically- integrated engineering and manufacturing company that has been Driving Innovation in performance and reliability-enhancing components for nearly half a century. TEAM offers a complete range of services, from collaboration on new product designs to custom contract manufacturing. TEAM has manufacturing services include turning, milling, CNC machining, precision gear or spline manufacturing; or in-house aluminum die casting.

TEAM Industries was started in Cambridge, MN as Motek Engineering by Founders Don and Bea Ricke. Don believed in innovation and technology; Motek began using some of the first pieces of CNC machining equipment in Minnesota. During this time the snowmobile industry was booming and Don developed several innovative, custom-designed machines to gain a competitive advantage in this market.

Don and his son David expanded TEAM Industries in 1984 and settled in Audubon, MN because of its close proximity to their major customers. This expansion would provide easy transportation of products and materials and would bring in jobs to the rural area. Audubon began manufacturing components for CVTs (continuously variable transmissions) for snowmobile and golf car industries and other contract manufacturing. Don helped in designing some of these early CVTs and today they are still an important core product with TEAM holding several patents for CVT designs. TEAM – Audubon had the first CNC gear hobber in Minnesota.

In 1992 the third facility for TEAM Industries was opened in Bagley Minnesota with David as President. TEAM Industries was asked to build a better shifting, quiet transmission and one year later they were making 60,000 transmissions.

TEAM Bagley became TEAM’s corporate and design engineering headquarters. During this period, TEAM grew its business more with design engineered product and relied less on make to print components. TEAM rapidly developed, tested, and began producing dozens of drive train assemblies; CVTs, transmissions, differentials, advanced 4wd systems, and gas and electric transaxles for customers such as Polaris, Bombardier, Arctic Cat, John Deere, Club Car, and EZ-Go. Through rigorous field and bench testing, TEAM has developed duty cycle and product knowledge that many of its customers rely on. Its strong R & D and product development staff have landed 10 US Patents with many more in application.

David Ricke took over as President and CEO of the company when his father Don passed away in 1997. David continues the family goal of bringing jobs to rural locations. In 1994, TEAM Industries- Park Rapids opened and in November 1995, TEAM – Detroit Lakes opened devoted to aluminum die-casting. In 2005, TEAM opened another facility in Andrew, NC to bring a strong expertise in right angle gearing. Since David has taken over, TEAM Industries has gone from competing locally to competing in a global marketplace.

TEAM Industries prides themselves in being family owned, family led, and family strong. TEAM offers their employees an Employee Stock Ownership plan to allow employees to participate in the financial performance of the company.

TEAM Industries proudly supports its local communities and schools. The TEAM Consortium was recently established with a mission to help accomplish mutually rewarding successes for our region with established joint focus upon: • Investing in our local kids and students to give opportunity to stay home and earn a good living in our local communities by paving the way for good paying jobs.

• Building machine trades programs • Building curriculum that fosters development of technical skills • Reach down to the middle and high school programs and

TEAM INDUSTRIES FACILITY

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YOUR TOUR n Parking available in front and on the side of building. Come to the front entrance. Refreshments will be served. n Street shoes. For safety reasons open toed/heel shoes are not allowed on the production floor.

Safety glasses will be provided n Tours starting every 15 minutes. Approximate length of tour will be 30 minutes.

TEAM Industries Audubon 4th & Robin Street Audubon MN 56549 218-439-6186 www.team-ind.com From Detroit Lakes: Hwy 10 W 7.1 miles to Audubon. Turn right onto 4th ST (CR 13). 0.6 miles to Robin St. Turn left. TEAM Ind. Audubon is on the right side of the road.

gives exposure to technical skill development that compliments TEAM needs • Create pathways and steps to engage young learners in technical education • Create formal apprenticeship programs • Create scholarship programs to sustain technical education in our backyards • Sustain the partnerships by formalizing participation in the consortium The TEAM Consortium Model has been awarded an “Approved Apprenticeship” program by the Minnesota Department of Education. Through this program TEAM Industries has been working with local high schools to offer apprenticeships to 16 & 17 year old students.

TEAM INDUSTRIES Input Shaft and Spiral Bevel Gear Shafts

At Rural MN Concentrated Employment Program (RMCEP) it is our goal to help you prepare for and find a job because

“Your Future is Our Business.”

www.RMCEP.com

Do you know your career goal?

Laid off due to no fault of your own, If not, we have career exploration and planning ac- and are still unemployed? tivities to help guide you.

Do you need training?

We can help you locate the training, and possibly even help pay for it.

Need help finding a job?

Come to the MN Workforce Center to get access to the state’s largest database of job openings at www.Minnesotaworks.net or sign up for our free workshops about job search techniques, resume writing and interviewing.

Employers:

Dislocated Worker services are available and involve special funding resources to help you get training or to transition back to work quickly after a downsizing or job loss.

Need space and a computer to look for work?

Use our Resource Room computers and internet, phones, printers, copiers and fax machines to prepare for your job search. We have staff available to help you through the process and to provide expert advice.

Contact us to learn how to post your own job openings, get answers about the labor market and online resources about employment law. We have office space that you can use to conduct interviews. RMCEP can help cut the cost of training a new employee through on-the-job training.

All services are available at no charge.

Our offices are located in the WorkForce Center buildings in Moorhead, Alexandria, Fergus Falls, Detroit Lakes, Bemidji, Brainerd, Wadena and Little Falls. We are listed in the phone book under Rural Minnesota Concentrated Employment Program (RMCEP).

RMCEP is an EEO employer/provider.

MANUFACTURING TOUR MARCH 31, 2016  9

OppOrtunity is at Hand... irp Business Loans Over $500,000 in low interest loan funds are available for new or expanding businesses.

tax increment Financing Eligible projects can receive tax increment financing for nine to twenty-five years.

JOBZ incentives Property tax relief, income tax credits and sales tax exemptions through the year 2015 for eligible businesses.

detroit Lakes Becker County airport FBO Beartooth Flight Center, Full Service FBO • Fueling • Aircraft • Hanger Rentals • Parts & Maintenance

ContaCt: Larry remmen

Community Development Director

218.847.5658 City of Detroit Lakes MINNESOTA

Detroit Lakes: a History of Progress

A Future of Opportunity The Detroit Lakes Development Authority is an equal opportunity Lender/Agency

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Advocacy • Education • Networking • Programs • • • •

26 year history serving the manufacturing industry Networking opportunities throughout west central MN Manufacturing tours, educational speakers Building relastionships with K-12 teachers, youth

www.tsma.org

800.654.5773

www.dlschools.net MANUFACTURING TOUR MARCH 31, 2016 11

In Minnesota, manufacturing: • Has an average salary of $61,048 • Has 26,829 jobs posted in 4 months Sources: Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development and Wanted Analytics, July-October 2015

Learn more about modern manufacturing today!

Download the Build It Better! game app for free from Google Play or the Apple Store to play a fun, interactive game to make different things!

Visit our website to learn more about manufacturing in Minnesota, watch videos, find career information, and more.

DREAM IT. DO IT. MN SPONSORS Presenting

Gold

Silver

Dream It. Do It. Minnesota is led by 360 Manufacturing Center of Excellence. 360 enhances the pipeline through Dream It. Do It. Minnesota and develops industry-driven curriculum for advanced manufacturing.

Learn more at 360mn.org.

These programs are supported by an NSF ATE Program Grant, award number 1204550.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (www.nsf.gov).

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An affirmative action, equal opportunity employer and educator.